a_sin_for_him | IC Contact

Well, when you put it like that it sounds ridiculous and insane. But uh. Yeah, basically.

...Made aiming a little hard. But, uh, I managed.

[Boy, that was a fun day. Just... such a fun day!]

Right, yeah... Sometimes I kinda forgot most places don't have 'em, 'cause it's just such a big thing back home. Vaults are... sort of a legend that turned out to be very real? Stories about a Vault full of wealth or powerful artifacts or what have you. One reason people would come to Pandora was to look for one.

Turns out that, uh, they're more like caches with stuff left behind by aliens. The one on Elpis had this alien artifact in it. As... well as a scary alien protector guarding it.

Ridiculous and insane is exactly what it is.

...I find it hard to imagine you shooting at anyone.

[Oh, how little Lust knows.]

My god. No wonder your master sent you in search of one.

Well, that's... Pandora.

[And everything surrounding it.]

Ha, yeah, I bet. I did... sorta end up doing that a lot. Shooting people and all...

[A lot. So much shooting.]

Oh, yeah, Jack wanted to find that Vault bad. Really... Really bad. He got really intense about that at the end of the mission. Not, uh... [Well. Context is important for this.] Not that I don't get why.

Really?

[It's almost impossible to picture. Timothy's such a timid and gentle man...of course, Scar had been, in private. And he'd been a serial killer.]

Oh?

[She won't press, but she'll invite him to go on, if he wants.]

Yeah. Well, you know, that's uh, that's just how it goes there. Can't go from point A to point B without shooting a whole bunch of people. Not to mention people constantly asking for favors that also, inevitably, involved shooting lots of people.

[It's part of why it's still so refreshing that people here just... help each other. Without making you jump through any hoops.]

The whole thing was kind of a mess. Just... a horrible mess, really. Jack did a bunch of messed up shit, then some people we were working with stabbed him in the back and tried to kill him... He really didn't take that well.

I wouldn't have thought. I can barely picture you with a weapon...

[Picturing him killing anyone...how heavy does it weigh on him?]

I can't imagine. That doesn't tend to go over well on the sanest of minds.

Never really held one before that mission either, so... If it weren't for all that, then nah, I never would've done anything like that. But, uh... that's how it goes, I guess.

Just sorta got used to it.

[Some things weigh heavily on him. Felicity does. The scientists do. But most of the people he shot? The Lost Legion, the skavs, all that? Not so much anymore.]

Right? Even before that, he was uh... he was going downhill for a while, but it's that point where he started really losing it.

I know you've spoken on how violent and dangerous the world you come from is, I just...I don't know, for some reason I never imagined you'd taken any life.

It doesn't bother me, it simply surprises me.

[She's killed dozens upon dozens, she isn't going to make any judgments. But it's a shock, even so. She hadn't ever thought he'd killed anyone.]

How mad is he? He maintains a reasonable enough facade, but...

I'm not exactly the, ah, usual type of person you'd find in that... line of work anyway. [Tim, just call yourself a Vault Hunter, you are one.] They're a little more like... Well, like Athena, for example.

Right, I get that. I can't even see myself like that type of person and I'm the one who lived it.

[At her question, there's a small pause. How mad is Jack? Unconsciously, he touches the scar on his face for a moment. Not because of the memory of when that happened to him, necessarily. But the memory of Lilith punching that artifact into Jack's face.]

...Mad enough to arm a space station with a giant laser. Mad enough to vent a whole team of innocent scientists into space after one suggested that maybe there was the possibility of there being a mole.

And mad enough to rant about wanting to scorch the whole planet in fire.

I... I dunno, that last one could be passed off as a heat of the moment thing, but... [But as someone whose job was being Jack, as someone with a pretty good understanding of the man...] I don't think that was all it was.

No, you aren't. You belong on a stage or behind a typewriter, not on a battlefield.

[He's a creative soul. There are men who keep their violence tramped down, and there are men who simply aren't inclined to it. She still believes Timothy to be the latter.]

I suppose we should just count ourselves lucky that people like that have no footing here. And that you have the ability to free yourself from him.

Ha, yeah... Definitely didn't expect a college education to lead to... well, all of that.

[Creative writing, it turns out, is not very useful in battle. Who woulda thought.]

Right, yeah. Only so much he can do, at least here. And he... he should be basically out of the picture back home too, which is good. I mean, not that I plan to be back there to see that anytime soon, but. For everyone who still has to deal with the place.

Pandora's got enough going on even without lunatics like him around.

Where I come from, many choose higher education purely to avoid entering the military.

I...hope you don't go back to it. To where you come from.

[Lust's eyes shift away from the screen. She's grown so much more comfortable with her emotions over the years, but there are still times she grows self conscious and awkward. Now is one of them. She toys with one of the sleeves of the stolen shirt she's wearing, nervous of admitting to depths of feeling to Timothy still.]

Part of that's selfish, I'll readily admit it. I don't want to lose you, you are...a very bright and wanted part of my life. But I also don't wish to see you forced back into that sort of life. You deserve so much better than that.

Huh, really? Guess it is the nicer option of the two.

[He's about to chime in with a slightly bitter "you and me both", but then she suddenly seems a little.. self conscious? And then she keeps on talking. And wow, that's... that's a lot of feelings. He looks to the side for a moment himself, also feeling a bit awkward now, but... well, that's common whenever anyone says anything positive about him anyway.

Even if this is more intense. Oh geez.]

Ha, gosh... Thanks? For, um, all of that. The selfish part too. I definitely don't wanna lose you either, that's for sure... I'm not exactly eager to go back either. Kinda hoping that doesn't ever happen. Not a lot I'm missing back there, anyway. [Nothing he can go back to, anyway.] Hell, even if everything somehow magically worked out, I'd much rather stay here.

...Think I'll just assume that's what happens. So I don't drive myself insane.

I wish I knew...I've been here going on four years. I know some who've been here longer. Six years, seven. And there are those who are here for only a handful of weeks or months. It all seems so...arbitrary.

[Lust sighs, drawing her knees up to her chin and resting her head on them.]

Scar...the man I lost. He met the force that brings us here, once. It was during one of those times of upheaval. He didn't speak much on it, but he said...

'Whatever it was, it felt as though it wanted us to be happy'.

Sometimes I think...that really is what it comes down to. Can we heal, here? Can we be happy and whole? If we can, we stay. If we can't...

But I don't know. It's simply a hopeful woman's fancy.

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