Prime Time

[heeeyadora]

WHO: Catra/Prime / OTA
WHERE: The Diner, The Forge
WHAT: Recruiting and Claiming
WHEN: Near end of month
WARNINGS: blood, suicidal ideation (cw's noted in subject line if looking to avoid)


The Diner - OTA

Catra was nursing her meal, observing the others with a quiet and disturbing smile. That strange glow was back in her eyes, and she sat impossible straight backed and regal. Her all white outfit had begun to show to wear and tear, but Prime still somehow managed to make it look crisp and clean.

She picked up her plate and moved to join you, her head tilting and smiling a little too wide.

"Hello," she said calmly, "May I speak to you about Prime?"


The Forge - Closed to Tony, Jon & Cayde

This planet didn't provide with the same ease that Prime was accustomed to. Normally it would take little effort to produce a new chip, and not a finger lifted by Prime himself. Loathe as he was to admit it, he needed Tony. For now at least. Soon he would amass more brothers, and he could leave the work to them. And then once he found this place he could properly punish those fools who had tried to hide from him. Had tried to take what was his.

"Let me see it," Catra demanded, waving Tony aside.

Comments

The Diner

[ziedrich_bearer]

Listen, all Gladio had wanted was to sit down with shit nice piece of grilled meat and some mashed tigertubers, then head off to a work out session. To have weird looking cat girl in a white uniform who looked, well, like she had less personality than a Magitek Trooper was not on the menu. Not the one he was ordering from.

"Yeah, hello. You know it's polite to introduce yourself before trying to sell something, right?"

[heeeyadora]

"Mm." She gave a tight lipped smile, clearly unimpressed but set her plate down anyways, taking a seat.

"I'm Catra," she introduced, even purring softly as she spoke. "Who says I'm trying to sell something?"

[ziedrich_bearer]

Purring? Huh, maybe she's like the lady they met with the whole Garuda fight.

"Hello Catra, I'm Gladio. And you sound like the sort of people that would come up to houses and knock on the door and sell them stuff. But sure, go ahead. Never had a problem talking to Miqo'te."

[heeeyadora]

"Are you happy, Gladio?" she asked, head tilting as though this weren't a fairly invasive question. "Would you like to know peace?"

"Lord Prime is coming to save us from this place. And he will happily accept you into his light."

[ziedrich_bearer]

Oh shit, she's one of those. He wants this to not be happening, thanks.

"Yeah, I'd like peace, but peace from war, not whatever insane religion you're pitching. And don't try and say that your god is going to save us. I've had enough of Gods having stupid plans that fuck people over. I can only even stand a handful of the Astrals."

And given there were six, that's a very pointed statement.

"So yeah, hard pass kid."

[heeeyadora]

She chuckled in a way that didn't quite seem to suit her, that yellow-green glow seeming brighter.

"I'm hardly a God, but I thank you for the comparison," Prime purred, "And I assure you, I am coming. These Agrii cannot hide you from me for long."

[ziedrich_bearer]

Yeah, that's fucking creepy, girl. This is wrong. The shift to this being first person language makes him roll his eyes.

"Yeah, and if you're a threat then I'll just kick your ass. If I'm willing to stand against Bahamut, I'm sure not scared of some little cat girl," Gladio answered. "Fought too many gods to really see a threat in you. Hell, not to mention fighting an immortal manifestation of an evil, all consuming disease."

[heeeyadora]

"Do you not want to be rescued from this place?" she asked, head tilting pointedly. "I should think you would be grateful."

[ziedrich_bearer]

"You presume I have any belief that you are capable of taking us from this place," Gladio said, ignoring her to spear a bit of some green vegetable with his fork. "And I'm not buying that at all."

The Forge

[in_extremis]

It would have been nice to keep Prime out a little longer, delay further and leave him convinced that Tony needed more time to fire the parts. It was finished, of course it was finished, it had to be obsessively inspected to fully understand how it worked and Tony wasn't going to sleep before he got that far, but he still didn't actually understand. There was a biological element at play, a requirement of expertise on the human brain, that was always going to be a barrier to him, but there was also something basic that just didn't make sense--two tin cans, tied by a wire that shouldn't have been able to reach so far. He maybe knew how to stop it from working. He didn't know how to get it out, or how to make that impossible connection to an outside world himself.

He was tired enough to scowl briefly at Catra's waving, but swayed out of the way to let her in to the building, the heavy door sliding to a thud behind them and sealing them back into the dark heat of the forge. "I had to make some modifications," he announced as he went trailing after toward the workbench, arms hugged around himself as though the chill from outside still lingered. The chip was in a few pieces on the table, but clearly it wouldn't be a time consuming assembly at this point. "For the installation, for my brain--there was a high chance my body would just reject it, as it was. If I could get a look at Catra's, I could make sure..."

[heeeyadora]

She frowned at the mention of modifications. Even if they were necessary, Prime didn't like that Tony acted without consulting him.

Approaching the table, she examined the pieces with a quiet hum, seeming to find no fault with them.

"Not until after yours is installed," Prime reminded tersely, "If you tamper with her's I could lose the connection, and I have supplied you with all of the necessary information. We should do it now. Her body won't last much longer as a vessel. If you want her returned to you then we must hurry."

[in_extremis]

If the connection was already so tenuous, then it was more important that they ensure Tony's would actually work and Tony was allowed to do the possible checks, so to use this as an argument against his request made him raise a lip in frustration again. He would have argued, Prime was really working against his own interests there, but the last of the colour quickly drained from his already sleeplessly pale face even as his arms swung down to tensely form his case.

"What?" he demanded instead, without as much energy as he was reaching for, eyes wide and panicked. "What do you mean, won't last much longer? What did you do to her?" There was the energy, it was building into anger, all of the nails holding it together sharp with fear.

[heeeyadora]

"I did nothing. Her body is simple not to par with my brothers, and I have had to spend too much time occupying her directly. She'll not last long if I have to carry on I'm afraid. But you will fair much better. I've seen how you heal..."

[in_extremis]

That wasn't nearly enough of an explanation for Tony to know if Prime was messing with him, what the time limit they had now was, or how permanent that damage might have been, and that was all before Prime's subtle threat of what he had seen. Tony had to talk around his quickening breathing, brow still furrowed in his frustration as he tried to casually propose, "Listen, great, you let her go now then, that works out for both of us. I'm not installing that thing until I'm sure I've got my end of the deal. You already know I've done mine, it's right there for both of us to see."

[heeeyadora]

"And who would install it?" she asked plainly, giving him a look. "You have many talents, Mr. Stark, but I think connecting this to your own nervous system is not one of them. I told you, she is of no use to me once you've made yourself available. I will release her once the chip has been installed. We can do it now...and end her suffering. It won't hurt you like it did for her. So long as you don't fight."

[beholding_archivist]

The message Jon sends to Cayde is brief and to the point: 'Prime. Tony's forge. NOW.'

He's angry. Of course he's angry. With Prime, with Tony, with himself. Prime for going after Tony. Tony for likely having invited that decision. Himself for not paying closer attention to what the other man has been up about. Though Jon is very willing to bundle all that anger up and shove it all the way into Prime's mind and out of his ears if the shiver running through reality as Jon approaches the building.

Sure enough Tony might be well aware of this approach, given the habit of Jon's powers to interfere with electronic devices in similar ways as it distorts reality when he lets it - Or is angry.

[deal_me_in]

The message is succinct but there hardly needs to be more said for Cayde to drop whatever he'd been doing and cut the quickest way towards the forge. He has Sundance shoot back an affirmative to Jon as they're enroute.

At least he doesn't have to far to go, especially crossing and leaping between rooftops.

Diner!

[owneroftheworstroom]

Bruno has learned that he can get food at the diner as well as coffee, so he has become a rather regular visitor of the place. Though he has enjoyed the food from the fun little market that appeared and by now has disappeared again.

At least it left all the fun glitter around, of which Bruno currently has an entire bucket full next to himself on the table when a girl with cat ears sits down across of him, leaving Bruno to blink in wondering confusion. "Uh..." He says, distracted from his coffee for the time being. "...Prime?"

Diner!

[heeeyadora]

Her gave flicked briefly to the bucket, ear giving a twitch of annoyance. Prime was not a fan of the glitter.

She nodded, smiling that unnatural smile. "Horde Prime is coming to free us all and bring us into the light."

[owneroftheworstroom]

Sorry, Prime, but Bruno quite enjoys the particles of glitter. Though also he doesn't exactly notice the reaction on the catgirl's face.

He still frowns at her words. "Light. This isn't a religion thing, is it?"

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter's playing with the settings on his webshooter- there are over five hundred and he's only been through about thirty at this point. Why Tony thought he needed almost six hundred was anyone's guess but he wasn't complaining.

He hears movement and quickly hides the webshooter under his sleeve and looks up just as company joins him.

"Hm?" He voices, looking the picture of feigned innocence. "Prime? As in Amazon Prime?"

[heeeyadora]

"...Amazon?" She frowned, ears turning downwards. Was there some other Prime out there? One more recognized than him?? Prime gave a grumbling growl, and Catra's claws dug into the table before she could compose herself.

"...I do no know this...Amazon Prime. Who is he?"

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter tenses just slight as there's a small prickle at the base of his neck. That's not a great sign.

"It's not a person." He manages to sound casual enough. "It's a subscription service where I'm from. The company Amazon offers faster shipping and a bunch of other stuff for it's prime users. So probably not what you're talking about." Clearly not what she's talking about. She probably hasn't even heard of Amazon.

"Um.. so can I help you with something?"

[heeeyadora]

Her eyes narrowed with a put out frown. A delivery service. A delivery service was more well known than the shining light of Prime??

"...You want to leave this place, don't you child?" she asked.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter narrows his eyes at that, he's not too thrilled with being referred to as Child. "Um, it's Peter, actually." He corrects. "And what's with the.. never mind." He shook his head.

"I think most of us want to leave. And yeah, I mean I have people I want to get home to."