revivalproject

Entry tags:

Lead

WHO: Tony, Richie, open in theory*
WHERE: Coruscant. A bar.
WHAT: A pair of addictive personalities walk into a bar.
WHEN: Mid-field trip?
WARNINGS: I don't know how dark this will actually get, but they're definitely going to talk about addiction a lot, and Tony is more self-destructive than usual.
*: I know I haven't had a normal open post in a wHile, so sorry about this one targeted prompt. I know no one ever takes the wildcard option, but really, now is the time, hit me up, I'm just floundering a bit in this event.

Jon did help. He did. Jon could also sense Tony's anxiety like a soft, marshmallow filling, and if Jon was going to continue to be so helpful, it was probably in Tony's best interest if he didn't know how profoundly pathetic Tony was. He was used to doing this on his own, anyway. The code was in the framework.

Isolating himself on the ship hadn't exactly worked out, but Tony thought he could maybe apply the same theory to a stale, narrow bar buried a few feet under the hotel. A whole planet to explore, and not a lot of time to do it, who would be sticking so close at this point? Tony knew he wouldn't be, if he didn't feel like his wings had been clipped. Steve was gone. It was going to get worse from here.

The bartender left a slimy trail in their wake as they moved up and down their space, like a snail making its way along the counter, ignoring Tony by now and leaving him to watch blindly as they swept by, then the discharge oozed incrementally toward where Tony had propped his elbows, then was mopped up by the tendril they used to carry a stained rag trailing behind themself. It splattered with a reliable regularity into a bucket at either end of the counter. It was revolting, but Tony was starting to find some peace in it, measuring the consistency of the slime in the way it pooled and was gathered in the sweep of the cloth. It was a very different kind of peace than the one Tony had slammed his head against by watching the way the liquid in the bottle of 'strongest you have', whatever that was, caught the low light and flashes of neon that filtered their way into the bar. He wasn't sure how long ago he had ordered it, but there were already two cigarette butts wilting in the melting ice of the glass that it had come with, and the third he had largely forgotten about burnt close to his knuckles.

The bartender also didn't speak any structured language, though it seemed to understand just fine. It was the snarling grunt that they hurled at another man that knocked Tony out of his reverie, blinking slowly at the guy raising his hands in surrender with a nervous laugh and insisting he was definitely going to pay, just slipped his mind, is all. It was dark enough in here that Tony knew it was a blanket invitation to get away with plenty that wouldn't be welcome closer to the surface, but even the snail-guy had their limits. They were still grouching in a low growl as the came sweeping in front of Tony again, not even slowing down as Tony tried to ask, "Got any more of these?" with the last of the cigarette brandished. They would probably be back, Tony thought, as he watched them go. Maybe.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tony had been trying to keep an eye on Cayde as he moved, still trying to telepathically communicate his bafflement at how Cayde was stumbling around, so he not only had made very unexpected and very intense eye contact with one of the aliens as all four of them came to line up with the stairs, but had watched that aliens eyes snap wide open with the realization that his compatriots had both just crashed into his back and he was about to be face first in the sticky carpet. Tony froze long enough to watch the disaster, equally wide-eyed, the angry rumbling around him peppered now with shrill shrieks of surprise as more people were dragged into this pile-up, and others threw wild elbows and knees in an attempt to get clear of it. The head of the alien Tony had come to know so deeply in those brief moments hit the edge of the stage with a thunk resonant enough that Tony could feel it shoot up his legs, before he came to a woozy rest. The shudder was Tony's cue.

Using this fleshy path of stepping stones that Cayde had lined up for him, Tony jumped from the stage to go scrabbling across the groaning backs of the three collapsed brutes. The first was effectively out cold, and the second snarled his dissent, but the third had been well cushioned by his brethren on their descent and shifted perilously with a roar as Tony's heel dug into his shoulder. Tony yelped, flinging his arms out toward the stairs as the body beneath him rose.

Gloved hands caught onto Tony's wrists and hauled him closer towards his destination well clear of the wildly grasping hands of the angry bouncer. Cayde had only reached out and grabbed him out of reflex, the clear necessity of some course of action hot-wiring itself directly from brain to his hands without the foresight to consider what should happen next. The execution could have probably gone smoother, but with both of them on questionable footing the resulting was probably like some parody of a pre-Golden Age romance cover in which for the few seconds they maintained each other's balance, Tony was practically plastered against the Exo's chest, bathrobe askew for added effect.

Cayde peered myopically down at him. "Aaandal? We gettin' into fights without me?"

Hopefully not, Sundance interjected, including Tony now that they'd regrouped. Nice job, by the way. Now we just need to not get caught up in the distraction. Also your date seems upset at being stood up, Stark.

That third alien had finally managed to get to his feet, if uneven it was for the people he was standing on, growling as he glared daggers at Tony and the Exo.

The romance was a short lived one. After crashing into Cayde and his unforgivingly pointy bits, Tony complained, "Ow," and went teetering back on his heel to rub at his tenderized jaw, one hand still curled in the front of Cayde's clothes to hold himself up. The slurring was not any more reassuring than Cayde's stumbling, making Tony's first response to Sundance's helpful warning come out loud, "Did he just call me 'doll'?" before he made any effort to turn around and check in on that upset. The turn came just in time to spot the fist flying for him, which only meant Tony had the luxury of catching it with his face instead of the back of his head. His whole head snapped back with the force, only to bounce off of Cayde's shoulder again, Tony's entire weight dragging down the front of Cayde's shirt then as he clung for any semblance of balance and sputtered, "Seriously?"

Anything Sundance might have meant to say was quickly aborted for a futile, Look out! before Tony ended up crashing against Cayde again. At least the Exo was able to react well enough, grabbing onto Tony before he could sink any further.

"Now that," he started, pointing a wobbly finger in the alien's direction, or more accurately nearly in his face, "-was uncalled for." The brute wasn't quite sure what to make of the reprimand, something clicking in his head that reminded him of why they'd all gone crashing down the stairs to begin with. In the next moment he was seeing stars as Cayde's hand caught him upside the head in a badly aim slap, sending the alien bouncer practically pirouetting as he went sprawling off to the side of the pile of bodies gathered at the foot of the steps. Cayde stared at his hand as though it had just gotten a mind of its own, or maybe he was wondering why it hadn't had a gun in it. Oh well, it worked, more or less. He looked down at Tony. "Y'allright?"

If Sundance could bodily haul her Guardian to the lift, she would have. Instead she would just have to try navigating for them. Cayde, she said firmly to get his attention. Exit advised, now. Borrowing off of the map Tony had compiled earlier, she marked out one of the closest routes back to the lift. Cayde nodded a little too much for anyone's comfort, starting forward again before stopping short as his boot stepped on someone's backside. "Oh, um. 'scuse us," he said, squinting past the pile-up before he looked at Tony and after a shrug, threw him over a shoulder. "Hang'on, I got this..!"

The world lurched as he gathered himself and made the jump.

Tony was also staring at Cayde's hand, his own lifted to cover his busted lip, as Cayde checked in on him, not sure what to make of that move just yet and even more not sure if any part of the distraction he had concocted had been all that effective. He made a noise that could have been, "M'fine," into his hand as his gaze jumped then to the bouncer, where that exchange of blows was apparently the beginning to many, a fuse lit and the riled up crowd ready to explode. The alien caught another wild fist on the chin from one of the auction-goers just as Tony was hauled off of the ground. Distraction effective, current predicament not ideal, Tony flailed and groaned, "Caaaa-ayd-uh!" as his stomach seemed to be dragged up into the air and the rest of him was left behind. That was mostly his own fault, his kicking sending him sliding further over Cayde's shoulder, where Tony didn't have the luxury of grabbing onto the Exo's cape to keep him on board; the excitement had dislodged the gun from its safe tuck inside Tony's robe, and he had to fling both hands out to grab it before it went flying into the brawl.

By the time Cayde landed, Tony was brandishing the Ace of Spades from about the level of his ass, and didn't have much of an explanation for threatening the crotch of the alien he was left facing. It did put him at the perfect level to see the second the alien twitched to grab at the weapon off his own belt, and Tony squeezed off a shot before the twitch could go any further, lodging a bullet into the floor and clearing a wide area around them in the shock of the blast.

"Sticks the landing!" Cayde spouted, looking proud of himself until he noticed it was mostly legs that he had any sort of hold of. He failed to notice the attention he'd drawn by his landing, at least in his immediate vicinity. A fancy metal face flying over heads certainly did the job.

"Heeey, what're ya doin' back th-" he started to laugh, but the gunshot cut him off short. Thankfully he didn't hunch up his shoulders until after the shot had gone off, the sound nearly startling him right onto his tiptoes. Reminded of Something Important, the Exo's free hand quickly flew to his empty holster.

Later, Sundance insisted. Stark, don't lose that. Cayde- the lift! Now seemed the most ideal time while they had the space, but she anticipated it wouldn't last very long. The Ace of Spades was by no means a subtle gun, and the report had drawn more than a few more eyes in their direction.

Hopefully Stark didn't accidentally bite his tongue off as the Exo swung around one way, then the other before getting himself situated, Sundance shouting Your other left! by way of directions until they were suddenly moving in the right direction. Ahead of them, (or in Tony's case, behind), the doors to the lift yawned open, expelling an elegantly dressed, green-skinned alien who somehow managed to pull off a confused yet disdainful look as he saw the chaos awaiting him and his two associates. None of them expected a droid to come barreling straight for them. "I didn't know they came in green!" Cayde marveled, sweeping past them as they barely managed to duck aside.

If they didn't have plenty of room from the sharp crack of the shot, Cayde did an excellent job clearing the space as he spun around without ever evidently getting his bearings, Tony's arms flung out as he let out a low wail for the treatment, forcing startled legs to back away or get whacked. He really hoped Cayde was charging toward that lift Sundance was trying to corral him to, because he wasn't used to being used as a blunt weapon outside of the Iron Man. Cayde's truly baffling declaration was the only warning Tony got for a pair of green hands suddenly closing around his wrist and the barrel of the gun, and in a spitting accent that Tony didn't recognize, the hands declared, "That's my droid!"

"I'm not supposed to lose that!" Tony replied, grabbing hold of the hand over the gun to haul with them as Cayde powered them on into the elevator. In the tug, Tony slid precariously further down over Cayde's shoulder until he was hanging by his knees, the gun was pointed at this mysteriously grabby alien's gut, and the elevator doors slid shut serenely to seal all three of them into that unnerving quiet with only the flickering light left to suggest the chaos they had just left behind. Tony went, "Uh," then gave another abrupt jerk of the weapon that they grappled over just as he flung a wild kick over his head that he hoped would land where he guessed the voice had come from as the attack sent him somersaulting to the floor.

It was only due to the fact that suddenly the Exo had an extra weight attached to them that he did not manage to slam face first into the rear wall of the elevator once they'd gotten inside. He did wonder suddenly where the pair of feet he'd been hanging onto had suddenly gone before Sundance pointed out the commotion behind him.

There was really no way that Tony could have missed any part of the sputtering Falleen as the situation was already baffling to the alien, the distance between them negligible. He saw the foot flying towards him and jerked his head aside, still receiving the hit soundly against his shoulder. Releasing his grip on gun and Tony's wrist with a howl, their unwanted passenger staggered back against the doors.

"Hey..." Cayde said in a tone of someone realizing something Very Important. "I gotta gun just like that. S'pposed to..." He patted at his sides again as though expecting it should have reappeared by now. Sundance sighed to herself exasperatedly. Here, let me deal with the elevator. You help Stark, she suggested, glad that her Guardian at least understood enough to allow her to emerge. She made a beeline for the control panel, light beaming from her as she worked to ensure no one would try to override it as they tried to get back to surface (?) level.

While Tony had managed to daze himself in the fall to the floor, the sturdy alien wasn't terribly shaken by the blow, holding his shoulder with a growl but rapidly getting his feet back under him in time to throw a hand out to catch the strange spark of the Ghost reappearing. From the ground, Tony still had to protest this decision, "No," not about to give up this source of all of Cayde's most embarrassing habits so soon, and tried for another jab of his heel toward the alien's wrist to knock it off course. He was more prepared for Tony by then, so even with his hand smarting from the kick, he readily grabbed Tony by the ankle to haul him up into the air.

This was becoming tiresome, and in the brief moment Tony had before his robe fell over his face, he shot an accusatory glare at Cayde like he had organized this ragdoll treatment of Tony ahead of time. The green guy was entirely unbothered by Tony's blind flailing of his free leg, lack of leverage and direction really minimizing the damage of Tony's already debatably effective kicks, but Tony's arms were occupied; he had bundled them both protectively against his chest with the hand canon hugged there tightly, and muffled under his robe he announced to the stumbling, slurring Exo, "Uh-uh," before he could go any further in his quest to retrieve it.

The look from Tony was completely uncalled for! Cayde still seemed to have enough sense to be taken aback by that, although the refusal to hand over the weapon was met with even more confusion. Wait, he should rewind a little.

Sundance twitched in the air, dodging the alien's swipe, mostly thanks to Tony. She shot her own look towards her Guardian before resuming the task she was best at. Cayde lurched forward, dangerously close to Tony although given the man's current position he'd be blissfully ignorant of that.

Seeing the Exo start towards him gave the alien second thoughts about his priorities. His distraction had Tony meeting the floor again as he released him in favor of finding a better position away from a possibly mad droid. A Tony on the floor just meant another obstacle for Cayde as his foot caught on the man, forcing the Exo to totter to the side to avoid stepping on him.

Then the entire elevator shuddered, the lights flickering above them. Sundance said nothing as she continued to work, ignoring as her Guardian danced drunkenly to keep his balance, the alien doing much the same sort of dance as he found himself by the door again, right before the full weight of the Exo slammed against him, awkwardly sandwiching him in place with a sad little wheeze.

The drop was inevitable, and this time Tony flung his arms out to try to catch himself, throwing the gun out to bounce off of the tiny room's walls and slide just out of reach. Tony also had more than enough experience with an Exo's weight to know how much he did not want to be stepped on one, giving him plenty of reasons to not linger on any new bruises and quickly try to snake his way across the floor to retrieve the Ace as the elevator groaned around him. By the time Cayde went crunching into the elevator doors, Tony had wiggled around onto his elbows, brandishing the gun again like he had any intention of using it to stop the green guy from any more of his terrible grabbing habit. He raised his eyebrows in surprise to find the threat would not be very effective at all with the alien's face mashed between metal.

ETA?, he asked Sundance with very sweet patience, like he was prepared to count down their arrival exactly where they were all arranged, but his question rapidly answered itself. The elevator came to a shivering stop, and the doors made an uncomfortable grinding noise as they struggled against the dent Cayde had put into them with the grabby alien, very slowly and with the screech of protesting metal opening just enough to let them fall out into the poorly lit hall.

The Falleen knew what was coming and did not at all look forward to it. It was a halfhearted attempt to grab at the doors as they slowly slid open, his hands finding no purchase, especially with the weight of the Exo aiding gravity's greedy paws. The landing was completely graceless, the groan equally pitiful for what little air was left to expel as Cayde threatened to crush him a second time.

Sundance watched, unimpressed before glancing at Tony. She slipped out the narrow opening of the door, peering down the hall before flitting down to disappear in her usual sparkling fashion as Cayde tried to shove himself up from the dazed alien.

"That...did not go as planned," he admitted.

By then, Tony had squeezed himself out through the busted door, snatching the trailing belt of his bathrobe out of the way just as the elevator shuddered another complaint and made a valiant attempt to shut and trundle downward again. It got part way there, in both cases, leaving Tony grimacing at the sliver of light still flickering out across the dirty hallway floor where the elevator had dropped to about knee height, then given up. They weren't going to be followed that way, at least. With his judgmental eye still on this performance, Tony waved his free hand blindly toward Cayde to grab him by the clothes in the distant suggestion of helping him get to his feet and steady on down the hall.

"Listen, there's definitely stairs, we should be gone twenty minutes ago," he said, tearing himself away as he realized he was going to have to put more effort in if 'steady' was the goal with Cayde. Tony tucked his hand under the Exo's armpit to corral him more bodily toward the exit. "Which part of that was where the plan started?" he asked over the pained sounds of the crushed alien.

"Pfff...staaairs. They still gotta climb'em," Cayde snorted, waving a hand dismissively, and maybe a bit too forcefully as he ended up flattening the alien again as he slipped.

"Uhhh...." That response was surely promising, but in actuality probably no different from any plan the Exo might have concocted, or forgotten to concoct given his propensity to do things on the fly. Looking at the man with a most serious expression, he raised a hand and beeped him on the nose. He accepted Tony's support with no complaint, mostly because he realized he hadn't been getting anywhere trying to extract himself from the alien-turned-rug.

As they picked their way along the hall, Sundance brought up the radar and the lone blip of the guard Tony had bribed to get down there in the first place. Thankfully once they reached the end of the hall, the alien simply arched a brow, clearly surprised. And then thoughtful as he was sure the bidding for that lot was supposed to be a little later.

Doing his best to stroll very casually while keeping Cayde reasonably on track meant a strained smile and aborted salute at the bemused guard. They were only a few steps away before Tony gave up on the charade and shoved both hands into Cayde's back to hurry him along the bleak street and as far away as possible from the gang that wanted to possess him. There wasn't going to be any catching a cab down here, it wasn't the kind of place a taxi driver would cruise through with high hopes, but with a rapid glance around a message to Sundance, Think that'll fly?, Tony was using the butt of the gun to break a speeder's window.

"Here's the thing," he was saying as they went, "I'm pretty sure, if I had left you there, you'd be back at the hotel by the morning and I'd never know anything about it. Or, maybe, you'd just disappear, and I wouldn't know if something had happened, or you had just disappear-disappeared, because that happens to people, you know, they just leave, and I'm finding my peace with that, but I could use some warning, Hot Stuff, if this is a choice you're making, because I don't have a lot--"

"You didn't pay for that droid," a growling voice interrupted, lured easily by Tony's rambling voice and the shattering of glass.

Cayde wasn't moving as fast as they could possibly be, tilting more backwards than forwards in that typical manner one does when being shoved from behind in order to keep from falling face-first. Next thing he knew he was leaning against a speeder, contemplating its paint job as glass shattered nearby.

If it doesn't, I'm sure we can jumpstart it, Sundance replied confidently. If Ghosts could get centuries-old ships to function then a speeder's hardly going to be a problem. At least they wouldn't have to go far.

Tony was talking. A lot of talking. Nothing new, but Cayde was struggling to keep up with the words being spoken once he realized that maybe he should be tuning in. Even then it wasn't making much sense, especially with the repeated disappearing, about the only thing that lodged into his sluggish mind.

"Who's disappearing?" he asked, right about when a third voice that was not at all his Ghost's, spoke up. Cayde's brow twitched, and he pushed himself away from the speeder to turn and eye the interruption. Right before swinging a fist at his face.

"I'm gettin' reeeeeeally tired of being called that."

It was the coterie of that green alien, who was dragging himself along a few feet behind them and clearly in need of some body work, but that still left Cayde swinging two against one. The growling guy was ready for the punch this time, the trail of destruction behind Tony and Cayde setting some expectations, and dodged enough to try to catch Cayde's fist instead. It wasn't a well matched contest of strength, but the alien didn't waste time grappling, aiming a jab of a baton into Cayde's body.

"Stop fucking around and get in the car!" Tony demanded, in the drivers seat and kicking the passenger door open by then while he scrabbled blindly around the steering column for an obvious source to hotwire or hack. The second of the backup dancers figured out what was going on and trusted his partner to handle one mouthy droid, advancing menacingly on Tony and the speeder. Tony squeaked, "Kid...!" with shameless desperation for Sundance to hurry up and work her magic, and wasn't prepared for the speeder to abruptly kick into gear and ram into the alien.

"I'm not-!" Not in the best of coordination, Cayde wasn't as successful as the alien in evading a blow. He winced as the baton connected- not that damaging a blow but it still stung! "Ow! Gimmee that!" he shouted, sounding more insulted than hurt as he grabbed the baton. As it was dawning upon the alien that his sudden lack of a baton was probably a bad thing, Cayde slammed his other fist into his confused face.

He tottered a few steps and stopped short as the other alien flew past him. Glancing over at the speeder, he jogged over to throw himself into the passenger's side. "You know how to drive these things?" he asked, sounding impressed as he tried to adjust himself from being all up in Tony's space.

All conviction and zero honesty, Tony declared, "Of course," as he batted away Cayde's clothes flung in his face in the Exo's haste, and immediately proved his bona fides by sending them wobbling around in a skidding donut as he locked a poorly marked front brake in an attempt not to race directly into the alien he had already downed once. The maneuver slammed their back end into a wall that showered rust and potentially a century of dislodged grime and dissatisfaction down on them, but oriented them enough to let Tony kick them into gear and tear wildly down a straightaway and away from the green alien shouting at their taillights.

The tunnel that would take them back to the surface wasn't far, and Tony threw one last glance over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being immediately followed before pushing the Ace and Cayde's tablet against his chest. "You dropped these," he reported. The details weren't important.

"I think this was probably theirs," Cayde noted as he glanced back, watching the angry alien shrink in the growing distance between them. He settled back in with a sigh, taking Tony at his word despite the rough start.

His hands lifted automatically to gather the things that had been passed over to him, and he looked at them in bemusement. Thankfully his hands seemed more sure of what they were doing as he fondly ran one over the side of the hand cannon before fingers curled around the familiar grip.

"So that's how many I owe you now?" he asked as he let the gun rest on his lap with his tablet, lifting his head to watch the scenery blur past them before the tunnel swallowed them up, flickering lines of light running up and down route back.

With a sidelong glance Cayde's way, Tony raised an inquisitive eyebrow, not sure what he meant and if that was more of his questionably coherent babbling. "You're indebted to me for life," he decided with a nod and a pout, so no one was counting anyway, "Don't worry about it."

They had been deep enough that it took uncomfortably long even at this speed to shoot up out of the tunnel and into the glaring, dawn light of the surface, a pinprick of lavender-blue that they powered toward until they were rocketing up into the clean, clear air. Tony squinted, searching his head for his glasses that weren't there, and tried to get his bearings while his eyes adjusted to the unfamiliar light as other early-morning travellers skimmed easily around his roaring path. "As long as you don't bring the body count up here, maybe we don't talk about it," he offered crisply.

"Oh." It was easier pulling his thoughts together now that there weren't a million things happening around them, his systems finally getting a chance to level out after the overload.

The Exo relaxed in his seat, shifting his arm to lean against the door in some semblance of looking like this was just a random joyride and not at all a narrow escape from a close-call he wasn't even sure how he'd define. A lot of it was a haze, but he was sure he could get a review from Sundance later. Right now he just felt like collapsing face-first into his hotel bed.

To Tony's offer, he glanced at the man with a brief, crooked smile. "Deal."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lead

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject