Hot Summer Days and Karaoke Nights

[deal_me_in]

WHO: Cayde-6 probably and you
WHERE: The Deep End
WHAT: Absolutely nothing
WHEN: Through this month
WARNINGS: N/A


I. BYOB

Things have been slow and quiet, both things of which Cayde never trusts, especially around a place like this. Naturally it leaves a Hunter bored, but when there's nothing to be found or done around the city and even less beyond, it's almost enough to make him desperate to do even paperwork.

Almost. He's not that desperate.

At least the temperatures don't bother him, but he knows the heat makes things miserable for a lot of people. The lights are always low in the bar, the water out the window at least keeping it from being too warm since the light's got a whole lot of gallons to filter through.

Cayde doesn't spend too much time behind the bar counter, so it'd be easy to think the bar's empty as it more often than not is. The Exo himself has parked himself at the table nearest the bar however, over by the window. Sometimes he'll be shuffling cards, or he'll be balancing them in a precarious cardhouse with Colonel settled in the opposite chair if she's not roaming the bar floor for inspections.

He looks up when he does find himself with company other than a chicken, flashing a grin. "Hey, you busy?" This may not be the Tower but he's not beyond handing out a quest or two if someone's just as bored as he is. Although it probably isn't much of a quest so much as it is an errand.


II. Music Makes the People Come Together. Yeah.

There's an off chance one might come across the Hunter in the opposite corner of the bar, feet propped up on a chair as he idly strums the guitar Tony had made him what seems like ages ago. It's been more of a communal sort of instrument by now. Cayde's at least managed to learn a few chords enough to play a song or two, which is enough for him to add to the subtle western vibe he tries to evoke now and then.

He's better with a harmonica, although it's anyone's guess as to where he gets the breath for it, much less manages a tune with no lips.

"Oh, didn't know I had an audience. What's with the face?" He smiles crookedly. "Thing's all set if you have something else in mind," he says, nodding towards the karaoke machine.

Comments

[tempredmental]

"Small blessings?" Keith asked with a wry tone. Really, the lack of a volcanic eruption was way more than just a 'small' blessing. But he nodded. "Yeah. I think dealing with that once was well more than enough." He hadn't liked being stuck in those tunnels, even if there had been things to explore down there. Confined spaces were not Keith's thing. At least, on the Castle, it had been a big ship, and he could see they were in space. Like, he knew they weren't actually trapped in a small space.

[deal_me_in]

You and him both, kid. Cayde was not a fan of being stuck anywhere for any lengthy span of time. A Hunter had to roam free. Not having much to find beyond the city was bad enough. Who ever heard of a boring wilderness?

"Heh. Yeah," he said. "That's one patch of excitement I could do without a repeat performance."

[tempredmental]

"Those tunnels, though," he said quietly, remembering back. "They had kind of a weird layout. Did you ever see the maps some of us were putting together?"

[deal_me_in]

"Hm? Yeah?" Cayde glanced over at him. "Weird how? I don't think I fleshed out my map, was mostly just marking out where a door was that couldn't be accessed, or a generator that was shielded."

[tempredmental]

"Yeah. I noted those, too... but, like." He scrunched his eyebrows a bit in thought as he remembered. "Well, like, it was Donnie that put it together, finally. On his map. But like, it was really linear... with lines like a circuit board." He could remember Donnie showing him one to compare. They hadn't been exact, but they'd been close.

"We were trying to figure out if that was on purpose or not, but... never did before we were released back out into town."

[deal_me_in]

"Huh."

Cayde thought back to his own bit of mapmaking. "I figured the hall placements had been a little weird," he admitted, but he was more annoyed at the situation on a whole that he hadn't been paying too much attention to the details.

"I figure nothing that happens around here isn't without purpose. And that place has existed longer than we've been here, so it continues to beg the question of what it was for and who put it there in the first place."

[tempredmental]

"Do you know if anyone's tried to get back in since?"

Not that it had been a great place to be stuck for so long, and Keith wouldn't have been surprised if no one had wanted to deal with facing it all again. But, it was an interesting thought.

[deal_me_in]

"News to me if anyone has," Cayde admitted. "But if it's accessible yet, it still is something we should probably learn more about." He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"...and we do technically have a way to possibly get around those off-limit doors now..."

[tempredmental]

Keith was quiet for a moment, very clearly running some thoughts through his head. He wasn't as impulsive as he used to be, but that didn't stop the ideas from popping up in the first place. He just tended to think a bit more before acting on them.

But, when an idea had some promise for something.........

"We should go back and look."

[deal_me_in]

It seemed like such an obvious choice given their conversation, but even so, once Keith proposed it, Cayde grinned.

"Was hoping you'd say that."

[tempredmental]

Keith caught sight of Cayde's grin, and then smirked a bit in response. Well, at least he had support on this one. He nodded.

"I don't know if anyone else wants to go, but it might not be a bad idea to ask around a bit before heading over. Maybe we can get some extra eyes in there."

[deal_me_in]

"Probably," Cayde agreed, not that he wasn't willing to just leave it be with just the two of them. "Don't know if we want to make it a big thing, we don't need a whole expedition and we don't want to take away too many capable people if something happens in-between, or because we decided to be nosy."

He's not taking chances, not after the whole light incident on the transmitting tower that no longer existed.

[tempredmental]

"More people can be harder to wrangle, too," Keith said. He wasn't opposed to a duo, either, but Cayde was right. They didn't need a giant expedition. He nodded. "So maybe like... five of us or so?" Five was a good number. Five was the number for Voltron...

[deal_me_in]

"Not to mention too many moving parts makes things more complicated."

Cayde stroked his chin. "Five's manageable. In this case I wouldn't go bigger than that. Five or less." Three was a standard fireteam, and personally he liked six, but that was personal preference.

[tempredmental]

Keith nodded in agreement. He was used to five, but was okay with smaller groups than that, too. Not much bigger, though.

"Sounds like we might have a plan, then. Just need to ask around on who wants to go with us." He stepped inside the ship at that point. "Okay, so... where are you keeping those crates?"

[deal_me_in]

Well, they had an idea of what they wanted to do and how to go about it, which is more or less a good start of a plan as any, and Cayde was otherwise fine with freestyling things as they went. "Got anyone in mind?" he asks, knowing he's always got one on the figurative speed dial.

"At the bar. Provided no one's already been helping themselves to it, in which case I'd be offended that they'd pick the copy over the original place!"

[tempredmental]

"A few," Keith said, turning in the direction of the bar. "Lance, Gladio, Tommy..." Those were the first three off the top of his head. "What about you? Anyone you can think of?"

[deal_me_in]

"Tony," Cayde said readily. "If we're going to be poking around somewhere with alien tech we'll need technically-minded people."

[tempredmental]

Keith looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Would he be willing?"

Tony could be... prickly. Even more so than Keith. And that surprised Keith a bit.

[deal_me_in]

"I don't see why not?" He and Tony had been constant partners in crime so Cayde had more or less gotten used to how the man seemed to operate, but he'd never had any real trouble with him.

"You have any other suggestions?" he asked, gesturing with a hand to show he was open to them as he led the way into the bar. It was a pretty nice facsimile, he'd have to admit, but the view into the pool rather than a lake of lazily drifting aquatic life was weird. Things were too bright in here, not at all like the cozy dimness of the original Deep End. He'd bet the wood wasn't even real.

"Ah, here we go," the Exo said as he went into the back room. Way too neat in here on the account that there really wasn't anything except the crates he'd brought.

[tempredmental]

"Not really," Keith said. He tended to stick to himself a lot, so he didn't know everyone all that well to really judge. But, "I can see your point, though." Keith knew Tony was a tech guy. "Donatello's a pretty good tech guy, too... the purple wearing turtle." He would have liked to have Pidge or Hunk... even Matt, as they were the tech geniuses back home, but none of them were here at the moment, so that wasn't going to happen.

He followed Cayde into the backroom, glancing around at how low on stock it was.

"We're going to leave some here, right?" he asked. In case they all suddenly woke up on the ship with no warning, it might not be a bad idea to be stocked.

[deal_me_in]

That was understandable, and not something Cayde was going to question. People were spread out here with only so many inhabiting any given space. It was too easy to keep to oneself, too easy to slip back into lone wolf tendencies. But Cayde had grown to like being around people, one of the upsides he supposed, of being stuck with Vanguard duty at the Tower.

"Donatello- oh! That's right. Wonder if that kid ever sleeps, always see him running around doing something. Well, keep him in mind." He chuckled, reaching over to pick up one of the crates to hand over to Keith.

"Oh yeah, we're not taking any more than one a piece. I got a couple more stashed elsewhere aboard so we should be fine."

[tempredmental]

"He reminds me a bit of a friend back home," Keith said, sounding amused. Pidge rarely slept, too.

He easily took the offered crate, shifting it until he had a good grip on it, and then nodded.

"Alright."

So, he started back towards the ship's entrance.

"That's really all I can think of right now," he then said. "If there's anyone else you'd think would be good, we can figure out which ones we want to focus on asking, and then do that. Figure out when we want to go."

[deal_me_in]

"Sounds good to me!" Cayde quipped as he picked up a crate and after a quick check, followed Keith on out.

"All right. And my schedule is wide open so far as things go." So at least that technically wasn't a problem. It was more a matter of other things deciding to happen.

[tempredmental]

That got a small snort of a response.

"I'd honestly be surprised if anyone was actually truly busy around here," Keith said. Odd jobs, repairs, chores... the small stuff... it wasn't like they had regular jobs or activities going on that took up time or had deadlines.