Excerpt 009: Unsettled (Open to All)

[rekindledtitan]

TYPE: 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. :) ))

Comments

[rekindledtitan]

“Ghost’s not as vulnerable as you think,” she points out, a little defensive. Having been caught out that badly in Winter is still a sore spot, and she's inclined to think it's given the wrong impression. The Fallen had more than luck on their side, that day. “More than I am, though. What’s the point of having a walking tank if they aren’t the one exposing themselves? Hell, what’s the point of being immortal if you won’t take the jump?”

At least, her sort of immortal. Guardians exist for a very specific purpose, and it’s one that demands audacity. Bravery in the extreme. …And sooner or later, a final death. None of them go peacefully. She’s not so quick to answer Loki’s latter questions, though. Ghost has vanished again as they follow the trail, so for a pointed moment there’s only the sound of their footsteps on the forest floor. The wind. Loki’s breathing, faintly. The smell of sulphur and Inanna palms.

Does it do something for you?

“Not the way you’re making it sound.” The Exo’s tone has changed. It’s not cold, nor angry, but there’s none of her easy-going cheer or even the protest that her voice held a moment ago. She’s serious now. Matter-of-fact. “Your second death is terrifying. Always is. By the time you quit counting, you don’t even think about it. Sometimes it’s over before you know it and sometimes it’s another horror lodged in your head. Either way, it’s all just part of the rhythm. I don’t think it ever gets fun. As for coming back, that’s- hnh. Guess you could call it a rush. Of a kind. It’s not the fun part.”

She looks down at her right gauntlet, the careful inscription marked out there. The Last and Surest Argument. “I’m a Striker Titan. Started out that way, anyhow. That means drawing fire, hitting the enemy head on, throwing yourself at a tank because you can- that’s what we do. That’s exhilarating. Getting up knowing the universe just tried to put you down again and you just laughed in its face, that’s a high. Getting blown to shrapnel by the tank, well, that part not so much.”

[coldsong]

"You don't know what I think," Loki tells her gently. "Not really. I'm the god of lies. You know what I've told you I think. What I have said, I have said in good faith--I often do speak in good faith, even when I tell only a partial truth--but I rarely tell anyone the full scope of what's going on in my head."

She listens then, quieting as she senses Blaze's subtle shift in mood, and doesn't interrupt. When she trails off though, Loki takes a breath.

"You must follow the call of your nature. I understand that. We are what we are. I only seek to remind you that not all sacrifices are needed. Living is often a better solution to a problem than dying. Even temporarily."

[rekindledtitan]

That's a scalpel cuts both ways, Blaze thinks: you don't have to be a liar nor a god to be confusing nor complicated. Hell, she's spent years trying to be as plain and simple as her words, and that turned out to be a non-starter the whole time. On account of her own nature, as a matter of fact. Everyone has their secrets. But it is easy to believe Loki has more than most. She seems the type to collect them.

Blaze looks up and frowns at Loki for a few moments when the woman speaks again. The Exo shakes her head then, whether in rejection or just shaking herself out of her own thoughts.

"So I keep hearing." She looks ahead, at the trail of rot. It brings to mind another moment (another season, a different companion but so much the same) and unconsciously she picks up her pace as she talks. Can't be far. It's never far enough for comfort. "You a god of teaching too or is this more enlightened self-interest?"

[coldsong]

Loki will never stop believing there's something hidden beneath Blaze's recklessness. Maybe she's off the mark there, missing what's hidden within what. But she's said her piece now, and the way the mood has gotten strangely subdued tells her something has been heard.

And what of Loki herself? "I don't know," she says. "I think I began lying when I realized telling the truth didn't actually alter anything. One can talk and talk until one runs out of air, and time, but teaching and advice depend on the listener. Without someone who cares to hear, words uttered by a silver tongue are empty noises and no more."

"I make sure my truths are especially pretty," she adds. "So that they have that much going for them at least, should they be ignored."

And then she smiles. "Lies, on the other hand, have lives of their own. People cannot help but imbue them with their own needs. A good person needs to prove them wrong, or to find the truth they conceal. A wicked person may seek to further them for his own ends. The truth whispers; lies sing."

"But it is always better to say something, true or false, than to be made silent."

[rekindledtitan]

"Hmmh." It's a foreign mindset, one she can't readily understand. "The truth can hit like a sack of hammers sometimes. If you didn't already know it."

Can upend things just when you think you have them all figured out, even. There's a reason she favors straightforwardness. Clarity. Something reliable to hold onto. Then, verbal persuasion has never been her strong suit.

"I've got no patience for that," she says, eyes on the trail. This she is sure of, this and the enemy alien waiting for them at its end. "It's hard enough figuring out who you are and what's going on, without someone setting out to misinform."

[coldsong]

"Only if you believe it," Loki says with a wry smile. "When someone tells it to you."

Loki looks over at her thoughtfully and gives a gentler nod. She's never going to change her mind about what lies are and what they're good for, but if anyone has sympathy regarding working out one's own identity, it's her. "It is hard. I agree."

Returning her gaze to the trail, she adds, "But lies are, at the heart of them, stories. And stories can make things clearer, not because they offer us what is, but because they inform us of what could be, if we dare to make it so."

"Do you have a favorite story?" This could be a rhetorical trap, but it's not meant to be, for once. They're walking in the woods. Storytelling seems appropriate.