[Video]

[out_of_order]

[Cal's leaning against a wall nearly overtaken by clinging vines. He sighs a little before giving a headshake and a sad smile directed off-screen.]

Guess not, buddy.

[He looks back at the screen, rolling back his shoulders as he takes a deep breath, trying to summon a more convincing smile.]

Well, things sure got a lot more...greener around the city. Didn't think we were gone that long, but alien planets, right?

Been easing back into things and I'm sure everyone else has been doing the same, but if anyone needs anything repaired or might want to have a look at salvage parts I've got, just let me know so I can be at the workshop.

Also, if you need some doors or paths cleared, I can probably help with that too.

Guess that's it.

[The Jedi shrugs, offering a nod before he clicks off.]

Comments

[text]

[in_extremis]

You should send her flowers.

[text]

[out_of_order]

[The message at least prompts a much needed laugh.]

That your solution for everything?

∞

[in_extremis]

It can't hurt.

Unless she's allergic.

Or you messed up that bad.

Was it that bad?

[out_of_order]

I don't think she's allergic to flowers? Not sure what she'd like though. Don't suppose you've seen anything that glows?

Wait why are you assuming something bad happened?

[in_extremis]

[Insert a perfectly cut clip of Cal's sigh back at him.]

You're in luck, I know just the thing. Might take a couple hours, though.

[out_of_order]

Oh.

Rey's gone. I haven't sensed her since we got out. We just checked the comms to confirm. She's not the only one. I can't help but feel like this place likes to tease.

[At least Tony can't replay sighs from off-screen. So he hopes, anyway.

Flowers while an unintentional distraction, are some good news.]

Hang on, really? Hey, I don't mind it taking a couple of hours or more so long as it's not being stuck in one place.

[in_extremis]

[Tony's always watching.]

I knew that monk lifestyle was going to catch up with you. I can't believe you didn't tell me. I mean, good for you, very respectful, blah blah.

I wouldn't lead you astray about something as important as flowers, sweetheart. We've got to go to that other city. Do you know anyone that can fly?

[out_of_order]

[dad, why]

I didn't want to bring down the mood.

Sh'ka? Haven't been back there in a while. I'm game. But the only person I can say off the top of my head who can fly is Merrin.

(video)

[noch]

What is wrong?

[out_of_order]

[No hiding it from her. He shakes his head.]

Rey and Padmé, they're gone.

[He's not sure if Merrin's met either of them.]

Just a handful of us again.

the studio demanded reshoots

[in_extremis]

That would kind of ruin the surprise.

I'll make some calls. Meet me at the hangar.

[out_of_order]

Yeah, I kind of figured.

Okay, see you there.

---> going on a trip

[in_extremis]

So far, claiming something was for Cal was 100% more effective than trying to flirt his way into something he wanted, so it was somewhat likely that Tony's entire approach to negotiation was going to be fundamentally changed. Not certain, because that kind of thing would severely limit his vocabulary, but distinctly possible. There was still plenty of time for this trip to go horribly wrong and the invocation of Cal's to become a threat before Tony got to fully test his new system.

As it was, everyone's spirits seemed high. Relatively. Alright, no one seemed thrilled, but they were working from a subzero baseline, and working up a bit of enthusiasm while they were still shaking off being calibrated and yet more missing people was going to take more than a nice day trip. Hopefully, this one released some of the pressure.

Tony had magazine cover-ready smiles to greet the crew and heard them onto the unfamiliar ship, until the engines were purring and he turned away from the cockpit with a saunter that he hoped read as a loping curiosity as he ran his hand along the neatly panelled walls to investigate their ride. He could let his shoulders drop as he slipped away into the cargo bay, and toed at a scrap of fabric and a curiously shaped bolt left behind after some shifting of goods, then finally released the breath he felt like he had been holding the whole time as he fell back against the wall and let his head thud against the metal.

Background noise Echoing

[only_an_echo]

The thing with Tony was that Echo was never sure if he was being serious or not. They went through a routine he hadn't done in a while, refusal and rejection readily available during negotiations until the mention of Cal being a part of the 'scheme' sealed the deal. He had been concerned about the young Jedi, and the time spent catching up with him during the so-called Calibrations was brief.

Perhaps its briefness was as good a reason to go with Tony on this trip. To act as chauffeur, more or less. He just didn't need or want the payment in kisses.

So here he was, sitting in the pilot's seat in the middle of an involuntary operations check, basically going about it the same way he did whenever he co-piloted The Havoc Marauder. Palm Cottage was a fine ship. Its interior was one that Echo was still wrapping his head around, but its controls were still mostly the same. And it was a whole lot cleaner.

As the others arrived on-board, he turned to look over a shoulder and nod before going back to the last few items that needed to be taken care of, brow furrowing while the engines continued without fuss. This eventually led into a pre-flight check and some warning to take a seat during takeoff just to be sure there was still some sense about the cabin. The last thing he needed was bodies flying about the back.

[out_of_order]

As impromptu a reason, let alone the trip, was in this particular instance, Cal found himself looking forward to it. Time anywhere other than an enclosed space and with people who wanted to go along was something to be enjoyed. He just didn't want to enjoy it too much, not without Merrin. But he trusted that whatever Tony knew about whatever flowers were to be found in Sh'ka, it would be worth it to surprise her.

Cal was glad to find that Echo had been Tony's choice for a pilot. He could sense the lingering concern from the trooper, hoping to ease away some of it with the reassurance of a pat on the shoulder as Echo had settled himself into the cockpit.

BD-1 had the run of the place, scampering off to do explorations of his own as he was wont to do whenever in a ship. Once they were airborne he'd be perched up beside Echo, reaching only a couple of times with a little metal ped in temptation of pushing buttons to see what they did. And once chased away, he'd be found poking around any of the spaces.

Cal did likewise as he knew the flight was a long one, if not as long as the train ride, thankfully. There was something about this ship's aesthetics that was soothing. That there was no random dispenser of glitter for a certain droid to activate was a plus. It wouldn't take him long to seek out the man who had suggested the whole excursion, even less time to actually sense where he was. And when Cal did find Tony, he joined him, settling beside him in the cargo hold.

....late to the party, but he has coffee

[beholding_archivist]

Jon isn't entirely sure why he's on the ship. He has been asked to come along, so here he is, spending the first few minutes of the flight in the cockpit simply to watch their designated pilot bring them up into the air and on course to Sh'Ka. That's when Jon leaves the cockpit only to find that he seemingly has the ship to himself because of course they'd be playing cargo...

Letting out a sigh, Jon instead heads for the kitchen area and prepares himself as well as Echo some coffee, drops one mug off at the trooper and picks one of the seats for himself to sit back, sip his coffee and wait for the ship to reach its destination.

[in_extremis]

While Tony's gaze was unfocused, letting the vibration through the ship numb him into a kind of meditation, if your brain feeling full of bees could be meditation, the movement that eventually did catch his attention as Cal slipped into the room had him huffing a deep breath and pushing purposefully away from the wall. He had the performance readied, glancing around with an idle smirk, before he had fully formed, "I was hoping there'd be...," leaving him cradling his arms to illustrate the concept he didn't yet have words for. "You know--that Lark or Tommy might have left around the place, that they use--" He took another breath, dropping the mime with a shrug, because what they used to gather their flowers hadn't actually been much of a concern that Tony didn't think he'd be able to solve on the spot.

Hands on his hips instead, he diverted to greet, "Prince Charming, on an important mission, the most important, some might say. Have you been getting taller? You look taller." Diverted to a lot, really, which Tony tried to make very casual by deciding to look like he didn't actually care about any of it.

[out_of_order]

Deciphering what Tony meant was something of a challenge, head cocked as he tried to picture what it was that Tony tried to shape with his arms. Cal wasn't sure whether to prompt him for more of a clue when it seemed he'd given up on trying to explain it.

Both brows lifted as Tony switched subjects, the Jedi studying Tony as he leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest. "Or maybe you're shrinking," he suggested, going along with the diversion for that much at least as he offered a shrug. "You doing all right?" It seemed that people always beat him to the question, but not many people liked to answer it when it was turned back at them.

[only_an_echo]

The pat dispelled most of the feelings Echo held onto; the point of contact anchored him as he spared a glance Cal's way, letting his concern fade so that he could focus on everything else. He didn't mind the droid's company too much, allowing him to stay where he was as they took off. Eventually the time came to shoo BD-1 away from some of the buttons when they became too shiny and tempting to the receptor, giving him a look he sometimes gave Omega when she became overly curious.

In staying the course, there isn't much else the clone needs to do aside from making sure everything is in order. When he takes a break from monitoring the console, he notices the mug of hot coffee as Jon moves back to sit. "Thanks," he says. "I take it Tony convinced you to join whatever fun he has in store?"

[in_extremis]

Both the suggestion that he was shrinking and the question had Tony wrinkling his nose, rolling his shoulders back to as subtly as possible correct his posture, which wasn't subtle at all but did at least earn him a few centimetres. Maybe. "Always," he had at the ready, flicking a hand to dismiss the question from the cargo bay. "Just, you know--" With his hand still suspended in the air, indicating vaguely toward the door, since the flower-gathering-vessel thing didn't seem to stick, he crafted, "Those two together, I feel like I'm going to catch the frown lines, it's like a feedback loop." No wonder they were friends. They were friends, right? What work Tony had put into his posture was gone as his shoulders dropped to direct that question toward Cal, though he didn't actually give it voice. Instead, he said, "They always come back a little--weirder."

That could mean a lot of things that he could only guess at, twirling fingers by his ear and hoping Echo and Jon at least had figured out how to talk about it together. Mostly, Tony meant that they had come back, and he raised his eyebrows with a different question for Cal, knit with some hope that this was reassuring.

[out_of_order]

Cal ducked his head in a brief chuckle at that, although he doubted that was exactly why Tony was...well, not exactly hiding, here. That wasn't the point though, that much he could sense as Tony continued his meandering reasoning. Never direct, always hinted at, nudged along in hopes that you'd come up with the rest and meet him at the point he intended all along.

"Life continues," he said, nodding a little as he rested his head against the cool metal behind him. "At least they remember." Could maybe still remember. He had a vague memory of speaking with Jon about something similar, while they dreamed, a sort of déjà vu kind of feeling. Cal closes his eyes, letting his head fall forward a little before he opened them again with a sigh. "...I don't think I'll ever get used to it, when people go back." And when they don't return...

[in_extremis]

Alright, maybe that was the opposite of reassuring, and bringing Echo and Jon along was the wrong tactic. Life continues had a much less sentimental tone than Tony expected from the kid who saw ghosts. The future, then; progress, not hanging on.

"We don't really deal with it..." Tony acknowledged, scratching at his beard and considering the shadows in the corners where they kept having to push aside how they felt about these constant upheavals. "Not that I'm the biggest fan of a funeral, but what we're doing now, I can't say that there's ever closure, there's--" Well, there was the lingering hope that it wasn't ever actually final, Tony indicated toward the door again. It only took the briefest consideration of what kind of ritual they might do instead for Tony to realize, "Do you do that, funerals?"

[out_of_order]

Equating things to a funeral made Cal grimace, but he supposed he'd started them on that sort of a mood. He breathed out a laugh as he ran a hand over his face.

"That's... not really what I'd thought about but...I can see what you're getting at. And yeah, we had funerals." He shook his head. "I guess that's the thing we have to focus on, right? Hope for the best, and just...just remember the time we had while we were all here, while we can."

[in_extremis]

Tony mirrored the grimace in apology, and weighed his hand side to side, admitting that it might not have been the perfect analogy. "Retirement party," he suggested, though it didn't feel like it could really be walked back now, and retirement didn't exactly have the same finality. Clint was always retiring from the Avengers. The only time he didn't come back was when he died. "Graduation?" Now Tony was looking a little desperate for Cal to save him with how he had been framing it.

[out_of_order]

Retirements and graduations were a bit more foreign than funerals, the former two ideas more understood from the time he'd been an intern at a newspaper company in a made-up world. Cal gave Tony a pained smile as he wasn't really sure how to rescue him from the hole he'd been digging himself into.

He looked to try and offer something, raising an upturned hand as though he could grasp a word from out of the air, but apparently he wasn't having any luck of finding anything. His mouth opened then dropped a sigh as he shook his head again, letting his hand fall.

"I think we're kind of drifting," he finally said with a weak chuckle. "Maybe the first one was closer after all."