(Untitled)

[nolongerdivided]

There were old sayings, teachings that Dee had long ago forgotten that she was certain applied to the situation she now found herself. Words of wisdom handed down from the gods themselves about looking for answers and only finding them when the road ahead became blind. The words of the Lords of Kobol always sounded like that and she was certain

Comments

[transgenic_alec]

"Need a hand?" Alec says, his ever-present smirk curving his lips as he crouches down to get a better look at the mess of wires and metal. He's heard all the noise lately about this place getting electricity, something he's excited about despite the fact that he hasn't even been here two months yet. Maybe with electricity, he'll stop feeling like he's stuck in the dark ages.

Maybe.

[nolongerdivided]

"Nah, I'm fine," Dee said with a slight shake of her head, gingerly touching her knuckles with her index finger before picking what would hopefully be a circuit again. Looking up she shrugged slightly, half-smiling. "Unless you were talking about the circuits and are now going to tell me you're an electrician as well, then maybe I could use you."

[transgenic_alec]

Alec gives a shrug, feigning humility with a duck of his head before it's just as quickly gone. "Might know a thing or two," he says and shifts to take a seat next to her, clearly not bothering to wait for an invitation. "Passed Electronics Systems Maintenance with flying colors back in the day." That'd actually been one of the more useful classes, too, both in and out of Manticore.

[nolongerdivided]

The look Dee gave him was doubtful at best, but she wanted to be considerate, to believe in people and things and their ability to not disappoint again and so she slowly nodded. "You're frakking with me aren't you?" she asked rolling her eyes as she smiled slightly. "Well aren't you just the jack of all trades, making the rest of look bad."

[transgenic_alec]

Alec doesn't blush, not ever, but his lips twist into another grin as his head ducks further, a hand reaching out for the mess of wires. "No, I'm not frakking with you," he says, his voice lightly teasing and he glances up, meeting her eyes briefly. When he looks at her, he still sees Annie, but it doesn't feel like an entirely bad thing. Just something to get used to. "What are you trying for here? A switch?"

[nolongerdivided]

Casually she handed the would-be device over to him, waiting to see if he was messing with her, trying to brag about skills he didn't really have or if Alec really was some sort of gods-given wonderboy in the flesh. She may have been raised a true-believer, but time amongst the skeptics made her doubtful at best.

"Yeah, exactly that actually. It's not exactly the work I'm used to, but I like it," she explained, reaching out to twist together a pair of wires. "It's just sharp."

[transgenic_alec]

"Used to something a little more high end, huh?" he says, studying the contraption thoughtfully as she twists some of the wires together. It actually doesn't look bad at all, especially given the materials she has to work with. "How many of these you gotta make? I'm guessin' a lot if this whole place is supposed to light up like they keep saying."

[nolongerdivided]

"I once built a half-destroyed Raptor with almost no spare parts," Dee said casually, not bragging like some rookie pilot with a lot to prove. That was just a fact, something had happened even if she was the only one of them who remembered living it. She shrugged slightly. "This is definitely step-down, but it's something and if it works, probably at least two or three dozen. It'll be a regular city."

[transgenic_alec]

The only kind of Raptor Alec knows, aside from the dinosaur, is the F-22 stealth craft and something tells him that, even if she's not talking about that one exactly, it's probably pretty close. Their histories aren't the same, but the more he talks to her, the more Alec finds that they're not all that dissimilar after all. In any case, he's pretty sure she's talking about an aircraft.

And, well, honestly, that's pretty damn impressive.

"It'll work," he tells her, weirdly confident of that fact as he reaches over to twist his finger around one of the wires, tugging gently like he's testing its hold. "I can help out if you want."

[nolongerdivided]

Dee arched an eyebrow, more amused now than anything else by the fact that Alec seemed to pull confidence from nothing. It was cocky, yeah, but it was something else too, and it reminded her a lot of people back home. Sure those people often got themselves killed, but here she could worry decidedly less.

"Thanks for the vote of approval," she said, amusement shining through in her voice. "Would you? It might bore you to death."

[transgenic_alec]

"Might, yeah," Alec agrees, actually pretty sure of that. He'd always been pretty good at the electrical stuff, but it'd never been anything he'd really enjoyed. Just did it out of necessity. "But, hey, I'll have somethin' pretty to look at in the meantime, right?" His lips twist into another cocky grin then and he gives her a wink as he rests back, holding his weight with one arm behind him.

[nolongerdivided]

"Oh Gods." Dee openly rolled her eyes at that, her nature and experience. It was comforting in that strange way that the strangest things were. Half-scolding, she wagged a greasy finger in his direction. "Another lifetime and I swear that you must have been a CAG. You've certainly got the confidence, you know that?"

[transgenic_alec]

It's pretty much exactly the response he'd been expecting and his smile only widens as his head tilts again, his good shoulder rolling in an easy shrug.

"Being a commander wouldn't be so bad," he says, immediately assuming that her acronym matches the one he knows. It might not, but in that case she'll just correct him, he figures. And hell, if Max hadn't so royally screwed things up back home, he might've actually gotten that far. Not that the Air Group had really been what he'd been designed for. Still, weirder shit had happened.

[nolongerdivided]

The fact that she didn't need to explain what the acronym meant was a a comfort to her. It made it easier for Dee's brain to function, to just keep sliding from military familiarity to civilian life without a hitch. At least in the form of diction.

Another roll of her eyes and Dee let out a quiet laugh. "Maybe not, but it'd be hard to be one without any troops to lead."

[transgenic_alec]

"I'd figure out something," Alec assures her, his legs shifting beneath him, boots working through the dirt and sand as he brushes his hands over the thighs of his pants. His head tilts again with a wicked grin as he continues, "And you seem to think confidence is a bad thing."

Not that Alec's never encountered that before. Max has always found it annoying, while somehow missing the part where she has just as much confidence as Alec does even if she shows it a little differently.

[nolongerdivided]

"Only when it comes in excess," Dee replied evenly knowing that those who bragged that they could take on the gods were usually full of hot air. It was those types who got themselves killed a bit too early.

"I can appreciate a little bit of recklessness though, if that makes you feel better. But what I do I know, I'm paranoid, pigheaded and argumentative."