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[Niko has had a little bit of a confusing week. He didn't expect to be asked along on a diplomatic mission; usually not anything he's good at (in his mind). But he came along, figuring he was there as bodyguard more than anything else.]

[But now he's returned, and he wants to check in.]

Hey, ah.... So I just got back. I had to go with Thán for a mission and now he has a new boyfriend for peace purposes I guess. I am not really sure what happened there. Sort of like an arranged marriage? [He's actually kind of suspicious of this whole-matchmaking thing now. He's always disliked match-making on some level, but there is something deeply unsettling about it here. Just how mandatory and committing it seems.]

[He doesn't hate the match he was given, not at all. But he knows there might be people they're even better suited to.]

Look, I am a little nervous about this big business here. Capitalism is shit, government is shit, and is bad enough when taking advantage of lonely people. But I think we are going to have to be sure to be good to the new guy because we saw what happened the last time we fucked up diplomacy.

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Eh. You are not from a country where arranged marriages are a common thing. Even in modern times, people will marry off their children so that they go to new homes, new places.

This is the son of Frederick Link. Youngest, actually. Raised and bred for leadership. You know those special children their company can make? He is one. They had trouble with him in their match system, though, and Thán has been their first chance.

[Despite the explanation that made it all seem commonplace and even potentially advantageous (at least in some cultures), Ratchet wasn't sure he liked it. Things distantly resembling this kind of romantic match-making certainly existed in his universe, but, strictly as an elective. The compulsory nature of Emiri's main business, this idea of finding your one match...was all distinctly, and uncomfortably alien.]

Right. The son of Frederick Link. The - genetically engineered - son of Frederick Link is being sent away from his home...to what? To see other places? This place is technologically advanced...they can't need him to be matched just to travel.

What kind of trouble did they have with matching him?

[Considering the completely irreverant disregard he had treated his own survey with, (and yet it somehow still spat a match at him) Ratchet has a hard time seeing the system having trouble with someone for no good reason. And equally suspicious that it suddenly didn't, when a stranger going on a long journey appears.]

I'm not sure.

I do know that these are wealthy, powerful people, though. If we treat their son like shit, or hurt him? this will be yet another planet with bad rap for us.

[He's not a huge fan of arranged marriage, but he does know that it has its place. This technically isn't one, but it's close enough. Than took this guy with him.]

I am not sure what trouble. They did not say.

Yeah. [Ratchet shakes his head, not liking it. Not liking how they didn't seem to have any choice or say in any of this at all. Not that that was anything new.] I mean, I don't think we should treat him like shit, it's just...I think we need to be careful. This guy could be here just to get information about us. About the captains.

About this ship.

[By now a lot of them knew the ship was unique, after all. Whether that was valuable information to someone, somewhere, was worth considering.]

I agree with you and am thinking the same.

But I am also thinking of diplomacy first this time. [He's seen a lot of bosses start gang wars by accident. It isn't pretty. And he really doesn't want a repeat of the last planet.]

You are in good position to watch for anything strange?

As good as any. [Unseen, he drags a hand down his face. The last thing he wanted was another disastrous PR incident. They had to handle things better this time...assuming it came to that, that is.] Diplomacy I agree with. I just worry the captains don't. They didn't handle that last one so hot.

But...yeah. I'll keep a look out, even if I have...no idea what I'm looking for anymore.

To be honest at this rate I do not either. We have so much strange shit that I never know what to be prepared for. If man takes over ship I guess someone will figure it out soon enough.

Probably a bad idea with some of the people on board.

...Actually sending him with us is a big risk. Assassins? People who are strong enough to break buildings? Bounty Hunters? Gods? Thieves? Murderers? Pirates? And then creepy things in locked rooms? What is wrong with his parents?

I hope his parents aren't just trying to get rid of him.

Well. I guess to be honest it did not seem diplomatic to mention all of those things on board. But ah... people gave a lot of personal information anyway. They can look it up.

Aha, right...personal information. [Ratchet would like to think that people on board had been smart enough to not just pour their heart and soul into those surveys but...well. It wasn't fair to assume they all came from cultures that might take advantage of that kind of thing, either.] What's your read on all that...do they really seem like they believe in this matchmaking that Link'd Inc. does?

I don't don't if this is just a cultural gap, or what, but I can't get my head around how an entire planet's worth of people could put their faith in a glorified dating site.

They are sending him to prove they believe in it.

But I do not.

A person is who they are for today. Tomorrow, they will not be exactly the same. Nor the day after. Two people who have all things in common may not connect in emotions, and someone who connects in emotions may be just too fucked up to handle a relationship with someone else.

Or nothing in common at all, and all the right feelings. They're trying to turn something really insubstantial into a commodity...pretty messed up if you ask me.

I like your thinking, but I bet Link'd Inc doesn't. That kind of thinking can't fit into their system very well. [He frowns.] I wonder what they do if someone doesn't like who they pick.

I don't know what it means for them. For us, this will end when we go.

But as with any place with arranged relationships, it is more of a complicated subject than to just say it is wrong. To those sorts of places, people are expected to learn to love each other. It is obligation, and it is this obligation and common interest that lets them fall in love.

Is sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. If they act like they believe it hard enough, if people think they believe it. Then the two people who hope and want can find love for each other.

But then sometimes you end up with some asshole who ends up beating the shit out of his wife. [Like his father.] And it makes you a bad guy to leave so she must do what is necessary to make it work.

Well, if I wasn't sold on the idea before...

[He frowns, hopes Niko doesn't take his sarcasm as dismissive.]

Seriously, though. Complex or not, it's hard to ignore a ship full of people who feel like they're being strong-armed into something they don't want to do. [He thinks of Jacky messaging him, near hysterical when she'd gotten the news. Sure it wasn't life or death, it wasn't being forced with a gun to your head or being told to murder people, but...well, nobody liked being forced to do something they didn't want to do.]

Yes.

I guess we know a lot about what that's like, don't we?

[Sort of sad about that.]

Yeah. I guess we do.

[Way too much, really.]

I can't decide if that puts us at an advantage or not.

I have been through a lot of shit in my life. As long as I can remember. I think if it did not put me at some advantage, I would have nothing.

[At least experience is something.]

Hm. That's one way of looking at it. Not a bad way, really. [Ratchet pauses, curiosity pushing a question forward, although he's uncertain if he should ask it.]

Niko... [He hesitates.] What did you do before you came here?

[It's not a loaded question. Niko's comments, on top of of others he's made in the past, have made Ratchet realise he doesn't know much about him, and that clearly, there's a lot to know.]

Do you really want to know?

[He asks, knowing Ratchet is not a fan of certain behaviors. And despite what Ratchet has read publicly, maybe he wouldn't actually want to hear about it.]

Yes. Of course.

[It does give him pause though, but at this point, he'd rather know then not know.]

[Well. He might as well be honest.]

I was a nobody.

I was born a shitty farmboy on a shitty farm in the middle of a tiny village. Then I grew up in a war with a bunch of other farmboys who became shitty soldiers with me, because all the men died. Or they were useless, abusive drunks as my father. I watched them all shot down on a hillside. Out of fifteen, only three survived, the two of us that ran, and the third that betrayed us.

Then there was no one to protect the village. I learned to kill, but I could not kill an army then. The enemy came to our town, murdered my aunt in her home, invaded my mothers farm and use it to sell arms and crack. My uncle, my father, don't even die in battle. They are killed by their own drinking.

But me, I am a nobody, and after the war there are no jobs. So I work for people who know I can use a gun, who know I can survive. I survive fight after fight. I survive boats sinking and bombs blowing up. I smuggle. I steal. I am an assassin. First small time people, then important ones. Because as a grown man, I can take down an entire army, the protection for even the most important people. And I do it all so that my family does not have to hurt for money. I have fought for my whole life.

I kill government officials, crime bosses, senators, spies, lawyers and activists. I kill good people and bad people because I don't know who the fuck these people are, if they are truly good. I just know the people I need to protect are. I never become more important. I am still the yokel, the peasant, the 'dumb immigrant fuck' they ask to do these things. I can kill fifty guards set to protect a target indiscriminately. Apparently I can even kill a planet for those few good people. Even my name means nobody. So, that is what I was, and that is what I am.

I was also a cab driver. Happy end to story.

Niko...

[There's a long pause. Ratchet's not sure what to say. He's not sure what to feel about any of that.]

Niko. Shit.

Don't seem so surprised. Here, there are plenty of people that are hired to kill, or have killed many. [Including Ratchet.]

But I guess it bothers people a little different. Some people do not give a fuck. Some do. Me, after the shit my country and my bosses pulled, after things America itself has asked me to do, I can say with good impression that I do not like this kind of system.

Yeah. I....I guess I'm not surprised. [That sounds bad, but he's sure Niko gets his meaning.]

It's just...hearing it all laid out like that. It doesn't change anything, but. I dunno. It sucks. There's so much of this crap.

[He rubs the side of his face, makes a frustrated noise, that goes well with how articulate he's feeling.]

It doesn't even bother me that much anymore. Not like it should.

You are a good person.

But that is the thing that lets you know you are still capable of being one. I actually don't mind some of this stuff so much anymore. It's just shit that happens. You do what you must do.

But it still bothers you that it doesn't bother you. That's how my head has been for a very long time. You still have some principles, some integrity.