carriage

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony and open!
WHERE: Around Temba (hangar, fountain, ???)
WHAT: Doing some personal cleanup since the storm, and running into a floral distraction
WHEN: End of November/beginning of December
WARNINGS: It's a Tony post, we all should have expected it would get horny. It did.


a.The city had felt imposingly massive since the storm. Then, it was because of its depths and shadows, harbouring fears that only gave way to complex secrets as the clouds cleared, but today it was purely a problem of traversal. The hangar, looking slightly battered from the weather itself but not nearly as poorly treated as the ships finally returned inside, most of them still caked with mud and brought limping to roost, was approximately eight lightyears from the forge.

At least it was a fairly straight shot, but Tony felt half crazy by the time he came shuffling into the echoing space, the wheels of his cart dragged through the cracked roads rattling with a cohort of pebbles caught in their works, and abandoned the thing which felt like it had grown steadily heavier on this trek with a drop of his good arm and heave of a sigh. Gathering his energy again, he straightened to hug is arm cradled under the other, still wrapped and immobile against his chest, leaving his sleeve hanging empty, and headed for the Bloodsport to collect what remained of his onboard from their journey. There were tools there that had been sorely missed at the forge, and a variety of acquisitions from the Agrii cargo bay under Sundance's guidance, and a silky quilt that had Tony sitting in the doorway of the ship with it pulled up over his head, eyes closed and legs kicking idly, looking bruised and exhausted and trying not to look at the cart for just a minute while he meditated on his next move and definitely wasn't just stalling.

b. Most of the D.A.T.A. points had gone dark some time during their venture out to space, or, more likely, the storm that had seeped into all of their works. With the forge back to working order, it was time for Tony to address this problem, which it turned out he had made a rather large one for himself. The closest camera was installed near the fountain, though, and might have been the most important, to alert Tony to any new arrivals, so that would have to be his first stop to see what damage was done. They were all going to have to be upgraded; Tony wasn't going to be able to spread himself across the city to repair every one of them every time one of those storms hit. With his cartload of tools from the hangar, he would have to investigate the generator, surely flooded from the rain, and likely dismantle the watchful orb to find out what exactly had been burnt out in the overload from the storm's energy.

c. It definitely wasn't only the storm that had changed the charge of the city, though. As the skies cleared, it became obvious that the air had grown colder and crisper, and in the days that followed, the chill seemed to settle and harden the ground. Tony would have said it felt like autumn, but the alien plants didn't quite change the way they would have on Earth, growing brittle in the cold but without the warm oranges and yellows of a fall in New York. Instead, new plantlife seemed to have sprung up for him to notice on his long haul with his cart, giving him the good excuse to abandon it occasionally to crouch carefully at the side of the road, stiff in his bandages, and pluck up the young, frosty cyan buds that had started growing there. A few had flowered already, their petals petite but vibrantly blue, and smelling sharply spicy like cloves. He kept stopping to collect another, telling himself to deliver them to someone like Tommy to confirm that the smell didn't mean they were poisonous, maybe they were edible, and maybe this new growth meant that feeling that creep of ice on the air wasn't as much to worry about as Tony was starting to think. A winter couldn't be too harsh if these flowers were flourishing here.

Comments

[on_repeat]

So maybe he should have rescinded the thought that this man knew the proper way to handle blasters that shoot plasma bolts. Thankfully, that all derailed when he was called handsome. Echo arched a brow, the corner of his mouth barely twitching at Tony's greeting. "...Hey."

Because what else could he say to that???

He did note the pout again, snorting softly at the response. "I wouldn't say you're wrong, but I figured you were busy." Case in point being the camera in hand. Or arm. Oh, but Tony knew Cal. Unless there was more than one Cal running around Temba. "Um." His brow lifted slightly, letting his gaze drop for a moment. "Well. I think I may already know who you're talking about."

[in_extremis]

That was a surprisingly bashful response to have about the mechanic, making Tony's fiddling with the alien gun slow to watch Echo inquisitively instead, searching for where that reaction was coming from. Maybe the data should have pointed to the two being even closer than the same dimension, maybe this was another situation where a couple of new Temba residents already knew each other, because Tony couldn't imagine Cal making a bad impression that quickly. Alternately, "Yeah, listen, he's very cute, I get it, he's got that whole kind of dorky sailor thing going on, like you know he lifts but he probably also knows some showtunes, that type, but I have it on good authority that he's already been married three times and all three of them are," Tony gestured with the clip across his throat, mouth twisted to the side, "so, between you and me, do not pursue, keep your distance." Three was definitely excessive, Tony should have reined it in, but maybe he would luck out and Echo was terrible at determining how old someone could be.

[on_repeat]

To be fair, Echo could have bought it. Tony had flair with his words, so the portrayal was pretty convincing if he had never met Cal to begin with. "–All right, now you're really pulling my leg." The clone tried to maintain his composure as he tapped his finger at the space in front of him, not bothering to hide the smirk forming on his lips. "I'm very sure he's a Scrapper who travels around with a little droid."

I am sorry if this posts twice idk what's happening

[in_extremis]

While it was clear Tony had gone overboard, it wasn't so obvious which part of that had tipped Echo off, so Tony double down with a meaningful gesture with the magazine still in his hand, but biting his lip to stop Echo's smirk from cracking his own. "Where d'you think he got the droid?" he said as though he had blown the case wide open, and clicked the clip back into place with finality.

He replaced the blaster back on the cart to free his arm for rooting around the loose tools there, producing a screwdriver that looked like he could make work. "If he can't put you back together, I'm sure my assistant could squeeze you in. I'm not cheap, but we can work out a payment plan, instalments, you know, you keep the line open so you can be available when something has to be carried around or...shot at, I guess."

I only got one notif for this, dw be weird again maybe :|a

[on_repeat]

It was the way he said it that made Echo laugh. A brief laugh – one that allowed him to relax a little more as he rested his hands on his hips. "Okay, c'mon. Possibility's there, but who's to say BD-1 really was found in a scrapyard?"

He felt a little more relief flood back in when the cartridge of his blaster was snapped back into place, nodding as Tony continued without missing a beat. Although the wariness was still present, there was a cushion of trust that formed due to having Cal as a connection. "If he can't," he echoed, "but that all sounds fair enough to me. Better than Cayde's idea of payment, anyway."

[in_extremis]

"What do you owe Cayde?" Tony asked, looking genuinely slightly horrified by the idea because debts to Cayde sounded like they would be paid in a lot of regret. As long as he was trying to get Echo to believe his tales, though, he continued very seriously, "You haven't taken your helmet off around him, have you? He needs to eat brains, to remind his body to continue to develop cranial tissue. Like a zombie, kind of. We've been making him live off of those rodent things, but you be careful, he gets weird when he's hungry."

[on_repeat]

Whatever smile was still present fell lopsided, and Echo's brow creased slightly. "He almost made off with my blaster after I asked him for his help in locating it. I did say I'd pay him back somehow, but I'm still figuring that part out." he said, letting his gaze become lidded as Tony regaled to him Cayde's lesser known zombie motives. "Unfortunately I did remove my helmet to have a drink at his bar. Does that mean I've made myself a major target?" Again his brow arched. "And when is he not weird?"

[in_extremis]

"Huge," Tony replied solemnly, eyes closed with a small shake of his head as though Echo had just disclosed a terminal condition. "You should try to keep a few of those animals on you whenever you see him now, just in case." The production wasn't so easy to maintain as Tony tried to contend with Echo's next question, though, making him try to suppress a snort, badly. "Does he sleep? Maybe then, maybe if he sleeps, he can be less weird for a little while. Bet he looks so peaceful, like a server shut down for maintenance."

[on_repeat]

Echo nearly matched Tony's expression, the wrinkle on his nose visible as he kept a straight face. "I'll keep that in mind." Imagining Cayde noshing on random creatures was a thing he never wanted to picture, but there it was.

Although that was a good question. He thought about it. "I don't know. I guess it's possible, but I've never seen him sleep," he added with a shrug of a shoulder. "You ever ask him yourself?"

[in_extremis]

"Listen, that's an excellent thought, I appreciate the problem solving," Tony said as though Echo had proposed an ingenious tactic, "but I'm picturing how that would go, and he would definitely think I was coming on to him. Which, honestly, fair." Hand to his heart like this was coming from a very sincere and sensitive place, Tony was willing to admit, "I'm a curious guy. But, you'll never believe this, he's not into that, shuts it down. Can you imagine? Terrible taste. Guess that's how he eats those things."

[on_repeat]

The more Tony spoke, the more Echo felt like he wasn't supposed to know this information, and it was hard keeping a straight face when the conversation veered into the casual ridiculousness it did. "Maybe if you worded it differently?" he tried to suggest, like tossing a dart haphazardly at a lopsided dart board. "And, well, Cayde's pretty straightforward from what I've seen, so that's not surprising..."

He shook his head, seeing the similarities in how they were getting on and off tangent. "Was there anything else you needed in the meantime?"

[in_extremis]

Tony was still smirking with his head cocked like he was considering very seriously how else he would present this sensitive matter to Cayde when Echo made his offer, making him glance around like he had missed something, his eyebrows crawling up in surprise. "Uh...you weren't out here for me, were you?" he asked. More pointedly, "What were you doing?"

[on_repeat]

"Patrolling." Echo sees no need to make up an extravagant excuse. "And from what I've seen so far, there's not much to look at. But I'd consider this meeting's gone well enough to be a highlight for the day."

[in_extremis]

Patrolling was vague, but Echo wasn't wrong about the scenery; the biggest threats were unstable architecture, not anyone in the city with devious plans to watch out for. The general survival tasks were taking up their time, if that was the case. Tony didn't think this interaction was being assessed in any way, though, making his look of surprise tinge warmly at Echo's conclusion, mouth slowly opening but with apparently nothing to say for the first time in his life.

Not that that could last very long. "Uh, yeah, sure, glad to be of service," Tony tried to downplay how flattering that was, because surely Echo didn't really mean it like that, he was just kind of a nice guy having a boring day. "I think I'm good here. Unless you want to find me a hot tub and a qualified masseuse."

[on_repeat]

He had been wanting to explore some of the abandoned buildings, but he hadn't gotten that far yet. Just to see if there was anything in them, or maybe see if there was something salvageable. It would certainly liven up his routine, anyway, but baby steps.

Echo's brow lifts as well, wondering why Tony has nothing to say in the moment. That soon changes to a small grin once things get rolling again. "Doubt I'll come across either of those, but I can always keep an eye out."