aha! I was going to send you an ask a few days ago and then got started reading your fic. how about 🎤 and 🔧 for the ask meme?
Ahhhhh thank you so much this is so sweet! Let's see......
🎤- Kerry Eurodyne
Riley and Kerry had a very very rocky start. Kerry is basically Riley's ultimate opposite: the peppy to her moody, the extreme optimist to her extreme realist, the "fuck it, let's blow up a car what's the worst that can happen?" to her "no no no can we please try to come up with a plan I am BEGGING YOU--". Riley's biggest hangup with Kerry is evident in her most core memory of him, where he calls her out of the blue after the Samurai gig and goes "Johnny...?" first, leaving her to awkwardly explain that no, sorry, he's not available, she's gonna have to do, which Kerry shrugs off and goes "okay, yeah, you'll work I guess."
Riley is a bit prickly regarding Kerry's, uh, preference towards Johnny, to the point that she spends the first few weeks of their friendship convinced that Kerry's just waiting for her to shrivel up and die so he can get his best friend back. As a result of that conversation, she pretty much considers that sentiment confirmed in her eyes and thus starts a very awkward companionship where Riley doesn't really even know why she's bothering (the money definitely doesn't hurt, though) and Kerry's just jazzed to have a buddy that enables his destructive ideas in the way Johnny used to. They do eventually become real legit friends and Riley gets over her misgivings around the Dark Matter junket, but they definitely got off on the wrong foot for a while.
🔧- Saul Bright
Oh, Saul. Riley actually likes Saul more than she probably should. After growing up as a very serious, rule-oriented child in a nomad clan, it's natural that she would gravitate towards a very serious, rule-oriented clan leader like Saul, who's stricter than her former Bakkers chieftain Selita but not to the point that it makes him hated among the clan. In truth, Riley is more divided about Saul and Panam's Biotechnica conflict than she would let on, because while she does ultimately think that Panam is right, she doesn't think grand plays of recklessness and mutiny are effective ways of solving it. Regardless, Riley sticks with Panam because she's loyal to a fault for her friends and hey, if she doesn't keep Pan on this side of the living, who's gonna?
The night after Panam and Riley rescue Saul, Riley-- somewhat of a restless sleeper when Raffens are about-- goes to use the bathroom and runs into a similarly wide-awake Saul. The pair of them talk a little 1 v 1, in which Saul kinda-sorta thanks Riley for watching out for Panam and keeping her out of danger, and he tries to pry some more information about her former life as a Bakker to no avail. They talk for a while more until the conversation turns towards Panam again-- in many ways, Saul still views Panam as a child, and is somewhat of the mind that the plan to bust him free was Riley's and not hers. Riley has to put her foot down and set him straight in regards to that too; Hey man, the plan was hers, you may not agree with her approach on shit because I definitely don't sometimes, but Panam gets results and like it or not, she's a person you'd want in your corner rather than out of it, so wise the fuck up and stop tearing her down every chance you get.
Neither of them gain much in the conversation except a newfound, if not somewhat begrudging, respect for each other. Riley and Saul can never really be "friends" due to the power dynamic of him being the Aldecaldo's head and her being a former nomad, but this marks the point that the pair of them find even footing with each other. This ALSO marks the point where Saul realizes that Riley is pretty much the only person Panam will listen to, and every single time Panam texts Riley, she'll get another one from Saul five minutes later asking her to stop Panam from doing whatever stupid thing it is she's about to throw herself into. It gets so bad that Riley seriously contemplates blocking his holo number at some point just so her phone will stop ringing off the hook.
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