here are some clompy things.

[charismatic]

Who: Will and Bruce Tom
What: Will has a shiny new job, Bruce is... looking for things.
Where: Tinker's Lot
When: Misdi/Tuesday
Warnings: Not to start with!

This is, technically, Will's first day on the job. He'd spent most of the day after party trying to pour his angry energy into his job search, because there wasn't much else he could do. It figures that he'd get pulled from one bad situation into a worse one, and one where he doesn't even know how to begin to fight back. There has to be some resistance movement somewhere, if things are that bad, even if there's a total media blackout, but he's not acclimated or connected enough to try to seek it out. He's pretty confident in his ability to not get killed, but he's more careful than he used to be.

None of that is showing right now – not when he's a few hundred feet above the ground and attempting to control a – actually, he's not even sure what it is. He'd been surprised, yesterday, when he was told to show up at 8 o'clock sharp, but now he's figuring this is probably a difficult job to fill. He pulls hard on the lever in front of him, attempting to even out the – whatever, he's going to call it an ostrich. He's never seen a real one, but he thinks he remembers them having ridiculous legs like the giant metal pair he's currently perched atop of.

“Can you get it to jump?” the green guy he's currently working for shouts from the viewing platform, and Will spares him a glance before he's being jerked sideways again.

“I'm working on it,” he yells back, lurching forward again. He's not too optimistic about it, since this thing doesn't really even walk all that well. Will got the hang of the controls pretty easily, but it's not a very responsive machine.

Comments

[caballero]

Will seems awful curious; it could be good, or bad. He wonders if he was in the Air Force.

"I've been around."

(Jeez, Bruce, any more clear and you'll be wholly transparent.)

He leaves that ambiguous, mostly to see where the other man takes it - it's clearly leading, though.

[charismatic]

Will arches his eyebrows, but he laughs, shaking his head a little. “Haven't we all,” he says. He's quiet for a moment, looking at the green guy gesturing emphatically with piece of charred metal that's been curled back on itself. Well, he might as well be direct. “Military?” he asks, because that's his first guess.

[caballero]

"No."

Which, to almost everyone in every reality, means the remaining options are things like 'covert agent' - and Bruce is fine with that assumption. It's closer to reality than trying to fake being a soldier, and it's more believable than what he really is. So he'll just let the implication hang; Will can do what he likes with it.

"Is this the only work you do?"

[charismatic]

Yep,” Will says, shifting his grip on his helmet. “Not qualified for much else, around here.” He offers a sarcastic little salute by way of explanation. He can believe that Tom's not ex-military – he doesn't really carry himself like a soldier – but he's had some kind of training, somewhere, and he used it to save his egghead friend instead of just himself. So that's something. What, Will isn't sure yet.

[caballero]

"You could always try the Militia."

There isn't much of a change to his soft-spoken tone, there, except for the sudden wry - almost dark - undercurrent. It's not a real suggestion.

[charismatic]

Will can't quite manage a laugh this time, and his smile is leaning more toward grimace. “No,” he says, more quiet and less jovial than he has been, up to this point. They're less direct about their brutality at home, at least. Even when they kill, it's more out of lack of care, than anything. Maybe that's different, now that there's real opposition. He supposes he'll never know.

[caballero]

"Problem?"

That's a good reaction, Will. Bruce approves, even if there's no outward sign his disposition has changed any - though that might be strange in itself, that kind of deceptive detachment.

[charismatic]

Will's quiet for a moment, examining Tom's face. He's not sensitive enough to do more than react in the tiny window of space before something bad happens, and he can't divine someone's character. This is a risk, but Will's going on instinct and he trusts that, if nothing else.

“Wouldn't make much sense,” he says, keeping his tone casual if not light. “Getting yanked out of a rebellion and then joining the wrong side of things.”

[caballero]

Ah. Good.

(If there's a list - and there is, but it only exists in Bruce's head - of potentially useful people to rile up, Will's just shot pretty high up on it; Bruce does not, as a rule, enlist people to fight his battles. But a soldier, a fellow abductee, and someone already carting around the proper disposition?)

"I wouldn't say that too loud," he remarks, ever-mild, but there's something to the way he holds himself when he says it, turning like he's about to head off, a thread of uncanny purpose to his posture, hinting. "I'll see you again."

It sounds like more of an implication than a polite goodbye.

[charismatic]

Will gives him a nod and a wave instead of answering. He can't say for sure, but he thinks he's made a good contact today.