hadriel | [text] there is water at the bottom of the ocean

[Originally, it started out as a well-meaning adventurous foray for personal edification, yadda, yadda, yadda. Time moves so slowly in Hadriel that Nate has been clawing at ways to occupy it, and since he's exhausted the library of any texts that aren't in gibberish it stands to reason he might seek personal fulfillment elsewhere. After waking up with the usual restlessness he considered the wide expanse of lakeside real estate out his window and thought, yeah, a swim sounds nice.

The swim was less than nice.

Several minor explosions and some (honestly) impressive spell-work later sees him soaked to the skin but otherwise unscathed outside of minor lacerations on one arm - there's really only so much you can do when trying to evade a shark with two fucking heads - scribbling quickly in a notebook with the sort of fervor reserved for the truly mad. Lake-adjacent, blessedly on the shore with a towel slung around bare shoulders, he quickly snaps a photograph of his work with his phone and hits SEND TO ALL.

The message is as follows:]

does anyone know what the hell this is
i found it at the bottom of the lake

Attachment: [monster.jpg]

p.s. don't go swimming in the lake

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[A brief glance down at his arm tells Nate that he’ll be finished in no time, and can therefore avoid serious personal discussion, but he’s actually kind of enjoying this. A give-and-take isn’t nearly as bad as someone asking you to lie back on a couch and tell them about your childhood. At least Lance can hold a decent conversation.]

Could be worse. You could not know any Spanish and still try to speak it as if you did.

[He flashes a quick grin.]

I don’t get to use it as much anymore – being multilingual kinda went with the territory in my old job.

[Lances winces at that first comment, not because of anything to do with himself personally, but because--]

I had a roommate who did that. He was terrible.

[Not just for that particular thing; he was terrible in general. Still is, really, or at least he was last time Lance ran into him a few years ago.

And okay, don't think he won't zero in on that last part there.]

What was your old job?

[Everyone knows somebody who would confidently tried to charm their way through a foreign language they didn’t know that well. Nate can say without hesitation that that person is his brother, followed closely by one Victor Sullivan. He knows too many Rico Suaves.

Nate is, in fact, two seconds away from saying so out-loud when he realizes he made a mistake in getting too comfortable, and will now be forced to volunteer less savory information about himself. Trapped as he is by Lance’s stitches and suspiciously inquisitive eyebrow gymnastics, he doesn’t really see the sense in lying (poorly) when it isn’t as though his job was one-hundred percent illegal one-hundred percent of the time.

Just…most of the time.]

Uh. Sort of a- …like, antiquities acquisition. Travel the world- [Find lost cities.] –see the sights- [Shoot bad guys.] Find artifacts for clients.

[...Okay, that explanation actually makes some sense; it's clear there's a lot of story behind it, and he feels like this is a very sanitized description, but it rings truer to him than any of Nate's other previous comments about his profession.

So he decides to accept it for now, not exceptionally bothered by the likely illegal nature of Nate's particular brand of 'antiquities acquisition'; sure, it's possible it was completely above board, but he doesn't think Nate would've been so hesitant to reveal it. Still, that's way out of Lance's jurisdiction as far as legality goes, and he also just doesn't really care to judge in general. Even if he did, he'd be careful not to show it; he doesn't want to discourage the honestly.]

Didn't you tell me something about a mercenary army?

[He hazily remembers a conversation just after his arrival that involved the subject, but the details are muddled for several reasons.]

I guess that makes a little more sense now. Not a lot, but a little.

[Damn, he did mention Nadine's guys, didn't he? Hot out of Scotland and all alone and Nate wasn't thinking too carefully about the kind of crap he fed to anyone else, because there was no point in keeping too quiet if Shoreline wasn't around to blow his head off with some misplaced dynamite.]

Occupational hazard.

[Nate quips with lighthearted ease and an equally reassuring smile.]

And, uh, professional competition. It's a cutthroat business.

Literally, right?

[He says it dryly, clearly just as amused with himself as Nate is with his own answer, just expressing it with the opposite tone. And, for good measure--]

We've had a few cases where the murder victim was in the same business, more or less. That said, the one that died of blood loss did so from a severed brachial artery, not the jugular or carotid, but close enough.

[He glances up from what he's doing once more, offering just enough of a smirk to make it clear he's being unhelpful on purpose. Sass begets sass, after all.]

[Literally. Sometimes, sure, but Nate is more of a guns guy than a knife guy. He isn't out there shivving people in the gut when they disagree with him.

At least Lance doesn't point out the truth in Nate's statement, although he doesn't exactly mince his words when it comes to the obvious dangers, either. Nate has the feeling that Lance is assuming his job is more "murderer for hire" and less "treasure hunter," but he won't be the one admitting to any particular distinctions right now.]

Been there, done that, not really planning on bleeding out again.

[Joke's on Lance, Nate already almost died in the Himalayan Alps with a bullet in his stomach once. Suck it, Death!]

[Lance would actually be far less chill with the entire thing if he thought Nate were more the murderer for hire type; considering he's pretty sure he's going to die at home because of one of those kinds of people, he's not all that fond of them. Even less so than he was before that, anyway.

But no, the two murder victims he's thinking of had just been collectors who had gotten mixed up with the wrong people; they hadn't even been overtly reckless, unlike some people.

At Nate's comment Lance's vaguely amused expression fades, and he refocuses on tying off the last stitch in that set.]

Once is definitely enough.

[His tone is too casual and neutral to actually be either of those things; he doesn't like the idea that Nate has gone through such a thing--even if it's not surprising--and Lance is also speaking from his own experience. It's not exactly one of those things anyone wants to repeat.]

[text] there is water at the bottom of the ocean

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