Open Post

[liesdontfindyou]

 

edit by cinderfell on tumblr

AUs:

• Connie survives Longshore and either a) is the CT at Sandtrap b) ends up in Blood Gulch c) disappears until another point in time, canon event related or not.
• Connie never defects from Project Freelancer.

Comments

[a_shadow]

"Nah, you're right, you couldn't have known how I'd react," she says. "Seeing everything...all the evidence...it unlocked something in me. But you didn't know if that would happen."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I hoped it would," Connie says. "I came close, a couple of times, to walking up to you and telling you, because you deserved to know. You deserved to find out from a friendly face. Hence..."

She gestures vaguely at where dog-tags would hang around her neck.

"I can't imagine what it was like for you, to actually see it, of course."

[a_shadow]

"I doubt you could, yeah," she says, muttering again. She doesn't intend to elaborate any further on that, though, at least at this time. The whole thing has left her with a drifting feeling, unmoored in her own time and space. "Thank you for doing it. It was brave."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I owed it to you to try. I owed it to everyone to... do all of this." That's what she's been telling herself. Once she saw what was going on, she didn't have any choice but to do something.

It's been weighing heavily on her and some of that weight is still visible in the way she holds herself.

[a_shadow]

"You didn't owe me," Tex says. "The Director is the one who owed this."

She draws back a half step, balling a fist. She cares for him, she can't deny it within herself, but he's being an incredible asshole and she wants him to be punished somehow. Not by the law. By herself.

[liesdontfindyou]

"We'll get him. One way or another, we'll... we'll do something," Connie says, sounding a little surer with every word.

She starts to pick at her hand, but stops herself this time.

"First obstacle is this mission. I don't suppose you know if you're on the roster, the way you usually are? They've locked down those files tighter since they started noticing my... poking around."

[a_shadow]

"I am," she says. She'd received the mission briefing earlier, when they thought they were going to be going ahead with it. "Separately from everyone else, as usual."

[liesdontfindyou]

"As usual," Connie says, shaking her head slightly. She has a thought, but whether that thought is feasible is another matter entirely. "How able would you be to... stray off your intended orders, a little?"

[a_shadow]

"You really think he'd do anything about it?"

The question is asked with a bitter edge to her tone. She can do whatever she wants.

[liesdontfindyou]

Connie holds her hands up a little.

"Just checking. I don't know the length's he'll go to. But... that's good," she says, "because my next idea was that we rendezvous out in the scrapyard and you come with me. Lot harder for my contact to try and make me leave with him if I have someone with me, and if I'm with another agent... I look less like I just took off to the Project and more like I was acting in their interests."

[a_shadow]

Tex nods slowly, thinking.

"I think that would work," she says. "We'll have to make it as quick as possible, though."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I can do quick. If he starts acting up, you have my express permission to threaten him so we can make a quick exit," Connie says, and there's almost a hint of a joke in her voice. "He could do with a little reigning in."

[a_shadow]

Tex snickers. "One of those, huh."

She glances toward the door.

"We probably better get back to our usual routines. We don't really want them to notice this is happening."

[liesdontfindyou]

"Yeah, one of those," she says with a quiet laugh. "Right, I should uh, I should probably try and get in what actual sleep I can. I'm... usually awake around the time you came to me tonight," sleep has been difficult to come by for a while, "so whenever we need to talk, feel free to come around."

[a_shadow]

"All right." Tex nods, steps back to let Connie leave the room ahead of her, and then heads to her room.

She remembers now what happens when she ends up in there—she connects herself to the port in the wall and sets herself on sleep mode. She's resting and recharging, but not in the way a human would. From now on, she's not going to forget this is what happens. She's not going to end up remembering unstrapping her armor, taking a shower, and snuggling down in bed. She doesn't even know how those memories replace themselves in her head. But that programming is broken now.

[liesdontfindyou]

Connie falls back into her bed with a thump that she's surprised doesn't wake the still heavily sleeping South on the other side of the room.

Despite how drained she is, there's a new energy in her; after days of feeling like she was here on borrowed time, she, for the first time, has an ally on board. A gamble finally payed off and now, there's a plan that might actually work.

It's the most alive she's felt in months.