“Eli you dumbass…” 

Vincent growled between clenched teeth as he turned to watch the gunslinging redneck throw his weight around like a sack of old potatoes.

“What. The. Fuck?” 

For the first few moments [i]prior[/i] to Eli emerging from the mineshaft, Vin felt he may have had the situation well under control considering no one was shooting at him...yet. Sure, his excuses were shit and he knew it, and he didn’t necessarily like using Jennifer as any form of a scapegoat, but he was running out of ideas and the lack of sleep, food, soap, sex, and a dozen other bear necessities weighed heavy on his better judgement. Still, he knew [i]something[/i] good had to have come out of his somewhat non-threatening demeanor and the fact that he was unarmed. The one fear, however, that seeped into his weary mind was the unknown, as his repulsive power could ruin everything, or get him killed in the process of ruining everyone else's day. But he kept to the plan…

Up until Eli arrived that is.

Vin’s eyes shifted from Eli, back to the sweaty driver and his young companion, as he slowly backed away from the truck a few paces in the face of their “host” bringing his own perverse version of the welcome wagon. He couldn’t help but shake his head at Eli’s brand of handling everything and anything with the end of a gun barrel, and suddenly realizing that the guy may have had some kind of PTSD that made him truly believe he was deemed lord and sheriff of some backwoods town that needed a savior from the big, bad outlaw gang of two in a rusted-out pickup truck. A kid and a older guy who’d seen better days. Pathetic.

At least Nate had the right idea of getting the others inside, but it was most likely due to the the guy’s own self-preservation instincts kicking in rather than caring enough about the welfare of the group. Vin mused at the fact that if he died here, at least he didn’t have to deal with the asshole anymore. On the other hand, the thought of never seeing Jennifer again outweighed anything else at the moment, as he watched her being strong armed into the mineshaft. Again, Vin’s attention went back to the couple in the truck, as the young passenger blurted out something that was either random and non-sensical words or perhaps she was trying to get a grip on the whole situation in her head by thinking out loud. Either way, the sarcasm in her words wasn’t missed, causing Vin to grin slightly, as she did her best to diffuse the situation while maintaining their position within the truck. 

Kids. Gotta love them.

He was starting the like this girl’s attitude, although he didn’t expect her, after a moment to open the passenger’s side door with her hands on her head like a petty criminal just pinched by the local cops. He felt bad for her, strong will and all, but still just a kid who ended up in a shitty situation with a bunch of people she didn’t know. Vin hoped Eli would see reason even as he decided to play cops & robbers with everyone's lives. In a last ditch effort to support what the girl was trying to relay, Vincent turned to Eli again in hopes that he didn’t completely abandoned reason for madness.

“Eli...bro, can’t you see there is an awkward enough standoff happening here...”

The thought of him being shot first didn’t slip his mind, even as he continued, knowing that whatever he’d say next could potentially help or hurt the group. 

“I mean, c’mon, she’s a kid for fuck’s sake, and her old man -or whoever he is- just wants to know [i]why[/i] we’re here at the ass crack of morning hanging out up in the hills of a place none of us look like we’d belong to anyway. And, on top of that, how in the hell would these two-” He motioned his thumb toward the truck. “...who clearly don’t belong in this fine upstanding community, just coincidentally end up here at roughly the same time we did?”

Vincent bit his lip, not really sure at this point if he was getting through to the neanderthal who called himself Eli, but Vin was at his wits end, and if a bullet didn’t kill him first, then the stress and anxiety of their current situation would most likely.