piper90 | [Locked to New Hires]

Look, I'm not objecting, I just can't figure out how this even tolerable for you.

Honey, you still got no idea about what's tolerable to me.

That's why I'm saying something. What's your full plan and where do you want your backup posted? I don't trust that guy.

I know you don't, so I'll just ask you to trust me and trust that I don't this kind of thing many a time in my life.

So far the plan is mostly just to get Planker alone and wing it, which I know ain't encouraging to you, but it's a rough draft.

I trust you plenty. [he trusts that Dan's impulses aren't always self-preserving.] Are you actually on the roof right now?

[rhetorical question. Of course he can see Dan's on the roof. And Dan can see from the video that Bunny is not quite sprinting, but running along at a very fast clip to get to the roof himself.]

Just started my second, [Dan says, holding up a freshly lit cigarette and waiting for Bunny up top.] Careful, the butterflies and I got a truce but it's uneasy.

I'll sit upwind.

[Bunny is well aware of how to navigate an uneasy truce with predatory creatures that outweigh him, but usually he navigates that by not being in that situation if possible.

He creeps out onto the roof, a wary eye on the butterflies, his roughly carved oak branch club in-paw, to crouch beside Dan.]

Nice weather, for swooping season.

The fresh breeze of going three miles an hour sure does a wonder for the humidity, too. [Dan laughs, because, in fact it does not. Of course it doesn't. He sits back against the rail, swinging his heels and greeting Bunny with a warm smile, thinking if this weren't the Rig, if Bunny could shift forms now and they wouldn't get caught, how quickly he'd be pulling Bunny into an embrace and sucking his tongue.

They are on the Rig, so he just scoots over so he can idly stroke Bunny's shoulder while they talk.]

[it's not that Bunny didn't have that same thought, it's that he's also keeping an eye on aerial predators and that would kill his interest in setting a mood even if he shifted to have any. He does tuck Dan up under his arm though, snuggling Dan close while they're not likely to be walked in on.]

I saw you joking to Stacia. What's the actual likelihood he'll hurt you if he gets the chance?

[Right to the point. Dan knows that one of the consequences of being in a relationship is that "who cares?" can't be a good enough answer on that anymore, but it's the answer he's basing his decisionmaking on.]

He'll just make me do an extra hard Planker Room the next day. Ain't nothing he can throw at me I wouldn't prefer over having to do another one of these memory swapping days again.

[ohhhhhh there it is.

Bunny takes his eyes off the butterflies just long enough to press his nose to Dan's scalp.]

Saw anything that stuck particularly hard?

[Dan would shake his head, but he doesn't want to disrupt Bunny's nose kissing to his temple.]

No, nothing in particular. It's just the fact of it happening at all, and it being the third time. I've been here around a year, and ain't no one really done anything to get us out of this situation. And it ain't a tolerable situation, being under the Jorg's control.

[He tilts his head just enough to breathe a plume of smoke away from Bunny without losing that bond of contact.]

So, I figured someone might could try to do something, and that someone might could be me.

. . . And it feels better to do something awful than do nothing.

[Like cutting your own arm off to escape a trap, understandable, but hardly tolerable when Dan honeypotting a sadistic man won't guarantee their freedom from the trap, or even the pain of Planker's safe-for-work sadism.

Bunny takes a deep breath, considering. He's never had to think about this sort of scenario before.]

What's the best outcome here? You get him compromised, you get every answer you want, you get him in a vulnerable position - a lot of people are eager to see the man dead.

[he's . . . . Carefully not saying he's not one of them.]

What would make it worth it?

Bunny, I ain't about to recklessly hand information over to people so they can act out a murder on my facilitating. [Dan wishes he had trust that the rest of the Hires wouldn't take things further than he, personally, would, but he knows rather than even suspects that they would.]

Folks have real ideas they can build on on this wild one. Things about being able to get the collars around our spines gone. Best case scenario is I put up with some unorthodox excitement and get us something we need to eventually not have to worry about having our lives zapped away.

[He knows Bunny hates it and can see right through him.] We won't know if there's anything worth barking up over Planker's tree until I try it.

What ideas? Lay em out for me.

[Not so he can dismiss them - maybe so he can dismiss them. Dan can't deflect to Bunny that it doesn't matter or get around the point with charming deflections anymore.]

Besides, something does have to be done about Planker. I'm not saying murder is my first choice for it, but he is going to get someone maimed if he keeps on being able to persist like he is, and you're set on getting things to use against him. How are we going to use it?

[surely breaking both his legs isn't totally off the table.]

And do you really expect anyone not to break in if he hurts you?

[because in his mind there's no chance Planker's going to turn Dan down. He'd be stupid to take Dan's offer in the context of his position, but Planker has never struck him as smarter than more entitled, and Dan is very, very cute.]

Stacia's got some kind of device that can let her read Planker's memories, so and folks here have good ideas for information we could get that don't lead directly to murdering the guy. Maybe it's something that gets him shuffled out of a position of authority and Lubitsch can take over. Or something that tells us who to talk to next to get these collars disabled. Lonestar's got a plan to identify tech weaknesses so we could get our weapons back and get out of here, too.

[Dan blows a smoke ring, swinging his foot, animate with restlessness. he knows that getting off this Rig is likely to be violent, more violent than he's comfortable with, especially given the others hires and where they've shown themselves to fall on the vengeance versus forgiveness spectrum. Anything that happens following this can be followed back upstream to him.]

I'm expecting folks to respect that I know what I'm capable of handling, and leaving it to me unless I ask for a rescue. I promise you I ain't looking to go into a room with him and never come out. [He gives Bunny's paw a squeeze.] Swear.

[He and Bunny haven't really discussed how wildly different their relationships with sexual intimacy are. He knows Bunny would be upset to realize just how comfortable Dan is with this entire idea.]

Stacia's key? [Bunny perks up significantly at the reminder.] That's a great idea.

[if Dan had any concerns Bunny would have ethical problems with invading a person's mind . . . That person would have to not be an active abuser who could very well kill one of the kids on the team and, at minimum, has already emotionally abused a few.

Planker makes his bed every day.]

Aside from the part where I don't want her to have to see the inside of his brain. Steal something from him, take a compromising photo, get him fired if you can, but if you can avoid making yourself that vulnerable, please -

[He doesn't want to say that all these things would be worth Dan using his sexuality to obtain, but they are in dire straights, and Dan does have certain skills and tolerances that most people don't. Dan also has a willingness to take on hurt beyond what is safe or necessarily sane and these things can all be true at the same time.

Bunny squeezes Dan's hand back at the reassurance, glad for the slight open-air breeze that makes it slightly more tolerable to keep his fur coat on while hugging Dan to his side.]

I believe you. I trust you. Planker, on the other hand -

[that's one heck of an oversized out of control factor.]

Edited 2021-04-17 01:39 (UTC)

I'll do my best to keep everything as hands-off from him as possible. [Which is hard to say when the plan, right now, is to get Planker so physically entwined and distracted with Dan's mouth and hands that Stacia has a chance to swoop in and use the key. He gives Bunny a smile that's a little sad in its understanding, because he knows what Bunny's thinking, and he knows that any time he volunteers to go off and do something risky he'll be putting Bunny through iterations of this anxiety.] I don't think I'll be losing no sleep if me and Plankie don't seal the deal.

[They live dangerous lives, especially here on the Rig, and Dan somewhat defensively feels that, at the end of the day, no matter how much he loves Bunny, it's his decision and his alone whether he risks his safety. He can consider Bunny's opinion, but the final call will stay his. It has to.]

[that it's Dan's ultimate call is never out of the question, but that is only manageable because Bunny knows Dan takes his opinion seriously.

For now he snuggles Dan as close as the combination of unpleasant heat and fur will allow, which isn't close as either of them would like.]

Bringing Stacia into this is a whole other issue. Who's watching her back?

[how far does Dan really expect Bunny to stay away during this operation, now that two people he cares about are in the line of fire?]

[Dan kills his cigarette and, because Bunny's around and likely has feelings about casual littering, doesn't just flick the butt off over the railing. When he's sure the spark's been quenched he tucks it into his pocket.]

If I have my way, she won't be there to need her back watched and I'll be doing it myself with her key, but I think she wants to do it herself. So I ain't figured that out yet, and honestly thought I'd have her make more of the decision on that. Since it'd have to be someone she trusts.

[Given how deeply invested he is, Bunny hopes she'll reach out to him. He even checks his communicator in vain for a private message, but there's none yet.]

What about you, who do you trust to watch her back? Assuming you're occupied?

[this is devolving into just an excuse to make conversation, but there is a list outside of the two of them that Bunny is running through in his mind. Saturday and Sam are at the top. Kenzie is on it too, but with her rage so hair trigger and Stacia's importance to her, Bunny doesn't want to put her at the top of the list any more than he wants to take her off it.]

I'm not sure, aside from you. [Dan isn't completely honest enough to say that he'd prefer it not be Bunny, not because he doesn't trust Bunny to do the right thing, but because he suspects Bunny will pull the plug on Dan getting himself into trouble way earlier than Dan would, and backing up Stacia gives Bunny the opportunity for that.] Sam, maybe. Not Kenzie, even if Stacia wants her, that'll only end in bloodshed. I got my concerns about Saturday, too.

[Dan bites his knuckle as he thinks, leaning into Bunny's hair even though it sticks to his sweaty cheek.]

Everyone here's so willing to turn it into a chance to get payback on the guy. I want him out of commission, but I don't want him or no one else getting hurt unless it's necessary.

[And that's left Dan feeling alienated - even from Bunny, right now, whom he knows would hesitate far less to attack Planker than Dan would. Dan isn't, he reminds himself, opposed to violence. He's opposed to unnecessary violence, and this is a reminder that what he considers 'necessary' remains far more conservative than anyone else's here.

This isn't his wheelhouse. Rebellion, coordination, tactics - Dan's used to a much more narrow focus in his work, where the only moving pieces are him and a small, small team that he usually resents for having to cooperate with at all, and usually only a single foe that half the time isn't even capable of complex thought, depending on what he's hunting. His skills are made for small-scale, uncomplicated danger; his emotional framework is too.

He sighs deep.]

Honestly, Bunny, I ain't never been so uncertain about whether I'm doing the rights things as I am on the Rig. I just know I can't sit here waiting for the Jorg to hurt one of the kids here again or force us into slaughtering a town or ripping our pasts open again.

I don't want payback.

[at least they're on the same page about that. Revenge doesn't actually settle anything. It doesn't undo past damage, even if it prevents future. It's a distraction.]

Look, I'm at a bit of a loss too. [He would never voice this if it wasn't to Dan, in the safe space of the complete emotional intimacy they've built for each other.] This has gone on a lot longer than I thought it would and we aren't closer now to getting free than we were a year ago. I'm not happy about it either.

[which means balancing not being happy about this plan.]

Edited 2021-04-17 04:52 (UTC)

[He gives Bunny a quick kiss on the cheek.] I know you don't. It's one of your eighty best qualities.

[He's grateful whenever Bunny levels with him like this, is willing to lean on him a little, lets the support shift to something mutual. He knows he's one of the few people Bunny's willing to be vulnerable with like this, that laying Bunny's burdens down on a mortal is difficult for him. But he wants to see Dan as an equal, and so he lets Dan carry some of the weight.]

It's lasted long enough to get us on a mission for six weeks together, and that's exactly as long as it needs to have lasted, not a second more. Now it's...this ain't how I'm used to working or how I'd choose to, not by a long shot. All my instincts, all my experience, I can't rely on none of it here. Are you in the same boat?

[while Dan has been talking about instincts, Bunny has been tensing up beneath him, gripping his club, eyes on the sky as one of the butterflies drops in on them.

Bunny jumps up, yelling, fur on end, flailing the club just enough to make it clear to the butterfly that he and Dan aren't worth the effort. It swirls off, and Bunny crouches beside Dan again, pulling him in for another half-hug.]

I'd say most of my instincts are at a loss. [it's a little joking, as he pulls Dan to his side. His attachment to Dan is the only good thing that this situation produced, and it certainly didn't do it on purpose.]

If this doesn't work - if we need a next step - maybe it's time to see if we can start stealing some of these things from folks other than Planker. We still have some tools for breaking in to places, and I've got a face only a handful of cogs recognize.

[breaking into places is risky, and will only get more so when Planker is stolen from, but they really have been here exactly long enough.]

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hallelujahjunction - 2021-04-17 07:01 (UTC) - Expand

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bringinghopewithme - 2021-04-17 07:21 (UTC) - Expand

[Locked to New Hires]

[Locked to Dan]

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