psychoshenanigans | Scum & Villainy // Tricky Situation

It's not weird that Athri is awake at this hour, and being that their treadmill is in the cargo bay, it makes sense that they're already there when Tonic makes his way down. But they're strangely not running on their treadmill tonight. The cargo bay is silent, and it's distressingly still.

Athri isn't buzzing around. They're not pacing or checking on anything or fidgeting endlessly with their jewelry. The little xeno is just perched up on some metal crates with their wing-arms wrapped around their knees, quietly staring at the short-range ships... and beside them rests a small duffel bag.

Tonic notices them as he walks into the cargo bay proper. And while he's surprised to see them there, he's also... Not surprised to see them at all, especially once he notices the bag.

"Mm," he finds a crate a polite distance away to lean on, casually gazing out over the ships, "You thinking of leaving?"

"It would be stupid to stay." They say this with assurance, but there's an insecure bristle of spines as they shoot a look in Tonic's direction.

"I'm surprised you're not gone already to be honest. I mean I know we just helped you kill your boyfriend or whatever but the smart thing would be to go before you lose your last chance to get out of here."

Tonic makes a noise like he agrees. It would be smart of him to go, before he gets locked into this tangled mess. Yet, here he remains, standing still and staring pensively out at the ships.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly asks, "Do you know what you want, out of life? However long you're going to live?" A beat later, he sighs and scratches absently at the scarred-up side of his neck, "It's kind of a wild question, right now."

Athri snorts once, as if entirely annoyed by the apparent change in topic, compulsively scratching at the same side of their neck as Tonic is. But they answer easily.

"I told you already. Before. When you asked."

At least, the question had been a similar one, in their mind.

Now he makes a doubtful sound. He tilts his head.

"Was that the 'buy a moon' thing, or the 'fly straight up' thing?"

Maybe there isn't much difference to Athri, but there is to Tonic.

"Yeah." Apparently, it's that first option.

"Flying. I want to fly."

Ah, there we go. Tonic nods, starting to pull his thoughts together.

"Then... Here's my question. Does it make more sense to fly with the world at your heels, or fly with a group of idiots who'd fight to keep your skies clear?"

It's an honest question, and he's asking himself just as much as he's asking Athri.

"Which makes sense?" They frown and shrug down into their shoulders like a petite, irritable vulture.

"I mean. You just called them 'idiots,' so..." He's not really convincing them toward picking the second one.

"Well," That actually gets Tonic to chuckle, "I meant to say it a little more endearingly than I did."

And then he rubs at his bad eye, his tired smile lingering as he admits, "I'm... He really scared me, you know, showing up at the ship like that. And I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there to stop me. Probably would have just panicked and tried to stab him. Sounds like me."

He looks up. Past the ships, out the viewing window. There's nothing to see, just the night-time glow of a few neon lights against an otherwise dark and empty loading dock.

"My instinct is to start running. Kill it and run. But what happens when it catches up with me again, you know...? I'd never once beaten Ditha at a handshake, but we took down ten of them like they were back-alley scrubs. If they'd caught me alone, I'd be dead. Or worse."

He sighs, "I don't think I can do this alone, anymore. And I don't want you to have to do it alone either."

Athri is thinking long and hard as Tonic goes on, their eyes quietly ticking back and forth from thought to thought while the rest of their expression remains empty.

Then, a moment or two after Tonic's last statement, a shiver suddenly runs through them, standing their spikes on end and pushing them half up into a crouch on the top of the crate like they're planning on taking wing right there.

Their eyes narrow severely in the human's direction, accusation in every angle of their stressed-out body language. "--Why are you doing that?"

"Because I had a bad day, Athri...!"

Understatement of a lifetime, he tips his head back to send that statement straight towards the ceiling. Dramatic, but very Tonic. He folds his arms, frowning, returning to normal volume.

"And being suspicious of you has clearly been a waste of my time, as I was apparently too busy to see that Carnifex had me in check for... longer than I've even been here."

Edited 2019-12-24 00:08 (UTC)

"No, see though--" They're pointing a claw at him now, the accusation suddenly growing. "He has been tracking you, which means they're tracking us now too so I should have been even more suspicious of you than I already was. Staying here is just piling all of our problems into one spot so we're just a giant target for anyone to snatch up as soon as they can catch us."

They are all the way up into a crouch now, spines on end while they struggle with the way they're suddenly pitching toward panic.

"If they find me then the rest of them are going to find you too so that even your stupid uncle isn't going to be able to stop them and so we should both just run. Right now. We should go. I could steal Nev's ship and go faster and maybe I'll have a chance..."

"I know, I know, the spiderweb..."

Tonic is fighting down his own irritation now, pinching the bridge of his nose and trying not to let Athri's rising anxiety plug right into every exposed nerve he has right now.

"I made that abundantly clear to the others. I don't think that anyone here doesn't understand that, now."

He takes a slow, deep breath. "But if you leave right now, he'll be waiting. He must know we're scrambling. Probably expecting either one of us to make a break for it. If he can break us up, we've got no grounds to make decisions or demands. Easy targets."

Oh. This is a very good point.

Athri's eyes somehow get wider and every spine slicks down at once, as they duck their head and shoot a suspicious glance out the nearest window. Their anxiety redirects to an immediate perceived threat outside, pinning them down in place for the time being.

Tonic has bought himself some time and--even better--some silence

And the change is an instant relief. The sudden quiet sends a shiver down his spine, which he promptly ignores in favor of taking another calming breath.

He has no idea what he's doing, honestly, but two things are becoming clear to him. The first is that he needs Athri around him to keep him from doing anything stupid, because Carnifex reduced him to a cornered animal in just a couple of sentences. He's way out of his league, here. The second thing he's found is that he needs to buy himself more time to stay, because he feels that something isn't right yet.

Is it foolish of him to pray that the stars will align, the way they did last time? Probably.

"Just a couple of days, let it cool down." This sounds better and better the more he thinks about it. "There's got to be a back door to sneak out of, at least."

First there's suspicion, wide eyes narrowing again and their gaze ticking back and forth in judgement across Tonic's half-readable face. Then comes some other dawning realization, and they hug their wings tight to their body and get small again.

They're remembering grabbing Tonic with their claws and keeping him still in the vents. That's what he is doing right now with his words. They get it.

"...I could make excuses. I could come up with something. We could be quiet."

The use of "we" does not go unnoticed. He maintains an overall pensive expression, returning to looking moodily out the window.

"That's something. That's better."

After another moment of thoughtful silence, he taps his fingers against his arm.

"I'm probably going to run a lot of stupid ideas by you for a while. I'm only sort-of sorry."

"I don't like the sound of 'a while' and I don't like 'stupid' either, but..."

What other choice do they have, really? Tonic has somehow become the only person they would consider discussing any of this with. He's the only one that gets it. So, stupid ideas or not, they'll at least be ideas.

"I know."

He can't promise he'll be any better than advertised, but he'll at least try. He sighs, consciously letting some of the tension sink from his shoulders, before he pushes himself up again.

"I'm going to go eat," he announces, "Just realized I haven't had anything since... Ooh, yesterday."

It's not an invitation, exactly. He's going to start walking away, fully intent on eating regardless of whether or not they follow him. But he isn't not telling them to follow, if they're inclined.

They only seem to settle in place as he turns to leave, apparently ready to stay and brood for a while. But, before he can get to the door, they speak up in his direction again.

"--Why were you coming in here? Before."

He stops, just a few steps short of the doorway, and turns to look back at them.

"It's not obvious?" A small, tired smile. "I was trying to decide whose ship would be easiest to run off in."

They just watch him with unblinking, reptilian eyes for a long moment... before those eyes suddenly narrow into a pissed-off glare.

"Yeah, it was obvious, that's why I asked!" It's not quite a screech, but it's not that far off either. "You really just came in here and talked yourself out of it? You idiot--what's wrong with you??"

This time, it makes him laugh. This feels much more like their usual banter. It's going to be really funny if they wake anyone up with all that yelling.

"Hey, the first idea isn't always the best one. I'm sure that's a saying. Somewhere."

He waves his hand. Starts walking away again.

"You're the worst! How in all the worlds are you still alive--"

They yell it after him, but there's the sound of their boots hitting the floor a moment later, and the screeching follows after him.

"I can't believe I ever listen to you about anything! How do you trick people into thinking you're smart?? This is so stupid..."

Ah, their screeching is met with more cackling.

"That's the great mystery, isn't it?" He continues through the halls, "Listen, I feel I should be given a little more credit. The number of times I've skirted death is phenomenal."

"It's because you're slimy. You're like a worm, just--" And they catch up for the sole purpose of him being able to see the way they gesture with their claws, tangling their fingers around each other while a disgusted expression sits on their face. "--Squiggling around."

Their glare continues, fixing on nothing ahead of them while they pace along almost beside him. "Though really I think the only reason you're alive is because of people like me who are worried that your dumb ass is going to get them killed and you just stick on like a leech while they keep themselves safe. I don't want to know many times that has gone wrong and someone else got caught while you got away."

If Athri is trying to get Tonic to stop laughing, they're doing a terrible job.

A worm, oh. He's going to remember this for a very long time.

"Sure, probably." He leads them into the galley, heads for the fridge. "I'm not going to claim I'm above that sort of thing."

They make a disgusted noise, as if their opinion of him could have possibly gotten any lower. And they don't find a seat anywhere, just kind of aimlessly pacing around the table instead.

"Of all the things, you picked doctor. I can't believe it. Was that one of your other great decisions you made after talking yourself out of something that made more sense?" They're still going to be on this for a while, apparently.

His cackle echoes from inside the fridge.

"I do have medical training, Athri..."

He comes out with one of the little convenient pockets of protein and vegetables that Nick had thoughtfully made for everyone several days before, out of ingredients that Athri had already approved.

"Besides, I don't have the voice of a jazz singer and ballerina is a tired trope. Food pocket?" He holds one out to them with a crooked smile.

"I bet you do. And I went to flight school," they mutter cattily under their breath. They don't have any other snappy reply for him beyond that, but they do snatch the pouch of food from him with a glare.

And while they're picking open the packet with their claws, they think of something else they might as well ask while they're regrettably sharing the same space with him.

"So... were you any good at what you did, back then? I mean your face and your leg and your decision-making skills say no but you have at least one family member who seems to want you to come back so I don't know what to make of that."

He is a little surprised when the question that comes his way is a serious one. He'd kind of assumed Athri was going to just yell at him for the rest of the night.

And it's a good question. He chews on his own food for a moment, looking to the side as he remembers his numerous scores and accreditations.

"I was pretty good, yeah... But not enough to be an asset. There were plenty more of me waiting to fill the role." And now that he's basically damaged goods, there are very few things on his previous roster that he could still reliably do. His face is pretty recognizable, now. He can't move like he used to. "I specialized in something, but they have all my notes. Anyone else could have picked it up after me. So he has to be lying."

That's the only thing that makes sense, right? "Maybe to get me to come back without a fight. At the very least, make it sound like he's not an enemy."

"He knows how to manipulate you and you're extremely expendable. You're going to do what he wants and drag a whole crew with you. You might not be an asset on your own but you're really seven people now aren't you?" They nibble a bit of food from the packet but they're too absorbed in the conversation to get bogged down in actually consuming food. "It has nothing to do with the rest of the family. He wants you do be his. We're out in the middle of nowhere so who is going to notice or care?"

"...The family doesn't do business out in the middle of nowhere. Recruitment, the occasional retrieval, that's it."

That's something he's been caught up on for a while. He takes another bite, processing everything Athri has said.

"He's going to get what he wants, for now. But if we can figure out what he's connected to out here, we might be able to sever it. If we're lucky, no one will care enough to send a replacement."

Athri nods in agreement, and hunkers into their shoulders while they pick at their food. Possibilities and options tick through their mind one at a time, each seeming both as likely and as dire as the next, until the larger issue looms too big to ignore.

Their eyes finally flick over toward the doctor again. With their spines flat against their head and their wings held close, they look even smaller than usual.

"...Do you think he already knows? Everything, I mean. What if he doesn't want to use us? What if he's just waiting on a buyer?"

Tonic has been thinking about this, too. He makes a doubtful sound, led by gut instinct... But he knows that Athri won't accept gut instinct, so he has to pause a moment to think of something more substantial to back up his feeling.

"...That whole thing was under contract, so there's only one buyer he'd make an offer to. And if that was his plan, he'd be doing a lot more to try and keep the goods in one place. It's too risky, letting it fly off into firefights and military bases."

Edited 2019-12-26 21:09 (UTC)

"I guess so," which is the closest they ever get to accepting any kind of reassurance, even despite the way they neurotically scratch at the side of their neck. "So... find out what he's connected to, if he's just feeling a little independent and having fun being so far from the family or if it's something way worse, and try to cut it off before he figures out something different to do with us. Play nice in the meantime. And... maybe run really fast and really careful if we have to," summing up what the plan seems to be after all that.

He nods at every point, as if trying to commit them to memory.

"Yep. All tracks." He taps his finger against the remains of his food-pocket. "And I think I'm on house-arrest until we leave Warren. That's pretty much it."

Ah. That last point suddenly brings them around to another thought they'd had, and they straighten up from their hunched state to stab a glare and a pointing claw at him. "At least until then. You're not allowed to even look at that guy without supervision and please don't make me go over all of the reasons why."

Tonic rolls his eyes... But it's not because Athri is being dramatic. It's because Athri is painfully right.

"I know, I know..." A dramatic sigh as he wilts against the fridge. "I'm a problem..."

They make a disgusted noise and focus back down on their little pouch of food, as if looking at him any longer is going to turn their stomach.

"You are. You're embarrassing, and of all the things that might get us caught it is absolutely not going to be that."

He laughs a little, at the absurdity of it.

"Oh, what a way to go, though..."

And then he laughs because he's gross, gazing off into the middle distance...

Scum & Villainy // Tricky Situation

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