Ladypug

Polaris: A New Anchorage Story

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Smith's Rest, New Anchorage | The NC Hangar
January 16th, 2677 (Before the New Pilots Arrive)

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"Oh come on, that was funny, Eli," Percy insisted as she'd continued to be silent. He waited a second to see if she'd admit it, but she stayed quiet. "At least kinda funny. Just a little?" Sure, he figures that it doesn't matter if anyone else thinks he's funny, but being the only one laughing was really uncomfortable... and no, Zach laughing doesn't count. They've known each other for multiple years and have absolutely demolished each other's senses of humor.

But then Eli insisted that what she had to say was important, that she had worries about these new pilots Graham was bringing in and how none of them were natives - none of those issues Percy really cared about, it didn't really affect how he'd operate. But then she'd said that "One looks like a raider." That was what made Percy's stomach go into a knot. He already didn't really like Graham all that much, but.. employing a raider? Employing the same kind of person that got Laura killed and tried to steal his daughter away? It made Percy want to barf. Fuck Graham. He then saw how Eli's gaze shifted upwards to Zach and how her lips had tightened shut - like she didn't want to talk about it in front of him.

"It could be something worth discussing with one another."

Percy glanced up to Zach as well. While the guy seemed pretty preoccupied with the light, Percy knew that if the roles were swapped - with Zach being down here and him being up there - he'd definitely be listening in..

"Yeah," Percy said, "Yeah, I'll be with you in a-"

"Go ahead, Pierce."

Well. That confirmed two things. One, Zach absolutely was listening like Percy had guessed; and two, Zach would probably be fine on his own for a bit, if he was urging him to hurry up and go. Something about Zach's tone made Percy wonder again, though. He sounded.. Fed up? Irritated? Generally upset - which in this point in time would finally make sense. Of course he'd be upset about a potential raider being anywhere near Ana right now. Of course he'd be worried. Percy found himself reaching out to him, to nudge him enough to get him to look down and just give a little bit of reassurance, but Eli's eyes boring into the back of his neck made him not do that.

"Alright," Percy said, taking a small step backwards and throwing on a grin, "Don't zap yourself, alright? Please?"

"Yeah. Sure."

One more moment of hesitation, and then Percy finally turned around and went off with Eli down the thoroughfare. The two only took a couple steps away before Percy got fidget-y with one of the two rings on his fingers, waiting for Eli to maybe start them off - he only had one worry on his mind, but he wanted to hear her out first. Like, maybe she had a good reason to believe these new pilots not being native was a bad thing? Honestly, the more he thought about it the more he realized that y'know, yeah, it might be bad that they're not from here. He didn't want Ana to be exposed to some kind of weird disease, or for her to get snatched up again, or so many other horror scenarios they kind of blended together, now- Ah, fuck, alright! Alright. If she won't elaborate, then he'll give her something to elaborate on.

"Sooo," Percy started, twisting the silver band around his ring finger, "uh.. what's this about a raider, again?"

Polaris: A New Anchorage Story

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Smith's Rest, New Anchorage | The NC Hangar
January 16th, 2677 (Before the New Pilots Arrive)

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Percy had followed Zach to a proper dead overhead light, and was holding the ladder for him so he could climb back up into the ceiling. There was a tense halt to the conversation they'd been having - or was it just Percy that thought it was tense? Zach seemed pretty nonplussed, according to his observations. Then again, the guy was kind of hard to read in general, even after living with him for years. Not that he didn't have his own expressions, obviously, but his two default faces were a calm half-smile and an angry-looking neutral face. Like, maybe he was just focused; or he could be stewing in a quiet anger, pissed off that Percy took Ana from him. Maybe Zach was thinking about what he was going to do for dinner when he was done with this work. Maybe he wanted to make the job take as long as he could make it take, to avoid going back to a house devoid of the little girl he'd considered a daughter. Maybe Percy was thinking entirely too hard about what was going through Zach's head. Maybe it was just plucky elevator music in there. Maybe he was thinking about something funny he'd read, his hands going on autopilot as he did his engineering- or would it be electrician?- thing.

"Moore," Eli said, yanking Percy back to reality.

"Jesus, Eli," Percy gasped, his hand firmly placed on his chest, "You scared me."

She seemed unphased by her startling of Percy, stiffly gesturing away from Zach and towards the open space of the hangar instead. "Can we have a word?"

Now there's only two ways this could go. He could take that request for "a word" for what it was and say Oh, yeah, of course, just give me a second to make sure Zach's gonna be alright by his lonesome, or he could take that in the way that's far more entertaining.. For him, at least. To hell with anyone that didn't find it funny.

"How's about... discombobulated?" Percy replied with a lopsided, toothy grin. "That's a good word, I think. Haven't found a use for it myself, but I'm sure you could."

Both pilots could hear Zach snort from above them. They didn't hear the soft "Fuck's sake, Percy," that followed, though.

Polaris: A New Anchorage Story

game LIVE

The Crossroads (Multiverse-Style Battle Royale Crossover RP) (Unlimited Slots, Always Accepting!)

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LOCATION: New Berk

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Steven blinked. And then he blinked again, his face twisting to match the confusion and the horror that bubbled in his chest. That is absolutely not what he expected, and that is absolutely not the conclusion he'd wanted Hiccup to come to. Steven shot a bewildered look to Toothless, who seemed to return it with a tilt of the head. Who is Eir? And how did he have any resemblance to her? A goddess-? Oh, jeez. He supposed that he did kind of seem like a deity. He could float, he could heal things, he could summon a weapon and bubble himself. He was pretty strong too- oh no, wait, Hiccup was absolutely shaking-!

"Uhm," Steven cringed, unable to immediately find the words to detail just how incorrect Hiccup was - like, he'd actually become very used to people accepting him as he was lately, so it's been a minute since he's been mistaken for someone he wasn't. At least he wasn't being mistaken for his mom, right? Ha- And then his stomach positively swirled when Hiccup started to bow to him. "Nonono," he exclaimed, "You don't have to do that! Really! Please, I- Hiccup, you don't have to bow to me. Ha, I don't even know who Eir is! I'm just Steven. I-"

He frowned sightly - not at Hiccup, but at himself. Like, you know, of course he'd have to go through a sort of identity crisis again, right? Except no. No, he wasn't about to try to convince this guy he wasn't some kind of god. Been there and done that, and.. Well, he doesn't really have time for it. Why did he let himself get swept up in Hiccup's enthusiasm and monologuing? Yeah, dragons were cool and Hiccup really did seem like a nice guy, but Steven had to get home. Home was kind of weird right now, sure, but it wasn't as weird as being pulled from your home universe and promptly plopped into.. all this.

Steven took his phone back from where Hiccup had set it down before he kept talking, inadvertently gesturing with the phone in his hand, "You know what? It's fine, screw it, call me whatever you want, I don't even care, I was just-" An idea came to mind right then. It made him feel queasy - gross, even - but it was also an idea that might actually work. Like if Hiccup didn't know what was going on anyway, it'd be easy to just take his tokens and run, right? Shockingly easy. Hiccup was just a regular guy after all, and Steven had his powers at his disposal... The big question was could he really do it, though?

Steven clears his throat, the nerves bubbling in his stomach. No better time to find out, right?

"I'm still just kinda.. Frazzled," he said, starting with the truth - he was still pretty frazzled and afraid, "I thought giving you my phone and letting you read the texts that have the rules in them would help you but obviously it didn't, so-" Aaaah! Stop using so many words, Steven! He quickly put his phone back in his pocket, and following his question of "So do you happen have anything that looks like this?" Steven pulls one of the five tokens in his possession for Hiccup and his dragon to look at.

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@LouisTheDummy

The Crossroads (Multiverse-Style Battle Royale Crossover RP) (Unlimited Slots, Always Accepting!)

I will hav poste owt... eventewallee

also maybe some CS's, dunno yet bros.

Lαdчρυg'ѕ Iитεяεѕт Cнεcк

oh shit wow, two months have passed. wild.

bumperoni.

The Crossroads (Multiverse-Style Battle Royale Crossover RP) (Unlimited Slots, Always Accepting!)

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LOCATION: New Berk

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Steven blinked in surprise as Hiccup replied by running off and frantically checking every house, occasionally calling out the names of what Steven can assume are his friends and family. Like.. oh, no. He really didn't know, did he? And apparently the dragon didn't either, given how he'd started pacing back and forth slightly, his little ear things flicked back against his head. Oh, jeez. Steven absolutely did not mean to cause a freakout session between these two. But at the same time, how could Hiccup have not known? Did he not get the same set of rules Steven did? A flash of a thought came to mind, then.

Stars. He knew that he shouldn't feel the way he felt and that him feeling the way he did was kind of really messed up, but.. the thought of being the only one able to help? It excited him, if only for a second. Like, it was just like old times- like when everyone used to come to him to fix their problems, or when he’d had to shoulder the weight of liberating multiple worlds from the Diamonds’ authority - except now, he has to help Hiccup deal with this situation's he's in, and Steven's about to shoulder the weight of the responsibility of helping the chief and his dragon get back to their home. He nodded a little to himself, an unfamiliar-familiar feeling of drive and purpose filling his chest-

And then Toothless barfed.

With a little disgusted yelp, Steven quickly dodged out of the way - the sick wasn't anywhere near him, he realized after squeaking like a schoolgirl and cringing away - but.. Still. Ew! He's dealt with waaay too much Lion-barf to have to deal with Toothless barf too! Ugh! Except wait a second. Still with a little cringe on his face, Steven shuffled a little closer and noticed something rather curious about the, uh.. contents. Rather, it wasn't barf - which was good! But also a little concerning, because it looked like Toothless just spat up tokens. Before Steven could get a better look, Toothless quickly slurped them back up. Steven reached out to try to prevent him from doing so, but- Yeah, the dragon was too fast for him.

Steven covered his mouth with a fist, just looking at the night fury with concern and a fear for his health. Like, he really shouldn't have eaten those. Plastic isn't good to eat. The dragon reacted to his revulsion with a sound not unlike that of a cat that's surprised by you petting it - like a purr, but it's a brief and surprised purr. His pupils were also big and wide - again, not unlike a cat! Honestly, it was kind of really cute. In fact, it was just cute enough to distract from how gross dragon barf was. Barely.

As the disgust faded from Steven's face, Toothless nodded his head in a direction and started to walk away in that direction - specifically, it was towards the largest house that was a bit of a ways away from the rest of the village. Steven stood there for a second confused, like.. Did... Did Toothless just beckon him to follow? He waited until Toothless turned his head, as if checking to make sure Steven was following and- Yeah, ok, the dragon really did want him to follow. Apparently dragons were super smart and totally capable of understandable, nonverbal communication! That's good to know. Probably. Eventually. Either way, he jogged to catch up to the dragon plodding along through the dead-quiet village, but still kept his distance. Steven didn't want to intrude on Toothless's personal space, lest he get mauled or blasted at.

Just as they got close to the chieftain's house, Hiccup came through the front door with a despondent air to him and a dejected look on his face - at least, till they'd accidentally made eye contact and Hiccup put on a smile that was all-too-familiar to Steven. He knew what a fake smile looked like, which was kinda sad if you thought about it for too long. Whatever, that didn't matter. What mattered was that Hiccup was very obviously not ok as he sat down on the steps. Though Toothless had given him that expectant gaze, Steven didn't need any further prompt to act. He knew what he needed to do.

"Hey," he said as he sat down besides Hiccup - not too close, but not weirdly far away either. "So, uhm.. Funny thing, Hiccup. I.. I think I know what's going on, and maybe even the why of it. But.. It's kinda hard to explain." Steven's hands went into his jacket pockets, his hand brushing against his phone as well as the tokens- and his eyes lit up as an idea rushed him. He continued on, like this is what he'd intended in the first place! "So, uh, instead of trying to explain and inevitably making myself look like an insane fool, I'm going to give you-" Steven pulls his phone from his pocket, making sure that the 20 or so texts are pulled up before handing it over with a smile, "This!"

And If Hiccup were to hesitate, Steven would sort of.. wiggle the phone in his grip, trying to give permission to take it without saying anything.

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@LouisTheDummy

Ironically I can't think of a creative title so... Hi

Fresh meat is good meat. Hello o/

The Crossroads (Multiverse-Style Battle Royale Crossover RP) (Unlimited Slots, Always Accepting!)

Just a simple bump to keep the OOC active. An active OOC makes for an active RP! :D

The Crossroads (Multiverse-Style Battle Royale Crossover RP) (Unlimited Slots, Always Accepting!)

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LOCATION: New Berk

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Steven made note of that odd look, but instead of bringing it up right away he listened quietly as Hiccup continued the tour of the empty village. Steven sort of wanted to kick himself in the head for using his powers with no explanation again, but- He didn't have to when he was at home. Everyone already knew and accepted it there, there was no need to feel weird about.. being.. weird. But this wasn't home, so- Ugh, we get it, y'know? It's this frazzled brain of his. Stupid, stupid, frazzled brain.

The chief's enthusiasm for the tour was quick to return, at least, and.. It was a bit infectious. As Hiccup continued to eagerly name names as they got close to said person's house or their place of work or whatever, Steven had a little smile on his face and got a vivid picture in his mind's eye of just how lively the village would be, if only people were here... And at that, the smile faltered, because- Stars, Hiccup had to be in denial at this point. Seriously. There was no way the chief neglected to notice that nobody except the three of them were present - and, uh.. whatever made that horrible screechy roar, of course.

Steven found himself covering his mouth in a vain effort to keep his thoughts to himself - uugh, this felt like the Rose Quartz trio ordeal all over again. Sort of. Maybe not exactly, but that sense that he had things he really, really wanted to say but is actively avoiding saying them to spare someone else's feelings? That was definitely similar. Maybe Hiccup would realize the village is a ghost town on his own? Maybe Toothless would nudge him and get him to realize it? Toothless seemed like a very intelligent dragon, surely he's noticed it, right? Maybe Steven wouldn't have to say anything. Maybe- Aaah! He can't. He can't make the same mistake twice. He has to just.. blurt it out. Get it out there, and yank off the band-aid.

"Hiccup, uhm.." Steven cleared his throat, but his voice is still sort of low, "You have noticed that the village is kinda.. really super quiet, right?"

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@LouisTheDummy