flourish_or_perish | Spaaaace, just outside of Mars' orbit

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Spaaaace, just outside of Mars' orbit | Monday Afternoon

Mars was the closest planet in the solar system, regardless of whether you went to the robot-inhabited version of 2021 or caught a portal to take you to the densely-populated version of Faye's time, and so that was where she had decided to take Stark for that promised, non-hole-related ride in her ship. They could have gone further, but Faye didn't especially feel like passing through a gate and paying the associated toll -- or, honestly, letting her ship be seen at an official checkpoint, if she could help it.

Plus, Mars had cities, which meant nightlife. And this was, after all, a date. Faye could even admit it.

"All right," Faye noted quietly -- given that it was still a very snug fit in the Red Tail's cockpit, she really could keep her voice fairly low -- as she gestured out the windshield to a green spot on the red planet. "So that's Tharsis, where we're headed. Still doing good?"

He seemed like he was doing fine, but Faye had found that checking in with Stark was just a thing she'd started doing since the whole hole thing, regardless.

[for the space date and NFB for distance, self.]

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"I'm fine," Stark assured her just as quietly. And he was. Once he'd gotten settled and comfortable within the ship he'd relaxed a bit. "Better than the last flight." He wasn't clinging tightly, this time, or hiding his face.

"But...I appreciate that you check."

Faye leaned back just enough that she could press a kiss to Stark's cheek over her shoulder before reaching for the controls again. "'Course. The last flight was less than ideal."

There were a few larger ships also closing in on the planet, and Faye took note of one that looked like a giant roulette wheel and nimbly turned to loop around an interstellar truck. "I used to work there," she noted casually, gesturing to the casino ship. And now she definitely wasn't avoiding them, don't be silly.

"It wasn't a bad flight. Given the circumstances. But this is better." In multiple ways, really. Longer, more relaxing, and this was the first time Stark had been out among the stars in a long time. "Thank you."

"What did you do there?" he asked, turning to get a better look at that very conspicuous wheel. Why would she possibly be avoiding a former employer? Surely she wouldn't do that.

"I was a blackjack dealer," she shared. "It was actually kind of fun." And if the whole thing hadn't been a con, she might have had even more fun with it. "It's a type of poker game where you try to get the cards to add up to twenty-one without going over. Very high-stakes, sometimes."

"I haven't played many card games. Definitely not for money." Stark might have a halfway decent poker face if he could manage to stay calm and focused but that was a big if. "Maybe you could teach me." That would end well, right?

"Were you there long? Or where we're headed, on the planet?"

"Not that long. But I've been to Mars a lot of times," Faye replied, adjusting a couple of controls as they approached the false atmosphere of the city. "Really, I haven't stayed in one spot too much at all. Fandom's been kind of an exception."

Weird.

Edited 2021-08-02 20:03 (UTC)

"Fandom is the place I've stayed the longest voluntarily. People staying just seems to happen," Stark said.

"I'm glad you stayed," he added, leaning forward just a bit to place a very soft kiss on the back of her neck. "Very glad."

Faye smiled at the kiss, both enjoying the accompanying warm and squishy feelings his words inspired and pointedly ignoring that part of her brain was firing off a klaxon at how long she'd been in Fandom and why.

Ignoring that for now.

"Yeah, a lot of people seem to stay kinda by accident," Faye noted, which was her story, personally, and she'd stick to it. "Maybe it's all the attacking candy canes and middle of the night fire alarms. Can't get that anywhere else."

You probably could, actually.

Yes, ignore those brain alarms, Faye! Everyone will be happier that way.

"It has that effect, I think. I'm not sure it's the candy canes. The people? The people help. Part of why I stay is the people. Maybe it's the wildlife?" Not the raccoons, obviously, they were the worst. "Late night alarms I think are easy to find."

Edited 2021-08-02 22:18 (UTC)

"Definitely not the wildlife," Faye said darkly. She not only hated the raccoons, but her relationship with the squirrels was also somewhat fraught. "The people do help."

A pause, and then, "Everyone's so nice. No one's just going to nicely introduce themselves and hand us a bottle of cheap booze when we land here. Which is what happened when I showed up in Fandom."

And then Jessica, her first friend, had betrayed her. Shame.

"I wouldn't expect that most places." Nobody had handed Stark alcohol when he first arrived in Fandom though. "Definitely not where I was before. Maybe on the ship, if I go back. Someday. But what will they do when we land?"

Did he need to be prepared for someone pulling a gun for no reason?

"Your ship sounds fun," Faye decided. She had no idea. "When we land here, someone'll probably make me pay for parking."

It was incredibly normal, visiting Mars. "And then we'll want to keep an eye out for pickpockets, probably." Though it was always just a good idea to prepare for someone to pull a gun for no reason, around Faye.

Edited 2021-08-02 23:35 (UTC)

"Occasionally it was fun there." In between all the traumas. So many traumas. "Sometimes I miss it. Mostly the people. Moya was home, for a while."

"But I think we can handle a fee and pickpockets." He didn't carry much with him, usually. "And what do you have planned, once we land and pay the fee?"

Well, it also helped that for some reason, Faye had a really good idea of what to look for as far as pickpocket behaviors.

"Well," Faye said, letting the ship coast in space for a moment longer. "I was thinking we could find a bar, and I know a really fun club to go dancing." Which meant she was going to make you dance with her, Stark. "Or we could just stay here in space and fog up the windshield."

She was only half-joking. That sounded like a great time, too.

Faye knowing about pickpocket behaviors? Just because she came home with Stark's pockets full of phones and cash after Summer's birthday doesn't mean anything!

"I am not," Stark reminded her, "someone who dances often." Or maybe ever. Especially in public. "I suppose I could try." Going to the bar first might help.

"Or we could stay here." Because yes, that did sound fun. "...but it seems a shame to come all this way and see the planet at all." There was plenty of time later.

Going to the bar first would absolutely help. Such was the nature of dancing in public.

"I'll help you," Faye assured him, which mostly likely meant that she'd hang all over him and possibly sway a little in a leading sort of way. "With the dancing. The nice thing about dancing is that no one really looks at anyone else. We all just think we're being watched."

She leaned back to kiss him over her shoulder, lingering a little bit. "And we can come back out here later." 'Here' being space. 'Here' actually meaning more remote space, really, because Faye wasn't quite that much of an exhibitionist. (Or at least, she was conscious of the fact that Stark certainly wasn't.)

Stark could absolutely sway a bit to some music like some sort of large prop. He might even enjoy it! Right now he was just going to enjoy the kiss. Perhaps even steal another.

"You'll be watched," he said, eventually. By Stark, absolutely, and quite possibly by other people. Faye was eye-catching! "While you dance. Definitely watched if we come back out here. But just by me, then. I hope. Or we could go somewhere else."

He really was not an exhibitionist. At all. But they had been in such close quarters this entire flight and doing something about that was sounding more and more appealing.

"I don't mind being watched," Faye assured him with another kiss before, somewhat reluctantly, turning back to the controls to actually begin their descent. "In either context."

Faye sort of prided herself on being a giant distraction, which was why it was both kind of wonderful and also terrifying in those moments when Stark actually seemed to see past that.

Ignoring the brain alarms again.

"And you won't stick out, if you're worried," she added. "No one'll think anything of the mask." They'd probably come across at least a few other people with a face plate or a mechanical limb, honestly, in a city this big.

"I had noticed that," Stark admitted. He could be shy enough for the both of them, and Faye could soak up all the attention. It evened out. "I do like watching you," he added quietly. In case he hadn't made that very clear over the past few months.

"And I didn't think you'd take me somewhere the mask would be a problem." Because he trusted her, no matter how many times she might protest that he shouldn't. He would still be a little nervous about it. He was always a little nervous about something. Was that degree of nervousness why he was wrapping his arms a little tighter around Faye when they started the descent? Maybe. Or maybe that was just an excuse.

He really shouldn't trust her. Faye would keep saying so. She wouldn't trust her.

But it still felt nice that he did.

She laid a reassuring hand on his arm for a moment before sliding it back into its grip. The city they were swiftly approaching was contained under its own atmosphere, with tiny vines of highway leading out to the other colonized portions of Mars, like Alba City and Space Land. "If you like Mars, we can go further next time," she offered, mostly just trying to make some conversation as a distraction from how they were hurtling faster towards the planet. "We'll just have to take a gate. I don't think they have them in Fandom's normal time." They certainly had any Earth-destroying accidents with them, anyway.

Edited 2021-08-03 18:03 (UTC)

But Faye hadn't done anything to Stark that would make him not trust her! She hadn't even run off with any of his belongings. At least not that he'd noticed.

"I don't think there's much space travel at all, in the usual Fandom time. Or a lot of Earths, really. I only ever met the one human before Fandom." And now there were so many humans to keep track of! "I don't know about gates. We don't have those where I was before, either. Just ships. But I think I'll like Mars." It looked interesting, at least, from here. And he had a lovely tour guide. That helped.

"There's only humans here," Faye shared as they broke through the atmosphere and she throttled her speed a bit as she flew them towards the city. There was a shipyard near the artificial lake, she was pretty sure. "Gates allow for hyperspace travel here. It'd take years to get to the other side of the galaxy before they were developed, I guess? At least, that's what they tell me." It was the sort of thing Faye would have learned school, if she could remember having gone.

"Do your ships have hyperspace capabilities?" She assumed so, but then, she was learning that there were apparently a lot of differences in spacecraft across different universes. (The Razor Crest had several features she was considering adding to the Red Tail, though space was obviously at a premium.)

"Leviathans, like Moya, can Starburst," Stark said, turning a bit so he could get a better look around as they approached. "Other ships have Hetch drives, for faster than light travel. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to get far. Things were very spread out. Are very spread out." So spread out they called a good portion of inhabited space Uncharted!

"It's still strange, sometimes, knowing there aren't others around who aren't human, most places." It was a little lonely, really.

"There's others in Fandom, aren't there?" Faye asked, not entirely sure. She dipped the ship low to fly amongst skyscrapers, and now that they were much closer to the surface, it was easier to see how green the city was, under its bubble. There were more parks than you'd find in the average Earth city, since Tharsis needed to generate its own oxygen. "We just haven't quite...made contact with anyone else outside of this galaxy. Least not in my time."

"I'm not the only one who isn't human," Stark said, after thinking about it for a moment. "But there aren't many of us." And only one other alien that he could think of, who also happened to be glowy!

"There have been others, other times. Even ones I knew from before. This looks," he said, gesturing outside, "more like Earth than I would have thought." Just a vaguely futuristic Earth. "None of your planets had people before you got there?"

The multiverse was odd like that. Some places you had countless intelligent species. Some places you only ever found the one.

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