wastedcreation | open post

RP here baybee

He certainly lowers his voice as he admits to considering leaving his supposed beloved Outsider town.

"Tempting," he mutters with the same little dry smirk, leaning back in his seat and putting his hands in his pockets as he intently watches Devero signing.

"I work on multiple projects. The one I'm focused on here is how the mining affects the nearby ecosystems. Soil and water quality, things like that. Pretty boring, really." He waves a hand. Ah, he is but a humble, rural biologist whose idea of the big leagues is travelling a few towns over to check out some trees. It's almost freeing, this fantasy.

While Sebastian explains, Devero finishes his beer, and waves at the bartender for another.

"Important, though," he acknowledges, before turning to nod his thanks as the new mug is handed down to him. Turning back, he continues blithely, "Your work is probably part of why we're here trading for copper instead of mining our own somewhere else."

A good sign, for his friend to order another, but he hopes he can just drink this one slowly enough not to order another, without being suspicious. Or maybe he could get a mixed drink. That might taste a little better...

"How so? Fewer mines for less degradation, I assume?"

"I think so," Devero says, then leans over exaggeratedly to admit, "but it's not exactly my field." He sits back upright to taste his new drink (which, admittedly, tastes the same as the first one). That would be in line with the values of his government, though, to utilize an existing operation if it's being ethically run and be able to improve the lives of the people actually running it at the same time.

But he's no philosopher, ethical or otherwise. "I'm just here to make sure my scorpion looks real precise in its place in the formations," he adds with a deep chuckle.

Sebastian laughs at the way the techno-voice doesn't lower and stays at pretty much the same cadence even as he's supposed to be stage-whispering. The laugh is sort of a soft hiccup, like it catches him off-guard.

"Well, how responsible of them."

His tone is only a little sarcastic. He has to give the World Gov credit for at least that, he guesses, begrudgingly. They're environmentally conscious, allegedly.

"I'm sure you'll pilot it well." He smiles, then cocks his head. "Pilot? Drive? Use?"

"Jockey," Devero says, smiling back. He swells up a little, cocky, as he continues, "and you're damn right I do. Best in my unit, and that's based on assessments, not just my opinion."

"All right, peacock," Sebastian mutters with a smirk, pushing against his huge shoulder lightly with the back of his hand as though they're army mates. The kind of thing Tox would do with his fellow soldiers, so maybe it's out of place here, as Sebastian the Biologist, but who cares.

"Skills, looks, and confidence. Save some for the rest of us."

Now that one sort of just... Slipped out.

Oh, called out! Devero takes it with good grace, the nudge to his shoulder making him grin with delight.

"I'm only taking up my fair share," he protests, laughing again even as he signs. "I can't help that I need a bigger share than everyone else!"

Tox shakes his head, chuckling under his breath.

"Greedy."

He sips his drink for a moment and watches him sign. It seems like a useful skill.

"Can you teach me one of these words?" He gestures to Devero's hands.

Devero lights right the fuck up, obviously thrilled to have been asked. "Sure!" he says, pivoting on his stool to be facing Sebastian more directly. "Here, copy me." He makes a shape of his two hands together in front of his chest, the forefinger and thumb of one hand forming a semicircle against the extended pointer finger of the other. Then he splays both hands wide open, palms facing, and spreads them away from each other across the width of his chest.

His Interface does not translate this word, not even when he repeats it.

Sebastian complies, copying the movements Devero makes with his hands. Okay, it looks like a P, and then... Something big...

The interface doesn't translate it, nor does Devero.

Sebastian raises a brow.

"You just taught me something obscene, didn't you."

Edited Date: 2025-12-11 06:55 pm (UTC)

Devero laughs, big and unrestrained and so, so loud. "I just taught you my name," he says with a sly grin. He repeats the gesture one more time, and this time, his Interface does translate it: "Devero."

Tox doesn't believe him, until the interface translates.

Devero.

Oh, so it was a D, not a P. It still could be obscene, but he sees now that the 'big' part refers to his overall size.

"Is it intentional that your name could be interpreted as 'big dick?'"

His expression turns absolutely mischievous. "Would you like to find out the answer for yourself?" he asks.

Sebastian breathes out a flustered laugh, turning his head away and shaking it as his face flushes red. Even the glamour he has over himself can't hide it.

"You're somethin' else," he mutters. Which isn't a no, but where he's from, the mere idea of two men sleeping together is scandalous. Blasphemous.

Were he at home, in Gov territory, Devero might have chased that blush. He knows it would be safe to do so. But out here in an Outsider town? He knows a lot of the outsider communities have regressive ideas about gender and sexuality. He may not know if this one specifically has any hangups, but he's not going to put himself-- or the person he'll leave behind when he goes home-- in danger by pursuing something socially unacceptable.

So he sits back on his stool, giving the other man space. He can't help one last flourish-- "That's what they tell me!"-- but then folds his tail down and settles. "So I'm Devero. What's your name?"

He's not sure if Devero was joking or not, and perhaps that's for the best. He might get overwhelmed if it went much further in this moment, in public. He isn't quite sure of this town's views on homosexuality, but he imagines begrudgingly neutral and 'I don't want that in my face,' at best, especially in a dive bar like this one with the macho miner men around them.

"Sebastian." He chances a glance back at Devero, though his face is still a little hot. "What's that one look like?"

The expression on his face has lost its sharp edge, softened down to merely genial. He certainly hadn't been joking, but he's not going to risk leaving Sebastian in a shitty situation-- or scaring him off entirely-- if this is one of those 'traditional' kind of towns.

"Like this," he says, and fingerspells it out. There's one motion for every letter of Sebastian's name, unlike Devero's much briefer appellation, and he makes them distinctly, pausing between each. "It's nice to meet you, Sebastian." (This time when he spells it, it's much faster, the signs flowing one into the other quick as he can make them.)

He blinks at the sheer number of signs that make up his name.

"Jeez. A lot of letters, isn't it?" Seems like him learning the whole thing by heart would take an hour, yet Devero does it like it's nothing. He supposes all language is like that- seemingly impossible to learn, and then second nature once you know it.

"Nice to meet you too," and then he signs Devero's name, as taught, with a tiny grin.

"Hey, it's your name," Devero says with a laugh. "But mine spelled out is--" and he demonstrates, first shaping each letter distinctly and then flashing through it with conversational speed.

His smile when Sebastian signs his name back to him is brilliantly wide in the dim light of the bar. Few enough people even in his own nation bother to learn, not when technology makes translation between Global and Global Sign easy and nearly instantaneous; a random outsider being willing to even just pick up his name sign has him absolutely chuffed.

He lifts his glass, offers it towards Sebastian to clink. "To your copper mine, eh?"

"I'd love a nickname like yours, but maybe you'd have to know me better," he says, still smiling, feeling uncharacteristically comfortable and open. "In the meantime, just call me Seb. I don't want to be a pain in your ass."

Devero's grin is all but spellbinding, and Sebastian may be staring at it a little too long, or a little too intensely.

Toasting to a stupid mine of all things. Hm. He picks up his glass and clinks it to Devero's.

"And to your Scorpion."

Devero quaffs his drink of beer, then sets his glass down to say, "I'm telling it you said that, Seb." Does he wink outrageously as he says that? You bet he does!

But he goes on a moment later to clarify, "It's my sign name, not a nickname. I picked it when I got my citizenship. And you were on the right track, it does literally mean 'big D'."

"Good." It's news to him that Dev can talk to this machine, but he likes being called by his nickname so much, and finds the idea of Dev jockeying a huge mech so attractive that he just says the first thing that comoes to mind, no calculation. There's a certain intensity to the word, almost like a challenge, but not in a fighting sense.

"Big D," he mutters chidingly, shaking his head again, but he's also smiling and bumping his elbow slightly into Dev as he says it.

"Can I tell you a secret, Big D?" He leans into Dev even more, ducking his head into the crook of his neck conspiratorially. "I hate beer." He laughs.

Well hello there! Devero clearly has no problem at all with Sebastian getting closer, even drops his shoulder a little to make it more comfortable for him.

His laugh now is more restrained than his earlier guffaws. "Then why are you drinking it?" It's his turn to nudge with an elbow. "Order something you'll like!"

"Because I feel like I should, I guess." He does a lot of things because he feels like he should. A common theme for him.

"I don't... Really know what I like," he admits. "Alcohol does nothing for me."

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