Excerpt 009: Unsettled (Open to All)
Jun. 23rd, 2019 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rekindledtitanTYPE: Patrol log
LOCATION: The Nexus
PARTIES: Unconfirmed total [??]. One [1] Ghost-type, [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [[personal profile] rekindledtitan]
ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Rogers, Steve; Blaze-37; Pelsor; House of Winter
By the time she returns, spring is rolling into summer. There’s a great deal she needs to catch up on – and serious work to be done. Ghost sends out a short message announcing their restoration to the friends they haven’t met with – Tina, Natasha, Adia, Katsuya, the handful of others whose PINpoint numbers they have. Then they report into the Tower, at their commander’s insistence. A very long debrief later, Blaze feels the need to go blow off some steam. When she does get back to the Nexus, it’s with a few new dents
Blaze has no time for standing around the Plaza asking questions, though given the circumstances she’s kind of obliged to show her face. So when she gets back, the first thing the armored Titan does is stride into the centre of the Plaza. She brings her hands together in a thunderclap and a flash of Arc Light, and announces as heads turn to her:
“The Fallen kept their word. The truce is sealed.”
It brings her little joy to do so, but it needs to be done. She doesn’t stand around, though. She needs to get to work. The Fallen presence and its consequences are her responsibility, and she has ground to make up. Anyone who wants to ask her questions will have to keep up as the Guardian heads out of the Nexus settlement.
From there on she can be encountered once more patrolling the Nexus streets and the Wilds, on the watch for any sign of trouble. There’s no more sitting around chatting or tweaking her weapons in plain view. Now she’s on duty at all times. She has patrol beacons to install and monitor, borders to watch over. Darkness to scout for. And the Exo never seems to sleep. Though she returns periodically to the informal Guardian outpost that Steve’s house has turned into, she doesn’t rest there. During noonday sun or gloomy night, her boots ring on the pavement or crunch through leaf litter, and those who want to find her have a good chance of succeeding.
And if not her, then it’s always possible to encounter one of the other Guardians either keeping watch at Steve’s house or roaming about the Nexus. Unlike Blaze, they’ll occasionally stop at a café or bar to sample the local fare, sometimes at peculiar hours. If there’s a ramen bar that stays open until dawn, they’re there.
(( This post is open to any characters from the Nexus who might run into her after her post-Winter resurrection. If you want your character to encounter a different Guardian in particular or set the thread in one of the settings above, just let me know where in narration and/or the header. :) ))
LOCATION: The Nexus
PARTIES: Unconfirmed total [??]. One [1] Ghost-type, [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [[personal profile] rekindledtitan]
ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Rogers, Steve; Blaze-37; Pelsor; House of Winter
By the time she returns, spring is rolling into summer. There’s a great deal she needs to catch up on – and serious work to be done. Ghost sends out a short message announcing their restoration to the friends they haven’t met with – Tina, Natasha, Adia, Katsuya, the handful of others whose PINpoint numbers they have. Then they report into the Tower, at their commander’s insistence. A very long debrief later, Blaze feels the need to go blow off some steam. When she does get back to the Nexus, it’s with a few new dents
Blaze has no time for standing around the Plaza asking questions, though given the circumstances she’s kind of obliged to show her face. So when she gets back, the first thing the armored Titan does is stride into the centre of the Plaza. She brings her hands together in a thunderclap and a flash of Arc Light, and announces as heads turn to her:
“The Fallen kept their word. The truce is sealed.”
It brings her little joy to do so, but it needs to be done. She doesn’t stand around, though. She needs to get to work. The Fallen presence and its consequences are her responsibility, and she has ground to make up. Anyone who wants to ask her questions will have to keep up as the Guardian heads out of the Nexus settlement.
From there on she can be encountered once more patrolling the Nexus streets and the Wilds, on the watch for any sign of trouble. There’s no more sitting around chatting or tweaking her weapons in plain view. Now she’s on duty at all times. She has patrol beacons to install and monitor, borders to watch over. Darkness to scout for. And the Exo never seems to sleep. Though she returns periodically to the informal Guardian outpost that Steve’s house has turned into, she doesn’t rest there. During noonday sun or gloomy night, her boots ring on the pavement or crunch through leaf litter, and those who want to find her have a good chance of succeeding.
And if not her, then it’s always possible to encounter one of the other Guardians either keeping watch at Steve’s house or roaming about the Nexus. Unlike Blaze, they’ll occasionally stop at a café or bar to sample the local fare, sometimes at peculiar hours. If there’s a ramen bar that stays open until dawn, they’re there.
(( This post is open to any characters from the Nexus who might run into her after her post-Winter resurrection. If you want your character to encounter a different Guardian in particular or set the thread in one of the settings above, just let me know where in narration and/or the header. :) ))
no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 12:36 am (UTC)She tends not to wear a helm in civilian residential areas, so Natasha can see the golden optics fixed fierce and unblinking on her as Blaze approaches. Halts dead a couple feet away. The spy knows her well enough to see the tiny flexing of her hands, the weight shift as she stifles an impulse. Holds back the thing she really wants to do. Beside her Ghost bobs a hesitant little greeting. It's a short silence, objectively, but for Blaze it's uncomfortably drawn out.
"Was starting to worry you wouldn't come," she says gruffly.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 01:02 am (UTC)Instead, relief gives way to shame and guilt. The former spy drops her gaze from them. Reaches out to offer the sidearm back to Blaze.
"I shouldn't even be here now, with how much of a mess things are back home. But if I don't get out from the office sometime I'll go crazy. And.." She makes herself look Blaze in the eye now.
"I owed a friend an explanation. As well as an apology. No matter what I intended, my actions put you both at a permanent risk."
no subject
Date: 2019-06-30 11:24 am (UTC)She looks down, inspecting the sidearm while she processes anew. Something for her fingers to run over. “But you didn’t know and you didn’t do all that. So… I do want that explanation.” Her head lifts sharply, and there’s something urgent and earnest in her voice. “But I wanted to know if you were all right, too."
no subject
Date: 2019-06-30 02:00 pm (UTC)It's no surprise given what the Exo and Ghost know about the events in Steve's world to see just how worn down and tired Natasha is. There's a slump to her shoulders that all of them carry. The weight of their failure resting so heavily on each and every one of them. Shadows under her eyes belying every sleepless night she spends working.
Doing her best to keep things from getting any worse as best as she's able.
"None of us are alright anymore. But we keep going anyway." She heaves a sigh. "What do you still have questions about? I won't waste your time telling you anything you already know."
no subject
Date: 2019-09-03 08:00 pm (UTC)"But I'm still trying to make sense of the whole story. When did it start? How long were you sitting on that plan, trying to figure out when to strike?"
no subject
Date: 2019-09-04 06:16 pm (UTC)It still stings to have intel leaked. Who knows who else he's told. Even though it's working out in her favor now. Saving her the time it'd take to try and explain all of it.
"You've got the wrong idea. You were the last resort. The loophole I'd found in the whims of equally terrifying options imposed by things I can't comprehend the power of." It's a bit difficult to put herself back into the mindset she'd had Before the Snap. It feels like a lifetime ago. But Natasha tries, because Blaze and Ghost are owed an honest answer.
"She came to me in the dead of night. I thought it was Loki, at first. I left the torches to investigate and she gave me her warnings. Her thinly veiled threats. That everyone was in danger of dying if Reynard wasn't appeased. Things had been getting so bad. People were already dying from hunger and cold. I couldn't afford not to take it seriously."
The spy shakes her head slightly before leaning against one of crumbling brick walls surrounding the windmill. Her posture is relaxed enough but her expression is anything but. It's a coiled nest of emotion even after all this time.
"I couldn't kill anyone. That's not...I don't do that anymore. No one that doesn't more than deserve it. I spent weeks looking for a way out. Drawing up contingency plans. And all the while things kept getting worse. By the time we went on the expedition, all I'd thought of was you clearing the minefield. How no one knew you couldn't die. How you and Reynard were well known antagonists to each other. I could give Reynard what he wanted without risking anyone."
She drops her gaze then.
"Or so I thought. Everything else...I didn't plan it much. I'm good at this kind of thing. I saw an opportunity and knew he was close by. I took it." Her shoulders tremble ever so slightly. "I thought you'd be back at my side within an hour, asking me what the hell had gotten into me."
no subject
Date: 2019-09-05 07:45 pm (UTC)"If you'd asked me-" She's not looking at Natasha, now; she's staring those phantoms in the face. "I'd have made the same call. You know that. I'd have been first in line to volunteer. Even if it meant giving Reynard something."
But knowing what would come after... she shakes her head. Focuses on Natasha, on the friend wrestling with her own demons in front of her.
"Did it work?" she asks. This is, perhaps, the part that matters most. Not for exonerating Natasha, but for deciding how Blaze can convince herself feel about it all. "Because Loki made out as if he thinks the crow-god lied to you. But I think, no matter how desperate we were, you're sharper than a whole brace of throwing knives. I wouldn't bet on fooling you. So. Do you think it made a difference?"
no subject
Date: 2019-09-05 08:51 pm (UTC)There's no way of knowing if it was a lie. If it was just a test to see how high the mortal would jump if instructed to just right. But the timing of it keeps coming back to Natasha's mind. How hopeless their situation looked, to anyone working behind the scenes even a little. Natasha remembers Steve collapsing and not waking back up during one of his shifts clearing snow.
"I do. I think, whether it was Reynard we were appeasing or something else doesn't matter. A price needed to be paid. What it gains them I couldn't tell you. But I know what it cost."
It's something Natasha has to live with now. Something she can't blame Blaze or any of her comrades from holding against her until possibly long after she dies.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-08 11:24 am (UTC)She nods, slow but decisive, and holsters the sidearm.
"Well, then," she says. "That's as good as it gets. That's what counts." Not the death she'd choose for herself. Not again. But at least she can believe it worked. Her death would have made a difference, this time.
Some of the tension goes out of her armored shoulders, and then she offers Natasha her hand. "Friends?"
no subject
Date: 2019-09-08 01:24 pm (UTC)Still.
With one less weight pressing so heavily on her slender shoulders Natasha stands a little taller. Less apt to collapse under everything she's taken on. Her gaze slides to Ghost before she reaches up with a hand to shake.
"Of course. I understand if Nike won't forgive me. Or you, Ghost." Steve treats the little bots as if they're people unto themselves. Has for years. Natasha doesn't know for sure but in the absence of half of everything she's been feeling lately like it's worth being possibly naive to treat them that way.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-09 08:46 pm (UTC)"
We can't speak for Nike. But I think she'll understand. I do, too. I trust that you did the right thing to keep everyone safe."Everyone except for him, and his Guardian. It would be a lie to say Ghost doesn't have mixed feelings about it, or that he can put those aside as easily as he knows he should. He doesn't have a lot of practice processing such complicated emotions. Blaze, however, appears to consider the matter settled.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm still angry," she adds, letting Natasha go. "I'm mad at Reynard for what he put us all through. At the Fallen for taking Ghost. I'm mad that I owe my life to those ether-sucking assholes getting their way, even if that was just to sweeten the deal."
no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 10:38 pm (UTC)"I tried to, at least." That much she can promise. Anything more than that is beyond her to know.
"I wish...there was more I could do to help." She barely has the energy to do what needs doing back home though. There's nothing left in her to give for anyone, anywhere, else.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 09:58 pm (UTC)She cocks her head at Natasha. "Not that I need to tell you. Markel says every time you come by the house you're organizing some relief effort or other. Ghost's been talking to Steve a lot but... how are the others?"
no subject
Date: 2019-09-22 07:55 pm (UTC)That stings to admit but Steve has taken their loss pretty hard. He isn't the same anymore. None of them are really but his grief has turned him in onto himself. Pulling away from the company of others. Not quite so bad as Thor, perhaps, but enough that Natasha doesn't speak with him unless there's something that needs doing.
"Tony's going to be a father. He's got himself a quiet home out of the city to settle down in with his--well, effectively his wife." Natasha's pretty sure Blaze never met Pepper so she doesn't bother to bring the woman up. "The rest of us...we do what we can. Whoever's left. Sometimes it feels like it's pointless, but I don't stop."