duplicity inbox / cw for nsfw shenanigans.

[unlawful]

TEXT / VOICE / VIDEO / ACTION NOTE: felix generally responds to everything in text, even voice or video calls. expect 90% of his replies to be text-based regardless of urgency.

Comments

[requiemshark]

im call bullshit.

[ Or maybe Felix can, who the fuck knows. Professional soldiers, heavy drinking, it all goes together. You aren't worth anything if you can't shoot. ]

uh huh you mean youll try and fail miserably. research that.

[ He's just. Going to ignore the whole sweet ass thing. There are days when he can manage play flirting, like a game, but tonight doesn't feel like one of them. And not with fucking Felix of all people. ]

[unlawful]

( also locus' bane. felix flirts like he drinks, regularly and with very little restraint. unnecessary showmanship, he'd say, all fucking high-and-mighty, as felix sucked on a man's tongue only to put a bullet in his brain the second he turned his back. it's just another blade in a very extensive and varied arsenal, another layer of armor, another blockade or battering ram depending on the situation.

sharkface never takes the bait. that's fine. he'll keep doing it anyway just for the chance that it drives him a little fucking crazy. )

don't forget i got a full rig
she's a little banged up right now but she still sings pretty when i put her to work

( one on one outside the armor is a dicier question. )

either way if you're checking to see if i'm alive or dead so you can jack my shit off my corpse, surprise bitch
i'm still breathing

[requiemshark]

Please tell me you don’t name your gear and treat it like a person, that shit’s creepy 

[ Each to their own and what not, but everybody’s got lines. Ephemera knows he’s crazy, has known it for a while, but still. Granted, he cares a hell of a lot less than the words imply. What Felix confirms matters more.

First: Felix’s armor is still damaged.

Second: he thinks Ephemera doesn’t have a rig. The second’s only halfway true. And it was true before the recent bullshittery, but things change. Crais came through - only partially willing on that point, but he hasn’t tried to steal it back - and Ephemera knows he has to test the armor, get used to wearing it, but he’s got a hidden advantage now. Surprise is on his side. It won’t last, a card he can realistically only play once, but it’s his.

Good. ]

There’s always tomorrow. Stay frosty, motherfucker 

[unlawful]

says the guy who named himself sharkface
watch where you're throwing stones

( a very loooooooooong pause before his next text comes through. )

just so we're 100% crystal
i let you walk once out of the bountiful generosity of my extremely kind heart
but if you come for me i will fucking put you down

[requiemshark]

[ He did that specifically to mock the Freelancers and their militant insistence on codenames, like it put distance between them and the shit they did. Like that made it dignified, somehow. And it's probably best that they're not doing this in person because the way he laughs, right out in the dead quiet of his room, that's probably telling. That's probably a line too far.

Not that it matters. No one's asked him about the name. Only a few people even know around here. Why spread that shit around, where it loses its impact and only ever makes him look insane? He figures it ought to be obvious anyway, with his wreck of a face. What's left to explain? ]

everybody's got code names these days like there's some fucking dignity in it. i know what i am.

[ Or he ought to. He's trying on his old name now. Not Terrence - definitely not Terry, the name he went by when he was young and stupid and before he'd ever shot a gun - but something. Time will tell whether it sticks. Right now, it fits awkwardly. He's trying to be a person and sometimes - a lot of the time - it feels like it doesn't quite work. ]

bountiful generosity. wow. you really are drunk. that's fun. next time i'll get you in the spine.

[ It's more idle talk than actual threat. This, strangely, feels like one of the few normal things he's done recently. He wonders what that says about him. ]

[unlawful]

and what's that, pray tell? a fucking sentient weapons depot? a one-man militia?

( it's a sentiment he'd normally mock just because it's an easy target, but it applies to felix as much as it applies to sharkface, to locus, even the freelancers. no one made it out of the great war unscathed. the rest of the galaxy moved on, laid down their weapons like peace was always on the table. everyone else who'd seen shit or been through shit kept their finger on the trigger just in case. )

you manage to get me in the spine i'll finish myself off for you
i need my legs intact

( he's already started scouting the down. different vantage points, areas of opportunity or possible ambush, places he could be flanked if caught unawares, his line of sight from point a to point z and everything between, who can see him from where and how far they can see him, blind spots, entrenched corners that would serve as decent cover in a pinch, back-up exits, anything that could be turned into a makeshift manhole, chokepoints.

his early morning routine, straight after groggily staggering out of bed and brushing his teeth, spitting the taste of liquor from his mouth. unfortunately sharkface has been here longer and knows the terrain far more intimately. all felix can do is attempt to make up for lost time. )

[requiemshark]

ghost of christmas past. boo, motherfucker.

[ It skates closer to the truth than it ought to. One of those jokes that isn't really, once it's pried apart. But what's the use in spelling it out? They've already been honest with each other. Had that goddamn list asked and answered, one after another, before Felix finally said fuck this bullshit in the most dramatic fashion a person can manage without a live grenade. Despite himself, Ephemera was impressed. He'll never admit it. ]

nobody dies around here. don't know if that's true for crippling injury. food for thought.

[ There are always ways to take down a soldier without killing them. Eyes, spine, sacrifice a limb or two. What more can you take? But he has a feeling that Felix would find a way to adapt regardless. And it's an idle thought regardless, half threat and half real. Only half, though. They are what they are. And one of these days Felix probably will turn on him.

Not just yet, though. Funny, that. ]

[unlawful]

again: have you tried liquor
or downers
or any combination of the two

( a graveyard of a person, each memory a tombstone. only place he's haunting is himself. felix doesn't give enough of a shit to pick at that wound even when he offers it up on a silver platter, easy pickings for him to take his fill. the goal is to not think about sharkface randomly, like he wasn't a fucking dead man the moment he met felix and locus anyway. like felix wouldn't still rip his head off for even breathing in the general direction of his rig.

doesn't at all explain why he's continuing to text him.

felix tips the bottle to his mouth. )

you know what i know
i was turned into a human water balloon literal seconds before i ended up here and this place brought me back fit as a fucking fiddle like it never even happened
no reason it can't do it again

[requiemshark]

not for a while. don't drink prison wine they literally make that shit from bread and engine runoff.

[ He only tried it once in all the years he was there, on a very bad day, and then told himself never again. And then he held it up. He can drink here, but largely hasn't. Have to stay sharp. And it occurs to him now that he could push Felix, if he wanted. Make this sharp, turn it into the sort of fight they'd meet with brutality. When your enemy is at ease, weary him. When well fed, starve him. When at rest, make him run. The lesson was an early one. It held true. He could do that. Felix would respond. They could tear each other apart, one of them would win - or neither - and then what?

Like with Carolina, it'd probably just turn into one of those oroborus situations. Rinse, repeat. Do it all over again. ]

that's what i like about you
clearly
your can do attitude

[unlawful]

you know, i've never been

( never even really had a close call in the five years he spent sidestepping the unsc and interstellar authorities. ortez was thorough in covering their tracks, possessing a very specific and refined skillset that would put most forensic cleaners to shame. the jobs used to be a lot more simple, of course. easy bounties, easy marks, fucked up criminals with fucked up histories and a list of crimes so heinous that even felix refrained from making tactless jokes regarding their illicit activities.

somewhere along the line it changed. everything did. )

i'm full of silver linings
someone's gotta be the optimist and my optimism tells me that i would sooner slit my throat than let you take my legs from me
or any other body part for the record since i know how creative you are

[requiemshark]

you'd do fine. or you'd get your head bashed in the first day.

[ Either or. The Tartarus was full of Insurrectionists and UNSC fuckups. And then a couple like him, who qualified as both. Fun times. There were a couple men in there who might've been decent human beings under the posturing, but everybody played the part they had to play. There was a corpsman who looked after Ephemera once, after one of those bad days ended up with him seizing out and cracking his skull open when he pitched the fuck over and managed to brain himself on the way down. Because on top of everything, his implant's fucked too. Guy's name was Bird - nicknames, again, even with the Insurrectionists - and Bird didn't have to do shit about it, probably would've been better served by walking the fuck away, but for some reason didn't.

No. Bird patched him up. Sat with him afterward and told him yeah, that's probably a seizure, you have a history of those?

It was surprisingly decent of him. Bird's probably dead now, gone right out the airlock with everybody else. Or maybe shot in the head by some fucker on Chorus. Gone either way. Why bother dwelling? ]

that's almost sweet. i probably won't set you on fire.

[ Yeah, he definitely will at some point. ]

[unlawful]

have to get their hands on me first
i'm a slippery motherfucker

( wiry and lean, fast. not carolina fast, as sharkface helpfully pointed out in the elevator, just faster than most people and that's all he needs. a prison cell beatdown is not the kind of gangbang he's looking to participate in, but he's had worse odds. )

yeah you're full of shit
rest assured if that ever happens which it probably won't bc full, deliberate offense the only way you're taking me derigged is if i let it happen BUT
i'll butcher the fuck out of you and everything you sort of even moderately like when i come back
👉 😎 👉

[requiemshark]

not that slippery

[ It's idle banter. Doesn't mean all that much. Felix avoided the powers that be back home, apparently, but he still ended up in Duplicity same as the rest of them. And it's not like the Tartarus but some of the dynamics are familiar. The lines that are drawn, who has power and how it's reinforced. That might be irony.

Or karma. ]

🖕 yeah one of these days i'm dousing you in napalm. don't even need a rig for that shit

[unlawful]

uhhh remind me who evaded the long dick of the law for half a decade and who ended up in the pen again?

sounds hot
looking forward to spitekilling you in the future

[requiemshark]

got out eventually. it worked out.
and i survived a direct missile strike so i win that.

[ Gravity hammer to the face. Then a missile strike. Fun times. ]

promises promises

[unlawful]

oh now you're just fucking peacocking

[requiemshark]

dropped a building on me. 110 stories.
suck on that.

[ He might not always win, but he survives.

Well. Right up until he didn't, apparently. ]

[unlawful]

yeah well pfl's pet mammoth could do all that too and he still fucking drowned so
the bigger you are the less dramatic and climactic the fall, apparently
defying physics entirely

[requiemshark]

[ Drowning's a painful way to go. The sergeant drowned, Ephemera thinks. If she was lucky, she was unconscious. Split her head open on the way down, her helmet lost in the struggle. If she was lucky, she didn't feel it at all when her armor dragged her under. But they've never been all that lucky, have they?

He hopes it hurt when Agent Maine died. He hopes it took a long fucking time. ]

always an angle if you work it. course here nobody stays dead so that's just fun.

[ He wonders if he and Carolina are going to do that dance. Maybe. Probably. But he doesn't know. It feels like he should. ]

[unlawful]

not an ideal locale for us petty bitches is it

( or the perfect one. no theoretical reason they can't murder each other on eternal repeat until someone or something in the city makes them stop. sharkface is a broke bitch who doesn't have shit that he wants, and his business with carolina and washington and the moron simmies concluded on chorus. he's not picking a 1v1 direct fight with freelancer's top agent without an attractive incentive attached to the hit.

nah. it's fun enough needling her from afar, like prodding a cranky and sarcastic bear with a very long stick. )

[requiemshark]

speak for yourself. i'm not petty.

[unlawful]

vindictive
manic
obsessed
try those on for size

[requiemshark]

sure.

[ It's not like this is a surprise. ]

but not petty. i got cause for the shit i do.

[unlawful]

( mmmmmmmmmmmm weeeeeeeeeeeeeell )

sure.
i didn't work in a team so i can't say for sure what i'd do if someone blew them all to hell

[requiemshark]

they were my people and they died shitty fucking deaths. nothing else to say. somebody's gonna answer for it.

[ Not somebody. Carolina and Washington, specifically. ]