revivalproject | [Open] A Glitter Pilot

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[Open] A Glitter Pilot

WHO: Gladiolus Amicitia, Open
WHERE: The Glitter Food
WHAT: Exploration of the new ships
WHEN: December 4th to 11th
WARNINGS: N/A

I. A New Bridge | The Bridge

The space is a lot more expansive than what he'd known before, and Gladio smiles as he takes a stroll around the bridge. His fingers brush over display panels, run over seats, glide on slick metal.

"Nice," he says to himself as he sits down in one of the pilot chairs, stretching himself out like he owns the place. In a way he supposes he does, for now. Him and Keith, pilots together. Seems a good choice given how often they'd fought together while traveling, hunting, or just spent time together otherwise.

For now, though, he heard a noise indicating someone at the door to the bridge. Maybe they were with one of the datapoints that allowed access and the door would slide open to Gladio sitting there, grinning to himself. Or perhaps he gets the chance to go full on sci-fi TV show and press a key on the arm even as he says 'Enter'.

Listen, he wasn't a nerd in quite the way Noctis or Prompto were, but he was really enjoying this.

II. Something Like Camping | Forest Near The Beach

Does he have his own room here? Yes. Is Gladio likely to use it when he's going to stay with Noctis? No. Really, it just seems right when working with that knowledge to strip the bedding from the bed in the room he isn't going to use and head right into the forested area.

Not an hour later there he is, under a rope and cloth tent, stretched out on his back, book in hand, reading.

If he's going to be stuck here, he's going to catch up on what meager offering of books he can get. How strange he must look is of no concern to him, of course. This was just what he wanted to be doing.

III. There's No Drinks Here | 'The Deep End'

"What the hell?"

Gladio has been searching the place for fifteen minutes. This is clearly Cayde's bar, meant to be. But what is there? Nothing. Not even a red fruit drink dispenser.

"We're trapped on here for however long because the music makes it hard to leave, and there's not even any drinks?"

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Despair. There had to be something that Gladio had missed, because nobody would build this expansive, carefully appointed space just to be a coffin. Had they not been suffering beautifully enough in the decaying city? Tony froze in the doorway as he approached and heard Gladio already ahead of him, confirming his pessimism as he made his way through the halls, and braced himself there to glance around the uncanny Deep End with an open dismay until he remembered that other people could see him. It hadn't felt like it for a moment, as he wandered the sterile and empty ship, and tried to return to the terminal only to find himself retracing his steps all the way back to the fountain. Starting to panic, he had gone looking for Jon, trying not to appear like that was what he was doing, which was a familiar enough mask that the search was rapidly diverted as the only thought that Tony could process clearly was drink.

"That can't be right," he replied, gathering himself with a sweep of his hand through his hair and careful perch of his sunglasses on his nose, so his focus looked more like academic cataloguing of their available resources than feverish. "Even the other ships had drinks, what're they making a bar for otherwise?"

Yeah, they had, but they sure aren't here.

"You hoping there's a red-drink dispenser in the diner?"

Gladio honestly hadn't gone there yet, wanting to avoid the protein paste for a bit. He knows he'll eat it. HE knows he won't complain. But damn if he didn't want something better.

"You look like you could use something to distract you. Come on, let's go for a swim since this is disappointing us."

The diner made sense, and Tony didn't quite brighten but was readily looking back over his shoulder, muttering, "D'you think...?" He would have immediately gone to find out for himself, only hesitating with a frown and not sure if he should look peevish or innocently surprised at the accusation that he needed a distraction. He was perfectly fine, his brain was hijacked and he was trapped in a spaceship, it was normal to look antsy. "You're the one trying to scrounge up a martini," he eventually produced, drifting further into the room and letting his glasses slide down his nose to inspect the shimmer of light through the water and try to see to the surface. Gladio was right, there must have been a way to get in there. "If you need someone to take you for a swim, I'm not going to turn down the free show."

"Scotch actually," Gladio admitted with a shrug. He wasn't a martini guy. Too much gin and not enough flavor in his opinion.

But his eyes do turn to the water with Tony's attention going there, and he shrugs. Looking at the water is nice, it reminds him of home. There weren't any monsters in the water after all. It had always been safe.

"I never deny free shows," Gladio laughs. Clearly he's the sort of guy that doesn't mind. He's even still got his swim trunks in the Arminger, so provided Tony won't judge a guy for changing here, he could do it soon.

"Good news though, I'm wrangling up some teachers. Got Richie on composition and all that stuff, and that Reeve guy for math. Still looking for other sciences."

That wasn't going as smooth.

Given that he had been led here by the ear without stopping to pack a bag, Tony wasn't under the impression that anyone was going to be doing any changing and instead was already heading back for the door to find their way up. He couldn't really linger anyway; he had a joke about scotch that caught in his throat, and covered his dry mouth in his retreat, expecting Gladio to follow.

"That's easy. Peter Parker, chemistry. Dr. Tae has got to know her biology," he suggested. The physics, the useful science, that one wasn't so obvious. Some of the strongest talents that Tony knew in this community were the very kids he thought deserved to be nurtured, not the other way around. Maybe it didn't really matter, though, because Tony admitted, "But--I don't know, you've probably wasted enough time on this, sweetheart. You have better things to be doing."

Yeah, most people didn't have a sub-contractual bond with a divine crystal that let you store more than you really should be able to, so it's not shocking that Tony didn't pack.

"Hold on, I need to change," he says as he hauls his shirt off. And once that's off he's clearly focused on shimmying out of his pants. Which shows just how much of his body is covered by his tattoo.

Wait, there's a chemistry suitable person here? Yeah, Gladio's into that.

"It isn't a waste of time to do this. You're right. And come on, a guy should have a good job to be a suitable marriage prospect to his fiance, right?"

"Oh, uh-huh," Tony was willing to encourage, despite not really understanding what Gladio meant and coming to a stop once more in the doorway where he braced his shoulder to look back. And let his glasses slide down his nose again, getting the impression that Gladio intended to walk through the ship in the nude and not about to be the one to discourage someone's radiance. God, if someone didn't touch him soon he might actually die, he could physically feel the blood leaving his brain. "Pretty sure you could never lift a finger again and your fiance would thank you for the privilege," he corrected, eyebrow raised and shameless assessment only sliding away when he frowned and had to find the words to explain himself. "I think maybe you had the right idea the first time. None of these kids are going to be glad they leaned how to spell the next time some dog demon is chasing them," he said, focus now squarely on an empty wall.

Of course he wasn't going to walk around nude. Once he's got his pants off he holds his hand out, calling the swim trunks. It's a simple, and practiced, maneuver to get his boxers off and the trunks on without an issue or much time.

"Noct is the one meant for leisure, not me," he admits with a shrug. "And after all that hard work, you really think I'm letting this go? The kids need it. I want it."

Great, magical swimsuit. Tony pursed his lips, only giving Gladio a judgmental beat to find his footing again before Tony was impatiently on the move again, not waiting to find out if he was ready to follow and carrying on the conversation as he disappeared down the hall. "Have you tried telling the kids that yet?," he asked.

Once he's changed Gladio rushes after Tony. Barefoot. Because why not.

"Figured I should have a few more people lined up to potentially help before putting it to the kids. I don't want to present something and then say 'but we can't do this for months'. Seems unfair to them."

With a haughty sniff, Tony claimed, "Sounds like a lack of confidence in the premise." See, he was right, Gladio thought it was a bad idea, too. Tony was full of those. The stairs here were probably not his worst idea, at least, because they had to go up to find the surface of this pool, and try looping back around to find themselves on top of the Deep End. "Honestly, listen, you were doing fine before I led you off the track, you had your kids and you were focusing their energy or whatever, you were already doing the important work that they appreciated."

"A genius suggested the idea and recruited me into it. Definitely have faith in the premise," Gladio say s with a smile. He's had time to think on it, and he's sort of excited.

"I can do multiple forms of important work. Gym teacher and administrator. It's practically what I was raised for. I do have to wonder, though, just where your confidence went. What's wrong, Tony?"

"Nothing," Tony replied immediately, pushing up his glasses again then needing to find something to do with his hands. "Everything's fine." He landed on shrugging out of his jacket, to restlessly fold and continue to twist over his arm until he realized he could start on the rest of his clothes as he went, too. "I'm the idiot who's been here for years and, with all of that experience, thought giving the kids homework would be worthwhile. Then a bunch of demons came out of a mirror universe, and I watched one of them almost die, and all I could do for him was tell him to run, and it hadn't even occurred to me that one of those important classes they could have been taking was track and field. Kind of sounds like a waste of time to me."

"From what I understood from Steve and Billy, this wasn't something new to their experiences. Some worlds are just like that, mine included honestly. Though mostly only at night. And during the last decade."

So yes, gym was already on his list of things to do.

"We won't fail them again, Tony. And I wanted to thank you. I'm pretty sure the initial weapons you gave me for those boys helped save their lives. Perhaps those of others as well. You are helping."

It wasn't the threats that they were talking about, and Tony cut a sharp, warning look Gladio's way for taking the word of these kids that their every day was demon dogs and not the comfort of a society built to protect them from that. Give them a future. The kind of place Tony hadn't managed to build here. The expression rapidly crumbled at the reminder of the kind of future Tony was good at building, and he had to turn away, thankful that he had finally spotted a way into the pool and could strip down to the golden skin of his undersuit. He dropped his clothes carelessly as he went, leaving a trail behind him as he made straight for the water, talking all the while, "Yeah, great, I'll make one for each of them, make sure all of the kids are armed. The great thing about child-sized weapons, you don't need as much raw materials." His sunglasses clattered to the ground at the same moment that he dove.

Brave of Tony to assume Gladio was merely taking their words for it. He'd had very long discussions with Steve about all of this. And Billy about some of it. Sometimes, though, society falls through and doesn't save you from the bad things.

Sometimes the worst thing to do is to assume society will account for everything and properly protect children. There are always places, and ways, that it fails. Society is not flawless. And Gladio has seen that first hand.

"They're hardly children, Tony," Gladio says. "They've faced demons. Hargrove is... Dead. Maybe not in this second, but once he goes home. Sometimes the world you live in forces you to grow up early, and even if we want to protect them, we have to understand that part of that is giving them the tools to protect themselves when they are going to throw themselves into danger.

"Honestly, that's part of what sold me on the school the more I thought about it. It's about giving them what they need to succeed. And perhaps teaching them, giving the structure of school, will mean they don't choose to throw themselves at things. Maybe they'll feel like they can trust adults."

But Harrington is ninteen, so there's no chance they're going to get him to back down. And Hargrove is even worse.

"I want them to have a chance."

That should have been a convincing argument, and Tony took it with him into the pool to sit under the water where he drew his legs up close and could stare through the churn from his dive into the dark windows of the franchised Deep End as he reluctantly floated back up. He had wanted the kids to have a chance, too--one that some of them hadn't even been given back home. It just presumed a future that Tony couldn't build for them. The most it would do was let Tony play hero again, convince everyone that he was doing some good that he never actually had to pay out on.

When he surfaced, it was slowly like he didn't want to disturb the water and draw Gladio's attention, watching him at the edge of the pool defensively. "They already trust you," he pointed out.

Gladio finally slips into the water himself, moving happily into it and coming to sit near the shore. Not easy to swim and talk all at once.

"You think they don't trust you? YOu're a hero, Tony. And a very intelligent man. Someone who can be shown as why education is valuable. I hope you know that deserves respect.

They were supposed to be talking about Gladio's one poor argument, making Tony's face twist in irritation at the question, then sink down until only his eyes were still above the water at that hero word everyone was so generous with. Only Wesker had any empirical proof of what that actually meant, and he spit it out with well-earned derision. Tony didn't deserve anything else.

When he couldn't hold his breath much longer, he still kept his focus darting around the strange pool instead of on Gladio, treading easily where he was to try to drag back, "My point was, you've already earned their trust. I don't think they have, I don't know, destructive disregulation problems. We're not talking about high risk teens falling in with the bad crowd in need of a healthier outlet. Donnie and Robin and, you know, these kids, they get fixated on being useful, not sticking it to the man."

He doesn't know Robin, or even Donnie too much.

"I don't know, I think I'm going to end up being more of 'the man' than you are. But I still see you as a partner in this."

"Oh, well, if you're the man--I don't have that many housewife fantasies. Maybe a couple. Is that weird? It's probably weird," Tony mumbled.

"You just want an excuse to wear something frilly, don't you?" Gladio asks with a heartly laugh before moving deeper into the water. Maybe it's time for him to really swim too.

"Don't worry, we're going to make a great team."

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[Open] A Glitter Pilot

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