Peter Kimura Whelan (itakunai) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-03-22 20:10:00 |
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“You want anything?” Nathan asked, hanging the refrigerator door open as he pulled a beer out for himself and waited for Pete’s answer. It was one of those nights where they were both home, so there was a pizza on the counter. One of the perks of having a pizza place in Austin again. Nathan felt like he’d been put through the ringer. The tests that the research volunteers had been put through were pretty rigorous, even for him. The mild hangover from the night before hadn’t helped any, though. He didn’t know how many people had actually thrown their names in, but it hadn’t looked like there had been a shortage of people when Nathan had been there. He guess there were at least a few other people like him, looking to feel like they were contributing something. “There’s another beer in here,” he offered as an option. "Bring it over," Pete called on his way back downstairs, running a hand through his still-wet hair. He'd hit the gym on his way home from the orphanage, so a shower had been in order before they attacked the pizza with gusto. "But you gotta tell me we don't only have two beers in there." What a tragedy that would be. He took a seat in front of the counter, reaching for a slice and wincing as the too-hot sauce ran onto his fingertips. "I swear this is the best idea you had in years, getting pizza for dinner." Nathan pushed one beer across to Pete before he leaned back against the counter opposite. “Don’t know if it’s good ideas or old habits,” Nathan admitted with a laugh. “But it’s better than me tryin’ to cook.” He was good enough to manage the basics, and breakfast was pretty easy for him, but that was about it. “And after the set of tests I was run through, ain’t no way I was gonna try to keep from burnin’ the kitchen down.” He leaned forward and grabbed a slice and took a bite. Wincing a little when the heat hit the roof of his mouth. Pete was eating quickly, too, though his day hadn't been nearly as trying as Nathan's. He just happened to like pizza. "How's the… zombie trials going?" he asked, unable to completely hide the skepticism in his voice. Both of them were immune, Nathan apparently doubly so, and he was all for the medical research that was being conducted. But a zombie could kill you in more ways than just the virus. "You holding up okay?" “A little tired, a little sore,” Nathan replied. “But it ain’t anywhere near the trainin’ the Navy put me through, so I reckon I’ll make it through.” He washed the pizza down with a long pull from his beer, then grinned a little. He guessed Pete wasn’t as onboard with the proposal to help the researchers, but Nathan had figured it was something he could do to help out. “Helpin’ them out is the closest I’m gonna get to service again, so,” he shrugged, “if it helps find a cure I figure it’s worth the effort.” "It's not like the armed forces don't exist anymore, especially not here," Pete said, reaching for another slice of pizza and casting a sideways glance over at Nathan's direction. Somehow, his first slice had gotten eaten way too quickly, but hey. That was just the risk of having pizza around the two of them. "You could always enlist. Or reenlist? Not sure how that works out, technically-speaking." Nathan gave a shrug. “I might could,” he agreed. “Don’t reckon I want to, though. Technically I’m probably still listed active somewhere. But joinin’ up again, even if it was Army, means they could send me wherever they wanted. Dunno if I want to live through them tellin’ me t’jump anymore.” It was complicated. He’d been military right out of college up until just after the outbreak. "I always wondered if that was a pain in the ass," Pete said, none too sagely. "Sounds like it probably is now." Nathan gave Pete a look that confirmed the musing. “Got too much here, you know.” Savannah, and the girls. And Paige. “Only ever wanted to fly anyway, but I reckon they ain’t lookin’ for fighters just yet.” "What about your pilot license?" Austin had an airport now, anyway. "That probably kind of has the same kind of issue, though. You'd have to go wherever you're scheduled." “I wasn’t trained on passenger planes,” Nathan pointed out, not disagreeing with Pete’s statement. “My license is probably still current enough, or they’d let me re-up pretty easy. But flyin’ was always about the adrenaline, and puddle jumpin’ planes from here to Saint Paul, well…” He shrugged. “It ain’t enough to get me to thinkin’ about days out of the city, I guess.” Man, he didn’t like sounding like he was just a few steps away from feeling sorry for himself. "Then maybe it wasn't ever the flying you liked." It was sort of a blunt statement, maybe, something that contradicted what Pete had always assumed about Nathan if it turned out to be true. “Nah, I reckon it was the specific kind of planes. I loved flyin’ fighters, otherwise I wouldn’t have thought about re-uppin’ when my service was up.” He finished off the slice he’d been holding and reached for another. “But passenger planes don’t come with the same kind of thrill. I thought about trainin’ pilots, but I don’t have the resources to start up somethin’ like that.” He shrugged again. “Somedays I envy y’all and your job security.” Nathan laughed to soften the jab. "I mean, you aren't exactly lacking options." Nathan was laughing, but Pete wasn't really. He paused for a moment instead, mulling over this; they'd definitely never had a conversation like this before, now that he was thinking about it, but that didn't stop him from pressing on. "It kind of sounds like you're making excuses, actually." Stunned, Nathan blinked a few times. He wasn’t used to that kind of upfront statement from Pete. Actually, he couldn’t think of a single conversation where his roommate had called him on his bullshit before. Maybe it was all that time spent with Savannah. But thinking about it, it wasn’t like he could argue. They were excuses. “Sounds like,” he agreed slowly. “Y’know, I went into the Navy ‘cause I was good at it, and I couldn’t imagine goin’ into business. Never thought about what I’d do if I wanted out.” He swallowed a few mouthfuls of his beer. “Reckon I just don’t want to make the wrong choice.” He had enough of those stacked up already. “If you were me, what would you do?” "Dunno." Pete was just glad his little challenge hadn't been taken poorly; that was always the risk with untraveled territory. Still, it felt good to talk about this kind of stuff, and really talk about it. After another bite of pizza, he added, "We have local counselors, like my friend Mina. She'd probably be able to help you figure out what exactly you actually like about certain jobs and what you don't, and then figure out something else that you can try. Even if you didn't think about this kind of stuff before, that doesn't mean it's too late." He knew he was at an advantage there; medicine had always felt like something he wanted to do. He tried to make sure that the advice he was giving was advice he'd want to hear if their positions were reversed. "But… I mean, really think about it, instead of just tossing things up and saying it won't work just because." Nathan had never had trouble talking to counselors or psychiatrists, some of it came with the territory of his military career. Honestly if Rose had seemed less busy he probably would have talked to her about it already. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” He didn’t want to keep crossing things off the list based on how he felt about it, or whether he believed he wasn’t qualified. He didn’t want to keep doing a job that he didn’t like though, either. “Reminds me of high school,” he added with another laugh. “Just about drove my counselor crazy every time we met. Don’t reckon I’d want to do that to your friend, though.” Pete laughed at the mental image, shaking his head. "She might be able to put you in your place if you do that." Mina had a secret sort of steel to her that she didn't realize half the time, he thought. Nathan chewed through a few more bites of pizza, mulling over what Pete had said. “It ain’t like I’m fixin’ to leave, so it’s not goin’ to hurt anyone if I stay with the DoR for awhile longer, ‘til I’ve got some idea.” In all truth, his lack of career focus was probably going to be the easiest thing to resolve. “I don’t want to set ‘em up so they’re scramblin’ around to replace me.” Although the odds were pretty good they would be able to find someone to fill the gap pretty easily. "It's a pretty good place to be, if you're gonna be looking for a job. Not like you're gonna take whatever you can get since you aren't making any money or anything, you know?" Pete reached for his beer, nearly draining it all as he looked curiously over at his roommate. "You have time to figure it out, which is cool." Another pause, before he added, "As long as you really want to figure it out." Nathan raised his eyebrows. “You keep sayin’ that I’m gonna start thinkin’ you don’t think I want to,” he commented, an amused pull to one side of his mouth. He got what it looked like though, from an outside perspective. He’d been pretty aimless since he got to Austin. Working, but not really applying himself like he could have. “I do. I ain’t young, but I ain’t old either, and it doesn’t feel great to feel like I’m just driftin’, you know.” He shrugged un-self-consciously. "Yeah, I know the feeling," Pete said. "I kind of felt that way last fall, but it's getting better now." “I didn’t buy you pizza just so you could head shrink me, though. Y’all got anythin’ you want to get off your chest?” Might as well extend an offer, since they were already talking. Pete grinned genially over at his roommate. All in all, his unintended interruption and low-key challenge hadn't gone all that badly, and he was beginning to think it was nice having this newfound openness. For tonight, at least, though he wouldn't be mad if it lasted longer than this. "No, nothing much." There was Savannah's current musings about a third child, yes, but he wasn't sure that was his to share with her brother. "Just… you know. Work, then stuff at the orphanage, hanging out with your sister and the kids. All of it's going… really well. I'm happy, you know?" Nathan grinned. He had opted out of ever giving Pete some kind of older brother speech, since Savannah was more than capable of exacting her own revenge, if necessary. Instead he was just happy to hear that things were good. “Weird to call ‘em kids when they’re adults,” Nathan commented about Maizie and Olivia. “Keep havin’ to remind myself to treat ‘em like grown ups, ‘cause I wasn’t that much older when the Navy was lettin’ me fly million dollar planes.” He laughed. "Blame your sister for calling them that and getting me on the habit," Pete replied with a shrug, grinning all the while. "Guess you're right, but good news is I've managed to not call them that to their faces. I don't think I'd survive it." Nathan laughed. “Smart.” He called both of them ‘kiddo’ once in a while, but mostly for the reaction. “It’s strange to be where we’re at though. Never thought we’d really get back to that, but it ain’t so bad.” Even with the career question marks, it was better than scrounging and living one day to the next. "A lot can change in a year." Pete reached for one more slice of pizza, telling himself that was his hard limit…. At least, for now. "Who knows where we'll be next year?" Either way, it was better now, he thought, that he could actually start to envision what his future would bring. Finishing his beer, Nathan discarded the empty, then dug in the fridge for another. “Pretty nice to assume we’ll have a next year, though,” he replied, popping the bottle top of and raising it like he was making a toast. “I’ll take that, even if everything hasn’t figured themselves out yet.” It didn’t hurt that he had people to talk those things through with, either. |