Log: Seeking Shelter

[ambitious_muse]

Who: Sigma Ai, the Ai twins, Agent Texas (native), and anyone else who passes by
What: hiding from a plague storm
Where: an antique shop between the twins' daycare and the shuttle stop
When: 15 April, around midday
Warnings: none yet

Day one of getting the twins from daycare, and Sigma has already run into trouble. A plague cloud collided with a storm front, causing a torrent of acid rain and liquid illness. Sigma grabbed the little ones and ran for the first cover he could find.

When they exit the airlock, he finds himself in a dusty but well-lit shop. Pieces of mismatched furniture take up nearly every available space on the floor. An antique shop, then? Sigma holds the little ones close. This isn't the place to let them run around. He'll have to hope this storm ends soon.

Comments

[ambitious_muse]

"We make it work," he says. Not that they have much of a choice.

"My brothers have sacrificed much to make sure these two have a good home. I'm just taking my turn." It's the least he can do.

[soldierinblack]

"Sacrificed for them and the others, I'm sure. Delta mentioned he had six of you that were younger than him." Hopefully these ones are the youngest of the bunch.

"You go to the university?"

[ambitious_muse]

"I do," he says. "Delta does too, online anyway, and my brother Epsilon is also a student." He looks at her again. "And what do you do?"

[soldierinblack]

"Mercenary," she answers simply. Delta already knows and she doesn't make it a habit to hide her profession. "It pays the bills and I'm good at it."

[ambitious_muse]

He looks at her again, really looking and finding lithe muscle encased in leather. "Then by all means, I won't judge," he says. Never mind that he had considered that lifestyle for himself, for a time, but only York and Omega knows that. "Another of my brothers is training as a mercenary, in fact."

[soldierinblack]

The only thing surprising about that is it took one of them long enough to start training. She had fallen into the profession, but if she had that many mouths to feed she'd have even more reason for such dangerous work.

"Funny, a friend of mine took on a rookie recently. I ran a job with them a week ago. He introduced himself as O'Malley."

[ambitious_muse]

"That would be my brother. He's been introducing himself that way lately," he says. "I think he's worried about mercenary work following him home." Or he's just paranoid. Either is a viable option where Omega is concerned.

[soldierinblack]

"He's green, but has promise. I doubt he's running anything high risk that would follow him home since he lacks certain skills." Like handling firearms. Even if he's not doing the fighting himself, not having any experience in them drastically limits his available job pool.

[ambitious_muse]

"I--I'm glad to hear that." Omega needs so badly to succeed at something. Him and Delta both. Even better if it's something he enjoys. "Delta doesn't like it, but I want it to work out for Meg. Omega. Really."

[soldierinblack]

"Did he say why he didn't like it?" The man hadn't professed any hatred for mercenary work when they last spoke, but she's not his sibling.

[ambitious_muse]

Sigma considers his answer for a moment, then says, "Honestly, I think he worries that Omega will get himself killed. Or kill someone and end up in prison. Delta worries a lot."

He has raised the family with Omega's help for nearly eleven years now. Of course D would hate the thought of losing him.

[soldierinblack]

She nods in understanding. Reasonable fear given how man amateur mercenaries end up. There were many ways it could go wrong. "He should be glad he's fallen in with the crowd he has then. We've been doing this for a long time and we take care of our own."

[ambitious_muse]

"I'm glad to hear it," Sigma says. "And thanks, by the way. For looking out for him."

[soldierinblack]

"Thank Maine more. He's the one that took a special interest in the guy." Otherwise all O'Malley would be is that angry guy that couldn't find a damn bookstore. "And he won't take your brother on jobs he's not ready for."

[ambitious_muse]

"That's a relief," Sigma says. "I'll have to thank him, once I meet him, I mean."

[soldierinblack]

"He's a good man. As much as you can be in this line of work." She wonders how Maine would do around kids. "I know Delta's doing accounting. What are you in school for?"

[ambitious_muse]

"Chemistry," he says. "I'm hoping to study plague cloud composition." Something many people wonder about but never bother with. He wants to change that.

[soldierinblack]

She won't even pretend to understand the science behind any of that, but she can see the merits in such research. "Got an end goal in mind?"

[ambitious_muse]

Sigma shrugs. "Anything to help figure out cloud composition. We can't do anything to terraform the planet until we can start growing food." He reaches out to ruffle Iota's hair. "Anything to help these ones out, you know?"

[soldierinblack]

"You're more selfless than I am," she says. How much does such a gig even pay? "Are you keeping up with current progress on that?"

[ambitious_muse]

"Perhaps more curious than selfless," he says. "I want to understand how they work. I have a year and a half before I can apply to the graduate program, but I'm already the top of my class, so I don't anticipate any difficulties."

[soldierinblack]

"Top of your class?" Well. Color her impressed. That's more focus than she's ever had on anything academic-related. "I guess I'm looking at the net scientific genius to come out of the city. If you don't figure out a solution, we might be screwed."

[ambitious_muse]

"Nah, that would be Delta," Sigma says. "But family comes first, as he's always reminding me. I just try to help where I can. Hopefully it amounts to something."

[soldierinblack]

She raises a brow at that. "Scientific genius that's working accounting?" At least, she assumes he's going to school for that given that was his go-to response for when she asked what skills he had.

[ambitious_muse]

"He did it so he could pay the bills," Sigma says. "He hates it, though. But that doesn't mean he isn't really good at it."