07-19-2024, 09:56 PM
== La Telenovela ==
== C's Secret Stash ==
It felt like a confession, her admission that she had always intended to bear the consequences of the mission but she doubted it came as much of a surprise to anyone, much less Nathan. In fact, wasn't that what Ben had been trying to pre-empt with his confession? Her falling on a sword that he didn't feel was truly hers to claim.
Nathan seemed to understand this too, as well as the source of her deep frustration. He voiced it almost immediately without a second of hesitation, confirming her own realization that there was no fixing this mess and no saving Ben.
Her lips almost quirked into a tiny grin when Nathan let a "y'all" slip but it was lost just as quickly as his actual statement registered. Instead of dwelling on the lingering suggestion that they'd never been meant to survive Parhelia, she poured herself some more whiskey and offered some more to Nathan before setting the bottle down.
“...and I wish I could lie to you now, but you’d see right through it even if I did. But there isn’t much you can do for Ben, except for maybe softening the blow. Get someone to stay the proverbial axe. But I can’t see them letting this go. Not without someone taking the fall, and even then, they might just be trying to collect careers at this point.”
Tyra had leaned back, the glass resting on her knee as she watched Nathan, weighing his words carefully. She had to wonder when Nathan had gotten so wise and perceptive, shaking that blinding idealism for something more pragmatic. Oh, he'd made leaps and bounds under her watchful eye but he had grown into a responsible and capable officer once given the chance to leave the nest. And while this hurt on so many levels, she couldn't ignore that little bit of warm pride blossoming under her chest bone as she regarded what might as well have been prodigal son.
His commentary on both collecting careers and shaking spiders webs echoed her own suspicions, not that she had any illusions that she wasn't already in the spider's web. She didn't know what exactly she had done to end up in someone's crosshairs but all of the pieces of the puzzle seemed to add up to that conclusion. Or maybe their method of survival had merely hit a sore spot but there was something about the initial orders that seemed off in hindsight.
“I know Ben falling on the sword wasn’t in your plans. In fact, it was the opposite of what you wanted, because you were planning on that being your last act if y’all made it back. What is done is done now though. You’ve got to fight for yourself now. Because there is something else in all of this mess. Something that doesn’t add up. I wasn’t even a part of all this, and I can smell the rot that is covering everything about whatever it was you were all sent to do.”
She closed her eyes at those words, taking a sip of whiskey as if the burn would wash away the bitter taste brought on by the idea. Oh, the thought had crossed her mind during and after Parhelia but her career, filled episodes of conspiracy, paranoia and distrust, had bred her to see shadows where there weren't any. She had enough self-awareness to realize this but Nathan… Nathan didn't have two decades of terrible HQ decisions and questionable orders to build off of. If Nathan saw this as something other than a colossal cluster of ineptitude at the highest level…
“I think you should fight. Dig yourself out of this hole first with everything you've got. And then, I think you need to figure out who stuck you under the bus to begin with; to make what Ben did worth more than just being the shield.”
The whiskey swirled in her glass as she considered his statement. Wasn't that why she had stormed down to the brig? To fight for Ben, to find out her odds of saving him? Was she so Hell bent on falling on that sword that she hadn't really considered fighting for herself? If she was going to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, she'd need to put up a fight but it needed to be strategic and careful. She wasn't a political player by any stretch of the imagination but she was no stranger to them. There were connections that she possessed on numerous fronts that would likely become very useful in the coming days.
“Tell me what I can do, and I’ll do it.”
His words were earnest and honest and she felt her heart squeeze just a little at the offer. And yet, she didn't answer immediately, trying to concoct some sort of plan that didn't involve dragging Nathan headfirst into this mess anymore than he had been by Pomn.
"I can't…" she started to say, blue eyes watching him over the rim of her glass before she swallowed hard. Why was it so hard to swallow her pride and accept help from an unlikely source? "Logan. I need a message sent to Logan."
"It doesn't matter what it says. It just needs to have the word 'Icarus' in it. He'll know what that means," she stated with more certainty than she feels. And then, she grins. "Really, just getting a message from you will probably put him at Red Alert without any other help."
There were more connected individuals that she could have Nathan reach out to, ones who could probably throw their weight around far faster and with more success than Logan, but that had the potential to place Nathan in the middle of what seemed like a shadow conflict. Logan was safe and Logan would move Heaven or Hell for her. Of that, she had absolutely no doubt.
"And depending on how this goes, I might need a sounding board, an outside perspective. I know that's an odd role reversal but I… I trust you, Nathan. You've grown up admirably but you still hold just enough of that idealism that you've avoided my pitfall of overt cynicism. And that's what I need: someone to remind me that not every shadow has a threat in it but some do."
"Someone that knows the players involved or enough of them. Someone who cares what happens."
== Tag! ==
== C's Secret Stash ==
It felt like a confession, her admission that she had always intended to bear the consequences of the mission but she doubted it came as much of a surprise to anyone, much less Nathan. In fact, wasn't that what Ben had been trying to pre-empt with his confession? Her falling on a sword that he didn't feel was truly hers to claim.
Nathan seemed to understand this too, as well as the source of her deep frustration. He voiced it almost immediately without a second of hesitation, confirming her own realization that there was no fixing this mess and no saving Ben.
Her lips almost quirked into a tiny grin when Nathan let a "y'all" slip but it was lost just as quickly as his actual statement registered. Instead of dwelling on the lingering suggestion that they'd never been meant to survive Parhelia, she poured herself some more whiskey and offered some more to Nathan before setting the bottle down.
“...and I wish I could lie to you now, but you’d see right through it even if I did. But there isn’t much you can do for Ben, except for maybe softening the blow. Get someone to stay the proverbial axe. But I can’t see them letting this go. Not without someone taking the fall, and even then, they might just be trying to collect careers at this point.”
Tyra had leaned back, the glass resting on her knee as she watched Nathan, weighing his words carefully. She had to wonder when Nathan had gotten so wise and perceptive, shaking that blinding idealism for something more pragmatic. Oh, he'd made leaps and bounds under her watchful eye but he had grown into a responsible and capable officer once given the chance to leave the nest. And while this hurt on so many levels, she couldn't ignore that little bit of warm pride blossoming under her chest bone as she regarded what might as well have been prodigal son.
His commentary on both collecting careers and shaking spiders webs echoed her own suspicions, not that she had any illusions that she wasn't already in the spider's web. She didn't know what exactly she had done to end up in someone's crosshairs but all of the pieces of the puzzle seemed to add up to that conclusion. Or maybe their method of survival had merely hit a sore spot but there was something about the initial orders that seemed off in hindsight.
“I know Ben falling on the sword wasn’t in your plans. In fact, it was the opposite of what you wanted, because you were planning on that being your last act if y’all made it back. What is done is done now though. You’ve got to fight for yourself now. Because there is something else in all of this mess. Something that doesn’t add up. I wasn’t even a part of all this, and I can smell the rot that is covering everything about whatever it was you were all sent to do.”
She closed her eyes at those words, taking a sip of whiskey as if the burn would wash away the bitter taste brought on by the idea. Oh, the thought had crossed her mind during and after Parhelia but her career, filled episodes of conspiracy, paranoia and distrust, had bred her to see shadows where there weren't any. She had enough self-awareness to realize this but Nathan… Nathan didn't have two decades of terrible HQ decisions and questionable orders to build off of. If Nathan saw this as something other than a colossal cluster of ineptitude at the highest level…
“I think you should fight. Dig yourself out of this hole first with everything you've got. And then, I think you need to figure out who stuck you under the bus to begin with; to make what Ben did worth more than just being the shield.”
The whiskey swirled in her glass as she considered his statement. Wasn't that why she had stormed down to the brig? To fight for Ben, to find out her odds of saving him? Was she so Hell bent on falling on that sword that she hadn't really considered fighting for herself? If she was going to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, she'd need to put up a fight but it needed to be strategic and careful. She wasn't a political player by any stretch of the imagination but she was no stranger to them. There were connections that she possessed on numerous fronts that would likely become very useful in the coming days.
“Tell me what I can do, and I’ll do it.”
His words were earnest and honest and she felt her heart squeeze just a little at the offer. And yet, she didn't answer immediately, trying to concoct some sort of plan that didn't involve dragging Nathan headfirst into this mess anymore than he had been by Pomn.
"I can't…" she started to say, blue eyes watching him over the rim of her glass before she swallowed hard. Why was it so hard to swallow her pride and accept help from an unlikely source? "Logan. I need a message sent to Logan."
"It doesn't matter what it says. It just needs to have the word 'Icarus' in it. He'll know what that means," she stated with more certainty than she feels. And then, she grins. "Really, just getting a message from you will probably put him at Red Alert without any other help."
There were more connected individuals that she could have Nathan reach out to, ones who could probably throw their weight around far faster and with more success than Logan, but that had the potential to place Nathan in the middle of what seemed like a shadow conflict. Logan was safe and Logan would move Heaven or Hell for her. Of that, she had absolutely no doubt.
"And depending on how this goes, I might need a sounding board, an outside perspective. I know that's an odd role reversal but I… I trust you, Nathan. You've grown up admirably but you still hold just enough of that idealism that you've avoided my pitfall of overt cynicism. And that's what I need: someone to remind me that not every shadow has a threat in it but some do."
"Someone that knows the players involved or enough of them. Someone who cares what happens."
== Tag! ==