[MINGLE] Scout's Honor

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Hot Springs
WHEN: 21 Sept, after sunset
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn in your subject line as needed
NOTES: Details found here

---

It's been a strange, rough couple of months for our intrepid villagers — Bunkers, superpowers and clones, oh my! Perhaps the Observers are sympathetic to their plight, or maybe they just have a peculiar sense of humor. At any rate, they've set up a gathering space chalk full of summer camp goodness, no strings attached. Not that anyone knows that part.

Just before sunset, a cheery message pops up on wrist devices all across the settlement and beyond. The instructions seem simple enough, although one does have to wonder at what dubious gift awaits them all after everything is said and done.

Marshmallows are on the house, so grab yourself a stick, strap on a sash and get to roasting, villagers. Skinny dipping, sing-alongs and friendship bracelets optional.

Comments

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Stop catching fists with your face. Or running into doors. You're making me behave like a responsible adult and that won't stand, Ballpark. Not at all." He huffs, rolling his eyes as he passes it back. Truth?

Truth.

"Have we met before? I know there was a version of me in this village, Peggy told me. But you...feels like you know me. Is all. It's weird."

[oorah]

"Don't hold your breath," he warns. This is an actual record for him, how long he went with his face being clear here. Welcome to how he usually looks, Tony. Handsome, isn't it? Now you know how his nose got so hopelessly crooked.

He really should have anticipated that question, bummer. Frank shrugs.

"Everyone knows you." But that isn't the whole truth. He chews on his lip before deciding to just blurt it. "I met a version of you once. Not here, the place I was before."

[nonstopnarcissist]

"If not for me, for the kid that worries about you. Because she does." And that's not something to take for granted, he'd know, having a similar 'kid that worries about him' thing going on.

After a long, drawn out moment where Tony absorbs that answer, he sticks his hand out, wiggling it for the wine again. "In that bizzaro 'fuck the children we got ours' horror show of a place?"

Kamalah had told him about it, a little. Enough to leave him frustrated.

[oorah]

It gets a dark look, narrowing his eyes Tony's way a second. But ultimately, he can't argue its merits. He'd do anything for Kamala, but she also knows who he is. What he is. He can't stop fighting, even when there's nothing to fight here.

"She's used to it," he settles on with a little shake of his head. It's an excuse, maybe, but it's also true. He has no illusions about who's really the adult in their house. He's nodding a second later at the rest before looking away. "That's the one."

[nonstopnarcissist]

"She's a kid. She shouldn't have to be. Maybe let's surprise her a little now and then." A beat, another sigh and shudder. "This is what happens when I don't have enough work. I start applying rational logic to everything else under the sun."

Which shouldn't stand but, well, what are you going to do?

"Please tell me I wasn't on the side of those just letting the kids fend for themselves." Nevermind that it wasn't him, he doesn't remember it, he doesn't remember being here before either but- He knows he's got the potential to be that kind of an asshole, depending on what had happened before he woke up in hell.

[oorah]

He just gives Tony a bland look. If he had any idea what himself and Kamala had been through together, maybe he wouldn't say that. Then again, he knows he's a dick who can't leave well enough alone. Fighting John had felt like something he could control, and it helped that that was why John hit him to start with. It's why he misses Fight Club so much, and being perpetually busted up, even if it wasn't Kamala's favorite thing to witness in her Horror Dad.

"Okay," he says belatedly, discomfit passing transparently over his gaze. "I won't." But that Tony 100% had been a selfish prick. Frank worries his lip, not really having anything better to offer than the obvious, but he says it anyway.

"He wasn't you."

[nonstopnarcissist]

"Motherfuck." He mutters, scrubbing at his face and jaw. It's never a comfortable thing, assessing his capacity for cruelty (Hello salting and burning the Ten Rings'...everything, Hello Sibera Fight, we have not missed you at all), but to be so distracted, so self centered as to avoid kids? Terrible situation or no-

He doesn't know the circumstances. He doesn't need to know the circumstances. "Do me a favor. I'm not him, sure, but if I start heading that way? Give me a heads up. Shouldn't be a thing since we're supposed to be in a somewhat safer place here than back home, but. I know me."

[oorah]

Frank nods. He gets it and he wants to help- he's just not sure he's the right one for this task. But that's never stopped him before, has it?

"For what it's worth, it's basically just Kam and Pete here for minors and you do good by them."