Watchtower

[have_no_mercy]

When they leave Milliways, Tess and Jim enter what looks very much like an elevator. That's because it is. Steel all around with a camera up in one corner.

Smile, Jim, you're on TessTV!

She presses the button for the top floor and then waits.

Comments

[just_cant_lose]

'Is there any particular reason you want an upper level at all? It'll be far more efficient to have everything on one level on the moon. More energy efficient, easier to anchor it.'

Jim puts his laptop down on the nearest desk, and his modelling device next to it. Both get switched on, and he takes his phone out to start making a video. He's all business like this; all focus.

'You might need to up my access if you want life made easier,' he says, casually. 'I need to see what systems are keeping this place going, what programs you're using, and you need to tell me what exactly you want the computers to do up there. Easier if you just let me take a look around.'

[have_no_mercy]

"I was thinking strictly for ease of continuity, but if you think one level is better, then we can go with that."

His latter request, however, is going to be hit with a brick wall.

"What do you need to know that for?"

[just_cant_lose]

'The monitors can be manoeuvrable...what year is it here?'

Has he asked her that recently? Time might have moved differently while she's been in and out of the bar. Jim takes a seat, typing incessantly, only sparing her a glance.

'If you want a working computer system to detect your alien threats, it'll be a lot quicker to let me base it off what you're already running. I won't know if everything I can do is compatible with what you use here, unless you let me into it.'

He is, y'know, already working on hacking in but that's like taking a job interview, right? He's only proving he knows what he's doing.

[have_no_mercy]

"2016 almost 2017."

The tech is years ahead of what's on the current market anyway. Hooray for Queen Industries.

"I don't need you to create the system, someone else is already on that and, in all fairness, they're better than you are."

Not an insult, just the truth.

"So don't bother trying. It won't work."

[just_cant_lose]

His hands still.

'Better. Than me.'

No no no. Not possible. And paling with the computers was going to be the fun part of this.

'Who is it?'

[have_no_mercy]

"Chloe. Jon's mom. She created all this years ago."

Not that Tess likes to admit it, but Chloe has a talent for tech that is miles beyond her own.

"And if you think I'm protective of the system and the secrets it holds, I've got nothing on her."

[just_cant_lose]

'So you're giving it to your friend because you don't want me looking around.'

He sighs, and shakes his head.

'Seeing as I can't even get on to this planet without you opening a door for me, I fail to see what damage you think I can do.'

[have_no_mercy]

"First of all, I didn't give it to her. She took it. Secondly, she's the best person for the job."

Take that or leave it, Jim.

"I need you for design, to make sure this is actually going to work. The computer systems are a separate issue."

[just_cant_lose]

'Oooh. Lay down the law baby, it turns me on.'

His fingertips tap one rapid line on the desk top, and his expression is dark. And then he grins, and drags his modelling software closer. He could sulk about it - and still is - but he might as well enjoy himself for the time being.

'Why wouldn't it work? Give me some credit.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Why wouldn't what work?"

Now he's lost her.

"What are you talking about? I'm giving you credit. You were the only person I thought of for this, otherwise I'd be doing it all myself."

Like Clark and Oliver could design a moonbase.

[just_cant_lose]

'To make sure this is actually going to work.'

He quotes her own words back at her in a near-perfect representation of her accent, crunching up to sit cross-legged on the seat and dragging his laptop onto his knee.

'Of course it'll work, Tess. Don't talk to me like I'm stupid.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Yes, that's why you're here, because if left to my own devices it might not."

Ugh, now she has a headache. It wasn't supposed to be like this, It was supposed to be interesting and maybe sort of fun and now it's like one argument after another. As usual.

"Hey, uh, am I interrupting something?"

A tall, handsome, blond man stands just outside the elevator. He eyes Jim.

"Who's this guy, Mercy?"

[just_cant_lose]

Ohhhhh, look. A tall, handsome, blond man. Jim eyes him right back, then glances to Tess - Mercy? - and then back to....Jon's father, by the look of him.

He slides his laptop back off his knee, and on to the desk. It's probably a good thing Karkat's modelling hardware looks like a sandwich toaster, because otherwise one of them would have to explain alien technology that is not in the least bit subtle. Unlike Tess's.

'Who's this guy, Mercy?'

Yum.

[have_no_mercy]

Oh, God. Her worlds are colliding and it's not even going to be remotely fun.

"Oliver, this is Jim. He's helping me with the base. Jim, this is Oliver. He's not supposed to be here."

Oliver's eyes brighten as he drops a large duffel bag over near a set of small lockers and then walks over.

"Jim? Jim Jim? Not-boyfriend Jim?"

He offers said named man a hand.

"Nice to meet you, man."

[just_cant_lose]

Jim now, and not Rich? Her reasoning is odd, but who cares? This is fun.

He had started to smile as Oliver said his name, doing the automatic raising of his hand that men do, anticipating a shake. And then he falters at 'not-boyfriend', and a look of pure hurt crosses his face, backed up with an involuntary glance at Tess.

'Um. Well, I'd agree, but I didn't know I was a not boyfriend.'

His accent is a little more broad, and in a slightly lower register. When Oliver was dumping his bag, Jim had run a hand through his own hair to fluff it up a bit. His eyes are wide and soft.

'Nice to meet you too, Oliver. You have a lovely son.'

[have_no_mercy]

She's going to kill you, Jim, or whoever you are. Kill you. She doesn't care that you're already dead, she'll do it again.

"You are not my boyfriend and you are well aware of that. He's an asshole. You know what that's like."

The latter is said to Oliver, who appears as tough he's been genuinely caught in some kind of lover's spat. He puts his hands up in surrender.

"Hey, I'm just here to drop off some equipment. She's feisty, Jim. You ever notice that?"

[just_cant_lose]

'Feisty? Not really.'

He shakes Oliver's hand, not quite hiding the wince when he's called an asshole, or the disappointment that follows. He is too your boyfriend, Tess. Look how hurt his feelings are that you'd try to deny it! You're a mean, mean woman.

'She's been pliable, at times.'

He pulls a face.

'Though maybe she's just pitying me, I don't know.'

[have_no_mercy]

Tess rolls her eyes at Jim's performance and crosses her arms. Oliver just about laughs at her being called pliable, then slaps good ol'Jim on the back.

"Trust me, man, if she pitied you you wouldn't be here."

She can't refute that.

"Isn't that the truth. Isn't it time you were leaving?"

[just_cant_lose]

'She just wants what she knows I can do for her.'

He is talking about the work.

...OH WAIT, NO HE ISN'T.

'No darling, Oliver should stay. Doesn't he want input on the design? And I'd love to hear something about his archery skills and those arrows you were telling me about.'

He raises his eyebrows at Oliver, a gesture of interest.

'Jon was telling me you shoot with him, and not just the boring kind. Do you design the exploding ones yourself?'

Do you, Green Arrow?

[have_no_mercy]

AWKWARD.

Oliver is going to ignore that part because hey, arrows! Who doesn't like talking about arrows?

"Well, Jon's stuck on boring arrows for now and that's the official story or his mother will kill me. And yeah, the exploding ones, the EMP ones, the grappling arrow. Designed them all myself."

And isn't he proud.

Tess has had about enough of this.

"Look, darling, we have work to do. Oliver doesn't need to give any input. He trusts us."

"I want a shooting range."

"For the final time, you are not having a shooting range on the moon."

[just_cant_lose]

'I'll design you a shooting range on the moon. If you give me a bow and a bunch of cool arrows.'

For real, though. Who cares if LutherCorp is paying for whatever he designs? Also, Oliver should stay because dammmmmn he's pretty. It almost makes up for him coming across like an airhead.

[have_no_mercy]

Oliver is pretty, yes, and can seem like an airhead at times. But damn he's good with a bow and arrow.

"You are not getting a shooting range, nor are you giving him anything."

That's Tess' opinion on matters. Oliver looks a tiny bit annoyed.

"Come on, Mercy. Can he shoot?"

Can you, Jim?

[just_cant_lose]

'A little bit. Not very well - but arrows are more fun than guns, and I'd like to get better.'

Surely it's up to Oliver whether he wants to give him stuff, right Tess? You wouldn't want your ex getting more annoyed at you than he already looks, would you?

[have_no_mercy]

Tess doesn't give a damn if Oliver is annoyed are not. Jim is not leaving here with explosives.

Her face appears to register this as Oliver looks from Jim, to Tess and back again, then shrugs in a 'sorry, man' kind of gesture.

"I'll give you some plain arrows and a bow. Come back when you've practiced a bit more for the fun stuff."

[just_cant_lose]

He shrugs too, as if resigned to his fate of the very-hard-done-by boyfriend who is not acknowledged as a boyfriend.

'That's decent of you, thanks a lot.'

Yay, more stuff to do! Even if he only asked to see what he could get.

'Don't look so sour, honey,' he adds, to Tess. 'I'm working for you for free, aren't I?'

And it's not a small job.