the_last_resort | Time travel and lousy life choices

"I know exactly what expression you're talking about," she said. "No, it just dawned on me—what if exploding is how they make more little creepers? That when they do, it spreads their—their seeds, their spores. Which eventually sprout and go on to explode in turn."

"Could be." He observed with a lazy nod. He wasn't that smart, but some things he'd noted, and knew.

"There is little black flammable dirt stuff they leave behind if you kill them before they pop. Acts like gunpowder. Maybe they have spores that are pretty strong like that."

"It's terrifying, how much sense this makes," she said, laughing suddenly. "Dear god, what a world this is. So many new and exciting things to get used to."

"I think I have had too much exciting in my life."

But then he also didn't know the excitement of discovery as well as some other. Excitement for him usually came with doom, and he was cautious of it. Roman, he loved it much more than Niko.

He wondered, briefly, how Linda was taking to it. Boone seemed to simply adapt well. Which brought him to another subject that he'd been very hesitantly considering, but every time he thought too much about it he would get pissed at himself.

"So ah... speaking of bad tastes in partners... say there is someone outside of your usual type that you are sort of like being around. But they are a very good friend. I don't know, does it mean maybe that I'm probably just reading too much into a good friend?"

OOC: For some reason that paragraph starter was down below my text box. I wondered where it had gone.

Edited 2015-03-15 00:50 (UTC)

She eyebrow, slightly surprised at the segue.

"Attraction is a funny thing," she said. "It can sneak up when you least expect it. But—just to make sure I follow you—is it that you think they could romantically interested, or that you might be reading too much into what they say and do? Or is it—" she paused to consider her words, "—your own feelings towards them that you're trying to sort out?"

"...I don't know." He said stupidly, as if he really didn't. He had no idea what was going through his head and wasn't really smart enough to figure it out.

"I know there is no romantic interest, though. I don't know why I wonder."

Niko had a crush on someone, she realised abruptly. And clearly didn't know what to do about it. Which, considering what she gathered of his history, was odd. Not what she would have expected from him, anyway.

"If you're drawn to them yourself, it's only natural to wonder," she said. "What if, and all that. Even if they're not your usual type."

Who in the world could it be?

He waved a dismissive hand.

"Eh. It is not important." He didn't want to put a lot more weight on his thoughts on Boone; the man had been married to a woman, after all, and lost her. And after losing Kate, Niko didn't think he had it in him to risk running off another friend.

"You know who is definitely pretty good looking, though? Linda. Nice voice, too. She is engaged. I hope that guy realizes he has a pretty good catch."

Una felt, oddly, that the bringing up of Linda was a diversion, rather than the heart of whatever Niko's interpersonal concerns was.

Still, he had a point.

"Linda is lovely," she agreed. "And yes, I noticed the ring—lucky fellow, back in her Maine home town." A faint, speculative frown. "She's lovely—and melancholy, I think. With reason, I suppose."

"Pots should not be talking shit about kettles and that is what I feel like we are doing, but yes, I think you are right." And he had barely enough class not to comment on her waistline or something, as it wasn't as though Una wasn't a lady as well. Just a lady that had previously indicated liking other ladies in her comment about her friend.

He wanted to ask specifically what made her realize she liked that friend, but that was harder to get around to.

"We do all have no shortage of other things on our minds," she admitted with a small laugh. "I do like her, at any rate. I admit to a weakness for intelligent, competent women of good character. Compensation for my own shortcomings, perhaps." She was joking, at least partly; she had no false modesty about her own intelligence or competence, but was also aware that the quality of her character was debatable.

"She definitely has good character. Way too good for a guy like me. Maybe Boone is a little more on my level, just a little better, but Linda? Way too good."

Just randomly throw in an extra name that didn't fit in there, huh? Usually Niko was great at pleading the fifth, but when you got him talking about someone he liked he was immensely prone to making mistakes.

Boone? Really?

Well, hold on; it was entirely possible that Una was jumping to conclusions—but what with Niko's consternation earlier about feelings for a friend that he didn't seem to know what to do with and now the mention of that name in this context...

She managed to carefully keep any surprise or amusement off her face.

"Can't say I know Boone very well, myself, so I can't comment on him," she said, casually enough. "But you ought not to sell yourself too short, you know." Teasing a little.

Some idiot, mental backtrack occurred and it did seem like he pulled "Boone" from the "ether". So, as a joke, he motioned in front of his own chest. "I think Boone probably has too much up front here, though."

Which wasn't a lie as far as men went, Boone was a little wall of muscle even if he wasn't any taller than Narvin.

"Not a complaint I hear about men very often," she said with a laugh. Taking it as a joke, as a courtesy to Niko, even if she suspected more than he was letting on. She folded her arms, looked off into the distance, and was silent for a moment.

"Anyway, to your earlier point, as far as ... friends go? Like I said earlier, the heart wants what it wants. There's no shame in it, in the end."

More than that she wouldn't say, she resolved, not unless he pushed it.

"For me? And the damage I do? I think there is maybe shame in wanting anything. But maybe someone with bad histories also gets this."

Niko had shown some pretty poor choices about his friends, though. "So ah... did they make you take Belloq back?" He changed the subject, referring to the man's cowardly effort to turn himself in.

She glanced sidelong at Niko, a small, cryptic smile on her face. She wouldn't say any more about Boone, but in the privacy of her own mind, she wished Niko well in whatever was to happen.

At the mention of Belloq, she sighed heavily and shook her head. "No. They let someone else take care of that. I'd already ... had words with him. And was somewhat in Jeffers's bad books as a result."

"The robot guy with the mustache screen?" Niko needed to double check, because he didn't seem like he'd be the type to be on Belloq's side.

"That one. Yes. Technically, he's my boss—same goes for all the agents. And it turns out he's not too pleased when you ah, borrow the transporters without authorisation. Particularly not for the temporal equivalent of hanging a fellow off the edge of a building by his ankles by way of making a point."

That actually made him smile, though, authorization or not. "That is much better than what I wanted to him, and what I did and the results that I got." He had just yelled at him, after all, and Belloq hadn't cared.

"I'm not proud of it, exactly," she admitted. "But it made the point I wanted to make. And anyway, he's out of our hair now and good riddance to bad rubbish." She made a gesture as if flicking something distasteful from her hand.

"I am glad you have enough tastes to keep the good rubbish around." He pointed a thumb at himself, beaming one of those biting grins.

"Hey, the last person that fucked me while lying the whole time? She got off easy. I just called her a bitch."

She snorted, amused. "That's nothing new for me. Being lied to by someone I'm sleeping with or being called a bitch. It was the substance of the lie that particularly upset me. And having my good nature taken advantage of."

"I think that really is it, isn't it. You're good with words, but then again you're generally much better at English than I am."

The obvious. He could state it.

"Oh, that's hardly fair—I've had a lifetime of practice." She smiled. "Give yourself some credit. Most people can barely speak one language beyond the one they're brought up with."

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