revivalproject | ♤ Desperado

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♤ Desperado

WHO: Cayde-6 and you mental intruders you. Guardian gear optional.
WHERE: ~~The Tower~~ In the mind of Cayde-6. Run.
WHAT: Exploring the Exo's memories and then some
WHEN: Through the Calibrations Event
WARNINGS: Nothing I can think of? Potential violence? That's an FPS for you

"It's funny, the things you find yourself missing."

The room is large and tall with its vaulted walls and the giant window that makes up an entire wall, overlooking the vast expanse of Earth's Last City. There are roughly two levels to the room, stairs immediately leading down to the central, sunken area, with no shortage of computer terminals and screens along either side. Smack in the center of the sunken area is a large table with a sizable map laid out towards the middle of it, among other things.

"Like that. I kind of miss that table."

The Exo steps down alongside of you and then past, holding a chicken in the crook of one arm, stroking her under the beak. And no, that's not your imagination- she really is wearing a tiny cloak and a paper horn reminiscent of her caretaker. He steps over to the table, shoving stacks of paperwork off the edge with relish that plainly says he's doing something he normally shouldn't, before he sets Colonel down to wander about as she pleases.

The other things on the table are as follows: a small scattering of playing cards, although all save an Ace of Spades and Queen of Hearts are flipped face-up. A glass of some glowing blue-green liquor sits atop a few sheets of paper, which upon closer inspection look to be the yellowed, torn pages from books, hints of handwriting in the blank spaces. A worn pistol sits there at the edge of the table, and stacked nearby, a few poker chips. On the floor, sitting unobtrusively by one of the table legs is a dusty, hand-stitched ball.

Draped over a chair by one of the side terminals is a banner in black, orange and white, the symbol of the Vanguard.

Cayde himself takes up a spot by the map, setting his hands on the table to lean over it as he nods thoughtfully to himself.

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"And the Red Legion? Did you defeat them for good or just send them packing back where they came from?" Coming from a planet that gets invaded on a semi-regular basis, usually by several of the same alien races, he figures its a fair question. It may also be his way of trying to find out more without seeming like he's trying to pry.

Eventually, Teddy leaves the window and heads for the stairs leading down into the central area. He's hoping whatever he uncovers next won't be quite as traumatic. But despite his wariness, he's still curious enough to snoop.

Which is when he spots the chicken wandering about.

"Oh, yeah. I meant to ask earlier but...what's with the chicken?"

"We cut off the head. The rest scattered. There's still pockets of 'em here and there, but they won't find another leader to replace Gary anytime soon. There's some self-made Emperor trying to round up some of those troops, but we've been monitoring him, and so far it just looks like he just wants to be living the high life."

And inviting Guardians to show their stuff in his weird arenas, but then you had plenty of daredevil Guardians always up for such challenges.

The chicken flutters her wings, pecking at the table. Cayde grins as he turns and watches Teddy. "What, you got a problem with chickens? That there's the Colonel. She's the bravest chicken you'll ever meet."

"Gary?" He has to press his lips together to hold back the sudden laugh that wants to come out. "I'm sorry, but the leader of the scary big bad legion was named Gary? He didn't have like...a title or alias he went by?" Please excuse him.

Teddy watches the chicken for a moment before slowly attempting to approach. He crouches down without reaching distance of the Colonel. "No, no problem. I just wasn't expecting it. They're not exactly an obvious choice of pet."

Not in his world anyways. Slowly, he reaches out a hand to try and pet her wing.

The Exo gives an exaggerated shrug. "Okay, maybe his name wasn't Gary but it was something with a 'G'," he admits.

Colonel doesn't startle as Teddy draws near. She turns her head in that jerky, chickeny way to eyeball him before going back to pecking at invisible feed on the table. Teddy's able to pet her quite easily.

The city's a mess but thanks to Hawthorne, she shows them where they can sneak in without being spotted. Rubble litters the streets, and the Cabal are on constant patrol.

The only other noise then aside from the heavily armored foot-falls of the soldier are the soft clucking sounds of a chicken. The Cabal approaches with suspicion, raising his weapon, but when he receives no reaction from the fowl, begins to lower it.

And that's when Cayde strikes.

He drops down onto the soldier's back, ramming his Hunter's knife into its neck with a hiss of ether. The Cabal collapses as the Exo jumps down, and the chicken only flutters slightly from her position before Cayde walks over towards her.

"Heh! That's a good job, Colonel," he says, stooping over to stroke her head.

The rest of their infiltration party step out into the street, an assortment of Guardians in varying armor, firearms raised as they fan out, keeping an eye out for more trouble. A woman with a hooded poncho and a rifle steps towards Cayde. "What's that now, seven in a row?"

"Ehh, who needs the Light when you've got a fine-feathered friend by your side? Am I right?" Cayde replies, even as Hawthorne turns to leave. "Am I right or am I right?" He doesn't seem terribly upset that everyone else goes on as well, looking over at Colonel who's hopped up to peck at the Cabal's prone form.

"I'm right," he continues, turning to follow the others.

Teddy blinks as the cityscape fades around him and he's once again crouched next to Colonel, hand extended and pressed her feathers. He gives her another pet before standing, tossing Cayde a raised brow.

"I can't believe you used your pet chicken as bait. I'm pretty use that's a no-no in the pet owner's manual."

Not that...he's ever been a pet owner himself.

"Bait!" Cayde sets a hand over his chest, looking offended. "She was running distraction. If Cabal had a taste for chicken, it'd be a whole different matter. And if that guy or any of the ones before him looked for one second like they were actually going to go through with pulling that trigger, they'd have had another thing coming."

Or at least a Hunter acting sooner than later. He saunters back to the table to scoop up his chicken friend. "Who's a brave chicken?"

Teddy bites his lip against laughter as he listens to Cayde. It's kind of endearing how much he seems to care for Colonel. Even if he seriously questions him treating a chicken like a partner in crime.

But then again, Cassie's dad runs around and fights with a legion of ants, so maybe he shouldn't be so quick to judge.

"Okay. Okay. I know you wouldn't let anything happen to her. She's the best chicken distraction ever."

His gaze moves around the room, and he finds himself approaching the table and the map laying open across it.

"So," he begins, speaking slowly. "Are all your memories like that? Big battles and taking out bad guys?" He's asking part in curiosity and part to gauge what he can expect.

The Exo grins over at Teddy at that. "Oh you know it," he says, gently setting the chicken back on the table.

He folds his arms, nodding a bit as he thinks. "Eh, big battles, little battles. A whole lot of taking out bad guys. I think it's a safe bet to say a good chunk of them might be just that." He really can't say, but if he had to actually place a bet, it was a likely one.

"I mean, if you're looking for casual picnics or something, this probably isn't the place for it," he says with a weak chuckle.

Edited 2020-06-24 06:25 (UTC)

"Not really. I guess what I want to know is if there are any...happier memories." If they were in his head right now there would probably be a lot of battles and bad guys too, he's sure. But he's never thought of those kind of memories as happy. Necessary. Invigorating. But his happiest moments were always the ones that came after and in-between the fights. The moments with his friends, collapsing in an exhausted and victorious pile.

"But now that I've said it out loud that sounds pretty bad." Who is he to say what memories Cayde considers to be happy?

He's leaning over the table now, giving the map a closer look.

"Is this a map of your city?" He touches a finger down on the map to trace one of the lines.

"Heh! Nah, can't blame you. Getting invaded was not a happy memory. I mean, I like a good fight. I am happy as a clam in a fight that's a bunch'a hostiles to go wild on.

"Battle like that? They were involving people that don't fight, that can't. That'll never sit right with me. Those're who we're supposed to protect, and if they can't be safe in their own home..." He shakes his head. "Then we ain't doing our job right."

Cayde looks over the map, nodding. It's the city after the siege, but they've done a lot of rebuilding, and although some places are gone, it hasn't stopped people from starting over.

The bazaar is open to a wide view of the rest of the city beyond, a promise of progress, of hope. Looking around here, one would never have guessed that a near catastrophe had occurred, and all this had been crumbled and burning.

Cayde saunters over towards what looks to be a small eatery, with a facing, external counter with bar seating. On the inner wall is a neon sign of a steaming ramen bowl, the only thing proclaiming the shop for what it is. He waves a hand and slides onto one of the empty stools, greeting the man at the back of the shop heartily.

"Jin, my man!"

"Cayde! Who let you out?"

"Hey, is that any way to treat your favorite customer?"

He's served his usual, a spicy looking ramen that the Exo digs into with fervor. "So..." he starts conversationally, ignoring the pause and the suggestion of a sigh from Jin as the man sets emptied bowls off to the side. Naturally, Cayde rallies on.

"I got this gig-"

"Yeah, I can understand that. There are a lot of bad guys in my world who don't care about civilians either. It can make the job harder when you want to be able to do whatever you can to protect people and then realize that sometimes people are still going to get hurt sometimes."

The only thing that keeps him going some days is the fact that if he and his other heroes weren't there doing what they need to, even more people would be hurt and suffer.

Watching the memory unfold prompts a grin from him. Looks like he's found a lighter memory after all. And learned a new fact about Cayde.

"So is spicy ramen a favorite food of yours?"

So the Exo's not all shooting and stabbing things. He grins too, fondly. Not that that conversation with Jin didn't lead into some eventual mayhem later on but the memory presented is as good a representation of the good times he's had hanging out at the shop with its reopening.

"Love that stuff. I've got like, stashes of dry packs..." Well hopefully the city wouldn't get invaded again that the shop would become a casualty once more. "Of course, nothing beats it served piping hot like that."

Teddy perks up at the mention of dry packs. It's been awhile since he's eaten anything that hasn't come out of a rationing package. His standards for food have grown extremely low over the course of his time on Temba.

"Do you still have some with you? What I wouldn't give just to have some noodles. Even the instant made stuff sounds great."

As they chat Teddy continues his browsing of the contents found on the table. There's quite a collection compiled, but his attention is caught by a glass of unfamiliar looking liquid and the pile of papers underneath. He reaches for the glass, gently pushing it to the side so he can scan the torn pages.

"I haven't tried 'em yet, but I got several packs I stowed away from the Risa trip." Hey, when you got free money and access to magical replicators, and none of your usual fun stuff, you put that to use! Still a far cry from the boxes he's got hoarded away with his various caches back home.

"If you ask nicely when we're not asleep, I might share," he grins. Really though, he'd probably just toss one at Teddy next time he sees him. He likes the kid well enough.

Out of the corner of his eye Cayde notes what catches Teddy's attention then. He says nothing, leaning on the table to watch Colonel peck about the surface. By now he knows what those pages hold. He just has no idea which things they might say, or what it might bring about.

Nothing really happens, but Teddy can read the neat lines of cursive that have been penciled within the empty spaces of the pages. A letter, a journal? It reads as a bit of both from the top page:

—This has been fun, I guess. But it will all be gone tomorrow. I have been what they call "compromised," which is funny because I feel fine. Could use a few upgrades, but what Exo couldn't. But "compromised" means they are going inside my brain to wipe it from my memory. Met an interesting fellow Exo who leaves letters like this in caches, so whatever she gets saddled with next, she might come across one and take a trip down "lost memory lane." Ace, know that when I find you, I will never let them find me—

Edited 2020-06-30 03:46 (UTC)

"It's a deal." He smiles and holds out a hand in offering to seal the deal. If nothing else, it's something to look forward to once they're awake. There's certainly not much else to do in the tunnels between calibrations.

Teddy spends a moment reading over the first page, the furrow of his brows increasing as he reads. It's not hard to understand even without further context. And it's not as if the ability to mind wipe is foreign to his own world.

"Compromised? That's a lame excuse to use to justify taking someone's memories."

Hands are shaken. Deals are made. Maybe looking into figuring out how to make ramen might be a worthwhile thing to experiment with. Whenever they got out of these dumb tunnels.

"Wish I could remember what the specifics were. I'm not even sure how many reboots ago that one was," Cayde says, still watching Colonel. "Some time back when there were people still more fixated on the process than the person, maybe." Finally, he looks over at Teddy.

"We used to be human, you know. Some scientificky-technical process later, we're more machine than flesh. Kept our brains. Not supposed to keep the baggage that came with 'em." He shrugs. "Sometimes we'd hang on to those bits, the memories, the past. In the long run, things don't mesh perfectly, and to keep us sane, for lack of better words, they reboot us."

"So then why write these? Why give yourself a way to remember if it will only drive you crazy in the long run?" He shakes his head. Maybe it isn't a fair question, but the way Cayde explained it is almost as if he's trying to excuse it. To make the reboots necessary.

"Because what it sounds like to me is they took people and made them into machines and then were surprised to fine that they couldn't completely kill your humanity so easily." His hands are shaking now, slightly but enough to notice, and his voice is shaky in places. There's distress in his expression that he doesn't bother to hide.

"Did you...did you want this? To be an Exo?"

Turning, the Exo folds his arms again as he sits at the edge of the table. They're fair questions. His explanations are probably over-simplified but it boils down to about the same thing.

"Can't say you aren't wrong," he says. "Clovis Bray wanted to take the next step with technology. There are rumors that not all us Exos were volunteers for the process. I really can't say I'd be surprised if that were true."

He sighs. "...from what I remember, actually remember, a job went bad. Lotta damage. Lotta debt. So Bray made an offer I couldn't refuse. Too late now to say whether I regretted it or not. I probably had no idea what I was getting into."

Maybe if he'd said no he'd spare himself the pain later. Or would he still find himself coming to as a Guardian, just flesh and blood instead of metal and wires?

"So the easy answer to your first question is, I'm just stubborn. I'll hang on to what I've got, because it's me, and it's mine. Can't rely on the reboots anyway. They aren't recommended after a certain number- the mind wasn't made for that. My pal Banshee's at forty-four, and his memory's shot. Still the best dang gunsmith I know but sometimes he'll forget that you've been standing there two minutes before if he's not concentrating."

Edited (derp let's...not repeat ourselves we're not banshee-44) 2020-06-30 05:13 (UTC)

Teddy sighs softly as he moves to mirror Cayde, taking a seat on his edge of the table. Maybe years of researching and following the hero community in his world has made him a bit jaded when it comes to people being used as science experiments. He could name countless heroes and villains whose story began by some experiment that went wrong and left them changed forever, for better or for worse.

So the Exo's story isn't very surprising. But it does leave Teddy feeling a bit of sadness for the man Cayde had been. Who they had worked to erase. Whether he wanted it or not doesn't erase the discomfort and sense of wrong-doing that Teddy feels.

"And do they still keep rebooting him? Even knowing the damage it does? Let me guess, as long as he can do his job, they don't care?" He reaches down and picks up one of the poker chips, idly turning it in his hand, needing something to do and something else to focus on.

"Well, they were actually aiming to try fixing the problem to avoid having to reboot so many times. But then the Collapse happened, and everything that was being done and researched just stopped. Everything about how Exos worked and were being developed's been lost. Humanity was almost lost too, but the Traveler saved us.

"Banshee though..." Cayde tilts his head back as he thinks of his friend. "I'm not the one to tell that story. I don't even know all the details to that one, the whens and why's. We Exos have numbers to our names, 's how we know what number reboot we're on. Shiro's on four, Banshee-Forty-Four... He doesn't wanna be felt sorry for though. He still has his quirks, and he's still a Guardian that knows his stuff."

He hates that this is something he has to explain to the kid, especially given how troubled Teddy's response had been. The world had progressed in sudden leaps and bounds, and of course there was that question of whether man could bridge the gap between them and machine. It seemed pointless to feel sorry for himself now, and he's become pretty happy with who he is now, or so he'd like to convince himself.

Glancing over, he does grin a little as he sees what Teddy picks up. "Oh good, you can see for yourself," he chuckles, as around them things shift with the enveloping memory.

A gambling den by the looks of it, and especially here in the Spider's Palace in the Tangled Shore, a gathering for outlaws, outcasts, hardcases and lowlifes. Here even those who would normally shoot at each other on sight however tolerate each other for the sake of having a good time. And maybe pocketing some extra glimmer.

Cayde's little group is here for other business. It's not hard at all to spot their target: a Fallen who unlike most of her kind that tend to pop up planetside has favored a more natural look over the armored plating and mechanical limbs. Araskes, the Trickster.

"She's on a roll and feelin' frisky. Gotta get close, but palace rules say no fighting," Cayde says conversationally as he watches from another table, a blue-faced Exo with spikes on his head seated beside him. The rest of the group's dispersed themselves around the room to draw less attention, but with the mix of people here, it's an easy thing to blend in. Cayde plunks down a few chips, glancing at the other Exo. "Too bad we gotta pick a fight."

"I knew you were going to say that," Banshee replies, rifling through his hand of cards.

Chaos erupts almost instantly after a bottle goes flying and smashes cleanly against the side of Trickster's head. Next thing you know, you've got an angry Eliksni screaming over your shoulder. Banshee reacts about as typically as Cayde expects, calm, considerate even as Araskes crashes the game and chips fly everywhere.

"This was your plan?"

"Worked, didn't it?"

"Hrmm."

Insert barfight here. Okay, brawl. It gets way out of hand the way these things tend to, and the Six are all in. No weapons, just good ol' fisticuffs. Hawthorne and Jin and Nadiya, they all hold their own. P.V., well of course she can handle herself. Banshee may spend his days calibrating the same gun but he still proves he's good in a fight even without firearms.

And then the target makes a break for it, and Cayde makes his move. "Guh! Outta my way, lady!" he shouts as he slams bodily into her and tackles her to the ground. The look she shoots him alone makes it quite clear that if she weren't in such a hurry to make tracks she'd rip his face off. So of course he chats her up. It's part of the plan. This is all part of the plan. Mostly.

"I can tell by the smell of your voice yer not happy to see me."

She switches from Eliksni long enough to make threats. "Off me, Guardian! Before I tear the circuits from your chassis and use your metal skin for scrap."

"Fair enough," Cayde says, slipping a beacon into Araskes' satchel before shoving himself off of her and onto his feet. "The bouncers are gonna have both our asses if we don't play nice, anyway. So! No harm, no foul."

Petra Venj predictably appears at his side as the Trickster retreats. "You let her get away!" Yeah, she sounds upset.

"Did I?"

"She was our target!" She's why we're here! Why we-"

"Petra? I've got two words, and a lotta charm- Trust me."

He's not even sure why he's feeling this way so deeply. Maybe it's the effects of watching Cayde's memories, of growing familiarity with the Evo as he watches events from his life unfold before his eyes. But what right does he really have to comment on his life? It's not as if he really understands how things are in the Evo's world. He's just an outsider looking in.

"It's okay, you don't have to explain anymore. I guess I just know a lot of people with a similar history. Where science that was supposed to help just ended up creating more problems. Or experiments went wrong and hurt people. Not to mention all the crazy evil scientists that are running around in my world. And you don't need to tell me about your friend. It's not really my business anyways."

He flips the chip once more between his fingers as Cayde speaks, and he glances up just in time to see his environment shift and change. It's another job with his team, but this time it's easier to see the camaraderie between its members, and the ease in which they follow through with the plan.

As the memory fades out he turns to face Cayde.

"You're pretty slick. Does your team always work on the fly?" Because even if there was a plan, which he kind of doubts, it would have been bullet points at best, it didn't look like anyone else knew what it was but Cayde.

Cayde would rather focus on the present. He doesn't mind a little sympathy, but then it just makes the old ache come back, and the memories just remind him of why he's chosen the paths he has. It's hard to play it off when its your own head or whatever betraying you.

"Wish it wasn't the case. But I guess whenever there's a possibility, there's going to be someone or something that comes along and figures some way to twist things around."

The memory's one of his favorite recent ones. He can't help but smile. Why yes, he likes being called 'slick'. "My team's pretty much on the fly in general. Never been together before this one mission. I knew what they were good at and figured they'd be the right people for the job."

"Tell me about it. For something that is supposed to expand our knowledge and solve problems, science can be a double-edged sword. Only as good as the person who wields the knowledge," he states with a bittersweet smile. "But that can be said for all types of power."

But Teddy doesn't want to linger on such thoughts long. It's not his place to comment on whether Cayde's experience was right or wrong. Or if the experiments were morally right or not. What matters is the Exo's experience. But for all that he's learning about Cayde, he feels he should at least be willing to share a bit of his own experience as well. For what it's worth.

Talking about the Exo's teammates is a welcome topic switch. "That was the first time you had ever worked together? Man, my first team's big debut did not go nearly that well. We didn't really have a clue what we were doing."

Oh, he knows it, and he only nods. There were plenty of stories about the early days when the Guardians came into being, where that power and the ability to come back from the dead could be easily abused, when there wasn't a clear sight of what was to be achieved, and when people were still trying to get their feet under them and survive in a second dark age.

"Pretty much. They did all right, I think," Cayde grins. He's proud of his choices, unseemly a lot as they might have come off as. "I'm sure there could have been a lot of ways the mission could've gone south. Two of 'em hadn't been out in the field even longer than me, but being a Guardian's kinda like riding a Sparrow- you pick right up once you get back on." Jin and Banshee certainly hadn't disappointed.

"Teamwork's important, but I guess you don't always have the luxury of picking who's on it or ironing out how things'll work between you all. I picked my team based on what I knew they could do, and most of 'em had fought in a fireteam before so it wasn't completely a new drill for them. We know the game plan, but we also have each other's backs."

He tilts his head at Teddy. "That a story you care to share?" There's little he knows about the kid, about a lot of the kids stuck around here, come to think about it. At least he's giving the option, and he feels better asking about it than poking around someone's thoughts to see what might come up.

Cayde is right that you don't always get to choose your teammates. At least, that had been Teddy's own experience being recruited for the Young Avengers. Not that he would have changed a thing. His teammates had become the closest thing he'd had to family after his mother's death, and they remain important to him even now that the team is disbanded.

"Okay, so we were recruited as a team by a guy named Nate, who was going by Iron Lad at the time. He wanted to form a next generation of the Avengers--a superhero team who had recently disbanded--so he found other teens with abilities to join him." He had technically found out about them through a fail-safe program Vision had created in the event that the Avengers fell, but Teddy is trying to keep this explanation as easy to understand as possible.

"We all got together out of costume like once and introduced ourselves before our first mission. We did a couple of demonstrations of our abilities and all but..." he trails off with a chuckle. "We were all fifteen and sixteen with limited knowledge of our abilities and next to no actual fighting experience. Our first bad guys were a couple of burglars, and while we were able to round them up for the police, it wasn't without a couple of hitches. We got in each others way, mistimed coordinated moves, you name it."

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