09 | Somebody Could Walk into This Room and Say Your Life is on Fire

[sinistral]

WHO: the Soldier (sinistral) and you
WHERE: the Peanut Party, Noth, the Agrii ship
WHAT: new tick tick tick BOOM
WHEN: from boarding the ships on the 9th through New Tick to the Agrii ship visit
WARNINGS: none anticipated

---

PEANUT PARTY
→ Before New Tick;

Being compelled to the ships while disturbing from the point of view of the compulsion nevertheless meant a better workout schedule for the Soldier. He would not have anticipated the Agrii to supply such well-equipped exercise areas, but he certainly did not mind it. For someone with his particular enhancements, equipment that could hold up to him without breaking was rare and he fully meant to take advantage of it.

Most often he could be found taking advantage of the heavy bags for sparring, or the climbing wall. Sometimes he worked with the weights, or gave what appeared to be lessons to Billy Kaplan. He wouldn't object if someone asked to rotate in on any of the equipment; likely he'd even act as spotter, if asked.

"You want next?"

→ After New Tick;

The workout habit by necessity had to change a little — frequency no; form yes. He didn't know whether or not he appreciated the Agrii's little gift, but it did require practice. Even if he ultimately decided not to keep it he'd have to figure out its best use, on the chance he'd have to fight with it.

Sometimes he really hated this place.

His preferred to work on this particular practice late at night or very early in the morning; when most people were still asleep and he could have the gym facilities to himself. He had thus far refused to put on the uniform, but he could be found throwing a distinctive shield over and over again until he could reliably hit his desired target and catch it on the rebound. Sometimes the wall near the door was a rebound point though; one might want to exercise caution if also looking to work out in the off hours.

Or perhaps this encounter wasn't in the gym, but rather in the hallway before or after. That shield was kind of large and conspicuous; it wasn't like he could carry it unnoticed on his way to or from his designated room.

NOTH
→ Fireworks;

The Soldier had no illusions about being anyone's idea of good company for things like fireworks shows. His training ran too deep, and the explosions of fireworks spoke too much of gunfire. It was worse if he didn't watch though; at least through observation he could correlate each explosion to its end result, count and catalog and track it all to convince himself that he had no need of retaliation. All in all, it was going quite well.

And then the glitter happened.

He cursed under his breath (in three languages, which would be fun for anyone relying on the Agrii translation technology) before tugging his own jacket off to wrap around his left arm and hand. Glitter played havoc with the mechanisms and the last thing he needed was to spend the next month trying to remove it all. Again.

→ Babysitting;

Saying that the Soldier didn't trust Agrii treats was one of the biggest understatements one could make. He avoided the generously-supplied chocolates like the plague, especially once it became clear that they had certain side effects.

His avoidance, however, didn't transmute itself to others.

The Soldier looked down at the child who had just come careening around the corner, right into his legs. Reflexively he'd reached out to prevent the younger one from falling into the snow, but he had a feeling he might not so easily be able to just brush off the encounter and go about his day. The look on his face simultaneously expressed the thoughts of why me and now what.

"Are you lost?" Good enough, right?

AGRII SHIP
→ Unintentional Popularity;

The bad part about being not only a resident of Temba but also one of the few brought from the Drift Fleet was a certain level of popularity. Quite possibly the Soldier's generally poor attitude contributed to it as well. Perhaps the Agrii were just that friendly with all their visitors. Whatever the case he found himself more and more often resulting to his stealth training to move silently and avoid detection when he had to move about the ship.

The end result was that, despite his careful attempts to slip along hallways relatively unnoticed he still managed to attract one or two followers from time to time. Perhaps some kind of monitoring system contributed to his ill luck, his brain suggested. He tried to quiet those thoughts even as his hand strayed out of habit to the knife at his side.

"Do not," he cautioned without turning around, "attempt to touch me. It will not end well for you."

The Agrii might find the prickly attitude endearing, however; the cautionary statement probably had as much of a chance of encouraging the hug as it did dissuading the determined alien. Perhaps it was time to jump in?

WILDCARD
→ Network;

Want your character to text or call this guy? Drunk dials? Really bad memes that you've made? Consider this your free for all invitation.

→ Something Else;

Have another idea? Come at me, or hit me up at sometimesamuse or via PM. Want a more specific starter for your character? Let me know, I got you. Want to handwave something? I'm fine with that as well, let's hash it out. And while I write starters in prose I'm happy to match brackets if that's your preference.

Comments

[in_extremis]

This man (or ghost) could not have truly understood what he possessed, if it really was the shield, and he was lucky that Tony was there to help. The kid readily fell into position just behind him, where he struggled to maintain that respectful distance because he had to keep coming up close to the man's leg where he gestured erratically and had to make sure he was being heard as he explained, "There's nothing else like it. It's made of a vibranium-adamantium alloy, before they even knew what either of those things really were, the scientist, his name was MacLain, he had to invent adamantium, he had to prove the theory first, and he couldn't have even known how it would react with the vibranium and how hard that would make the shield to study, to replicate, because of the vibration, it's so unstable it should be degrading but it's not, it's throwing protons but it's so dense they just don't go anywhere..." This journey would not be long enough for Tony to come to a natural end in his lecture.

[sinistral]

Honestly, the Soldier tuned most of the technical details out; he couldn't follow the explanations and wasn't really sure if he wanted to. At least it kept the kid engaged, which he considered a good thing. His own skill in small talk was all but nonexistent, and conversations with the adult Tony usually ended in disaster. But the kid seemed content to just go on and on about the science and the physics and the whole nine yards so if all the Soldier had to do was interject the occasional polite question, it would hopefully work out just fine.

At least there seemed plenty of journey to accompany the lecture, between walking through the Agrii ship and returning to the Soldier's own. That had to be better than awkward silence, right? And once they arrived on the Peanut Party, the Soldier led the way toward his quarters, pausing outside the door.

"If I ask you to stay in the hallway, are you gonna listen to me?" The Soldier still felt uncomfortable with having people in his private space, not that he claimed much space as his own. But even for this version of Tony, it was hard to tamp down his own paranoia.

[in_extremis]

Tony did not need to know this man's name to be sure they were best friends now, since he listened so attentively to Tony's incredibly important explanation of the molecular details of Captain America's shield. This singular status might have almost been enough to earn some respect for his telegraphed boundaries, except that he presented the idea in a confrontational enough way that Tony's already difficult to control curiosity had him fidgeting before slowly answering, "Yeee-es, sir." If this had any chance of being convincing, that was probably ruined by Tony's eager stare at the door, like he could see through it to whatever secret was being kept from him inside.

[sinistral]

The Soldier sighed. "You're not, are you? Just tell me so I don't turn around and stab you because I'm not expecting you there." Really Tony had the worst taste in trusted adult figures. But at least the Soldier wouldn't stop him from following through the door.

Inside, the room was spartan and painfully clean; in fact, nothing in the living area would indicate occupancy, being bare of decoration and customization both. And if Tony actually did follow him inside, the Soldier would point him toward an armchair. "Sit. Or I kick you out right now."

[in_extremis]

Tony responded to the imminent stabbing with a bright eyed smile, clasping his hands behind his back in a kind of compromise for earning his way into the forbidden space and keeping close on the man's heels like he might miss his chance and have the door slammed in his face if he wasn't fast enough. Now that he was allowed to sate his curiosity, he didn't seem to have so much trouble doing what he was told, obediently climbing into the chair where he crossed his legs and drummed his fingers restlessly on the arms as he glanced around inquisitively. It didn't seem like there were a lot of secrets being kept in here. There wasn't even a curious envelope, or lipstick-stained glass to consider. "Does someone else live here?" he concluded. A big secret would be that neither of them were supposed to be in here.

[sinistral]

"What? No." No, just the Soldier, by himself. He didn't keep a lot of clutter, and the few personal items he had were contained in the bedroom, out of view from the living area. He gave Tony a look that said stay there while he ducked into the room to retrieve the shield.

It wouldn't take him long to reappear with the thing on his arm in all its red white and blue glory; hopefully Tony had actually listened to the instruction to stay put. "Happy now?"

[in_extremis]

The look mostly seemed to work, keeping Tony in the chair as far as he could lean forward to try to track the man into the forbidden room, head tilting to see through the crack of the door until he practically tipped himself out of his seat. He was still touching the chair when the man returned, one hand on the seat while he was on his toes like he was ready for a starting gun to burst into a sprint. The man's question was the signal that he was waiting for, bringing him bounding up close, hands up at first like he might manage to hold them in the air and away from actually touching the artifact, but this wasn't a museum and the shield was already being touched so that clearly must have meant that Tony could, too. It seemed huge once he was up close, and he reached out to delicately run his fingers along the edge like he might lean in and hug it. His heart was beating so fast that it had to have been the real thing. Oh no, was he going to cry?

[sinistral]

The fact that Tony actually stayed in the room was an accomplishment; the Soldier didn't want a kid getting into the few personal items he possessed. Besides, there probably wasn't much outside the shield to interest the kid anyway.

At least the shield didn't seem to disappoint. The Soldier held it steady as Tony's fingers explored the surface. The weight still felt a little weird to his arm but then again he had a lot of weight in that arm to begin with so he probably wasn't a good judge of it. And at least the kid seemed happy, though a bit misty around the eyes. Hopefully tears wouldn't actually happen. The Soldier did not know how to deal with tears.

[in_extremis]

Tony was still working out how to deal with tears himself. His first tactic was to bite his tongue, which only produced a build up of pressure in his throat while he attempted to lift the shield himself and test the weight, hands gripped tightly now around the edge. Talking would manage the pressure, reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed, he thought, and he tried a little breathlessly to find himself some space in his lecture, "The last time anyone saw this was 1945, that was before the transistor was invented, nobody even had a microwave..." This only served to make him more aware of how his voice shook, and how mad the man was going to be with him, so abruptly he announced, "I have to go." He released the shield and turned away in one quick motion, ripping off a bandaid, and darted for the door and a quick exit to be humiliated in isolation. The shield was real. That was a lot for one boy to figure out how to handle.

[sinistral]

That was not the reaction the Soldier was expecting. The partial lecture-slash-history lesson? Yes. The abrupt departure? Not one bit, considering how eager Tony had been to see the shield, to touch it. To come right into the Soldier's space for it.

And then he just bolted, boom and gone.

It took a few seconds for the Soldier to process the shock, then turn to put the shield back in the bedroom, just dropped on the bed to deal with later. Then he was back through the rooms and into the hallway, looking both ways for the kid. He wasn't sure if he'd even find Tony; if the child had run and hid a search might prove useless.