revivalproject | Worn Out Places, Worn Out Faces

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Worn Out Places, Worn Out Faces

WHO: Felwinter and you?
WHERE: NG-102
WHAT: A warlord in unusual territory
WHEN: Event duration
WARNINGS: N/A

It's strange being in a place so condensed with activity, so alive. It's a sharp contrast to anything he's known before, life on Temba being more something the warlord's been used to than anything by far. While it's true that he'd been to that other planet and its own cities, the feel was still so vastly different.

There, you could escape easily enough, leave the city limits, roam the surrounding wilderness.

Here, everything is constructed, artificial. And yet life pumps through its fashioned arteries, a hub of ordered chaos. It's intriguing but it also threatens to swallow one up.

There's something that hasn't changed, something that doesn't make much sense to him, but at the same time, he accepts it as general expectation. Felwinter hasn't completely shrugged off the paranoia that clings to him like stubborn cobwebs, remaining alert as ever, noting places that might hide threats or provide protection should those threats find him. It's also how he notices the behavior of the public.

They tend to give him plenty of space, and he's noted more than a few completely redirect themselves to various detours or suddenly find the need to duck into a shop. Perhaps its his way of dress, he has considered. The helmet is hardly a friendly design, his overall palette of dark grays and the sweeping if worn greatcoat effecting something surreal, displaced even in an alien crowd. He knows those looks too, when he catches them, eyes skittering away the moment they even feel they've made eye contact beneath that concealing mesh and grill. Fear.

He doesn't let it bother him. This is what he's accustomed to, being avoided. He doesn't care for the wariness of some of the local security, and with the way people have responded to his general presence, he hasn't made many stops into stores nor purchases. There isn't anything he feels he desperately needs, but it does make it difficult to procure supplies for the ship and for their meager population from Temba.

"Hm."

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It was more Bruce or Reed's natural place in an academic environment, Tony no longer had the temperament for it and certainly wasn't responding to offers to give talks even at his alma mater. As Bruce would say, he was too 'razzle dazzley'. That left Tony more unusual outlets for a energizing academic inquest, like the looming threat of apocalypse, or rousing debate, like every other conversation he had. He was happy to take a presented opportunity to murmur, "Indeed." Felwinter was easy to spot in a crowd, even if they weren't darting away from him like he had some powerful polarity and giving Tony plenty of room to stroll up alongside him and present a straight-backed, studious focus, arms crossed with one hand stroking through his beard. As much as he was willing to commit to this bit, though, he could only stare for so long without spotting what had caught Felwinter's judgmental attention before he was whispering out of the side of his mouth, "What are we looking at?"

They were stopped in front of the super-polished facade of a building, the images reflected back all soft around the edges for the lightly textured surface.

"Do you think..." Felwinter began, not appearing surprised at all to have company, but then it was rather difficult not to notice when you had such, when everyone else was making it a point to avoid you. That and having a Ghost with a running radar. "...that they would respond any differently if I were to go without the helmet?"

During their period of silent observation, it hadn't occurred to Tony that what Felwinter might have been concerned about was his own appearance. He had made a commitment to a very strong image several centuries ago, and did not deviate from it, as far as Tony could tell. He wasn't sure if the Exo changed his underwear. The question baffled him enough that he made the mistake of catching his own eye in the reflection, noticing they were part of the tableau for the first time, that he abruptly turned away from it to lean on Felwinter's shoulder, the hand dangling in front of them then jumping expressively when he finally took his chance to ask, "Let's put it this way: why are you wearing it in the first place? Do you think you're going to take a corner too fast? Should I be carrying a fire extinguisher?"

Concern wouldn't have been how he would have described it. Habit was a learned thing, appearance an armor in itself, intimidation a shield and reputation a warning shot. So far as he had been concerned back home, there was no need to curry favor with anyone. The strong ones either wanted you to join them or to kill you when you turned them down. The weak didn't dare catch the eye of the strong, who normally trampled them underfoot either way. Felwinter hadn't wanted to be either of those things. He had simply wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately the attention he most wished to avoided was the one thing that didn't seem put off by appearances.

"...protection," he said after some thought. "Habit." He paused before turning his unseen gaze towards Tony.

"Do I frighten you?"

Tony's gaze dropped away, his mouth twisting to the side, clearly not eager to answer that question though his fingers continued to tap at the air like he hadn't stopped speaking. "You're...intimidating," he eventually admitted. That was an objective observation, and an intentional one, Tony was pretty sure. And while he couldn't really do much about Felwinter's dirty habits, he was more comfortable continuing, "And projecting that you need protection, that you think a fight is about to break out, that does put people on edge. You're out here ready to go to war, and they're just trying to pick up some eggs, so you're introducing some tension to environment that no one else is prepared for. You can get a similar effect with a lacy bra."

Felwinter continued to stare. The hesitation from Tony was a telling response in itself, the admission only confirming as much, the observations not at all surprising since they were right on the mark. It was true enough, there was nothing to deny.

"Perhaps I should remain on the ship then," he concluded, an easy enough solution.

Edited 2024-03-24 22:37 (UTC)

Tony had been under the impression that they were already discussing the merits of the solution, not that they were looking for a different one. This one sounded more extreme to him, so he blinked in surprise, not sure how they had made that leap. "You'd rather stay in the ship for eight hundred hours than take your helmet off?" he had to confirm, because that couldn't be right. "It doesn't even have to be far. We could just get you a purse. If World War Three breaks out at the Cinnabon, it'd be right there."

It made sense to Felwinter, who was more reading himself on the whole as some sort of public disturbance just for his mere presence. He wasn't completely convinced that it was merely the helmet, which was why he was back to staring at Tony again.

And then finally when things were almost a second two many to not be awkward, the warlord lifted his hands to remove his helmet, subjecting Tony to the burning amber stare instead.

"I can carry it just fine. Do you think this is any better?"

After swaying away to give Felwinter the room to lift his arms, Tony did not look so eager to slouch against him again, tucking his hands into his pockets slightly stiffly instead, which might have been more than enough answer. "Kind of a lateral move. Trading one intensity for another," he said with an apologetic twist of his mouth. "Less like you're going to come at me at ramming speed, though, so the equation has changed. Now we've just got to acknowledge that people are always going to treat you differently when you're the second sexiest person in a ten mile radius. Most people think that's one of the perks."

He didn't look particularly convinced of this suggestion, more so with the usual Tony-slant to it.

Unhindered by his helmet, Felwinter turned to cast a look around. He caught a glimpse of someone just as they were taking a picture of them with their device, their smile freezing once they saw the attention turned their way, immediately prompting them to slink away.

"Not much of a perk when they do not seem inclined to interact." How was he any different from before? Well, save for his choice of gear, anyway, but from what he and Felspring had found from the old Seraph bunkers, his original directive had been to interact with people, to learn more about the cultures, the languages. Surely they could not all have fled from him or he would have been recalled immediately, or destroyed. Rasputin did not seem to care much for the useless.

Now they were addressing the actual issue. With a sympathetic nod, Tony acknowledged, "You want them to talk to you." That was distinctly different from 'be less frightening' and certainly a far cry from 'hide on the ship'. "We're solving the wrong problem. The problem is, as the devastatingly handsome party, you have all of the power in that dynamic. You're going to have to do the approaching," Tony said, and he was already looking around at the crowd, searching. "So, which one do you want to be your friend?" he had to ask, because there was no guessing what Felwinter's type was. He was easier to read with the helmet on.

"I am not against it," Felwinter conceded. That tended to be a little easier when people weren't just almost magically becoming scarce whenever he went anywhere.

Those eyes practically bored into Tony, but then it wasn't much different a look from before, and technically still confusion. He'd probably be great for their poker games if he had any interest in it.

"Friend?"

Now Felwinter was presenting Tony with a new problem with missing parts, and Tony had to take a guess at what those were. "Friend," he echoed, one hand jumping up to try to capture this enigma, starting to flick between them and then deciding against that to press against his chest instead. "Someone you want to know more about. That will laugh at your jokes. That you can trust to watch your helmet while you powder your nose." With narrowed eyes, Tony watched for any reaction that would tell him what the hangup was. "Unless you're looking for something in particular, in which case, that's a risky move in a public place. You might want to start by relocating to a designated space for that kind of thing."

"I'm not sure what you mean." There were a lot of things that Felwinter wasn't sure of when it came to Tony. "We are here for a task, are we not? If I can't help with acquiring materials or supplies then I thought perhaps at least I could try and get useful information."

Tony also wasn't sure which part of that needed to be addressed first, and his flicking hand was back, this time with more questions in its emphasis. "We both know that no one is going to waft from the crowd and bestow upon you all of the answers in the world before dissipating in a cloud of smoke, and if it was just information you wanted, you could corner someone and ask. Hell, you could just break into their house and have a look around," he said. "So, here's what I'm thinking, either you think the connection is valuable, or you're looking for reasons why you can't help with this whole 'task'. I don't know why you think you have to do that with me, I think it's all mindgames, too, and not playing is a valid answer."

"...." His optics flicker at that, and he finally turns his gaze away from Tony as he considers these points.

"Information is easier as is interaction if both sides are willing to impart. I don't wish to force anyone to have to deal with me, and it seems clear enough that there is no interest in them wanting to do so if they have the option. Is it purely because of how I carry myself? I had not such a problem when we went to that other planet."

Of course, that other planet didn't have access to extraplanetary communications and most of the population wore strange enough outfits to begin with.

There was the piece that made the puzzle fit together. It wasn't just that these people were an expected level of intimidated by the intense, armored war machine. He was left to wonder about that for a moment longer, though, as Tony brought a hand to his chin again like he had to think about that, pressing a knuckle to his lips to poorly conceal a smile.

"It's because you're famous, California Dreamin'," he said, then left Felwinter to come to terms with that that meant on his own as he continued, "You've already got the answer to your problem then. You've got to have something to offer, both sides, this is a two way street, and you're the one on a mission here."

"Infamous seems more likely," Felwinter murmured, but he still turned an inquisitive look back at Tony. Was he just being flippant as usual?

He had even less of a solution to what the man suggested next. There was little enough he felt he could offer. There was nothing to kill and no one seemed in need of protection, and those were naturally what came to mind.

What material difference that made wasn't clear enough to Tony to argue, so he pressed his lips together expectantly, waiting for the reason this changed the situation that Felwinter was dealing with, and ultimately had to just accept, "Okay. Infamous, yeah, that's different, that means someone would want something different from you." This time when Tony narrowed his eyes, it wasn't in search of an argument, but to confirm that Felwinter was following. They might have still been having two different conversations, and Tony's electric energy was started to drain, making his shoulders slowly drop.

Perhaps they were. Felwinter wasn't sure that they were getting much of anywhere with the conversation as it was. Maybe he didn't really want a solution after all.

He met Tony's gaze evenly, holding it for as long as the other would dare to hold it because one of them would eventually have to blink and it certainly wasn't going to be the Exo. Only then would he look away, watching the distant activity thoughtfully. And then he offered something that sounded like a weary sigh.

"I wonder that this was any easier before..." he murmured, looking down to study his helmet, turning it in his hands. "How do you do it? You seem able to slip into any place and be a part of it. I don't know what I should try to offer, or that I have anything anyone would want offered."

The contest didn't last long, not one that Tony had the patience for when he had already been brushed off and didn't need to be told when he was getting a forceful shove, and he was looking around at the milling aliens with his own sigh and tight tuck of his arms against his sides as he considered which charming exit line to waste. He didn't expect Felwinter to talk again first, and barely chanced a look through his lashes back the Exo's way in case he was still staring, and definitely couldn't tell if he was supposed to take that observation positively. Better to not look at it too closely. Besides, those offers that Felwinter was fretting over might have been in what he didn't want to say. "Before...?" Tony prompted. There was the first exchange for Felwinter to navigate; maybe Tony would have an answer for him after Felwinter was done. "Before Temba? You've been undersocialized, you've gone feral?"

He hesitated. "Before...everything." How much, if anything, did Tony remember of their strange meetings in a dreamworld, within his cold keep high on the peak of a snow-crusted mountain? Felwinter seemed to snort then at the suggestions. "You're not far off the mark. People who wanted simply to talk were rare. There was one... She stopped coming with tributes after a time."

When she'd realized that Felwinter didn't seem inclined to budge on his stance of having to watch over them, the little establishment at the foot of the mountain he'd claimed. When he finally realized that there were others who understood what it was like, dreading whenever the next time would be that someone hurled their wrath upon you from above.

"Listen, don't take this personally, I don't know what's gotten into the system lately, but I've been having this conversation a lot so you're getting the abridged version: your girlfriend back home is not going to blame you for making some new connections and keeping the engine warm. If that's what's holding you back, here is your absolution, go forth and tribute copiously," Tony said, completing his declaration with a listless sign of the cross and inviting wave out at the crowd. "Whatever you had to offer her hasn't really changed. Has it?"

...because of course that would be Tony's take on things. Felwinter wondered if it was progress that he found himself unsurprised.

But perhaps... It did in some way help to look at things in such a perspective, if maybe not exactly as Tony was putting forth. The Exo tilted his head.

"No. They wanted a protector who could stand up against other Risen."

Tony opened his hands like this had been obvious all along, and easily applicable in multiple situations. "Conflict resolution," he amended, to give Felwinter the more accurate resume language. "Leadership skills." A flicker of doubt returned for Tony's enthusiastic hands to drop as he glanced around, recognizing that one didn't typically bring a resume on a date, so maybe he hadn't quite worked out the right language. "You think none of these people has problems like that?" he suggested, thumb out to encompass the myriad of personal burdens that some of them must have been being crushed under.

"They do not strike me as people in immediate need of someone that must be destroyed," Felwinter noted, although his gaze wandered again as though to perhaps reassess his observations. He wasn't about to deny what he was good at.

In the years that Tony had known Felwinter, he hadn't witnessed anyone being destroyed, as far as he could tell. If he was destroying, the process was more subtle than he wanted to acknowledge right now, and if he wasn't, then he was getting on just fine without this programmed impetus.

Or, Tony was witnessing some kind of breakdown.

He took this new rejection with a deep breath that he held like he might be able to design the right path out of the maze of them that Felwinter was meticulously building him, until he had to release the breath slowly and advise, "You're right, you should probably stay on the ship. Hey, post up at the beach, listen to the water, learn to meditate."

Maybe it was a good thing Tony hadn't come across him when those eyeless things were about. Tommy had thought it was pretty neat when he'd tore a demogorgon apart with his bear hands. But it wasn't like Felwinter was doing it often, and only by necessity.

Even as Tony was starting to lose traction again, the Exo was reconsidering. There really was no way to go around it; he did have a knack for violence. His Light-breathed life was met with it from the start, and all he knew was to run and to fight back or be crushed. He'd sought peace, but hadn't considered what would come after, not until someone weaker than him put a cause before him. He hadn't had the time to really develop the thought, not when he'd been brought to a near-empty land, given a place to hide, only to have other problems. And other people who shared them.

"...." He didn't understand how people in a normal society functioned, if this counted a such. But perhaps this was the chance to learn.

"...I shall take your advice under consideration," he said after a time, turning to walk away then, although notably not towards the docking bay.

Trying for another preparatory breath didn't make the second attempt any easier, and Tony could only release it again and deflate as he watched Felwinter ignore him again. "Yeah, I can see that," he muttered. After being cast aside for garbage collection was probably beyond the point of trying to be useful, but Tony still glanced around for some inspiration before he felt completely adrift. Maybe he could pay one of these people to approach Felwinter with an easy problem. Like a jar they were struggling to open.

"...thank you for giving me another perspective to work with."

It was said in afterthought, after Felwinter had gone a few steps, but he didn't wait long before he began to walk again. He was still getting used to people, strange as that might be for how long he'd been among them in Temba. It was different though, people operating under the false guise of normality when their situation was anything but. Here was different too, in a completely different way.

His observations had been turned towards himself when they should have been outward, of the people and how they went about their business here. Perhaps he would not get anything done for supplies or parts, but at least he could learn.

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Worn Out Places, Worn Out Faces

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