It's All the Same, Only the Names Will Change

[deal_me_in]

WHO: Cayde-6 and you
WHERE: Temba and its outskirts
WHAT: Just an Exo doin' his thing
WHEN: Nnnow. -ish.
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: Will match tagging format preference.


I. The Deep End (OTA)
He wouldn't call it routine, but by now he knew to appreciate what freedom they had in a scenery change and a mission. It's something Cayde had come to appreciate long before even being brought to this strange little prison of a planet. And it's because of that that he knows there's something bittersweet about coming back to what's become familiar territory, every time.

There's things you grow fond of, and maybe it's just him, but he's been used to ruins and wilderness just champing at the bit to claim it whenever someone so much as blinks. He's glad his bar's in one piece, something he's made with his hands, thankful the glass has held and nothing's sprung a leak. Just a bit of dust but that's an easy fix, although the most he gets around to is the main counter and the stools and his domain behind it. Maybe he can rope someone into helping out with the rest. That Eddie kid probably, or maybe Richie.

Cayde's poking at the fish tank opposite the huge wall that looked out into its own tank of water, counting whatever critters still remained within. He doesn't look up even when he hears the sound of someone entering.

"Hey, you any good at catching fish?"


II. The Great Beyond (Para Antonio)
If it was a game of actual tactical advantage then between the Exos, Felwinter had him beat. The security tower had been built with the intention of a clear view of the city's entirety. Now, if Cayde were paranoid and wanted to be able to see as much of anything at any given time, he would've staked a claim to the place long before the Warlock had arrived. But it just wasn't his style.

The clock tower had definitely seen better days, and while it certainly didn't look like any clock tower he was familiar with, it still had the important bits to suggest what it had been, even if the inner workings had long corroded beyond any hope for restoration. That was fine with the Hunter. It'd be really annoying otherwise, if the place were ticking and cranking all the day long, and who knew what sort of chiming it ever did. Those parts must have broken off or never existed to begin with, so far as he'd been able to tell.

As for views, it afforded him a decent enough one. He could see enough, especially when he was up on the top where the broken remains were barely holding anything together. Currently he soaked in the imagery as though to refresh his memory from the last time he'd seen it, coated in snow. The lack of snow made it much easier to see things too, such as familiar people doing curious things somewhere below.


III. Exploratory
The woods just beyond Temba aren't unfamiliar territory. They are however by Cayde's standards, pretty unspectacular. It had been disappointing a venture in more than a few directions, and only because for several days straight, the Hunter had only come across more and more forest.

That doesn't mean they aren't full of surprises, and after having more than a few brushes with antagonistic wildlife in the past, the Exo feels better doing a bit of patrolling along the perimeter of the city and just beyond. It's something to do. And if it gives him an excuse to shoot something, who's he to complain?


IV. Wildcarde
((OOC: Got any other ideas you wanna run with? Throw it down here!))

Comments

II

[in_extremis]

The clock tower valiantly blocked some of the relentless sunlight. Down among the marshy weeds, Tony squinted up at it, watching the weak tug of the gentle breeze at the scavenged curtains draped across the open windows. That movement barely ruffled the grass, and only distantly could he hear the faint chiming of the junkyard mobiles that he had posted around the city, to help navigate in the dark. In the bright light of midday, the air feeling hot and too damp after a stretch of rainy afternoons, their sound was less a warning than a cheerful song. Tony tugged at his collar, then primly slipped out of his tailored jacket to hang it off of the imposing launch platform that he had pushed out next to him. It had been wheeled through the grass with some effort, until it was facing the lake and reasonably far from any standing structure of comparable height, and Tony took his time daintily rolling his fine, white shirtsleeves so he could climb up onto it and start kicking out the shunts and levers that would collapse the wheels and pitch it into the ground. The creaks and thuds echoed across the water, with no wind to buffet them away. When Tony was done, the whole structure was planted like it had been built there, and the nose of a sleek, solid missile was pointed up toward the sky.

[deal_me_in]

Tony could always be counted on to be doing something interesting. From Cayde's vantage point he watched as his favorite co-conspirator brought out a new toy, perking even more at the unmistakable shape.

By the time Tony was getting the missile's base established, the Hunter was already descending from his perch by the quickest method he knew- jumping. One leap off the pinnacle in the general direction of the building launch site, another to get more distance and slow his downward speed, and then another to carry him just a little further before his boots landed on the ground, his feet already continuing on in an eager sort of trot.

"You launching fireworks without me? How cruel!"

[in_extremis]

The only other movement in the field was the occasional cricket cresting the wave of the grass, so Cayde was unmistakable as he came bounding down, making a small smile tug at the corner of Tony's mouth as he finished his process. When he jumped down from the platform to join Cayde, it was with a final yank of a cord the sent a radio wire shooting up into the sky. It bounced and shivered until it found equilibrium as Tony greeted, "And a fine afternoon to you, too, Hot Stuff." Struggling to not look fussy, Tony leaned a shoulder against the now solidly planted platform, but he tugged at his shirt and combed a hand through his hair so the cool picture did not look as effortless as a team of photographers would have helped with. "I haven't seen you blow anything up in a decade, I thought you were reformed. I don't want to be a bad influence," he accused.

[deal_me_in]

A gloved hand flew to his chest as the Exo gasped in mock offense. "That's because you got the fun job back at the spaceport," Cayde pointed out, reaching out to give a playful nudge of a knuckle against Tony's arm.

"So, what's the goal here, Chief?" he asked as he folded his arms, craning his head to look up at Tony's latest surprise.

[in_extremis]

That spaceport job had not exactly gone as planned, making Tony's smirk at Cayde's nudge more of a grimace. It did go as he should have expected, though, which did bring them neatly to why they were standing out in the mud and Tony was slightly regretting wearing these no longer polished wingtips. He had a particular affinity. He gave his platform a pat, then pointed up into the clear, bright sky, where he had to mostly squint his eyes shut even behind his glasses to peer up. "You been up there yet?" he asked, and was slow to let his hand drop, bringing it to his heart when he did like he was being parted from a dear lover. Just another of life's pleasures that Tony had to go without. "Up there is the bars to this jail cell. Something stopped me, when I tried to go through. This is plan A."

[deal_me_in]

Execution of plans never really held out, the more detailed things were. Cayde preferred to play fast and loose, relying more on what he knew of individuals' capabilities and how they'd best handle situations than try to point them specifically in any direction. All in all, he felt that they'd done pretty good at the spaceport. Mission accomplished, all around and then some.

Cayde's gaze traveled upwards after Tony's hand. The memory flashed into mind, seeing red and gold plummeting from the sky.

"Not all of us have rocket boots," he said instead, throwing an easy grin in Tony's direction. It smoothed out as he regarded the sky again. "Shielding? Are the ships keyed to something there?"

He looked back at the missile, all set and ready to go. "How are we monitoring? That's probably well beyond Sundance's range."

[in_extremis]

The ships were a work in progress that had Tony's mouth twisting to the side before he answered, "If they are, it's part of the same system that's keeping them grounded. Step one is opening the door," and pointed back up, this time just a flick of his finger to the deceptively inviting sky. "Step two is walking through it. We've already got ships, can't be that hard." That was what he kept telling himself, anyway, while he bruised himself in frustration and still couldn't figure out how to get them in the air.

Step one was easier. Step one was blowing something up. He twisted around to search through the pockets of his hanging jacket, and present Cayde with the telescope that he extended with a quick flick. He didn't immediately point it up along the missile's nose, though, but lazily like he held a cigarette, to the corner of the tower, several stories above the Deep End, then swung around to the same high point on what used to be Echo and Omega's outpost. If Cayde wanted to take the telescope, he could spy the little cameras perched there, already pointed up like hunting dogs. "Or," Tony proposed, "you could strap on." He rapped a knuckle on the side of the warhead with an inviting grin.

[deal_me_in]

Made enough sense to Cayde. Tony usually knew what he was talking about, especially when it came to technical issues, so the Exo nodded along. Got it. So they had a figurative key.

He looked back at the missile, optics blinking as he found himself presented with a telescope. His metal jaw parted in that way that suggested a grin as he peered through the thing to spy out the camera installments and their current positioning. Giving the telescope a twirl before collapsing it- and then extending it again to repeat the motion (that was all he really wanted to do, it was the simple things sometimes).

"Psh, just get me a lasso and I'll ride that thing straight up! Coming down might be messy but I'm pretty sure I've fallen from worse," he said, grinning back.

[in_extremis]

Cayde seemed happy enough to play with the telescope, and some designs did not need fixing. In case he also wanted the video feed, too, though, Tony beckoned for his communicator, and immediately lost patience while Cayde fiddled with his new toy to start searching Cayde's pockets for it himself.

"I'm not all that interested in picking up the parts, if you don't have an exit strategy," Tony admitted as he made the few taps he needed to allow the device to connect to his cameras. "Not all of us have rocket boots." He didn't exactly have the equipment to catch an Exo if he fell this time, and he wasn't about to call Jon. Jon could know when the plan worked.

[faceguy]

“Never tried.”

Leo wasn’t expecting to be addressed the moment he walked into the bar, but he answers smoothly enough anyway. With everything going on, he completely failed to give Cayde a call, but he was headed past the bar just now and decided to come check it out.

“Why? Want to add fish to the menu?”

[deal_me_in]

The turtle's voice is recognized instantly, the Exo grinning as he finally lifts his head to look over towards the kid. He leans an arm over the top of the tank.

"Never hurts to have options. Although in this case I was more wanting to restock this tank," he says, tapping a finger at the glass. "Used to have this little green kid with big ears, he'd come and grab stuff out of here to snack on. He's been gone a long while now but I am pretty sure there are a lot less fish in here, so I suspect someone in here's been rising up on the food chain while we've been gone."

[faceguy]

A green kid with big ears that ate fish out of a tank? Sounds like a weirdo (says the green kid with no ears).

Leo comes closer to take a look. “So you want more fish to stock up? What if they just eat each other again?”

[deal_me_in]

Cayde misses that kid. He misses all the kids that have come and gone, not that he can get mad for them being sent home. That's where they all should be, not here.

He laughs as Leo comes over to join him at the tank. "That's a possibility, but it wasn't too much of a problem so long as someone was here to throw something else in to keep 'em fed." They'd been gone...a lot longer than the Exo had expected. He reaches over the tank to tug the end of...is that a bone? from within, optics shuttering slightly in a squint as the thing's been picked clean.

"This was supposed to last them a bit..."

[faceguy]

“We were gone a pretty long time, right? My bro said you guys don’t usually leave the planet for long.”

He squints at the bone, too. Kinda cool, but also kinda gross. Overall, a positive.

“Maybe you need to get an auto-feeder or something.”

[deal_me_in]

"Yeah, it was what, at least a couple months or so? Longer maybe. We've had a few trips and they vary in how long we're gone but I think this trip has to have been the longest we've ever been away from Agra Ten."

Cayde taps the water off the bone, the vibrations bringing out a largish eel-fish looking thing from between the rocks. Its mouth parts to reveal some needle-like teeth.

"Ah-hah! I figured it'd be you," the Hunter smirks as he peers through the glass. "Auto-feeder, eh? Yeah, that'd be useful."

[faceguy]

Whoa, that’s gnarly! Leo leans down and taps the glass to get the eel to turn his way.

“Oh man, that’s cool. Alien eels!”

He looks back up, grinning at Cayde.

“Until you have one, you better get this guy something other than the fish to eat.”

[deal_me_in]

The creature turns an eye towards Leo, stripes along its sides flaring blue and yellow a moment before it retreats between the rocks again, finding no food forthcoming.

"That. Is probably a good idea," Cayde agrees. He steps away fr the tank, wandering back towards the bar counter. "Let's see what I have lying around."

I

[the_freak]

Eddie's lips quirk, setting down his Sweetheart by the amp and he laughs quizzically, all ready getting started on cleaning up.

"Hey to you too, Boss. Uh...fishing. Not really? Never really been. Wasn't really my Old Man's scene."

[deal_me_in]

Good kid. Cayde grins as he looks over at Eddie then.

"No? Should give it a shot sometime, it's an experience," he says, gesturing at the fishing pole leaning beside the tank. "Although a lot of it is just waiting until something comes around and takes a bite."

[the_freak]

"You fish then?" he asks, looking a little surprised, and he shrugs a shoulder, approaching the tank and looking in.

"Yeah, that's the part I never really got, I guess. The waiting. Doesn't it get boring?"

[deal_me_in]

"Eh, picked it up here," the Exo admits. He chuckles. "I'd rather shoot things. Yeah, waiting does get boring but it pays off once you hook something. Applies to lots of things though, but fishing is a lot more sitting around. Guess that's why people use it as an excuse to nap." He shrugs.

[the_freak]

"Probably faster if you're planning to eat them," he agrees with a laugh. Shooting fish had to be easier or it wouldn't have made it into a saying after all.

"I knew a guy who used to fish. I think he mostly just took the most out into the lack and drank or got high," he says, wondering if Rick's boat survived or not.

"You wanting to give it a shot, or just making conversation?"

[deal_me_in]

Cayde considers a moment, glancing between the fishing pole and Eddie before he grins.

"Had any plans today?"

[the_freak]

"Fishing sounds better than cleaning the bar?" Eddie allows before smirking and shrugging a shoulder, "If you're offering. You're the boss-man."

[deal_me_in]

"Well, who am I to argue that point?" Cayde laughs. "Let me see what we got for bait."