Shenanigans!

[phaselocknroll]

Comments

[phaselocknroll]

[ The look Sarah shoots Maya then says, in so many words, God damn you, but she moves away to a nearby tent anyway.

Maya just turns to Peter and grins ] I think that went well.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He doesn't quite relax, but he's not as tense as before, at least. ]

You're becomin' quite the negotiator, huh?

[phaselocknroll]

I find that logic is one hell of a useful tool sometimes.

[ Sarah returns with a pair of uniforms- brown jackets, green pants- and tosses them to Maya. "Put those on," she says. "And do it quickly. When you're done, meet me at my tent. I have some maps and intel for you."

It's kind of a bummer that Sarah doesn't invite them to her tent so they can change, but she gets why. At least there are enough trees around. Maya figures she can keep their clothes in her digistruct, and turns to Peter ] Do you want the honor of stripping down first?

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Luckily for Peter (or maybe more luckily for Maya, rrrowrrr), Peter isn't one to embarrass easily. Also? He's super comfortable with his body, so. ]

It's okay to admit it, babe. You just want a free show.

[ But he disengages his helmet, finally, since it's definitely not Dahl standard issue, and gets changed. Fortunately for Peter (unfortunately for Maya), the uniform doesn't also come with a change of shirts, so Peter just pulls the brown jacket on over his grey t-shirt. Doesn't mean I won't use this icon, though. ]

[phaselocknroll]

Maybe I do.

[ Or maybe she wants them to take turns so they can make sure no one gets shot.

(But is she totally looking at his ass as he shimmies into those pants? You bet she is.)

Once he's done, she gets changed herself. Unfortunately for her (but fortunately for Peter) combat suit isn't very conducive to wearing it under the uniform jacked, so she strips down to her underthings and zips the jacket over her bra.

She gathers up her clothes and stores them away in her digistruct device, and holds a hand out for Peter's things as well. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He resists the urge to wolf whistle as she undresses, but only just. (She'd probably slap him for it, anyway. Disrespectful.) When she's finished, he hands his clothing over to her. ]

We good?

[phaselocknroll]

I think so.

[ She starts heading over to Sarah's tent, where the woman is waiting, looking over a map that's being projected out of a small device in the center of a table. She hands Maya a simple green army cap as they enter. "For your hair."

Maya shrugs and puts it on, tucking her hair into the cap. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter examines the map with open interest, and he looks pretty calm and relaxed. After a few seconds he seems satisfied before turning to Sarah. ]

Let's just get down to brass tacks. We need to know what you know.

[phaselocknroll]

[ Sarah points at a particular place on the map- a purple circle in an otherwise blue recreation of the forest and mountains.

"This is the blast site. Only trace amount of Eridium were uncovered, but it was enough to go on. My people have been digging, following the Eridium vein under the mountain. I just received word that they found some sort of tunnel or hallway. Something under that mountain has been hollowed out. We're betting it will lead us to the Vault, but I haven't sent people in for recon, yet." She pauses there, looking up at Peter and Maya.

"You two just became those people."

Maya gives Peter a quick glance before turning back to Sarah. ]

No signs of life down there, as far as you can tell?

[ The woman shakes her head. "We haven't picked anything up, but there's a lot of rock between us and the Vault." ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter takes another look at the map as Sarah speaks. He's got an eye for this kinda stuff, or at least he sort of learned how to pick out what he could and improvise. With the Ravagers, sometimes they could only nab blueprints moments before a heist. ]

So we head down, check the place out? Sounds easy enough.

[phaselocknroll]

[ "In so many words."

There's another pause, and Sarah puts her hand to her ear, listening for a moment on her comm.

"Go ahead and get going, but please, call off your friends before they kill any more of my men." ]

Will do. ... Thank you, Sarah.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ ... Peter has a second to think, Oh, fuck, right, before he quickly steps away, activating his mask. It's a weird quirk in his gear that he actually has to be wearing the damn thing for his comm to work -- he should probably see if Rocket can do anything about it.

As it is, he gives them a truncated version of what just transpired and tells them to fall back.

(No, Drax, you can't just kill one more of those "honorless soldiers"-- Say again, Rocket? What? No, no more grenades-- wait, what was that noise? God dammit, Rocket, I literally just said no more grenades! Seriously, guys, just-- stop killing folks unless they start it, okay?)

As he's removing his mask, he mumbles, ] What a bunch of a-holes.

[phaselocknroll]

[ Sarah merely quirks a brow, but Maya lets out a small laugh. The Guardians truly put the "fun" in "dysfunction". She wouldn't trade her new place in the Guardians for anything, but sometimes their antics made her painfully nostalgic for her own group of misfits back on Pandora.

She turns to Sarah and asks, ] Anything else?

[ Sarah shakes her head. "Nothing really. Just don't cause a scene on the way through the camp and you'll be fine."

A pause, then, "When you see Axton again, send him my regards."

Maya nods. She doesn't know where Sarah's willingness to stick her neck out for Axon comes from, considering she ended their marriage herself, but she's grateful for it. ]

Thank you Sarah. Truly.

[ And to Peter: ] Let's go.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He nods his own thanks to Sarah, giving her a mock salute before he steps out. ]

So. As my Vault expert stand-in, any tips for the newbie?

[phaselocknroll]

Be ready for anything. I don't think we'll just find the Vault standing wide open, but history has shown that once we do get in, we have more of a chance of finding some ancient alien creature packing enough power to destroy the planet than we do of finding actual treasure.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ That gives him some pause, and then he looks seriously confused. ]

-- Wait, so an ancient alien dude has just been sitting around in a sealed up Vault, waiting for some pricks like us to go in and mess with it? And only then would he try to blow up the planet?

What did he do all day? Like, there are only so many rounds of Solitaire a guy can play before he gets bored.

[phaselocknroll]

Not an alien dude, Peter. An alien creature. We're two for two- Lilith and all of them discovered the Destroyer, which I don't have a whole lot of details on aside from the fact that there were a lot of tentacles involved.

My group had to deal with the Warrior, which was in some kind of hibernation state until Jack woke it up.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Once again, he pauses and thinks, "Wouldn't an Infinity Stone be nice to deal with that?"

Then he thinks, "No, you fucking idiot, no, it wouldn't." ]

So I'm guessing a healthy application of physical violence will be enough to take care of it, right?

[phaselocknroll]

That's been the case so far.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He nods, satisfied. ] Good. We can handle it, then. Probably time for pizza with those milkshakes, too.

[phaselocknroll]

On the upside, we don't have to fight our way there, so that should help.

[nostalgiabomb]

At least until we run face-first into some big, toothy, tentacley thing with giant weapons of mass destruction.

[ A beat, ]

This sounds boring. You wanna head back? I think we have some paint we can watch dry.

[phaselocknroll]

Doesn't it though? I mean, who really wants to do battle against a gigantic alient abonination?

[ Actually, she can think of several people. Mostly her fellow Guardians and Vault Hunters. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ He lets out a huge sigh and forges on. ]

Let's just get this over with. I don't wanna miss watching that grass grow, you know? Pretty sure Sprout is catching up to Blade.

[phaselocknroll]

[ she shoots him a sideways glance, one eyebrow arching ]

There are times I have to marvel at the sheer ludicrousness of our conversations.