revivalproject | Bloodsport: Coruscant

It was going to take some effort to get Tony up out of bed. He had barely closed his eyes, and the engines had hardly dragged him out of his hard-won sleep, a background irritant to be dealt with later, when he could be bothered, and the most energy he could muster was one eye winked open to blearily consider the message from Ga Re. Great, the ships, they were flying again, and if it was anything like the last flight, they were going to be here a while.

He did not expect to have to suddenly be a morning person. It was Beck's voice that had him finally sitting up, still wrapped securely in his blanket and squinting miserably, leaning over his crossed legs to try to peer down the length of the ship from the quarters to see what the excitement was about. "I hate you," he grumbled, which could have been directed at anyone near enough to hear him, as they were currently part of the ongoing problem of his wakefulness. Louder, for Beck, he offered, "Bring me a coffee and I'll tell you everything I know."

"..." Beck's cheek twitched a little, though he was fairly sure he had that under control before turning back with a questioning hum and a pleasant smile.

"Coffee? Yeah, sure, I can do that-" he agreed. Though of course after quite a bit of searching he realized they didn't have coffee, and of course Stark was tooling with him all ready.

He put on a calm façade when he finally remerged with a pair of steaming cups, offering one to Tony with what hopefully passed for a genuinely apologetic look. "I found tea. But from the looks of that place we might be able to find ourselves a coffee stash," he added with a nod back towards the view port.

This, naturally, is when Kyle chose to peer blearily down from the top bunk he'd been sleeping in. He took in the word 'coffee' first, and the sound of the engines second. After a moment it occured to him that if the engines were on, that could only mean one thing:

"Holy shit, we're in space!"

He basically fell out of the bunk - a tall, gangly young man with a truly uncontrollable shock of bright red curls made all the worse from bedhead. He hit the ground with a thud, blanket caught around one foot, bounded up, and, after tripping on the aforementioned blanket again, ran down the length of the ship to stare in wonder at the view port. He grinned widely, eyes utterly transfixed. Eventually he looked back at the two men he'd thundered past.

"Dudes! We're in SPACE!"

Just in case they weren't aware or something.

Beck's typically unpleasant placidity was not as unwelcome and blended easily enough into Tony's cottony begrudgingly awake world, making him more easy to ignore as a general mass that handed Tony a warm mug. The kid, on the other hand, elbowed and knobby kneed his way through Tony's hazy fog, making Tony wink one eye shut again like he might be able to keep the energy out as Kyle hit the ground, then looked to Beck plaintively as he went gangling by. Tony closed both eyes at the shout.

Not about to be accused of not following through on a deal, Tony revealed, "I have no idea what this place is," which was exactly everything he knew and thus concluded his commitment. Deal done, he finally climbed from the bed, blanket and wisp of steam trailing after him as he made his way by Beck and after Kyle.

The planet was certainly something to behold. "Not in space for long," he observed. "Enjoy it while you can."

Enjoy six-foot-two-inches worth of extreme excitement, Tony. He's like a human puppy at the moment. "Yeah, I can see we clearly have a descent course plotted, but look at this shit!"

Kyle turns back to the view port. "I'm sure the rest of you are used to flying all over the galaxy so it's boring as shit, but not me. I never, ever thought I'd get to see something like this." He just stares for a while, as enraptured as when he was a kid learning about the solar system for the first time.

Then he looks back at Tony. "So are you Tony or Quentin or Keith? I've met Kaz, and those are the other three names listed as being allowed on the ship, right? I know one of you is weird, and one of you I'm not supposed to trust."

"..." Beck looked after the over excited string bean, sharing a commiserating look with Stark at the sheer level of enthusiasm. Maybe the lack of coffee on this ship was a good thing. This kid should not be allowed anywhere near caffeine.

He took a long drink to steady himself before following after, offering the kid a smile. "I'm Quentin. Or Beck, either's fine. And who told you not to trust one of us?"

Tony had done a fair amount of flying in his time, and would have been thrilled to be back in space himself if it wasn't coupled with a rude awakening, but in this mood he only accepted the assumption with raised eyebrows and a very modest tilt of his head. Maybe in a few hours or a wakeful shower, he'd have the energy.

Watching Beck out of the corner of his eye as he approached, Tony took his own measured sip of tea, letting Beck hone in on the trust issue like the kind of person who knew they shouldn't be trusted. With a small smirk as Beck's question hung in the air, Tony observed, "You're Kyle," to the kid. Kaz had mentioned him, it only followed. Extracting one hand from his blanket cocoon, he offered it to shake and said, "Tony Stark."

If there's coffee on Coruscant, he will find it.

Looking at Beck with bright interest, Kyle shrugs. "Ah, some guy. Probably just talking out of his ass."

He can't keep his eyes from wandering back to the view port. It's another planet, how is he the only one who thinks this is cool?

"Yeah, I'm Kyle. Broflovski." He looks back and shakes Tony's offered hand because his mother didn't raise him to be rude. Even if he did call him weird a minute ago.

"So I guess you guys either aren't from earth like all those Jedi dudes, or you're... I dunno, from some future where space travel is normal, or you're superheroes or something. Probably not from an earth with Netflix."

Interesting. He'd have to follow up on who was spreading rumors.

"Good to meet you, Kyle," he agreed, nodding his head in greeting.

He breathed a small laugh out his nose and shook his head.

"I'm from Earth," Beck assured, "Netflix and everything." Though given his outfit and the lack of denial there, the superhero thing was also accurate.

Far more ambiguously, Tony was looking away in thought as he muttered, "I think we have Netflix," having difficulty placing it in context as both someone who did not watch much TV and who's Earth was lagging a few years behind Kyle's. Some advancements had evidently outpaced Kyle's adjacent dimension, though, because space travel was very much normal, and the superhero thing was just coincidental, Tony thought.

"Look at that, we all already have so much in common," he smiled, only for it to be gone just as fast as it appeared. "Do only superheroes get to go to space where you're from?" he asked. Maybe it was an economic issue. It didn't seem very likely to Tony that Kyle was from an Earth like, or possibly the same one as Jon's, without superheroes entirely. Not many of those could possibly have survived.

Edited (these are all very awkward sentences I am sorry) 2021-03-03 05:14 (UTC)

It's probably sad that Kyle's first instinct is to ask them both if they got to see the BBC Planet Earth series.

Kyle very visibly sizes up Beck's outfit. "...'Kay," he settles on. "I mean, good, that's a start anyway. Dude, I'm sorry, what are you wearing?"

He looks at Tony, eyebrows knitting together. "Uhm, no. No, only astronauts go to space where I'm from. And okay, Elon Musk was TRYING to, but fuck that guy. But I kinda noticed that there were a lot of really special people on Agra 10. Like, people who can run faster than a fucking jet and stuff. People who seemed remarkably unfazed by being on an alien planet.

There's no superheroes where I'm from. Not real ones."

Much like other's reactions, Kaz had that moment of boyish wonder at the idea of being in space. Where he was from there wasn't very much idea of space flight or even an idea of planets. So while it was strange to even accept outside of fiction, having a destination on another planet was oddly logical.

Seeing what amounted to a planet-wide cityscape was on that same level of strange, but since Kaz was more used to working within cities he would be more able to work inside this one...little did he know Coruscant was like no city he would have ever seen.

Beck looks down at himself with a bit of a wince. "I didn't know I was going to be taken or I probably would have gone with something more casual," he agrees, "I was kind of in the middle of something back home."

"Space travel is still pretty limited on the Earths I've been to as well. I've never seen the view from up here."

Not long before their descent truly begins, Kaz is going to find his shoulder being shaken by a far-too-enthusiastic crewmate. "Dude. Isn't this cool?!" Kyle is still beaming. "Look at that shit! It looks like a HUGE city, right?

"Kaz, dude, I am stoked you're here to see this. I don't think the old guys are as impressed by all of this."

"What were you in the middle of?" Kyle asks immediately. You don't just dress up in what Beck is wearing to clean the bathroom or something.

"Also you said Earths. Plural. So. You have a weird life, it's official."

Kaz's whole body tenses up when Kyle grabs his shoulder. Then, while not turning around, Kaz says in an icy voice;

"Take your hand off of me, Kyle."

His tone implies that if Kyle doesn't do so post-haste he'll be drawing back a bloody nub.

"Oh, sorry dude." Kyle takes his hand back immediately, looking properly chastised. But he very clearly hasn't really registered how serious that shift in tone was.

"Are you seeing this, though? We're in SPACE. And who knows what's down there? It looks a lot more lively than where we just were."

This was your warning, Kyle. Back where he's from it was generally understood that touching Kaz at all was a sure way to lose a finger. As soon as Kyle removes his hand Kaz's whole demeanor changed, becoming far less icy and much closer to the friendly way he had spoken to Kyle before.

"I will admit that I have not given a lot of thought to the idea of Space before."

Kaz nodded toward the view of the planet through the transparisteel.

"It looks like there are a lot more people down there, anyway.

"Right? Man. We're supposed to learn stuff, so this could be really cool."

He stuffs his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. "I really hope we can bring stuff back with us."

Kazraises an eyebrow in question and looks back at Kyle.

"Learn stuff?"

"Yeah. That's what the Agrii said, anyway. Well, texted, I guess. I guess because a bunch of us come form around here. Not me, obviously."

He looks, for a brief second, a little lost. He really is very far from home.

"There's no telling what kind of tech and stuff they have down there."

Tech stuff wasn't Kaz's specialty, but he figured that was something he was going to have to learn. Also, he was neither interested in nor good at comforting, so the most that Kyle gets is a distraction.

"Are we just getting dropped off and tested to see if we survive, or do we get maps to work with?"

Kaz pulled out his 'smart phone' as Jon had called it.

"I think like, a bunch of people know at least a bit of how to get around. And I bet there's maps on the surface."

Kyle offers Kaz a grin. "If you got lost I'd come find you."

The judgment of Beck's sartorial choices from this bounding puppy while Tony was wrapped very elegantly in the scratchy bunk blanket had Tony snorting more openly, looking pointedly out the viewport again instead of anywhere near Beck. It was a bit much, for a casual space trip.

Despite the apparent unfamiliarity with any powered individuals, Kyle offered some very easy lensing of their Earths for Tony to mutter in agreement as Kyle continued, "Fuck that guy," with another smirk offered this time to Kyle, parts conspiratorial and parts just happy to have an identifiable fulcrum. Not that Tony was going to readily offer any more details about his own home, especially with Beck right there saying some wild shit about his experiences. That finally got Tony to look Beck's way, eyebrow raised skeptically and with a vague point toward the kid, what he said. "You've been doing this for a while," he guessed, waving that pointing finger vaguely around at the situation. He wouldn't be the first person around here to tell Tony about previous similar abductions.

Poor Beck. It's a universal truth that if you make yourself a target of ridicule or scorn, people WILL bond over giving you shit. Tony's little glances do not go unnoticed, whxch makes Kyle feel more comfortable with every passing moment.

"Who, me? No way, dude, I'm a fuckin student, I don't get to go joyriding in spaceships."

He pauses, then adds, "I mean, I have a little bit of experience with sending things into space? And aliens, I guess. But I'm not the one who's been to other Earths." He looks pointedly at Beck, like maybe he's holding out on them.

"Saving the Earth," Beck replies to Kyle's initial question, "Or trying to anyways. And yes, Earths. I got pulled from my dimension to another Earth."

He looks to Tony then and shakes his head. "Not this. Not in the same way. What happened to me was...a cosmic blip, entirely unintentional. This is different."

"Thanks."

Kaz's tone is dry as dust. He had taken the time to learn about the phone and was now creating a new file for a new map.

"But I want to look at as much of this place as I possibly can. I hear there are tunnels and hidey holes all through this place like a rabbit warren. There's no way I could learn all of it but finding the 'less direct' path to and from places is always a good idea."

Tony had very quickly gotten the sense from Kyle that this was not his usual scene, so he didn't need him to answer the prompt, but that Kyle thought he had to make that clear still made Tony laugh enough to hide it in his mug. At least Kyle had met some aliens, so his Earth couldn't have been that different. Maybe he just had another word for 'superheroes'.

"Eventually, if he tried enough planets, one of them will be easy enough to save," Tony summarized, back to not quick looking Beck's way with a wry smile for the kid and only glancing into the reflection of the viewport to see if the needling would produce more revealing talking. How entirely intentional any of this was wasn't as clear cut to Tony, though, making him ask Kyle, "And what about you?" He tipped his head, looking like he expected them to be able to follow that leap he had made before bothering to clarify, "What makes you 'really special'?"

That little dig makes Kyle laugh. Well, okay, he has more of a cackle. It's obvious that he thinks Tony is pretty funny, either way.

But then he shakes his head. "Not a fucking thing," he insists. "Like I said, I'm a student. Pre-law. I'm smart, but I'm not like... a GENIUS. My little brother is, so if anything they should have grabbed him. I'm from a fucking tiny-ass mountain town in Colorado, not some space palace or even a major city where important shit happens all the time. I don't have any superpowers, I'm not magic, and the only thing I own back home is a five-year-old sedan I bought off my mom."

He chews at his lower lip a little bit before he shrugs. "I mean. I guess I've seen a lot of weird shit, but I dunno how useful that is."

"Oh yeah?" Kyle asks. His height means it's pretty easy to peek at what Kaz is doing. "Why's that?"

Right now there's not much to see, just making a new file.

"Its worth knowing what places are empty or crowded and when. Where cops are likely to congregate and when. What places are important or ones that have been forgotten about. Do people crowd around certain places for things like transport."

Kaz shrugged, not looking up from the phone's screen.

"How to stay away from people that want to steal whatever you have. Or run girls.

Kaz had a small, nasty smirk.

"Which is the same thing, I guess."

Kyle nods along until that last bit. He gives Kaz a long, measuring look.

"...that's not cool, dude," he settles on. "I mean, I'm sure that's how those sorts of people see it, but, those women are people. Nobody owns them."

Kaz does stop then, putting the smartphone away and looking at Kyle with eyes that are actually dark brown but right now look as flat and black as a shark. He could mention how many bawds (called pimps in many other worlds) that he has personally killed. The customers to those 'pleasure houses' he's killed, or maybe the lawyer's clerk he dangled from a rooftop but did not plan to drop up until the moment the clerk admitted to blackmailing a pleasure house worker. And though he may not admit it out loud, the closest person to him was a girl that was only two years out of a brothel that did its best to enslave the girls it bought.

Kyle had simply misunderstood but since he was imagining the polar opposite of what Kaz meant, Kaz simply replied in an icy tone;

"Yes. They are."

His expression was sharp and menacing. As though he was daring Kyle to take a swing at him.

Kyle looks at Kaz for a long moment, but then his face softens. "Exactly," he says. "They're people."

He nods once, apparently having decided that they're in agreement.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get up your ass, dude."

Beck's smile grows a little tight at that, fingers tracing over his wedding band almost instinctively, and he glanced away, like he was hiding his hurt.

"I'm hoping second times the charm."

He offers an encouraging look to Kyle. "The Agrii saw something in you, don't sell yourself short, Kid."

Kaz most likely wouldn't have responded that way had Kyle not blundered into one hell of a verbal land mine.

"It's fine." His voice is cold and clipped. "You'll excuse me."

It's a command and not a request, and with that Kaz limps away.

That wasn't exactly the response that Tony was expecting from Mysterio, making him watch Beck's face more plainly in the reflection of the window, a narrow study that didn't seem entirely sure if it should be offering sympathy or unconvinced scrutiny. There were certainly better versions of Tony himself out there in the multiverse; it didn't feel entirely unreasonable that there were better Becks who didn't build a whole villain identity on deceit.

Kyle was much easier to process, making Tony glad that Beck easily picked up that thread for Tony to continue with a slow nod of agreement, "Pre-law? Maybe you just haven't saved the world yet," drawing himself out of the glass to shoot Kyle another sidelong glance and a warmer smile. "They just took you before you were signed and sealed." Besides, seeing weird shit was shaping up to be pretty useful so far, because Tony could gesture to the window and the absolutely bizarre shit that they were honing down on to propose, "You're taking it pretty well so far."

Kyle is painfully honest, really, often to his detriment. He wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. "More likely they just fucked up. Aliens aren't always smart. I had some think I was a professor from DeVry University once. I was ten. Also DeVry." He was offended even as a child.

"So we're gonna go onto a new planet to learn shit. Either of you have any idea what we should focus on? I barely got to look around Agra 10, and I only just started making a list of who knows what so we can figure out the gaps we need filled..." He would be so at home with a clipboard.

Beck belatedly seemed to take note of Tony's watching, meeting his gaze in that reflection and arching a surprised brow, and offering an uncertain smile, like maybe they'd just locked eyes while Stark was staring off hard at thought.

He shrugged uncertainly at Kyle. "This is my first intergalactic field trip with these guys, I'm not too sure. I'd guess anything we can find on the Agrii or their planet? Maybe look for stuff concerning storms?"

Tony was trying to be encouraging, but he wasn't about to try to play off Kyle's assessment that the aliens had fucked up, pouting a modest agreement with a small shrug, Kyle was the one that said it. They'd all find out soon enough if Kyle was the one to finally turn the engine and get them working toward a solution out of this mess, and Tony was not exactly optimistic. Not that Kyle in particular was a notable fuck up, just that the Agrii hadn't so far proven competent in general.

"I'd guess..." Tony echoed Beck, cautioning tone to temper expectations, "that we shouldn't be missing the forest for the trees. Ten gets you twenty that not a single being you ask down there knows what an Agrii is, don't waste your time." He didn't know when he became any kind of authority on what was going on here, because he definitely didn't feel like it, but Tony sighed and dropped his shoulders in defeat to being in a position to offer a little insight before everyone started chasing the same tails all over again. "If it is the Agrii that independently have chosen to send us here, then it's a totally blind shot. They're just as in the dark as we are, I'm pretty sure. If, and this is somewhat more likely, it's the guys that have been pulling all of our strings directing this field trip, their primary goal seems to be to stress us the fuck out. Any 'answers'," particularly sarcastic, with clumsy airquotes around his mug, "you find down there should be suspect at best."

The likelihood that Kyle Broflovski - who had once jumped off of a roof to prove a point - was the key to any sort of solution regarding mysterious aliens was pretty much nil. Unless they happen to run into a group of Marklars on Coruscant.

Kyle folds his arms across his chest and plants his feet slightly. He's still very clearly listening to Tony, who has the air of someone who is very intelligent about him even if he has a pornstache, but it's patently obvious that there isn't a force in the universe that's about to give up on the idea that they can do something about all of this.

"Well," he says, "let's say the Agrii are total dumbasses at best, and actively malicious at worst. Fine. We're still all stuck on a planet where shit is not exactly in the best working order. So we should maybe focus on finding shit that will improve our situation, right? We need to have a like... functioning society. So we all have to work together and not get all mopey about it."

"That seems like a logical course of action," Beck agreed, "Try and learn what we can. Keep a critical mind about it all, and stock up on things that will help us back home."

He paused with a frown, catching himself having called Temba home. "Back in Temba," he corrected.

Kyle reaches over and pats Beck's shoulder reassuringly. "It's okay to call it home," he says with so much sincerity that it's liable to make the two older men laugh.

That was a much better proposal than the prescribed 'learn shit', and Tony was glad enough that he wasn't going to have to argue them out of doing what they were told that he was smiling again at Kyle in appreciation for this display of tenacity, however manic it had started as. With his free hand, he gave a deliberate comb of an unruly red curl to tuck behind Kyle's ear and suggested, "We should get ready." They weren't going to make a good impression on all of the new aliens if they showed up looking like this. "We'll put out a call, pool our resources. Tommy'll know best what it'll take to keep our stomachs full, Jon's probably already got a list of medical equipment if you can calm him down."

There wasn't a much better word for it than 'home', now that Tony had been there what must have been about a year and it was full of people he trusted to get the job done like that, but it was still troubling to hear and the unexpected warmth Kyle mustered about it was outrageously misplaced. Tony snorted, trying to hide it in his mug again, already shuffling away with a lingering eye on Beck and his brow twisted in a mockery of the kid's sincerity, are you going to be okay, buddy?, as he went.

"Ready, sure," Kyle replies. His face at the fact that Tony touched his hair is one of extraordinarily uncomfortable shock. He very nearly asks if this is a 'no-homo' situation, but decides instead to just shut up for once.

He watches Tony shuffle off and glances over at Beck. "...what the hell does he mean 'get ready?' Are we supposed to dress up for aliens?" Because that's certainly not happening.

"Well...I'm pretty sure he's naked under that blanket, so..." Beck points out with an amused look, "So I think he's going to go dress up at least a little."

Cue a horrified look. "Dude! Sick."

He looks Beck over. "C'mon, let's have coffee and watch the descent to the planet, it'll be cool."

"You didn't notice this whole time?"

Beck gives an amused laugh and follows after him. This should be interesting.

Bloodsport: Coruscant

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I am very sorry, usually I am more functional. I think.

Never apologise! Also I'm rarely functional, so.

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