Harrow

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony and Celty, feat. Cayde, Echo, Jon, Dustin, Gladio
WHERE: Wherever you can be found!
WHAT: This is another delivery post. Some characters are getting gifts! If you want them instead of whoever's name is on the tag, you can try to intercept. Celty's delivering now, though, so you better be clever.
WHEN: As the plants calm down.
WARNINGS: None.


The forge wasn't in such a terrible state. It wasn't all the way out here, at the edge of the city, where Tony was stupid enough to have encourage mutant plants to take over the whole place. In fact, it seemed like some of the work had already been done for him when Tony started his pruning, and what was left was easily fed into the kiln or the furnace as he got them roaring again. It was only natural then to get distracted by what was uncovered as he swept out tangles of brambles and withered flowers. There was a lot more cleanup for him to do than just the housekeeping.

By the time he sent a message to Celty (offer still stand?), there was a pile of packages already gathered by the heavy, metal door of the forge, looking disappointingly small in the reddening light of the sunset to Tony's critical gaze. Back to work, then.

...to Cayde
Bundled in a waxy banana-type leaf, tied with its own stems, is a neat stack of long, slim bullets that look like they belong in a rifle. There's no way that diamond shape debossed into their pointed tips is functional. Right? With them is a tube that looks like it has some rifling in it, that the bullets fit into. Maybe there's a way for Cayde (or a curious thief) to find out.

...to Echo
While this is folded up tightly like a fist inside of a clay box, it's not a hand exactly. There's way too many silver fingers, and a plate of flat glass for a palm. It does look like Echo's scomp link will fit into it.

...to Jon
Tony must be really confused about hands, because this glove doesn't have enough fingers. It could be an archery glove. Is the right name on this silky net of petals? It's not leather, but a very fine, gold mesh that knits denser together along the underside of it.

...to Dustin
In a small, paper box is what might be the worst deck of cards. There aren't very many of them, and they are all made of brass, slim enough that it seems like they might fracture. Their backs are all imprinted with NO FUN, and only one of them appears to have anything on the other side. It looks a lot like braille. As soon as the package is opened, they all vibrate.

...to Gladio
This is a flat package, folded in papery leaves. It's a slim, silver frame with filigreed edges along the pane seated in the centre, where Tony appears to have given Gladio...a picture of himself? Wait a second, and it turns out to be two. Three. He's visibly holding his communication device in all of them, so he must have used a mirror. Maybe it's a suggestion.

Comments

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Been looking at him all the time for a long time," Gladio laughed. "I was his bodyguard."

He doesn't need to explain why, right? Good. Though when Tony suggests unexpected filthy pictures, he grinned. Oh that was so going to happen now. Just in hopes that he's around to see Noctis turn red. It would be so worth it.

"This is all new for us," Gladio promised Tony. "We had a friendly and professional relationship before. Getting a chance for this now, when we realized we're not from quite the same world..."

It's important. Because he can't be with his King back home. And Noctis, in his own world, won't be with anyone.

[in_extremis]

That shouldn't have been a familiar story. Despite his rougher edges, Gladio had more in common with Steve than the shield and the wingspan, or at least the Steve that Tony had met here, and had a rare chance of his own. That story didn't have a particularly optimistic ending, though, so Tony was briefly quiet for once, shooting Gladio a sad smile before filling that space more enthusiastically, "That's a real trip, isn't it? It's one thing to be meeting aliens, or even people who say they're from the same planet as you that really make it sound like they're not, but the people you recognize..." He flapped his hand, realizing that was kind of sad, too, and hurriedly moved to make Gladio take his phone and play with his new toy. "I had a bodyguard, head of security," he tried again, "that was one of the best relationships I've ever had. One of the best things to ever happen to me, honestly. I wouldn't be here without her, and not just because she could throw a mean punch. You take care of him like that, he's lucky to have you."

[ziedrich_bearer]

Tony might not be all that far off base with that comparison for Gladio. There was no good endings for his love for Noctis though. So they would steal their moments and he would have to accept those for what they were: all he would ever get.

"It's a lot to take in, yeah. That said, I'm not entirely surprised that there could be different versions of our world. Maybe there is one out there that has a happy ending for us. But I don't know how to find it."

So he took what he could get. And smiles as he takes up his frame.

"She must have been really good at what she did, because with how you throw yourself at danger, I can't imagine it was ever easy for her."

[in_extremis]

"One of the best," Tony readily agreed, busying himself then with gathering up his cooled wire again so he was focused as he continued, "Couldn't fit enough zeroes on a cheque to make it worth staying. She figured out pretty quick that there were more valuable people to take care of." He didn't know what to do with the wire then, so it was restlessly wound around his fingers as he turned to lean on the anvil and consider Gladio again. "Noctis didn't seem like he'd be giving you such a hard time. Quiet." So they probably had better odds than Tony did; he might have been in love with a bodyguard, but the similarities probably ended there. "You can make that world with the happy ending. We get out of here, figure this place out, you ride off into the sunset with your man. Future's in our control."

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Maybe not more valuable. Maybe just ones who couldn't take care of themselves, which you clearly can. To a degree."

He huffs to hear the conclusion Tony had about him and Noctis. It's... so much more complicated.

"We can't, if we get out of here. If we go home."

[in_extremis]

Tony had confident in his assessment, his bodyguard had made the right choice, but he only got as far as giving Gladio a smirk and a shrug, and he breathed a laugh at Gladio's pointed qualifier. That one was harder to argue with.

What smile he had fell thoughtfully at Gladio's insistence that the future wasn't so easy. "Something more important there?" he inferred.

[ziedrich_bearer]

"Yeah, but it's not my place to share. We all have our own lives, our own pasts. Ain't right to share someone else's."

And Noctis didn't seem to want people to know that he was a) a king, and b) probably dead.

[in_extremis]

So, it was Noctis that had something more important, and what that could be Tony could only guess at with a narrowing of his eyes (a wife?). Maybe Tony didn't quite know what that was like anymore; he knew returning to his Earth would only make it a worse place, it was as better off without him as Beth had been, so choosing Jon was uncomplicated. It sounded so miserable to choose doom instead. 'Dating' suddenly made more sense.

Slow to respond, even in his move to lick his lips and gather his breath, Tony made a small gesture toward Gladio's gift and said, "You better look at him as much as possible."

[ziedrich_bearer]

A lot more important. In Gladio's world his King would live... but his King would remain a king. Which meant a political marriage. Meant a wife, and children, and a new generation. And Gladio too would have obligations to marry, have children, and raise them to his own duty. Such had been the truths of their bloodlines for 114 generations. And it would not end with them.

The only Amicitias that could wed Lucis Caelums were those that weren't heirs to the duty of Shield.

"Trust me, I will. I want to keep looking at him," Gladio said, and he looks almost wistful in his longing for the man.