Ikora Rey - June Catch All

[cannot_flinch]

WHO: Ikora Rey & You
WHERE: Various locations
WHAT: June Catchall
WHEN: Various Times
WARNINGS: None yet.



Closed to Tony Stark - Library & Guardians

The room was not in the best condition but Ikora could see that work had already been done to make it a useful place to strategize and share information. She had settled her thoughts after the strange other world and other life and felt ready to focus on the present problem at hand. The aliens that had brought them here and the storms that ruined the planet.

As she examined the room, she was unsurprised to hear a voice. She remembered it from the other world. Ikora stepped out of the room, Ophiuchus floating slightly ahead of her.

"Tony Stark," she said with a slight smirk. "Still interested in buying me a drink?"

---

Meditation - Jedi Temple

Not all Warlocks meditated. Many of them had minds too vast and too cluttered to manage it. Asher Mir had certainly never managed it and found it a waste of time. Ikora found it calming and good way to refocus her mind if her thoughts started to scatter between too many ideas at once.

She knelt in a shaded part of the Jedi temple where she knew it would be quiet and slightly away from the others who inhabited it. She knew her meditation would perhaps set off the senses of the Jedi. When Ikora retreated into her mind the Darkness was more present than usual.

In her meditation she walked the gardens of the Ishtar Archives and the streets of the Last City. She stood in the Tower listening to Shaxx call out challenges and congratulations to Guardians and Tess chat about her latest goods.

Even deep in her meditation she sensed another presence and slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the newcomer with an eyebrow raised. "Hello."

---

Socializing? - The Deep End

Ikora did not typically like bars. They were loud and crowded and full of people. Ikora was more of a loner but she wanted to get to know these people. They would be working together. It would be good to know them, their skills, and their quirks.

Also, Cayde was here and she wanted to spend more time with her old friend. When this journey was over she would go back to a time where he was gone. It was a... lonely prospect.

She sat at the bar, turned slightly to face the room, with whatever drink Cayde had poured for her and Ophiuchus at her shoulder. Her ghost was always good company.

---

Wild Card - Whatever/Wherever.

Comments

Book club!

[in_extremis]

The voice had a lyrical lilt, not loud but echoing easily in the empty library as Tony sung his discouragement at the excitable mothkittens that trailed after him curiously; "None of this is for you, stop bugging me, I'll pluck every one of you to make pillows, my darlings..." They didn't seem concerned about the threat, alighting on his shoulders or bumbling around his heels to get a better look at the shiny toys that he had clearly brought for them. The bucket full of wiry sticks and the pair of umbrellas that looked suspiciously like the blackout curtains that had been piled up in the forge weren't nearly as exciting as the Iron Man, but still glimmered in an absolutely thrilling way to a mothcat.

At least one animal collided with his foot as Tony came to an abrupt stop at Ikora emerging unexpectedly. "Ikora Rey," he greeted back, voice slightly higher in his surprise, then dropped his focus down with some irritation at the soot-stained sweatpants and protectively wrapped hands that suited the workshop fine, but weren't exactly the carefully coiffed image that Tony could manage for a charity gala, then somewhere to abandon his contributions to a totally normal beach party to free his hands. "A drink is a good start, very traditional, but just so you know, I come from a very upstanding family and I have to say for legal reasons that I don't put out on a first date. An argument could be made that we already did the first, though, right? It was just a quick one. Speed dating."

[cannot_flinch]

"Mmm, an interesting argument." She was briefly interested in the stuff he carried and then looked at the mothkittens playing around his feet. He was a very strange man, flirtatious and seemingly shallow, but clearly he cared about the little creatures around his feet and his friends. "But I think our relationship was doomed before it started. We're from different worlds. It would never work."

Ophiuchus floated a little higher. He had already experienced the mothkittens' interest in floating, moving, shiny things. If he got too low they would pounce at him thinking he was prey.

"Would you like any help?" she asked, looking at him with an eyebrow raised. "Either with the kittens or what you're carrying?"

[in_extremis]

There was no way that was meant to be deliberately cruel, as far as Tony knew, so he forced a breathy laugh through the shock of Ikora's pessimism to insist, "That's what makes it so romantic." At least he had the new Ghost to distract him as his beach accoutrements went clattering to the ground, sending the mothkittens hopping around in erratic excitement and leaving mostly only Tony tracking the floating, moving, shiny thing with an unnervingly similar predatory intent.

"It's okay, not important. Jon'll find it eventually," he dismissed of the mess he had made for Jon to discover now. Without giving Ikora the room to make any kind of protest, he continued, "Cayde said you had one of those, too. I thought that was a him thing, you know, the way they can interface, synthetic..." Ikora probably did not need it explained to herself that she was a fleshbag and shouldn't be able to integrate with the hardware, so Tony trailed off as he tugged some of the bandaging from his fingers to expose the strange, gold coating on them that he offered to the Ghost like he had Sundance when they met. She had used the nanoweb to show him an image of the Traveller, which clearly hadn't prepared him enough to really understand either of the Guardians.

[cannot_flinch]

Ikora did find him rather amusing. There was something about him that reminded her of Cayde. Probably the chaos.

"I'm a Ghost, a sentient being," Ophiuchus protested. "Not a thing."

The ghost first scanned Tony's hand to see what on Earth the man was offering out to him. He was more wary and cautious than Sundance. "The human body is just a highly engineered organic structure," she said as a counterpoint to his argument. "It wasn't until the Golden Age that humanity was able to make a computer that processed as well as a human brain. Why wouldn't I be able to interface with technology made to interface with me?"

"Your nanonmesh is able to interface with your organic structure," Ophiuchus also pointed out. "The Light allows for the same connection between Guardian and Ghost."

[in_extremis]

The Ghost defending his dignity made Tony grin back at him, an expression that read as more flirtatious or challenging in the impish glint in his eye than apologetic as Tony replied, "My apologies, sweetheart. I meant Cayde's thing, as in, I thought all of you were Exos, you know?" He glanced back at Ikora then, meaning all four of them, and whatever made up Guardian. "I've known synthezoids, but even they can die..." He tipped his head, his smile tightening briefly, trying to work around what he was trying to say without too much of that regret seeping out. "Not the same thing, I'm working on it," was the best he could manage, twirling a finger by his head to indicate the processing.

Looking briefly like he took personal offence at the idea of any organic body being highly engineered, clearly not so impressed by the limitations, Tony waved away the argument and twisted his wrist up to let the Ghost see the open port in his skin where the mesh spread from. "I had to make some modifications. It's a virus, technically. Replaced part of my brain entirely, made a whole new body to support it and even then--it's the interface, so I can make connections with beautiful things." Tony's grin was back, definitely challenging this time, more dangerous than anything the nanoweb seemed capable of. On its own, it didn't do much more than let him communicate with the Iron Man without the excruciating input lag, and he hadn't yet tested his luck trying to control Sundance or any other intelligence.

[cannot_flinch]

"Sweetheart?" Ophiuchus seemed indignant over that.

"No, actually, a Guardian can come from other races." Ikora explained with more amusement than her Ghost seemed to have in this conversation. "The Ghost chooses the Guardian. In this case, mine chose a human."

There was lot to be said for the natural engineering behind many organic structures. Ikora had written books on it and other ideas of sacred geometry and the golden ratio and such.

He wouldn't get a chance with Ophiuchus who didn't seem terribly impressed and wanted nothing to do with the nanomesh or interfacing with Tony. "And Exos are, arguably, still human. They are someone's mind in an inorganic body. Cayde didn't explain that to you?"

[in_extremis]

It wasn't immediately clear which part had irritated the Ghost the most, but Tony appeared pleased with himself nonetheless and not entirely disappointed that it was at the cost of finding out what this one would show him. Tony could count on petnames riling him up, anyway, if he wanted to find out what a Ghost would do when really irritated. He tucked both hands into his pockets then with a small shrug if surrender, still watching the Ghost out of the corner of his eye with a wry grin like he was sure this wasn't the end of that conversation.

"He's been cagey. I don't think he wants me to know, which is lucky for you. I've been told I'm remarkably talented, and you have me all to yourself, eager and willing to debase myself to find out more," he replied. "But that much has been obvious. He told me he thinks he has a brain once. But that makes sense to me--he's been augmented, what he can do, it's intentional, self directed evolution. Transhuman. That's what we'd call something like me or him, back where I come from. You're not, though, are you?"

[cannot_flinch]

Cayde, cagey? That didn't surprise Ikora at all. He wouldn't want people to know his secrets. Some he didn't even know himself. Their pasts were all wiped away when they awoke as Guardians. Very few went looking for theirs.

"I'm familiar with the ideas of Transhumanism. Many Exo Warlocks have written extensively on the subject." She gestured for Tony to follow her. If he wanted to have a discussion about the nature of Guardians and the Light it would take awhile. They might as well find a comfortable place to sit.

"No, I'm not augmented like that. I am one hundred precent human. It's the Light that makes me capable of more." She brought him back to the war room and sat down in one of the chairs. "As I said, I'm able to interface with Ophiuchus because of the Light, not because of technology."

[in_extremis]

There was no way they used the term 'warlock' the same way, because that sentence made Tony blink in confusion as he followed along to the table. It might not have been that different, there had to have been some magic in the system here for Tony to be so constantly baffled by Cayde and Sundance already--it hadn't taken him long to reverse engineer the Torch, after all. Maybe that was all the Light really was, and Tony was trying to apply logic where it didn't exist by definition. He slouched against the table where he could face Ikora, arms crossed for as long as he could keep them still as he said, "Transhumans, good, we're on the same page. Warlocks, those guys carry around fancy sticks and throw bones or whatever, rarely cross over."

[cannot_flinch]

Cayde hadn't even told Tony the basics it seemed like.

"There are three distinct ways the Light shapes a Guardian. It decides our skills and how we can channel the Light," she explained patiently. "It even changes your personality in some ways though, many of us are not sure what our personality was before."

They assumed there were similarities to their first life personalities.

"We call these Light variants Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans. Warlocks are generally more philosophical and mystical than the others. Hunters, like Cayde, are explorers. They rarely stay in one place. Titans are a force. Unstoppable in pursuing their goals and very protective."

[in_extremis]

They had more important stuff to do. Birds to catch. Fires to set. Tony hadn't thought it particularly important to talk about his job, either, and as far as he had known, that was all Guardian was. "And you're a Warlock," he inferred, with a small tilt of his head to show his work, obviously, before flicking a gesture toward the Ghost, circumstantial evidence. The Light deciding on the Guardian's personality for them made sense, if Sundance found a partner in Cayde and Ikora travelled with the cosmic, "Ophiuchus. Does that mean you don't really have a choice? This guy wakes you up, and you're drafted, that's it?" Coming back from the dead without even your own memories would obviously limit those choices severely, but a couple of hundred years could generate a respectable nestegg, Tony thought. Sticking with the military for more than ten was troubling to him, anyway.

[cannot_flinch]

"I am. I am the Warlock Vanguard. I oversee all Warlocks." There were other ways to tell. She still had her Bond around her arm, the most obvious sign one was a Warlock. Her armor, the purple robes, were also a good way to tell.

She tilted her head to the side. "Yes, and no. There is no choice in the resurrection but there are Guardians who refuse to work for the Vanguard. They strike out on their own and that it is. Most Guardians serve the Last City because they want to."

It was rare to have a Guardian walk away but it wasn't unheard of. Ikora had been much more restless and rebellious when she was first resurrected.

[in_extremis]

That was a little less bleak, at least. It did make Ikora and Cayde committed soldiers, which wasn't a pathology Tony was ever going to understand, but he could see how it might not be so bad being the boss. Curious that they were two for three of the Vanguards, making Tony tap out his restless rhythm on his bicep, trying to place the pattern.

"And if you want to die?" he asked plainly. Maybe that wasn't an obstacle that came up very often, but Tony knew very well that it must have at some point.

Socializing?!

[deal_me_in]

Luckily for Ikora, this bar was neither loud nor overly crowded with people. While Cayde didn't particularly mind either himself, he liked having a place where the people he knew would be able to enjoy themselves without any obligations.

Cayde had left the bottle on the counter, his own cup filled and almost forgotten. He'd made it a point to use the carved bantha ones he'd gotten from Coruscant because they were gaudy and he knew how much Ikora loved gaudy. The Hunter was busy drawing out lines and circles on a circular piece of wood that might have been a piece of furniture in its past life. It wasn't the most perfect dart board, which he only vaguely remembered for how they looked anyway, but he was good so long as it was identifiable.

[cannot_flinch]

The cup was amusingly ugly. It reminded her of tiki bars, a relic of the Pre-Golden Age. Ridiculous relics but she could see why they appealed to Cayde's sense of humor.

"You should get a straight edge," she said, judging his work just a little bit. Ikora could draw perfect circles freehand from all her work on sacred geometry. She should offer to help him but she didn't think Cayde would accept the help. "And a bit of string for the circles."

She would ask about where he'd get darts in a minute.

[deal_me_in]

"Oop, here we go," Cayde said, biting down a laugh once Ikora spoke up. He figured she wouldn't be able to sit quiet while he worked for very long. He was well acquainted with her writings on geometry too, thought the paper it was on was especially nice. Seriously, how anyone could write that much on circles was insanity.

"What, you don't think my lines and circles are good enough?" He pauses from his work, holding up the board in all its wiggly-lined glory.

[cannot_flinch]

"It will make for a more challenging game of darts." Ikora was not terribly impressed. She knew he had the dexterity for the work. It wouldn't be too hard for him to make a proper dart board if he took a little time at it.

However, he was probably thinking more about getting something set up fast and then figuring out the details.

"Where are you going to get your darts?" she asked before taking a sip at her drink. It was a bit spicy which was odd but not unpleasant.

[deal_me_in]

Yeah, it looked like crap. But at least it was still identifiable. Mostly. Figuring out points would be a headache, but Cayde figured if anyone was playing here, they'd have a few drinks in their system that points wouldn't be adding up right either way. Regardless, Ikora'd have the right of it. He wanted there to be options for people other than to sit around staring at each other while they got themselves drunk. Aside from the karaoke machine sitting at the opposite end of the room, of course.

"I figure maybe I can ask Tony, see if he can throw something together. If he can make bullets how hard can darts be?" He sets the board down to adjust some of the lines.

"Failing that, I have a few throwing knives I've been collecting..." Because giving drunk people knives was a great idea, obviously.

[cannot_flinch]

Ikora raised an eyebrow at him. "These people aren't Guardians. You can't give them throwing knives when they're drunk."

Either they'd hurt themselves or they'd accidentally hurt others. While knife throwing was a fun game for Hunters back at the Tower, he couldn't seriously do that here. Not unless everyone suddenly got Ghosts to heal and resurrect them.

"If you wait," she said, "You could get your darts and a better dart board."

Perhaps she could make one. Ikora didn't sleep that much and without her network of Hidden and Vanguard work she could make him a proper dart board.

[deal_me_in]

"I was kidding!!" Cayde protested, raising up his hands.

Telling him to wait. That was rich. He looked mildly offended when Ikora said he could get a better dart board. "What, you don't think this one is good enough?" he said, and while he couldn't quite pull off a pout it was implied in his tone.

[cannot_flinch]

Ikora raised a skeptical eyebrow. He wouldn't use throwing knives instead?

She reached over and tapped what looked like a scribble. "And what is this supposed to be?"

She assumed it was meant to be a number, some indicator of score but it also looked like a cat. Possibly a butterfly. It could be either with Cayde. He was prone to doodles when bored.

[deal_me_in]

Cayde pointedly looked back at his dartboard. Well of course he'd used throwing knives, but he wasn't going to uphold that argument.

He blinked at Ikora's finger before scowling at her question. "Obviously it is a nineteen. My pencil just got caught in the knots is all," he insisted, even as he moved to rub it out. Everyone's a critic. "Are you just going to sit and judge my work the whole time?"

[cannot_flinch]

"No, not the whole time." She knew he could do better if he put his mind to it. Ikora wanted to push Cayde, as she often did back when they were in the Tower. It probably seemed very critical to anyone happening to listen in.

But they had centuries of friendship. This was how they worked together. Ikora pushed Cayde to do better. Cayde reminded her to relax.

"For a first attempt, it's not bad." She hoped he would take the hint and retry it. A dart board wasn't a bad idea. More games, more ways for people to relax, the better the moral.

[deal_me_in]

The Exo gave her a look, a disbelieving smirk on his face. Typical Ikora. And oh, he would redo it. He had ultimate plans to burn the lines into the wood with a hot knife, but for now he stubbornly continued to work with the wobbly, uneven lines with pencil. Probably just to try irking her. He played other strange games within his games. Warlocks and their perfect geometry.

"So Holliday's about," he said, switching topics as he pulled down another line. This one almost came out even. "Already planning on sparrow races. You best enjoy the quiet while it lasts," he grinned, teasing. Well, not quite teasing. Either way there'd be something zooming around soon enough.

[cannot_flinch]

"Yes, I'm glad to see her." Ikora was happy to have Amanda around. She was steady and knew her work. If anyone could get them sparrows it would be Amanda. "Once we have them we'll be able to explore further."

She turned more fully towards Cayde. "I want to go much farther outside this city. The answers to what has us here and those storms is outside this city. You know that."

Cayde must want to explore as much as she did.