It had been a long time since that crash, since that wake up moment of every move he made being a potential danger if he didn’t triple check it all. On the surface it would always be a funny story to him because it was only him involved in the wreckage, not anyone else. Not his crew nor an instructor, just himself. “It was my own mistake for not triple checking the diagnostics myself. As a pilot, the moment you step on board that vessel is your own and you’re responsible for it. It was only me on board so I wasn’t as cautious as I usually was.” The lives of others would always make him more cautious, giving them priority over his own and always ensuring their safety. Even now he was overly attentive and alert towards Peter subconsciously. It was a habit that he couldn’t kick, not that he really wanted to. It had come in handy time and time again to save his team and others. “Your crew sounds like they’re really good people who could probably tolerate my horrible sense of humor. That’s saying something, even my own team groans in agony when I tell puns.”
There would always be something. Something that ate away at someone and brought more pain than they’d ever admit. Shiro never indulged in his suffering when speaking to others. He did not speak of it, did not draw attention to it and would always stone face his way through any inquiry of it. Where others were concerned he was observant but he never pressed unless he felt it absolutely necessary. Everyone had their own pains and reasons behind them and it wasn’t his place to pry. So he wouldn’t. Instead he would file that expression away and tack it with a label to look for later on if he ever saw it again on his face. A way to know when something wasn’t right and to look for a moment to address it if needed. “When your merry band of comic book heroes are united again, let me know. I’ll pop in and say hello.” A genuine smile turned his lips, thinking about such an odd group put together in one ship reminded him of his own team.
“The most pain these pranks ever bring is hurt pride when a ball of what we call ‘space goo’ gets launched in your face unexpectedly. I think the closest to harmful any of the pranks have ever gotten was when they pulled some ghost pranks and poor Lance nearly had a heart attack.” Gods, poor Lance almost got shoved out the air lock without his gear on due to that corrupted crystal. It was understandable he didn’t fair well with haunt pranks. Shiro had him tucked at his side for a week after that. “Popping out in that mask of yours when they don’t know you’re aboard should be fine.” An amused chuckle left his throat at the thought of their faces. It would certainly be good to see them all scramble from time to time out of harmless fun rather than the threat of attack. The mention of it being a ‘pity party’ though earned a cocked brow and he merely gave a reassuring smile that he understood. Another time they could talk about anything Peter wanted to. It was his information to divulge after all and Shiro wouldn’t pry, but he could at least say something.
“Its not a pity party if I don’t pity you. You did all you could. That doesn’t deserve pity, that deserves reassurance that you were a good leader.” Pity would be disrespectful. As though he were walking all over everything the other had done and he wouldn’t do that. Despite not knowing much about him, Shiro could see the pain inflicted by that time in his life and that was enough to warrant some form of respect. Anyone who could be pained by events out of their control yet have fought so hard for them deserved more than pity. “Anytime you want to, I’ll lend an ear.” As someone who would so often do so, it would be no bother to him to listen to the other speak about anything he wished to. No advice offered unless wanted, no pity, simply a moment in time where neither of them existed as leaders but yet as simple creatures. One who listened and one who spoke. “Now that’s messed up, we need to get them some comic books asap.” A divergence from the heavy topic and he smiled.
It wasn’t as though it was unheard of for someone to not know what comic books were but come on, they sounded like they belonged in one! Yet it was the topic of Zarkon that once again, wrought that ire to darkened eyes for a moment. “Unfortunately it seems some of the quadrants were left untouched, warranting ignorance of the looming threat. He’s been at it for ten thousand years and yet no one knew because it just hadn’t reached them yet.” If he had been just a little later than he had, if the others hadn’t of found him, if Keith hadn’t been doing research and Pidge hadn’t been listening– There was no telling what could have unfolded concerning Earth. “We’ll put him and his lineage in the fucking ground before we let him retake or take anymore civilizations.” Anger. That was something he kept under wraps as much as he could but sometimes it would seep up before he could catch it. In that moment he welcomed the flourishing pain that would occur when his shoulder was put back in place because it would ground him again.
The scars on his flesh, the scars in his mind, none of them would ever go away and none of them would fully heal. He would remain trapped in this war until it was done but even then he suspected it would continue for him. For those caught up in it, for those who lost everything. He blinked a few times at the attention being drawn to Peter’s scars, on his life of having had enhancements done before. “So your mask has replaced the need to have them? Interesting.” Was this somehow meant to make him feel better about his own scars? He couldn’t help but to chuckle a little at the thought. Really, he hid because they were frightening to others. A reminder that he was war worn and that his flesh had been his armor too many times. He appreciated the gesture. “Nothing really surprises me now a days but I wouldn’t expect you to have them removed if they were useful once before. Then again, having a foreign object inside or on your body is quite.. Annoying to say the least.” He didn’t choose to have a prosthetic but he could at least understand on some level the want to have it removed even if it was an optional enhancement. And why keep it if there was an alternative that worked just the same without the invasive mess of cybernetics?
He pushed the thought aside to get his tongue out of the way of his teeth when he felt that grip to his arm, closing his eyes and ensuring that he was focused only on the pain reverberating through his shoulder when the swift notion returned it to its socket. The pain ignited and he felt grounded again, anger from before subsiding and clarity coming back. Although it wasn’t often he would allow pain to be a focusing factor, it was more often than not that he could barely feel the pain he was put through due to the increase of his tolerance. Once it was done, he merely reached to the pouch at his hip to retrieve the bandages and begin wrapping his arm. There was nothing on his expression to warrant that it hurt at all despite the fact that it did. “Thank you. That would’ve been a pain to fly with, honestly.” At least now he could just wrap it to reduce the swelling and then get on with it. “Any time, man.” He knew what it was like to end up in a place you never wanted to be in again. To offer a way out was the best he could do and honestly if ever called upon he’d be there in an instant to get him out.
“Yeah I get that a lot. I blame it on the stress,” he chuckled, finishing up the wrap and turning to his band to pull up the article he’d found on himself when Pidge arrived. Same old picture of himself right before the Kerberos mission along with the tagline of being declared deceased. “Right before the Keberos mission. Torture, being experimented on and War can do a lot to a guy’s appearance.” Certainly he was a lot smaller than he is now and didn’t look as worn but he took it in stride. Whenever he did end up back on Earth he usually kept to himself or acknowledged people with that same smile to let them know he wasn’t as scary as he looked. “You seriously do not look like you’re in your early thirties though. Maybe its the no constant solar cycle thing inhibiting your age count. You’re twenty-five and don’t know it.”
Well there was truth and wisdom in those words, but he also was the man that stole and piloted an alien vessel off planet Earth in order to manage to find the aliens that killed his mother. He was hardly in position to argue the point. But at the words, a nod was given, half smile there. “True enough. I would do triple checks just as a mechanic, but by the time the pilots made it to the seat, they shouldn’t have had any reasons to worry about how their vessel wasn’t working. One mess up and the pilots lives could be in danger of one of two things.. Death upon reentry of the Earth’s atmosphere or dying from the machine itself harming the pilots. We had to be absolutely sure.” Though the mention of them being able to handle Shiro’s sense of humor, there was a moment that the man looked like he wanted to laugh.. he really wanted to, in all honesty. “Most of them barely tolerate mine, I’m not sure how much more they can handle from someone they don’t know.”
The man had to admit, even with his pain and guilt concerning the empire.. one he did not even want to run.. He still had to remind himself he wasn’t ever cut out for that life. He hated the things that his father did, he hated where that empire came from. The blond smiled a bit, blond brows shifting some with it, however. Instead of dwelling on the pain, instead of mulling it over time and time again, he decided that it was best to move on. “Absolutely will... Least, saying we don’t have to stage a prison break..” again. How often had they done that now? And how much more did people ignore it to a point that they became irritated by the fact that by all technicalities... the Guardians weren’t able to be touched due to their ‘hero status’. Considering how often Peter had been in and out of prisons.. He really figured there would be one point that he would have to very likely reconsider his line of work.
He shifted, however, at mention of something called space goo, a smile passing his lips. “Is it bad I might have an idea for what?” His mind was already going over possible strategies concerning how to get different people--people he didn’t even know--but if there was something he could use as a projectile in order to catch someone off guard, he was certainly gonna use it. “But, whenever you wanna plan for that, just lemme know and we’ll raise a little hell. Nothing harmful, that’s a promise.” He knew better than to go too far on pranks, given his life up til now.. most of the people he worked with probably would not be able to understand why some of them were funny.
“I tried to be at least. From what I’d been told, I did better than my father did but he also managed to keep them alive longer.” Not to say that his father wasn’t a piece of shit. He certainly and most definitely was. But he managed to keep everyone alive far longer than the man himself did. That little bit alone was enough to keep him awake at night. “He was still a peace of work, granted. When you think of how he treated his heirs. Didn’t treat the people in his empire much better.” He’d only had the empire for so long. But it began to crumble especially when his friends began to leave. Sinking into the darkness of depression that kept him busy.. often times, he wondered if staying like that was what caused his father to become the way he was. Even so.. He managed as best he could. But when it all came tumbling down, he had to figure out how to.. He wasn’t there for them in the end. He should have been, but he wasn’t.
He knew that look on anyone. He’d worn it multitudes of times himself. Anger, and it could understand why someone would be upset about it. “If you need evacuation teams, call us up. I can talk Cosmo back at Nowhere to extract people needing refuge.” Having a strong psych on their side was not only useful, but damn did it feel good knowing people like them existed. “The only thing that would be needed is the ground group to keep people where he can pull them, but it would be a telepathic transport..” They had accidentally transported entire angry mobs into Nowhere by accident before so getting refugees out would be no problem. “Cosmo is probably the most powerful mentat I know. And he’s got the entirety of Nowhere locked down when he knows he needs to protect the people.” Add on the other mentats in their group, well.. There was enough there that they could keep refugees safe.
Among the scars on his collarbone and such, there was also a crescent shaped one around his left eye, which was a slightly different shade of blue if someone looked close enough. Even alien tech couldn’t get an exact match on it, which while it sucked, he didn’t entirely mind. Scars that ran up his neck and what looked like something that would have been an entrance from a tube of some kind. “Not all, but most. I used to be able to square up to Ronan the Accuser by myself. No help. Needless to say I have to get a little more creative if I want to go after him anymore. Probably one of the only people that it takes more than an entire army to take down.” He remembered the last time he went after Ronan.. that was.. not a pleasant fight. He still won, but he got severely injured and Gamorra did not let him hear the end of it. “Honestly if they hadn’t malfunctioned, I wouldn’t have had to get them removed. It was remove them or die and to be frank, I rather enjoy living.” To a point, but his life was not all bad.
Though he stepped back to give the man space once his arm was back in its place, where it belonged. He didn’t know the guy, despite the little bits of what was said, he wasn’t going to crowd him while he was probably reeling a bit from that getting shoved back in place forcefully. “Anytime. I don’t mind lending a hand where it’s necessary.” There’s a moment that the blond shifts to scratch at his beard, rough fingers then moving to smooth it out. It wasn’t long, but it was well maintained and trimmed. There was a frown before he laughed at the thought of the reasoning behind his looking so young was mentioned. “I blame that on being half Spartoi, actually. My father looked like he was in his mid-thirties when I last saw him before his people overthrew him.” Though war was settled in his bones, so many different ones that he already fought. He would try his best to remain who he was. “I’ve seen alternate dimensions getting ready to collapse in on themselves and had to fight my way back here, I’ve seen war after war. They’re as unforgiving as Gamora when you get on her bad side.” He could speak that one.. from personal experience.
“Trust me when I say, I can at the very least partially understand the pain. If you guys need anything. We’re flarking mercenaries, we will have your back.”
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