7510/Halfway to Halfworld

Halfway to Halfworld
Date of Scene:	24 August 2021
Location:	Common Area - Milano
Synopsis:	In the wake of their pyrrhic victory over Thanos -- they did rescue Nebula, after all -- the Guardians and most of their passengers try to come to terms with all the changes wrought... all the while ignoring the sanest voice among them. (Who, frighteningly, may actually be Mantis.) Nevertheless, cheaters to the last, they are still apparently committed to taking out Thanos moving forward. After Rocket is fixed. Until then... well... that's anybody's guess.
Cast of Characters:	Ava Starr, Carol Danvers, Mantis, Peter Quill, Finley Ellison, Nebula, Gamora

---

Ava Starr has posed:
The Milano is enroute to Halfworld. Rocket remains in the statis pod below decks. The rest of the team? They're in various states of recovery, scattered throughout the ship.

For her part, Ava has emerged from her quarters and come up into the common area on something of a mission. She remembers seeing a collection of odd tools on the dining table there. (Why there and not in a workbench, she has no idea... though she's coming to understand these people are slobs.)

She reaches the table and starts sifting through the various technical debris, trying to find what she thinks is some sort of a cutting tool. Detritus gets shoved aside as she sorts one component, one tool from another in her search.

Carol Danvers has posed:
    "Gods.... these people are slobs... I blame Quill!" announces Carol as she ducks through a hatch and into the common area. "One of them has been stashing booze from like.. all over the galaxy but no organization or reason or ..anything behind it."

    The Captain has an empty bottle in one hand, and a bottle of some green looking viscious liqued in the other.

    One. She sounds a bit drunk.

    Two. Is anyone actually sure that the green stuff is actually booze and not some sort of engine degreaser. It has a viscosity that does not look like it is safe to drink. The there is a slight bubbling to it as well.

    Three. Does this ship even use grease for anything.

    She pauses and looks at Ava rummaging and sifting "IF you were looking for Quill's stash.. I've found it." pause "Well I found what I assume is the tip of the ice berg... " the Titanic metaphor is probably there somewhere.

Mantis has posed:
"That is engine degreaser." Mantis points out helpfully to Carol! Smiling despite the fact she's very injured, all bandaged up on her chest which is otherwise bare, so this is kind of like a lowkey gender reveal party! Edges of blackened skin is visible from beneath white bandages that actually do a fairly good job of keeping her bewbs covered.

She limps into the commons carrying a big container full of action figures, some of which are Terran heroes, some of which are interstellar, some of which are just barbies with extra parts glued on. Her antinae rotate around on her way to a quiet place in the corner where she can set up her play things!

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter was pretty beat up after the fight with Thanos and so he holed up in his quarters leaving setting course for Halfworld to the crew and there he stayed until just now the door to the common area sliding open as the rumple haired wannabe space hero stumbles bleary eyed into the common area. Whatever he was doing sleep wasn't one of them.

"Definitely the tip of the iceberg, and be careful with the green stuff I'm not sure it's booze." Another time he might have let Carol try it just to see what it did, but right now that didn't seem as fun as it might have been a few days ago. "The blue one is pretty good though."

As Mantis appears Peter's expression falls a little and he glances back at his room, before letting out a breath and forces himself to march to the cooling unit for blue milk before he gets a bo of Chocobomb Cereal from a hidden compartment in the kitchen counter, he pours himself a bowl.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley peeks into the common area. She's still unsure of her companions, aside from Ava, of course. They're all essentially stangers, despite having fought together. Sort of? She'd stayed on the ship. She'd been *useful* on the ship, but still.

"Oh, um, hi. People. Lots of you. And is that engine degreaser? Can I see that?" Who needs small talk when there's useful things like possible engine degreaser.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava looks up as Carol makes her presence known. "I wasn't--" But she's willng to try anything but the degreaser. Wait. Degreaser? That means somewhere, there's grease. "Is there any soap on this crate?" she asks, straightening and letting a spanner of some sort clatter to the table top. "Oil? Grease? Plasma cutter?"

Plasma cutter. Maybe not her best plan.

"Where's the engine room?" Engine degreaser implies the engine gets greasy. God, this is not going in the right direction.

Her eyes fall on Mantis' playthings. And then Quill arrives, followed shortly thereafter by-- "Finley." She holds out her wrist. One of the quantum bands gleams in the reflected light of the kitchen area. "Help me get this damned thing off."

Carol Danvers has posed:
    Carol gives Mantis a skeptical look. Then she gives Quill the same skeptical look as he backs up Mantis. Finally the bottle of bubbling green viscious liquid is given a skeptical look and she pops it open and sniffs it.

    "Okay... you are probably.. right.... here you go Ellison" and she looks sad as she hands it off to Finley with a deep sad sigh. "So.. Quill.. where is the blue one?" looking back the way she came, empty bottle being set with all the other debris that Ava seems to be going through on the table now.

    She looks Ava over when she is talking about looking for grease, oil, soap, or a plasma cutter. "I mean.. I am way more effective than a plasma cutter." yup, Carol is definitely a bit drunk. It totally takes a moment for her to realize what Ava is talking about.

    "Oh.. oh.. oh! No Ava!" her eyes widening there. "Those... that isn't going to work. That isn't how those work..."

    

Mantis has posed:
A lot of hustle and bustle! Mantis perks up when everyone starts speaking in hushed, but stressed, tones! She spies Peter almost backing out and waves at him. A hand up over her head, waving back and forth excitedly as if they hadn't seen each other in weeks! With a huge grin on her face! She pulls the edge of the bandage down to show him the blackened skin! "This is where you shot me!" Because of course she does.

Then she's up and moving over to Carol, leaning over the Captain of Marvel's shoulder with her antenae rotating about until she too spies those bracelets on Ava's wrists, "ooo those are the bracelets Phyla-Vell was wearing when she went away." Classy. Big black eyes blink a few times, shift from Ava, to bracelet, to Ava, to Peter... to Finley, whom she waves at, to Carol whose shoulder she's practically hanging from like a Mantis-backpack.

"We have a new Phyla-Vell!"

Nebula has posed:
    The cockpit was where Nebula had locked herself in. Everyone else too busy tending to their wounds to really put up a fight against her hijacking of the ship. The door snaps open and she walks out in to the common area. She folds her arms and leans back against the wall.

    Dark eyes scan over the people here. The wounds they've taken. She frowns at them all. She had given them an out - all of them. Well, not these strange new people. Instead they turned around and dived straight in to the vipers nest -- and big surprise, it bit them.

    That, though, is a conversation she intends to yell at her sister, Gamora, for being so damned stupid. She doesn't broach the subject, but 'why' is on her lips. Also 'who' when looking at Carol, Ava, and Finley. Of all the darned fool things to do - attempting to take on Thanos?

Peter Quill has posed:
"Blue stuff is in the next cabinet over in the box labeled 'totally not booze...honest'" Quill says in a quiet sort of deadpan before pouring milk on his cereal and sticking it into the heating unit for a minute. He's running on autopilot, doing the trick Zatanna showed him when it came to chocolatey cereal.

The mention of where he shot Mantis, gets Peter looking down guilt all over his expression before he looks up. "She's not the new Phyla-Vell, Pyla's dead, Thanos killed her, she might be the new Quasar or however that works but Pyla is gone," he says angrily, without even realizing Nebula had emerged from the cockpit. "Nobody gets redos in real life."

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley accepts the green goo. And that means her hands are already full when Ava tries to give her the plasma cutter. Good. "I thought you liked your hands, Ava," Finley says, flinching away from Ava's offering. Then she stares blatantly at Carol's own gauntlets. "I think she knows what she' stalking about. Besides, Phyla used them to help stabilize you. I think you might need to keep wearing them. How do you feel? since, I mean...?"

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava stares at Carol for a moment. There's a part of her that wants to reject the drunk. There's another that suspects she's telling the truth. Truth Ava's not ready to hear. "They're stuck," she tells Carol bluntly. "They need to come off."

Her head snaps around as Mantis names her the 'new Phyla-Vell'. "I'm not--" Nebula's entrance is ignored in favour of Peter's outburst. "What he said!" she says, pointing at him. "We don't get do-overs and I'm not the new *anything*. The only reason I came along with you crazy people was to help Phyla because she helped me." She didn't expect the alien woman go to and get herself killled at the first opportunity.

She looks at Finley and inhales a deep, sharp breath. "Phyla used them to build a machine that helped stabilize me," she tells Finley. A hint of plaintiveness comes into her rough English voice. "I'm not an engineer. You are. I can't build anything like that. These are wasted on me."

She looks at Carol. "Please. Help me take them off so someone who can actually use them--" someone who actually deserves them-- "can... use them."

Carol Danvers has posed:
tCarol flinches, hard when Mantis suggests that Ava is the new Phyla. Still Quill has the sentiment covered and right now it is probably more important that Ava not try to cut a Q-Band with a Plasma Torch. So she pushes it down. She also hasn't noticed Nebula judging them. She is in a state.

    God she wishes for blue booze from Quill's lame hiding spot right now. She shoots Peter a get me that bottle look then focuses in on Ava and Finley.

    "These are just gloves and a Kree computer interface... " wait that wasn't the important part. Bad drunk Carol. "What I mean is ... no I don't have q-bands, the boom is all me, but I do know what I am talking about. You can't remove them... hell if you cut your arms off that might actually not even remove them. Q-Bands are one of those items that... ugn grafting is not the right word.. neither is merging... sticking..." the word bonding is right on the tip of her tongue there.

    Which is why she settles on "Ava you're stuck with them until you die." which is probably not even remotely what Ava wanted to hear either.

Nebula has posed:
    So.. it's true. Peter teamed up with that goodie goodie two shoes Phyla-Vell to take down Thanos? and failed? the last time she tried she lost her lover Moondragon. This time she lost her life. And now the quantum-bands are on some Terran who has no idea how to use them.

    One foot lifts up and rests against the wall as she can practically hear her eyes rolling. What is with this crew and always making things worse. Her usual jab of 'morons' is on the tip of her tongue but somehow the mood is all wrong. Inside of herself. Things are much clearer after indoctrination and then.. then things get muddied.

    It's not the first time she' been through this confusing cascade of memory to emotion recalibration. It may not even be the last time. But she knows Peter. She knows Mantis. But even she knows how the quantum bands are meant to work. Know your enemy and all that. "They choose who they need. They clearly don't need an engineer," comes her now cool, calm, voice.

Mantis has posed:
"If you say so." Mantis says with a grin, until Peter scolds her about there not being any doovers... Her antenae drop down and rotate back like a puppies ears and her eyes cast down with a bend of her neck. "I just mean that we don't have to be so upset anymore because Phyla-Vell is still here." Pointing at Ava, or her bracelets, or both. "She sacrificed herself for what she believed in, most of you would have done that." Long stare at Peter.. LONGER stare at Nebula.

The later being there has Mantis grinning, even if Nebula kind of scares the absolute poop out of her. "Hey Nebula. Peter shot me." Unaware that Nebula shot Rocket. Guardians of the Friendly Fire, amirite?

"And he says there's no doovers but here you are, here I am, there's Rocket, and there's Phyla-Vell's bracelets." Pointing at Ava's wrist! "I think we got a /bunch/ of do-overs."

"YEAH! They need a ... they.. wait." Turning to Ava, "I don't know your name, I'm Mantis and they don't need an engineer they need a You whoever you are."

Gamora has posed:
    There's only a soft, unrythmic clicking of heels on metal down the hall to forewarn of Gamora's... somewhat undignidied presence. Her shoulder is bandaged tightly, and she's foregone her cape and gloves at this moment in time, clearly still saddled with bracing pain. "I'm..." she grumbles softly, seems to be stuck on trying to find a word, then just shakes her head and says, "... awake."

    She'd lost consciousness from blood loss after it was all over. She's still not doing great, but she's clearly not in a mood to recover sensibly. "Is everyone-" she starts to ask, before her eyes fall on her sister, "Nebula." She is all she says, quietly.

Mantis has posed:
"Hey Gamora, Peter shot me." Mantis adds for Gamora, helpfully.

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter catches that look from Carol and it's read loud and clear. He ducks under the sink and pulls the bottle out of it's clever hiding spot and hands it over. "Here," he says to Carol.

The Q-band stuff is over his head but Mantis' announcement to Gamora has him turning to the bug lady. "Would you STOP saying that! I am sorry I shot you, I'm sorry Phyla died, I was stupid thinking we could just roll up on Thanos like that and take him out, I should have known something like this would happen, but I didn't, because I'm an idiot, so can we PLEASE stop bringing it up. I'm sorry, I really wish I could fix this but I can't."

He takes back the blue bottle and takes a healthy swig.

Finley Ellison has posed:
"You *can* use them," Finley assures her friend. "You just have to learn how. I suspect Phyla was still trying to help you. If she had any say in the matter." She looks back to everyone, hoping they'll say something...nice? "Anyway, it sounds like you're stuck with them. Like you're stuck with me. So you'd better make the most of it."

Looking around the bedraggled crew and their sorry state, Finley wonders who the medic is...

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula's eyes flit back and forth of the rapidly devolving conversation. They took a big hit, they lost. It's what the Guardians were used to - until apparently Knowhere and Xandar. Then her eyes fall on Gamora. Sister is awake, it seems. The look she gives her is one of accusation. Somehow, Nebula blames all of this on Gamora. Or perhaps, on Thanos via Gamora.

    Nebula never thought of herself as one of the crew. She hung around to deal with Gamora the first time and then did her ploy. Peter thought otherwise. Nebula still doesn't consider herself part of the crew. In fact, she basically stole the ship just to get Rocket the help he'd need. She couldn't fix what she'd done on Sanctuary II.. and when she's done, she can go back to mission numero uno. Kill Thanos. She's an expert in planning that particular death.

    "Let me guess. He infused himself with hyperspace energy?" She's still looking pointedly at Gamora but is asking Peter, Carol, and Mantis. She wasn't sure if that was his ploy.. but he had to have been parked in hyperspace all those years for a reason.

Ava Starr has posed:
No. That is not what Ava wanted to hear. That the Captain America wannabe was right? Oh, hell no. That means the Universe is so, so screwed. (Then again, she is standing in the midsts of a crew of misfits who consider themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy... Perspective hurts.)

Her eyes fall on Nebula. "I'm an assassin," she says bluntly. "So... what? The Universe needs an assassin? For what?!" They did *NOT* win that last fight... save that the blue woman is standing here.

Her eyes fall on Mantis, incredulity in her expression. Who the hell is this person? (Not that she's wrong, mind. Ava just hasn't reached that conclusion, yet.) Then the bug lady is introducing herself and Ava sputters to a stall. "I... I can't even."

She looks helplessly toward Finley as Gamora enters to see her sister and Peter finally explodes. She pinches the bridge of her nose and steps closer to Finley to put some distance between her and the crazy. Well. The crazy that isn't *her*. "We need to fix this," she tells her friend softly amidst the chaos.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora locks eyes with Nebula the way two wolves might gage each other's intentions... but Peter's outburst hits her ears, and draws her gaze away to him. "What?" She croaks dryly before trying again, "*What?* Phyla's..." Gamora doesn't finish that sentence. It's stupid to even try to clarify. It was *Thanos*. The fact that there are as many people here as there *are* is a miracle.

Stil it hits hard. Gamora's hand blinds grasps the back of a chair, and shakily, noisily skids it over to herself, before she falls into the seat heavily, her shoulders slumped.

Glaring at Nebula out of the corner of her eye for a moment, Gamora puts her head in her hand, and her elbow on a nearby table and asks, "... What happened?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
    "There is no fixing this. You're Quasar now and I mean.. we do probably need an assassin. What we tried to do was assassinate a king in his fortress and it did not go as planned." she takes a very .. very.. very deep drink of the blue stuff that Peter handed her. There is also a moment when she considers not letting him take it back but relents. Reluctantly.

    "Oh fuck me did he ever pull in hyperspace energy." is muttered darkly. "I ... have never even heard of anyone doing that.. or even tapping into it. That would have been useful to know... Hell if he hadn't we would have murdered him. We almost had him dead to rights then.. hyperspace lit him up like a christmas tree and he ... he distinigrated Phyla in one blast." she glares at her empty hands. "I got the others out of the room but.. "

    She hooks a chair with her foot and slumps down into it. "Next time.. I am ripping his ship out of hyperspace first before I kill him... can't let him do that again..."

Mantis has posed:
Now she really feels sorta scolded.

Mantis retreats back a little and looks down, hands fidgeting at her waist and the loose bit of bandage hanging from what's wrapped around her chest. But then it wasn't his fault either... Mantis' brow furrows black eyes lifting to look at the Captain (of the Milano, not the Marvel), "But it wasn't your fault. We killed her two times, but she kept cheating with her belt thing. So I don't blame you for shooting me. I blame Thanos for employing cheaters. And you didn't kill Phyla-Vell either, Thanos did that... so we should be cross with him for that... and You didn't kill Rocket, Nebula did. Which was Thanos' fault because she would never hurt Ro-..." Glance at Nebula... "-..Maybe she would, but I still think that was Thanos' fault. So let's be mad at him for that instead, since she's here now and our frien-" Glance at Nebula... "-Crew mate."

She takes a few steps over to Peter and reaches out to rest her hand on his shoulder. "And you didn't make the plan, I did. Remember? We went over extensively before we boarded the ship? So you didn't do anything wrong. You'll figure out a way to fix everything. That or someone else will and you'll take credit for it, but I'll back you up because that's what crew does."

"That and kill each other apparently, but we'll get through it."

Mantis tilts her head at Ava, blinking. "So is Gamora! And Nebula too. They're both assassins and I like them very much most of them. Being an assassin doesn't necessarily rule you out as being worth spending time with... or getting neat shiny bracelets that are probably super weapons."

Peter Quill has posed:
Peter flinches as he sees Mantis draw back, he closing his eyes he shakes his head, "Sorr-" he begins but Mantis barrage of truth bombs cuts him off. He stands there listening, before he nods and sayss, "I don't agree with a lot of that... but sure," he says taking another swig of the blue stuff before handing it over to Carol if she wants it.

"How is Rocket?" he asks then, realizing he'd been so wrapped up in his one man pity party to check on the guy past seeing his cryochamber loaded safe and secured below.

The fact that Nebula apparently stabbed him will wait until later.

Finley Ellison has posed:
"We will," Finley whispers back. She has no idea how they're going to fix it, but it seems like the right thing to say. And when she agrees to fix it, she means helping Ava learn to live with the q-bands. Not helping her try to remove them. Because apparently Ava has to die for that. And Finley is way too invested in keeping Ava alive. It's her more than her job at this point.

Nebula has posed:
    Gamora can see the small wince when Carol describes Phyla being evaporated by Thanos. Nebula knew about the hyperspace energy? or perhaps just suspected. "Then you at least achieved one thing. You forced his hand before he was ready." A somewhat cold analysis of their mission outcome.

    "You should be cross with yourselves. My plan worked perfectly, I gave you all an out - instead, you turned around and came looking for a fight, flew right in to the hornets nest." Throwing fuel on to the fire, she's Nebula, she can't help herself. Not to mention that Mantis just poured salt on her open wound - Rocket. But, she's also right.

    Master strategists the Guardians are not. Nebula when she's not extremely angry.. so, rarely. She looks away from Gamora for a moment to regard Ava. An assassin.. then back to Gamora with the smallest raise of an eyebrow.

    "The only way anyone will ever kill Thanos is by cheating. Cheating is a fact of life. You can't play fair and win the day. That's a fairytale." Does she buy in to the heroics and speeches of people like Phyla-Vell? no. She's been hurt too much to believe in anyone anymore.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora slowly closes her eyes. How could she have let this happen? What EVER possessed her to even SUGGEST trying to save Nebula? At least when she was on the Dark Aster it was JUST impossible, but Thanos? Once she got close to him, Gamora should have just ordered Nebula a cemetary plot. Sure, she got swept up in infectious reckless heroism, but... she should have *told* them. Just straight up *told* them this was impossible... except...

    Except Nebula really is here. Gamora got exactly what she wanted, and all it's definitely cost her so far is a woman she barely knew. She didn't even have to face her Father herself.

    Gamora has now found a way to feel worse.

    "I had no idea." Gamora says softly, in regards to Hyperspace energy. "It always seemed so far away."

    Nebula's not wrong; at least not at their tier on the power scale. "... So lets cheat." She says, dropping her arm onto the table, looking exhausted, but angry. "Let's commit some... *fucking* war crimes, drop a space station on his head, or... or..." Gamora closes her eyes again. "God."

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava isn't in a hurry to die, no. And, yes, if she stops to think about it, she might even admit that the physical pain that is always with her because of the continual tidal cycling of her molecules has dampened considerably. So, maybe the q-bands *are* helpful. To some degree.

She slumps a little beside Finley and reaches out to intercept that blue bottle at least once as it passes between Peter and Carol. She grimaces slightly as the liquid courses down her throat, but has to concede... "Doesn't suck." She looks at Fin questioningly to see if she wants a swig. If not, she'll give it back to the others.

The emotional tension in the room swings back and forth -- weirdly guided by an empath who seems quite incapable of reading people... and yet is still somehow so totally on the money that Ava *really* doesn't know what to make of the strange, antenaed woman.

She presses her lips together and gives Carol a bit of a flat look. "I'm *not* Quasar," she states. "I'm called Ghost. I've *earned* that name. Quasar..." NO. That's Phyla. She inhales a deep breath.

"Okay, then. So we cheat the fuck out of everything. I'm good with cheating," says the woman who's spent most of her life breaking the rules of conventional warfare anyway. She looks at Finley and shrugs. "Not like we know the rules of this bloody game anyway." She looks between the lot of them. "I say, we cheat 'em blind, fuck 'em sideways, and toss 'em into the nearest black hole." Not that it'll probably help.
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Carol Danvers has posed:
    "Quasar isn't a person it is a Title. For the wielder of the Q-Bands. There were people before Phyla-Vell and there will be people after you. They are as old as the Universe as far as people can tell... so get used to people calling you Quasar.. also get use to having trouble keeping a low profile."

    She lets Ava have a turn with the bottle but definitely takes the bottle of booze back from Peter as she leans back in the chair at the debris filled table and just stares at the blue liquid for a long moment. She swirls it around and takes another deep drink from whatever the hell it is.

    "Oh I plan to cheat, I'm not Superman or Captain America. I told Phyla that the best way to kill Thanos was to seperate him from the Black Order. Remove them from the board before we went after him." her tone is dark.

    "But she was so worried that he would get the infinity stones.. that he would move his base.. we would lose the chance to kill him and to save..." she looks at Nebula "Save you I guess." then her look shifts back to Gamora "No. We do what I did to Cull Obsidian. We kill them. We disrupt his search for the stones. We draw him out of hyperspace or knock his ship out of it. Then we kill him. We do it with methodical coldness and we kill a god."

    Drunk Carol is pretty dark.

Mantis has posed:
"Yes! We should enable cheat codes! Up, Up, down down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. We'll get 100 lives. We stabbed him a bunch of times when we all had one, imagine what we could do to him with 100." Mantis says rather jubilantly! She takes the whole dressing down from Nebula in stride because, "That's so Nebula." Said quietly to Peter, grinning. "It's good that she's back. Now Rocket doesn't have to be twice as angry to make up for the hole of anger her absence left."

Then back to cheering! Pumping her fist in the air!

Mantis forgoes her continued celebration to make her way over to Ava, specifically when she mentions her name is Ghost. "Ghost is a much better suited name for an assassin. But so is Quasar. A ball of pure light created by gas spiraling at millions of miles per second into a void of absolute darkness is kind of assassiny right? But why can't you be both? Or more importantly, why can't you use those-" Pointing at her bracelets, "-To define who you are. Maybe I was wrong in calling you new Phyla-Vell. I didn't really know her, but you don't act anything like her from what little I was actually around her. You act more like Gamora. Who I like a great deal."

"And Nebula too. So maybe use your new bracelets to be the Qausar we need, but you don't really want right now?" AND THEN Carol... god so many people to address! Mantis blinks at her. "You smell like a bar. I'm sorry you lost your friend." Reaching out she attempts to lay her hand on the Captain's shoulder. "I wish you didn't hurt so much. I could make you feel better, but I don't think you want me to do that. I just don't think channeling your anger like this is a healthy way to deal with your loss. You're a very powerful woman who could become very much like Thanos if you start acting too much like him."

Peter Quill has posed:
"Cheating works, I am good with cheating, and we've got another thing going for us, we know where one of the Infinity Stones are, bet when we figure out how to cheat well enough, we can use that to draw him out and face us on our terms."

"First though we should get our people taken care of..." he pauses, and frowns. "Actually where are we even headed right now?" he looks between Finley and Nebula on that question. Fin was the on the controls when they docked and Nebula just left the cockpit so one of them had to know... right?

"And I think the blue stuff is for making Carol feel better," he says to Mantis before he rummages in the dubious booze collection for something drinkable yet dangerously alcholic.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley definitely wants a drink. She juggles the green goo so that she can take a swig of the blue stuff, before it makes its way to Peter and then back to Carol. She just nods. It sounds like a plan.

If she were ready to be honest, it sounds like the same plan. She just hopes it's different enough to yield different results.

She raises the blue bottle, "Let's cheat."

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula stands up a little straighter as, for once in her life, Gamora is speaking her language. Drop a space station on his head. Hell yes. That's the kind of inspiration she needs. But she knows it's not the right approach. She's watched too many people try and fail to take out Thanos. The Guardians, Phyla-Vell? just the latest in a long line of people who thought they could outsmart the mad titan.

    But this is a turn for Gamora. Nebula has always heard her making excuses for the man. It grinds her down, makes her sooo angry, for her to excuse his actions as he mutilated her body bit by bit. Gamora always wore blinders. Are they finally off? The last thing she said until today to Gamora was: "I _HATE_ You!" .. she meant it then, she kinda still means it now.

    For those that know Nebula, it's no surprise she hasn't asked for the names of Carol, Ava, and Finley. Knowing peoples names makes them more real. The only reason she learnt the names of the Guardians was because she had spent months on this ship with them.

    Her eyes fall upon Carol as the conversation is directed back to her. But... this stranger also seems to have the right idea. Ava too. It took a major defeat but now they're coming around to the reality of the fight she's been preparing for most of her life.

    "None of you know the first thing about killing Thanos," she says but there's no sternness in the voice. It's more a warning. Gamora knows Nebula has been planning his demise for a long long time. There's a lingering 'but' in the way she said that sentence.. like she's almost happy everyone seems to agree cheating is the solution.

    The cockpit, it seems, is locked. The door is shut. No one is in there right now and Nebula is the only one with the keys. In her mind, no one is getting in the way of her getting Rocket the help he needs. No one. Definitely not any Guardians. "Halfworld," she states flatly to Peter.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora heaves a quiet sigh. She doesn't feel GOOD, but there's something oddly relieving about being on the same page as everyone... even with Nebula, for once. Then the matter of captainship comes up.

    "None of you set our course?" Gamora asks with alarm, then turns to Nebula in her chair. Nebula answers the question before Gamora can ask it, but the answer just makes her look confused. "Halfworld? Why, what's there?"

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava just groans as Carol seems to suggest that her 'ghosting' days are over. Nevertheless, she knows she doesn't have enough background to understand even a fraction of what's really at stake here. And when Mantis challenges her to use the bands to define her, she visibly balks. Still, her eyes narrow in thought.

No, she won't use the bands to define herself. They don't get that privilege. She knows who she is. She may not particularly *like* who she is, but she knows. "So, how do you kill him?" she tosses at Nebula, when she insists they don't know how to kill him. "And how likely is this asshole to get these stones... what the hell is an infinity stone, anyway?" Gotta love the clueless newbs. "How likely is he to collect them all before we can take out his lackies? And him. I mean... Seems t'me: Take 'em out, we eliminate a lot of resistance between him and us and remove a lot of his support. Makes a whole hellvua lot more sense to me than taking him on with them still in place. Or do we need to find the stones, first. Destroy them, instead?"

Can they even be destroyed? Like she has any frickin' clue.

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley looks to Peter and that other alcohol. She reaches out her hand. Ava is asking good questions. And Finely doesn't even know where to begin. So drinking seems like as good an answer as any.

Peter Quill has posed:
"It's where he came from," Peter says when Gamora asks about Halfworld. "I think anyhow, lots of wild rumours about the place, like it's all animals and robots... never been, but if it's where we need to take him to get patched up then that's where we'll go," he says, determined not to lose more friends no matter the cost.

As for Ava's questions. "The Infinity Stones are fundamental forces left over from the creation of the universe, Time, Power, Reality, Space, Mind... and Soul?" he looks to Gamora and Nebula for confirmation. "We know where one of them are but we don't know how many he has or where the others are and if he gets them all Thanos will use them to wipe out half the universe," he seems deadly serious about that as insane as that sounds. "Nebula, did you find out how many he has? I mean if the one we know about is the last one, we'll need another plan."

He takes pours a glass of the red booze he found and passes the bottle to Finley.

Carol Danvers has posed:
    "No. IF they are real and I believe that you all habe encountered one of the stones... I imagine they are as industructable as the Q-Bands if not more so." which again is probably not what Ava wanted to hear. Carol is full of that this evening.

    "You're right though.. Nebula right.. I don't know anything about killing Thanos but you have the tone of someone who has thought about it. I think my plan is prety good but we can ... modify it however have to. One way or another though Thanos needs to die. He can't be allowed the infinity stones and he has to pay for everything he has done."

    Carol looks to Mantis. "I am mad. I am sad too. I am not wrong. I also will not become Thanos in the process of executing these criminals."

Nebula has posed:
    The question of just what Thanos has or doesn't have makes her pause. Her eyes narrow just a touch. The question about how to kill Thanos has her narrowing her eyes even more. So many questions, so so many questions. She hates questions. "Question time is over," she declares bluntly.

    Not the least of which her plan involves Thanos finding all the infinity stones. She's hardly going to share that with anyone at this stage. "He'll pay," she adds though in response to Carol's statement about Thanos. Her tone suggests, again, that she has plans for the man that aren't favourable to a happily ever after.

    "We're going to Halfworld to save Rocket's life. After that, I'll get my things and leave." Because the last time she hung out with them she ended up caring. Caring is bad for the kill Thanos plan. Her stare goes back to Gamora, then Peter, she says, "You knew where one of them was. Past tense." Phyla-Vell knew where it was. Will the Nova Corps listen to the Guardians of the Galaxy like they did the Protector of the Universe?

Mantis has posed:
"His actions, no matter how insane, come from a place of compassion." Those were Gamora's words. She'd said them before they'd set out and now Mantis is paroting them back to Carol. "I've never met anyone who willingly admitted that their state of mind when altered with alcohol and grief was, possibly, mistaken." She smiles at the Captain and nods, bobbing her antenae. "Maybe you'll be the exception!" She turns between everyone, black eyes track from face to face.

"Yay we're going to cheat to win!" Pumping her fists in the air!

"This is very exciting. I feel like we just made a very big breakthrough and have all gained significant understanding of our willingness to kill Thanos by comitting equally terrible acts as him! I have always wanted to commit a war crime." Then she winces and looks down at her chest, "Owe... I'm going to go lay down. All this exciting talk about killing and bending the rules of civilization to acomplish it has made me extremely tired and sore." She waves a hand and slinks over to collect her action figures back into the container she carried them in, in.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora visibly brightens up at the prospect of *anywhere* that could help Rocket, her back straightening slightly with a nod. She looks to Nebula, then, curious. She's... not the first person Gamora would have imagined leading the initiative to help someone else.

    Soul." Gamora confirms politely when Peter looks to her, further clarifying "Father..." she shakes her head, "Thanos believes that most conflict can be elimited forever if half of all sentient life is erased. He will not compromise on that vision for anything."

    The Stones are real. We've seen one. Dealt with it. I've heard nothing to indicate that there's anything else in the universe powerful enough to break them."

Peter Quill has posed:
"Then there we have it," Peter says as Gamora fills in that last stone. "They can't be destroyed so we need to keep them out of Thanos' hands, or y'know, kill him. So we're going to do that, just as soon as we go to Halfworld and get Rocket back on his feet." The rest they can work out as they go.

Ava Starr has posed:
Ava tries to absorb the information they're giving her. Halfworld. The Infinity Stones. Thanos' crazy vision. Even hints at just how very powerful her new accessories may very well be. Perhaps the Nova Corps will believe the new Protector of the Universe... if she can get her temper under control. And prove herself. Somehow.

Except she doesn't want to.

In the end, she grabs whichever bottle of alcohol is nearest and slugs a mouthful or two back before setting it back down. She glances to Finley and looks down at her arms. "I'm... Done. I need to recharge." More accurately, she needs to wind down. She turns and stalks back out of the room the way she came -- damned bands still on her wrists and not nearly enough alcohol in her system to make it okay. Let the others plan their next move. She's more or less along for the ride, anyway... at least until something changes. Or, maybe... until the racoon is better.

Who knows?

Finley Ellison has posed:
Finley rises to follow. And takes the bottle or red stuff with her. Because if Ava tries to let off some steam and something weird happens because of the q-bands, she probably shouldn't be alone when it happens. So it might as well be Finley. Probably best if it's Finley.

Carol Danvers has posed:
    "I might be able to convince the Corps. Though if they have it somewhere safe, it is probably best to leave it with them. We don't need it to execute on this plan.. we need to make sure he doesn't have them."

    "I imagine any of them could be used to draw him out if he has no dogs to fetch them for him. So the order comes first." she seems pretty sure of this despite her drunkish state. Probably helps that she metabolizes it very quickly.

    Speaking of which she looks around to see where the bottle got to.

    She snags it back and pops her neck. "I'm going to go check on the Raccoon.." she grumbles a bit and heads that way.
    

Nebula has posed:
    They fought Thanos and survived. That's a story to write home about. They also rescued Nebula. It may not be the same Nebula they had before - the one who sacrificed herself to save them. No, this is a new iteration. She seems intent on leaving them when her guilt is fixed; when Rocket is fixed. But for now, she's here.

    For now she's also in charge of where the ship goes. As people wander off and Peter looks positively drunk, she enters the cockpit and locks the door behind her. She can't face those people with all their questions for much longer than that short stint. In here she can be alone, she can keep the door locked.

    She rests her hands on the controls and monitors their passage through jump points, careful not to push it and make everyone sick (again). Her eyes fall on the music player of Quills and she pauses a moment. She knows what it does but not how she feels about it now. 'You're the best around' really grated on her. Her fingers swipe through the list and she picks one at random.

    No one will know. She presses play on the Road to Shambala [1]. A small tap of one index finger on the ships controls as the music begins to play. Little does she realise it's playing through the whole ship - Quill's default setting. As they travel the road to Half-world-mbala.