🚬 Lucky Strike

danse v : it’s not my fault i keep stepping on your feet.

Jamie most def salsa dances with Danse when they have some time alone.

In most cases he respects the Sole Survivor, whether or not he LIKES the sole survivor depends on the individual.

Typically speaking since he’s a lieutenant he’s more than willing to offer guidance or advice to the Sole Survivor should he/she actually ask. 

He’s usually pretty quiet around the Sole Survivor otherwise.

More often than not Jamie’s knee jerk response to a Sole Survivor who isn’t high of affinity with him when asked ‘Your thoughts’ is ‘What is the relevance of that question?’

Most of the time Jamie falls in the category of ‘hard to please’ since he’s very loyal to the Minutemen but at the same time quite fickle about his views on the Commonwealth.

The only instance where he doesn’t show respect for a Sole Survivor is when they align with the Brotherhood.

The former Paladin is not one to hand out affectionate touches so easily. The male was a hard case to break, difficult to ease into true trust – especially after his exile from the Brotherhood and the betrayal of those he believed to be his family – and difficult to find true comfort in the presence of others, rather than merely annoyance or tolerance. Jamie was a rare case – oh, such a rare case in deed. Despite the intolerance in some of their daily conversations, it did nothing to impede upon what the male meant to Danse – and what those feelings did to his chest in the strangest ways that he knew. Feelings that, even now, Danse was not completely accustomed to. But, the touch to his lower back was done without hesitance, nor did he make a big show of it before his hand fell away and he was following Jamie’s gesture with his eyes. Once they begin moving, Danse follows him without a word – eyes skimming the Wastes and trying to ignore the reflex of the burn of anger at the imagery of the Prydwen floating in the sky nearby. The harsh twist in his gut that forced him to tear his eyes away from it, instead pulling his focus back to Jamie as Jamie spoke. “Regardless, I believe we can handle it.”

His glare is cast from Danse to the Prydwen and then back again before he grumbles quietly to himself, the cigarette tucked behind his ear still unlit and perhaps that wasn’t exactly wise. He knew Danse HATED the smoking but that never much fazed him before. Now he tried to avoid doing it around Danse as more of a courtesy. After a second though he speaks this time, is index finger turning Danse’s chin from the Prydwen just before the man turns his neck of his own volition.

He arches his brows downward a bit showing a mix of frustration and concern before shutting his eyes and shaking his head with a sigh.

“That is precisely what I was referring to.”

Of course that’s a bit of a stretch but he knows full well that some nights he was certain Danse didn’t sleep, instead he’d spend the evening peering out the window across the irradiated sea back into the past of what once was.

“Yea, well… I’d hoped they might get the message with the Prydwen blown to bits. Apparently, they didn’t.” Rolling her shoulders, Laura continued into the Castle, unconcerned by the reality of the blood splattered across her face.  “Four this month’s still better than six last month- maybe they’re learning.” 

“It appears your message was not well received I’m afraid.”

     Breaths were short, panted in the chill of the early evening as he stumbled the last few steps toward a familiar shape of a man. His lungs ached, cheeks hot behind his helmet, boots scuffing through the debris. Thomas reached for Jamie as he closed in, but slumped past, hitting the brick wall of the building adjacent and slumping against the grit. 

    He reached to removed his helmet, yanking it free, eyes closing just briefly at the relief of cool air. Then he looked over at Jamie, uncharacteristically stern as lips pursed, a measured breath drawn in and held. 

        “I ain’t do shit. It’s the Brotherhood.” 

“You’re awfully crass for a man seeking sanctuary.”

He grumbles, but steps aside as though offering Tom passage into the stronghold he’s established. Though this stern behavior off puts him more than Tom’s usually mocking candor. What kind of beastly apparition could bring someone so usually playful to a point of sheer sternness?

Perhaps that’s what terrified him more than anything else, and as he steps back toward Tom, Jamie’s anxiety begins to well up in the pit of his stomach much to his own personal dismay.

Alex frowns, glancing over at the man. “What makes you say that?” He bites back the urge to tell the man to stop touching his books and pt it back where he found it. “If it wasn’t plausible, I wouldn’t waste my time with it.”

“Plenty of things are plausible–––just like plenty of people are stupid.”

      “My guess would be all the alcohol and chems, but that just seems too easy.” Why a person would enter into Goodneighbour if something like that bothered them so severely was an answer far beyond Hancock’s reach – it was, after all, something of a doozie. Even with the mentats. Ah, but never mind the trivial; guests were guests, no matter how strange. “The better question is, what can Goodneighbour do for you?”

“Well for starters, I’d very much like to walk out of here without permanent brain damage.”

But deep down he doesn’t particularly think that’s possible, he’s simply being snide due to his severe lack of patience with this wretched place. He wasn’t usually so crass but the stench is nauseating him enough to put him in a particularly foul mood for sure.

There comes a heavy sigh as his back presses to the wall, frosty eyes sliding shut as he manages to give himself just enough of a break to catch his breath. Combat was never really a pleasant experience but it was certainly something that at this point he’d grown rather used to. It was perpetually becoming more and more of a resting state for him which perfectly explained this polar shift between himself and Danse.

Once before they were the soldier and the diplomat for all intents and purposes and now it seemed they were swapping. Both of them had BEEN soldiers but the role of a soldier was something of a flex title these days. Everyone was a soldier if it meant they would stay alive. 

Needless to say they had to make it back to the Castle fast. The last thing they needed was some ugly bastard mutant knocking at the Castle door, and he was certain the sentries had just changed which made his worry seem all the more weakened by the strength security he had in the defenses of what he’d grown to call home now.

          “     &  does  that  errand  involve  guard  duties  at  all?     ”   Jean  responds  bluntly,  gaze  lingering  upon  the  blowing  smoke  with  the  amusement  of  another  smoker  within  the  vicinity.  A  new  town,  along  with  all  it’s  new  people,  always  equalled  trouble  for  one  so  used  to  finding  it,  but  he  wouldn’t  just  give  that  away.  He’s  just  mildly  curious,  to  say  the  least.  Could  he  really  find  out  what  said  errand  was?   Of  course,  there  was  only  one  real  way  of  finding  that  out.  Talking,  maybe  even  getting  to  know  a  little  bit  more  about  his  sudden  new  company.  

“     I  mean,  it’s  not  as  though  you  seem  like  the  kinda  guy  who  would  hang  around  like  a  guard,  that’s  all…      ”

“It does not.”

He’d done guard duty before, it wasn’t as though it was something he disliked, but it had become increasingly apparent to him that FEW people actually respected such individuals. The tone taken isn’t taken well though he does his to not relinquish that feeling by simply quirking a brow and turning away slightly–––using the gun in his hand as such an excuse before he turns back and blinks a few times before finally using a bit more of his bluntness.

“I’m something of an expert on the matter.”

His eyes glaze over the scene before him, the cigarette in his lips burning low before he pulls the book in his hand back to his immediate attention. As far as disasters went he’d seen worse but it wasn’t worth saying regardless.