♤ Desperado

[deal_me_in]

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.

Comments

[deal_me_in]

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."

[hulkintraining]

"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?"

[deal_me_in]

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."

[hulkintraining]

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.

[deal_me_in]

"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."

[hulkintraining]

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.

[deal_me_in]

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."

[hulkintraining]

"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."

[deal_me_in]

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.

[hulkintraining]

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."

[deal_me_in]

Cayde settles in to listen, brow arching. "Well, everyone starts somewhere," he notes. Some Guardians have had decades of years of experience over others. He's seen all the varying levels, having been stuck in the Vanguard, but it's something to see a greenhorn turn into a seasoned, confident fighter over the course of time.

"Sometimes the best way to really figure things out is just to go for it. At least with a small job, you can still find out where the problems are." He chuckles. "The important thing is to get out of it in one piece and not be discouraged from trying to work things out. Takes time. I hope everything turned out eventually."