no danger, we're just killing time again

[soldiergenes]

Who: Solid Snake and Tetora Nishizono
When: Late March
Where: Ingress Complex
What: Two clones walk into a bar Tetora's messing around with tech. Snake's on security. A chance encounter!
Warnings: Will add if anything comes up.

Freelance work has both its upsides and its downsides. The flexibility is something that Snake appreciates. He doesn't have to take a job unless he actually wants to. On the other hand, there are times when work is scarce and he has to resort to something more run-of-the-mill until another interesting job comes along.

Then again, maybe run-of-the-mill isn't so bad. At least he doesn't have to worry about his life being in danger, for instance.

The point being that he's been posted to do security on the Ingress Complex for the last week of the month. It's boring, if he's honest, but it pays the bills and that's apparently something they all have to worry about now.

He spends most of his shift patrolling his assigned area, keeping an eye out for any disturbances, whether it's a confrontation or someone trying to sneak into a place they don't belong. (Which is to say nothing of the fact that he'd tried that exact thing, back when he first got here.) It's been quiet for most of the day, so when he spots someone wandering around near one of the Ingress rooms, he's almost relieved. At least this gives him something to do.

Instead of waltzing right up and accusing the kid of snooping, Snake keeps it a little more casual. That being said, he does have a tranq gun at his waist for emergencies. "Looking for something?"

Comments

[nishizono]

The funny thing about constantly living on the edge - in terms of nerves anyway - is that getting creeped up on is almost never an accident. Tetora gets the sense of someone approaching before he hears the footsteps behind him, where he's crouched down in front of supply closet. He's not looking for anything in particular, but he's bored, no one is chasing after him and there's nothing to fight.

He's looking for garbage he could put together for a makeshift weapon, just to keep himself occupied.

Tetora slouches, intentionally, loosening his limbs and getting ready to start something if he has to. He's working security at the Ingress Complex, but working for something and with something are two different things, and he's a stranger here. This stranger could be bad news. The subtle but unmistakable act of reaching for a sidearm pricks at Tetora's instincts, as well, Tetora using sound cues and the play of light and shadow in his periphery to guess the man's stance.

Fuck, he thinks. "Not if you're drawing your gun on me," Tetora responds without turning. He keeps his hands within line of sight. "What's up, mister?"

[soldiergenes]

Snake hadn't made any attempt to sneak up on the kid, so the fact that he hears him coming and goes on-edge isn't that shocking. It's more the guess that he's got a gun that takes Snake by surprise, given that the kid never once looked over his shoulder at him. It's possible he saw him in the halls at some point earlier on, but Snake's pretty sure that he would have noticed himself.

He tilts his head, already intrigued by that alone. He lifts his own hands up to chest-level to make it clear that he has no intention of shooting anyone.

"Just checking in on things," he says by way of answer. Asserting himself as an authoritative figure isn't really Snake's style, at least not when it involves policing people, but a job is a job.

"So what's the answer if I'm not drawing my gun on you?" He hasn't yet realized that they're both technically doing the same job here.

[nishizono]

"I'll tell you if you won't tell on me," Tetora cheekily answers, loosely raising his hands up. He moves up slowly (for him), and he keeps his hands held wide as if to say look, I'm harmless. "I'm gonna get up on my feet, is that okay?"

Pieces of metal clink in his jacket, like coins would if they were heavier; Tetora's been making up a blueprint as he goes, and he has enough for a makeshift air-pressurized blowgun if he can find a canister to rig. It's something straight out of the movies, finetuned to adjust for the physics of reality. Tetora, with his compiled knowledge, can manage enough the leap from fictional to real.

But there's the matter of getting past this serious-looking guy first.

"I'm just going through the garbage, honestly." He adds a small shrug. "Figured it's worth something somewhere, you know?"

[soldiergenes]

If he won't "tell on him." Right. Snake doesn't have any sense of loyalty to the people signing his paychecks, so it's not like he'd be running to spill anyyone's secrets anyway. When the kid warns him he's going to stand, Snake nods. He's been in tense situations before, where he was pinning someone down with the barrel of his gun, but this is hardly that. So the caution seems out of place.

The thing is, if the kid was just going through the garbage like he claims, there wouldn't be anything for Snake to tell the authorities about. Which means there must be something else going on here.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure," he says with a shrug, though he doesn't look all that convinced. He's also more fixated on what the kid's wearing. He might have a jacket over it, but that's still an Ingress Security uniform.

"You know, we're on equal footing here." He gestures between them. "I'm not about to rat you out for anything."

tags anyway

[nishizono]

"Can't hurt to be cautious," he defers, hands still up. A quick shrug of the shoulders and a tip of the head has him acting like a boy his age; nothing off-kilter to notice here, mister. "We're all strangers here, when you think about it."

The guy's right, though. They're both wearing the same uniform, though he's wearing his own with less care than the older man seems to be wearing his. Uniforms are for people with regimented lives, regular lives - the word uniform itself doesn't lend too well to living outside of polite society.

That said.

"Why are you down here, anyway?"

well now i have to tag it back bc you dared me

[soldiergenes]

Snake has experience wearing a uniform, though not one quite like this. Military standard issue had been a different story, to say nothing of the sneaking suit. All the same, he isn't that bothered by being forced into specific clothes as the job calls for it.

They're strangers, there's no doubt about that, and so Snake resigns himself to being treated with suspicion by the kid. He crosses his arms over his chest and shrugs. His gun remains holstered at his waist.

"On patrol." Isn't that obvious? "Usually it's pretty quiet down here, so when I heard movement, I figured it was worth investigating."

muahahaha

[nishizono]

"You patrol the trash chutes often?" He lets disbelief color his voice, artificial as the sentiment may be. Between the two of them he's the one who's not where he's supposed to be, and Tetora has little doubt that if the man hasn't figured him out yet, it's just a matter of time before he does. "Because that's where I was."

Gun's still holstered. If Tetora moves the wrong way, the metal pieces in his jacket are definitely gonna make noise. Is he making a mountain out of a molehill over this? Does he want to chance it? It's still a weapon, even if it's unfinished - no part of it is "regulation".

Decisions, decisions. "How come I didn't see you?"

[soldiergenes]

"Guess if there's gonna be people digging through the trash, it's probably worth patrolling." Snake would be fine to let this all go, but the kid is more insistent on making some out of nothing, which is suspicious all on its own. There's no real reason for them to be on different sides here, though.

As for why Tetora might have missed him, Snake doesn't have to consider his answer. "I'm pretty good at staying unseen, if I want to."

He's naturally quiet as force of habit, but blending into environments and sneaking around is his real job, rather than security.

[nishizono]

Pretty good at being unseen when one wants to is an interesting skillset to have. Tetora focuses on it, takes note of it, turns the thought over like one might inspect a newly minted coin to see the shine glint off the sharp-carved shapes on it.

Who takes their temp jobs this seriously? He tips his head to the side, curiosity clearly written in the way the corners of his mouth tun up just the bit.

"Wanna teach me how to slink around?" Hey, why not. "I mean, we're down here as it is."

[soldiergenes]

The request isn't one that Snake's expecting, especially given the kid's attitude up to this point. Besides, there's something flippant in the way he phrases it. Slink around.

"Well, it's not the kind of thing I could teach you in one sitting." Years of training brought him to this point, after all. It's not just some party trick that he can pass on to anyone who's curious.

That being said, he isn't discarding the idea entirely. "If you really want to learn, it'll be a time commitment." He may be calling the kid's bluff a little.

[nishizono]

"I've got time." Tetora shrugs, shoulders loose and easy as the answer he gives. He does have the time to spare, given how slacked-off his attitude has been towards his assigned job on the complex. If he has to be productive, he might as well learn some skill he can actually use for himself.

Guarding a space that's manned with overkill tech is getting boring, anyway. Why need guards at all? The way the complex is set up, by the time they're attacked on their level it's pretty much moot to defend it at all.

Maybe he's just reading too much into it out of nothing to do, but it's a notable observation.

"So?" He challenges, face tipped up and open. "Are we gonna?"

[soldiergenes]

This isn't how Snake had been planning to spend his shift, no. On the other hand, it's also more interesting than wandering around a complex that doesn't seem to have much in the way of threats against it, and the kid may not be eager, but he's certainly interested.

"Maybe," he says, contrasting the kid's openness by closing off, arms crossed over his chest. "First, what's your name?"

If he's going to be mentoring him in the ways of stealth, then he should probably at least know that much about this random kid.

[nishizono]

A name. He can do that much. He even holds out a hand to the man for proper handshake. Just because he doesn't use his manners nearly as often as he should, doesn't mean he doesn't have any; he wasn't born in a barn.

He came out of a lab, thanks.

"Tetora," he chirps, almost unnervingly bright-eyed in saying his name out loud. There's always a thrill to mentioning his name in the open, like a call to the boogeyman. 'Call for Tetora and the Gakuso soldiers will be at your doorstep before you blink,' that sort of thing. It's annoying, to be sure, but it's flattering too in its own morbid way.

"So what's the first lesson?"

[soldiergenes]

Snake probably came out of a lab too. He can't say that he knows for sure where he was born, but he can assume that it was some sort of locked down, controlled environment. Certainly not a normal hospital.

They can muster up their manners, though, and he doesn't hesitate to take Tetora's hand and give it a shake. "Snake," he responds in kind, his tone remaining much more muted in comparison. He says it like a title.

Pulling his hand back, he crosses his arms over his chest and hums to himself in thought. Chances are that Tetora will get bored of this soon enough, but he still wants to give him legitimate advice, in case he does ever decide to make use of it.

"Your awareness. When you're trying to sneak around somewhere, you need to know that place like the back of your hand. Sightlines, what corners provide good cover, where you can hide. The second that you're somewhere unfamiliar, you're at the disadvantage."

A pause, and then he sums it up. "In other words, do your research."