come_sailaway | [Closed] And of all these angry people in the world

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[Closed] And of all these angry people in the world

Who: Rich Goranski and Six
When: Post Event
Where: Sports deck, early morning
Summary: Rich swallows his pride and decides to actually thank someone he thought was a major dick
Warnings: probably not much aside from discussion of event aftermath and of trauma responses

Rich is... trying to be better. There's been a lot to deal with, after that hell night in the diner. Reassuring his dads that he wasn't secretly missing an arm, trying to comfort Darcy and Dimitri, who were practically missing arms with how hard they had to fight... even after the initial panic was over and after Rich had slept maybe 12 hours straight, there was still the matter of getting back into a routine, of eating meals without glancing over his shoulder every few moments, and of feeling safe enough to turn the lights out in his cabin at night.

There was still one loose end he hadn't quite tied up, though. (All that other junk he's dealing with? Oh, totally fine. A couple nights' good rest is clearly all you need to sort your mental health out.) Rich had seen who was driving the rescue truck that evening, and he's pretty sure the guy didn't have a deep intimate connection to, like, the weird winged newscaster or the sword fighting ghost girl. No, Six was there for Rich.

Even after Rich had threatened him and fought back against him to the point of dislocating his own shoulder, Six had come to find Rich. And he had done it in César's truck. It seems like the guy really was trying to work with César rather than enacting any sort of revenge... which is just rude, because it means now Rich has to apologize for that first fight, and thank him for not abandoning a snot-nosed kid he probably can't stand the sight of.

He checked in with César to find out where Six usually hangs out, and though it means waking up at the asscrack of dawn, Rich pulls himself to the sports deck during Six's usual training time. He's in sweats of his own, definitely pretending he's just here for a pleasant jog when he coincidentally runs into the intimidating man. And no matter how intimidating he is, Rich also (completely casually and in a way that certainly doesn't betray the time practicing in the mirror to get it right) smiles lightly and waves a hand when he spots Six training.

"Hey! Just going for a morning jog! I didn't know anyone besides losers were up this early!"

Smooth, Goranski. He'll never figure you out now.

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Six had paused for a moment, having heard someone approaching. He stood with swords in hand due to having stopped in the middle of one of his practice routines to avoid potentially harming someone.

He looked over his shoulder at the kid and raised a brow, a smirk on his lips, the swords currently relaxed at his sides. "So what does that make you?"

He turned his back to Rich and raised his swords. "Doing some last bits of training before anyone else wakes up and needs to use the sports deck. Try to keep clear."

And with that, he refocused on his imaginary enemies, keeping an ear out for Rich's real footsteps. He darted forward, practically a blur with the flash of steel as he tore through his imagined opponents. He switched the magna blades between their usual forms as well as the staff and electromagnet configurations, using the latter configuration to pick up and fling the loose weights into a set of punching bags he'd set up as ranged targets at the far end of the area. He swapped to unarmed combat as well, fists and feet moving almost unnaturally fast.

"Hey, I already own my loser status! It's better than being an asshole jock or, I don't know, whatever cliches you end up with in the corporate world." Does being a secret agent still come with passive aggressive coworkers? Hard to say.

He nods for a moment at Six's warning, but when the man turns away, he curses himself. Fuck, this was way too casual. Six obviously thought this was a quick greeting and not a big conversation. Should Rich just give up on talking to him? Should he wait around until he's done? Should he say he's just going to wait around?

He might have learned quite a bit about socializing with people properly, but not with people who clearly didn't want to socialize. Is there something the SQUIP would have said to him? Not that he'd take its advice! Maybe something to do the opposite of?

The SQUIP helpfully offers a sudden shriek of static and Rich winces, rubbing his head. Okay! Awesome. He is 100% on his own here. And he's been hanging around so long with his mouth agape like a particularly stupid fish that it'd be even stupider to say something now! Think, Goranski, think...

He notices Six pull off that electromagnet trick, and clings to it desperately as a lifeline for small talk. "Woah! That's a cool trick. You're pretty fast."

Honestly, Rich, passive aggressive would've been a godsend. The rest of the Numbers had no problems being openly aggressive with one another.

Six stopped on a straight punch, glancing back over his shoulder at the kid. He straightened up. "I'd hope so. I've been training for most of my life."

...And here comes the reminder that Rich is completely unequipped to deal with this situation. Making small talk is awkward enough when it doesn't involve people from vastly different realities. They're different ages, at far different stages in their lives, and they have vastly different viewpoints on the world. Rich is an average high school student that couldn't even comprehend most of the shit Six dealt with on a day to day basis. And he was supposed to thank this guy? Did he want that gratitude? Would he accept it, or would he view it as a threat?

Did he really see saving Rich as something good, or did he just... do what was normal for him? Rich feels his face heating up as he stammers out a response.

"Well yeah, of course. And that's probably just something to shrug off for you, and I get that it's probably poor taste to be proud of yourself or something. But I, um, I still think it's cool. I... still think even stuff that's average to you is pretty awesome, and good. You don't seem like such a bad guy, honestly, besides that one time with the fighting and threatening and everything, and I know I totally did not help in that situation, so..."

Fucking Christ, stop talking, Goranski.

"Ah. That's what this is about."

Honestly, the kid's rambling had been getting on his nerves with him wanting to pinch the bridge of his nose and tell him to get to the point. (What was it with teenagers and rambling? He didn't remember being half as much of a motormouth when he was around that age.)

"You can stop worrying about it. I talked things over with César. He'll never be my favorite person, but I'm not going to slice him into pieces any time soon."

Unless César decided to really push his buttons and try and repeat old mistakes. In which case, Six was going to rat out every single one of the scientist's dirty little secrets that he knew.

"Let it go."

Edited 2022-09-12 01:46 (UTC)

It's called ADHD, Six. All the cool kids have it. Or at least, Rich and a few others he knew had it back home. It's never been talked about much, though, so until Rich met César, he didn't really have a good name for what was going on with him. Now, though, he knows that's probably why he has such a tendency to ramble on... so much that he loses the plot somewhere along the way.

He sighs in exasperation and shakes his head.

"That's not what I meant. I'm not worried about that. I'm more impressed... you don't like César, but you go out of your way to help save his kid and a bunch of other random brats while you're at it? It... takes a lot of kindness to do something like that."

Best to dispel that notion and fast.

"I might have been ranked last, kid, but that doesn't make me 'kind'. I have lines. Not many but they're there.

"Besides, all I really did was drive the truck. I lost one of you kids, in case you forgot. Regardless, if I hadn't gone, César would have since I doubt either of his...companions...can drive stick. Or at all for that matter. César's a non-combatant. He'd be more likely to get himself and the rest of you killed."

"Eh, sounds more to me like you don't want to admit it was kind. I was being a little shit before. You had no reason to go along with everyone else. Like, every way I acted towards you was another reason why you shouldn't have cared whether I died, even if Watson and Johnny did. And it sounds like with you and César's past, there was no reason to care about whether he died either."

Rich raises an eyebrow, perhaps a bit knowing.

"But you did care, and you did help. You lost one of us, but there was no chance for you to turn around in that mess. That was an accident. Coming to get us clearly wasn't."

"It's not denial if it's the truth," Six countered. "And like I said, I have lines. I went to get you all because leaving you all there without good reason would've crossed them. Sending in César would've caused too many unacceptable casualties. That's not kindness. You were right when you called me a monster when we met."

Honestly, what was it with this kid?

"You're downplaying it with logic. You... really aren't used to people giving you compliments, huh?"

He smirks and shakes his head.

"Don't worry, I get it. If you want to think of yourself as a monster, I'd be a hypocrite if I called you out for it. I just... thought I'd say thanks, at least. I'll appreciate what you did, if you won't appreciate it yourself."

"...I take it César didn't tell you why I'm called 'Six'. Otherwise, you'd know that it's not just me thinking of myself as a monster."

Did César even know about how the ranking system worked? Six had likely told Rex at some point during the period he couldn't remember, and Rex likely would have passed on that knowledge to his brother.

"You're like... the sixth most dangerous person in your world, or something, right? Which is why you're like a secret agent or whatever."

He's very clearly lacking knowledge on what that really means for Six, besides the fact that he's powerful. Power is good when it's on the right side, right?

"Correct. And we're ranked by ruthlessness, not fighting prowess or raw strength. I was a mercenary assassin before working for the organization I met César at."

Well... yikes. So, clearly this guy isn't all good. And clearly, he has a lot of issues surrounding his worth when he's only been worth something when he's completely uncaring. But...

"If you were completely ruthless, you would have killed me the first time we met. You wouldn't have bothered with the rescue, because it wouldn't have been worth your time. Am I wrong?"

"Never said I was completely ruthless, just that I'm not as kind as you seemed to think I am."

Also, how dare you question his self-worth?

"Well, maybe not. Still don't think you're sixth most ruthless in the world, but maybe that's just me."

He shrugs. "Anyways. The important thing is I wanted to say thanks for helping me out. I owe you one... probably not a rescue, I'm shit at that, but if you need some sort of favour, you can ask me about it."

"Pray you never have to see me at my worst," Six stated bluntly. "Or if you do, pray you're not the target."

Because he did not mess around with that sort of thing.

"And you don't owe me anything. All I did was drive."

"I definitely don't want to see you at your worst, but uh, I still don't think you'd take it out on me."

He shakes his head with a bit of a grin. "It was some seriously badass driving, though, and it prevented me from being zombie food. That's worth at least a little favour, right?"

Six didn't say anything for a long moment in response to the kid's bravado, allowing the suddenly heavy, oppressive, downright dangerous silence to speak for him. The dark confidence that he didn't need to boast about his skill, that if it ever came down to a real fight, his opponent would likely die.

The silent reminder that he'd let the kid off very easy before.

After giving it time to sink in, Six turned back towards his imaginary targets, slipping into position to start again. "Do what you want, kid, but just know that I'm not keeping score."

Edited 2022-09-21 15:53 (UTC)

One of Rich's flaws is not backing down from danger when he senses it. Sure, it's a little irritating, maybe even frightening, to be considered an opponent when Rich was just trying to thank him, but... he can put up with this. For Cesar, at least. He's going to do a good thing for once if it kills him.

Which apparently, it might.

"...You're really not good at being polite, huh? We have that in common."

Six rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses.

"There's no reason for you to keep insisting on thanking me or paying me back. Move on."

"I... Okay, fine. Sorry. I thought... never mind."

He did apologize and thank him, and that's... probably all he can do. He hopes that César can convince the guy to unwind a little.

"You thought what?"

Six looked back over his shoulder, thoroughly confused.

"I don't know! Just thought if you were going to be working with César again, I should probably make an effort to like... talk to you and stuff."

Wouldn't it be awkward to avoid each other entirely when he was hanging out with Rich's dad pretty regularly?

Six allowed himself to look baffled as he tried to figure out what the kid meant.

"Why?"

"Um... well, he's kind of my dad? And I shouldn't be a jerk to my dad's friends? I don't know. You're making it sound like it was a really dumb idea, but César said you guys were sorting stuff out and helping each other out, so."

Rich takes a step back. "But it's pretty obvious you don't want me to bother doing that, so I'll just... sink into the floor and die from embarrassment now, if that's cool."

"...I think I need to explain things on my end since I'm not sure what idea César gave you about our relationship.

"We're not friends; we're former coworkers. I might have decided not to kill him over what he did to me, but that doesn't make me his friend. You're under no obligation to be polite to me to 'get along with his friends'."

"Oh... I um. That's totally fair and fine. I thought he was working with you again now? That's what he told me. So I thought, even if it was just as a coworker, that I should try to get along with you."

He sighs and rubs his forehead. "And again, I just thought you saving my ass meant I was sort of obligated to try to talk to you. But you... super don't want that and that's fair."

"It's on a case-by-case basis."

At least that was how he understood it. Might need to clear some things up with César.

"It's not that I don't want it, kid. It's just I don't see why you insist on it after I told you that you didn't owe me anything." He traced one of the planks of the wood of the deck with a toe. "What I do doesn't lend itself towards huge displays of gratitude. I'm just a more recognizable grunt on the front lines."

"I think one of the top six assassins or whatever is a little more than a grunt. But like... frankly, I don't think anyone here is that. We're all supposed to be trying to get through this the best we can together. Trying to go alone is only going to make you more miserable... and the Captain feeds off of that, so like, isn't it in our best interest to be there for each other?"

He's probably a little disjointed at this point, but really, he doesn't know how to argue that Six deserves... the same things that Rich had believed he wasn't worthy of either.

"We're all just pawns in the bigger game. Some pawns are more recognizable than others, but we're all still pawns.

"And being alone doesn't bother me. Not exactly trained to deal with large amounts of people."

"Sure, crowds suck, but... you can't just fend for yourself the whole time. I'd think that would be a little miserable."

"Nothing I'm not used to, kid."

Even long before he'd become a mercenary. He'd had to make a lot of compromises when fending for himself on the street.

"Yeah, but you don't have to be used to it here. Speaking as someone who didn't have connections to anyone back home... it's actually worth trying."

"Keeps things simple."

Relationships came with too many messy strings as he'd found out from his partnership and friendship with White Knight. Not all of them were bad, but he didn't need so many people around him. He was having to re-learn it back where he came from.

"Simple, but also really fucking dire..."

Ugh, but it's stupid of him to even try to convince this guy. He's just one young kid, and Six doesn't get that they could possibly have anything in common.

Six waited for an explanation, but it seemed like the kid was starting to get the idea that he wasn't going to be joining the "Kumbaya" circle.

"Why don't you head back to bed, kid?"

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[Closed] And of all these angry people in the world

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