You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

[thespaceopera]

Who: The Fleet!
Broadcast: If you want
Action: Hotel Corona or Planet Ikke
When: December 7th onward



[After the mystery and isolation of their last destination, the Marsiva seems determined to head to brighter, busier territory. After a long journey through remote, nebula-painted space, speeding along at a brisk pace for the Host ship, the Marsiva brings her Fleet to a sudden and prominent point of traffic.

It seems that the Fleet has happened upon some sort of vacation destination! Maybe Atroma thinks that the passengers deserve some rest and relaxation... or just wants to distract them with something huge and shiny.

Welcome to Hotel Corona! Feel free to enjoy yourselves and enjoy the sites! If a hotel resort isn't your thing, you can head on over to the nearby planet and explore it's icy wonders.

In order words: it's a mingle!! Everyone get in! ]

[>> Plot Post]

Comments

[passingthrough]

[Aren't you glad she came around from finding you evil? This is better than getting phased out into the dead of space, right?]

I feel like the meaning is universal. [She shakes her hips.] Whatcha looking at?

[bi_otic]

[Planet Ikke]

a. do you want to hunt a land shaaaaark

[This isn't what he'd come down to the planet to do, initially. After taking a shuttle down the planet to do some scouting, it had taken him a day or so to find one of the villages. He'd taken time to talk to the people there, hoping to learn more about the place or what they might know about the fleet, but then he'd learned about the land shark plaguing the caravans.

So here he is on the frozen plain, clad in full armor, his helmet sealed against the biting cold. Maybe you're here to join the hunt, or maybe you've crossed his path by accident. It might look like he's stalking the herd beasts in the near distance, fleet-issued energy rifle held ready and footsteps light and measured as he moves forward. But, where prey is, there is probably predators.

Sure enough, the ground near one of the animals suddenly churns, as if displaced by one very immense gopher, then explodes as the land shark launches out of the ground itself, closing it's jaws around fur and flesh. Kaidan fires a few bolts into it's hide and it turns. And charges.

Crap.]

Watch out!

b. frozen fishsticks

[On the more sedate end of things, Kaidan decides it might be nice to do some fishing. He's still head to toe in armor, though, since it's the only way to keep warm. It might be strange to find a person so outfitted fumbling with tying a fishhook onto a line. Stupid gloves.]

c. planet wildcard

[Kaidan isn't a stranger on the planet. Besides hunting, he makes a meager living piloting one of the shuttles between there and the hotel, and sometimes picking up passengers while he's at it. In addition, he endears himself to the locals fairly quickly, and he can often be found enjoying a chat or a bite to eat inside one of the trading posts or mobile villages]

[Hotel Corona]

d. meet me at the bar

[He doesn't get around to spending much time in the hotel until a few weeks, but even he can't resist the chance to unwind and defrost. He's not a huge fan of all the glitz, so he'll sit himself down in one of the more humble-looking pubs in the central hub and orders a beer and something that at least looks like potato skins.]

[outstandingbalance]

Longer for some of us than others.

[Natasha prefers not to think too much about the shuffle that makes in her head. Some things are better not to examine closely.]

I feel like I might owe you an apology.

[uprightness]

[ there's a moment in which he snorts, he has to, as her choice of words sums it up pretty neatly and still, he's pretty sure he has never heard anyone say that before. ]

You think this is what the rest of the rooms look like?

[ it's so very different from everything else in the hotel, the style doesn't match anything else he has seen here so far. ]

Someone paid for all of this.

[ he just doesn't understand the why, really. it seems costly. ]

We don't have to.

[ he agrees but at the same time, he also considers and - ]

It would be a bit of a waste. and the droid - I'm pretty sure we'll be stalked for the rest of our days here.

[ stands to reason, right? ]

[mucked]

Someone paid for it. Precisely.

[ she doesn't hesitate. peggy grabs the antler-y lamp from the bedside table and (with only minimal effort) pries the shade off the bulb. a little destructive, maybe, but she's now examining the lamp's innards as best she can. ]

Someone with an agenda, no doubt.

[ but what kind of agenda? friendly? malevolent? ]

[mucked]

[ a snort. ]

God, how many are there? [ ... ] Don't tell me you've already sampled them all.

[ if anything, her tone has grown more and more casual of late. ]

[uprightness]

Isn't it.

[ he doesn't have to look to know who it is but he does, meets her eyes and smiles. oh lord, but is he glad to see her being her. ]

Hi.

[ he feared this a bit, feared Nat might start keeping to herself, that she'll need the time and the distance and that he would have to wait before seeing her again, making sure she's ok.

or as ok as one can be, given all that has happened. ]

A bit of a change from our last stop.

[uprightness]

Thank you.

[ there's something that remains forever bashful about steve rogers. for all his captain america glory, when it's one on one, he seems to handle compliments with great care, shying before them but accepting them, still. as if, even after all these years, a part of him is the little guy from brooklyn who was never really noticed by most of society. ]

The real thing is really that much more impressive.

[ almost too impressive for a drawing but he had to try. ]

How are you? I'm sorry about Vision. I know he meant a lot to you.

[ to steve, too. a voice of reason even in anarchy. ]

[uprightness]

Peg -

[ what on earth, he arches both eyebrows. he doesn't try to stop her, there's absolutely no chance of that happening. she seems to be debugging their room, a valiant effort given its size and the amount of details in it.

so instead, he moves to help her, opening drawers, taking out extra pillows and blankets. ]

I doubt it's the Atroma. No one else got one, I doubt only singled us out.

[ he had seen most of the fleet exchanging their money, asking after room prices, after all. ]

[mucked]

[ she frowns at the shade. and once it was adequately inspected, she moves on. ]

So it's someone we know. Pulling a prank, probably. [ after the other day, she might go as far as to accuse max. but he isn't one for wasting credits, even in revenge. so she hums moodily to herself and hooks her fingers around the edge of a drawer, dragging it open.

hm! what's that? a bottle of some sort, and she raises it out of the drawer to better read the translated text and -- ] Oh, for Heaven's sake.

[ she tosses the bottle back into hiding and slams the drawer shut. although not mortified, nor easily embarrassed, she does look remarkably uncomfortable all of a sudden. ]

Confirmed. It's a prank.

[outstandingbalance]

Hardly. But I've managed to sneak in a few.

[She clears her throat after that, glancing aside.]

Maybe more than a few.

[mucked]

Bar-hopping with friends...?

[ the question is only pointed if her audience is keen to notice to that kind of digging, and she knows natasha is. ]

[outstandingbalance]

It would be hard to be more different.

[The last stop had been overgrown and abandoned, nature swallowing up the shipwreck. Here... almost everything was artificial.

Not the nebula, though.]

Suppose they both had impressive views, though.

[Natasha clears her throat then, softly, silent for a moment.]

I owe you an apology.

[passingthrough]

The nebula doesn't suck. [Which is her way of saying it's breathtaking and she could gaze into it and lose track of time.] It'll be nice you have something to remember it by. [That isn't a tacky t-shirt or something.

But speaking of only being able to remember something that's gone... Her head dips down thoughtfully. The words come out softly even with the language she chooses.] He didn't suck either.

[She goes on after a moment, eyes returning to the nebula because that makes it easier somehow.] He was one of those people I just liked instantly. [She's not necessarily a hard sell on people, but he was so immediately disarming for her.] He made me feel welcome and included on the Windrose. We're all going to miss him. I miss him.

[She looks back to Steve.] How are you and the Avengers taking it? [She's aware Vision hadn't been with the team as long. Or at least not as long prior to getting more memories and not everyone had those because why should anything ever be simple?]

[uprightness]

[ he almost - almost! hits his head against the drawer she has opened, it's a near accident that he manages to avoid in the last moment, ducking aside. she's uncomfortable, he's bewildered. ]

-- at least we know what's it about now.

[ said as he closes a the bottom drawer, deciding not to tell her about the flavored rubbers for now. she seems to be working up a mood even without it. ]

[passingthrough]

You don't. We just talked. Do you remember it?

[uprightness]

It sure is something.

[ and then, had he expected it? he must have. her discomfort, not the apology. he shakes his head. he's angry but not at her. if anything, he's furious about what the Atroma had done to her, broadcasting her childhood like this. Nat is one of the most private people he knows and this privacy is always something he respected because he knew it meant a lot.

and now this. ]

No. Not at all.

[ not even close. ]

if anything, I owe you one.

[mucked]

[ peggy dabs at a loose curl. funny, really, how perfectly poised she could have been around just about any other human being. and then there's...steve. she puffs her cheeks and lets out a sigh and realizes that this is only made all the more awkward because of their recent conversation back in the starstruck's tiny galley kitchen.

she strides over to the wardrobe and -- yep, not quite as bad as peeking in the guest closet at howard's houses, but still unmistakable. she shuts the wardrobe with a distinct thud.

and now, only because she best handles her own uncertainty by lashing out and lashing out hard: ] And you're certain this isn't your doing?

[ dry, dry, dry. and almost a little challenging. she doesn't mean it. not really. she's just being difficult. ]

[uprightness]

[ god almighty, it's a mood. he can see it form just beneath the surface and yes - there it is. it's a good thing she has her back to him when that closet is opened, it gives him a fraction of a second to arch his eyebrows, not bad before he steels his expression back when she turns.

there are a lot of ways he can work out of this one, he learned Peggy's moods by now. admittedly, never in this context but still.

he sighs, faux-tragic, really. ]

I guess you caught me. I always figured a museum tour, followed by a dinner and then all of that would be the perfect idea for a date.

[ just as dry. ]

[mucked]

-- Well. [ well. the tone is nigh-repeated by the look on her face. a mood is right. but her indignation is partly sourced in the fact that a definite part of her would welcome a night with him. and were it not for the atroma's supposedly watchful eye, she might have nudged things in the same direction months ago.

but today it's a little like being dangled something you can't rightly take, so she huffs: ] You forgot dinner.

[ she doesn't really believe it's him. she knows it's someone else, and her contrarian conversation is just a cover while she runs through a shortlist in her mind. ]

[uprightness]

Well, the droid came early.

[ not really his fault, is it? ]

and that I really did made a reservation for.

[ unlike all of this, really. the room, the inappropriate ( yet, in part, quite fascinating ) items. ]

[mucked]

[ -- he'd made a reservation. legitimately, truthfully, and for dinner. room aside, that's quite thoughtful. it almost softens her. almost.

more interesting than the paraphernalia hidden around the room (is there more, she wonder?) is cultivating a list of suspects: ] Who's your best guess?

[precedented]

At least it'll be marginally unforgettable.

[ Until it is forgotten. Human memory is weak. They don't retain the wealth that is given to him by the Spice. He is annoyed at himself though. Leto doesn't like breaking things.

Much less the implication that his control is slipping. ]

[uprightness]

If Tony and I were on good terms, he'd be the first guess.

[ It makes sense. That whole thing speaks of a Stark involved. grand rooms, lavished living spaces, inappropriateness all around. ]

With him off the list - I don't think it was Bucky. He's capable of it.

[ even now, even after all that happened, Steve doesn't put this beyond Bucky. ]

But it's a bit much.

[ he'd get them a room, maybe, but not all of that. winn and hank would die before getting him any of those things. it's the lingerie that gives him pause. it had to be someone who knows Peggy well enough to know her, well, sizes and someone who knows ladies things and steve, naturally, thinks of ladies.

and not many girls would troll him. Most of them, like Kara and Kitty, are good friends, half sisters, really. he scratches off one name after another until - ]

........You don't think -

[ ....oh jesus christ. ]

Romanoff.

[ and he groans. the fact that he uses her last name means a lot. instant mood: despair. ]

[mucked]

[ -- natasha is very near the top of her own list. and when steve names her, peggy can only nod. truth is, she can't distinguish whether natasha is merely deflecting the misfortune of her recent return to childhood or whether it's done with genuine goodwill at heart. likely both, she realizes.

she almost chuckles. ]

Oh, no, I think. I definitely think. [ peggy nods. ] Idle hands and Devil's work and all that.