AGENT WASHINGTON

[parannoyed]

● AGENT WASHINGTON
ONLINE
[video | audio | text]

Comments

text; a full 5 days after the AMA thread

[bothbarrels]

Wash,

Wondered if you'd like to grab a sandwich.

South always made fun of how I texted so I figure you probably don't want to do it via text.

Let me know,

North

-> action

[parannoyed]

Sure.

[It's been several days of expecting a knife to the back. It's been several days of wondering if he deserves a knife to the back.]

Hopefully, they don't have that weird cauliflower lunch meat substitute again. I'll meet you in the cafeteria.

[Joking about the food is really the only joking he feels is safe right now.]

[He is bristling with tension when he enters the Cafeteria. He thinks North is picking a public place to show he doesn't intend to kill him - after all, he'd be doing it right out in the open. But he's no stranger to the idea of a suicide mission. Does North want revenge enough that he'd just accept the consequences?]

[He grabs a sandwich from the lunch line without looking at what it is and sits down across from North. But he doesn't eat right away. It feels like an easy way of being too distracted to catch a knife being stabbed across the table.]

We don't have to - to get into this whole thing, if you don't want to. All you have to say is "I never want to talk to you again" and that's enough.

[That's best case scenario here.]

[bothbarrels]

[ North has taken one bite out of his sandwich—that's about all it deserves, even comparing it to the swill they used to serve on the Invention—and is taking a drink when Wash sits down.

Then Wash speaks. North caps his drink and sighs. ]

Wash, I don't intend to stop talking to you over this. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want revenge. I don't—

[ He stops abruptly and shakes his head. ]

Okay, let's start at the beginning.

[ He begins counting his points on the fingers of one hand. ]

Number one, do I think you were telling the truth about what you said? Yes. You said things that made South bad, but you also said things that made yourself look bad, and I don't think you would have made up parts of it and not others.

Number two, am I upset with you? Well, I mean, that's only human, right? I'm kind of upset you didn't come up with some other way to deal with the situation you were in. But I also wasn't there to see whether there was any other plausible way. I'll have to take your word for that—you just didn't have any other way. Right?

Okay, and third, I want you to know I don't think this is unforgivable. Wash, we're friends. Do you really expect me to just throw that all away? Especially when we're the only two here that know one another?

audio

[fuckingaqua]

[ It's all fun and games and another uneventful day recovering from being stabbed and thrown down an elevator shaft and what have you...

Until Tucker gets done being stuck in time warp limbo and asks around about the only teammate he has accounted for around here, that is.

Then the peace is guaranteed to be broken. Exhibit A: the message that rolls in. ]

Wash, what the fuck! [ Tucker seems to be full-speed charging down corridors as he talks. It's like he blinked and a literal nightmare became reality. He's hit the worry ceiling, and he will stay up there until getting a visual on Wash manages to smack him down with a broom. ] I fall between dimensions or whatever for five minutes and you manage to almost bleed to death while I'm gone? Are you serious?!

[ Just you wait until he figures out how to get to the medbay, young man. This is the true power of friendship. ]

video

[parannoyed]

[Wash's face is nice and not pale-as-death. He's getting some good color back. While he's still hooked up to IVs, there are less of them than there were, and he doesn't need blood anymore. They're mostly just giving him antibiotics and keeping him hydrated.]

[Those scars on his face probably aren't going away. As to be expected from someone who'd been hurt as many times as Wash had, he'd had plenty of scars on his body, visible if he even so much as wore a t-shirt if he wasn't wearing his armor. But so far, his helmet had kept he worst from happening to his face.]

[Until now.]

[Now he has two scars there, one horizontal line across his right cheek, another curved line from forehead to his other cheek that looks like it had been meant for his eye and only just barely missed.]

[Wash just woke from a nap so he looks groggy and confused at someone finding the stabbity to be brand new news. Everyone - everyone saw him super high (so undignified).]

[He sets the comm to float modes and yawns, then squints.]

Is this...

It was Tucker, right?

[He normally has a mind like a steel trap but he's still recovering and still on some pain killers even if he's on a lower dose than before.]

video

[fuckingaqua]

[ There it is. The proverbial broom. At least there's that.

Tucker, looking more or less straight out of the back of the post-xenomorph armored truck, hasn't really gotten as far as figuring out float mode. He opts to set himself to "if I shoulder-check people while holding this comm up to squint into it, well that's their problem" mode instead. He relaxes incrementally. ]

Yeah, Tucker. Blue Team. [ A rote, off-hand confirmation.

Wash could look worse. Wash could look a lot better, too, in his opinion. Scar situation, not ideal, but awake and alert-ish and not looking like literal death. ]

Seriously, dude, a serial killer? You manage to take it up a notch from kidnapped corporate slave by running into a serial killer? How the hell am I supposed to account for that?

[ It's like all the dumb impossible mercenary adopting luck Caboose gets is directly because he steals luck from Wash. ]

action;

[bothbarrels]

[ North has been making it a point to check on Wash daily, and so when he comes in this morning it's no surprise to Wash, he's sure. He's tried to bring in some kind of treat with him every day, if he can, which has proven to be slightly more difficult with each passing day. This is the first day he's outright failed at it, though; hopefully Wash will be able to manage to overlook that fact. ]

Heyy, they he is. You're starting to look a lot better, Wash. How you feeling now?

Re: action;

[parannoyed]

I'm feeling like I'm overdue for a discharge but they're insisting I stay longer.

[He plops his head back into his pillow but at least it's just in a state of bored ennui rather than him being in place or out of it like he'd been.]

They're worried about me being forced back into training but I've done it through worse.

[He says, like that was healthy at all in the past.]

text; two days after mistletoe

[infailtration]

hey wash

can we talk?

text

[parannoyed]

[Oh. He wasn't expecting this. Not entirely.]

In person? Or just here?

[He's letting him set the terms.]

text

[infailtration]

in person. can i meet you somewhere?

audio; the afternoon after the counselor's post

[bothbarrels]

Hey, just checking in with you after the whole thing that happened today.

audio

[parannoyed]

I'm fine.

[His voice is very tense.]

I put my hand through a wall but I'm fine.

[bothbarrels]

You don't have to soften it for me, Wash. I can tell you're pissed.

action

[parannoyed]

[ooc: Continued from here.]

[He is punching and kicking the shit out of a punching bag.]

[Notably, without his knuckles even so much as wrapped, leaving spots of blood on it because he'd already messed them up punching a metal wall.]

[There is something more to this and he's not sure what. Sure, he hates the Counselor and hates the Director, but it feels like there's something more than just the Counselor being a manipulative asshole. He dealt with him being a manipulative asshole for years, after all.]

[But he can't figure out what's wrong, why this is digging at him so hard like it's - like it's almost excavating something. There's a tension like a dam trying to burst.]

[infailtration]

[ As he gets closer, York spots the blood -- he detours and grabs a clean towel, gentling his voice when he turns back. ]

Wash? Wash, you're getting blood everywhere. Let me see your hands.

[parannoyed]

[He ignores him for a second and then finally stops with a few hard kicks that make the connector attaching the bag to the frame above groan forebodingly.]

[Then he finally stops...but he can't seem to actually stop. His hands grasp open and closed like he wants to strangle something, he clearly wants to pace.]

[He doesn't know why he's so agitated but that's a lot of his life recently.]

audio;

[fuckingaqua]

Hey, Wash, want me to shove that Price dude into a locker or something? I know it's pretty high school, but I also feel like it wouldn't be hard.

[ He could open on asking if Wash is okay like a normal person, but consider: he could also open offering to shove a psychological terror into a locker. ]

Plus the security cameras suck. I would fucking nail it.

audio

[parannoyed]

[That gets an actual scoffing sort of laugh.]

[The scoffing is directed at Price, not Tucker.]

I can't seem to find any reasons to say no.

locked to Carolina

[parannoyed]

[He waits for Carolina in the gardens. Despite the anxiety roiling in his stomach he doesn't want to push for her to come any sooner.]

[She and York deserve some time together. And it's not exactly like he's got any good news to offer. He wants to let her have the good news about who's alive first.]

[He knows what her priorities are and where he ranks. (He's wrong.) He figures she'll probably want to talk to North after York.]

[So he sits there under a tree, picking at the clover around him. He likes the green. It reminds him of something. He doesn't realize that something is Iris..]

[onequartershark]

[ It's Wash, but it's not Wash as she knows him now, and that is going to make this one hell of a conversation. She's heard enough by now to not be blindsided by that, but the fact remains.

Her strides are measured and even as she comes up to sit down by Wash. Not too close, but conversationally so. ]

...So. New scars?

[ She didn't have time to ask, before. And they're easier to see here.

It's also a topic that isn't his memory. She'll let Wash start that one. See what he says unprompted. ]

action

[bothbarrels]

[ North has been biding his time since the whole situation happened with Wash refusing to allow Theta to verify his identity. Sure, there had been another method to do so, but Wash's refusal signaled to North that there was still some deep-seated stuff going on in his head about the AIs. Theta had been sort of insulted, in addition, or hurt. More like hurt.

So on this particular day, when he sees Wash sitting in the mess, he decides to approach and sit across from him. ]

Hey there, Wash.

Re: action

[parannoyed]

[North has him hostage for a while. He hasn't even gotten to his pudding cup yet.]

Hey. What's up?

text; post babadon't

[infailtration]

[ Well that was a wrench in the works. York has to get things back on track -- he needs to track Wash down and get a look at his head, though he still isn't 100% on how he's going to do that without making the other soldier suspicious. Clearly winging it is the best plan. Don't want it to look too rehearsed, right? First things first, meet him somewhere, check in on his friend just because he's worried. Subtly figure out where he is. ]

Hey Wash. Where are you right now?

[ Smooth. ]

text

[parannoyed]

Gardens. Just a finished a workout and I'm starving, so I'm stealing some extra food.