(closed)

[puppydogeyes]

CHARACTERS: Taylor "Tyke" Kee (puppydogeyes) & Thomas "Durham" Sutton (heartbreaking)
LOCATION: Oxygen Garden.
WARNINGS: Swearing.
SUMMARY: A random encounter between two people from very different places, cue massive culture shock.


[It isn't the first time Taylor's had Gingersnap out of her room since returning from the maze. She's been careful to take the dog out, carry her around the corridors a little, give her some stimulation even if she wasn't allowed to get down and try to walk anywhere. It was important to keep her still, so her legs healed properly, and where a normal dog owner might have needed to keep her under a crate for that, Taylor only needed to keep a command of stillness on her. It still left something of a strain on her, having to keep control in place for so long when usually her dogs were well-trained enough to only need suggestion. There's relief in having Gingersnap's casts come off - knowing she'd healed well, that she'd be back to herself soon, and that Taylor no longer needed to keep that kind of constant concentration.

It leaves her feeling a lot lighter as she takes Gingersnap down to the Oxygen Garden, letting Windsor and Chubbs run off freely to play around the space - so many people had gone down to the station, it should be quiet enough to let them have a little time. Taylor can focus on Gingersnap for the moment, setting her down carefully on her feet, making sure she keeps her balance before taking a few steps away. Several weeks in casts, Gingersnap's muscles were underused, out of shape in general. She needed exercise, gentle and done in careful stages, to build her back up again. Taylor crouches down and starts encouraging the dog towards her, hands outstretched, voice steady and low, overlaid with reassurances from her pathos. Gingersnap starts to take a few wavering, nervous steps towards her, and Taylor smiles.]

Come on girl, that's it. You can do it.

Comments

[puppydogeyes]

[Something about the guy's reaction makes Taylor frown. Like he'd been expecting her answer, fishing for it so he could continue with whatever he'd wanted to say in the first place. She didn't like it when people did that, played headgames with her - she had enough of it, back at the Academy. Girls that were as manipulative as others were outright violent. It sets her back up, chin lifting and gaze hard.]

I know he's been here a lot fucking longer than you.

[Truth was she didn't know that much about Oxford. But he'd been first wave, before he was fifth. He'd been through most of the same shit as her on the ship, even if they hadn't gone through it together. She wouldn't even say she liked him, but he was familiar, more familiar than this Austen reject, and maybe there was a grain of loyalty in that.]

[heartbreaking]

[ She talks like a boy - and a naval boy at that - but Durham takes it in his stride; he's always rather liked arguments, and although back-biting from a woman is wholly unexpected he grimly reminds himself that he isn't to allow anything on board to shock him any more. He clasps his hands in the small of his back, a passive-aggressive affirmation of politeness and propriety as he raises his eyebrows. ]

Yes. Long enough for him to entrust you with a valuable operative name, it would seem.

[ He glances aside, feigning disinterest as he examines their surroundings with an idle eye. ]

There's no reason for operatives to maintain secrecy whilst on board, of course. [ Dryly, he adds: ] What a relief it will be to live a life without fear of public exposure and condemnation...

[puppydogeyes]

[Politeness and feigned disinterest, and it just riles Taylor up more. Bared teeth and aggression in the face of someone who seemed utterly calm, unconcerned - it had been how Pinset had dealt with her, a lot, when it wasn't cold, controlled fury. What he says only sets a chord of confusion through it, but she wrestles it away. The idea Oxford might be a codename isn't that much of a step, with it being a city like that. And she'd be a hypocrite if she judged him for that.]

You think any of that is going to bother me? Shittons of people on this ship. We've all got lives and secrets. [She had her own, used her own codename, had her own training and pathos hidden behind it. People knew pieces of it, people she trusted, but not beyond that. Oxford likely knew as little about her as she did about him.] As long as it's not got some fucked up plot to start gutting people, that kind of shit is the least of our worries.

[heartbreaking]

Doesn't it bother you? To have a man capable of such a peculiar feat so inescapably present... [ Durham shrugs, brow creasing in distaste. ] I have never cared for Oxfords. They have the peculiar quality of knowing too much and yet declaring so little. It's nothing but slyness; I don't care for it.

[ Not that he isn't terribly sly himself. Not that being sly, as he calls it, isn't precisely the job description of both Oxford and his chosen trades. Not that he hasn't lived a duplicitous little double life of his own, betraying colleagues, king and country when the time called for it. Not that he didn't lure his own dear friend to a horrifying fate under false pretenses. And all of this is in the name of his ideals - a little fact that Durham believes sets him completely apart from any given Oxford. Justification. ]

I am quite sure that 'gutting people' would not be an Oxford's style. I suppose the only gutting you might fear from him is one that would strip your sanity from your presence of mind. [ He snorts mirthlessly. ] I do not know which I would prefer.

[puppydogeyes]

[There were things about Oxford that bothered Taylor. Mostly his way of talking, his priorities. She couldn't see the point of staying attached to things like appearance when they were on a goddamn spaceship, but then, when Oxford had let that slip - she'd seen it, that day with the cello - it didn't feel right at all. She'd never assumed that was all there was to him, because he didn't seem shallow like that. A peculiar feat - that sounds too much like herself, too much like a pathos, and then the guy goes on to talk about minds and the tension in Taylor's back twists in a different direction.]

You've got a point to make, so fucking make it. [There might be a more uncertain edge to her frown, but she still didn't like how this guy was talking. Clearly he knew Oxford, somehow, and Taylor didn't know how when they were obviously from different places. If he was trying to get her involved in some sort of grudge, she wasn't interested.] Stop dancing around like I'm going to follow your lead.