voidtreckerexpress | (no subject)

Who: Yondu | OTA
Where: Gym
When: Nebula Day 20
What: Old Man Yells at Cloud (Angst over Missing Friends)
Warnings: Possible violence, Probably foul language, discussions of fake people trauma

Gym

It's alright sometimes, and then it's suddenly not. It's a "not" kind of day as Yondu's in the gym wailing on a training dummy with all his energy. His knuckles are already blistered black and his muscles are aching in a way that he can feel it in each punch now. He's feeling his age. At least he's pretty sure that by the time he's done the worst will be worked out of him, he just has to let it all out. And he's not being quiet about the fighting part, he's wordlessly yelling at this thing like it's the enemy he's chased his whole life.

It was never easy, watching someone walk away. It happened to everyone on the train at some point, apparently. Maybe he hadn't made the connection earlier on, when he didn't know or barely was acquainted with anyone. But then later it progressed. Someone he'd know would walk off and he'd feel that same goddamn sense of helplessness again. Like he was sitting in that chair on the Eclector, hands cuffed behind him, voices crying out for him to help them as his loyal crew were marched by one by one.

Of course what the train did was more empty than that. People leaving it didn't struggle, they didn't speak, they didn't rage, they didn't protest, they just walked off stoic and literally impassable. They were empty, but it still provoked that wriggling uneasy failure that roiled in his stomach. This wasn't an inevitable fate like his crew marching out the airlock, but he didn't know what the hell it was and that provoked a different level of hateful out of him.

Afterwards they were gone, and people moved on. People handled it. But every single day that Soldat was missing was another day it felt like them showing up on that platform, bag in hand, marching off to an uncertain destiny was more likely. They'd been in one place before, right? Possibly they could go somewhere else, them and all the caretakers wandering around in that battered noggin of theirs, carrying their own weight of baggage each. Yondu could only hope because they were dead back home to the best of their reckonin'.

It seems like a pretty big reaction to be having to 'just a friend', Yondu didn't feel more than that but that was enough. Somehow they'd become the closest genuine friend Yondu had ever had, someone that deeply cared about all the little shit that made him unique and didn't just think of him some kind of criminal or murder machine, someone that could recognize his raised hackles as defensive. Soldat was nigh on family. They gave each other two different varieties of trust and letting another messed up soul like his in so damn close had been rough in the first place.

He's worn out and he takes a break, seated and dropping his head in his hands until he can pull his energy back up and have another go. He's aching for an outlet and of his two favorites this is the one he's using today.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Soldat... It takes Kyoko a minute to search her memory. But it doesn't take long before it clicks.

"Yeah. But only a little. They're the one who preps the mission rations or something, right?" She got cookies from them one time on the platform. Really, it's the whole 'source of food' concept that's helped her remember them more than others.

It's dumb, but she doesn't know what to do with her hand right now. She could turn her Soul Gem into its ring, let him have all of her hand that way, but isn't sure if that wouldn't, like... Listen, this is far from the first time they've held hands, but this is the first time she's felt weird and bashful about it.

Luckily he returns her hand to her, so she's not wandering over that akwardness for too long.

"Yeah... They like cookin' a lot. Been missin' their food. They actually got me a bunch of Centaurian music once, just to be nice. Offered to learn my language, too...."

He rambles all that with the thought that... what if all that means nothing now? What if that's it? Everything they went through, quietly, together, doomed to be another memory swallowed up by the train? Forgotten after a few more platforms. That idea burns him 'cause no one dedicated themself more to the well-being and comfort of people on this piece of shit than Soldat. Hell, they saw something of themselves in this train being a fugitive, a kindness that Yondu couldn't quite muster up for their abductor.

Son of a bitch got him all wrung up around their finger and now he doesn't know what he'll do without them. "I threatened 'em for it, y'know... Tryin' to be nice? I didn't trust it at first. And they just took it." And so many people wouldn't have, including his own prideful dumb ass. But that's where the acceptance also came from, they'd endured Yondu's abrasiveness and allowed it.... And then he feels that awful pressure in his head again.

"Alright. You stay here. I'm gonna go get somethin' to show ya." Luckily the teleporter things they put in will make it a quick trip.

Been missin' their food. Tryin' to be nice, I didn't trust it at first. Dammit. The similarities keep stacking -- Kyoko trusted Mami instantly when they'd actually first met, but when she returned to Mitakihara... When Kyoko tracked her down at their own meeting place, and Mami didn't have her guard up, treated her almost like she used to, and Kyoko lashed out...

Stop being her. Stop it. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do. The last time this happened -- Sure, she thought she knew what she needed to do. But she messed things up with Sayaka. She is determined not to mess things up here, too, but --

Now he's going off to get something. Which. Huh? But he's already off, and she sits there, brow furrowed, expression a mix of surprised and (although she doesn't know it) kinda lost.

But by the time he gets back, she's her normal self -- chewing on a snack, but hands otherwise in her coat pockets while she sits there and waits for him to get back.

He comes back with the mismatched speakers he'd gathered up months ago to initiate an audio assault on Jack by repeatedly playing Tom Jones at him. He sits it down beside him.

"They asked if they could learn my language. I told 'em yeah, but if he used it against me I'd smack it outa their mouth. An' he still did. Also offered to show people one of their dances from back home. Now I know I weren't special in that case, but I learned so I could be decent back to 'em."

He backs away from speaker, thumbing at his nose.

"So, I'm gonna show it to you. It's from like, a whole century before ya or somethin', I forget the time. Just that it's old. But it's got a lotta foot stuff an' I know you're good at that kinda thing."

... Dancing? It's not like she really knew what to expect, but she definitely didn't think this would lead to dancing. Most of her experience is with dance games -- there's a reason why she ordered the DDR machine, and all -- instead of partner dancing. That'd require her to have people she's willing to dance with. But... Yondu is pretty much the only person on the train at this point who counts for that.

(Don't think about the idea of dancing with Mami. Even as it makes her heart ache, it also makes its beat kick up a little. But it's the pain she wants to avoid more than being embarrassed by her own thoughts.)

"Okay." She tucks her snack into a coat pocket and gets up on her feet. If this is what he wants to do, if this is what's gonna make him feel better, then... She can do that. She can definitely learn a dance.

He comes back with the speakers he'd acquired during an earlier incident and sets them up, and goes through the songs that he'd picked out (mostly for Peter) that might have a beat fast enough for it. He finds a couple, which might be a trip for Kyoko since it ranges from old swing to 80s pop music. Whatever, though, at least the beat works.

He starts with some of the foot moves that he was taught, and by maybe the third song or so he's getting her to dance with him and encouraging her to do little spins (because it feels good to feel your coat flare out, not going to lie).

At least he's less focused on who taught him the dance and instead focussing on if he can get her to do a couple of tricks with him.