legionmissions | TO HAVE AND TO HOLD [modplot]

Who| Anyone who wants in
What| "To Have and to Hold" plot
Where| The planet Olum, Matihara Temple
When| Set vaguely the same time as "Gods Among Us" and "Other Mother"
Warnings/Notes| N/A

The planet Olum is a genuinely welcoming place. While the clothes they have to wear for the rituals are a bit...odd (provided they don't opt for coverups), they are comfortable, especially with such a balmy climate. Despite the Olumites allowing outsiders into their ceremonies, there's a distinct lack of tourist-ey elements; no gift shops, no merchants selling anything, just a spirit of genuine unity and celebration. The Olumite marriage guides seem to genuinely care about helping people with their relationships, and seem happy to share their cultural traditions with other species.

As far as missions go, it's definitely a nice vacation from the usual life or death struggles.

It means the Legionnaires have no distractions. They have to settle in and try to navigate this while faking sincerity as best as they can.

[ooc: All information about the setting can be found on the infopost.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As far as Wash is concerned, this mission is a multi-day retreat ending in a nature hike. Sure, he's had to lie his ass off about being in a relationship with Chief, but it's Chief - he's got a sense of humor in there and he's willing to let Wash take the lead in social situations. Aside from the Singing Stones, it's been a fairly relaxed mission.

And now they've hit the actual meat of the mission - fossil recovery disguised as a journey to get married - and Wash can't help but be a little excited. Everything else about this place has been relaxing and beautiful, and he's eager to see what else the mountain holds.

They're about an hour in, and so far it's been nothing but scenic beauty. He's been smiling nearly the whole time.

Something has to go wrong eventually.

That thought keeps flickering through John's head. Not incessant, not urgent, but enough to keep him a little tense in the shoulders. They're out of the woods (well, into the woods if you want to be more literal) on the social end of the mission, but it's far from over. Things don't usually go this well for this long. A mission shouldn't feel like a vacation, and it's left the Chief waiting for some kind of trap to swing shut. He's been preoccupied as they go, but has had the excuse of being the one running the tracker on his omnicomm. Of course he's half-distracted to talk to, he's keeping an eye on the goal.

But it really is beautiful out here. The light of Olum's sun filters down through a riot of vibrant foliage when they're under the trees. Alien birds call out above and around, and the occasional small native creature scurries across the path ahead. And when they find a break in the trees atop the first real swell of the land approaching the mountain, the Chief pauses. He takes a long look down on the temple and the sea beyond it.

He's not good at stopping to appreciate where he is. It was never an important field skill.

Maybe he should make an effort, for once.

"Look," he says.

"Oh, I've been looking," Wash says, leaning against Chief and lightly pushing his shoulder into Chief's ribs. "This is what I'm going to remember the next time I'm stuck in a foxhole." Whether he means the scenery, the experience, or just getting to spend time with Chief is open to interpretation. "Why, are you going to start a career in art after this?"

Unlike Chief, Wash isn't too terribly worried about this mission, partially because he did his research on Olum before they left (no large predators on land, no homicidal weather patterns, nothing that's going to snap and kill them) and partially because he's fairly certain that between the two of them, he and Chief can handle whatever might come up.

Their current high vantage point does give them some insight as to what's coming up - dark clouds that look like a storm front starting to roll in. Wash nudges Chief again and gestures to the clouds. "We should probably get moving before that hits."

He lets Wash shoulder up to his ribs, he's gotten pretty good at reading the line between what they were doing for cover and what is genuinely just Wash touching because he's a friend. Someone else might take his remarks as flirting, but John knows that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? There's no need to answer that. At his quip about an art career, though, the Chief rolls his eyes. He makes a quick little two-fingered motion where the lower part of his faceplate would be, were he in his armor. Haha, Wash, haha.

It's just... nice to be here. Nice to be somewhere that isn't in imminent danger (despite the Chief's misgivings), nice to be cracking wise with Wash, nice to have reached a point where he can have some kind of casual contact with somebody without feeling completely alienated by it. It is a thing worth remembering.

But Wash is right, there's a storm blowing in. That's much easier to talk about than digging out words for feelings he's not even sure he should be expressing.

"We should."

Wash nods to Chief and the omnicomm. "Lead the way." He pauses. "Actually, take a picture first. You could use a new wallpaper for your omnicomm, and it's not going to get much better than this."

It's not until they're back in motion that Wash brings up the question on his mind. "Hey, that gesture that you did?" He mimics the two-fingered swipe across his own face. "What was that?" Chief had done it in front of him once before, months ago, but Wash hadn't exactly been in the best frame of mind to pursue it. Now, on a mission that's nearly a vacation and feeling much better, he wants to know.

It's kind of silly, but what the hell. The Chief does it. His omnicomm wallpaper has been the default since day one, it's not really a thing he does. Might as well be a joke from what will certainly be, someday looking back on it, a better time.

They get moving again, daylight burning, and he's already forgotten he made the sign at all when Wash asks about it.

He repeats the gesture again, slower, tracing the little u-curve more clearly. "Smile gesture," he explains, as if it should be a familiar concept. "Yours was different?"

It would have to be, to not be recognized. He's seen several variations on the smile gesture, over the years, but most are sort of like his team's. It's not the most unique of ideas.

Wash may have snuck a picture of Chief taking a picture. It's not like it's ever going to happen again; might as well document it for posterity. Plus, it's nice to see Chief being a little less All-Soldier All The Time and a little more human.

"Oh." Wash blinks. It makes sense in retrospect, but it's not actually a concept that Freelancer practiced. Either you were close enough to people that you knew when they were smiling, or you saw them as rivals and didn't give a shit. It wasn't exactly the healthiest system, not that they hadn't gone over that already at length. "We didn't have one. We just called each other assholes and moved on."

...Oh.

In hindsight, given what the Chief knows about Freelancer? That makes sense. But it's still a jarring little realization. It's a part of team communication he's taken for granted for so long...

It's a little sad, really. The things that were done to Wash and his team were monstrous, there's no denying that, but this just adds one more tiny note of sadness to the Chief's understanding of that reality.

He glances over at Wash.

"Well," he says, mild mannered as ever. "Now you have one."

It's not important. But somehow sharing this, even though he didn't realize it would become sharing, feels good.

It's not something Wash ever really realized was missing, to be honest. He'd get the occasional HUD text from Maine that was nothing but :), but that was just what Maine did, as he'd never been one for words. To have one standardized gesture for everyone in the unit...

Huh.

He looks up at Chief and makes the gesture across his face again, much more clearly curved this time. "Guess so."

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD [modplot]

For Chief

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