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Who; Garrus Vakarian and Clayton Young
What; A meeting that's long overdue
Where; The Nova City Beacon Bounty Board
Warnings; Nothing except Clay's mouth

Money was normally something important. Here it was even more so. Here, Clay didn't know the score, he didn't really know who was calling the shots around here, and each city seemed to be taking care of itself while they all still had hands in all the others. For a soldier who's been out of touch with the actual world for 20 years, it was confusing as Hell.

Bounties weren't confusing, though. They were simple. I want this guy. I'll pay you to go get this guy. Done. Naturally, once the idea of the place had found Clay he'd found his way here. He'd heard the best firearms would be found in Nova City anyway, so he was in the neighborhood.

Garrus would find him scrolling through the available bounties, unable to select one. It was difficult when you didn't know the political climate.

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Working two and a half jobs doesn't leave you with a lot of free time, but Garrus makes sure to spend his cleaning the streets. It's become routine for him to scan Nova's Bounty Board on his way home from work every night to make sure there's no serious threats that need immediate handling; he prefers to eat dinner before handing Archangel business, but sometimes it can't wait.

When he approaches it tonight, though, there's a guy he doesn't recognize. Normally he'd brush it off, but the man has been staring intently at the board for a few minutes, and to be honest it's a little awkward.

He turns his head slightly towards him, and yeah, he's just kind of.... staring. Kid must be new at this.

"First time?"

While Clay's idling telepathy warned him of the approach of another person, he never used it to pry, only to avoid being surprised. It didn't work this time, as he turned at the sound of the voice, eyebrows raising at the appearance of the man who'd spoken. That explained why the voice sounded so weird, anyway.

"Uh, yeah. At least for bounties posted publicly. Usually it's more on the downlow, you know?"

Crystalline blue eyes looked Garrus over before he continued, turning and offering the, uh, whatever he was a hand. "Clayton Young."

Garrus has long gotten used to people's reactions to him; honestly, it's become a little fun to see their reactions. He takes the hand and gives it a shake. That's right, he knows human customs too. "Garrus Vakarian. You new to town or just to the public sector?"

Sounds like Clay has an interesting history and Garrus is quite interested in knowing more. Though, whether he's friend or foe is yet to be decided.

Clay is already more at ease as soon as Garrus returns his handshake, and a slight smile touches his lips as he nods, moving his hands to his sides and shoving them into the pockets of his jeans.

"Both. A little birdy told me Nova City was the place to find good firearms, and I sort of stumbled upon this one." He motions toward the bounty board. "They're not exactly subtle, are they? You know where they come from? Looks like black market dealers would abuse this pretty easy. How many legitimate bounty hunters end up being nothing more than hitmen around here?"

Garrus shrugs. "Long as it gets them off the streets, I don't really care. Those hitmen will wind up here too one day."

He gives Clay a once over. Did he even have any weapons? Either way, it sounds like he's speaking Garrus' language. "Your birdy wasn't wrong, whoever they are. Nova has weapons that are top of the line." He grins. "I would know; I design them. What type of firearm were you looking for?"

Clay glowered at Garrus' commentary on Hitmen, but he didn't say anything. His father had been a hitman, but then again, considering the end he'd met, Garrus definitely wasn't wrong.

"I like the sound of that." He raises an eyebrow. "All of 'em, huh? That's pretty impressive." He reaches up to tap his chin thoughtfully. "I like to be prepared, and keeping to one firearm limits the jobs you can take, so I'm okay." He gives Garrus the once over again. "Do your guns even use bullets?" How sci-fi are you, bro?

"Well, not all of them. Just the best ones." Is it really cocky if it's true?

He rolls his eyes at the guy. Just because he's not from Earth doesn't mean he's all about the lasers and the flying cars - okay, that one might be true. But still. "Yes, they still use bullets, but they tend to be specialized. Regular bullets are so 2103."

"I feel ya, brother."

He laughs, holding up a hand. "Fair enough. I wouldn't mind seeing what you've got." Later, once he got this job thing sorted out. "So." He motions over his shoulder toward the board. "This thing's this simple? What's the catch?"

"Swing by my office at Nexus one day and I'll show you what I'm working on. I'm constantly trying new things." Some experiments go better than others, admittedly.

"No catch. Complete a bounty, turn it in, get paid. Nova has a requirement that you get a bounty's license, though, since Schnee is against vigilantes for some reason. Me? I say long as the job gets done who cares. But I'm not the boss."

That gets a laugh from Clay. "I like the way you think, Vakarian." Good to know about the hunting license, though. "So, where do I do the paperwork? Your office?"

"Yeah, I can help you out with that, but not at my Nexus office; we don't have anything to do with bounties. You'd have to come down to the Skyrise to fill out the application. It's not as bad as it sounds, though. It's more of an 'I promise to play by the rules' agreement than anything."

"'I solemnly swear I'm up to no good'? Seriously?" He chuckles, shaking his head. "I'll head that way, then. Some of these seem promising."

Of course, there was his original dilemma. "So, you're a hunter?"

"Yeah, it's not all a crock." He pauses, considering the question posed. "Kind of? I mostly do it on the side. I don't have time to make a living off of it. I work as a Deputy here, too, so between that, Nexus, and consulting at Aster when they need me I keep pretty busy. But I do what I can to keep the streets clean." Including say up way past his bedtime most nights; this lifestyle is probably going to catch up to him one day, but the price we pay and and all that jazz.

"A deputy." Of the Guardian, he supposed, and he nodded to indicate he was following. "So, you can fill me in on the underworld, huh? Who's paying to off who, all that?"

He's correct in his supposition. "Yes and no. There are always new players coming to town. beyond that, the Guardian office doesn't handle all of the underworld; a lot of that is left to bounties, unfortunately." Archangel, on the other hand, might be able to help him out, but he'll wait to see what this guy is made of before he drops that name. "You looking to take them down or something?

Clay nodded, following that well enough, at least. He motioned toward the board. "Like this, huh?" He shrugged. "Take it from me: an organized underworld's safer for the civilians than a chaotic one. I'm more just curious who clears these bounties, who posts them?"

Garrus blinks. Well shit. He had never really considered it before. "I would assume it's the Guardian of each city, but I've never really thought about it. Just seen a low life that I can take off the street." He makes a mental note to check with Weiss when he sees her next. That was actually a really good question.

Wait. What was the first part he said? "You have experience with the underworld where you're from?" That was definitely promising. Says something about his capabilities if he had fought against him and was still living to tell the tale.

"That's what they want you to do, the lowlifes." He nodded in response to Garrus' question. "I sort of grew up in it. I'm not...there's too much collateral damage for my taste, but I can respect the sort of order the bigwigs and bring to the table."

"I don't know that I could use 'respect' and 'underworld' in the same sentence. You know who else has order? Police. Businesses. Reputable ones, even. Just because they can do something well doesn't make them 'respectable.'"

"...You grew up in it?" That's... less promising. "You're not looking to start anything here, are you?" That would really put a damper on things. He kind of liked the guy; it'd be a shame if he had to arrest him one day.

"Yeah, and just because they're cops doesn't mean they are, either. The government's screwed me over more than they ever did."

He rolls his shoulder, dismissing the topic, but shaking his head. "No. I said I grew up in it. I didn't say I liked it. I just know what complete chaos looks like. My dad wasn't a boss. He was clean-up detail. He taught me how to use a gun to get a job done. There's too much backstabbing in the underworld, in the government. I don't actually want anything to do with either."

He motions toward the bounty board again. "Bounties, ones by legit people, not two-timers? They're easy. Clean. Contractual, done once the job's done. No ties." And he looks back to Garrus. "My concern? I've seen a lot of innocent people brought down on false charges by bounty hunters. That's why I asked."

"I'm a cop and I'm wounded. I really thought the facial scarring screamed respectable."

He snorts, rolling his eyes. "Don't have to tell me twice. Sometimes the government can be just as bad." Another reason he was glad he had jumped on Shepard's crew. She had her orders. She just did what she damn well pleased half the time and no one told her know. Damn fine woman.

He considers Clay's words. "That's... actually a really good point. I never considered where they came from. Just assumed the police or the Guardian's office issued them based on reports they've received. Might warrant some looking into. Man, it would suck if all the people I've been turning in have actually been good guys."

That actually got a chuckle from Clay. That didn't happen often. He turned to regard the Turian more fully, crossing his arms with a slight smirk on his face.

"You ever seen The Untouchables?" He sort of figured Garrus hadn't, but it was worth a shot, and sounded like it would be right up Garrus' alley, being about law enforcement trying to take down a notorious crime boss.

He chuckled at Garrus' comment, though. "The first thing to understand is there are no 'innocent people', Garrus. Can you honestly tell me there's nothing you've ever done you regret? That got people hurt?"

"Nope, never heard of it. What's it about?" And how did it relate to their present conversation? People didn't just tend to bring up random movies for no reason.

His question silences the turian. Did he have regrets? Overall, no. He's had a pretty good run and always strived to do what was right rather than what was expected or acceptable. But he had also placed his trust in a man that turned on him. His squad was dead because of him, because of his error in judgement.

"Believe me: I know all about regrets."

"Some cops trying to take down one of the most notorious gangsters Earth's ever known while half of them he's bought off. Ever heard of Al Capone? I don't know how much you know about Earth history."

He nodded at Garrus' admission. "Sometimes you make bad life choices and lots of people get hurt because of them. It comes with power, corruption, not looking at the big picture. Look. I don't want to get into the weeds here, but just...when I was a kid, I got in with a bad crowd. They left me to take the rap for something, and a shady government asshole gave me a deal I couldn't refuse. I'm not gonna be used again." He motioned to the board again. "That's why I wanna know where they come from."

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