TO HAVE AND TO HOLD [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Anyone who wants in
What| "To Have and to Hold" plot
Where| The planet Olum, Matihara Temple
When| Set vaguely the same time as "Gods Among Us" and "Other Mother"
Warnings/Notes| N/A

The planet Olum is a genuinely welcoming place. While the clothes they have to wear for the rituals are a bit...odd (provided they don't opt for coverups), they are comfortable, especially with such a balmy climate. Despite the Olumites allowing outsiders into their ceremonies, there's a distinct lack of tourist-ey elements; no gift shops, no merchants selling anything, just a spirit of genuine unity and celebration. The Olumite marriage guides seem to genuinely care about helping people with their relationships, and seem happy to share their cultural traditions with other species.

As far as missions go, it's definitely a nice vacation from the usual life or death struggles.

It means the Legionnaires have no distractions. They have to settle in and try to navigate this while faking sincerity as best as they can.

[ooc: All information about the setting can be found on the infopost.]

Comments

PART 2

[letsgolegion]

After the first two days of the retreat, the Legionnaires are expected to make the journey through the testing paths with their partner. Even those that don't need to go to Mt. Letifa, and plan on only going as far as they need to to find their assigned magical fossil, will still find the paths difficult. For some, the journey will only take 1 day, but for others it may take up to 2.

[ooc: All threads for Part 2, that involve the journey through the holy lands, should go under here.]

For Justice.

[walkingballpit]

Having to wait until they're out of earshot to say anything substantive is a godsend to Robbie, who has been keeping rather quiet since the song ritual. They're lucky they'd done the questions before that awful, albeit predictably so, mess. The huge ear-rattling sting of a chord had been bad enough, the key change to a minor key was worse, although all Robbie knew is that, after that, it had sounded grim.

What's worse, it never stopped sounding like the musical equivalent of depression. He had hoped that it would, and there was a definite lightening. It stopped sounding like A Night on Hell's Mountain, only to sound like Tori Amos.

So... he's not really trying to chat with Vance, and hasn't been, although he's rapidly running out of what he'd consider "Alien Earshot". Even if he measures it by say, Wolverine's hearing, Robbie can't keep making bland chitchat forever.

Luckily, he's been provided a permanent topic of discussion for the journey. He picked at one of the bands of cloth on his chest. "So where's Rich when we need him? I can't tell if this is more Slave Leia or Rubicun III. It's gonna bother me for days. Thoughts, Vance? Are we more Stripper Wars or Smut Trek?"

[sir_vancelot]

"Smut Trek," is the immediate reply, even if it's given with a grimace. "I mean, we never see what a male slave would dress like in Star Wars, so the comparison is difficult to make. At least Star Trek was more equal opportunity."

It's not like Vance doesn't KNOW what Robbie is doing. He'd heard the songs, after all. He wasn't surprised at what Robbie's had sounded like, just because he knew there were things that didn't change. You didn't just 'get over' being depressed, though he was glad that it had lightened toward the end. Not entirely better because it probably never would be, but better than it had been.

What Robbie seemed to miss, though, was the way that the two songs had complimented each other, each carrying the other one when the song go rough. Yes, there were discordant moments and places where the songs had run counter to one another, but mostly it had been...okay. Complimentary.

But it was good that the questions had been before that. And they'd both turned down the memory sharing.

"I have to say, though, the mountain thing is definitely sounding more like a Captain Kirk thing than a Picard thing." He paused. "Okay, it's more a Deep Space Nine thing, I think."

[walkingballpit]

And it's not like Robbie thought that he'd pulled one over on Vance, either, but anything that threatened to highlight the bad - he tended to avoid. It was nice to know that this wasn't bad enough immediately picked at.

He did miss how the melodies had worked together in counterpoint. Robbie had been stuck in a circle of listening to them comparatively and thinking about how Vance's ended much more happily that he didn't focus on them as a whole instead of two separate songs.

The questions had been fun - Robbie had taken to writing two answers, possibly confusing their referee/counselor, but it was very important to point out that what Vance thought the answer was was, in fact, not the answer. This was particularly true in the questions about Vance.

"I don't know. Jabba seems like a dude slave buying freak to me. Maybe we just didn't see the way they dressed. The loin cloths are seriously Slave Leia." Robbie has to think about the 'which Star Trek' question.

"You mean the gold body paint? That's oldschool Kirk. I think the journey to prove yourself, or ... your relationship or whatever..." He found it so weird to use the word relationship in the context of what they're doing right now. "That's more Picard. It's very Data on the holodeck."

[sir_vancelot]

"Not saying that Roddenbury didn't have his kinks, but pretty sure that Lucas's ran mostly to getting Carrie Fisher in the slave get up." He glances over at Robbie with a half smile. "I'm just glad that we don't have to worry about sunburns."

Because neither one of them is exactly on the tan side. Though the holographic generators seemed to help in that regard.

He hums in thought. "Maybe. I think the quasi-religious sort of bent to it is definitely more of a Sisko thing, though. You're right that the journey of discovery is more Picard. If it was finding yourself annoyed at time travel, that would be Janeway."

[walkingballpit]

"Maybe Solo didn't have the abs for it." Robbie would be lying if he said that he never liked the scene or costume. Although age has given him some better perspective on things, he has a dim recollection of having a discussion about chicken breasts versus chicken legs with someone as a teenager. He's not that far removed from answering things like that with 'can you blame him?'

Actually... "Huh. I wonder if that's the real reason behind this place. Get everyone in Xena costumes, throw a little romance in the air, profit?"

Robbie makes a face at the thought, having successfully grossed himself out on the thought of someone enjoying this as much as his 12-year-old self enjoyed the metal bikini.

"But at least the profits won't be on aloe, yeah," he adds weakly as he turns to look at the mountain in an attempt to obscure what he says next. "I don't know who Janeway is."

[sir_vancelot]

Vance made a thoughtful sound. "I think it's might more be that they weren't really considering the female gaze in the early 80's."

Which isn't to say that Vance hadn't enjoyed the metal bikini as well. It's more that he's had a lot more time to think about it since then.

The last takes a moment for Vance to respond to because he hadn't been expecting that answer. "You've never seen Voyager?"

locked to Fareeha;

[muroieda]

They'd finished the memory-sharing ritual last, and even though they've had plenty of time to talk about it afterwords, the weather between them has undoubtedly changed. It's not tense, by any means, but even Junkrat is abnormally quiet, finding that his idle chatter isn't really filling the vulnerable void that was torn open in the process.

In fact, he hasn't said a word since waking up today, responding in nary a grunt or silent expression. For what it's worth, it doesn't seem like he's in a bad mood...but maybe things become a bit clearer when they finish getting through the sending tree's path, well out of view of anyone else.

He brings a hand up to his mouth and spits out a latex sleeve. Given that they're on what is essentially a couples' retreat, there were plenty of them to be found -- even across the stars and who knows how many decades, there's really no moving on from the tried and true.

"Figured they'd give us nothin' but food and water," Junkrat scoffs, inverting the sheath to reveal the tightly woven paracord tube within. He picks at the paracord just enough so he can pull out two things that really should have not fit inside of it within the restrictive realm of physics: a bulky switchblade and a stainless steel butane lighter.

All of the items get relocated to the supply bag at his side, and he gives a cheeky grin to Fareeha. "Always come prepared."

He giggles.

[justice_from_above]

There's ... a lot to think about. Fareeha is also withdrawn and contemplative; they'd had their discussion about the things they'd seen the other person endure. Some questions remained, but she wasn't about to push into what was likely spiky territory. She respected Jamison; for everything he'd ever done, here he'd shown her that -- deep down -- he had a good and decent heart.

And she couldn't say his hatred of Omnics wasn't justified, sadly. Maybe one day they'd talk about individuals, but today wasn't that day. He'd be the one to let her know if or when that day might be.

For now, she accompanies him to the Sending Tree and heading out for the task at hand - something else that weighs heavily on her mind. As if worrying over Jamison and his violent upbringing weren't heavy enough, she's thinking about this whole mission; essentially faking a religious rite in order to steal artifacts. It was for the betterment of the whole, for the sake of the universe, quite literally ... but the more she thought about it the less right it felt. She'd agreed to come on this trek with him to keep an eye on him, and while she'd been to the briefing and knew what this mission entailed, the justifications she'd originally told herself were starting to feel rather thin in the actual face of it.

She's so mired in these thoughts that it catches her by surprise when he spits out a condom and proceeds to pull weapons out of it. Fareeha can't help but stare in open surprise; she'd come to expect some of the unexpected from him, but even this was beyond the fathomable.

"I ... yes, that's a good motto to have."

[muroieda]

Hey! They're not weapons. They're survival tools. Even the condom counts as one, and there are plenty of uses left in this one (not like that), so of course it's going into the bag too.

"Just be glad ya can't taste the inside of me mouth right now, heheheh--" he continues, unrepentantly shameless about the whole thing and apparently clueless as to the different ways that could be taken. "Don't say I never take one for the team," he threatens playfully, pointing at her and her awed expression as he starts to take off down the barely-beaten path.

"Shame I don't know the flora here," he comments, clearly veering back into his usual habit of chattering about whatever's on his mind. "S'pose that's what the food is for. We should be all set on everythin' else though. I mean, I didn't wanna risk gettin' caught so I went with the minimalist set. Rope, knife, fire. Anything else can be improvised, even additional food."

His chattering comes to an abrupt stop when he looks at her, tilting his head to the side with a concerned frown.

"Ya doin' okay, mate? Ya look like y've got a lot on yer mind."

[justice_from_above]

All depends on how you use them, but yes, using them for survival is far more likely here. She's not going to ask about the condom. She is able to recover, thankfully, and follows along after him into the wilderness.

"Here's hoping we won't have to use them." She's thankful for the sudden chatter - no matter where it came from - but then he stops and looks at her and just asks point blank what she's trying to suss out for herself. There's really putting nothing past him, is there?

"I do." Besides the ramifications of their memory sharing, she goes for the more immediate; "I'm not sure if we're doing the right thing here. Stealing religious artifacts? The more I think about it, the less sense it makes."

[muroieda]

Jamie holds up for a moment while Fareeha catches up. Even with his limp, he still has an awfully long stride and could potentially outpace what her comfortable walking pace is.

So, in order to leash himself to her, he reaches out and holds her hand. Given the current conversation, the sentiment might be misconstrued. He's still cocking his eyebrow at her, quiet as she explains herself.

"Weird time ta be gettin' cold feet, mate. After all that dancin' and memory sharin' stuff, this should be the easy part."

Well, for a desert scavenger and a military-type. Maybe not so much for anyone else.

"And here I was thinkin' we were doin' the right thing this whole time," he continues, rubbing his shoulder with his free magitech hand and looking away. "I mean, if it were up ta Roadhog'n me, we woulda reduced this place ta rubble and robbed the place of all the artefacts we could dig up after. --After enjoyin' the swimmin' holes and the beach first, of course."

No point in sightseeing if you were going to blow it up before the actual sightseeing.

"But I'm tryin' ta behave, so...here we are."

He gestures vaguely. Maybe on another day, he would've sounded pretty bitter about it, but he really is enjoying his time with Fareeha.

"And it's not like we're takin' this stuff just because we can. The green guy's got some plan for them that has to do with stopping the big bads that are threatenin' the whole universe, and that includes these tree-huggin' marriage-lovin' blue aliens. I dunno about you, but I've become quite fond of the bloody buggers, and I'll gladly take somethin' from 'em if it means we're helpin' keep 'em safe."

Jamie shrugs, then gives her a smile, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

"Besides, we're earnin' it, in their eyes. If you're worried about takin' somethin' from 'em, then let's convince them no one's ever earned it like we have."

[justice_from_above]

She's used to being the one outpacing people, so his pulling ahead is still a little weird to her, but i a good way; it pushes her, challenges, her makes her take longer strides or quicker strides herself. She might be behind, but it's not by far.

He takes her hand, and she feels an odd little flush. She thinks to herself she couldn't possibly be falling for him, but she has to admit she's enjoyed their time together so far. It's always a little awkward to hear him mention antics from his life back home, admittedly; the way he talks about ruining this gorgeous wilderness in such an offhand manner, but where he says he's trying to behave, she sees that he is, and is willing to let such comments rest without argument.

"I guess you're right. If it means saving all of this in the end, that's got to mean something. Giving up a part of myself in return only seems fair." She squeezes his hand back, giving him a small smile. This kind of logic, she could take.

For Chief

[unrecovered]

As far as Wash is concerned, this mission is a multi-day retreat ending in a nature hike. Sure, he's had to lie his ass off about being in a relationship with Chief, but it's Chief - he's got a sense of humor in there and he's willing to let Wash take the lead in social situations. Aside from the Singing Stones, it's been a fairly relaxed mission.

And now they've hit the actual meat of the mission - fossil recovery disguised as a journey to get married - and Wash can't help but be a little excited. Everything else about this place has been relaxing and beautiful, and he's eager to see what else the mountain holds.

They're about an hour in, and so far it's been nothing but scenic beauty. He's been smiling nearly the whole time.

[prettycoolguy]

Something has to go wrong eventually.

That thought keeps flickering through John's head. Not incessant, not urgent, but enough to keep him a little tense in the shoulders. They're out of the woods (well, into the woods if you want to be more literal) on the social end of the mission, but it's far from over. Things don't usually go this well for this long. A mission shouldn't feel like a vacation, and it's left the Chief waiting for some kind of trap to swing shut. He's been preoccupied as they go, but has had the excuse of being the one running the tracker on his omnicomm. Of course he's half-distracted to talk to, he's keeping an eye on the goal.

But it really is beautiful out here. The light of Olum's sun filters down through a riot of vibrant foliage when they're under the trees. Alien birds call out above and around, and the occasional small native creature scurries across the path ahead. And when they find a break in the trees atop the first real swell of the land approaching the mountain, the Chief pauses. He takes a long look down on the temple and the sea beyond it.

He's not good at stopping to appreciate where he is. It was never an important field skill.

Maybe he should make an effort, for once.

"Look," he says.

[unrecovered]

"Oh, I've been looking," Wash says, leaning against Chief and lightly pushing his shoulder into Chief's ribs. "This is what I'm going to remember the next time I'm stuck in a foxhole." Whether he means the scenery, the experience, or just getting to spend time with Chief is open to interpretation. "Why, are you going to start a career in art after this?"

Unlike Chief, Wash isn't too terribly worried about this mission, partially because he did his research on Olum before they left (no large predators on land, no homicidal weather patterns, nothing that's going to snap and kill them) and partially because he's fairly certain that between the two of them, he and Chief can handle whatever might come up.

Their current high vantage point does give them some insight as to what's coming up - dark clouds that look like a storm front starting to roll in. Wash nudges Chief again and gestures to the clouds. "We should probably get moving before that hits."

[prettycoolguy]

He lets Wash shoulder up to his ribs, he's gotten pretty good at reading the line between what they were doing for cover and what is genuinely just Wash touching because he's a friend. Someone else might take his remarks as flirting, but John knows that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? There's no need to answer that. At his quip about an art career, though, the Chief rolls his eyes. He makes a quick little two-fingered motion where the lower part of his faceplate would be, were he in his armor. Haha, Wash, haha.

It's just... nice to be here. Nice to be somewhere that isn't in imminent danger (despite the Chief's misgivings), nice to be cracking wise with Wash, nice to have reached a point where he can have some kind of casual contact with somebody without feeling completely alienated by it. It is a thing worth remembering.

But Wash is right, there's a storm blowing in. That's much easier to talk about than digging out words for feelings he's not even sure he should be expressing.

"We should."

[unrecovered]

Wash nods to Chief and the omnicomm. "Lead the way." He pauses. "Actually, take a picture first. You could use a new wallpaper for your omnicomm, and it's not going to get much better than this."

It's not until they're back in motion that Wash brings up the question on his mind. "Hey, that gesture that you did?" He mimics the two-fingered swipe across his own face. "What was that?" Chief had done it in front of him once before, months ago, but Wash hadn't exactly been in the best frame of mind to pursue it. Now, on a mission that's nearly a vacation and feeling much better, he wants to know.

[prettycoolguy]

It's kind of silly, but what the hell. The Chief does it. His omnicomm wallpaper has been the default since day one, it's not really a thing he does. Might as well be a joke from what will certainly be, someday looking back on it, a better time.

They get moving again, daylight burning, and he's already forgotten he made the sign at all when Wash asks about it.

He repeats the gesture again, slower, tracing the little u-curve more clearly. "Smile gesture," he explains, as if it should be a familiar concept. "Yours was different?"

It would have to be, to not be recognized. He's seen several variations on the smile gesture, over the years, but most are sort of like his team's. It's not the most unique of ideas.

Locked to Videl

[superscholar]

For the most part, Gohan was a very serious person when the stakes were high. Whether it was fighting aliens, searching for dragon balls, or training against androids, Gohan tried his best to stay focused and get results. He wasn't like his father when it came to combat, he didn't enjoy himself like the older man did. He fought to save people, and that was it.

However, right now, something boiled within Gohan that he wasn't very used to. The path to the mountain thrilling him in a way he'd barely experienced before, a grin tugging at his lips. He knew there were stakes involved, that they needed to get the magical fossils for their fight against Chronoblivion. But at the same time...

He was in his element. Every obstacle they pushed past reminding him of that fact. He didn't have his full powers, but he knew how to survive in the wild. Which made this a challenge, and for that moment, Gohan wondered if this was how his dad felt when he fought a strong opponent.

This intense desire to learn, to push harder, to win.

[saltsweet]

It was rather unusual to see this Gohan unabashedly enthusiastic about something that wasn't related to his studies or his daughter, but it was raising Videl's spirits significantly after the challenging memory ritual they shared the previous day. It made Videl's heart swell with pride to see him like this as they made their way up Mt. Letifa.

For the first few hours of the day, they kept pace with each other well and journey was a bit more like a beautiful nature walk than the trial Videl had been expecting. But by midday, as they had reached the foot of the mountain and begun their ascent, grey clouds laden with rain had rolled over the sky and breakfast was beginning to feel very long gone.

"Don't you get tired?" Videl asked, lagging a few paces behind Gohan on the trail. Her remark was made partly in jest, partly to remind her husband that she didn't have inexhaustible well of stamina that Saiyans seemed to have.

[superscholar]

To answer her question: yes, he did get tired. But it was gonna take a lot more than this to tire him out, even with the limits the Time Trapper had placed on his powers. Gohan had energy for days when he put his mind to it, whether it was fighting, studies, or just being a good father. But when it came to surviving in the woods...

That was ingrained into him.

"We should avoid the more steep angles until the rain passes," Gohan said, seemingly ignoring what Videl said. "It's gonna make it harder to climb, and we're gonna need that energy the higher we get." He was making it a point to stick to a rough trail; something that didn't require them to climb as much as walk. However, afterwards, he turned back to Videl, and answered with a smile:

"And for your information, yes, I do get tired. Just not yet."

[saltsweet]

Of course he would answer what she meant as a rhetorical question. Videl rolled her eyes at Gohan's reply, shaking her head and smiling. She always tired out before Gohan, no matter what they were doing. It was difficult to imagine Gohan being drained of energy by anything other than an artificial source.

"Well, I'm tired now," Videl clarified. The rain, which had started as more of a drizzling mist, was beginning to take form and turn into a legitimate light rainfall. "And hungry. I think it's time you showed off more of those nature skills and found us something to eat."

[superscholar]

The heavier rainfall was definitely gonna make it harder to keep climbing, that much Gohan knew. However, he hadn't been sure whether to stop for now, or keep pushing it. Videl's words had cemented his choice though, the hybrid coming to a stop, and looking at the side of the mountain they were climbing. One hand clenching into a fist... before he straight up punched the side of the mountain, forming a small cave for them to walk into.

"We can wait here until the rain passes," Gohan said, taking a moment to survey the area around them. They weren't very high up the mountain, only just recently having reached the base. As such, there was still plenty of jungle around them, enough for Gohan to go gather food. "There should be plenty of food around here too."

[saltsweet]

Videl shielded her eyes for a moment while Gohan punched a brand new cave into the mountainside, sending bits of rock and dust flying everywhere. The new cave was small, but not so small that Videl had to duck her head to walk inside (although that might be a different story for Gohan). Conveniently, the rocks had broken in such a way that there were rocky ledges to sit on.

"Hopefully the Olumites won't be too mad at us for punching a hole in their sacred mountain," Videl remarked as she sat down. At Gohan's mention of food, her stomach growled. "I think I'll just wait here until you've found something to eat."