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

[in_extremis]

"That's decency you're thinking of," Tony corrected, shoulders back as much as he could stand it and chin up like a prideful scholar of the matter of an assassin's traits. "Clean you up a bit and get a good tailor involved, I think you could come across looking very dignified. Immoral to hide those thighs, though. Destined to be indecent."

[sinistral]

"I don't have any of that at all," he agreed readily, though he meant it in a far different (and far less innuendo-laced) way. Still, he was hardly going to dwell on thoughts like that in the current moment, instead attempting to assess Tony's condition even as Tony weighed in on his entire appearance.

"Combat armor is comfortable." It wasn't always physically comfortable, but the simple protection and preparedness went a long way toward a different kind of comfort. "I don't require cleaning up."

[in_extremis]

The Soldier might not have intended the innuendo, but Tony's wry grin and short nod, head tilted coquettishly letting the blanket fall back around his shoulders, suggested he took it that way regardless. Despite trying to hide it, his face wasn't in terrible condition, definitely pale and hollow-eyed with sleeplessness but all in one piece. It was only the shoulder that hadn't healed, broken and leaving his arm in a tight sling against his bruised chest and making everything he did feel ten times more difficult, draining what little energy he had left.

"It's always good to have options," Tony said. "That's hardly appropriate to wear to dinner. Or bed. Personally, I choose a tuxedo for both occasions, but the sleep one can be jazzed up with some bold patterns. When's the last time you shaved? Come by the forge, I'll give you the family discount, just this once. For the worm thing."

[sinistral]

The Soldier just rolled his eyes at Tony's antics. He'd been warned that the man was a flirt; apparently he was also the image of persistence. At least it hadn't escalated to uncomfortable levels in this interaction.

Yet.

"In this place, the smart options are armor, and more armor." Well, it was no secret that he didn't trust anything about their presence on this planet or the way the Agrii seemingly wanted to use them as shield and weapon both. Aside from that, he was simply more comfortable in armor, leather and kevlar, than he was without. "And I wouldn't be a good choice of dinner companion."

The shave thing tempted him though. Stubble got itchy after a while. "Are you a barber now? Or simply crafting straight razors?"

[in_extremis]

As much as Tony was in no position to argue about a healthy relationship with their armor, he had gone this long without his and, so far, had been more frustrated than left vulnerable. He gave a pointed glance up and down the hangar, then slowly dragged his sidelong gaze back toward the Soldier to say, "Have you been under attack?" The only times Tony had been in the direct line of harm were by his own misadventure. Which was, granted, plenty, but even he could keep out of trouble while asleep, most of the time.

Not totally sure which of the shave options the Soldier found more tempting, Tony opted to tempt him with a more nebulous, "I'm excellent with my hands," and a grin of promise. If it was his own razor that the Soldier was after, though, Tony was pretty sure he didn't want to be the one to put the edge into his arsenal.

[sinistral]

"Do we know yet who's behind the Agrii?" he countered immediately. That in his mind was a symptom of one of their biggest problems: for all the information they'd gained, they still didn't have a concrete view of all the players, or of their motivations. Maybe he was being paranoid again, but too little information got people killed — sometimes by people like him.

"Is that supposed to be enticing?" He fixed Tony with a flat look, deciding it'd be unnecessarily cruel to mention that hands seemed, at the moment, reduced to the singular hand.

[in_extremis]

This performance was getting harder to maintain as the Soldier continued to shut him down, and Tony only had so much fuel left to get himself back home, so with that flat response he let his shoulders drop again with some defeat and he tipped over to let the bulkhead take his weight. "Yeah, it's usually pretty effective," he admitted, briefly glancing down at his palm like that might have been the problem in this case. Talking through the mystery of the Agrii wasn't and less exhausting, but it was at least less frivolous, so with a deep breath from his new position Tony said, "That kind of armor doesn't protect you from confusion, generally, but I can see how you could make that mistake. If you try taking it off one of these days, I promise you, you will have just as many questions."

[sinistral]

He studied the way Tony finally dropped the act and seemed to crumple down into himself a little. He looked smaller like that, and tired. "Perhaps you should focus on your desired end result and reevaluate your method of getting there," he offered. The Soldier didn't really expect Tony to do anything of the sort, but sometimes people surprised him.

"I know that far better than you might realize." His time with the Atroma had taught him that preparedness sometimes didn't matter, but it still made him feel better about things if he kept himself in shape, kept up his armor and his weapons as well as he could. A weapon that retained its sharp edge was far more useful than one without.

[in_extremis]

Tony wasn't sure how to take either statement, except that maybe the Soldier had spent plenty of time naked and confused, but he didn't sound like it was something he was intending to bond over despite Tony being pretty sure that was a most basic human experience. At least, Tony had spent more time that way than otherwise. "You have a whole, not like other boys situation happening, I respect that," Tony concluded, as though that naturally followed anything that had actually been said out loud. "Are you trying to teach me how to flirt with you? Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but usually you're supposed to just flirt back and we find a groove that way--is that you flirting?"

[sinistral]

"Do you really?" he countered idly. He doubted anyone who said they respected it, then pressed for details in the very next breath as if they were entitled to them. Those conversations never went well and almost always led to him trying to retreat even more from people.

"I don't flirt," he replied. If Tony got the impression that this was a conversation the Soldier had often, well, he wouldn't be wrong. It got tiring after a while. "You're wasting your time on that front."

[in_extremis]

"Not at all," Tony admitted, mostly because he didn't need the Soldier having any expectations of Tony being respectful in the least. That wasn't going to happen, and Steve had made it very clear that guys their age found that particularly grating. Before the Soldier could already get irritated at him for it, though, Tony was talking again, "I don't know, I'm having a pretty good time, can't be that much of a waste. My--friend, a friend of mine, he doesn't flirt either, he's allergic or something, I don't know, I don't really listen to him when he talks anymore because he doesn't really stop. You'd get along, you should meet, you could...birdwatch together, or whatever it is people like that do with their time."

[sinistral]

"At least you're honest about it. Most aren't." Which deserved its own sort of respect, however minimal. Still, it did lump Tony in with most of everyone else in terms of people the Soldier couldn't fully trust.

"I don't flirt," he said finally, "because I don't experience attraction to others. I was attempting to save you the effort of trying for something that will never bear fruit." He didn't mention that it made him uncomfortable; that would probably just encourage Tony to do it more.

[in_extremis]

That would definitely be encouragement that Tony did not need, but might have been dangerously close to figuring out, anyway. What he got out of the Soldier's discomfort was more ambiguous, and right then it was sounding like Tony might not actually want to angle to push him away, watching him curiously now that Tony knew he had this thing in common with Jon. Maybe Tony could get a little closer to understanding it.

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to get you to, uh, fruit," Tony assured him, as if that was the Soldier's real concern. "I can appreciate the merchandise without looking to buy. Really, no attraction whatsoever? I smelled a gal's perfume in passing one time and thought about marrying her for weeks."

[sinistral]

"Nothing," he confirmed. "No interest, and no interest in finding interest." He stated it simply, just a plain fact of his existence. He doubted that Tony would understand or even just let it be. No one ever really did, and mentally he was already preparing for an unpleasant conversation. Tony seemed the kind of person who would continue to push even when told no, and while that boundary pushing could be useful in certain situations, the Soldier didn't wish it directed against himself. "I'm sure that there are others here more welcoming of your attentions anyway."

[in_extremis]

Tony very much did not understand and was not going to let it be, but only because he was very much eager to understand and hadn't figured out what the boundaries even were. Jon's were very ambiguous, and could feel like a punishment when Tony was particularly self-loathing. So, most of the time. "Hold up, is it that you don't flirt, or that you don't welcome the attention? I'll take it as a compliment that you think other people would be interested in what I'm offering, but you're the only one here right now to appreciate my charms and there isn't really an off switch. Uh, not a temporary one. Don't stab me. I can see how that would free up a lot of time--not the stabbing, that would make your life very complicated, I promise, someone would notice, maybe, at least one person--the not experiencing attraction thing. Is that it, is it efficiency?"

[sinistral]

For a long time he stood there and considered Tony; part of it was actual consideration of his questions but the rest was just an emphasis of Tony's own observation of not being like the so-called other boys. And a small part was because he felt like being an asshole, and knew that what someone had once called his 'assassin glare' could be unsettling.

"You go immediately to stabbing," he sid finally. "That's not something I want to do to you. And—" he held up one hand, empty, trying to forestall an interruption, "—that sentence is important to what you're asking, so remember it."

Finally he took a step toward Tony's perch, closing just a bit of the distance. "May I sit?"

[in_extremis]

The stare only made Tony narrow his eyes and stare stubbornly back, lip slowly raising and formulating the best way to convince the Soldier that leaving Tony for dead was really probably not in his best interest, at least until Tony taught Catra how to work the forge, that was an important resource, until the Soldier saved himself from that babbling just in time. And a second time, with the hand up, because between the glare and 'something I want to do to you', Tony's eyebrows had shot up, only leaving him frozen when the Soldier doubled down on it.

Tony was primed then for being combative to the Soldier's polite request, so he was slow to respond but eventually twisted around to pull the tail of the blanket out across the rest of the doorway to minimize the chill of the metal for the Soldier. "Honestly, I'm probably going to be thinking about it for a while, is that weird? It's weird," Tony admitted; the remembering was not going to be a problem. What the Soldier actually meant, probably more so.

[sinistral]

"Is it weird? Or is it a natural thing to wonder, given what I am?" A beat. "That's not why I want you to remember it, but we'll get there."

He hesitated when Tony pulled the blanket out, not expecting such, but eventually sat carefully at the edge of it, still wanting to keep a bit of space between them. "You mentioned appreciation of the so-called merchandise. You also mentioned an attraction to someone's perfume. I'm assuming you have other wants, some things that are sexual in nature, some things that are not. You could probably tell me ten different things you want without even having to think hard. Am I right?"

[in_extremis]

The Soldier seemed to be setting up for some kind of lecture--not a Cap style lecture that would have Tony immediately rolling his eyes, but something Bruce might have done to intrigue a class enough to listen. Unfortunately, the Soldier's question was far more complicated for Tony that it might have seemed on its face, making his curious tracking roll into an avoidant glance across the hangar, as though that might actually be the thing that made him escape and not the death stare. It wasn't that the Soldier was wrong on any level, ten was a very low number for the myriad of Tony's impulsive cravings. The depth of Tony's depravity meant actually admitting to wanting any one thing was probably stage four addiction.

Which made the point that Tony assumed the Soldier was trying to make, that naturally followed, all the more disturbing, and Tony wasn't sure which of them that was worse for. His gaze came trippingly back, sidelong this time in clear anticipation. "You wanted to sit," he pointed out, as though that could mean anything.

[sinistral]

He waited patiently while Tony digested the thought, while he looked away in something that could be contemplation, or could be something else. He didn't know Tony well enough to read it very well. But he could be patient. After all, the man had stopped his flirting for at least a few moments; the conversation was perhaps not all a loss.

"I did," he replied with a small smile when his companion's gaze returned to him; maybe Tony was getting it. "A little more than a year ago that would not have occurred to me as a thing I could want. I could barely understand needs like adequate food and rest. The concept of wanting was all but foreign to me. I still struggle with it."

[in_extremis]

Okay, definitely worse for the Soldier. Tony abandoned his guarded pose, watching the other man curiously with searching calculation as he spoke, like he could conjure the rest of this explanation from the Soldier's body language. That sounded like incomplete programming to Tony, an unfinished AI, as his eye caught briefly on the metal arm. "I thought the Torch was the only synthezoid on the Invaders," he said. That would explain why he didn't really know where Bucky came from, but Tony doubted Steve would neglect to tell him something like that, and it would explain why the Bucky from his world never got the chance to come back.

[sinistral]

He shook his head. "I don't know what those things — people? — are." Catching Tony's scrutiny out of the corner of his eye, he angled himself a little towards the man, wondering what he saw. The metal arm, certainly; it was what drew most people's focus. But he wasn't sure what else Tony could see, or would even want to see. "I'm human, for the most part. Modified, but human. But I'm not really a person. I'm a weapon."

[in_extremis]

Tony almost had an answer for him, but realized he wasn't sure if the Soldier didn't know what synthezoids or the Invaders were, and both seemed more appropriate for a very different conversation now that Tony wasn't as convinced that the Soldier might be a robot. Not completely unconvinced, but willing to believe him for now.

"Weapons only have one purpose," Tony muttered, partially in understanding, he could see what the Soldier was trying to say, but he finished with a pointed glance around them at the bulkhead and the blanket they shared. Not really within the defined bounds of a weapon's activities. "If I had to guess..." he mused, still looking away, mostly so this didn't feel like a prompt that the Soldier felt Tony expected him to respond to, "you learned those needs and wants because you tried it out." Just a suggestion. In the meantime, Tony was much less coy about asking, "What happened to you?"

[sinistral]

"Weapons only have one purpose," he confirmed. "Layer that with my presence here and I have to assume that the Agrii, and the Atroma before them, desired such a weapon to add to their arsenal."

He could tell where Tony wad trying to lead, given the context of the start of their conversation. Others had tried before but not as many with as much consideration. "You are correct. But as far as trying out the idea of partnering with another, I don't believe it works quite that way. I can look at a woman or a man and I don't experience any sort of attraction."

He shrugged in response to the question; the story was not one he felt inclined to share. "HYDRA."

[in_extremis]

Given how much the Agrii seemed to be against them arming themselves, up to and including limiting their possible armaments to their strange memory allocation, Tony wasn't entirely sold on the Soldier's assumptions, and pouted dubiously. If it was an arsenal they were building, they certainly had much better options to pull into this situation than some of the other people that were here. Tony was a clear waste of resources.

He started to laugh at the Soldier's next assumption, though, because he probably deserved that one; he was an expert at crafting a specific image of himself. "No, I meant--not that specifically," he clarified, but tipped his head to allow for the Soldier's 'partnering' to be part of the consideration. "Just, that the future is bright, your trajectory. Eventually, you're going to feel more like a person, the human parts, maybe you'll even want a name. And maybe by then you still won't feel that attraction and--I think that's okay, you know, listen, what do I know?"

Tony could understand never finding any real comfort in other people after what HYDRA must have done to the Soldier to leave him talking about himself like this. Tony's capture and the torture that led to the Iron Man could hardly have been comparable, and it had left him skittish, afraid to let anyone close enough to see the physical scars, let alone what other damage had been done. Still, he continued, avoiding the Soldier's eye again, "I don't think I would be alive right now if I couldn't fall in love so easily. I mean, every one of those is a heartbreak, sure, and it never gets less painful, but if I didn't think--if I didn't think Sansa's hair was so beautiful, or Steve's eyes were so brilliant, I don't know if I could believe so much in the future. It's made of all of these exquisite parts of people, that I love so much that I have to make sure they see it."