Time travel and lousy life choices

[una_persson]

Who: Una Persson and OPEN (with threads for Niko and Niles)
What: Life in Blackstaff
Where: Various places; see threadstarters, or feel free to start your own
When: In the week or so after the witch den expeditions and Una's punitive assignment
Warnings: TBD

Comments

[una_persson]

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."

[vengeance_driven]

"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.

[una_persson]

"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.

[vengeance_driven]

"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.

[una_persson]

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.

[vengeance_driven]

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.

[una_persson]

"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.

[vengeance_driven]

"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.

[una_persson]

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."

[vengeance_driven]

"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.

[una_persson]

"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."

[vengeance_driven]

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.

[una_persson]

"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.

[vengeance_driven]

"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."

[una_persson]

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."

[vengeance_driven]

"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.

[una_persson]

"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."

[vengeance_driven]

"I was always surprised why more people didn't after I learned. Maybe this is more European than elsewhere, because we talk so differently." He actually did appreciate her confidence.

"I should probably let you get back to what you were doing, but how about we get a beer sometime." He didn't particularly want to take her on a date-date. He didn't know why. Maybe he'd just shoved her into a part of his brain that said, "Way outclasses me so don't even bother." And there was some heteronormative cultural pit that called him a failure for it.

But he liked having friends to get bears with.

[una_persson]

"Anytime; I'd be glad to." She understood, at any rate, that this wasn't an overture—and she was fine with that, whatever his reasons might have been. A friend you could have a drink with was a good thing in her book. "But yes, I should be on my way. I'll see you around, Niko."