Nathan 's shit-eating grin persists on his face for a minute, satisfied in his little barb at her. Furious Volus, once highlighted, details an epic two hour adventure of a Volus Spectre that pursues the most vicious quarry that the galaxy has ever seen. Anyone with even a lick of sense could easily see that this is a knock off film of Blasto, a cash grab at the unconventional Spectre genre that Blasto
#Nate'sApartment – December 5, 2019
started. Still, the reviews for it are somewhat decent, describing it as a good film to just switch off to for a few hours of dumb, fun action. Nathan takes a moment to consider his question before he asks, "Well, let's start simple. What was military life like for you? I hear plenty about it from my sisters, sure, but I'd like to hear your perspective." Perhaps this is a very roundabout way of asking
what was it like for her being a biotic, but he's not entirely sure if asking her that is... appropriate? Rude? Inconsiderate?
Leah sucks in her lips as her focus shifts back to the TV, brows furrowed in concentration as she reads the description of the rather transparent cash-in. Still, it causes a small smirk to tug at the corner of her mouth. What better way to spend the evening than with a few hours of mindless action? Besides, it's something that can be put on as background noise while they chit chat. She doesn't bother consulting with Nathan.
With a tap of the remote, Furious Volus starts up and she leans forward to set the remote on the coffee table. The question causes a small shrug of her shoulders as she settles back against the couch, gaze turning Nathan's way once more. She seems to catch on to what he's getting at. "From my perspective?" she asks, seeming a little amused. She gives a playful furrow of her brows for a moment, as if trying to figure out
what that could possibly mean. "Oh! You mean what it was like being a biotic in the military?" she asks, offering a small smile. "It's okay, Nate. You can ask." she snickers.
Nathan has the decency to look embarrassed at his rather obvious approach. He offers a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry. Okay, rephrased, what was it like being a biotic in the military?”
Leah snickers, clearly amused rather than offended by his attempts to tiptoe around the question. "It was-..." she begins, green eyes flicking upwards as she sucks in her lips and tries to find the words. "...I don't know. I was still just a kid when they recruited me." she explains, and the word still sounds honest to her. Recruited. As if she had a choice. But that was how they had sold it. And they were good at it. They
had a wealth of failure to learn from by the time they showed up at her doorstep. "I guess it was-... scary? Confusing."
Nathan 's smile flickers then fades. A kid. She was still a kid. He had heard rumors that biotics were found and trained from a reasonably young age, but... "Oh. Damn that's... yeah." He flicks his eyes to the intro reel of Furious Volus, the over the top text fading in and out over a background of explosions, bright colours and over the top music. "You weren't... you know, out there fighting as a kid though,
Leah's shoulders bounce with laughter and she gives a few small nods. "Oh, yeah! I was zipping around the galaxy kicking ass and taking names at fifteen. You should've seen me! Terrifying! Me and my whole team of child soldiers. Seven hundred and twenty confirmed kills before my sweet sixteen." she snarks before reaching out and giving Nathan a small shove on the shoulder. "No, you idiot! They didn't have me 'out there
Nathan once more has a wave of embarrassment wash over him. And, as Nathan is wanton to do, tries to go on the defensive. "Well, I-I don't know! You just hear all this crazy shit when you- oh, shush." He flicks open one of the pizza boxes and takes a slice of cheese pizza out and quickly starts devouring it. Not one of his greatest coping methods to embarrassment, but Hell, it's there! It'll do! "Okay, fine,
so the Alliance weren't the boogeymen that rumors suggested," he says after he swallows a particularly large mouthful, "Now are you going to be sociable or am I going to have to put the pizza on the top shelf?"
Leah shifts to the side to better face Nathan, bringing one leg up onto the couch between them to do so, elbow pressing against the backrest to prop her head up. His embarrassment is only met with more snickering, but it comes to an abrupt end when he levels another shot at her height. She gives him a flat, unamused look for a few moments. "That's really all you got, isn't it?" she asks, a semblance of her smile returning.
"And-..." she instantly snaps, a sudden look of mock offense crossing her features, "Do you actually think that's gonna keep me away from a good slice of pizza?" She lifts her free hand, gaze remaining fixed to Nathan as the faintest hint of a blue glow envelopes her. In a display that would make Houdini shit his pants, a slice of pizza begins to lift from one of the boxes, a string of warm, melted cheese trailing
behind it as it gracefully sails through the air. She keeps her big, green eyes fixed on Nathan as it gingerly sets down in the palm of her hand. She gives a coy little tilt of her head, smug smile firmly engraved across her lips as she confidently waits for him to concede defeat before continuing.
Nathan deflates like an untied balloon, the floating pizza slice that glides through the air the only thing he can fixate his gaze on right until the moment it sets down onto the flat of her palm. He slowly inhales, then exhales. Then... he slowly sinks as faaaaaar as he's able to into his sofa, wishing it would just swallow him up for a few moments just so he can escape the smug radiance of her smile.
"Right. Fine. You win." He mumbles something in his native tongue, adopting the demeanor of a pouting child. It adds to the rather comedic essence of this tall, well built man trying to make himself as small as possible. Eventually, with reluctant acceptance, he shifts into a much more comfortable pose and idly kicks off his shoes, only so he can bring one leg up onto the sofa himself to knock hers in
idly playfulness. "But really though, O' Greatest One," he says with a teasing drawl, "If you don't want to talk about it, just say. I'm not going to press you if you don't want me to." His free hand reaches for his beer and he knocks back a mouthful, before letting his arm crook across a bent knee, beer bottle grasped by the neck between two fingers and a thumb and idly dangling there.
Leah maintains her smug smile as Nathan sinks deeper into his seat and takes a moment to take a small bite of her freshly-aquired slice of pizza. His offer of an 'out' is met with a dismissive shrug. "No, it's not-... it's fine." she assures, smile tapering back into something more sincere. "They put me through school at the academy." she says, though she's quick to correct herself with a wince, "Academies." Plural. "We-...
uhh-..." she shifts, the hand propping up her head moving to tuck her bangs aside as she does, "...we moved around a lot." she explains, and seems none too eager to dwell on that aspect for very long. "But it was mostly just-... just normal highschool shit. Worried about my grades. Tests. Studying. Boys." she admits with a sheepish little tilt of her head and a snort. "Meeting with my instructor to learn how to keep
from accidentally turning myself or the people around me into pretzels." she continues to list non-chalantly before adding sarcastically, "You know, normal teenage crap."
Nathan nods along with her, the background noise of the movie more or less forgotten for the moment. "Ah, yes, pretzels. The bane of all teenager's existence." His nods becomes sagely, as if what she just said was perhaps the most profound thing he has ever heard. But now his curiosity got the better of him and, perhaps his common sense. With a teasing smirk, he finishes off his pizza slice and uses the free
hand to prop a curious tilt of his head up. "Was lil' Leah a heartbreaker at the academy, mmmm?" He emphasizes this with a few little prods and an unnecessarily over the top waggle of his eyebrows to inject just a wee bit more mirth into the somewhat serious discussion.
Leah gives a loud snort at Nathan's theatrics. But the question causes her to hesitate. Perhaps a bit of a sore spot. "Not so much. See, little Leah was a biotic." she offers as if that should be explanation in and of itself but she does her best to prop that smile right back up to keep from ruining the mood. "So I-... mostly kept to myself." she continues.
Nathan perks an eyebrow and there is a waver in his smirk. Yeah, he could pick up on the rather... touchy subject. Nicely done, Nate, nicely done. In an effort to try and work damage control, he actually pushes himself up a smidgen so he can give her knee a quick, but affectionate squeeze. "Well, I'm glad you don't any more," he says softly. "Otherwise, I doubt you'd be sat here, watching Furious Volus with
Leah's big bright smile is quick to return as Nathan begins to lay it on thick. She takes another quick bite of her pizza before setting the slice down on the pizza box to join her beer. "Really?!" she asks as he finishes speaking, as if this is news to her. "You didn't tell me someone else would be joining us for the movie! Where is he?!" she teases, sitting up a bit straighter and glancing about.
Nathan seems almost as if her counter quip will strike him back down into the recesses of the sofa once more. However, with a quickness that even surprises him, he swipes the controller into his hand and quickly keys in a few commands. The action of Furious Volus is paused and, instead, comes on a rather familiar actor that Leah has had the pleasure of meeting. Devin Tanner, in all his glory, takes the center
of the screen in one of his award winning films, A Beautiful Shade of Blue. His hair, immaculate as one would expect (and likely with an entire can of hair spray) seems to almost gleam in the artificial light of a studio. "Why, Devin Tanner of course. I heard that he was one of your absolute favorite people in the entire galaxy."
Leah blinks and, before she can even figure out what's going on, one of the most loathesome men she has ever has the disfortune to meet is occupying the screen, causing her to cringe in distaste. "Gross!" she exclaims. "Get rid of him! Get rid of him!" she pleads playfully, tilting her head to the side as if the mere sight of him causes her physical pain.
Nathan bursts into laughter and, after leaving him on screen for a few more seconds, flicks the focus back to Furious Volus. The action resumes, with Furious Volus himself drawing a Carnifex on a trio of cowering Krogans, the sounds of his respirator instilling fear into their hearts. "Aha! Your greatest weakness and my greatest weapon! All at the click of a button," he says, a dramatic and comically evil
flair to his voice. He makes a show of spinning the controller and holstering it like a pistol, a daring look to his gaze. It might've even looked somewhat impressive, were it not for the fact that in the motion of holstering it, he sent it clattering to the floor. "Ah, dammit." He quickly scrambles after it, before snapping back to his position on the sofa. "...almost."
Leah makes a show of acting relieved once Tanner has been evicted from the screen. "No more Tanner!" she shouts overtop Nathan's threats. His lackluster remoteslinger display leaves her with an exasperated look on her face as he scampers to collect the remote. The sigh that accompanies it is a bit undercut by the look of amusement creeping out beneath it. "You're lucky you're cute..." she mutters when he finally gets settled