strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-in Day

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[GP/EP] Check-in Day

The woodwinds in her collection were for noodling mostly, and the violin was for memory of her family, but when Curnen really wanted to play she turned again and again to her guitar. This would probably always be her best instrument. It was the first of the month, she’d been here over a year, and it was probably a check-in day. So she sat on the lawn with her instrument in her lap, sending out a subtle magic to call anyone stranded in their little world this way.

At one point, though, she set aside the guitar and turned her face to the sky. For just a few minutes she required a different kind of magic.

It had been a week now since Scanlan had vanished in the battle. And Pike, too, though Curnen honestly couldn’t have cared less about her going away if she tried. Still. The two of them were family to people very dear to her, people who missed them. And Scanlan had been her friend. You marked something like that with a song.

Of all the money that e'er I had
I spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas, it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

It was a traditional Irish goodbye, a farewell to friends said with love, drinking, well wishes, and the hope of meeting again. She couldn’t think of a better one for the occasion. And as she sang she twined her magic into her voice in a new way, sending the song to any ears that needed it, ears of those who knew and missed the departed. Not all of them might understand it, not all of them knew what she was, but she didn’t particularly care about that right now. The song was more important than the hiding.

Once the last note had dissipated she picked up her guitar again and resumed her work. If there were anybody out there, they had to know where to go.

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Tony didn't so much sit on the stool so much as he fell onto it rear-end first. The thermos hit the counter with a 'thunk' and he apologized.

"Refill. Please. Something sweet."

"Arrival days can be difficult," Xavin sympathized, immediately taking the thermos. Something sweet - a hazelnut mocha that was more like flavored hot chocolate it was, then! Soothing and still technically coffee. She started steaming milk. "People arriving, people not arriving."

For some, the worst part of arrival days was the persistent disappointment. "Do you need a cookie as well?" It was not mockery. She really had cookies.

"I nearly killed a man." Tony unscrewed the top of the steel container. "Sure. I'll have it."

"Why?" Surely there was a reason. Xavin put a couple of cookies on a plate - one chocolate chip, one peanut butter since it occurred to her that she didn't actually know what kind of cookies Mr. Stark liked - and put it in front of him.

Tony broke off a piece of the peanut butter. His blood sugar could stabilize another day. If he wasn't letting himself drink, the edge had to come off somehow.

"This isn't the first time I tried to kill the guy. Killed my parents--that whole story. Last time was in my world, but I didn't get that far on account of my teammate." Former teammate. Tony was fairly certain he was more forthcoming with Xavin than any other individual at the inn.

"I understand." Xavin had never really sought revenge for her parents, at least in the traditional sense. They had died in a war, proudly and honorably, and Xavin had wanted no part of that war. She had done her best to end it so no other hatchlings would have to....

Well. "Why did you fail this time?" Steamed milk went into the thermos along with a few shots of espresso. It seemed better to stir the flavorings in after, so as not to risk too much of either the chocolate or hazelnut.

"I stopped myself." Tony nibbled on it, flicking the crumbs into a napkin. "Brainwashing. He's--he was. Settled for breaking more decor."

The encounter was fresh, and talking was the only way to release the pressure, save for more architectural abuse. "Would have just been another body to clean up for all the good it would have done."

Xavin nodded, mixing the syrups into the drink. "Yes. My people - the Skrulls, you remember? - we have been at war with another empire for nearly all our history. The Kree. I wish to be a peaceful being, but when faced with Kree, even I do not know for sure what I would do. It is part of who I am. You are wise to be so mindful."

Tony cracked his first small smile of the night, wry as it was. "Was wondering when I could start cashing in my age for wisdom points."

He didn't feel the part. At all.

"I can't picture you as the warmongering type. This suits you." It was easy to forget Xavin lived a lcomplicated life with the peaceful aura that surrounded her.

"I prefer this, since I cannot be the diplomat I wished to be." Xavin flashed a smile. "I was raised to war. Not with the Kree, directly, but with the inhabitants of a world called Majesdane. Another long-term war. My father was... especially enthusiastic. Both of my parents were very proud when I qualified for Super-Skrull alteration and training. They thought I would crush all before me."

"They did their job." Tony nodded at his drink. "You grind those beans beneath your heel like an absolute goddess."

She laughed and passed the drink, now complete, to him. "Not what they had in mind, I promise you! They died before I truly disappointed them, though. I ran away from my training to find my arranged fiancée and convince her to marry me. I thought a marriage between Skrull prince and a Majesdanian could cement a peace treaty."

Tony drew the drink in, letting it warm his clammy fingers. Parental disappointment was a familiar beast that transcended interstellar systems, apparently.

"Political marriages at your age...well, historically on Earth that's not so unusual."

"Karolina, my ex-fiancée," certainly that, as there was virtually no chance they'd ever see each other again, "her parents desired that my father not attempt conquest of Earth. He was not inclined to curb his plans, but in exchange for the coordinates of Majesdane itself and their daughter to marry me when we came of age, he did. I was very much a hatchling at the time."

She took a cookie for herself - oatmeal raisin, because few people wanted those and it was a shame to waste them. "I believe they assumed my father and I would both be dead before the marriage part of the deal could take place."

Tony played with a piece of the chocolate chip in his fingers as he listened. Xavin's story was exactly like the kind of sci-fi tales he'd latch onto as a child--though more to imagine himself as a brave space pioneer than the interpersonal intrigue.

'You get to live that dream yet, Iron Man. Most people wish they could go out in that sort of blaze of glory.'

His internal monologue was a poor soother. He lowered the snack and rubbed his face, reminding himself to stay anchored in the here and now. Xavin's story was as deserving of a listening ear as any other.

"Enemy's first mistake: leaving someone only presumed dead."

“Not their first mistake. I would judge that to be ‘Prince Xavin will be his father writ small’.” It was often wrong to judge this Tony Stark by the one she knew of from her Earth, but surely some things were congruent. “I... imagine that many of your enemies made similar early mistakes.” The Howard Stark of her Earth, to her limited knowledge, had taken what amounted to the easy path, the simple service of war. This Tony, by the evidence, right or wrong, chose harder paths.

"I could be making that mistake right now, myself. Who knows?" Tony finally partook of his drink, but only a sip. The warmth was soothing.

"This one--he's not the first enemy I've spared, even just counting my tenure at the hotel."

“Do you regret it?” That was the important question, she thought. People tended to think that mercy was its own reward, but it could be a punishment too.

"I would have regretted the alternative more." Tony didn't have a good "yes" or "no" to give, he himself didn't know, but he knew himself well enough to say that much for certain. "Maybe less 'sparing' and more...probation. Sparing with a caveat. Delayed Murder Response."

Loki and Bucky were either demons that'd crawl back to bite him or blessings in disguise as far as his plans for escape and Thanos Thwartation went. Whatever the case ended up being, he knew he'd have to live with his decisions and stand by them if someone had something to say about it.

“Trust, but verify.” Xavin quirked a little smile. “Without the trust.”

If it were anyone else, Tony would have jumped to his own defense. Xavin simply called things as she saw them.

Tony took a long swig off his sweet, blended drink and tapped the counter. "I let them go. If someone gets hurt, that's on me. Just sitting back and letting things play out--I can't do that. Extra accountability has to come in somewhere. Even if it's just making yourself a friendly face to dissuade any...ugliness."

On both sides. His chipperness with Loki was still largely performative, but it was steadily growing less so.

“I meant no criticism.” Xavin took a bite of her cookie. “One of my instructors - a cultural instructor, not combat - used to say that we destroy our enemies by making them our friends as much as by killing them. I believe he picked up the saying on Earth.”

Tony reassured her with a brief smile.

"I appreciate the validation," Tony began as he reached for another piece of the sweet, "and if I encounter your counterpart in my world, I'll say the same."

"I do not know what my counterpart in your world would look like." Were there Runaways in his world? Had either set of parents, Skrull or Majesdanian, have made the same bargain? "But she would no doubt appreciate the reminder." On some level, anyway.

Tony made to stand. "I'll pass the memo on to the others, too."

Just in case he wasn't around by the time it mattered.

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[GP/EP] Check-in Day

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