Late Night P2 | Rough Draft | Fin

No winning

He says your name so softly, that his voice breaks when he looks up at you.
"—I've been—"

As if timing couldn't be any worse, you hear some footsteps coming from behind the both of you — and turn to see that it's your eldest daughter.

"Monkey boy!" Kiri shouts as she closes in the distance, and happens to sit beside him.

His whole demeanor now shifts, as if he's closing off from how he sat earlier.

He still greets her kindly, and acts as if nothings happened.

You only watch, seeing how they interact and he spares you a small glance.

"Later, then?" You ask, and he nods as he gives an apologetic look.
Whatever it was, he clearly couldn't talk about it with anyone else around.
And considering how inseparable he was from your daughter, that only made it more worrying.

————————————————————

"Any news for today?" Jake greets Norm as they both click on their radios and settle in for their scheduled time.

"Not yet, Jake. I guess nothing is better than something in this case, right?"

"I suppose.." Jake comments. "I'm always suspicious, though. let me get this straight while I have it in my head then."
He digs around in one of the drawers for a notebook and a pen.
"They're expanding their new building, working on bigger mech suits, and focusing more on long range weapons and ... flame throwers?"

"As far as I've noticed.
They aren't giving their military many short range weapons, probably assuming it's better to kill their enemy while they're far, because - and I say this with respect to the Na'vi — If you see one up close, it's already too late."

"How do we know they're not throwing things off or making it look different? They know we're raiding them, they're pissed off. They're sending more avatars out as things go on. If not now, then they will eventually."

"I can't imagine they'd be able to make much use of them. You've already killed their first batch clean, and the other Na'vi won't accept them."

"There's probably something else going on, but I don't know what it would be just yet.
They've got their unobtanium, they still have at least one ship far out to the south hunting Tulkun. There's a lot here, but what more do they want exactly?"

"We're still trying to figure that out. I know they wanted to consider bringing humans here, so perhaps their new base is going to have a more... civilian based town to it? The rich nuts who can spend all that money coming here and think they're living some life on mars fantasy our grandparents talked about."

"How is it with trying to get an aerial view of the place?"

"Not good. We've tried drones and they just don't go that far out. We've tried to get as close as we can, but it always short signals. Last time they caught one of our groups out there, and they barely made it out unharmed."

"Shit. Maybe I should be there."

"Jake." Norm comforts him like the elder brother figure he had become. "You did the right thing. You're keeping them as safe as you can. It would be so much more worse if they had found you here. None of us would be-"

"I know." Jake groans into the microphone. "As much as I hate to say it, I know."

"Don't doubt yourself now."

A few moments of silence pass before Jake speaks up again.
"Change of subject." He shortly remarks. "How's Lia doing?"

"Great, actually. I know she was only a year behind — but she finally passed her rituals."