revivalproject | [Open] A Gladatorial Queen

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[Open] A Gladatorial Queen

WHO: Lauri-Ell, Tony Stark, OTA
WHERE: Ul'Dah
WHAT: Coliseum Fun, Alchemy Lessons, Lamenting Beautiful Women
WHEN: During Event
WARNINGS: CW: Alcohol Consumption in last prompt
NOTE: In Coliseum threads Lauri-Ell will be wearing This armor. In other prompts Lauri-Ell will be clad in these clothes.

I - To Fight Together | Ul'dah Coliseum | Open

Perhaps it was not the best for them to be making names for themselves. The Agrii had said to keep secrets, and that was one of the best things they could do. However the idea was to find answers for the Agrii, and when it came down to it, there was one way in which Lauri-Ell was very talented. One way in which she was good at getting to what she needed.

Combat.

She had been made for it, after all, and that was why Lauri-Ell had gravitated toward the Coliseum. What was more, there were so many people around. Surely if there were secrets to be found, she could find those capable of talking about them here. It even seemed this place had more active people of the species she was often mistaken for. So she had chosen to linger here, gathering funds with which to help supply the ships, but also to try and form connections to hear more information.

Of course some of it was fun, including now, when Lauri-Ell was being randomly paired with another gladiator to challenge a larger beast within the Coliseum. And when she found it was another He Row, she smiled.

"We shall win the day, my friend," she assured them with a nod. "Are you prepared?"

II - Agent To The Stars | Ul'Dah Coliseum | Closed to Tony Stark

Okay, so maybe her not-quite-but-mostly-Roegadyn looks were a bit more commented upon than expected. After a particularly intense fight in the Coliseum, Lauri-Ell had been coming out, still in her armor, to catch her breath, maybe even go find a meal. That meant going through some interior corridors, which normally wasn't a problem. Except... Except she found herself being stopped by a Hum- Hyur, who looked up at her intently.

"Hey you. You're the new Sea Wolf fighter. I got some questions for you. You've clearly got a different skin-care routine going on, how do you keep your skin so brightly blue?"

"What?" Lauri-Ell asked, quite clearly confused by what was going on now.

III - Alchemical Creations | Ul'Dah Alchemist's Guild | Open

While combat was the life she had been created for, healing was the life she was choosing. Learning from Billy and anyone else was something she was glad to do. And to find there was something here that she could learn which might allow her to feel on par with the others was wonderful.

Chemistry wasn't that bad, she thought. This? This wasn't entirely chemistry. Learning was an experience, with each little potion, with each little careful measurement and brew. None of which was easy with hands as big as hers. But they were easy.

"Could you pass me the red landtrap leaves?" she asked, gesturing to the basket of supplies she had set out. She had sensed someone was close to her, and she didn't mind using their hands.

IV - Surrounded By Beauties | Ul'Dah - The Quicksand | Open

It was nice, getting off of Agra-10 once in a while, getting to see life in a populous place, enjoying the rush of people around. Lauri-Ell was liking it, the reminder that there were places out there that people just... well, were.

Of course with that there was also more people. Specifically, more women. And oh, what an experience it was. That was in part why Lauri-Ell was at The Quicksand right now, sitting at a table, sipping at a drink. And oh boy she's sighing deeply as another woman walks past the table.

"We need more female He Rows," she mumbles to herself.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was all seeming like the opposite of a problem to Tony, who would have gladly traded blending in to anything for some attention right now, no matter the polarity. He knew what to do with that. And maybe a little bit of that was because he knew he could handle it when public opinion turned against him, or at least he preferred that to anyone else having to face the brunt of it and looking as wounded as Lauri-Ell did. He looked briefly frustrated, completely unfit for telling someone how to hide, then released it with a contemplative sigh.

"Is that really the problem, Caesar?," he asked. "You're worried about everyone else? Because I guarantee you, we can all get into plenty of trouble without your help. I'd bet you this Monopoly money that Steve's got himself sitting in jail right now." He jangled the coins he had left in his hand, then clutched them tighter with a frown. The Steve that was his friend would have been, anyway--maybe this Steve wasn't so impulsive. Rapidly, Tony continued, "And you walking in there looking radiantly beautiful is going to go a lot further toward busting him out than hiding any of it."

But they were in hiding, Tony! And this was strange for her. An experience she knew not how to deal with.

"One of our companions in jail? Surely we must try and help them."

No, that wasn't the conversation. But she looks relieved to be called attractive at the moment.

"I just worry. This is the first place I have seen so many people since Coruscant. And there I was not remarkable. Here..."

Here there were people. Beautiful women. People they needed to hide from. ANd she's worried.

"No--Focus," Tony tried to interrupt, hand up to bat away the hypothetical before they got any more entrenched. They could save that energy for when they knew Steve was booked. Right now, they were overdressed in a locker room because Lauri-Ell was feeling self-conscious.

"Sweetheart, you're remarkable anywhere you go, that's something you're going to have to come around to. It's not something to worry about, you're the one in control there, you're the fulcrum. You just gotta know what impression you want to leave them with," Tony advised. "If it's not 'an invader from a UFO', don't do that. Done deal."

Focus? Wasn't she focused on something very much now?

"I don't understand," she says with a sigh. "I don't know how to 'don't do that'. You make it sound simple."

There might have been a good way to explain how to not do something, but Tony realized too late that he was not equipped for that and had to let out his breath with a sigh and click of his teeth. He had better success with forward momentum. Step one of this process was easy, though; he plucked off his glasses and rocked up on his toes to hook them over Lauri-Ell's ears instead so she had the necessarily shielding for success. "Who do you think is incredibly cool?" he prompted, falling back on his heels with his hands still up, ready to craft whatever answer she gave him.

The glasses were surprisingly suited to the size of her face. How strange. But yeah, it worked pretty well on her. Of course she couldn't see that.

"I suppose there are mages here who use ice magic. They would be cool."

Clearly not what he would have wanted her to say.

There was no way that no one had said cool to Lauri-Ell yet, so Tony narrowed his eyes with a pout, dropping his hands to his hips. "No. Mages are never cool. They are always a little bit lame, and can't respect physics enough to be rewarded with thermodynamics. Tepid," he said. "You don't want to be a mage, trust me. Someone cooler."

"Billy is cool," she counters, arms across her chest. "He helped you keep Sol from exploding."

Surely that is cool.

"That--" Tony started, hand flying up to stop Lauri-Ell there before he was second-guessing, because they had already had this fight, but still finishing anyway, "That wasn't me." At least he could move in quickly, without giving Lauri-Ell the breathing room to argue with him, continuing, "Okay, let's say, hypothetically, that Billy is cool. He's definitely not the coolest person you know, but we can start there. What do you think Billy would do if someone got in his face and told him his nose was weird?"

Billy definitely was not the best example for this experiment. It felt very likely to Tony that Billy would apologize for his weird nose in that situation.

They didn't need that fight right now, so Lauri-Ell welcomed the distraction from it.

"I suppose Carol is the coolest person I know. And I do not believe the Prince-Consort would agree with them. Perhaps he would laugh?"

Laughing might have been a good start. Tony regularly laughed in response to an insult, it did seem to rile people up. Riling might not have been Lauri-Ell's goal, though, so Tony repeated more slowly, "Okay..." trying in vain to form this image of a Billy that Lauri-Ell would want to be.

"So he, or Carol--that's better, let's go with Carol--they laugh, and they blow this guy off, and they have no reason to care about him. What makes you think you can't do that?"

That's... a good point. For a moment the woman stands there, expression thoughtful, as she runs through the plan.

"What if they saw such a thing as an aggressive action? And they forced conflict? Would that not bring trouble?"

They really thought about everything in fundamentally opposed ways. Just the way Lauri-Ell had managed to leap to that question without processing what might bring them there had Tony pressing his lips together, trying to structure a more sturdy foundation for them, then splaying his hand out on its side to visualize the possible variables for them. "If someone is going to pick a fight with you over that, then they were going to pick that fight no matter what happened. They were starting with an aggressive action. There's not a whole lot of possible outcomes where that doesn't escalate, unless you see it coming," he said. "And, for you, you're going to see it coming all of the time. You're big, you stand out, that gets people riled up. I can get away with convincing people I'm ridiculous and not worth taking too seriously. You're always going to look like you can punch through a mountain." Tony felt a little like he was talking himself out of his own proposal that Lauri-Ell just laugh it off. They were starting with very different materials, too. No wonder they built differently.

Yes, perhaps they started in fundamentally opposed ways. And yet now... Now she was looking at Tony, thinking.

"You mean to say that those who are already in an aggressive stance are just looking for provocation for conflict, and there is little I can do to avoid that. People on an individual level behave as nations might when they feel like they want to fight. How intriguing. Yes, then laughing does nothing better or worse."

It was starting to sound like Tony was somehow misleading Lauri-Ell when she equated individual actions to those of nations, making him begin to spread his hands to dissuade her, lip raised in concern. At the same time, though, he had made some rare ground, and she wasn't accusing him of being heartless for it, so maybe they could keep building. "No, you can totally avoid it, just--Not by the time it's gotten that far. That's what I mean by the--you're in control, you have to have the systems in place already, the foresight to know how people are going to react to you, and set them up to react the way that you want," he tried again, which, okay, was sounding a little heartless when he tried to form it out loud. "I date models and stock the bar with the best whisky and wear cologne that smells so expensive you feel compelled to pay me for the experience. I spent years unable to let anyone touch me, I'm an alcoholic, and it's not like I need the money. None of that is for me."

"I would date models, but I do not know what whiskey is," she admits with a shrug. "But if they will already dislike me, you say I should just not worry?"

That's interesting. And yet, he survived so long, so clearly he knows more than Lauri-Ell expected.

"So, tell me, what am I to do here? I don't want us all hurt because I am not what I pose as."

"We'll find you some models, they'll love you," Tony promised at a clip, twirling a finger rapidly to help move them along from the thought before Lauri-Ell got entirely distracted by the concept of beautiful women again.

"The last thing you should be worrying about it getting people to like you. It's--that's--you don't have a lot of control over that. And, listen, Caesar, you're charming, you've got big arms, you're not going to find that's a major issue for you," he skipped through, waving away the idea that being liked was anything he could advise on. His own parents didn't like him much. This was about navigating the world despite that. "In the immediate future," he decided for Lauri-Ell, because it didn't look like she was going to think very hard about the person she wanted to be, or at least been seen as, "you're going to move as though you're exactly where you belong, and you have somewhere much more important to be. That means moving quickly, and not making eye contact. If you have to talk to somebody, have a distraction lined up--have that model on your arm for them to look at, wear something outrageous, keep the eye moving."

"Do you think so?" she says, thoughtful. Not hopeful though, she doesn't dare with that.

Still, she's considering the rest of what he says. Walk like she has somewhere to be. Yes, that makes sense. She could respect that.

"Thank you. I should move like I am trying to get to the Emperor when I know he has orders for me. I shall keep this in mind."

On Earth she moved openly with warm smiles and greeting people. Here she shall behave in another way entirely.

"Great," Tony said, clipped and awkward with his eyebrows raised, having expected much more arguing to make his point and not...thanks. What was happening? "Super. I mean, listen, that's barely even a lie, that's pretty straightforward. You are here on an important mission for a powerful force. Done deal. I don't know how well that's going to work on attracting models, but the first problem, the not getting into fights problem."

She was here on such a mission wasn't she? Then she isn't lying! That earns a wider smile on her face. Until he mentions the models.

"I do not believe the models would be as interested in me, but yes, I shall try and avoid fights. I don't wish to hurt people."

It only took a glance around the locker room of bruised and bloodied warriors to convey Tony's skepticism about how much Lauri-Ell did or did not want to hurt anyone. "Funny line of work you've got yourself into," he observed, just as he made the mistake of making eye contact with another fighter and had to smile and nod genially before he was released to look to Lauri-Ell again very seriously. "What does a model even looks like in this place? It must be outrageous, baseline facial structure around here is a premium sculpt."

"I am good at war. I was made for it," she reminds him. Many Kree soldiers were. It was part of the culture. "This is what I am good at, and we must find information, and make 'gil' to help support ourselves."

Outrageous? She looks around.

"They are as pretty as most human women."

"I'm not sure giving a fella a concussion then bouncing is a great way to get information," Tony pointed out, finger up to try to connect the current Lauri-Ell was laying out for him. There was the distinct flaw in the power walk, look busy plan that Lauri-Ell had accepted from him. "Now, if you stick around flirt a little, play it up, make a name for yourself--people will still throw things at you, don't get me wrong, the worst is actually soft and wet things, they linger--but lots of other people, they just start giving you things. Like information." He tapped a thoughtful finger on his chin. "Especially if you're surrounded by beautiful women."

"I am only fighting here, or to help others," she points out. She doesn't want fights. Though for once she's in a place where she doesn't know if she'd win. That was a relief.

The other part, though, earns Tony a glimpse of a blush for Lauri-Ell, her cheeks going a deeper blue.

"I do not know how to talk to beautiful woman in the way you mean. The 'flirting'."

Flapping is hands impatiently, okay, whatever, it was a very different kind of fighting if that eased Lauri-Ell's conscience, he was trying to make it more productive for her. If the flirting was going to be an issue, though, maybe he didn't have the most compatible tactics for this endeavour.

"Sure you do," he insisted. "You see it all the time. What's a gal got to do to bring out that pretty blush on you?" He spread his hands, see, a very easy starting point. It wasn't guaranteed to work, what Lauri-Ell found charming was probably at least a little weird, and it was probably downhill from there, but the initial connection was going to do a lot of work for her.

[Open] A Gladatorial Queen

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