Lydia Walker's Links
Lydia doesn't think very highly, or very often, of Clyde.
Clyde often held a position of leadership among those around them, which made Lydia all the more wary of them. She's not a fan of authority, especially when she feels that there's no reason Clyde's any better than her.
Clyde was put off by Lydia from the start. They were uneasy around off-planeters, having met so few in their life, and were overprotective of Archer when he started talking about how pretty she was. It didn't help that one of the first things she ever said to them was "What's wrong with your brother?"
They were forced to cooperate for sheer survival, but continued to butt heads. Clyde & Lydia were very similar people, in all the worst ways- gloomy, introverted, distrustful of strangers and easy to make grudges.
When they first meet, Lydia doesn't think very much about Archer. Her life is stressful enough with gender struggles and being on the run from Space Criminals. She's never been one to enjoy committed relationships, instead hopping from boy toy to boy toy. Why should she start now? Besides, she thinks, this guy must be a chaser, there's no way he genuinely thinks she's beautiful. (Of course, Lydia is wrong on this front. Archer thinks she's pretty as pretty can be, and actually didn't realize she was trans until she came out to him.)
Once Lydia finally decides to give a non-one-night-stand relationship a try, she finds that Archer brings out the good in her. She likes his jokes and appreciates his positive outlook on life. The symptoms of his brain injury are hard to deal with at first but she finds herself willing to deal with them time and time again. As their relationship becomes even more committed, Lydia begins to worry. What will Archer say when he finds out she used to be a hitman?
Archer was infatuated with Lydia from the moment he set eyes on her. He thought her cagey personality was kind of cute, and was entirely convinced she was the prettiest woman in this galaxy. When she rebuffed his advances, he was willing to back off, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable. Maybe if he just waits it out and gives her some space, she'll grow more attached to him and change her mind?
Once they actually start dating, Archer finds that Lydia doesn't really have a "soft side" in the traditional sense. He starts to worry that because she doesn't express her feelings very well, she doesn't like him very much. That is not at all the case, however; she's just emotionally stunted, and shows her love through actions instead of words.
There's never been a time when Marcus didn't creep Lydia out.
But Lydia needed the money, and there's only so many employers in Hel where having been an accomplished hitman was a desired qualification. (Well, knowing the state of the cityplanet Hel, that's not entirely true.) Lydia never really cared what it was that Marcus was doing or why he was doing it. All she knew is that she could afford a decent apartment by stealing files, destroying paper trails, and occasionally destroying other people's files.
When Lydia found Marcus's confidential archives, she didn't even know what she was doing. When hacking is so second-nature, she didn't even realize she had laid eyes upon something only intended for him. But the reckoning was immediate. Lydia knew that if she wanted to stay alive, she needed to leave, and fast. Marcus was a force of nature and Lydia had just awakened a hurricane.
With the information she'd uncovered, Lydia had only one lead- Head to Khione.
Marcus saw Lydia as a pawn. A useful pawn with a tendency to not ask too many questions. He found her entertaining and appreciated her seemingly nonexistent moral compass.
As the time went on during her employment as his hired thug, this began to change. Lydia started questioning the necessity of certain murder-y tasks, and trying to glean details unnecessary for job execution. This all culminated in her breaking into Marcus's scientific logs, permanently putting Lydia on his shit list. It's a good thing Lydia's so skilled at fleeing, or else she'd already be dead.
In her early 20s, when she was strictly a hitman-for-hire, Lydia was frequently paid to kill or intimidate associates of Ali's business rivals. This gave the two a lot of time to get to know each other. Looking back, Lydia's not sure if it was his charming personality, or all the drugs he gave her, but they had a bond. There were some late nights shared between the two, where the cloud of intoxications cleared, and it genuinely seemed as though they liked each other.
Of course, they haven't seen each other in at least 5 years, and Lydia's got more pressing matters than thinking about some guy she used to know.
Ali has absolutely no idea if Lydia is dead or alive. He wonders sometimes, and wishes well for her; while he never felt it was his place to intervene, it was clear to him when they were "business associates" that Lydia was frequently skirting the edge of life itself.
Lydia was never the easiest hitman that Ali did business with. She got good results, sure, but lots of other people could have done so without all the chit-chat, mooching and flirting. Yet time and time again it was her that he hired. This system went without fail for some time, but in as much measure as their relationship had slowly grew, it quickly ended, unceremoniously going from presence to absence. Ali's immediate assumption was that she had finally overdosed, or perhaps that a rival associate had done her in. He only wishes he could find some sort of closure. ...But would he even recognize her now?