"They've got more to worry about anyway, right now, than the two of us. The post-inauguration stuff will keep them busy for a few weeks. Reshuffling staff, all of that. Rebooting the country, or whatever the hell it is they plan on doing. We can probably get away with a little more while they're distracted before we have to worry about keeping more quiet."
Higgs snorts. "The Bossman in the mask is the President now? The UCA ain't gonna last very long at all." A shame, maybe.
He doesn't care, though, because it means that it'll be easier for them to lie under the radar. "Good for us, at least, and anyone else who's laying especially low."
Sam snorts derisively and sets Lou back down into her little nest for the time being. Until they get the crib here and set up.
"President Diehard-Man. Can you believe it. No fuck that, I can. They just want to keep things going the way she would have wanted them. In loving memory, or whatever bullshit."
That's so ridiculous, Higgs can't help but laugh. "Create a hero out of a monster, hm? Figures. If people knew the truth, they might decide to leave the UCA."
...maybe it's best not to dwell on that. After all, Peter Englert is a member. "It's not like he can wave as much power as the presidents of old. The UCA is goddamn tiny."
Stretched out across an entire continent, sure, but there aren't many people living in the cities, not like they used to anyway. "Since I don't have any places to cook, I thought I'd go ahead and get us already cooked stuff. It'd better not arrive cold."
Sam had wondered about that. He'd probably joined, best as Sam can figure, to get full access to everything the chiral network has to offer. He decides not to comment on it, and instead concentrate on the cooking aspect of the conversation.
"We could get one of those little hotplate things. Just a single burner, set it up somewhere on the desk -- away from computers and books. That way we don't have to wait for a porter whenever we want food."
Well, he'd actually set "Peter Englert" to auto-join after he'd already resigned himself to an eternity on the Beach. It had been a parting gift to Sam, some tiny bit of an olive branch. That final, annoying prepper who always asked too much of him deciding the UCA wasn't so bad after all.
Even in the depths of his insanity and scrawling hatred of Sam all over his journal and walls, it had never really been personal.
He doesn't say anything about that, though, just looks at Sam thoughtfully. "Sure. Whatever you want to get. You can put the order in now, if you'd like."
The FUCK YOU SAM!!! messages on the wall is slightly distracting, but he's able to ignore it well enough. It's a complex relationship, they have.
It takes a little bit of poking. He's more used to be on the other side of the terminal, picking up orders and dropping them off. But he does find what he's looking for and puts an order in for it. Just a simple little hotplate, a pot, a pan, and some basic nonperishable food items. Something to get them started.
Well, Higgs should. It's not exactly a great environment for anyone to be in.
He's starting to accept that this is permanent. It's not a dream, not some elaborate DOOMS-related hallucination. Why Sam is even bothering, he's not sure, but neither of them are the sort to say something they don't mean. "I used to spend a lot of time in here just waiting around. I got pretty good at predicting how long it would take certain porters. You were easy, 'cause you're always so goddamn fast."
"That's me. The Great Deliverer." It's said with a healthy dose of dryness as he sends off his new order. Sam always pushed himself hard. Harder than he should, probably. He has scars on his back and shoulders from where the pack dug in. His feet are always beat to shit, despite the BRIDGES tech boots he wears. They're just not made for how hard and how far Sam goes.
Honestly, he might as well make this his permanent base; Higgs isn't trustworthy, not yet, but he's honest. He'd tell Sam to his face that he was going to turn him in, rather than go behind his back to do it. There's an odd sort of comfort in that.
"You're not worried at all about Porter Syndrome?" It's a joke. Mostly. But he's heard of those lifers who get restless when they try to settle down and end up going straight back to the delivering. And then there are MULEs, which are a whole other problem.
Higgs laughs. "I hear it's not as big of a problem as it used to be. Bridges does all sorts of blood-chiralium tests for people it thinks might be at risk. Creepy, eh?" He shrugs, though, clearly not actually bothered by the idea.
"Maybe they'll actually send out one of those robot things instead of a person."
Well they stole enough of his fucking blood while he slept that the idea doesn't seemed farfetched at all.
"I tried sending out a robot a couple times. Always came back with Cs, I think maybe one B. They're far from perfect, and some things need a delicate touch. Let's hope our breakfast comes with a human."
Higgs snorts. "The one I saw did look pretty damn delicate." Whose brilliant idea had it been, anyway? Leave it to Bridges to take the person out of a job that involves contact with other humans.
He falls quiet after that, though, clearly not sure what to do with himself. This is so new to him. He's never talked so much with somebody, as far as he remembers. Maybe when he was quiet young, but even then he's not sure.
"They've got little boots. Little Bridges boots. Not sure why." Sam has always been more of a listener than a talker, but then again he hadn't had a lot of people willing to listen to him. He feels like he's making up for years of being talked at by being the one doing the talking.
There's an alert that one of their deliveries is here, and Sam gestures for Higgs to take over the computer and accept the order.
He'd never gotten close enough to one of them to notice anything so ridiculous. But as the delivery alert sounds, he's back to knowing what to do.
He taps at the computer for a couple of minutes. "Oh, good. Breakfast's here." He accepts the order, giving the porter a specifically eccentric amount of likes, just as Peter Englert always does.
There are advantages to making it a habit of never showing your face; people tend not to think anything of it.
"I always appreciated the likes I got from you. You were always one of my best customers." And the S ratings didn't hurt, either.
When the delivery comes down, there's a several larger boxes strapped together that he assumes has the baby things in it, and then a regular container for their food. Sam sets the food on the desk, and pushes the other containers in the corner to deal with after he gets some food.
"We might have to move your cot for a minute, to see how the crib goes together. Then we can put it back."
Higgs gives a little shrug at that. "Sure," he says, already standing back up to prop the cot up and out of the way.
"You don't seem so bothered at the idea that your sworn enemy was the one givin' you all those orders." It's a little funny, if he thinks about it. It's too absurd not to be funny. The fact that they're actually apparently getting along is, well...
He's not going to think about it, to be honest. "I'm impressed. It's all in good condition, too. Usually with some of the less experienced ones you get your shit damaged." Maybe that's why porters are starting to go out in teams more often. Huh.
Sam starts unpacking crib parts while he thinks. Sworn enemy doesn't... feel right. He never thought of Higgs like that. "I never saw you as a sworn enemy. I think because Amelie never seemed hurt whenever she contacted me. Desperate, yeah. But not hurt. The Homo Demens were keeping her, but treating her well. At she never once asked to be rescued. She never asked me to forget about the network or delivering supplies to people in order to come save her, first. I would have dropped everything, if she had.
You seemed determined to make me your enemy, though," he adds, gesturing to the wall.
Well, there's something he hadn't expected. Especially with how Sam had punched him so at their final meeting.
He doesn't say anything right away, once again looking completely thrown by something Sam has said. "To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly certain where that came from. I wasn't... you weren't even on my radar before She told me about you."
"I'm still not sure why she did that. Pointed us at each other. Maybe for entertainment. Maybe she did really want you to take me out, but not until after I finished all her work for her."
He shakes his head and grabs his breakfast, leaning against the wall as he digs in. "I feel like I never actually knew her at all."
"I'm... I don't know." He looks at a complete loss for a long while. "I saw the future. I never saw myself winning, but I always thought I could change that."
He shakes his head, rubbing at his temple. "It doesn't matter."
He doesn't know what to do with Sam's confession. It's not like Higgs had truly known Her either, though he hadn't cared about that so much at the time. He'd just needed to know Her message.
"I had visions of the two of you. Trapping her in your web, stabbing her. And those damned baby dolls. Now I realize I was only seeing what she wanted me to see."
Sam sighs and sets the rest of his breakfast. "You're right. It doesn't matter. Not now, not anymore."
He's not sure what to do with Sam's visions, because it's just more of the same for him, really. More bullshit fed to them by someone who had never had interest in the people she manipulated, beyond what use they had for her.
He exhales a slow breath and scrubs his hands over his face. "Why don't you grab some breakfast. I'm going to see about setting up Lou's crib."
Sam carefully tucks Lou onto the cot so she doesn't get hurt while he's assembling things. He starts unpacking, stacking supplies and blankets in the corner as he finds them. When it looks like he has all the pieces of the crib in one place, he settles on the floor to start assembling things.
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He doesn't care, though, because it means that it'll be easier for them to lie under the radar. "Good for us, at least, and anyone else who's laying especially low."
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"President Diehard-Man. Can you believe it. No fuck that, I can. They just want to keep things going the way she would have wanted them. In loving memory, or whatever bullshit."
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...maybe it's best not to dwell on that. After all, Peter Englert is a member. "It's not like he can wave as much power as the presidents of old. The UCA is goddamn tiny."
Stretched out across an entire continent, sure, but there aren't many people living in the cities, not like they used to anyway. "Since I don't have any places to cook, I thought I'd go ahead and get us already cooked stuff. It'd better not arrive cold."
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"We could get one of those little hotplate things. Just a single burner, set it up somewhere on the desk -- away from computers and books. That way we don't have to wait for a porter whenever we want food."
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Even in the depths of his insanity and scrawling hatred of Sam all over his journal and walls, it had never really been personal.
He doesn't say anything about that, though, just looks at Sam thoughtfully. "Sure. Whatever you want to get. You can put the order in now, if you'd like."
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It takes a little bit of poking. He's more used to be on the other side of the terminal, picking up orders and dropping them off. But he does find what he's looking for and puts an order in for it. Just a simple little hotplate, a pot, a pan, and some basic nonperishable food items. Something to get them started.
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Well, Higgs should. It's not exactly a great environment for anyone to be in.
He's starting to accept that this is permanent. It's not a dream, not some elaborate DOOMS-related hallucination. Why Sam is even bothering, he's not sure, but neither of them are the sort to say something they don't mean. "I used to spend a lot of time in here just waiting around. I got pretty good at predicting how long it would take certain porters. You were easy, 'cause you're always so goddamn fast."
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Honestly, he might as well make this his permanent base; Higgs isn't trustworthy, not yet, but he's honest. He'd tell Sam to his face that he was going to turn him in, rather than go behind his back to do it. There's an odd sort of comfort in that.
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Being a porter is a shit job, and so many people aren't even grateful at the end of the day.
"We can leave the work to the fools who haven't realized Bridges doesn't pay them worth a shit yet, right?"
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"Maybe they'll actually send out one of those robot things instead of a person."
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"I tried sending out a robot a couple times. Always came back with Cs, I think maybe one B. They're far from perfect, and some things need a delicate touch. Let's hope our breakfast comes with a human."
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He falls quiet after that, though, clearly not sure what to do with himself. This is so new to him. He's never talked so much with somebody, as far as he remembers. Maybe when he was quiet young, but even then he's not sure.
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There's an alert that one of their deliveries is here, and Sam gestures for Higgs to take over the computer and accept the order.
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He'd never gotten close enough to one of them to notice anything so ridiculous. But as the delivery alert sounds, he's back to knowing what to do.
He taps at the computer for a couple of minutes. "Oh, good. Breakfast's here." He accepts the order, giving the porter a specifically eccentric amount of likes, just as Peter Englert always does.
There are advantages to making it a habit of never showing your face; people tend not to think anything of it.
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When the delivery comes down, there's a several larger boxes strapped together that he assumes has the baby things in it, and then a regular container for their food. Sam sets the food on the desk, and pushes the other containers in the corner to deal with after he gets some food.
"We might have to move your cot for a minute, to see how the crib goes together. Then we can put it back."
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"You don't seem so bothered at the idea that your sworn enemy was the one givin' you all those orders." It's a little funny, if he thinks about it. It's too absurd not to be funny. The fact that they're actually apparently getting along is, well...
He's not going to think about it, to be honest. "I'm impressed. It's all in good condition, too. Usually with some of the less experienced ones you get your shit damaged." Maybe that's why porters are starting to go out in teams more often. Huh.
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You seemed determined to make me your enemy, though," he adds, gesturing to the wall.
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Well, there's something he hadn't expected. Especially with how Sam had punched him so at their final meeting.
He doesn't say anything right away, once again looking completely thrown by something Sam has said. "To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly certain where that came from. I wasn't... you weren't even on my radar before She told me about you."
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He shakes his head and grabs his breakfast, leaning against the wall as he digs in. "I feel like I never actually knew her at all."
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"I'm... I don't know." He looks at a complete loss for a long while. "I saw the future. I never saw myself winning, but I always thought I could change that."
He shakes his head, rubbing at his temple. "It doesn't matter."
He doesn't know what to do with Sam's confession. It's not like Higgs had truly known Her either, though he hadn't cared about that so much at the time. He'd just needed to know Her message.
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Sam sighs and sets the rest of his breakfast. "You're right. It doesn't matter. Not now, not anymore."
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He's not sure what to do with Sam's visions, because it's just more of the same for him, really. More bullshit fed to them by someone who had never had interest in the people she manipulated, beyond what use they had for her.
"Nothing we can do about it, really."
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Sam carefully tucks Lou onto the cot so she doesn't get hurt while he's assembling things. He starts unpacking, stacking supplies and blankets in the corner as he finds them. When it looks like he has all the pieces of the crib in one place, he settles on the floor to start assembling things.
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