Tag: [lil bits]

Classy Gal

One of Messenger’s duties is going to fancy business parties with the upper crust business assholes Hale has to associate with. Since Saxton Hale is not exactly the small talk and shmoozing type-unless you’ve come to purchase a gun from the elite suite-, he tends to uh… not do GREAT at these type of social gatherings. 

In order to keep up appearances for the company and gain allies/associations blah blah social connections, Messenger gets to dress up fancy and pretend to be Saxton’s companion to mollify his peers. Well, and, most importantly, to distract them while he steals booze, and to interject when someone tries to talk to him so he can escape out windows to rip his suit off and/or hook up with someone.

She fuckin loves it.

It’s essentially three hours of making fun of the one percent to their faces under the guise of personality while also uncovering information that can be used against them. 

The best part, though, is to play the field like it’s a high school cafeteria. She has pickpocketed and planted jewelry, planted her own (borrowed from Hale) jewelry, spread rumors, spread confidential/drunken information, and been the direct cause of at least one (1) lethal pistols duel between Oil Magnates.

Some Notes on Messenger’s Early Relationship With Her Dad

This has evolved a LOT since I first conceived of David and Barbara’s relationship as I developed my interpretation of him and will probably continue to do so, but I’m at a point where some things are pretty solid and explain a lot about Messenger’s way of interacting with others. I’ve mentioned some of this before, but here’s a mini masterpost that’s canon for both Prime and Mercenary Verse Messengers.

David was not a universally bad father

Messenger has an older brother 5 years her senior who remains in contact with and is somewhat close to  their dad. He and David had a much different relationship that was kinda strained, but not for the same reasons. Daniel was relatively independent and easygoing as a kid, a bit of a troublemaker sometimes, but also the kind who preferred to figure stuff out on his own. It might have been different if David didn’t travel as much for work, but we’ll never know. Dave saw a little too much of himself in his son for their relationship to not be awkward, but he tried and was clear with praise and approval. Which wasn’t hard to give as Dan just kinda… did stuff. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a smart kid, got relatively good grades, was able to ask for help with college and finances and stuff so David felt like he was actual useful. Dan was just a mostly easy kid to interact with once they established common interests. 

On the other hand.

Young Mess was just so cheerful and full of excitement and curiosity, along with being a much more physically affectionate and chatty child who looked up to and hung on to his every word that the two were actually extremely close for the first decade of her life. He taught both kids to fish, but Mess was the one much more interested in learning to hunt- despite being an animal lover. Dan outpaced David’s knowledge in an academic sense pretty quickly, but Barbara was more tactile and experiential so he could teach her stuff like how to break a man’s hand or what plants were edible in survival situations how to find water etc and stuff and she was always so JAZZED about this. Not that her mom didn’t also teach her about nature- they were a camping and hiking family-, but David taught her how to defuse a landmine so like. 

Messenger is actually a good shot with a bow, which helped her later in life aim wise.

Again, if David hadn’t been away so often, maybe he would have seen and understood her challenges better. Maybe they could have stayed close, but issues started around when she was 10.

oldboyjensrps:

Service With a Smile- AkA Some HCs about Messenger’s Conditioning and How it Effects Her Strategy

For Prime Verse

Sometimes I forget that Barbara has been under the Administrator’s thumb since she was 18. Despite starting to work directly under her at 21, the whole reason Babs got her original office job in the first place is that Helen discovered her coincidentally through recon on The Berserker.

The job description on the flier Barbara happened to find was specifically targeted at this particular desperate, naive woman.

It drew her out from her small town (and father’s protection but story for another day) into a coastal city, and into the dehumanizing conditions of her first job.

It was super bad to the point that whenever Mess feels overwhelmed, overworked, or stressed to the point of illness, she remembers the first office and her brain goes “okay well compared to that this isn’t so bad.”

Convenient, huh?

Even Hale treats her more like a person than her old bosses did, and offers the occasional positive reinforcement. Which is like crack to Messenger. Especially from a superior, or even just an older adult man. Validating her usefulness wins people major points, especially if you’re on relatively equal footing and she’s like “oh hey it’s not coming from a place of hierarchy, neat.”

Messenger is very easy to manipulate if she trusts or is loyal to you. But she doesn’t trust easily, and her loyalties are very difficult to shift, so she is also the perfect pawn to send out as a sort of Admin proxy/negotiator with allied and rival orgs.

Especially since she has also been conditioned to see herself as the most expendable asset in any situation.

After a few tricky hostage situations, Messenger underwent training and physical conditioning so that now, if the stress or pain levels she experiences get past a certain level, she will “check out” of the situation by passing out into a borderline comatose state. Because intel can’t be accessed without her, even on a drive or in a packet, this renders torture absolutely useless.

On a personal level, Barbara herself has always been highly loyal and a people pleaser, which was a lucky point for Admin. It also means that she applies her work logic of ‘most expendable asset’ to interpersonal relationships as well. Messenger will willingly, and cheerfully, die for anyone she loves or deems more important than her.

Which is p much everybody she doesn’t hate.

(Who she’ll kill for, though, is way more picky. She has yet to be put in that situation. She’s also got a hold on strategy and calculation, so her sacrifices are rarely spur of the moment, emotional “take me instead” moments. Rarely.)

But, and this is a fun point, this way of thinking has been around wayyyy before she ever even heard of Mann Co. Which in a way makes it sweet, because she really does put others first out of love, but on the other hand…trying to separate what comes from her conditioning versus her active, willful choices is…virtually impossible.

Not even admin knows just how lucky she got when she decided to hire this particular child of an ornery ex-employee.

Service With a Smile- AkA Some HCs about Messenger’s Conditioning and How it Effects Her Strategy

For Prime Verse

Sometimes I forget that Barbara has been under the Administrator’s thumb since she was 18. Despite starting to work directly under her at 21, the whole reason Babs got her original office job in the first place is that Helen discovered her coincidentally through recon on The Berserker.

The job description on the flier Barbara happened to find was specifically targeted at this particular desperate, naive woman.

It drew her out from her small town (and father’s protection but story for another day) into a coastal city, and into the dehumanizing conditions of her first job.

It was super bad to the point that whenever Mess feels overwhelmed, overworked, or stressed to the point of illness, she remembers the first office and her brain goes “okay well compared to that this isn’t so bad.”

Convenient, huh?

Even Hale treats her more like a person than her old bosses did, and offers the occasional positive reinforcement. Which is like crack to Messenger. Especially from a superior, or even just an older adult man. Validating her usefulness wins people major points, especially if you’re on relatively equal footing and she’s like “oh hey it’s not coming from a place of hierarchy, neat.”

Messenger is very easy to manipulate if she trusts or is loyal to you. But she doesn’t trust easily, and her loyalties are very difficult to shift, so she is also the perfect pawn to send out as a sort of Admin proxy/negotiator with allied and rival orgs.

Especially since she has also been conditioned to see herself as the most expendable asset in any situation.

After a few tricky hostage situations, Messenger underwent training and physical conditioning so that now, if the stress or pain levels she experiences get past a certain level, she will “check out” of the situation by passing out into a borderline comatose state. Because intel can’t be accessed without her, even on a drive or in a packet, this renders torture absolutely useless.

On a personal level, Barbara herself has always been highly loyal and a people pleaser, which was a lucky point for Admin. It also means that she applies her work logic of ‘most expendable asset’ to interpersonal relationships as well. Messenger will willingly, and cheerfully, die for anyone she loves or deems more important than her.

Which is p much everybody she doesn’t hate.

(Who she’ll kill for, though, is way more picky. She has yet to be put in that situation. She’s also got a hold on strategy and calculation, so her sacrifices are rarely spur of the moment, emotional “take me instead” moments. Rarely.)

But, and this is a fun point, this way of thinking has been around wayyyy before she ever even heard of Mann Co. Which in a way makes it sweet, because she really does put others first out of love, but on the other hand…trying to separate what comes from her conditioning versus her active, willful choices is…virtually impossible.

Not even admin knows just how lucky she got when she decided to hire this particular child of an ornery ex-employee.

@talariis: Questions and Answers

❝ What is it like deliverin’ messages n’ guns for the teams? Is it dangerous? Didja’ ever get into any fights with the other guys? Why a messenger? What’s even your real name? Would you like to go on a date? What made you choose to work for Mann co.? Which team do you like better? Would you link to hang out at the base with me?❞

“Woah wow woah boy- I need a minute,” she put her hands up and pulled out a pad of paper to scribble the questions down before she forgot all of them, “…Y’know, honestly? Delivering to you badlands teams is actually the most relaxing part of my job?”
She paused and put a pointer finger up.
 “Mail wise and stuff I mean, not TV messages so much. Some guys still…don’t like that.”
 “So yeah, it’s dangerous. I mean, it’s been dangerous, right? Back in uhh…’60? People were still dying and swapping out all the time before respawn got solidified so it was a coinflip on friendliness day by day. Now I at least know who to avoid and/or use ranged delivery on so local delivery is somewhat less life threatening. But uh, I wouldn’t call anything here a fight. Little too one sided for that. Mostly I just hit the deck and wait, y’know? Not much I can do if anybody really gets a hankering to kill me…mostly.”

“Why ‘Messenger…’ well it’s kinda a rank thing on one hand? I’m like…the least expendable of the messengers and‘ve always had more job variability than ‘em so I get that nice proper noun priveledge. Lower pay grade technically but I’m pretty sure only one of em has managed to collect more than three times. And when they die I get half their severance as kinda a reward for outliving another grunt…I donate that.”

“On the other hand, Boss essentially owns my name, and I don’t want to put my family at risk so. Sorry Scout, it’s confidential.”

She looks over the questions again and goes pink very fast.

“Uh, I um I’m gonna answer that one last. Mann co was a… well I needed a job outta town and happened to see a listing for a satellite office of Mann Co that had like…the qualification was essentially having a pulse so. Then uh…that office…closed. But I…got moved. To HQ. Figured it was easier than searching for a different job so… eh,” she shrugged, “I need money if I’m gonna buy a little farm and have a bunch of dogs and horses someday. With room for my mom.”

Certain aspects of that answer could be seen as somewhat guarded.

She raised an eyebrow at the favorites question:
“You better not spread this, but so far Red’s ahead. I fear for my life significantly less when here. Some nice guys on blu, but generally I prefer y’all. Plus that Hot Choc won you points. Y’all would’ve lost points for killing my grunts and using their bones as art deco… but blu’s done it too. So you’re even.”
“So count that as yes I’d like to hang out sometime. Not running around for a bit is nice, and I like bothering you with shitty jokes.”
She took a breath, her face getting a whole lot redder. She rubbed her neck and shoulders and looked at the floor. 
“I mean. If you’re actually serious about a date? S-sure? If it’s a joke, that’s fine.”

She looked up with a smile, responding in a very level voice, “It’s funny, in that case.” 

27: What moral alignment is your OC?

This one is kinda tricky because it fully depends on what angle you look at Messenger from, and there are some differences between prime and mercsy that probably lean them toward different squares.

And then there’s the question of how she/they view themselves which gets interesting.

I would give Messenger Prime

Lawful Neutral– though she tries to do good and has strong moral opinions and leanings toward a higher power, she still is highly loyal to The Administrator and does not disobey orders-(except on two occasions) even if she knows people will most likely be hurt by her actions.

For 10th class Messenger I would say

Jeez wait fuck… shit okay yeah this is… is there any way to be chaotic and lawful at the same time? No not neutral…

Okay I think I have to give her Lawful Good which is kinda hilarious to me given she’s the one who has even more chaotic energy and actually has a body count.

But there are several really big events in her story that put her here, along with her hardcore loyalty to the team and its members.

How they view themselves:

Prime: Lawful Neutral/true Neutral

Mercsenger: Chaotic Evil 100%

“Ouch”

Send: “Ouch” to my inbox for a random, sad or distressing headcanon about my muse.

Content Warning: mental illness, reference to historical institutionalization

[Responding in character because you used quotation marks]

“When I was 14 I had a… really bad episode. My firstish one? Or like, my first one as a “youth.” 

Phys’s got me on medications for generalized anxiety and a bit for depression now-apparently it was a panic attack coupled with a reality break- but I didn’t hear those terms til I met some buddies with similar stuff. 

Which is funny because… after the attack my uh… my dad sent me to an institution. I was there for a year, but they only threw words like schizophrenia and hysteria at us, mostly. I made some friends there though, so…silver lining.”