The Perk - Thursday afternoon.

[biotic_psychotic]

Morning was for other people. Sure, she'd been awake and even gone for a run but that didn't mean she enjoyed mornings. Nobody sane did, she was convinced.

Jack hiked herself to the Perk and got the largest mug of black coffee they had. Digging a small tablet and stylus out of the larger side pocket of her cargo pants, she parked her ass at a table with a good view and called up a strategy war game.

Tactics and strategy weren't her forte. She was the tank. She'd always been the tank. Killing was easy. Doing what she was told to do was easy. Jack was good at thinking and adapting on the fly, and she could, when necessary, think and plan in advance. The thing she brought to one very particular table was her ability to think outside the lines. She didn't think like the people around her. She wasn't a do-gooder, she wasn't all noble and caring and shit.

Jack was a killer. She was an apex predator and she was really fucking good at it. What she could be, when she had reason to be, was a really fucking good ambush predator. Right now she had the best reason in the world. So she was playing the game and teaching herself new ways to put old skills to good use. Every successful guerrilla war needed its sappers. Think like the enemy. Find the chinks in the armor, find the weak points, find every spot they'd be vulnerable.

Something she'd always been good at.

Jack sipped her coffee and studied the screen.

[Perk is Open! cuz I think I'm funny opening both tea and coffee shops on the same day..]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Zack... had been kind of bad at getting out and about. Which really figured, didn't it? Crashing at the shelter had been good in that 'at least there are puppies downstairs' sort of way, and kind of awful in that, 'because there are puppies, why ever leave?' sort of way. But Girl knew when enough was enough, and had started the afternoon off by doing what Scelties do best and herding him toward the door.

And so it was with a somewhat victorious looking dog by his side that he made his way in to the coffee shop and over to the counter, mulling over the options before just shrugging, getting himself a bagel with cream cheese and a coffee, and finding his way to a table by the window, propping his sword against the wall so that he could take a seat while he ate.

"... Oh, now you give me the puppy eyes."

Someone wanted a share of the bagel.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack glanced up and over. She recognized the dog first because of course she did. Didn't everyone? It took another second to put the face to a name, but the big freaking heap of sharpened metal sure helped.

"Hey Zack," she said, "How you been? Haven't seen you in forever." Her eyes flicked an amused glance at the sword. "New steel?"

[puppy_fair]

"Comparatively," Zack replied, blinking up at Jack and offering her a faint grin and a nod in greeting. "I had Amaya make it for me a few months ago. I needed to stop carrying around the other one."

It had too many ghosts attached to it.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yeah, that had to play merry havoc with your neck and back muscles, just hauling that big bastard thing around," Jack agreed. She didn't figure that for being the reason. It was a conversational out.

"Kaidan know you're back?" Was she going to throw Kaidan under a bus?

Signs point to yes.

[puppy_fair]

Zack blinked. His neck and b-- Oh. Right. Most people couldn't lift something like the buster sword with both hands, never mind one.

"He knows," he replied. "He swung by the shelter the other day to say hello, actually."

... And to check up on him, but so long as they were leaning into the conversational outs, Zack was going to do exactly that.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Good," Jack said, "I think he's missed you. He's been doing this stupid fucking hermit thing the last few months. His head went stupid and I'm tryin' to kick it back to normal."

Vroom.

[puppy_fair]

Really, one might be able to just assume that, going forward, all posts pertaining to Zack Fair were to be prefaced with, 'Zack blinked.'

"His head... went stupid?" He hesitated, and then soldiered on curiously, "how do you mean?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"You've met the big dumb squish," Jack drawled - to.. yes, another big dumb squish, "He cares about every damn thing under the sun. Some dumb fucker, and he has yet to tell me who but I am going to pry it out of him eventually and then someone is gonna get punched right in the fucking face, put it in his head that he shouldn't. That he was hurting his friends by giving a shit, and if that ain't just the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.."

Jack made a face and took a sip of coffee. "Dumb or not, it got into his head and it chewed itself a racetrack and he let all his thoughts ran in circles. Kaidan's basically kept himself in his own fucking building for months on the assumption that if people wanted him around, they'd come find him."

And almost nobody had. That was another thing that pissed her off. She couldn't really go around punching all his friends in the face.

Well.

She could. It just wouldn't do any good. She could, however, throw Kaidan under every bus with a name that he had.

[puppy_fair]

Zack bit his lip at that.

"I haven't even been around," he said, quietly. "If I'd known..."

Oh no. Now he was going to let this chew at the inside of his head, too.

"He did offer me help, though," he added after a moment. "On Tuesday. A place if I need it. Someone to keep company with who gets... stuff."

Ah, 'stuff.'

[biotic_psychotic]

"You weren't here, this ain't on you," Jack pointed out with a shrug, "But you're back and you're one of the people on his list."

She looked over at him and said, "Take him up on it. Fuck. Please. If he's reaching out at all, it's a big step from where he was a month ago. That's the closest to normal goddamn Kaidan he's been in about three months."

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded a little, exhaling a soft sigh.

"Maybe I will, then," he said, quietly. "I don't do 'alone' well, anyway."

Even if right now he was playing 'introvert hermit' very, very well.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Neither does he," Jack said with a snort, "Shit, I moved here because he don't do 'alone' well. He don't like himself enough to be good with just his own company."

Vroom, Kaidan. Not sorry.

"Dumbass."

Kaidan, not Zack.

[puppy_fair]

Zack answered that with a wry quirk of a smile.

"He said he was getting sick of solitaire," he replied, and that statement alone was agreement enough. "That works out nicely. I never was good at solitaire, either."

Had run hundreds of solo missions just fine, but never did fare well when left alone to his own headspace.

[sharp_man]

Hannibal had been meaning to speak with Jack for some time now, so when he walked past and saw her, he headed in to get a coffee and then came over to her table.

He waved a hand at the chair opposite her. "May I join you?"

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack glanced up and put the game on pause, turning the screen off. "Sure," she said easily, "How've you been, Dr. Lecter?"

[sharp_man]

"I've been well, thank you," Hannibal said, smiling. "And you?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Can't complain," Jack smiled back. "Weather's turning nice, I get to go to a petting zoo in another universe sometime soon."

And beat up Troopers and take their shit.

"Got one blaster tricked out with a stunner mod, should soon have another. Then I can get to work browbeating Sparkle and Hernando into carrying and using them when needed."

[sharp_man]

"Sparkle has a blaster," Hannibal said. "Although he is perhaps somewhat remiss at carrying it. He prefers his knives."

Hannibal sympathized.

[biotic_psychotic]

"Didn't know if his has a stunner on it," Jack shrugged, "Wanted two the same in case they ever have to field strip one for spare parts. Frankly I don't give a fuck what his preference is. He's gonna start carrying one. If only so's he has one at hand to give to fuckin' Hernando, who's gonna be the bigger issue because he's never carried any weapon ever."

She grimaced and took a drink of her coffee. "How the hell does someone even survive to adulthood like that?"

[sharp_man]

"Badly, or in a sheltered society," Hannibal says. "Portions of modern Western society do not often prioritize arming individuals. He seems fairly well-adapted, so I would surmise it's the latter. Or that he is extremely resilient."

He did have a strength to him, though hardly the same type as Jack's. Or Hannibal's, come to that.

[biotic_psychotic]

She made a face and took another sip. "Fucking choirboy," she agreed. Reluctantly, she added, "He's good with Sparkle."

Which is why she didn't twist his damn head off. Sparkle would legitimately miss him.

"Never gonna get less weird, hearing people call this century 'modern'," she mused.

[sharp_man]

Hannibal laughed. "Well, it has always been modern for me," he corrected. "Shall I say 'twenty-first century' instead? And yes, he is good with Sparkle."

He liked Hernando well enough himself, but he only cared about him as it related to Sparkle.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack quirked a grin, "It's almost the twenty-third, back home. Use whichever language you like, it's true enough for this place anyway."

Jack wasn't a fan of the marshmallow. The only reason she put up with him was because he was good with Sparkle.

"Our boyo must be happy. He's almost never home anymore. On the good hand, I can play my music as loud as I want without snippy comments from below. On the bad hand, I'm not able to use the spell 'Summon Sparkle' with a footstomp."

She sipped her coffee and changed the subject. "Did you and Jon get infected by children the other week too?" Everybody liked to talk about their children, right?

[sharp_man]

"Infected? No." Hannibal smiled. "We had one, a daughter we've seen for so long as I've been on the island. Angela." He drank his coffee. "What about yourself?"

[biotic_psychotic]

"Fuuuuuuck nooooo," Jack drawled out, "I am nobody's idea of a fit parent, nor should I fucking be. If the island's ever crazy enough to think it can drop a kid on me, it's gonna find out just how fast I can text Kaidan and run through the nearest portal to anywhere not here."

Another drink of coffee. "Glad you two got another visit from your potential future daughter. I guess that'd be nice. You and Jon seem like you'd be good parents."

Unlike her. So very unlike her.

"Met Sparkle's two. They seem like good kids. Other than apparently in their universe I got brain damage to where they call me 'Aunt Jack' and I don't hang them by their beltloops from the nearest tree."