( not many people get his back at this distance, back home or here in duplicity. part learned instinct drilled into him since basic, and part reflex. protect the reactor in your rig, always. without your reactor you're dead, gates. watch your goddamn six. you're gonna get yourself killed.
beyond that: too many areas to protect, too many vulnerabilities he has permanently etched into him – the implant scar at his nape, just under his hairline, and the tattoo scrawled in thick, bold print behind his right ear, impossible to miss at this angle. LII.VIII.XXIII., a date he had printed on him six months after he bailed from reach. the same date he uses as a username for duplicity's network for shits and giggles, like the memory of it hasn't fucking haunted him for the past five years. a final fuck you, to isaac gates and samuel ortez, long-dead on a bombed out planet.
it can't touch him if he doesn't let it. nothing can.
he shifts against crais and tucks his hand between the cushions, groping blindly for the packet of wipes. once he finds it, he snags a wipe between two fingers and impatiently waves it over his shoulder for crais to take. )
You think I'm crazy.
( he's starting to think he's a little crazy, too. )
no subject
beyond that: too many areas to protect, too many vulnerabilities he has permanently etched into him – the implant scar at his nape, just under his hairline, and the tattoo scrawled in thick, bold print behind his right ear, impossible to miss at this angle. LII.VIII.XXIII., a date he had printed on him six months after he bailed from reach. the same date he uses as a username for duplicity's network for shits and giggles, like the memory of it hasn't fucking haunted him for the past five years. a final fuck you, to isaac gates and samuel ortez, long-dead on a bombed out planet.
it can't touch him if he doesn't let it. nothing can.
he shifts against crais and tucks his hand between the cushions, groping blindly for the packet of wipes. once he finds it, he snags a wipe between two fingers and impatiently waves it over his shoulder for crais to take. )
You think I'm crazy.
( he's starting to think he's a little crazy, too. )