milliways_bar | (no subject)

"They never get away."

He takes a sip of beer and shrugs.

"Don't need your approval."

"Everyone fails eventually. Who knows, maybe it's your turn."

Yamato throws a wry smile over at the man, arching an eyebrow. "Approval doesn't factor into it. I'm just rooting for the underdog. At the very least, I hope you can recoup your losses, though."

"Done my failing. Got over it a long time ago."

He snorts. At least the kid knows who the underdog is.

"Oh, I'll recoup my losses and then some."

"There's always new and exciting ways to fail."

He gives the man a sidelong look, but doesn't ask what the 'then some' is. He can figure it out, this is decidedly not a complex equation.

"What'd you do for him anyway?"

"Maybe for most people."

Creed returns the look with a bit of amusement.

"Hired to kill a guy. He killed himself first."

Which is so not his problem. He did his work up until he couldn't. He gets paid for that.

"Huh."

Well, Yamato rather figured it was something like that.

"I can see why there'd be a pay dispute, at least. Still think the client should pay up, but I get why he wouldn't. You didn't do the job in the end, after all."

"More to killing someone than putting a gun to their head. Gotta research, travel, do surveillance. I put my work in."

He's actually pretty proud of his work. He doesn't half-ass any of it.

"He owes me."

"Guess that's what he gets for ordering a bespoke artisanal murder," Yamato says. "You know what some people are like, though. If they don't see the end product, it doesn't matter to them how much work went into it."

Itemised invoices may be the way to go in the Murder Industry.

"He ordered the best," he replies with a hint of anger. "In the end, the guy's dead, isn't he?"

"He is, at that," Yamato says. "And reneging on deals isn't a habit anyone should get into."

Yamato might have more sympathy for the client, but the man ordered an assassination, he somewhat waived his right to receive any sympathy. Whatever consequences are coming to him, he should have foreseen from the outset.

"And if he has enough cash to order fucking hits on people, he clearly has the money to spare."

"Should know better." Which might just be the part of this whole catastrophe that bugs him the most. Dude isn't respecting the reputation.

"Don't matter know if he's got the money or not. He owes me."

"Right. And I suppose when you find him, it's not going to be just money you're after."

Yamato knows enough of how this all works to know that making an example of people who don't pay up is -- advantageous.

"Guessing there's no way to convince you that exposing him and sending him to prison is enough."

"Not anymore."

Now it's his turn to look at the other man with a raised eyebrow. He might be laughing a little, too.

"Prison? What good's that ever done anyone?"

"It's a way of making an example out of him without killing or maiming him," Yamato says easily. He's aware, on some level, that he's being a little bit of a hypocrite -- he's never sent any of his enemies to prison, after all, he's just killed them. "More subtle, less bloody."

He doesn't really think the other man is going to go for this idea.

He takes another gulp of beer before leaning over the arm of his chair.

"You ever been in prison?"

"A few times," Yamato says mildly. "Although none of them were Earth prisons."

"Prison's a prison, I wager."

He wouldn't know. He keeps his feet on good ol'Earth.

"It do you any good?"

"I wasn't in any of them for very long," Yamato says, shrugging a shoulder. "But none of them were the kinds of places I'd want to be in. Makes a decent enough deterrent, if you want other people to think twice about screwing you out of pay."

"Yeah, it's like camp."

Not that he's ever been to camp, but it seems similar.

"You'd be amazed the affect death has on people."

"No, no, I really wouldn't."

Said awkwardly, because Yamato doesn't exactly enjoy the fact that he's killed a lot of people.

"It's just not the only way to make a point."

"But it's a damn good one."

He gives Yamato a good look over.

"What were you in for, littering?"

Yamato snorts.

"I wouldn't litter, I have a few fucking standards," he says wryly. "Prisoner of war, most times."

Creed doesn't.

"Yeah? Fun, ain't it."

"It's just the best," Yamato says. "It's fine, though. Everyone who ever tried putting me in prison has been dealt with."

He pauses for a beat, then adds: "Which I guess is a mark against the 'send him to prison' plan."

People in prison can get out and kill their would-be gaolers, after all.

"Pretty big one. Funny, I never killed anyone who put me in prison. More like a jail anyway."

He turns thoughtful for a moments.

"Probably cause I deserved it."