PROFILE: richard simmons.
the prolonged war was over, now. has been for a while. kimball had to shoulder two armies, a few in the feds still didn’t completely trust her. felix was dead, locus was gone; a huge relief, if anything.
the reds & blues were still waiting for someone to come get them. the longer they waited, the more it felt like no one was coming; & the longer they waited, the less simmons cared about leaving, anyway. he’s grown to like chorus ( don’t ask him how, he doesn’t really know, either ). he’s comfortable around his squad, found a family in them he wasn’t quite expecting. a thousand & one times better than the excuse of a family he was born with. he couldn’t just leave them.
familiar voice over the comms interrupted his maintenance on a needler. almost didn’t believe it, not at first, thought he was imagining things. the weapon just about fell from his hands when it registered who it belonged to.
with church’s, well, destruction, & then washington merely disappearing…tucker & caboose had taken it a little hard. for the reds, it was difficult to get used to a practically empty team of blues. why would the former agent come to the maroon armored first? wouldn’t he want his team?
it took him a moment to himself to respond, hesitance laced within breath.
❝ …washington? is that you? where the hell have you been? ❞
Washington half expected the reaction, but also didn’t quite expect it at all.
Taking a moment to let the silence wash over them, David shifted his glance to other objects - including the one in his hands. There were more important matters to discuss than where he had been, but he guessed he owed an explanation. Though, he probably should’ve saved it for Tucker and Caboose first.
“I’ve been off-world. Stole a ship, got the hell out of here, went to do my own thing for a little while. Hard work being a vigilante... Or, I guess I’m a bounty hunter too. Depends.” A pause. “Haven’t really lost track of you guys either. I’ve been making sure nobody gets to you, but... Well, it’s proving to be difficult. Hargrove still has some old operatives trying to seek some sort of revenge.”
Straight to the point, he reminded himself.
“Anyway, I’m not here to stay. I’m actually here because I need your help with something.”
He glanced to the item in hand - some sort of alien technology and a container for something, he had guessed. Though, whatever it was, he couldn’t read the inscriptions on it and therefore couldn’t open it. Knowing that Simmons was rather smart, he hoped that he might be able to decipher how to read it and reveal what it contained.
After all, it was more trouble to just obtain the damned thing.
“I found something in my travels, something that was obviously valuable to someone because I took it off a target that was well known and had a large bounty. It’s some sort of alien tech, but I can’t make heads or tails with it and the writing. I hoped that maybe you could help me open it - seemed like the same things that were here...” A pause. “... I could just ask Grey about it, but I’d rather not.”
