gunsforhire | Log: This Place Was A Shelter

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Log: This Place Was A Shelter

Who: Agent Louisiana, Agent Texas, and Agent Florida
What: Making good on a promise after returning.
Where: Safe house given to L by Florida
When: 6/21 Sunday Evening
Warnings: Cursing, Florida being on drugs and weirder than usual

Louisiana hasn't been in this safe house in a couple of days. She comes in to make sure it's stocked with the proper supplies. At least now there were towels. One of the kitchen cabinets was filled with different varieties of teas. A lower one packed with medical supplies after everything that transpired here.

Those were some fun memories. Not really. Rather bloody though it had placed them on this weird path of theirs. Her hand going down to rub where the new scar lay. Setting up a kettle of water, she tries to figure out what to do next.

She rests her helmet on the counter and pulls up a chair. A toothpick in her mouth to prevent her from biting her nails. The psych exams had left behind a deep impression. Passing them was great but not what they had dredged up. All of those fears forced to the surface and confronted. It didn't help that people were there to record and watch. Made her feel less of an employee and more test subject.

Pulling over her holopad, she flicks through the apps. There was still some time before company would arrive. So Louisiana selects the keyboard to play whatever she can manage to remember. Anything to keep her mind off of what followed her from Armonia.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If we're wonderfully terrible, what does that make you? A devious asshole?" It's fitting in her book.

"Yes," he grins widely. So absolute wonderful that they can agree on this. His daughter, his girlfriend, they are his world.

She sighs softly, smirking. "Certainly fits him."

"Désolé for being so distant though," Louisiana says, dropping her voice some. She shifts slightly in her seat. "I've been worried over work and assessments."

Hey, at least he isn't arguing about it.

"Have things been tense?" she asks as she watches Louisiana out of the corner of her eyes. "I didn't think you were planning on staying with them for much longer."

This was a topic that was not only near and dear to Florida's heart, but one he needed to stay out of he thought. So he stays silent and lets Tex ask.

"Here in Gulch, no. Things have been relatively normal and all. Do jobs and watch over the team. But Armonia..."

Louisiana looks away, feeling the doubts stir in her mind. All of the questions. The what ifs. Her hand clenching into a fist. "I can't simply vanish and call it done. I want to leave but I can't."

"Can't? Or won't?" she asks bluntly. "Contracts end, kid, and there are ways to get out of them if you don't want to be in one anymore. It's up to you, not them."

Whatever Louisiana wants to do is her business, but as far as Tex is concerned, she needs to look at this in a different light if she thinks she can't leave.

Clearly Lou doesn't want to leave, so Florida pushes himself up to sitting fully, on his own, not touching her. "Leave it be, Tex. If Control is what she wants, then it is what she wants. We tried. Stop fighting."

Which felt like he was betraying York, but, yeah.

"Why do you automatically assume that's what I want," she growls out. The insinuation that she would gladly stay with them makes her tense up. "I am trying to leave but I can't right this instant."

Florida wanted nothing to do with her now. He's allegiance was to the For Hires and Tex. What the interrogator had said... "They were right," she mutters under her breath. She gets off of the couch and moves away.

She manages to resist the urge to roll her eyes. "Sounds like Control has your balls in a vice. What's holding you back then?"

"I don't understand why it's not as simple as walking away if you want to," Florida tells Louisiana. "I don't understand this Control. I wish I could make this easier, but it seems like all I do is complicate this for you. I... never should have involved myself in your business. For that I am deeply apologetic. I just want you to be free to do what you want to do, Lou, which I don't think Control will allow for."

Which bothers him. She's more than family to him. Not that he has any family. Okay, so she is family to him. Just like Tex.

"It's not you. Not everything is about you." Louisiana glares down at the floor. She hated the fact that they thought this was so simple. Walk away? She can't. They'd find her easily. "Besides I kill people for a living. Control gives me plenty of opportunities to do that."

"I'm not leaving because of my partner and my family. Jersey and I have been working out ways to break our contracts. However my family will be put into danger."

She manages to bite her tongue when Jersey's mentioned. That guy isn't anyone she has a good word to say about and it's unfortunate that Louisiana is his partner.

"No way to be bought-out of your contract? You're not exactly their most loyal agent if you're searching for ways out which doesn't make you much of an asset." Or hey, maybe they're so arrogant they'd rather kill off their mercs. Not like it'd earn them a great reputation for finding more.

As if Florida wouldn't protect her family. But she has a point.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly. Really, he just needs to stop prying into her life.

"I'm not allowing for them to know that I am. Jersey is doing it. All I'm doing is keeping the illusion of compliance. Back in Armonia, they tried to mess with things. Plant ideas..."

Ideas that wouldn't leave her alone. They kept nagging at her in the back of mind. Her back turned towards the couch. She crosses her arms, almost hugging herself but not quite.

"I will break off from them. I'll do it," she admits to them. "Then I'll...huh rejoin the For Hires."

"Your partner is tattling on you and you still care enough to keep him safe?" she asks flatly. "I hope he was doing that before deciding he wanted to break out of his contract too, not after." If it was after, the guy was a bigger fucking scumbag than Tex thought.

"Do what you want, kid. But I hope you're getting help from reliable people because it sounds like you're already in over your head and listening to those 'ideas' they're planting."

"Hey," Florida says, reaching out to touch Lou's arm. "I'm not saying join the Hires. I was very serious when I said I would help you, Jersey, and Oquirrh set up your own unit. There is too much pain for you with our group. And too much pain with our group to work with Deadeye."

But he wants her to live by her own rules. "And no matter what they said to you, remember who you are, what you believe. Trust me, the result otherwise isn't pretty. Just look at me. I still have trouble believing I'm capable of actual, genuine affection, much less love."

Louisiana focuses on Tex. "No that's not what I meant. He's doing the research into our contracts. Trying to find ways out of them. You can't buy out from Control."

"If I listened to their ideas, I would be killing Florida," she growls out. Louisiana glances at him, wanting to return the reach out but not with this. "They think you were the reason the mission failed years ago. How convenient it was that a recruit of yours was the one to be captured. To be left behind for days."

"If I rejoin the For Hires, it isn't for you. It's for Maine and York."

For York? Since when were Lou and him friends? Either way, this is a conversation she feels she should really be involved with and folds her arms over her chest.

"You should join for yourself," she mutters with a shake of her head.

Kill him? Florida recoils a bit at that, looks to Tex. He promised her. Promised that he wouldn't die. And the idea that Lou would actually do it after implying to care about him...

No, he shakes that head off. "I'm not asking you to join for me. I'm not asking you to be a For Hire. And I..."

God, did he admit to things? Yes. "I didn't know you were still alive, Lou. My contacts told me they had found your body. I was betrayed, though not like you were. They gave me a charred corpse and said it was you. But when I saw it, when I was there, Maine called about you."

"I would be making my own choice, Florida." If anything, Tex was right. She'd have to do it for herself before anyone else was to be accounted for. "Just like how I don't listen to Control's what ifs."

Louisiana sighs softly, dropping her arms. "Regardless I believe you before them. Someone gave away the plans. It doesn't change anything."

She hesitantly reaches out to him. All the analyst had said was a lie. He needed to be believed dammit.

She sighs and stands so she can stretch. This conversation is making her restless and talking about things that are long done. It's not her place to say much, this wasn't anything she was involved with.

"Make your plans for the future and if you need help, get it. You have people who give a shit, don't waste that."

"It doesn't," Florida agrees. "Our past is what makes us what we are. Who we are. What we do. That is all I can say about that I guess," he sighs.

"Ain't that the truth," she remarks. Louisiana was done talking about the past anyway. It wasn't necessary to have something else haunt her during the night.

Once her brief stretching is done, she folds her arms over her chest as she watches the pair.

"You know how to find us if you want back-up," she says with a head tilt towards Lou.

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