♤ The spaceman says everybody look down, It's all in your mind

[deal_me_in]

WHO: Cayde-6, his crewmates (Ren-Ren, Kitty-Catra, Dapper Cap), and whoever else!
WHERE: Aboard the Starduck, over the communicators
WHAT: SPACE TRIP...?! It's been anticlimactic so far and this Exo be bored Cayde they just started
WHEN: Beginning of the trip
WARNINGS: N/A, will adjust as needed.
NOTES: Will match preferred style as tagged. Feel free to make your own threads! Shoulda thought of saying that earlier but you know, hindsight all that stuff



Finally, he's been able to get aboard a ship. He's not really disappointed either; the Starduck's a swanky little thing. Maybe a little over the top. It's fine. Over the top is fun.

He's still been quite adamant about not touching the datapoints, not that it keeps him from trying to do things without them. Probably no one aboard will notice the extra singing about the edges of his hood, and he's had worse to the face when the Agrii "death tool" had bit back. It's nice having a metal head.

Naturally he would have made a beeline for the cockpit, sat himself in the pilot seat, and would have had to be shooed away for the actual pilot to take the controls. And so the next spot he'd be found in would be the bunks, where he's totally laid claim to the Captain's because it being the only single bed, was the most obvious choice.

Lying with arms folded behind his head to stare up at the ceiling and not the underside of someone else's bunk, it serves to keep him entertained for maybe a while unless someone challenges him for the bed. He's willing to give it up within good reason, but if no one complains, this is where he's keeping his stuff.

If it was hard to keep track of the time on the Agra 10, it's even harder on a ship out in space. Thus the question he voices, both aloud and over the network that he assumes is still connecting them to their buddies aboard the other ships, he poses the ever eternally important question:


are we there yet?

Comments

[deal_me_in]

"My thoughts exactly." The place couldn't hurt for somewhere to try and get your mind off of things, or just hang out. It'd be nice.

"Guess we'll see. We can't even be sure what we're really getting into," the Exo says, shrugging before he looks back over at the man. "How much do you trust the Agrii?"

He's genuinely curious. A lot of those he's spoken to have their doubts, and yet it's funny they've all piled into ships at their call.

[brooklyn_boy]

It's a good question. Steve thinks about it a moment before trying to give an answer.

"Before I came here...The Atroma were more or less transparent. They told us what they wanted from us and the parameters of our imprisonment. I thought the Agrii were the same but for slightly more understandable motives. But now I'm not so sure..."

[deal_me_in]

"That's not really saying much when they were using you guys for entertainment. At least, so's I heard."

It was not a pleasant thing to be informed of. He's been super suspicious of the ships because of it.

"The Agrii are definitely something to wonder about. I'm still not completely sold that the cutesy drawings aren't a front for some horrible, three-eyed vampire aliens. They're either just really clueless about...socializing with people outside of their own, or they are sinister folk who've crafted this whole story about them needing help."

The Hunter shrugs. "Either way? I'm hoping we don't get there too late. Trap or no trap, I aim to get some answers. Although I have a feeling that if they're letting people have death tools- somethin' serious is definitely going down."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve nods and uses this comment to refocus himself. It's not the moment to feel sorry and grieve. Cayde is right: this could be a battle and one they are, in Steve's opinion, ill-prepared for. A few guns and weapons? If the Agrii were so technologically advanced that they could do all they had, why couldn't they defend themselves? What was going on?

He taps his finger on his glass in thought.

"I want some answers as well. I will admit that I was beginning to trust the story the Agrii told us. But after the last month or so. I am not sure... It is too strange and too similar to things I saw before.

"If it is a trap, I hope we're ready."

[deal_me_in]

Cayde manages an easy-going smile despite everything said.

"Well, the nice thing about being brought somewhere by suspicious aliens is that everyone to some degree is already suspicious of anything that is forthcoming. Trap or not, we're ready for something, and I guess that is about the best we can manage."

They were already looking out for each other. That was better than nothing.

[brooklyn_boy]

"You're not wrong."

Steve exhales and runs a hand over his face. "And at least we have weapons. That at least makes me think we'll be able to put up some sort of fight. Everyone seems to be gearing up."

Steve sips his drink again and leans back. "Part of me really hopes to see the Agrii, though. Prove that they're real instead of just a mask."

[deal_me_in]

"Weapons with a catch," the Exo points out. "Glad I still got my own." He grins, giving the holstered hand cannon at his hip a fond pat. "Limited ammo though, but aside from knives, I got a few surprises."

He gives his cup a bit of a spin on the table, watching it wobble in a clumsy half-circle. "Oh, I get that. Much as he hasn't returned my calls I'm kinda fond of Gary. It'd just be nice to know the Agrii actually exist, and that someone hasn't been pulling our chain this entire time."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve had the same thought many times as well. He still remembers the Atroma and way they hadn't at all been what they seemed. The idea that the Agrii could be more of the same and that he was back where he started was a hard pill to swallow. Still, he would rather know than be in the dark.

"It would also be good to know if that is where the technology is for them to keep taking people. Give back the option to come and go as wanted."

[deal_me_in]

"Exactly," Cayde says with a snap-point in Steve's direction. "That is a big concern." He drums his fingers on the table then.

"...although that does just bring up more questions. Why are they keeping such a distance from their home planet? If it's just some instability from these storm things they keep talking about, then there's no reason to be in like, another star system or something away from it."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve's thought about that question but not enough to have real ideas about answers. It did scream as suspicious. Why would they be so far away? Was it intentionally to be out of range from the shuttles? Surely the effects of the storm couldn't reach beyond the atmosphere. What was the real reason?

"I've also been thinking," Steve says carefully. "They were supposedly gone for so long. Thousands of years. If that's true, how do we keep finding things? The whole place should be completely overgrown. At the very least, we shouldn't still have usable medicine or buildings, should we?"

[deal_me_in]

"Thousands? Hah, hundreds, maybe. The ruins back home look about the same as what we've seen here, and they aren't thousands of years old. Hell, I've got a few centuries on me and I still look good."

Cayde shakes his head. "Who said they were gone that long? The Agrii? That seems kind of a bit of a while to decide they wanna clean house, don't it?"

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve can't actually remember what was said in that beginning message. Centuries, maybe. But even then it seems too well preserved. He's thought about it abstractly, but with Cayde his suspicions come to a finer point.

"They might have said centuries. I can't remember. But you're right. Why would they stay away so long? Why would they need to stay so far away?"

He frowns.

"It makes no sense..."

[deal_me_in]

"Things that make no sense seems to be a running trend with those guys," Cayde suggests, dryly.

"There are things I'm willing to attribute to language barriers, but there's a lot more going on here than I like." His finger drumming continues for a bit before he finally folds his arms to lean against the table.

"...those data thingys are all that's left providing any direct info about the Agrii, right?"

[brooklyn_boy]

He thinks about it and can't come up with anything else that wasn't provided by the Agrii in some form. "Yeah. The data points seem to be the only way we find out anything. Unless Ga Re says something to us which hasn't been a lot."

[deal_me_in]

Somehow the metal plates on Cayde's face shift enough to convey a scrunched up expression, a wrinkled nose.

"...so we're only learning things about them that they want us to. Because other than that, funny that an entire library hasn't survived, and you'd figure there'd have to be something left of records or culture."

[brooklyn_boy]

"You're not wrong."

It is always a bad idea to take biased information as fact. They've had nothing else to go on, though, so it was the best option in the short run. Now, however, they could potentially be able to get more. The truth. Whatever that ended up being.

"Maybe on the ship they will have computers we can access. Something with data."

[deal_me_in]

Data is good. Preferably data that doesn't have to download directly into your head. Cayde's still super wary about that method. Still, he nods his agreement.

"Yeah. Here's hoping there's still a ship to get to. If our ships travel any slower we'll be going backwards."

[brooklyn_boy]

"I take it your ships are much faster where you're from?"

He's talked to many people over the years and have heard it all. Warp. Jumps. Light-speed. For a lot of people, space travel is a matter of normal activity instead of being novel. Before the Fleet, Steve had never been in space once.

[deal_me_in]

"So much faster." The Exo's shoulders slump in emphasis as he sighs.

"Not that I can say for sure how far we're going right now, but skipping around between planets and moons from Earth is not uncommon back home. Granted the ships we Guardians use are smaller and usually personal craft but still."

[brooklyn_boy]

"Guardians?"

Steve realizes abruptly that he knows very little about where his crew member came from and what he did. His ma would be so disappointed in him being so rude.

"Is that a team? Or...a title?"

[deal_me_in]

"Oh uh...title, I guess? Blanket term? It's what we call our guys who were chosen by the Light of this thing called the Traveler, to fight to protect what's left of home from what all wants to wipe us out."

Cayde realizes he hasn't spoken at length about things back home to more than a few people around here. Maybe more than a few if he counts those who've wandered into his head when they were dreaming.

[brooklyn_boy]

A group that fights to protect their home. Steve smiles just a little. They had more in common than Steve originally thought. "I can understand that. In my universe I am part of something similar. We're just called The Avengers. Less so picked by a light than selected because of talents we have."

[deal_me_in]

Cayde nods. "That's the smartest way to go about it. Needa know what all a person can do, if they can be relied on in a fix.

"We didn't get to pick. We're not even sure why we get chosen, and aside from our Vanguard, and moral responsibility, no real guarantee all 'Guardians' actually pan out to be guardians. Took a real long time for us to even get to an organized position."

[brooklyn_boy]

That sounded like it would be endlessly frustrating. Steve nods even though he is not entirely sure he understood.

"So if they are a 'Guardian' but don't pan out, what happens to them? Are they sent somewhere else or trained?" The idea that they just died of course was in Steve's mind as well but he wasn't about to voice it.

[deal_me_in]

"It's a big galaxy. If they don't wanna play by certain rules, they stay away. Do their own thing. Haven't had any real troublemakers since after the Collapse, at least. Back then the land was practically lawless. People just trying to survive after we pretty much got flung back into near dark age status."

Legends were born then. The first Guardians tested their mettle. "Then you introduce these people that can come back to life. Really screws up the system."