epidemiology | ( closed ) and running running and running running

I'm telling you — it'll be a piece of cake.

[ it's not entirely clear how this particular juncture came to be. a phonecall here, a bout of laughter over the bounty board there... the soul-crushing realization of being broke as heck, with no viable solution at hand and — well. why not, man. why not. ]

Easiest money we'll ever make!

[ it's just standing. it's just looking hot. they can definitely look hot! look at them! lance has got that tall, dark, handsome dashing thing going on, and vaughnn is like that cute little puppy in a sweatervest you know has got to be a latent animal in bed or something—

not that lance knows, he's just assuming. from tv, you know, tv has those types all over the place!

—they're bound to make that amos guy happy just being themselves! ]

...You could smile a little though, man. I don't think that grimace is selling it as "sexy."

[ ...maybe a little bit better than themselves. ]

[ in retrospect, lance should've probably read the description of this particular bounty a little better. he'd read the title, skimmed the actual duties a little, and hopped on board the moment he realized sheriff holladay was in charge, because he remembers her from the day they arrived and he definitely wanted another chance to holla at her.

(geddit? geddit? ...yeah she didn't seem to appreciate that as much...)

anyway, the moral of the story, kids, is to read the fine print! or the actual print, period. (and maybe not hit on the person giving you the assignment...) otherwise you'll find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having a dozen or so bandits simultaneously shooting at you, while you're ~~cowering~~ taking cover behind a large rock clutching your rifle with a partner who doesn't even seem to even have a weapon on him. ]

Oh man... I really don't wanna get shot again...

[ once was more than enough, tyvm!! ]

[ it's sometime after dinnertime that shiro will find his path to the bedrooms of the desert flower saloon impeded. a firm hand will have caught him by the wrist (the... human wrist), and following that hand will find that it's attached to none other than one of his very own teammates, hunched by the side of the wall, near the stairwell that leads to both the upper and lower levels of the establishment. lance himself is crouched low, wearing an odd ensemble that seems to comprise of the black bodysuit of their pilot outfits, its boots, and just his hooded jacket from back home. a closer inspection might find one of its pockets bulging and squirming around a little...

but lance is quick to draw the attention back on himself. ]

Shiro.

[ his eyes are wide, his voice is low, and his cheeks are slightly tinged with red. ]

Did you know... there's a strip club down there...

[ even with the aid of pidge's headphones, no amount of bach's greatest hits has been able to lull him into that deep slumber the bags under his eyes have so desperately been yearning for. he's been tossing and turning for over half an hour now, a full hour past the time they'd all hunkered in for sleep. he's restless, and though he'd be quick to blame it on his lack of eyemask, his lack of moisturizer, the itchy quality of the suits he's practically been living in since arriving here — he's well aware he's not actually sure for the real reason why.

after another fruitful attempt at getting comfortable, he flops back down on his back, glaring at the dark ceiling overhead. if he listens in closely enough, he can hear the quiet sounds of breathing from pidge in her hammock overhead, and shiro curled up on the ground. carefully, he turns on his side to peek at his bedmate... wondering he's actually managed to fall asleep too... ]

Edited 2016-10-10 13:41 (UTC)

[ as much of an opportunist as lance is, even he has a hard time romanticizing an outing like this... sure, the mines were nice and dark, and definitely emphasized a certain level of privacy to the excursion.

however it's a bit more "last two people on the earth" for his liking, and definitely not in the fun way, either. ]

You know... [ his voice echoes against the rock walls as they wander further and further in. his flashlight has a routine path by now that starts from the wall on this left, lingers over the back of alice's head, to the ceiling not too far above them, then circles back around to lather, rinse, repeat. ]

When I said we should go do something fun, just the two of us, I'm not sure we wound up being on the same page....

[Even if Keith were a deep sleeper (which he isn't, unsuprisingly), he wouldn't be able to fall asleep with how much Lance is tossing and turning. Of course, there's another problem, too: Stiles' stupid comments. Keith could have overlooked how weird this whole sleeping on the same bed was if it weren't for that.

Then again, Lance opened it up. Lance got them there. Dang it, Lance!

When he senses Lance peering over, he looks at him, eyes ready and open and mouth easily formed into an unhappy scowl.]

What?

[Okay, so that was a little too loud.]

[ lance is totally not responsible at all for stiles' stupid words, from his stupid brain, where stupid dwells doing stupid things! don't lump this on him!

he flinches back reflexively, and responds in a purposeful stage whisper: ]

You're gonna wake the other two.

Oh. [A beat.] Yeah, I guess I might. [To Keith's credit, he's definitely speaking much more softly at the moment.

The funny thing is that they absolutely agree on Stiles. As far as Keith is concerned, he has a pretty stupid face, way of acting, and everything else.

On the other hand, he would be very surprised to find that Stiles and Lance don't get along, since he kinda thinks they're the same person.

(Sorry Lance. Or Stiles?)]

You know, sleeping is a good way to keep the others from waking up.

Edited 2016-10-15 23:29 (UTC)

[ Secretly, she's grateful that Lance has something other than a lantern. It makes her feel more at ease without the usage of one. She's not sure whether or not to take the lead and lingers behind him, her hand on the handle of her knife, just in case. ]

Hm?

[ She as more concerned about her task than anything else. She meets Lance's gaze with a quizzical look. ]

Well, there's always afterwards. Anyway, the quicker we finish this, the quicker we can move onto fun things.

[ not that lance would ever say no to getting a chance to hang out with lapis some more (with or without ghost friend... it's always hard to tell, and each time it gets more and more awkward to ask), but he was starting to hope that their little times together would involve a lot more bonding and a lot less...

well.

mess.

with a bored expression, he stoops down to pick up a pebble...

and idly tosses it over his shoulder. look at him go. they'll be done in no time. ]

You know with all this tech they got going on around here, you'd think they'd have built something to do all this path clearing for them...

[ why yes, lance is complaining again. but in all fairness, it's a pretty valid one, at least as far as his general complaints go. ]

[At least today ghost buddy doesn't seem to be hanging around - if only because his presence is obvious a bit further away, where he's getting to work clearing some other part of the debris.

And Lapis doesn't seem too fussed by the task either, even if she isn't the best suited for this - she's trying though, and sighs softly once she manages to push a decently-sized rock out of the way. Now about 1203845027345 more rocks to go...]

That's a good point. [Even if he is just complaining.] But I guess they've got better things to do than clean-up.

[ So this might be inevitable. Shiro had figured out the lay of the land pretty quickly, and while his interest was minimal, it's not totally unexpected that the rest of his team might show some interest.

Or that Lance was going to be interested. ]

What do you have in your pocket?

[ It's mostly a stall, because what does he even do? Cop to the fact that yes, he'd figured out about the bordello? His heart is beating harder than it should be simply from being grabbed unexpectedly, and he's focusing on keeping steady while he breathes past the urge to jump. ]

I knew. I saw it when we first got here.

[ He might as well be honest about it. There's no reason to lie. ]

[ really, shiro should just be glad that lance had gotten this misinformed in the first place. after all, a strip club is a faaaaaaaaaaaaaar cry from a bordello, and frankly if he had known it was really the latter, he probably wouldn't have even gotten as far as vocally questioning someone about it.

but as it is, what he'd overheard had not been the full story, and so he's left lingering about the entrance kind of sort of maybe possibly thinking about getting the full story.

you know.

for science. ]

It's a mouse, [ he says, about as distracted as shiro is hesitant. as if prompted, the yellow-green space mouse that shiro might recognize pops his little head out from the depths of lance's pocket, squeaking once.

lance moves on, glancing between shiro and the stairs. ]

We should.. check it out, shouldn't we? I mean — we're here to get information, right? We should look everywhere, right?

[ there is a moment in which lance actually concedes to that — makes a brief sound in the back of his throat, nods in a way that is both begrudging and accepting. maybe that's the bigger evidence that lance is lacking in some much needed rest — he's agreeing with keith way too easily. ]

I can't sleep.

[ or maybe it's this, a small but casual confession, perhaps the first and only time he has ever admitted to not being able to do something in front of keith. ]

Yeah? [ see lance perk up instantly at the thought, an offer that alice might have made all too casually, perhaps even distractedly, but one that lance latches on to with similar ease. ]

What would that be?

[ he's kind of curious to know what alice considers "fun"... ]

Like... make even more of a mess?

[ it didn't make much sense to lance, really. from what he could understand of it, the qorral needed this place, right? maybe not in the way humans needed the earth, or even the way the balmerans needed their own planet, but they still had a need for it... he didn't understand why they wouldn't just — take better care of it, if that's the case. ]

It's weird that they don't care that much, I guess.

There's so much we could be exploring! All of these missions can be very tiring, mentally and physically.

[ It's unfortunately not what Lance is thinking. Alice, as always, is preoccupied with seeing new things. ]

And seeing! This world has things here that are in my world. I want to see how similar it is.

[The fact that Lance admitted that he can't sleep doesn't sound like a confession to Keith. These moments tend to fly over his head. It would be better if they didn't, but then, he wouldn't be Keith.

After sliding a glance over to Shiro, who is most certainly sleeping, Keith sits up. He isn't going to sleep now that he knows that Lance can't sleep.]

Get some real shoes on. You don't have to put everything back on or anything. [He vaguely motions at Lance with his hand, as he doesn't think they're bound to end up in any sort of fight outside.] But I don't think we're gonna sleep if we just sit here waiting for it to happen.

Edited 2016-10-16 21:10 (UTC)

[ He probably should have?! Because Arima is pretty no nonsense when it comes to these things, rip Lance. Arima is also positioned behind said rock and he looks extremely calm about the entire thing?! Then again this isn't really much to be concerned about. Bandits, psh, he's not afraid of no stinkin' bandits. ]

Provide cover fire and I will take them out. Make sure to keep their attention.

[ Cause, you know, fighting with a weird looking broken weapon gives such great confidence in this entire thing. But Arima is really serious about what he's said and he'll begin to get up. Hope you're ready for a fire fight, Lance. ]

... I guess once they get what they need, they're gonna just leave.

[It's a sad thing to think about - how they're going to practically ruin and empty this plant, only to just abandon it. Though of course their goal is to try to stop things getting that far, but it's still not a nice thought.

Lapis pauses in her work as she sighs softly, before crouching to lift one of the bigger rocks with a huff.]

So they probably see no reason to care about it.

[ how in the hell did he let himself get talked into this?

was it alcohol? no, there's no way Lance was old enough to drink (what's the drinking age on this planet, anyway?). can't have been blackmail, because they're both Good People and they haven't known each other long enough to have dirt on the other. was it just plain old poor decision making? maybe.

—but then Lance says it. "Easiest money we'll ever make!" ah, yes. money. that's what it was. did they really want more cash that badly? apparently so. god help both of them—this is going to be a disaster. ]

I think I might be too full of regret to smile, honestly.

[ truthfully, it winds up working out that this particular moment flies right over keith's head. lance is feeling vulnerable enough having to sleep next to the guy — having this quiet admission lorded over him would have probably made him feel even worse.

anyway, he sits up out of reflex, but his movements are much slower, almost hesitant. ]

What are we doing?

[ he is both suspicious and mildly intrigued. he's used to always being the one trying to get the others to do things, particularly those 'late-at-night-when-you're-supposed-to-be-sleeping-and-not-breaking-curfew' type things. it's a little surreal to be on the receiving end of it.

especially when the other end is keith. ]

[ homie said what—? ]

H-Hang on!

[ lance may not know you that well, arima, but you're still One of Us, and that means he has enough concern to spare about you that he's reaching for your wrist, tugging you back down before you can pop out from behind the rock and get all crazy. ]

How the heck are you gonna take them out?!

[ well... strolling around can.. kind of be considered a date.... ]

What's your world like, anyway? Are you from Earth?

[ lance frowns too, though much more deeply than lapis, because lapis is Way Nicer than he is. ]

That's pretty messed up, [ he grumbles, though he tries not to sound too judgmental... it's not like the humans back on earth are any better. they're just in it for the longer run.

without thinking much, he comes over to grab the other side of the large rock with lapis, helping her lift and clear it. ]

Makes you wonder what's gonna happen to this place once we're done, you know? Like — yeah, we'll stop the mining efforts — [ the fact that they could fail doesn't even enter his mind. ] — but what then? Are the qorral going to leave? What happens to the planet if they do?

( closed ) and running running and running running

( w/ vaughnn -- sequin cowboys )

( w/ arima -- some stinkin' bandits )

( w/ shiro -- bordello blues )

( w/ keith -- blanket buddies )

( w/ alice -- the man who can't stop falling )

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

( w/ lapis --

no subject

rolls up in here, honks horn

are we going shopping for strippers.... '''''''strippers'''''''

no subject

no subject

omg i forgot the rest of the title on that starter for some reason??? come on, self

no subject

no subject

I blame overwatch for my lateness /sob

alskdflg patpats

no subject

keith????? wtf are you doing in that icon

hdu

no subject

wails