voidtreckerexpress | Good morning

Entry tags:

Good morning

Who: Tony Stark + OTA
Where: Dining Carriage/ Kitchen
When: Month Apple, Day 2
What: Come bug him while he's eating breakfast/ having coffee
Warnings: Language maybe?
Notes: I'll make a note on a tag if it contains Endgame spoilers, but I'll try to avoid them.

Oh god, it wasn't a dream.

Some habits died hard, like his internal clock that had him waking early to a dark cramped space that after some moments confused, he remembered to be his bunk on a train. Moving as quietly as he could, he gathered some toiletries and slips into the bathroom for a shower trying not to wake anyone. From there it's a change of clothes and then the hunt for the one thing that will keep him sane during this trek- coffee.

Wearing one of the red polo shirts he'd been given, Tony arrives at the dining car early. He leaves the wheelchair downstairs in the kitchen, finding for just the short journey upstairs he doesn't need it. While he was in the kitchen, he doesn't protest too hard when someone on kitchen duty fixes him an egg white omelet, toast, and coffee.

Upstairs, he finds a good spot where he could watch the door and settles in to enjoy his breakfast and ponder over the fact that this situation he was in might not actually be a hallucination after all. He sorely misses his tablet where he could check the world news like he usually did over breakfast, but these things happen when you're randomly kidnapped by a freaky train in middle of the void.

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"The temple?" Tony asks, tilting his head a little to the side, subtly inviting her to share more with him. "What is that?"

He knows what a temple was in his world, but he wasn't going to assume what it was in Buttercup's. This temple could be just like a little kid convent or it could be something else more important. If he remembered correctly, she mentioned priestess earlier when talking about Lightning. Did these children serve the priestess?

"No, Morgan is still too young. She stays home with me or her mother, Pepper. Mostly me though." He had more flexibility with his schedule, after all. Since he'd been rescued from the space ship he'd refused any more public appearances that weren't absolutely necessary. They'd found a quiet home in the woods and he'd been home recovering and focusing on the important things in life.

"It do be being in the mountains." The Temple had always been a place she liked to hear about, there were lots of stories about it. But now she knew she was to go there she was less sure about it.

"It do no be being very warm there and in winter it do even be snowing. But it do be being where people who do be having magic do be going to be learning to be being priests and priestesses. They do be going when they do be being children and they do be learning every day until they do be being grown ups. If you do no be having magic you can be going there to be becoming a Warrior. That do be taking years and years and years of training too."

It sounded very much like Tony's school. Morgan would definitely be too young to go there.

It's hard not to cringe at her speech pattern, but he didn't want her to think she'd done something wrong. It wasn't her fault she'd been raised by people who couldn't talk properly- by his standards. It was entirely possible this was their version of English, however horrifying that thought might be. If he could put up with Thor telling a story, he could handle this.

"Which are you trying to become? A priestess or a warrior?" He asks, curiosu about what she'd been in training for. "Do you know any magic?"

She shook her head, "I do no be having magic. I have no never been going to the temple either."

She stared at the chocolate for a moment, he was from a different world from her. Though she still had to be very careful. But she can tell him, it's not really a secret. "I will be going though. I should have been going soon." Maybe today, or tomorrow. She's lost track of time.

"I will be training to be being a Warrior. So one day I will be being a Warrior and protecting a priestess or priest. They do be being really strong, the best fighters in the whole world."

There's pride in her voice but also sadness. She had always hoped, in her secret heart, that they would get sent to the Temple. That she would become a Warrior like Kant. But now... Going alone. It was not quite what she had thought.

And now she isn't there at all, but on this train with people from whole different worlds.

"I see. I'll bet you make a wonderful warrior some day. I just hope your priest or priestess appreciates their good fortune having you on their side." He would've said something similar if it had been the other answer too. She was eleven. In his mind, that meant if she said today she wanted to be a Warrior and tomorrow a chef, he'd only tell her what a great idea that was. When she gets to, say, Peter's age, he'd tell her if she was being stupid. Maybe.

Belatedly, he picks up on the note of sadness. What could be causing that? "Are you disappointed that you're here instead of the temple?"

"I do be hoping so!" Honestly the idea of swearing to protect someone for her whole life is a bit overwhelming, but it's not something she needs to do until she's a grown up and honestly being a grown up is a long time away, she might not even survive that long.

But now she's on a train so might never go to the temple at all. It's not the reason she is sad, not really. But also she can't tell him the real reason and this is a good excuse. She nods. "I do be guessing so, I do no be knowing where we do be going but it do no be being there."

She might never go there, she might never see her world again. It's a bit overwhelming.

Tony wouldn't be okay with the girl wondering if she was going to live long enough to see adulthood. It didn't seem right. He may be from a very different world than Buttercup, but he was okay forcing his beliefs about protecting children on someone else's culture. Most other things he'd respect, but not that.

"Hey, look at me Buttercup," Tony instructs gently. "Everything's going to be alright. I'm going to find us a way home. Until then I'm going to be here to watch out for you. You have my word."

Her eyes snap up to his face, obediently, making sure her eyes stayed on his and didn't drift away. Kant had been trying to teach her better conversation manners the last few months. But she often forgets.

But Tony was talking, telling her he was going to find a way home and he was going to watch out for her. That was a bit worrying. If he was watching out for her that meant he was watching her and she had to be careful. But she can be careful and hopefully he will find a way home soon.

"Do you be knowing a lot about train-ships?"

[ooc- Sorry some of my notifs got messed up in my inbox]

The way she reacts to his request makes him think he's making some progress here. She's learning slowly she can trust him. He had to believe that this attention and compassion would benefit them both eventually. She seemed a bit like one of those abused animals at a shelter who needs a good, kind home but is too scared to trust her new owner. At least, that's the metaphor he'd heard from other people. He has never had any interest in a pet in his whole life. Why have a pet when you can have a robot?

Anyway, he was curious about her question. It had nothing to do with what he'd just said. Either she didn't believe he would protect her or she didn't want him to. He was just going to have to prove himself and that relying on him would only be a good thing.

"Ship? Is that how you view this vehicle?" He considers that a moment before smirking and nodding. If he didn't know what a train was, he could see why she'd equate it to a ship. He has to give her props for coming up with that one. "Yes, although I've never seen one going through the void like this one. I didn't even know there was a void before I got here. Trains, though, are something common in my world. In fact, their technology is considered rather primative where I'm from. We have 'ships' that fly and some small ships called cars that just about everyone owns."

"It do no really be looking like a ship but it do be acting like one, except the flying and the void... Sarai did be mentioning flying ships as well and she did be being on a train that did be having ghosts that she did be beating up."

He had never heard of the void? Neither had she. Neither had anyone it seemed, no one seemed to know what was happening at all. "Do you be knowing a lot about those ships in your world then?"

She bit off another bit of chocolate. "Because I do be thinking if you do be finding us a way home you will be needing to be knowing how to be sailing this train."

Not that they had found the deck yet.

"Sarai was on a ship with ghosts on it?" Tony asks, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. He would have to ask Dread or Sarai about that story soon. "Did she call them flying ships or trains? Those might be a different type of machine." Were they talking about airplanes, baskets with bat wings, what? It was getting harder to know around here.

"Yes, I know how they operate and how they're built. I've never made one myself but, it can't be too hard to figure out once I see the nuts and bolts of this thing." His lips twitch upward at the corners hearing her tell him he needed to know how to 'sail' the train. She was too precious. "If I need to 'sail' the train, Buttercup, I promise I'll be able to do it."

"What kind of experience do you have with ships? Have you been on the ocean or sea before?"

"She did be saying it did be being a train, with ghosts and she did be beating them all up and that did be breaking the train and they did be escaping. But I did no never be seeing ghosts on this train. She did be saying a train did be being like an air ship or a chocobo."

She shrugs, it's a lot of new words and it's hard to imagine any of it. The idea that he might be able to build a train was amazing, he must be really clever. Maybe there was more than just bluff in his promise to get them all home.

"I did be living near the docks so I did be seeing lots of ships. I did no never be going on one though."

It was better luck than nothing that despite all the headaches of being abducted and brought to this place, ghosts weren't a part of their equation. At least not yet. It bothers him that someone puts them back in bed during the night, but he's going to ignore that for now.

He frowns at the word 'chocobo', unsure what that was. From her expression it seems she's repeating the words rather than fully grasping their meaning either, so he lets it go. Sarai would be the better person to ask anyway.

"This was before you were heading to the temple then? What kind of home did you have? Did you live with anyone else?"

"I did be living in an inn." She'd already said that, she tilted her head. "There did be being Sami and Junia, they did be being the innkeepers and Taiwin did be working there too." She wrinkled her nose, she doesn't want to think about Taiwin at the moment. She hadn't seen him since...

She scowled. "Priestess Elena do be sometimes visiting too, she do be liking the ale. She do be having a warrior called Kant and he do be being very strong."

If Kant was here he would have found a way out and if priestess Elena was here the train would just let them go because no one and nothing stood in priestess Elena's way.

Huh, so that really must be true. No family and living at an inn. She'd answered the same question the same way twice. That tended to be enough to convince him she was telling the truth. He was pleased, though, that she gave more information this time.

He watches her face for a moment, trying to gauge her expression to these names she was using. "You don't seem too fond of this priestess. Is she hard on you?"

The girl tilted her head, "No really, no more than on anyone. Priestess' do just be.... priestesses." Surely he knew that. You didn't cross them, you minded your manners, you hoped they didn't get too angry because that meant trouble for everyone.

"But she do no be being too hard on me. I do be being a good learner and listener."

Tony finds himself smiling when she proclaims her virtues. What was it about this kid that affected him so much? She didn't talk like Morgan or really look like her, but perhaps it was the innocence? He wasn't sure, but he knew he liked her.

"You are. I can already tell that about you. What about the innkeepers? Did they treat you well too? Or this Kent fellow?"

"Yes?" She tilted her head, "They do be giving me honeycakes when I do be being good." When she completed missions successfully. Punishments for failure were swift and terrible but she didn't fail often. She was good, a quick learner and obedient. She had to be.

Kant is a better topic, this last week until she ended up in this strange place Kant was the only one who had spoke to her with kind words at all. Instead of the terse angry silences of everyone else.

"Kant do be teaching me lots of things. He do be being the best fighter I do be knowing and he do be being smart too. He do be saying that do be being important, to be being smart if you want to be living."

He didn't know when it might be useful, but he filed away the name Kant as someone Buttercup clearly looked up to. He had some kind of authority due to his fighter status. He wondered about how different their worlds were and what exactly Buttercup had lived through.

"That's wise, to be strong and smart. It does help keep you alive. Is he a guardian of the priestess like you're being trained to do?"

"Yes he do be being her Warrior." She grinned. Even if she wasn't too sure about being one herself. It had been what she had wanted to do ever since she was very small, to be just like Kant. But now the reality was close... Going far away all on her own...

She guessed it wouldn't be all that much different than right now, she was all alone and far from home.

"To be being a Warrior you do be having to be being very wise, very brave and very strong. Anyone can just be smushing monsters with a sword but you do be having to be using your brain if you do be serving a priestess."

"That's right," Tony agrees. Whoever this Kant was, he at least knew some of the basics about being a strong fighter. Obviously, he didn't know about what else she was learning, but that much he could condone.

"Do all the people in your world speak like you?" Was it a dialect or just bad grammar?

She shook her head. "No everyone. Only people from Gauig. Kant do no be talking like this because he do no be being from Gauig, neither do Priestess Elena. I do be thinking they will all be talking weird like you when I do be going to the temple."

She's used to understanding non-Gauigen speech though. Even if it sounded wrong to her ears, she could figure it out quickly enough.

It's interesting that none of the others on the train spoke like her though.

Ah! Dialect then. Well, damn, he can't train it out of her then.

He has to laugh at being told he talks weird. He supposes to her ears he did. "Well maybe I'll have to learn how to talk like you sometime." God, no. But he can pretend he might for her sake.

"So now that you've had your chocolate, are you ready to eat more of those eggs and bread or want me to clean that up for you?"

"Maybe. It might be sounding even weirder though." She shrugged and wrinkled her nose as he pointed out that she still hadn't really eaten her eggs.

She's still not really hungry, even if the chocolate had been nice and sweet.

"I can be cleaning it up. I do be knowing how to be doing dishes."

She hates dishes, but she also doesn't want him thinking she's a lazy brat that can't wash up after herself.

Okay, so they may need to work on learning each other's version of humor. That was a problem that would just take some time to sort out.

He could see she wasn't too thrilled about eating anymore. Breakfast apparently was over. "Alright, you're free to go. If you get bored and want some company, you're welcome to come find me."

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knifewithnoname - 2019-08-04 06:28 (UTC) - Expand

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