♤ Network || Log - Raise a Glass

[deal_me_in]

WHO: Cayde-6 and erryone
WHERE: The Deep End (Orange-13 on map)
WHAT: Cayde doesn't like dwelling on negative things so HEY Bar Grand Opening come drink away your sorrows and stress and enjoy company in general
WHEN: 'bout a couple of days after the storm's passed, time flexible thereafter
WARNINGS: N/A will change as necessary
NOTES: Use whatever format you want

[Network - Video]

[The image starts out crooked but the Exo's actively adjusting it before he steps back and gives someone a thumb's up off-screen.]

All right, so good news? Nothing sprung a leak despite prior circumstances, surrounding area's a little damp though, but all in all? Everything's pretty much how I left it. Even got some supposed cyanana booze that's been uh...going through this still since before we left for space. -okay I'm not exactly sure how that might taste? So in the meantime, I've got a backup plan.

[He seems to remember something then, coming up close to the communicator.]

But Cayde, you say, what's all this about anyway? Excellent question! I was so excited I forgot to say. Ahem. So, some of you- a good number, actually, might be aware that I have been in the process of putting together a bar-slash-common gathering area type of hangout...thing. It's pretty much been done, just not stocked- but now that we're finally back from...all that and then some, I've got a selection of fine drinks for your...uh... drinking pleasure. Also some non-alcoholic stuff for the non-drinkers and the under-aged. Oh, and there's tea and coffee too.

[Fishing around in his pocket, he holds up a map he's drawn up, the location circled.]

We're right down here, southeast sector, past the lake- I'm working on getting some kind of a landmark but this place is fresh out of neon signs. Anyway! I'll be around. Come as you please, even if I'm not- don't trip up the stairs, help yourself and uh, don't mind if the fish stare at you.

---

Making the network announcement had helped to fully kick his mood back into a semblance of normal. Truth be told, he just wanted to gather up people together, real people, and settle in with an ambiance of more pleasant times and warmer company.

The backdrop of the water-filled courtyard that made up the center of the nest of buildings had been something Cayde had at the time thought whimsical. During the daylight hours the light that filtered through the large window was a wavering green-blue, offset by the small sconces along the wall and a few individual lanterns at tables and flanking the bar area adjacent to the makeshift aquarium.

Cayde had set up the various bottles of drinks he'd acquired from their planetary pit-stop and scavenged from the cafe on a somewhat crooked shelf behind the bar itself. He'd been trying to go for rustic like those Old West saloons but in the middle gave up and just let things shape itself as he found them. The glassware is just as mismatched as the furniture, but everything's clean and ready to be made use of. If there's anything he really wishes he had, it would be an old-fashioned phonograph player or some kind of music source just to drive off the quiet that filled the space when no people did.

Comments

OTA

[itsamysterio]

A bar seemed like the ideal place to forget about the trauma of that storm, and hopefully make some real connections now that everyone was back and he wasn't been haunted by Peter. Hard to pull of the hero thing with the kid giving the plot away.

He approached the bar, really wishing he had a change of clothes at this point, trying to look perfectly at ease in the cape and armor as he ordered a drink.

"So, you all finally made it back, mm?" he noted, tipping his drink in congratulations.

[beholding_archivist]

The arrival of the stranger doesn't go unnoticed by Jon, who has finally gotten himself to pay a visit to Cayde's bar and is enjoying a drink himself. At least for once he isn't actively trying to get drunk.

He raises a single brow at the question, then inclines his head at the other man, not failing to notice his odd attire. "We did. And- Right into a storm." Jon replies, then frowns. "You were brought here while everyone was gone?"

[itsamysterio]

Glancing down at himself, Beck gave an mildly bashful shrug.

"Didn't happen to find an outlet store while I was waiting for you all," he explains, giving a nod and taking another long sip of his drink. "I was. Have to say- not the warmest welcome. But I won't hold that against any of you."

He smiles, dropping the teasing and offering a hand. "I'm Beck. It's good to finally see some real faces around here."

[beholding_archivist]

"Didn't exactly have much of a choice." Jon sighs, then accepts the hand and offers an apologetic smile. "Jonathan Sims. I admittedly spend most of my time here attempting to find something to help make the former library at least resemble a library again and might as well have stayed here while everyone else saved the day." The smile has turned somewhat rueful towards the end. He hasn't really been any help with the actual mission, has he.

He sighs, then leans back with a half shrug and looks up towards the ceiling, the smile softening again. "At least I managed to talk matters over with my boyfriend on our way back."

It's okay to say that now, right? It feels right. So it's okay.

[itsamysterio]

"Don't sell yourself short, the world needs all sorts of heroes," he offers with a small smirk, "It's all about brute force. Without the brains behind it all where would we all be, mm?"

He arches a brow as Jon continues, giving an amused smile, "Well that's something. Cheers to you both," he tips his glass, making a very convincing display of having no idea or interest into who that boyfriend might be. He's done his homework while everyone's been off in space.

[beholding_archivist]

While Jon glances over to Beck as the man speaks, he can't exactly hide the small, somewhat flustered blush at those words of approval. He still at least tries. And fails. "Ah, th-thanks." Whatever else he may wish to mumble gets lost in his drink as he raises his glass to take another sip.

"A-anyway. I suppose next time I don't try to get involved in any of the fighting. That... Might help." Jon then admits, deciding to focus on the less private part.

Pretend that said 'It's NOT all about brute force.' like I meant >_>

[itsamysterio]

He chuckles lightly at that blush, flashing a reassuring smile to try and tame that stuttering. No need to be flustered.

"I'm sure the fighters need someone watching their back. Trust me, the people behind the scene are usually the most important ones."

lol - it's fine~

[beholding_archivist]

Sure. You tell him not to be flustered. Jon will be flustered anyway.

But for now he is occupying himself with his drink, offering a shrug. "You may not be wrong. I still... I feel like I'm the only one here with no experience in any of these roles. Like... There are actual super heroes here? Incredible people with powers that actually do good. I am just-" -a monster, right.

Jon shakes his head without finishing the sentence, then turns his attention to Beck. "What about yourself? I mean-" And he just briefly gestures at the man's attire.

[itsamysterio]

Beck looks down at himself with a dismissive laugh. "Yeaaah, couldn't find a change of clothes. I feel a bit...overdressed." He shares a playful look, before acknowledging what Jon had really been getting at.

"Whatever I was before, I don't have access to that here. But at the end of the day, it doesn't come down to powers. It's whether you're willing to make the stand for what's right. If more ordinary people were willing, I don't think we'd need so many heroes."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon raises a curious brow at that. "You lost your powers when coming here?" That's new, yet instantly makes the Archivist feel sympathetic with this man. "Will you be okay? I mean, to some here even a temporary loss of their powers has left them very distraught for a while." Even insulted at Jon suggesting they might want to get used to it for future storms.

[itsamysterio]

"Mm," Becks nods, looking at his hands, trying to put on a look that begs for sympathy, while simultaneously waving it off.

"I'll manage. It's uh...it's been...strange? Getting used to it? But I've had some time now. And I've still got everything up here, so-" Beck taps at his temple with a smirk, "That's not nothing."

[beholding_archivist]

"W-well, I- I suppose that's a relief?" Jon says with a little smile, trying to imagine how it would be for him had he been pulled to this world and be stripped of his powers.

It wouldn't be too bad? At least he wants to believe that. At least if something like that wouldn't outright kill him.

"Will you tell me a little about you...? What sort of hero you were in your home?"

[itsamysterio]

"..." Beck's smile fades a little, putting on a very convincing display of trying to hide his grief, rubbing at his wedding band.

"I'm not sure how much of a hero I was in the end..." He clears his throat with an apologetic look, before obliging-

"I work with magicks- flight, energy projections. I was part of a battalion fighting to stop the creatures we called 'Elementals' from consuming our world..." The heavy silence that follows implies how that ended, and Beck takes a long swig of his drink. "I was trying to stop the same thing from happening all over again on a different Earth when I got pulled here."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon listens to the man's words, slowly turning the drink between his own hands and only stopping when Beck falls into that silence before finishing his story. And it's the Archivist's turn to be silent.

"I... I'm sorry." He offers eventually, not quite certain what else to say. This man has lost his Earth. His friends and loved ones. And rather than giving up, he has still tried to save another Earth. That's... It's not something everyone would find themselves capable of in such a situation. Jon at least knows he wouldn't be.

It takes him another moment to speak up again. "If there is anything you need, anything I can do to help... You know..." He offers vaguely, not certain if there is anything he even can realistically do to help this man.

[tempredmental]

"Looks like it."

Keith wasn't usually one to hang out in bars, but there wasn't much else to do in his downtime on this planet. He'd already done most of what he could do for the day.

"I'm guessing you arrived while most of us weren't here," he said. "Glad to see you did okay. I'm Keith." He held out his hand in greeting.

[itsamysterio]

"Bad timing on my part, mm?" He gave a small smile.

"Beck," he offered in turn, giving a short but firm handshake. "I did all right. Feeling a bit better now that I can confirm you're all real people and not some voices I made up on this thing to make myself feel better." He gave his datapad a pointed shake.

[tempredmental]

Keith chuckled a bit.

"Yeah. We're real." He nodded. "Good to meet you, then." If Keith noticed the weird armor and cape, he didn't comment on it. He'd seen a lot of different fashions since leaving Earth. Armor and capes were just not all that odd to him anymore. He took a sip of his own drink.

"If you have any questions left, though, I don't mind answering what I know." Which, unfortunately, wasn't as much now as it had been in Drift Fleet, but new realities tended to create more questions than answers.

[itsamysterio]

"I wouldn't mind being filled in on what exactly went on out there," he noted, pointed a finger skyward. "I've been able to piece together some of it through the Network, but I feel like I'm missing a few key points."

[tempredmental]

"Yeah, sure." Keith nodded. "What do you wanna know? Or... maybe... what do you already know? And I can try to fill in some gaps."

[itsamysterio]

"I know you went up there, and fought...something. And came back with a few less people than you went up with," Beck supplied. It was really the bare bones, he was looking for more of the meat of the matter.

[tempredmental]

Keith nodded.

"Yeah, that's the gist of it." He took a sip of his drink. "Well, the 'going up there' part is probably the weirdest of it all. See... we get these mission things, and it's all very mysterious and compelling. Like, I don't really like it, but there's sometimes this draw to go the ships. Frankly, I'd rather just wake up in the ship having been moved in my sleep instead of feeling controlled into walking over there and getting on board." He frowned. "But we end up going, and it was a really long trip. We made a couple of small stops on the way, nothing super major, but found this other ship with who we thought were our captors... or, the people who 'requested' our help. The Agrii." Another sip. "Their ship was being attacked by these other creatures... I don't remember the name." Keith was bad with names, sorry. "But they spit this weird acid-like goop that made you high." He shook his head. "And they were really aggressive. But they seemed to be attacking the Agrii."

[itsamysterio]

Beck nodded along, eyes widening a little at certain parts of the story, part surprise, part amusement.

"And you defeated them?" he prompted, arching a brow. That seemed to be the way the story was headed.

[tempredmental]

"Well, we definitely got their attention," Keith said. "I wouldn't say it was a full-on defeat. More like, one of the people here figured out how to access their minds." Keith frowned a bit. "It was... um... Well, they didn't have a recognizable language, and... not my first choice of options, but it worked. We were able to communicate and figure out what was going on. After that, we figured out how to fix things and get them to stop attacking."

He shrugged.

"We thought, okay, well... we helped, so we can go home now. Except, when the Agrii tried to help us go home, something else intervened. Now, even the Agrii can't send us home anymore."

[itsamysterio]

"...Something else?" Now that was interesting. Beck glanced towards the ceiling, trying to work out who or what could be pulling the strings from behind the curtain.

[tempredmental]

"Yeah... I'm not exactly sure what it was. But, what we thought would have taken us home was suddenly gone, and the Agrii had nothing to do with it going missing. They don't know what happened to it, either."

Keith sighed. Someone who had seen it had said it had been just like on the Marsiva, and that they could have easily used it to get home like people had before, but... having it suddenly disappear when they went back later? Not a good thing.

"Someone or something definitely wants us here. I just wish I knew more."