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They are never going to get along.
Basco decides this two days in and shortly after Soldier Boy's screams cut through the night, which he swears, is as good as a signal flare set loose against the pitch black of the sky for Zangyak to find them.
He is never half-asleep on his feet, so he is a lot more functional than Marvelous will ever be the moment the two of them all but crash into each other (Marv into him, not the other way around) outside one of the spare rooms that Red always insisted they keep in order.
When they finally get the door open, Basco finds himself surveying damage that one slip of a boy couldn't possibly have caused all on his own.
There is a chair with its back legs broken (he suspects that was what was barring the door) and the sheets are torn. The drawers look rummaged through and it takes him a full minute while Marv tries to get through to the boy -- Joe, calm down, Joe. It's okay. You're safe, calm down -- to realize that Soldier Boy must have been looking for a gun.
Its the boy's gaze that tips him off. It's the first rule of getting out of a bar fight: Be alert, but don't look at the weapon you want to retrieve from the other body. Don't tip off your mark before you get it. If you do, you are royally screwed.
Unfortunately for one J. Gibken, Basco has had his fair share of scrapes and tight getaways from the devoted rank and file of Zangyack's special forces.
Joe doesn't get his pistol (and yes, Basco sees nothing wrong about keeping Lady Havoc on his person at all times), but Basco does get scolded by Marv in a manner eerily reminiscent of the way Red would scold him if he went a touch too far.
So they settle for an uneasy truce: Basco sneers, pokes fun at and does everything he can to belittle Joe. Joe rubs it in his face that Marvelous names him First Mate, which came thoroughly out of portside as far as Basco is concerned.
He wants to ask Marvelous sometimes: Why this kid? I thought we were a tandem -- a team. But instead he slinks away back into the comfort of the galley and pictures that whatever odd vegetable they've acquired from whatever recent stopover they've made are Soldier Boy's fingers, diced to little bits.