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

[justice_from_above]

"I hope it was worth the experience?" She doesn't sound like she thinks it was a wasted trip, though. Once he's back on his feet, she's heading into the cave to deposit her flaming stick and see about working up some breakfast.

[muroieda]

"The climb? Yeah. Could've done without the fall though." The side of his mouth hitches into a smirk, accompanied by a throaty chuckle as he follows her back to their cave.

He has the same idea as she does, going to his own food sack to get something more substantial on his stomach. It's over where he was resting against the wall earlier, so his back exposes itself to Fareeha. There's a nasty abrasion on one side of his back, across his shoulder blade, from landing on the branch he slipped on. He either doesn't know it's there, or at the very least doesn't seem to mind it, because he's not trying to tend to it at all.

[justice_from_above]

She sees that (it's kind of hard not to, with how little these clothes cover, and with how little Junkrat normally wears). She sets aside the breakfast she'd been gathering and digs around her own bag for some first aid. She pulls out a salve, and then heads over to him.

"Hold still for a moment. I've got something for that scrape."

[muroieda]

"Scrape?"

He looks over at her curiously, then follows her eyes to--oh, well, he's not going to get a decent view of it anyway, if it's where she's looking.

"Ah. Nicked meself on the way down, did I?"

Consider him still enough to apply said salve.

[justice_from_above]

"Something like that. It's a pretty decent beauty mark."

She squats down behind him and unscrews the top, scooping out a large dollop and setting the rest aside. Then, she sets her free hand on his good shoulder to help keep herself still. "It'll be cold, might sting a little."

Warning given, she gently smears the salve against the wound, using the fat of her fingertips to smooth it out until it overs the whole area, pausing once to scoop out a little more to ensure she's got all the way to the edges. "Maybe next time, take some rope?"

[muroieda]

"Beauty mark?" Junkrat asks incredulously, looking over her shoulder. "Then it sure as hell doesn't belong on me," he jests, hoping his self-deprecatory humor will be appreciated.

He's still as she works on him, and all she gets out of him during the process is a throaty little groan of protest at the sting.

"Even if I remembered ta bring it, doesn't guarantee I'd remember ta use it."

At least he's honest.

[justice_from_above]

"You haven't heard that before? 'A bruise is a warrior's beauty mark'?" Because not all beauty is about traditional physical attributes. As someone who's pretty stoic herself, she can appreciate his ability to get up and keep going without even noticing a big scrape like that.

"Well, at least you didn't break anything." She finishes and gives his good shoulder a pat, then takes the salve back to her bag as she screws the cap on. "If it starts itching later let me know, I'll put on another layer."

[muroieda]

"Never," he admits. "Dunno if ya noticed, but I ain't the most well-read bloke."

He's more well-read than most Junkers, but on the global scale, he's not.

"Thanks mate," he says when she finishes, scooping out his desired foodstuffs and settling in place beside the fire. "By the way, foot of the mount is a lot closer than it seemed last night. Two k's give'r'take," he explains, punctuating his speech by stuffing his face.

[justice_from_above]

"Well then; you've learned something new today." She joins him by the fire with her own breakfast, and nods at his assessment of the upcoming trek.

"We'll be there in no time at all."

[muroieda]

"Wouldn't be able ta call it a day without doin' that!"

Ever the optimist. After breakfast and a short walk later, they'll meet a cliff that isn't exactly sheer, but definitely too steep to actually walk on. Good thing he got warmed up with climbing that tree.

Rock climbing isn't exactly something he has a whole lot of experience with, but he certainly has the upper body strength to handle the majority of the climb without much trouble. Like the incident with the tree, though, he's having a hard time getting the right traction with it -- and it starts getting to him.

"Coulda brought me own, damn it..."

Don't mind him as he has some colorful commentary for the rock face. At least he's gotten a pattern down so he can test the traction before actually putting his weight on it.

[justice_from_above]

Fareeha may seem like she's lagging, but with each step and handhold she's trying to position herself underneath him in case he stumbles.

She's not a devoted mountaineer by any stretch of the imagination, but rock climbing is a hobby she's indulged in from time to time. The grade itself seemed enough to give them a challenge without creating a serious obstacle.

For now, at least.

"You're looking fine from down here." watching him chooses his hand and footholds, as it were.

[muroieda]

"I am fine," he hisses.

A good call to keep her distance--the last thing either of them want is the business end of a peg leg in her eyeball.

"Just would be done with this a lot sooner if this damn thing knew how ta grip worth--"

As if to spite him, it slips off the rock he was trying to get purchase on, and it's a good thing that his knee is missing too or else he would've skinned it against the rock face. Junkrat lets out a frustrated growl and starts beating his forehead against the cliff.

No skinned knees. His face might be another issue.

For what it's worth, he's not mad at Fareeha; he's just starting to lose his patience.

[justice_from_above]

Fareeha can account for a lot, but Junkrat is so far removed from anyone she's dealt with in the fast he's always dealing her curveballs. Frustration she can get, but this catches her heart in her throat,

"Hey hey hey -" She pulls herself up as swiftly as she safely can until she's by his side, then gripping the rock face with one hand, she reaches the other out to fit between his head and the rocks. She grits her teeth for what she's expecting to be a painful impact for her, but if she can stop him from harming himself any further it's worth it. "It is going to be alright. So your leg slips, you've still made it this far up."

[muroieda]

It is a pretty hard strike, sandwiching her hand between his forehead and the rock face--she'd be able to feel the scuffed-up skin on his forehead, and the sweat on her hand makes it sting to him. But it's enough to get him to stop, and he opens his eyes to look up at her hand.

After a beat, he sighs.

"Need ta take a breather..." he says quietly, then brings down his left arm to rest his forearm against a crag so he can flex the cramp out of his hand. His fake arm is doing just fine, shoulder used to hauling around both his heavy prosthetic and frag launcher, but his real arm and leg are having to pick up the slack from a leg that almost literally can't pull its own weight.

All this for something they really don't need to do. He could just blow it all up to hell, but...Junkrat glances at Fareeha out of the corner of his eye.

[justice_from_above]

He'll see her take her hand back and give it a couple small shakes because, yeah, that hurt, and there'd probably be a pretty sizable bruise. She doesn't comment, though, letting him take his moment without judgement. She hangs about where she is, looking up across the remainder of the way and trying to see if there are any crags that would make better footholds for him.

Then, she gets another idea, and a little, crooked grin crosses her face.

"I have an idea, if you want an easier way up."

[muroieda]

He may have just been looking at her through his periphery but the expression that grows on her face makes Junkrat bring his full attention to her. What about rock climbing tricks could possibly have someone make a face like that?

Whatever it is, he's interested.

"I'm listenin'."

[justice_from_above]

"What if ..." She stops for a moment, still grinning, as she works out the details, "What would you think about me initiating my power? I could carry you on my back the rest of the way up the cliff."

She hasn't had a chance to use her powers in the field, to start, and it'd be helpful here with her increased strength and dexterity; he'd be hardly any weight on her back and she could take the incline at ease.

But she wasn't going to assume; some people liked doing things themselves for the challenge (herself included), so she wanted to float the idea to him first before jumping right in.

[muroieda]

Huh. Not a bad idea....

"I'll admit, I'm torn between insistin' that I gotta do it myself and seein' ya pull it off."

It helps that it's not an offer made through pity, but because she actually wants to help for the sake of helping. He debates it for a few seconds, glancing up at their destination.

"Yeah," he finally says. "Alright. Let's do this then."

He shifts his weight on his good side, clinging on by just that side so she can get a little closer for ease of transfer for him onto her back.

[justice_from_above]

It's going to take a moment for her to prepare, as it still feels a little silly calling out the incantation to trip her powers. She closes her eyes and faces forward, taking a moment to breathe.

"I invoke the Eye of Horus!" There's something of a hum - more felt than audible. Her tattoo starts to glow gold, and then she erupts in blue flames. They're ephemeral, licking at the air but not burning anything. With ease, much more than even she'd been scaling the wall earlier, she moves into position so Junkrat can take a hold of her back.

[muroieda]

He arches a bushy brow at her incantation, but they both nearly jump off his face when she erupts into flame.

There's a brief second before a grin cracks across his face and he starts laughing with a ferocity that threatens to loosen his grip on the rock face. Eventually, it dies down, and he points at her.

"We match!"

He slings one arm across her shoulder, then the other, locking his magitech hand across the forearm of his other arm to keep him in place, with absolutely no hesitation about the ethereal fire. The legs are...hmm. After he gives it a moment of thought, instead of wrapping them around her hips and potentially getting in the way of her maneuverability, he tucks his knees up against her waist. They're not there to keep him secure against her, his arms will deal with that--his legs just have to be out of her way.

"So...was Horus known ta be super strong or somethin'? Or, uh, on fire?"

[justice_from_above]

She grins back at him, "Huh, how about that?"

Once he's situated, she checks her grip on the rocks to get used to the new power output, then looks up at their intended destination. "He was a god." Is all she offers in response. She springs forward, for a few steps climbing like normal but with increased agility in finding foot- and hand-holds and greater strength in pushing up and off of them. Then, after that seems like a piece of cake, she resorts to leaping drastically forward and digging her hands and feet into the rockface. If Junkrat can catch any glimpse of her face as she's looking where to go next, he'll notice she's wearing her own angular, self-amused grin.

Eventually, she vaults them up over the top ledge and onto solid ground again, landing expertly (SUPERHERO LANDING), and then kneeling down to he can dismount.

[muroieda]

"I gathered that much, mate."

He recognizes the name but he has to admit he knows nothing of Egyptian mythology; he wouldn't be able to recognize Horus specifically from the rest of the pantheon. A lesson for another day, perhaps -- after all, she seems pretty focused. And he has to stay focused too, in order to cling to her without risking falling off. The leaping isn't helping, and he has to dig his knees into her sides to stay put. The last one is the worst, and there's a soft grunt in her ear as she lands.

As soon as he see solid ground underneath him, he lets her waist go to plant foot and peg onto the ground, and looks up at their new surroundings. This place had giant flowers in spades, but the ones up here are even more extravagant, more colorful, and larger than the ones they have seen so far.

Junkrat has always been a fan of gold.

"Holy dooley," he exclaims breathlessly, reaching out to touch Fareeha's arm. "Fee, look..."

[justice_from_above]

She may have gotten carried away with herself in that moment, but once she's settled at the top she takes some time to close her eyes and come down from the rush. The blue flames diminish, the golden glow fades from her tattoo. It'll still be accessible for the next couple hours before it lapses into cooldown, but likely she won't have reason to.

Junkrat's touch on her arm brings her back to the present, and she opens her eyes and takes a good look around. She might not be as obsessively enamored with gold as he is, but she can still appreciate what an absolute grand spectacle it makes; the enormous plants in all manner of colors, with the golden pollen glinting in the sunlight. It's enough to take her breath away.

When she finally finds enough to speak, her voice is still soft and faraway - as if she's afraid of shattering the picture by being too loud or, really, noticeable.

"This is -- absolutely beautiful ..."

[muroieda]

"I'll say."

He doesn't have much hesitation about walking in deeper, reaching out with his flesh hand to touch the plants delicately, to get a feel of their texture, the moist coolness. The morning dew hasn't quite evaporated just yet, and as the weight from his hand releases a petal, it sprays the droplets into the air, catching the light from the early morning sun.

Junkrat pulls in a steady breath, then lets it out. "Yeah...this is better." He looks over his shoulder at Fareeha with a grin. "Woulda been a shame ta blow up a place like this."

And from Junkrat, that's really saying something.

After some time, he finds a particular flower that has grown on its side, low to the ground. It's easy to crawl in and take a seat on one of its thick, ornate petals, so he invites himself to it. The long stamen hangs over his shoulder, dusting his front with gold pollen at the slightest jostling.

He whistles sharply in Fareeha's direction to grab her attention from whatever she's looking at, then gestures for her to come join him in the flower. There's more than enough room for the both of them.

[justice_from_above]

Fareeha hasn't wandered far, focused on a different plant with large hanging spirals of blooms. She turns when she hears him whistle, though, wondering what he's found.

She shakes her head and chuckles when it appears to be a throne.

She walks over and drops her bag near the plant, then crawls in and sits next to him, brushing her fingertips over the stamen and looking at the gold pollen left behind.

"This is certainly different."