anothercontinuity | Red vs Blue Voicetesting Thread

It must be.

[ Which is interesting in its own right. ]

He'd...like that, then?

I believe he would express enthusiastic consent to 'gunplay' as it is called, yes.

[ Taylor better appreciate this, just saying it feels odd. But he is attempting to be supportive. ]

Other common themes include: Being bound in rope, sensory deprivation, and I believe some manner of urethral penetration? Why an antiquated medical procedure is present I do not understand.

That's the one you don't understand?

[ Alright, maybe he's smiling just a little. So little. You can barely even see it. Hardly wide enough to prove anything, really. ]

[ Any percent more than zero is a veritable infinity to Delta- and Locus' amusement is noted. ]

A loss of sight or hearing and binding contribute to the element of 'trust' you emphasized as important in your encounters.

Fair enough.

[ There's a pause, a faint furrow in his brow as he regards Delta. He's not...really all that bad to talk to. Certainly as helpful as York described. There's little guesswork involved here.

Provided he doesn't read too much into what's being said here. ]

I'll ask, when he's awake. With you here, he might actually sleep longer.

He has had difficulty sleeping?

[ Not entirely irregular for someone in this line of work or even for Taylor in particular- but if it feels like something worth noting? It may be worse than he thought. ]

Sometimes.

[ He still remembers the first night FLISS had enlisted his help, when York had sat awake talking to echoes, to nothing at all. If Delta is going to be helpful, maybe he can return the favor.

His eyes shift to the sleeping Taylor. ]

Living with you for such a long time and then not...it affected him. In a lot of ways.

...It is pointless to speculate on possible past actions. And yet-

[ His helmet tilts down, green figure visibly 'walking' to hover over York's shoulder. ]

I occasionally attempt to calculate the likelihood of our separation if I had not rendered him unconscious when he had been shot. If it would have been better to urge him against assisting Agent Texas in her task. Just as it was difficult for him- my existence became... difficult after I was taken.

Whether my return will be fully to our mutual benefit or not I cannot predict as we were both marked by the loss, but I am already feeling more comfortable having been returned to him- but that is but one part of the equation. Taylor has always done best with a grounding influence and social outlet that I am unable to provide.

[ Delta turns, facing Locus, voice...hesitant but sincere. ]

You have done so. Thank you.

Don't thank me. I don't think either of us intended this to become what it has.

[ He grunts quietly, reaching to scratch at the nape of his neck, eyes shifting elsewhere in the room for the moment. ]

...I think I needed him, too. It just happened that we could compensate for what we lacked in each other.

A mutually beneficial partnership on professional and personal levels?

[ For all that some patterns are easy to calculate and easier to manipulate, the human element renders interpersonal relationships chaotic in a way Delta finds vexing. York, however, revels in the spontaneity.

Sometimes. ]

...someone to trust.

Yes.

[ He's hit the heart of it. He trusts Taylor, as much if not more than he trusted Felix. He can't do anything about that void left him, can't do anything about the scars he now bears, but guard his blind side. Try to give him back a piece of what he's lost.

Locus huffs quietly. ]

Something not easy for either of us to come by.

In time he hopes that I will earn the same from you.

[ A beat. A joke of sorts, voice wry. ]

Though I would not engage in same exercises you undergo to prove it.

Fine by me. You're not really my type.

[ Equally as dry.

Well. Looks like Taylor wasn't wrong. They might just get along after all. ]

[ There's a tone, low and tinny and warm- laughter. ]

Aside from a purely aesthetic appreciation of the symmetry of your features, I am likewise unmoved by your appearance. Though the consideration you show Taylor is compelling.

[ One hand waves dismissively. ]

The flattery is unnecessary.

[ Again, he glances towards the dozing Freelancer, a quiet hitch at the corner of his mouth tugging upwards. ]

I...care for him. A great deal.

[ And it's a good thing he's asleep right now. ]

Symmetry and order are appealing to me. You can imagine how unappealing I might have found York's mind when I was assigned to him.

[ Intuitive would be the word, going on instinct as much as logical progression, making leaps, warping patterns- it took far too long to come to appreciate him. ]

He is...concerned, though I do not think he would say so. In the past he has equated physical intimacy for emotional intimacy and it ended poorly. Clarification of where that line lies may be in order.

He delights in puzzles. Patterns. There must have been some part of that you found agreeable.

[ And then his eyes stray away again, fingers curling inward towards his palm. He's still got the gloves on, but it's hard enough to be felt just the same. ]

I won't be of much help, there.

He takes leaps of intuition that I find baffling. At first it was a distraction and seemed a waste of our time and resources. Now I have learned to accept them as simply another part of how his mind works.

[ There is a method to the madness, as York would say. One that takes some time to learn but it has been gratifying to crack that particular code. ]

...Because you yourself does not know?

It's not something I'm familiar with.

[ He's a solider, and it's been easy to look at things as necessary. Then, when they weren't necessary, they were at least beneficial in some way. Learning to anticipate one another's needs and wants could have applications on the field. Having a way to unwind after a mission certainly helped.

The more emotional aspect of it? He's at a loss. ]

I suppose this is what he meant when he said 'you two have a lot in common'. I am familiar from observation but do not quite experience them in the same way.

[ He does feel, after a fashion. But the nuances of human emotional needs, of what York needs? They are things he cannot fulfill. ]

Discussion is unlikely. But...you said he was concerned.

[ That's news to him. He's gotten no notion of Taylor being concerned, though perhaps that's not so surprising. How would he know what to look for? ]

As you mentioned, he delights in patterns and puzzles. Equations with constants and variables. He prefers to know with certainty where it is that he stands. There was...a particular ambiguity in his relationship with Agent Carolina that did not sit well with him. That said ambiguity was encouraged and exacerbated by both the Director and their working relationship did not help matters.

Given his past it is 92.43% likely Taylor would rather he be a constant, not a variable.

And he still sees this as variable.

[ One hand lifts, rubs thoughtfully over his chin. 'Constant' is a difficult thing to define. Nothing lasts forever, after all. There's no telling what waits for them in the future, and if this turns toxic for one reason or another, he won't make false promises of staying through that again.

But this is not 'variable', he thinks. They are partners. That term isn't used lightly, not by him. ]

Your mission and goals are constant in the larger equation that is your professional relationship. Your support in the field, likewise a constant. It is only when stepping back into the parenthetical portion of the equation that is your personal relationship that things become, to him, uncertain. Portions of it are set: preferences, words to avoid, the 'if then' algorithms in response to your mood or your observed behaviors in response to his. These things are certain.

Currently your personal relationship beyond 'partners' and 'friends' is variable in so much that it is undefined. I proposed the usual human label for your arrangement: 'friends with benefits' or more colloquially 'fuckbuddies' but he seemed dissatisfied with both. Perhaps what you have defies definition.

...he wants a name for what we are.

[ Locus's brow furrows. This level of nuance is a little beyond him, but he might have been dissatisfied if someone tried to tell him Taylor was his 'fuckbuddy'. There was more to it than that. The culmination of everything they are, carefully avoiding words that might cast the wrong meaning, the wrong sentiment.

That's the only reason they're not using those terms, surely. ]

We're partners. Isn't that enough?

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