Good Cop Bad Cop: Chapter Two

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Ellie watched Shane suspiciously. Was he trying to teach her things again? Hmm.

"True." Asher smiled slightly. "Oh well, whatever their motivations are, carrying them is good practice. Carrying people is nothing like carrying boxes." He nodded sensibly.

Kay looked amused. [I would imagine not, no. I don't think i've really carried many people, everyone's always bigger than me so it's not really very practical. Plus if you have access to stretchers or gurneys you just don't bother. ]

"Stretchers and gurneys are wonderful. It seems like they always go missing during emergencies though," Asher said. "It's very unfortunate."

[Another thing to add to Matt's stockpile then. We should write a list.] Kay smiled. [Make some actual use of his ability for once. Store things other than beer and junk]

"Let's go find somewhere comfortable and write a list," Asher said, looking amused. "We can use it to go shopping for supplies to give to Matt sometime."

Kay nodded in agreement and lead the way to one of the empty rec rooms. [Such an incredible ability, it really is so wasteful he's never used it for anything actually practical. He just steals things and stocks up on alchohol] Kay rolled his eyes.

"Well using his storage space for fun is good I guess, well not the stealing part, but the alcohol part, maybe," Asher said. He fished in his pockets for a pen and some paper, Kay needed the tablet so they might as well write on something else. "His storage will be far better with a generator, some food, and a stretcher."

Kay nodded. [Rations, first aid supplies just in case. ] Kay sat down and tapped the edge of the tablet in thought. [Blankets]

Asher sat down as well, and started writing busily. "A few of those battery-powered lanterns would be good, a lighter if he doesn't have one, candles, firewood." He thought, "Water filters."

Kay nodded. [Torches in general would be helpful. A tool kit? ] He wracked his memory for survival skills, they'd all been taught basic survival, but how much of it any of them remembered was another matter. [Flares? ]

Asher nodded and write those down. "Board games, thick gloves, breathing masks," he said. He smiled at Kay. Making important, serious lists was something he found oddly entertaining.

Kay smiled back, this felt productive and being productive was a good thing. [Weapons.] he nodded. [paper and pen for me]

"Yes, that's a good idea," Asher agreed. He wrote that down. "Toothbrushes and toothpaste in case we get stranded for a long time," he said, "organic teeth get horrible quickly."

Kay looked amused, that was an odd priority. He nodded though. [Now we just have to convince him to hang onto everything. Shouldn't be too difficult, just bet him he can't fit this huge pile of stuff in his pockets.] He smiled broadly.

"Sounds like a good plan," Asher said. "I'm sure he'll think it's a sensible idea anyway."

Kay looked amused [Sense and my dear brother don't exactly go hand in hand.]

Asher smiled softly. "He likes to goof off, but he also cares a lot about his friends and family. You never know, maybe he'll listen."

Kay shrugged. [You never do know with him. I'm sure we can convince him in any event. ] He reached out a hand for the list [I'll transcribe this onto the tablet.]

Asher smiled and handed it over. "I think the camera app can identify text and create a file," he said, "Might save some time."

Kay nodded and took a picture of the note for later.


--timeskip for megapost of DOOM. About a week. A few days before reaching Guild--

It had been about a week, Vicky was still sulking and Esk was still not giving a shit.
Him not apparently caring only made Vicky more annoyed and upset with him, and so it continued.

She thought he'd crack, that his libido would outweigh his ego and he'd come looking for her to patch things up.  
He didn't.
He just drew a lot, drank a lot and figured when she'd decided to stop acting like a crazy person she'd come find him.

He knew so very little about women and Vicky knew so very little about him.

Had he not been so involved perhaps Esk would have been able to see what was going on, maybe he'd understand why not talking to her was the absolute worst thing he could do, but he was in too deep to be able to step back and judge things impartially. His perceptions were clouded by his own self doubt and low self esteem coupled with a genuine complete misunderstanding of what their relationship really WAS.

Things were tense between them, that much was obvious to anyone observing. They barely spoke a word to one another unless they had to and about the only time they were ever near one another was mealtimes.

Eventually Acus and likely everyone else too was just sick of it.
But the Captain had a plan.
It was a terribly simple one. If they weren't going to talk, they had to be forced into it.

He summoned Esk to the Silver Devil to discuss room allocations and his continued employment.
He summoned Vicky to have a chat.

Esk was the more difficult one to convince, as he was still certain the captain wanted to throw him out an airlock. He was right, Acus did, but that didn't mean he was going to. Well, not until he had no other choice.

They both arrived in the room Acus had set aside for precisely this purpose.
Vicky arrived first and sighed. “Acus, what do you want?” He wasn't here.

Esk arrived shortly after and groaned when he saw Vicky. “Oh for fuck's sake, this bullshit?”

The door behind them slammed shut and latched locked with a loud click.

Esk sighed.

Vicky rolled her eyes. “looks like the captain got sick of it too.” She picked up the note he'd left.

“What the fuck does he care? “ Esk spat and kicked the door out of spite. Damn that Avian was stealthy.

Vicky sat down in a chair and shook her head, reading the message. “He won't let us out till we talk.”

“What business is it of his?” Esk retorted in annoyance.

“We still gotta work together. “ Vicky looked at him. “Just, sit down. Tell me the truth, what happened with Dawn?”

“Fuck Vicky, you really think i'm gonna take advantage of a drunk girl? What do you think I am?!” Esk glared.

Vicky shook her head. “not take advantage no. But.. i'm not blind, I see the way she looks at you.”

Esk stared at her. “You're fucking delusional is what you are. “

“You really don't see it do you?”

“See WHAT?” Esk demanded.

Vicky sighed. “Nevermind. Not like you can touch her anyway... “

“Exactly!” Esk paced, trying to figure out a way to jimmy the door.

Vicky snorted.

Esk stopped and turned to look at her. “what?”

“you never deny it. It's always I can't, never I don't want to. “

Esk blinked, he honestly hadn't noticed. He shook his head, immediately getting defensive. “What does it matter? Even if I said to you I had no interest it's not like you'd believe me anyway. “ He snapped.

Vicky sighed. She looked hurt and averted her gaze. “What are we?” She asked at last.

“what?” Esk didn't understand the question.

“Us, this... relationship or whatever you want to call it. What IS it?”

Esk frowned. “What are you talking about? You know what this is, sex and someone to cling to in the dark boredom of night. “

Vicky looked at the floor, nodding slowly. Yes, she'd expected that.

Esk stared at her. “What?” A horrible thought occurred to him. “Oh shit Vicky, don't tell me you want to talk about feelings. You know I can't do mushy bullshit.”

Talking had never been something they were good at, Esk was just too guarded and unwilling to open up. He'd been right months ago when he'd suggested they just shouldn't try to have meaningful conversations, they never ended well.

Vicky looked up, eyes narrowing. “I don't want mushy bullshit!” She snapped.

“Then what the fuck DO you want?” Esk was exasperated and frustrated. “Why are you being such a bitch? You haven't spoken to me in a week because I what? I sat and stopped a member of our crew from hurting herself and made sure she got back to her room safely? I thought you wanted me to pretend like I gave a shit about people, didn't you say I should try to make friends and let people in? Dawn wasn't in a sound state and fuck Vicky, I know too well what people in that frame of mind are capable of. I didn't want to have to clean up that mess. What was I supposed to do? Just leave her? Why are you even pissed off? You KNOW I can't do anything and besides which, this.. this THING we have? It's not even a relationship, so why do you get any say in who I spend my time with and what I do?!”

Vicky growled. “You are SUCH an asshole!”

“I thought we'd already established this!” Esk threw his hands up. “this is fucking stupid.” He went back to the door. “Acus, open the damn door!” He yelled.

There was no answer.

Vicky got to her feet. “he won't let us out till we've resolved this.”

“What is there to resolve?!” Esk turned to glower at her.

Vicky tensed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in irritation. “Alright, i'll put it to you straight.”

“please DO, because I swear i'm going to shoot myself in the fucking head if I have to keep playing these stupid games with you people.”

"Esk, as much as I know this is a cliché I have...feelings for you." Vicky cringed at the words, truthful or not that utterly sounded like a line from a Shardian soap Opera. "That's why I've been bitchy, because I wanted to know if you have at least the remotely same feelings... and.. I suppose... I was sort of jealous."

Esk stared at her. “what?”

Vicky sighed. “yeah... thought as much. It was only ever about sex for you wasn't it?”

“What else would it be? “ Esk stared at her, bewildered and annoyed. She wasn't making any damn sense.

“I'm not toying with you, i'm not playing a game Esk, I always fall for assholes and they always pull this shit.” She kicked a chair aside a little too hard, it shattered into pieces.

Esk watched her, he didn't know what to say or what to make of this. He was utterly and completely confused.

She took a deep breath, resting her forehead on the opposite wall. "I told you, you can either take it or leave it. I'm the moron that always ends up picking the assholes... It my fault falling for old habits." She closed her eyes, cyborg or not she had feelings. Right now she was hurting badly. She focused on steady breathing to control the tears, resisting the desire to bang her head into the wall.

Esk frowned, he didn't really know what to make of all this. He half expected her to suddenly turn around and yell gotcha or something. Lost for words, he just gawped at her and the broken chair. An uncomfortable silence settled around them.

“Say SOMETHING!” She snapped, she couldn't bring herself to look at him.

“I don't have anything to say.” Esk told her flatly.

Vicky closed her eyes and grit her teeth.

“I'm.. sorry?” Esk tried, he didn't sound at all sincere.

Vicky scoffed. “no you aren't.”

“Well no right now i'm just really damn confused. “

Vicky nodded. “I wanted more Esk, more than just sex, more than just a distraction.”

Esk stared at her. “I can't give you that.” He told her honestly.

“Yeah... I know.” Vicky shook her head.

She turned around finally, her back to the wall she slid down into sitting position, forcing herself to look at him. "Saw that one coming, but stupid me, I refused to listen to common damn sense..." She said softly. Her heart hurt, but this wasn't the first time. Vicky closed her eyes, her pride fighting the threatening tears. One or two escaped, trickling down her cheek.

The lock on the door unlatched with a soft click.

Esk hesitated, glancing to the door. “What... what do we do now?” He asked her, his tone softening ever so slightly.

"You can do whatever." She said, trying to ignore the cracking in her voice, "you're a free person the last I checked. Acus, asshole he is will let you probably stick around. We need the extra muscle and i'm not always gonna be around with my side jobs.... " Side jobs, at this point she was sifting through the guild data banks for any target, anything or anyone to take her frustration out on.
She looked up, noticing the look of tense worry on Esk's face. “You may be a complete ass but you're not totally useless. And... the others seem to actually like you.”

“They tolerate me, there's a difference.” Esk told her flatly.

“You're so fucking dense.” Vicky told him.

He glared.

Vicky shook her head and went back to sifting through jobs.

Esk looked back at the door again. “Are you gonna be alright?” He asked dully, even when being sincere he struggled with tone.

Vicky nodded. “i'll be fine. “ She lied. "It's not my first break up, nor will it be the last...” She muttered quietly “I can't even get drunk to drown my pain."

Esk frowned. “Don't do anything stupid.”

She scoffed. “you're not worth that much Esk.”

“Good.” He nodded and left, getting off that damn ship as quickly as he could and finding somewhere nice and safe and quiet well away from angry captains and airlocks and the weapons cache where he could sit and collect his thoughts.
What the hell had just happened?

Vicky sighed and stood, walking to the door she paused.

"How long are you going to be gone?" Acus appeared, seeing the look in her eyes.

"Probably a few weeks...we'll see." She shrugged, struggling to keep her emotions in control until she found seclusion. "I'll be in touch."

She walked off in a stoic manner one of which Acus knew was a bitter lie.

Acus sighed, shook his head, and went back to his room. He knew there was no point arguing with her. she needed space, she'd get  her space.
But now they were a crewman short.