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risingshepard[Between all the trouble that she's had to put up with over the last month and what's happened recently, Shepard...has had an eventful stay in Luceti thus far, to say the least. Now she's got a potential, not to mention secret, mission on her hands, and if she makes the cut, it'll be her first job at the Malnosso's service at this point. The work involved? Stealth, and sabotage--two things she was definitely cut out for, in the end, thanks to the extensiveness of N7 training, but turned down because she felt she'd do a better job watching out for the others instead. Tours of duty don't change at all, no matter the world, it seems. Just the faces that give out the missions, and the rank and file that are beneath her, if any.
Once she's signed up for it, she'll be spending the mornings leading up to the day of the mission in the battledome to prepare, in the event that she is selected as a member, and using her afternoons to meet up with who she feels might be involved in the mission, provided they're around for her to talk with at all. (Here's looking at you, Lupin...even if she won't be able to find you at all during the later days.)
It was no time to be unprepared; they needed to put a plan together, and they needed to make the most of the hours they had.]
Once she's signed up for it, she'll be spending the mornings leading up to the day of the mission in the battledome to prepare, in the event that she is selected as a member, and using her afternoons to meet up with who she feels might be involved in the mission, provided they're around for her to talk with at all. (Here's looking at you, Lupin...even if she won't be able to find you at all during the later days.)
It was no time to be unprepared; they needed to put a plan together, and they needed to make the most of the hours they had.]
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-18 02:33 pm (UTC)It was something that the residents of House 46 hadn't bothered to understand.
Shepard will be able to find him in the bakery with a cup of coffee nearby, seated at a table within sight of the fountain. There is a sketchbook on the table before him, but his coordination is too off to draw the lines as straight as he wished.]
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-18 03:13 pm (UTC)Shepard regards him for a moment as she passes by the bakery's window, contemplating whether or not she should head inside and sit down opposite him. Maybe it was just her letting her worries catch up with her, but he doesn't look like he's in the best of moods for small talk. That...was probably caused by what she missed on the 14th, whatever the hell it was... She already got Luke's side of things, but not Lupin's take on the matter--and if she needed a full view of the bigger picture, she had to get that, too. Sure, promises were broken that night. Sure, things got hairy, but if they had reasons to get pissed over it, so did he, right? It can't have been some unbalanced dispute that could've been solved if they sat down and talked this out...
...After a bit more mental fussing, she goes in and makes her way over to him.] Got time to spare?
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-18 03:38 pm (UTC)Her own was among them, but it was struck through with an erratic line of charcoal.]
Depends. [His tone was flat.] What do you want it for?
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 12:01 pm (UTC)16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 01:51 pm (UTC)If this is going to be a lecture, I've all ready heard it. Take a tip from the Vice Admiral--everyone else in the house can too.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 01:57 pm (UTC)16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 02:00 pm (UTC)[He went back to his sketch, working out a bare skeleton of the fountain just within sight in the plaza.]
They got mad at me for not keeping a promise that I never would have been able to keep, and shouldn't even have made. I finally trusted them enough to treat them like my partners, and they threw it back at me.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 02:04 pm (UTC)16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 02:12 pm (UTC)I need to do things. I need to work. The only reason I was able to keep calmer before July was because I was training with the Vice Admiral daily--our work paid off, and it was part of the reason I wasn't hurt worse by that god.
[It was a pity too. The only other person he had found in the enclosure who understood this problem was Dr. Law himself. Keeping busy helped, but it didn't resolve the core problem. Law needed the sea. Lupin needed the road.]
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 02:25 pm (UTC)[And this snark queen, as okay with her situation as she is, needs a duty to fulfill. It's a good thing one of her interest came up at a time like this.] Are you still working with him? That vice-admiral you mentioned, I mean.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-19 02:29 pm (UTC)[He sighed, focusing in on the curve of the basin. It was three meters, he guesstimated. Three meters, or close to fifteen feet if he was getting the Imperial notation correct. That was going to be a doozy.]
...That was part of the 'taking it easy.' I haven't been able to get out to the barracks for the better part of two months, and working with Smoker always helps to take the edge off.
We've gone back to our system. He knows my strengths and weaknesses, and is finding ways to work around everything. Smart man, and he cares more than he lets on.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-21 10:28 am (UTC)[...And a good mentor figure, she muses. Kind of reminded her of Anderson and herself, really; the guy was always there, even when when she was found to be a Cerberus operative despite it not being her choice. They always knew their students better than they'd let on...and this relationship parallels that, in some strange sense. She wasn't as restless as Lupin, but in some ways she couldn't quite grasp yet...they were similar, despite the distance in decades.]
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-21 02:25 pm (UTC)[One of the least judgmental of the law dogs in the village, and a valued window into how the other side things. He was a maverick, in his own way, but that was only because he followed his own sense of Justice.
Lupin would never consider him a mentor--they were too close in age. He liked to consider him a friend, no matter how much the Marine protested.
He also liked to think that Smoker felt the same way.]
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-23 11:41 am (UTC)Think you ought to introduce me to him sometime, Lupin; it adds one more sparring partner, and it helps me get around.
[Yeah, that last part can totally be taken out of context.]
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-23 03:08 pm (UTC)Smoker is more than just a sparring partner, Shepard; he also teaches self-defense to anyone who wants it, and is one of the most unstoppable fighters in the village. He is literally made of smoke, and very few things that exist can even hurt him. Seriously.
...but be careful of the 'getting around' part. He has a girlfriend, and she is just a little possessive and a little violent.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-24 01:26 pm (UTC)She had to comment, though--especially since he'd caught on to her unintentional slip.]
"Just a little possessive?" I wonder where I've heard that one before. [A little snerk. It was just that amusing to her, honest.] You know where he usually sticks around?
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-24 03:40 pm (UTC)He constantly denies it, but we're pretty similar on that front. It's hard to believe that a Marine and a thief can get along so well sometimes.
Normally you can find him in the bars or the barracks. Smoker prefers off-journal communication because he likes the direct approach, but he does periodically make announcements of his presence and his willingness to take on sparring partners or students. He might be making another one of those within the next few weeks, since he normally makes those announcements once a cycle. Keep your eyes and ears on the journal.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-25 04:09 pm (UTC)About as hard to believe as us getting along just swell?
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-25 04:11 pm (UTC)16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-25 04:14 pm (UTC)16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-25 04:16 pm (UTC)I stole the Inspector's Jitte. Smoker didn't like that, so I challenged him to capture me. He did...and did nothing, just told me to stop skulking and not mess with his students.
Funny, how things like that work.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-25 04:22 pm (UTC)Not even an earful, huh. Pretty generous of him.
16th [Action]
Date: 2012-09-25 04:31 pm (UTC)Don't say that to his face--he has a reputation as a tough bastard to uphold!