hippie_ninja | IC INBOX

hippie_ninja

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

konstant

The brief, almost guilty moment where he slides a look at Jesus and away again is so subtle and understated that anyone who knows him less well would have missed it altogether.

It's a dead giveaway that he's seen something. Something maybe someone didn't want him to see.

"She talks to you, doesn't she?" he hedges, suddenly very interested in unscrewing his bottlecap.

From:

hippie_ninja

"She does. But she holds a lot back because she wants me not to worry." She wants him to adapt to his new life here, to just enjoy the men he has around him now. He knows there are things she doesn't say.

He rounds on his boyfriend, looking up at him to catch his eye. "What's wrong? What am I missing?"

From:

konstant

It draws K up short, considering Jesus, considering what he can read now in someone he both cares about and owes loyalty to; someone he wants to help, and that he doesn't lie to, even if he were so inclined.

Rosita hasn't told K anything, at least not that she's aware of. He wonders, not for the first time, if she even knows anything about him, about what being a replicant - a blade runner - means.

"She's desperate, when she's out here," he says quietly. "She buries it, but that's what drives most of what's happening here."

From:

hippie_ninja

He frowns and shakes his head slightly. "What do you mean, desperate? Besides just worrying about getting this place in shape before winter?"

From:

konstant

K considers it, doesn't want to mistake what he's seen in a woman he doesn't know very well.

But that drive is as clearcut as it is separate from what he's mentioned, so he nods.

"Something more. That's all practical. She's certain of being able to do that part." She can control that, or at least thinks she can. "What she hides doesn't match what she shows."

From:

hippie_ninja

He sighs, and he nudges K to follow him, to walk with him around the property. "I know... I know she's had a hard time since Dinah and Jacob have been gone. Is it about the contract?"

From:

konstant

K comes up to his feet willingly, pulling his shirt back on after dunking it in the creek now that he's not as hot from the work.

But he has to shake his head. "She doesn't talk to me much." Certainly not about that. "It's not how the mod works. I can attach the feelings she has for the work she's doing here because she's told me about it. I know what combination of things ties back to you because I've seen you together. Other than things like that, I'm guessing blind."

Almost as an afterthought, he offers, "She has brown eyes."

From:

hippie_ninja

"She does," Jesus agrees with mild amusement and confusion. "Do brown eyes change what you can learn from her?"

From:

konstant

"Dark eyes do," he explains, lightly apologetic.

"They're harder to measure and read than light eyes. Harder to be sure of."

He is, nonetheless, sure of what he says.

From:

hippie_ninja

"She's pretty easy to read when you get to know her. She doesn't pretend the way a lot of people do." So he trusts whatever K has found.

"Tell me what's wrong? What you've seen?"

From:

konstant

It's another statement that gets kind of an odd look from K, both because he can say otherwise - although he agrees it's probably not intentional - and because he hasn't gotten to know Rosita. She has made it blatantly clear that she is not interested in him getting to know her.

They're friends. They've been friends for a long time. K hedges again, rubbing his thumb through the condensation on the outside of his water bottle.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything." Maybe it isn't his business.

From:

hippie_ninja

"You're starting to worry me now. What is it, K?" He looks up at him intently.

From:

konstant

"I'm not trying to," he answers, brow furrowed.

"What I can do - it's not mindreading, but especially when people don't know that I can do it, it's a bit like telling their secrets without them knowing. That's what it's for. To pull out secrets." And Rosita is not necessarily a secretive person, but she is a private one.

"But she's either lying to herself, or choosing to ignore a lot of things that are still going to come out anyway."

From:

hippie_ninja

"Like what?"

He doesn't know how honest Rosita is with herself. But he does know she ignores things she shouldn't sometimes.

From:

konstant

"She's afraid of her SIN uniform," he finally says, quietly.

"And she's grieving." He already said the desperation part, and he wishes he could be more specific, but he hasn't gone digging for it.

From:

hippie_ninja

It isn't mind reading. He can't ask K why she feels these things. But he can ask Rosita.

"I think I'll spend the night here," he murmurs.

From:

konstant

K nods towards where he was working on the fields.

"I was just hoping that maybe getting some of this done would help with some kind of... peace." He returns his attention to Jesus. "But I think she just adds something else to the list. That's... the best I can say, without asking her other questions."

He's searching Jesus's face now. "Does any of this make sense?"

From:

hippie_ninja

"It does. And I'm glad you told me. I think she tries to... Hide some things she feels from me to make things easier on me." Which he understands but it's not the right way to do things here.

"I'll check in with her."

From:

konstant

"She loves you."

She loves the man in black he's seen around her before too. Loves. But it's not what she prefers to show, or at least the way she does show it isn't the same as most.

"A lot."

From:

hippie_ninja

His expression softens. He'll never get used to being loved; it will always startle him. He'll never take it for granted.

"Did you know she picked up I was falling for you before I knew it?"

From:

konstant

"She's smart about other people." She's watchful, and she doesn't miss much. He's watched her pick out the same most likely threat in a space as he has.

"But I've watched her... Choose not to let it mean what it means when she notices something."

From:

hippie_ninja

"You mean when it's about Carver?" He knows she holds him as far at a distance as she can manage, that she sometimes lies to herself about what his gestures mean even when they're clear.

From:

konstant

"Sometimes. Or when she recognizes someone isn't a threat, but still keeps them at a distance."

That one's something he's seen directed to himself.

From:

hippie_ninja

"With you... She's not afraid of you. She's afraid that me loving you will hurt me." Because K is so gentle, and willing to take so much abuse to keep being kind.