thisavrou | (no subject)

☄ Audio
Hello, I'm Niko Bellic. And I'm in charge of the Cargo Bay...

Except, I do not think I want to be. I have been working there for eleven months. [Back when he wanted to avoid fighting, when he wanted to attempt his route of being peaceful and avoid conflict, it had been helpful. Even more so when he wanted to avoid his initial job in the then-existent bar; yes, he sometimes drinks, but he couldn't tolerate the constant presence of habitual drunkards. Alcoholism never left good impressions with him. Being given the Cargo Bay position had been great. He had quiet time, could drive loaders, could do mindless work. But now? Not so much...] If I go, though, there will be very few other workers to handle everything. [And he's not such a prick that he'd leave them to suffer the work alone.] Would anyone be willing to go in there? Because I would like to do something else now.

Also after this whole ship rearranging thing, it has been a lot of work, I have done a lot of moving, and I would kind of like to play some darts or something. [This grumpy Serb just sounds tired as hell today.] Luckily a game that doesn't require any power to play.

Let me know, ah?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cards was something else he'd cheat at or lie about or whatever.

Don't get me wrong he was a good guy, genuinely had a good soul. It didn't make him a bad person. But he is about hip deep in bullshit. [Genuine familial love there.]

I'll be in the lounge.

Actually, you ever played pool? Billiards?

Sure. I mean, I think so-- it's probably the same game, or close enough.

Alright, come play a game of poke-the-ball-in-the-pocket-with-a-stick with me. I'll be in the lounge.

Sure.

[The distraction doesn't hurt; after all, even with their new focus on efficiency, the truth of space travel is there's a hell of a lot of waiting around. He heads down to the lounge, surprised at how eager he is considering this isn't usually his game.]

You'll have to let me know if I get the rules wrong.

[Niko's sitting on the edge of the pool table and moves off it when Han arrives. It's Liberty City fare, something he stole when he had a chance to go home, with the usual well-loved-in-a-bar look to it. Not as immaculate as some of the things on the ship.]

[He grabs a pool cue and offers it to Han.]

Depends on the type of game you would want to play. How about 8-Ball?

That's the black one last?

[He looks it over-- the cue first, then the table. Close enough to familiar, though like so many things it looks less complicated than he's used to. Earth games, he guesses, don't tend to force fields or electric scoring.

Well, he can work with it.]

You'll have to show me some space type games sometime. I don't know about cards but a lot of the other stuff I'm not bad at.

[He holds up a striped ball from the rack, before settling it back in.] I'll take stripes. You break.

But the card games are the best.

[Flashing a grin, he nods and moves around the table, moving the rack and leaning over to line up his shot.]

If they ever bring the power back up...

[It's a clean enough break. This isn't his pastime of choice, but he's not terrible at it.]

[He waits to see if any of the balls go into the holes, and when they're all of Han's color choice, he steps back to give him run of the table.]

So ah, you're a pilot, yeah? I'm thinking of transferring to that. So far has it been pretty straight-forward there?

Pretty much.

[Lining up his next shot, he pauses.]

A little action against that other ship. [He shrugs a shoulder.] Otherwise it's pretty quiet. Less heavy lifting than what you're doing, I bet.

[With a small smile he shoots, but fails to sink a ball.]

Yeah. [He agrees with that, with a light shrug as he chalks the end of his cue.] Believe it or not, I like the loading equipment. But people don't give a fuck what they do in there and it's not as if I can really stop them.

[He takes a shot, sinks one ball.]

But flying? Driving? That I miss.

[The next one he makes, but the one after he misses.]

I get that. If they put me anywhere else I'd've put up a fight.

[He's been at it too long, the idea of doing anything but flying is plain uncomfortable. As unfavorably as he'll compare the transporters to the Falcon, he's even come to like the little shuttles. It's just the way he is.]

You do a lot of that where you're from?

Mostly. Planet vehicles. Not spaceships until about two years ago [when he first got dragged out into space] but I learn quick. When it comes to any sort of vehicle anyway.

What about you. You pretty at home in there?

Mmhmm.

[Lining up his shot with apparent lazy ease, he doesn't look up.]

The freighter-- that's mine, from home. Had her for years.

That big one that is kind of a teardrop shape? Yeah, I know that one.

Where did you get it? It's a pretty good looking ship.

[It's big and it looks like it can be roughed up- that's Niko's definition of "good looking". He doesn't know what the qualifiers are for Han's neck of the woods.]

[Flattery will get you everywhere, Niko, if it's aimed at his ship. It's obvious from the pleased look on his face that he appreciates the compliment. Han Solo is ridiculously proud of that rustbucket of his.]

I won it in a card game.

[The bragging tone is also pretty obvious. Subtlety is not his game.]

She's the fastest ship in the galaxy. Our galaxy. I don't know yet about this one.

See, if it had been my cousin? He would have lost it, and I would have had to kill or grievously injure some guy to get it back.

[He'll add in grievously injure in case Han isn't too fond of the idea of killing, but yeah Niko would straight up kill someone who took things from his cousin.]

He definitely would have lost. I hope you have better luck with debt collectors.

The guy I won it off lost it fair and square. We get along.

[Mostly.

No, entirely, these days.]

Debt collectors... That's another thing.

Most of the debt collectors I know are assholes. I am certain, because I've been hired as one. Whenever I do it? I feel like an asshole.

I've had to beat them up, too, when they come for my cousin.

[No guilt there.]

Lucky they can't find you here. Or even if they did is not like they are able to do anything about it.

Exactly. A bounty doesn't mean much if there's no one around to pay up.