Re: Hayden and Jae
"Oh, shit," he laughed, "Okay, met a girl, fell in love, found out she was also seeing my brother, did nothing about it, robbed a bar her parents owned with them, went on the run, got caught, found out she never stopped fucking him." For all that drama, he was almost laughing at himself for trying to rattle it all off like that. "Now you've gotta point me towards the booze, cause I deserve a drink after that."
"You so do." she agreed, smirking. "This way." she said, nodding in the direction of the drinks table. "So you didn't do anything about her seeing your brother as well and you didn't do anything about it and were surprised later by it happening? I missed a step there."
"She told me she'd break it off and I made the mistake of trusting her," Hayden explained, following her towards the drink table. "And then we got wrapped up in the whole heist and it kept getting put off. I just fucked up all around, really. I don't want the girl anymore and my brother pretty much hates me. But this is a party," he reminded her, clinking his glass against hers. "Tell me what you're supposed to be again? You said Norse Mythology, but you're not Thor." And that was about all he knew of Norse Mythology.
Jae got a fresh drink herself, listening. "This is in fact a party." she agreed. "I'm a Valkyrie." she said. "They chose who lived and who died on the battlefield, and then brought them to different places, accordingly. So, if you think about it, they played more of a role in shit than the actual soldiers did."
“It makes it sound like the soldiers themselves didn’t really have a choice in the matter,” Hayden said, taking a sip of his drink. “The valkyrie was going to determine their fate. But how could they do that without controlling the men?” It was an interesting concept, but one that Hayden didn’t completely understand.
"Men do what men do. But you know some people get a tap on the wrist and it's broken. Other people drop to the ground slapping into it when their parachute didn't deploy and live." she shrugged. "Who knows what it takes to kill a man. And what some will miraculously walk away from." she posed.
Hayden gave a little nod as he thought about that. Some men got away with robbery, while some didn’t. He thought there was a higher power involved, but he never understood how that all worked, how the picking and choosing went when some kind of God intervened. “So it’s the kind of thing that might look like good luck or bad luck to us, but is really a higher power’s influence?”
"Something like that." Jae said. "But in all honesty, this is all hypothetical. I don't even have that great a grasp on the mythology. It's just fun to debate sometimes. But whatever. Let's roll with something else. Whatcha going to do about the lady in question?"
“It’s an interesting concept,” Hayden agreed, though he wasn’t sure he liked it. If anything like that was real, did it mean that someone up there just didn’t like him? Then again, talking about Cassandra wasn’t exactly a happy subject either. “I don’t know. Right now she doesn’t know I know, so I have the advantage. I kind of feel like she needs to pay for what she did, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do.”
Jae listened, taking a drink, and eyeing him. "What advantage?" she asked, honestly wondering what kind of angle that really had. She didn't see a merit there, unless he was planning to manipulate her in return or something. Which could be the plan.
“Well, she doesn’t know that Hunter and I have talked. At all. And not in person, since he’s pretty pissed at me, and I don’t blame him. I don’t know that it’s an advantage, but she still thinks I’m ignorant to what she’s done and she’s still trying to win Hunter back,” Hayden explained, wishing he could see an angle that would work to use against Cassandra, but manipulation really wasn’t his thing.
"Huh." Jae said, taking that in. "So, if you had your way, what would the endgame be?" she asked, curious.
“I’d get my brother back,” Hayden said, not even having to think on that one. He wanted the girl, sure, but not if she was the bitch she was turning out to be. “Don’t know there’s anything I can do to earn back his trust, though.”