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

[outpostcook]

When he sees Blaze and Ghost, Kinner salutes them. Blaze had been his general, if for a short time, and he's relieved to see that she's back in business.They don't know each other well, but she has the little cook's respect. He has questions, but first he wants to make it clear he's glad they're back.

"Hello, Blaze. You too, Ghost. I'm relieved to see you're back all right. Hope those brutes weren't too rough on you." Kinner sighs, sitting down. He has to bring this up, since Blaze is the only one who knows about what the Fallen are and how to deal with them. First, apologies and thanks are due. "Sorry I wasn't there to try and stop you from bein' taken - I was too busy trying not to get shot. Those bastards are good fighters. Barely got outta there alive. But when I heard you were back, I had to try and find you. Thank you for everything."

"Truce aside, there's too many of 'em to kick out." He looks in the direction of the Wilds. "The Baroness doesn't strike me as someone who'd pack her bags and leave if we asked politely, either. Guess we have to learn to live with each other, if she's willing." Kinner's not really happy with the truce. It was made under a threat to murder hostages, and the Fallen still refused to communicate properly. It's better than a war, but that doesn't make it a good option. "I'm surprised after everything she's pulled, that's all it took for her to back off. Do you think the land's what she wanted all along?" Kinner shrugs. In the winter, at the height of Pelsor's strength, he doubts she would have stopped at that. "I still think she'd have killed all of us without a lick of guilt back in Reynard's winter if it wasn't for those torches, but better late than never. You and the other Guardians around might help encourage 'em to keep playing nice for now."

Kinner doesn't like not knowing what the Fallen plan to do in the Nexus, especially since he has a feeling the aliens are keeping everyone out for a reason. They're pirates, Blaze had said. Somehow he doubts the Fallen intend to sit quietly in the Wilds and mind their own business. The way they strongarmed the Nexus into going along with their deal through taking hostages still rankles, and the fact they can go where they please while the Nexusers can't keep an eye on them feels unfair.

"As an idea, I was thinking we could do an inventory of what we know they took. Won't be perfect, but it might give us some clues and we wouldn't have to risk Pelsor's truce. There's just too many unanswered questions for me to feel completely good about this. How they got here, why they attacked us, what their plans are now..." The cook shakes his head. "We should be ready. There'll be another winter, and I'm not sure we can trust Pelsor to keep her truce if conditions change to suit her again. Someone who attacks children and the sick is hardly someone I'm willing to put faith in, and I doubt her attitude's really changed. Ghost, uh, did you see anything or get any sense of what they were up to while you were a prisoner?"

[readvondaniken]

"Oh! There you guys are!" Palmer comes to Blaze, a grin on his face. "I was real worried about you two when I heard what happened." He hangs his head slightly. "Sorry nobody was there to stop them from taking you, Ghost. It was nuts out there. You two did an excellent job. It was an honor. To tell you the truth, I almost left the Nexus after everything went down, but you two know what's waiting for me back home. The House of Winter are bad, yeah, but if I face the Thing I'll die."

Palmer considers letting Blaze know that her spot on his team is still open, but he decides against it. She's got bigger problems now. He mutters a four-letter word under his breath, directed at the Baroness. Pelsor might have screwed up his one chance at getting back to Outpost 31 safely, and he's not happy about that.

"I'm guessing Pelsor still hates us, even after we accepted her truce and gave her the home she wanted so badly. We were pretty generous, all things considered, after everything her House did to us. A 'thank you' would've been nice." The mechanic snorts in contempt. "That's gratitude for you. At least they're keeping their word." While they got what they wanted, the Fallen, if inadvertently, had kept Palmer away from his goal. The irony isn't lost on him. "As someone who was chased outta my home, I almost feel kinda bad for the Fallen after what Loki said about 'em. If they hadn't killed people and made a mess outta the Nexus." Palmer has the sense Pelsor would bite off any hand offered to her, however friendly. "Get the feeling they wouldn't return the favor, though." He cracks a bitter smile.

After a moment, Palmer turns thoughtful. "Loki seemed to think you could tell us why the Fallen hate everybody, Blaze. They think you took something from them. Light. You don't strike me as a thief. Maybe there's some kinda misunderstanding. They don't really give off a vibe of being great listeners."

[red_room]

It feels easier to refer to Steve's old house as Guardian HQ for the Nexus. It's not like any of them have been back much since Thanos. Might as well be theirs. When Natasha walks through the house it's still clear that this home once belonged to Steve Rogers. It's in the photos still lining the walls. The sketchbooks still littering the bookshelves full of eclectic mishmashed selections based on every suggestion that was ever given to his List. There's even hints of Natasha staying here, if one knows where to look. The other guardians have doubtless found her weapons cache by now hidden away behind a false panel but they've graciously not touched it.

It's second nature for the spy to load herself out with easily hidden weaponry when she arrives. The goal is a simple one today, even a meager one for a woman once so dedicated to watching over the Nexus. She's just here to get a few groceries. Or so she claimed, but this is a meeting Natasha has put off for long enough.

She sends Ghost a message as she's leaving the front door.

"Closest rendezvous point?"

somewhere in the woods--no major agenda here, just reminding them Loki exists

[coldsong]

Blaze and Ghost will probably pass Loki's cabin now and again as they patrol the Wilds. It's at the edge, close enough to the Plaza that the AV field is thin but not necessarily inactive, and easily bolstered by Loki's shielding. No one will bother them, either way. The symbol of the twin-horned helmet and Asgard's royal crest on the door may clue them in as to who lives there, but aside from a redheaded girl peering through a window once, no one will take notice.

But Loki knows who passes close to his wards, and sooner or later he's bound to seek them out.

They probably weren't looking forward to encountering Loki in any form, but even if so, chances are this is not one they'd have expected. It's mid-morning when a whistle comes from the side of the path they're traversing, and looking up reveals a slender feminine form in white and green, perched in the bottom branches of a tree. The woman appears to be picking early summer apples, and she is not alone. Two others--a redhead who looks little more than a teenager, and a younger girlchild in a violet and gold dress--are higher in the tree. The redhead is picking. The little one is mostly eating.

"Blaze, Ghost," the woman calls in greeting, and drops to the ground to walk toward them. Barefoot and in long skirts, she looks like she stepped out of a John William Waterhouse painting.

"Hello. It's Loki," she says mildly. She's not in the mood to play games with her identity today, but she might just be curious to see their reaction.

[fiveofnone]

Ghost's message to Adia is replied to quickly and with great relief. She asks after the both of them, making sure that they're both functional, and promising to visit them soon.

But it's not Adia who tracks them down on one of their patrols. It's Caspar. He intercepts them where the relative safety of the Plaza starts to give way to the Wilds, not saying anything at first, just looking at Blaze and Ghost as if needing reassurance with his own eyes that they're alive.

"You okay?" he asks Ghost specifically. He shifts his gaze to Blaze. "And you? What the hell happened out there?"