( OPEN ) mister blue sky, please tell us why.

[godslay]

Who: Gamora (godslay) & YOU
What: A catch-all for January.
When: Throughout the month.
Where: Mostly Wyver.
Warning(s): None so far?


1 ) That's Not a Horse

[ Gamora does not have experience with dragons. There were none on her planet, and even less in space, but in Wyver, that isn’t the case.

She’s also discovered that traveling can be a pain, and with the availability of mounts (which she hasn’t acquired for herself yet), she’s drawn to the wyverns she’s regularly seen. She’d prefer something that wasn’t, you know, alive, but given the options, she’s willing to take one for a test-drive, to see what she thinks.

The reins are handed off to her, and she leads a beautiful red wyvern towards the city gates. She runs a palm down the beast’s broad neck, feeling its scales with appreciation, and when it turns its head to meet her eyes, she stares right back into the reptilian slits.

A quiet hiss, and Gamora reaches out to set her hand on its snout. It doesn’t snap at her, and instead, slowly blinks in quiet acceptance.

She’s just about to climb aboard, because she’s going on an adventure.

Come along for a ride? ]

2 ) Stay The Night

[ It’s nearly nightfall out in the Undergrowth, and Gamora’s wyvern is getting fidgety. She remembers what she was told about sending the beast home if she wouldn’t return before sundown, so she pulls the reins taut to stop the mount, glancing over her shoulder at her companion. ]

We should find somewhere to stay out here. He needs to return to the city, and he won’t be willing to take us with him in a few minutes.

[ The wyvern hisses and shakes out its head, tugging against its bridle. ]

… The sooner we get off, the better.

3 ) Disturbing The Dead ( A )

[ Gamora has adjusted to making a living since joining the Guardians. Earning units where they could was normal, which is why picking up odd jobs for silver doesn’t bother her.

So here she is, wandering through this damned crypt with anyone unlucky enough to join her.

She has an excellent sense of her surroundings. She can usually detect traps with little trouble, but when ghosts come into the mix, it’s hard to focus on possible trip wires that will dump her and whoever’s joined her into a dark, unwelcoming pit.

An unholy howl fills the crypt’s passage, and as Gamora whirls around to search for the source, her ankle catches on—

Oh, damn it.

The ground drops out beneath her, and there’s going to be a lot of tumbling down to land in a tangle of limbs in the dark.

Gamora gives a short grunt of annoyance as she lands directly on top of someone.

Oops. ]

4 ) Disturbing the Dead ( B )

[ This has been a long, miserable haul through the dark, and Gamora is in no mood for shenanigans.

At the end of the maze is a stockpile of dusty odds and ends that look like they might be valuable.

Crouching down by the heirlooms, Gamora lifts one up to give it a once-over. ]

This had better be what they want.

5 ) Wildcard

( ooc: have something in mind? hit me up @ poprocks ! )

Comments

[godslay]

[ She wants to argue. She wants to continue insisting that Peter doesn't know Thanos, because they'll still be at a disadvantage. Thanos will still be formidable and dangerous, completely capable of hurting her friends. What if he catches them off guard? What if they don't realize he's awake until it's too late? They can't spend every moment watching his pod, waiting just in case he comes out of stasis.

She frowns at Peter, almost baffled by his determination. ]

How can you know that?

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He lifts both shoulders in a shrug. ]

I dunno. I guess I can't know until we're doing it.

[ And there's a thread of his usual irreverence, but he is taking this seriously, and hopefully Gamora will be able to see it in his body language – the way he sits up straight, the way his jaw is set in a determined line, the way he holds her gaze unswervingly. ]

But we've done some pretty stupid stuff together and come out on top, somehow. This is just more of the same, right?

[godslay]

[ She stares at Peter for a long moment, like she's waiting for him to give some sign that he's only saying this to distract her from her concerns – empty reassurances to allay anxiety. But... he seems to believe it, and the fact that he's so convinced they can handle Thanos might even help.

Ever so slightly. ]

... I hope you're right.

[ It's not agreement, because Gamora can't set aside all of those worries, but it's also not continued insistence that he's wrong or otherwise.

Peter's new friend seems to have finished the little pile of fruit left out, and Ducky returns to sit near Peter, stretching its long neck out to coo at his elbow. Gamora glances over at him, and though amusement doesn't bleed into her voice or her expression, she's still almost entertained to see the silly creature returning to Peter's side yet again. ]

We will need to be prepared.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ When he hears Ducky at his side again, hears the creature trilling for attention some like needy kitten, Peter doesn't glance over, focused as he is on Gamora. He does, however, reach out, resting his hand on the long neck. ]

Lots and lots of guns, you mean? I bet Rocket knows a guy.

[godslay]

[ That seems to appease the beast, and it settles to offer soft little chirps whenever Peter speaks, but otherwise, doesn't continue to demand focus. ]

It will need to be an especially big gun.

[ Another Hadron Enforcer sounds about right. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter rewards the creature by smoothing his hand up and down its neck. ]

I'm sure we could throw something together.

[ ...they may need to get up onto Thesa Station and play lookout for Rocket while he dismantles a section of the place, but, hey. Whatever works. ]

[godslay]

[ By "we," she knows he means Rocket, and she also realizes: ]

Things around here are too rudimentary for what we need.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter points up toward the sky – or more specifically, the moon. ]

Not up there, they're not.

[godslay]

[ Her eyes wander up to the moon, considering, before she looks back to Peter. ]

You think we could get the technology back here?

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He snorts out a laugh, and with his free hand, he finds another twig to mess with. ]

Sure, if by that you mean "pull back a panel and yank stuff out before anyone notices."

[godslay]

... That's reassuring.

[ She definitely means the opposite of that. ]

It doesn't seem like we could build an actual arsenal from a few wires and stolen pieces.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ A pause – a quick concession that she may have a point – but then— ]

What if they're really good stolen pieces?

[godslay]

[ ... And she still doesn't look convinced. ]

Rocket is good, Peter, but I doubt he's that good.

[ Never tell Rocket she said that. Never. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He lets out a small hum, tipping his head to one side. ]

We have time.

[ A little more soberly than before. ]

Or at least, I gotta figure we have time, if the guy still hasn't woken up. We'll get it figured out.

[godslay]

The time it takes for us to wake seems arbitrary. Now that there are more of us from our world, it may only be weeks before Thanos does the same.

[ That's the worst part of it, really. They have no way of knowing how long it will take before he's roaming the station and then the planet. ]

But we have time. In theory.

[nostalgiabomb]

We have time. Full stop.

[ And he says it with a little more certainty. ]

We've got at least one advantage: we know he's here, but he won't know that we're here.

[ Though realistically, Thanos would really only care about Gamora. But the point still stands; it's better to present a united front, right? ]

We have a level playing field, here. We may not have much, but neither will he. And you know his tactics. You know how he thinks. That's huge.

[godslay]

[ There's... something oddly reassuring about the "we" that Peter is so adamant about.

We have time.

We have an advantage.

We know he's here.

When Gamora ran from her father, she did so alone. She betrayed him and broke away by herself because she didn't think anyone would join her or stay by her side, and she wasn't going to risk her freedom when she was already signing her own death certificate by considering stealing the orb in the first place. She thought that she'd be running from Thanos for the rest of her life, alone and trusting no one, but—

Here are her friends. Here is her family.

The way she nods is less reluctant, the barest flicker of something softer in her eyes – though easily a trick of the firelight. ]

He won't be able to predict how we fight.

[ Because maybe he knows Gamora, but he doesn't know the Guardians.

Another moment, and that softness is overwritten by wariness again. ]

You know what committing to this could mean, don't you?

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He thinks that the comment is a step in the right direction, though he can't quite tell by her face, by her tone. He has to figure it's a good sign, though, right?

At her question, he frowns, trying to figure out what sort of answer she's looking for.

He settles on, ]

Thaaat we're ridding the galaxy of one of the shittiest, awfulest, evilest megalomaniacs ever?

[godslay]

[ There it is: one of Gamora's almost smiles, startled out of her by some of Peter's patent absurdity.

It's not the answer she intended, but it somehow makes this easier.

That does not, however, make the reality much brighter. ]

It means that you could die, Peter. That all of us could.

[ Because that's what Thanos does: he conquers and destroys. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He falls silent for a second, and during that moment, Ducky trills at him, almost frustrated by the quiet, like a pet whose owner has stopped stroking its back.

At length, Peter offers another small shrug. ]

That's been a possibility for most of our jobs, to be fair.

[godslay]

This time is different.

[ Going up against Ronan had felt like suicide, had been dangerous and stupid and everything in between, but even with an Infinity Stone, she'd been determined to throw herself into stopping him. She'd wanted so badly to save Xandar, because—

Because she hadn't saved her own planet, hadn't even had the chance. Because she'd taken so many lives at the behest of Thanos and Ronan alike, and—

And she'd wanted to stop him. She'd been willing to commit herself to 12% of a plan.

This bare concept still scares her. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

I don't see how.

[ Peter's trying not to sound too skeptical, but he doesn't quite succeed. ]

Every job we take, we're rolling the dice, you know? We've been lucky, most of the time, but we've always been risking the possibility that one or all of us won't come back.

[godslay]

There is more certainty with this.

[ —but is there? That's what Gamora keeps coming back to, keeps getting caught on. Is Thanos's threat reality or is it, in part, something engrained in her perception of him?

She seems to have a moment of realizing how she sounds insisting like that, and she frowns, pressing fingertips briefly to her forehead. ]

Or it— feels like there is.

[ And how often does Gamora go off of "feeling" – something distinctly different from trained instinct? ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter takes a second to study her; his initial instinct is to insist that this isn't any different from their normal jobs, to remind her that they were getting shot at pretty routinely, but it suddenly occurs to him that it's weird that he has to be the one to remind her of this. Under normal circumstances, this feels like a conversation they'd be having the other way around.

As she pauses, second guessing herself, Peter chews on his lower lip in thought. ]

The stuff with Ronan. With the Infinity Stone. We thought for sure we were all gonna die, right? But we didn't back down from that.

[godslay]

Ronan was not Thanos.

[ Immediate and sure. ]

I trained under Ronan, I knew him for what he was.

[ A boy wielding power he didn't understand, throwing a tantrum over his own radical, destructive politics. ]

It's who we face now, and Thanos is more than the simple fanatic Ronan was.

[ But— he isn't wrong. She'd been ready and willing to die for the sake of stopping Ronan, so instead... ]

If we had failed on Xandar, we would have died and nothing more. Thanos—

[ A short shake of her head, her jaw gone tight. ]

Thanos will make us wish for death before he grants it.

[ But he surely would kill them, in the end. ]