semi-closed

[khajidont]

Date & Time: January, various
Location: Various
Characters: VARIOUS -- okay, Jaime and a catch-all for interactions in January!
Summary: See above! I've labeled it semi-closed because if anyone who I haven't already pinged would like to do a thing, just comment or contact me, and I can see about wrangling together a threadstarter!
Warnings: PG-13 for likely swearing (on other people's parts), general mentions of Exsilium's history of nastiness

Comments

for billy

[khajidont]

[He had thought that he would get used to the snow, but that had been far from the truth - as it turns out, having to work every day in the stuff just makes it even more distasteful. Who would've thought? Nevertheless, it has come with its perks. One of the major perks is courtesy of one Billy Cranston and the undeniably delightful Christmas present of a homemade snowboard. Even without the landscape needed for proper snowboarding, going out there and getting a few lessons is a fantastic diversion.

Even if he does suck at it.]

You know, [he comments to Billy, a laugh on his lips,] I always figured that snowboarding would be a lot easier than this. I'll have you know that I'm fantastic at virtual snowboarding.

Re: for billy

[oncearanger]

If I ever get the chance, I'd love to see that. Video games weren't quite as sophisticated in my era.

[Billy laughs along, showing the proper footing once again.]

You're doing very well, actually. I can assure you that my first martial arts lessons were far clumsier.

[khajidont]

The ones I'm talking about probably don't count as all that sophisticated, [he counters a little ruefully. As fun as VR snowboarding sounds, he's talking about the type of video game where you just push 'A' to do a spin.]

[He stares down at his feet, re-adjusting himself once more.]

Have you still been training with anyone here, or are you good enough to just practice on your own now? With the whole martial arts thing, I mean.

[oncearanger]

I train with others as much as I can. Practicing on my own helps, but it's always worthwhile to go to someone else for advice or criticism.

[He clings to his board happily.]

Why do you ask? Did you want to train?

[khajidont]

Yeah, we could do that. I already get my ass kicked by Nathan pretty regularly, but hey, maybe I can actually take you on.

[It's not his fault. Nathan is like a foot taller than he is, and he's pretty sure that the guy's made up of pure muscle.

He really wouldn't mind another training partner, and when it comes down to it, Billy's a trustworthy guy - a guy he wouldn't mind having his back on a mission, in either identity. The thought gives him pause as he privately acknowledges that maybe Billy's one of the people he can tell. Which transfers into a magnificent segue.]

Buuuut if we do end up training together, there's something you should probably know.

[oncearanger]

I don't know whether I should feel insulted.

[Billy's playful expression says that he isn't, by the way. But that dissolves into piqued curiosity as Jaime goes on. He leans forward just a bit.]

What's that? That you really could crush me like an ant?

[khajidont]

[Jaime raises a brow at him.] Well, that's not the secret.

[He couldn't help that one last dig.]

It's sort of a show-not-tell kind of deal, but you might want to look away for a sec. It's, um. Kinda gross.

[Not to Jaime anymore, but he hasn't forgotten the fact that Paco wanted to puke the first time he had taken a look.

[oncearanger]

Oh?

[Billy's smirk becomes a surprised expression, but he shakes his head. Now he's intrigued.]

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of showing?

for nate & raiden

[khajidont]

[Whatever peace they're at right now is likely a tenuous, fragile thing, so terribly easy to change with just a single misstep, whether it be in the past or in the future. Though Jaime hasn't been doing as much as he could - it's so difficult, trying to piece together what the good thing to do is, and what the right thing is when they could potentially be two entirely different concepts - it does mean that he needs to keep on his toes.

Sometimes, that means taking the suit for a run. Other times, like this one, it means making sure he can function without it. If he's using stealth, or if the UE manages to make something that shuts down technological powers as opposed to metahuman ones, he intends to be ready, laser guns or not. Happily, Nathan is all too willing to lend a helping hand there, and this time, Raiden happened to join them.

Which is totally cool. Him, previously a perfectly normal high school student, and them, two mildly terrifying soldiers of their kinds. Once they're through (and okay, by 'they', he really means himself on account of the fact that even steady, intensive training over the past almost-a-year isn't enough to make him keep up with these two), Jaime is all too happy to plant his ass on the ground, wiping his forehead with his forearm.]

Okay, [he says, puncturing his words with a brisk exhalation.] I'm totally beat.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

[Nate grins. Jaime's gotten a lot better over the last few months, and he has a dedication and patience with learning that makes the teaching that much easier.]

You know, eventually I'm going to push you past 'totally beat'. [Because if there's one thing Nate knows, it's that limits are flexible, and that sometimes you need to push past them.] Not today, though - I'm tired of all this snow.

[khajidont]

Oh, goodie. Let me know when so I can put it in my calendar. [He mimes doing just that, because he's the sort of dork who will.] Five o'clock, Tuesday, get Nathan to kick my ass.

[Despite the sarcasm - or sass as some of the women in his life would put it - he's willing to take anything Nathan has to throw at him, especially if it means getting better.

This doesn't particularly mean that he wants to do so right this second, and he's relieved that that is not the case. He scuffs at the snow with the heel of his boot, sending the freshest layer of powder spraying off to the side.] Never thought I'd miss those VR rooms so much.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

I'd miss 'em even without the weather - you can do a lot with those that isn't safe to try and replicate in reality. [There was a reason it was always 'the Danger Room' for the X-Men, no matter the location or construction]

But this... I know it's winter in this part of the world, but I think I've seen nicer winters in the Alps.

[highfrequency]

Besides, VR has it limits.

[Raiden is sitting off to the side on a rock. It's an unusual position for a cyborg, since he manages to look stiff despite being seated.

He taps a claw against the side of his head.]

Sometimes it's better to test yourself against real, thinking people and actual elements. VR is good, but it's not always as good as the real thing.

[khajidont]

I guess you have a point, [Jaime says grudgingly.] Nothing saying that real world elements have to be nothing but snow, snow, and more snow, though. S'not like every mission we take on will be in a frozen wasteland.

[He'd rather not fight at all, but will he take a fight on on a sunny beach instead of here? Hell yeah.]

[highfrequency]

[Raiden's eye squints. He's smirking.]

Snowy missions? Maybe not. But we're gonna be living in it so it's worth learning how to fight in it, right?

[Then, a bit more seriously]

Some of the UE's worst attacks have been on Exsilium soil....

for maria

[khajidont]

[Jaime is not terribly marketable as a worker. Even if he weren't a foreigner around here, it's not as if he has any terribly useful skills he can advertise beyond hopefully staring at potential employers and earnestly telling them that he's a very hard worker.

Miraculously, it worked. Not so miraculously, all that means is that he gets the jobs nobody else really wants to do, and in this case that means braving the elements to get the river of ice they use for transportation nice and smooth. The fact that he can give himself a little boost when nobody's watching is much appreciated, and he ends up far further out than anyone would have possibly thought to anticipate, giving him some much appreciated free time. He's about to turn around and go back the way he came when he catches a flurry of movement off in the distance. He wades his way through the snow to get a closer look, one gloved hand raised up to shield his eyes from the sun, the other dragging his tools behind him.]

What the...

[Finally, he identifies the figure as a woman, darting up a tree.]

Hello?

wow hello what do you mean it's not still last week

[givetheslip]

[Maria is still debating whether or not she prefers the frigid, snowy landscape to the rain and irradiated land she remembers Exsilium having before. The debate involves a great amount of cursing. But they're here and can be nowhere else, and it's better than the damn moon base, isn't it?

Possibly. In any case, she's not such a delicate flower that she plans to cope with the cold by bundling up and staying inside or constantly going off on missions to god-knows-when. So training it is, or at least, practicing. She's no Assassin and she'll never be one, but working with Altaïr has taught her a thing or two. If nothing else, she can practice her climbing.

Until someone shows up to bother her. Maria lets out a small, frustrated sigh at the sound of someone approaching, then frowns down at the stranger from her place in the tree.]

Yes? Can I help you?

shh shh we don't look at time stamps around these parts

[khajidont]

[He recognizes her. She was one of the ones plowing through the zombies beside him, only without the benefit of the shiny high tech alien armour and from the looks of it, any other superpowers.

Which doesn't actually explain why she's climbing trees in her spare time, but hey, Jaime holes himself in his room reading questionable sci-fi novels despite living in one himself.]

Um, no? [He brings one hand up to rub at the back of his neck, which is something he immediately regrets after getting fresh snow down his shirt. Aces.] I just saw someone kinda zipping around here - [he makes an up-down gesture with one finger, though she probably doesn't need the demonstration] - and was wondering what was going on.

[A minute too late, he peers around the area, in case there are yetis.

Which there aren't.]

they are an abomination unto nuggan

[givetheslip]

[She doesn't recognize him at all, and she's not sure why this boy would even care what she's doing. For the most part, her fellow Transports live and let live as long as it doesn't involve mutiny, and that's normally fine with her.

...she doesn't have the urge to chuckle at the snow going down his shirt. Really.]

Climbing a tree. [She leaves out the obviously.] Is that a problem?

and must therefore BE DESTROYED

[khajidont]

Why would it be a problem? [He's really trying to be surreptitious about the fact that he's wriggling and tugging at the back of his shirt to get the snow out, but he's not doing a fantastic job of it.]

I was just wondering if you were running away form something. Which... you're obviously not.

godzilla roar

[givetheslip]

No, obviously not.

[Hey, he said it, she didn't. And some of her amusement leaks out now; she can't help it.]

Though I suppose this could be of use if I were. Unless whatever I was running from could climb as well.

[khajidont]

Eh, it could still be pretty handy even if they could climb. You've got height on them, so you could probably knock 'em back on the ground again. Or drop stuff on them and let gravity do the talking. [Honestly, he sounds pretty chipper about the whole idea. He's totally down for cheap shots as a defense mechanism.]

But since you're not running away from anything, you mind me asking if you just like hanging out in trees, or what?

for maya

[khajidont]

[There's a problem with getting too comfortable in any given scenario, and that problem is letting your guard down. After an entire month in close quarters without any opportunity to find somewhere private to be by himself or even have a word or two with the Scarab, all this open land and his own room had been something of a blessing. He knows that he really ought to be more careful, but it's hard to keep himself from falling into old habits, born of a household where everyone knows that sometimes Jaime will talk to himself.

He doesn't do it in any of the main rooms - or at least not when he can help it - but as small as it is, his room is patently his. He's even got his old corkboard up, with everything from sheets of information to photos of his family and friends tacked up (and the old faithful WWTKD displayed across the top), which means that this is as close to home as he's getting short of using the Transporter for personal gain.

Which means that yeah, okay, sometimes he suits his arm up to use the Scarab to display information on his wall, and yeah, okay, so sometimes he talks to the Scarab a little. Or a lot. And yeah, okay, so maybe talking to the Scarab means bickering with it for like twenty minutes because it can get really annoying sometimes, but he's only human. It's Khaji's fault, truly. It's not human. It has no excuse.

At the moment, he's sitting on his bed, head leaning against the wall and one full arm is decked out as he uses the projectors on his fingertips to allow blue-tinged information spread around his room as he says,] Seriously? You're choosing now to talk about that? I'm actually working--

You have been staring at these documents for the last twenty two minutes and fifteen seconds. This does not constitute as working. This constitutes as stagnation.

[He groans.] The word you're looking for is thinking. I am thinking--

About nothing involving your physical condition.

--about more important things than what I eat for breakfast!

Since your arrival, you have consumed bowls filled with sugar every single morning.

It's cereal.

It has no nutritional value. It contributes nothing to the maintenance of one's peak physical condition.

I like it!

Your teeth do not. You are acting contrary to the future you have proposed for yourself.

[Jaime sputters.] Wha-- oh, come on! Number one, I brush my teeth, and number two, that is low. I'm allowed to like stuff that's bad for me.

But you know it is detrimental to your overall health.

When I get home, I'm gonna eat greasy, fatty take-out. I'm gonna eat it every day, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[acemedium]

[Maya's an incredibly nosy person, to say the least. And in a small house like this, there isn't much to do, anyway. Truth be told, she'd probably pop in Jaime's room even if nothing happened - half out of sheer boredom and the other half was because he was fun and having fun with him could possibly take both their minds off of what was happening - but upon hearing him having a conversation with.... himself?, she doesn't even bother to knock, or stand around to listen more, her hand goes to the handle of the door and she tries to open it]

[how rude]

Who are you talking to?

[khajidont]

[Maya should really knock before entering his room. They had well and truly earned their privacy through their mutual toleration of extremely close conditions on the moon base, and you would think that she would be more respectful of what they had so sorely been lacking.

Unfortunately, Maya and respect don't seem to go together very well, or indeed, very often. Even worse, he doesn't actually have a lock on his door, which is something he intends to fix very soon.

(He will not end up fixing it. He'll be too lazy and too forgetful to sort that out.)]

Wait, waitwaitwait, don't come in! I'm just talking to, uh, I'm talking to the...

[Crap. Suddenly the names of every person he could plausibly be talking to fly right out of his head, and he's still got one arm fully suited up. It's not a fantastic combination.]