fandomhigh | Camp Shenanigans, Wednesday, June 5, 2019

"Good morning!" Anakin blared through the microphone. "An essential skill of a camper is the ability to feed yourself over a campfire--BEAKER, GET AWAY FROM THE CAMPFIRES."

There was slightly charred sounding apologetic meeping as Beaker moved away from one of the two campfires that had been carefully set up in the park. There were rickety looking folding tables arranged nearby the fires with cutting boards, knives, bowls, and other ~~moddable~~ kitchen items nearby. There was, however, no power. Everything would have to be chopped and grated and opened from a can by hand.

"Today, you will be paired up and asked to feature one of two different sets of menu items," Anakin continued. "And then you will present them to our esteemed panel of judges: Summer, Hannibal, Peebee, and Vette." He pointed to the judges. "Your meal must be cooked over the campfire. We have an array of other ingredients--" he pointed to a pantry and set of mini fridges that Beaker was now standing near, so expect that to spontaneously fall over any minute now, "--for you to use to supplement your original ingredients, but you must use the three ingredients we give you." He took a deep breath. "Please don't give the judges food poisoning, and remember that presentation matters. Listen for your names!"

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"Well, for one thing, I can stop worryin' about who's tryna break into my system," Hardison said wryly.

Look, he had a lot of sensitive stuff on there, including all of Leverage's old and potential clients.

"For another, I know exactly what kinda trouble a baby hacker can get into. Next person you run up against could brick your phone for real an' use the info they get off it to boot. Seems messed up to let that happen."

Nina grimaced. Joking about her Insta aside, there were things on her phone she definitely didn't want to lose.

"It would, like, be totally cruel of you to let that happen to me," she said earnestly, looking as harmless as she could.

Which was pretty harmless.

"What would it cost me????????????"

"I mean, I could also just tell you to take this as a lesson an' stop," Hardison said, amused. "An' then if you don't listen, that's on you."

He wouldn't. He was just pointing out that maaaaaybe she wanted to lay off the 'his responsibility' thing a bit.

"You feel better if you had to pay?" he asked. "I wasn't gonna charge, but if it's a Pride thing you got goin' on here, I could come up with somethin'."

Nina's grin was entirely unrepentant, even as she took his meaning. What? It wasn't like he was Grumpy Bus Guy, who Nina delighted in obliviousing at. So, like, fine. Fiiiiiiiiiiiine, she'd stop blaming him for it.

At least, for a little bit.

"Well, like, it just feels more official if there's a transactional aspect," Nina mused, considering him. "Like, even when we stole Grumpy Bus Guy's office from him, we made a contract that we wouldn't, like, destroy the art on the walls and would let him know if any future shenanigans were going to involve him……………"

Kanan had called all three of the Drama Diamonds to his office for a talk. It had gone well, but not in his favour.

But hey, new digs for them!

"So, like, I'm Nina, at your service??????????? I'm totally great at researching, magic, and getting into places I'm, like, not supposed to be and knowing things I'm not supposed to know," she said cheerfully. "And I'm better at those things when it's not online because, like, I only found out online was a thing a year ago. It doesn't exist in my world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A beat.

"I'm also really, really good at hitting things and making them stay down," she added. "So, like, any of that likely to be helpful for you?????????????"

Hardison couldn't help but laugh. "I'm Hardison," he said. "Of Leverage, Inc. Unfortunately, my partners got there first; Parker's our infiltration specialist, Eliot's our hitter, an' I'm research an' computers."

To put it simply. And leaving out a host of other things.

"Looks like this is gonna be less you payin' me for lessons an' more an apprenticeship. I'mma teach you how to hack an' you're gonna use what I teach you to do a bunch of the stuff I feel like puttin' on your plate instead. How's that sound?"

Nina had to take a moment to wrestle down the near breathtaking stab of envy she felt at the idea of having a team, not having to know and do everything herself, of working alone because that was just the way it was.

She had the Diamonds now, but that was here, not—

"One question," she said, since it was a priceless gift this man was offering her and she wanted it. "I might get called home to do work now and then. Is that, like, going to be a problem with what you want to give me???????????????"

Considering Hardison wouldn't even be charging if it hadn't made her feel better?

"Nah," he said. "Most of the stuff is either portable, or it won't be time-sensitive. I'll let you know if there's somethin' I need you to do by a specific time."

He entered a few things in on the keyboard and suddenly there was a folder on Nina's phone with a list of names of restaurants in New Orleans. "Here," he said, "get me whatever you can on these restaurants. See what you can dig up beyond just a Google search. Sound good?"

Most peoples' reactions was probably not going to be 'hell yeah, homework!' but Nina was delighted.

"You got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped, beaming up at him. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Yo, you're welcome, Nina," Hardison said with a smile. "Just...stop tryna break through my stuff, would ya?"

He sincerely doubted she actually would. He wouldn't have, at her age.

Camp Shenanigans, Wednesday, June 5, 2019

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