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Jordan tensed at Rep's outburst, but didn't intervene; he looked to Leon, waiting for the boxer's reaction. He was in full agreement with Rep for once, tired of Leon's odd behavior. Leon's response was ... not entirely reassuring, either. It bothered Jordan that he couldn't figure out what Leon thought about Rep; half the time the guy seemed almost friendly, and the other half he issued death threats.

At least there wasn't going to be an immediate fight. Jordan kept the smile in place. "Thanks," he said cheerfully to the congratulations, and tilted a grin Ro's way. "Awesome."

He stayed near his guys, but when he heard Melvin asking Leon some questions, he listened. The answers weren't clearing much of anything up, either. Rep had gotten himself into some deep s**t, but he'd taken the consequences for it, and past that single, disastrous mission, he'd never had any problems on duty. It wasn't Leon's job to be looking out for troublemakers, either. Was it? Jordan's smile faded briefly as he considered the possibility.

Had Leon been assigned to monitor potential troublemakers? He certainly wasn't the subtle type, and he'd provoked Rep into explosions on more than one occasion. That would bias any observations ... unless that was the idea ... no. Jordan shook his head slightly. He was overthinking this. They already knew that it was Simon's task to eliminate unsolvable problems in Sun. Leon just had a grudge of some sort, and they'd have to watch out for him, but it was very, very unlikely that it went any deeper than that.

Once the argument was defused, Rep was happy to slink off out of the way and out of attention, putting Harrison between him and the rest of the room. Maybe Leon hadn't meant what he'd said in a nasty way, but surrounded by people his ability to make judgement calls went out the window.

He took another swig of one of the open drinks and felt better in a steady glow of alcohol.

Before gleefully took Candace's permission as his cue to pop open the bottle. Carefully, per her orders, and because Before didn't want to waste the one alcoholic beverage he actually enjoyed. Maybe it was intentionally but Before poured more than a mouthful, maybe three, hopefully Candace wouldn't mind. If she did, well, Before saw himself setting aside some of his earnings to replace it.

He set the bottle back down and listened in on the rest of the conversation with a quirked brow. They were still talking about Rep? Before just shook his head as he took a sip, finding himself asking, "Who else has Rep saved? Other'n you and Jordan that is." Hey, Before thought it was a legit question considering he was hardly ever on the same mission group as the ones present.

Before took another sip of his drink, raised his hand, then added, "Err, can I take it back? It ain't a fair question to, iunno, count who has saved whom in missions 'cuz if we're gonna get down to that, I have, like..." he trailed off, making a face, "Not saved a lot of people. So technically, on that account, no one should trust me either."

He pursed his lips, took another drink of the champagne (******** yeah Candace knew the good stuff), "But then again, no one's needed to vouch for me that I'm not execution-material either. I had a point somewhere but I lost it..."

Rep was aware of people talking about him, even if he had no intention of listening to what was said it was flat out impossible to miss. He had no intention of standing up for himself, he didn't consider himself a good person or anything along those lines, he did his job and that was it, he didn't go out of his way to help specific people, he wasn't a life or a moon.

He tapped Harrison on the shoulder as he headed to the door. "I'll be back in a minute."

He wanted out of that room, needed out of there. He took his bottle with him.

Before hadn't been there during the aforementioned defending-protecting what-have-yous but Harrison's word had a lot more sway with the Mist than he ever let on. "Missions are a go then," he shrugged, then mumbled into his glass, "Wonder how much of that is cause and effect, though?"

When he emptied the contents of his glass, Before was about to reach for the bottle again when he thought the better of it. The discussion was getting a little too heated for Before and his gaze wandered over to the door. He debated on following Rep, in that he would leave but with no bottle, because that was Candace's. Grabbing one of the woefully decorated gingerbread men from the tray, Before turned back to Leon, "Can't add anything to prove or disprove Harrison since we're not usually in the same teams. But all I know is outside of Missions? I don't want Ofie or Story or any of my Bros anywhere near Rep."

Then the Mist took a savage bite of the cookie and headed out, "Advanced Happy New Year, imma be in the kitchen if anyone wants more food."

Jerry had been just trying to keep up with conversation, and the more Leon said, the more he regretted paying attention. "Leon, as far as I can tell you're doing exactly the same thing you accuse Rep of doing. "

He drained his glass, glowering at the chainsaw-weilder as he straightened his garish shirt. "Don't give me that crap. You called ME a traitor before. You are an IDIOT and it will get you killed. For all the crap you talk, all the worry you have, and pride you have and bullshit sass you think is looking out for people, you're just making yourself more enemies than Rep's got. He tries to get along better with people. Do you even try, Leon? Our lives are filled with being terrified and almost killed just about every day, and we want to celebrate something good, something normal like love and marriage and you decide you should.... sh-s**t all over it because of something that happened almost a year ago? Who's the idiot here, Leon? Rep might be a... a bit of a hot head, but he's not the only one and in case you hadn't noticed, he's a fine Sun. Just like I am." He glowered. "And if you want to get turned into a bloody smear on a wall, I'll fight you any time. Just not here. It's a Sun's job to make damage, Lifer, not sit in a lab and strip for the ladies."

As far as he could tell, Leon was the only one who needed babysitting in this situation.

He needed another Rum and Coke, but he'd have to wait for people to be paying less attention. It felt good to tell the boxer-with-a-god-complex off, at least.

"So all I have to say is MOZEL TOV to you three, and ******** the haters!"

"If Leon got attacked, Rep and I wouldn't hesitate to blow away whoever's trying to kill him. But if either of us lay bleeding on the ground? I doubt he would do anything about it. You are a good Lifer, Melvin. There's plenty of good lifers I'd trust my life to around here- but not bigoted boxers who go on about how he'd leave us to die over ancient history and is proud of it." Jerry scoffed, hackles still plenty raised.