vatheon | Come Fly with Me

Entry tags:

Come Fly with Me

Who: Jade Curtiss

bootsweremadeforcasting & Alister Azimuth

double_edged
When: Evening Apr. 10
Where: Junkyard
Style: Prose or action
Status: Closed, unless you're intent on stalking either of them

It's entirely out of his character to do such a thing. After all, Jade was a man of logic, not sentimentality, but curiosity plagued him. The metal rose, one of the items given to him post Alister's leaving, was something Jade had pondered far longer than he would have admitted. It wasn't a preoccupation, but it was something Jade wanted to know the significance of. Normal friends didn't give each other hand-crafted metal roses.

Even if Alister didn't remember it, maybe it had some significance in Lombax culture. It wasn't normal for people on his world, but maybe on the Lombax planet, it signified friendship. He wasn't sure and he didn't want to make assumptions about it, specifically when he could ask the man himself. He didn't know if it'd produce anything, but he had the omniwrench in his arm as well, just to see if Alister wanted it back as well.

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No, he sure didn't. The message in itself was vague and difficult to discern, but he had to admit to some curiousity, himself. What could the Colonel need to talk about so abruptly, and why did he wait? If it was important, shouldn't it have been said straight from the moment they'd 'reunited'? All this and more flows through his mind, going with his gut (and a few peeks at the network map) to find where the junkyard was.

Also, why the junkyard? Had that been the Lombax's former residence before he'd disappeared? Surely someone as dignified as the Colonel wouldn't be caught dead in such a filthy location. The General, however, had no qualms. Supplies could be found where no one else would need them anymore, and they were abundant. It was convenient for a Lombax, despite the stench and disease riddled along with it.

And the surprises continue.

Not only does the Lombax find his companion, but... something else familiar within his grasp. It requires a double-take to notice properly, but... was that what the Colonel needed to talk about? Had he found his long-lost wrench?

"Good... afternoon, Colonel Curtiss. I trust you've been well?" A bit of hesitance, but honestly - what was even going on?

He wasn't sure if he outright stated his intentions that Alister would deem it worthy for him to come, but the point was that his objective was achieved when he caught sight of that furred head. He was indeed sitting outside the Lombax's former shack, the one he'd retreated to after the incident with Jade's leg and an unfortunate... accident.

Jade smiled a bit, and there was a pause before Jade shifted his weight to heave the Omniwrench to the Lombax. He was sure he'd appreciate his weapon back, and Jade had his own he could certainly keep.

"This was yours." He waited until the Lombax was paying attention to him again before he lobbed the next item to the Lombax. That hand-crafted Metal Rose; something Jade never understood. He'd told Alister about his allergy to roses, Alister disappears, and suddenly he leaves this to Jade like a farewell gift. Jade had felt unsettled by it, much as he didn't want to admit.

He'd see the reaction before saying anything.

Well, the Omniwrench had surely seen better days, from the looks of it. He had to appreciate the idea of the Colonel holding onto his prized weapon like that, for however long he'd been gone. So he steps forward, taking the wrench first, twirling it in his grasp and shrinking it down to fit on the Lombax's back, a smirk on his face.

"I hope this doesn't mean I owe you any favors. I just got here, after all."

Still, if the man had asked for anything, he would have followed through out of common decency. If he cared enough to look after something like that for so long, as damaged as it was, the General still held a sense of honor to those who deserved it. That said, as he starts to take his leave, the Lombax pauses in his footing to eye the next item - something he certainly hadn't remembered carrying before.

He remembered the custom, however, and could clearly tell the make was Lombax.

He's quiet for awhile, staring and staring and trying to make the connection between the Colonel and the rose. Surely... no. It was foolish to even consider. Why would he give the man something so...

"Aren't you going to take me to dinner, first?" Said with a smirk, concealing his true intentions. Just what was really going on, here?

Jade didn't want to conceal anything, or not cover everything. This was something he wanted information about, the thing that Jade had never gotten his head around.

"When you left Vatheon, we were good friends. Comrades. I went to find you one day and you were gone. In your place, I found a small cat you had taken in, the Omniwrench, and that flower, left for me by you. You seemed to anticipate vanishing, so you left a "care package" as it were. You gave me that metal rose, and I never understood why."

He'd wait to see what else the Lombax would say, "I take it that it's a romantic tradition."

The wrench was understandable, as was the cat. He... couldn't pinpoint his - or, his former self's - reasons for doing so, but he would peg it towards keeping his most prized possession in good hands during his absence, and not allowing harm to fall such a defenseless creature.

The rose, however...

There's a visible wince at those words; a 'romantic tradition'. Memories he doesn't want to relive, and the Lombax has to glance away momentarily.

"It..." He starts, opening his mouth to speak, but quickly shutting it again. How could he word this in a way that didn't sound like complete drivel? "There... is a tradition, back on my home planet. If a Lombax were to find a mate-spirit, something physical would be crafted to seal the bind."

He has to stop for a moment, brow furrowing in deep thought.

"I've only done so once before. It wasn't here."

Jade tilted his head at Alister, frowning a little that was more in concentration than anything negative. He couldn't feel angry at him. All he felt was confusion. Had Alister felt that way about him, really? Mate-spirit was a foreign word, but the intention was clear.

Jade didn't say anything for a while. Alister didn't remember how he felt towards Jade then, and he probably couldn't guess now. There's a small bit of.. A conflicted emotion. Did he want that sort of emotion from Alister? That sort of... Was it truly a hassle? No, it was something more than that. He drew into himself, pensive and frustrated. This was... No...

No one expressed that kind of emotion, but Alister didn't know him like that anymore. It was gone. No explanations, no understanding. Did Alister really intend that? Did he really think of Jade like that? What would Jade have said, were the circumstances different?

Sorry, Alister, he's processing and it's not going well.

The conversation quickly traversed from strange, to awkward. There wasn't much he was comfortable talking about, with someone he'd currently considered both a comrade, and a stranger at the same time. And from the looks of things, that stranger was becoming less and less comfortable with their position as well.

It... was something they should talk about. But it wasn't. What could he do? Should he just walk off, leave the Colonel with his thoughts? Or struggle to recall a reality that never existed for him?

"I may have said too much."

"No, I... Wasn't expecting." Jade stayed there, still processing. He wanted to talk about it, to sort things out. It seemed to be a love confession and a proposal in one metal flower, and yet the proposer had left Jade months ago. He was back and no longer wanted that, and Jade wasn't sure if he did either. Commitment, especially the romantic kind was foreign and confusing, and Alister wasn't even from this planet or Auldrant or... Anywhere Jade remotely knew. The situation was...

Tricky? No, worse.

"My apologies." It was best they left it alone. "What's past is past." There's a certain twinge in Jade's eye. A wince that said that Jade wanted to deal with this, but.. something ceased him from doing so. He furrowed his brows. "You have your things. My apologies for the trip.."

"We're not finished here." The General's affirmation is strong, his stance firm. He might have said too much, but there was still much that needed to be said. Mainly, who he had been before, and why.

"You seem to know the most about me, above everyone else. Tell me; what do you know, that I don't? Who am I, Colonel?"

Jade frowned. he never liked being commanded at. It was why he liked his post; he gave orders, people followed. Rarely was it the other way around. But now. He was held back by that biting curiosity, that desire to know what the full situation was. But still, for Jade it was unsolvable, impossible. Alister had no idea who he was when he was here so long ago, paranoid and frustrated and trying to protect Jade from the horrors Vatheon sometimes inflicted on them. No, he was held back by a desire to help a close comrade, a friend, even.

"I don't know what I can tell you; what you want to know." He never was good at explaining, and certainly not now.

All that time stranded on Torren, he started to forget how to make friends. It was lonely, it was desolate, and all he'd had to keep him company were the nightmares that had plagued him, again and again of all the comrades he'd betrayed. So many good Lombaxes, facing a horror he wouldn't wish on even Nefarious himself. And now, he'd still had a friend here he didn't remember. The Lombax clenches his jaw, glaring down the other man for just a moment, before his expression softens into something calmer, worried.

"Please. If you can try--" The General stops himself, sighing softly before his voice comes again, quieter. "I want to understand, too."

Jade didn't like that expression, at least not turned on him. Maybe this was how people felt when Jade confronted them. He wasn't cowed, nor was he afraid, as sometimes people were when Jade came after them. He was, however, frustrated and he remained sitting on the box with his elbows on his knees and his gaze elsewhere. He rubbed his face, avoiding his glasses. There was a sigh and Jade shook his head.

"I... We were friends. Comrades in arms, as it were. We'd spent a lot of time working together and despite our scraps and arguments, we retained a very good standing with each other. Then...

You started getting paranoid, afraid of the Coral and your mind began to.. deteriorate. As our friendship grew, I was... worried for you. Ratchet and Angela both disappeared and you seemed to lose it right before you disappeared from the bubble as well. When you left, you left this note-"

Right next to him, there was a note on an outhanging part from the shack.

"The wrench, the kitten, and that rose. I didn't know what it meant, and it wasn't explained. I supposed it was just a gift, given that I told you of my allergy to roses. Something that seemed like a gag. I... Didn't know its real meaning.."

All at once, Jade's words muffle out and the Omniwrench clatters out of the General's hands, forgotten on the ground as he just... stares. And stares. His blood runs cold and gloved hands clench into fists not too soon after, fangs visible in a scowl at the man sitting before him.

Ratchet was here? How-- why? And why hadn't anyone felt fit to inform him of this? What did he mean by 'disappeared'? What had happened to his friend.

The General's once-concern boils into an infathomable rage, and he's rushing over, grabbing the Colonel by the hem of his uniform, holding him back up to a proper eye level. "What do you mean he disappeared?! Ratchet was here? Where did he go? What happened to him?"

Part of it was anger, but the shakiness of the Elder's voice alluded otherwise. Now he was terrified, having assumed the younger Lombax was still safe and sound at home when it was clearly not the case.

"Talk to me!"

Jade grabs at Alister's hands, not necessarily shoving them off, but making sure he didn't rip at his uniform or grab at his actual neck. The bits and pieces of the junk shack poked through his uniform in the back, pressing at his skin but drawing no blood. He frowned tightly. Part of him felt... A certain sense of hurt by Alister's actions. He'd changed so quickly from concern and trust to hatred for something that most certainly wasn't Jade's fault. And yelling in Jade's face was not a point in the Lombax's favor.

"Calm yourself, General." His voice was commanding, and all care flashed from Jade's eyes into a collected and militaristic expression with his jaw set and his eyes hard. He knew this wouldn't end well.

"Ratchet is back in his own universe. I have no control over how he comes and goes and where he is at any given point, so yelling at me will get you nowhere." He took his hold on Alister's hands and shoved them off before he attempted to move around the General and towards the entrance of the junkyard.

"You have your things. I'm going to the apartment." His voice was cruelly cold, frustrated. He shouldn't be. He shouldn't feel like this. It was stupid, Alister cared more for the boy than anything else and Jade should have expected some reaction. But something about just how Alister had...

Whatever. It wasn't his problem. Alister didn't remember and Jade would just take that as it was.

"...wait."

It comes after awhile, and Jade might have made it a good distance away before he finally speaks, but it comes nonetheless. It's tired, frustrated, and soft. But he's not screaming anymore and the General doesn't even bother to turn around, to face his friend.

"It's just... I don't... understand why this wasn't brought to my attention earlier. Where we're from-- Ratchet, he's..." The Lombax sighs, running a hand over his face to pinch the brim of his nose. "Do you ever have someone who means the Universe to you? If you heard they were suffering somehow, and it was kept from you. You would be upset, too. Right?"

A twitch of the tail, and the General moves to pick up his weapon.

"I'm sorry."

Jade was indeed a bit away when he heard Alister's words, and he didn't stop so much as slow his pace. He set his jaw and looked irritably at the ground. Nebilim, Peony, Luke... He wondered. Did he have it in him to be upset? Peony's near-death had set him off so badly he'd killed three other men, barely sparing Guy and Anise.

Nebilim... She was in different times. But... He would surely have reacted different from Alister, he knew.

"Because I knew you would be upset, and there didn't seem to be a point where mention of him was necessary. He is gone back to his homeworld and I am hardly in any condition to assess his status. Nobody kept the information from you intentionally, I'm sure." Jade's voice is still sharply cold and mechanistic. He sounds unfeeling and more like a soldier than he had before, retreating behind his defensive walls.

Making friends here was not worth the effort, it seemed.

"I have nothing left. I made... foolish mistakes, again and again, nearly costing him his life shortly before I'd arrived here." He isn't sure why he's being so open to this man; they'd had something before, something he didn't remember. It opened up a little more trust, perhaps.

"Please, if you ever see anyone that could have some relation to myself... tell me immediately. That's all I can ask."

The city could, apparently, restore the dead as well. He would need to keep an even closer eye out for any dangers as well. Tachyon, Nefarious, Vorselon... maybe even himself. Who knew?

"As for us, as it stands, you're a comrade. I don't have enough knowledge to currently consider you anything more, at the moment, but... the Universe works in strange and cruel ways. Anything could happen."

Jade said nothing for a long while. He just stood there quietly, contemplatively. When he'd decided, he nodded and said something akin to 'of course' and continued on his path out of the junkyard. He would have kept the note, but for now, he decided it better for Alister to have it. So it remained on the seat where Jade had been sitting, teetering on the edge from the rough movement Alister had made against the Colonel.

Maybe it's better, Jade thought, to just keep everyone at arm's length again. Luke had made him too soft, caring. He didn't need that, this was proof. Specifically in this kind of place.

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Come Fly with Me

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