revivalproject | Dominion

Entry tags:

Dominion

WHO: Tony, Jon, Cal!
WHERE: The Palace! (Green 20)
WHAT: A bit of exploration that can't possibly go wrong.
WHEN: Mid-June
WARNINGS: I'll let you know if this gets weird.

The tower was still there, looming and somehow smug in its persistent darkness, quickly falling into shadow without the blinking light atop it to draw the eye as the sun sank behind the treeline. With that ground covered, such as it was, it was supposed to be a logical next step to spread their investigation to the nearest, free standing building and work methodically from there, but the reminder of what little understanding they came away with was demoralizing to Tony as he stood in the dusty road frowning up at the stubborn structure. They could just keep finding things and never be able to fit them together.

They had more people to work on it, though, or at least someone else who seemed approach a problem in the same way, and even if they didn't find anything tonight, maybe Ikora would be able to see it at a different angle back at the library. And even in the low light, Tony could see the alien glass of what he knew intimately by now were fractured datapoints to collect and put to use, scattered through the tall grass around the expansive building of what he could only assume was some kind of castle. Compared to the rest of the architecture in the city, this one was ornate and sat apart from the humble suburbs or tight towers clustered around the city centre. It sprawled, not like the imposing library, but with luxury. This was a seat of power.

Jon was greeted with a new lantern that Tony hung around his neck, which was clearly salvaged from the glove that should have matched the one that Tony wore and that glowed faintly from the palm even when Tony wasn't consulting it for atmospheric data. It didn't look much like the one he had worn on previous ventures, stripped and much lighter with the protective armor still twisted and waiting to be refired. Cal, Tony suspected, had salvaged or contrived any number of light sources for himself, so it was BD-1 that Tony grinned at and crouched before as they met at the door of Cal's workshop, presenting a tiny chip with a flourish. "Connect directly with the network," he had explained. "Send us pictures of what you're seeing."

There was no good way to otherwise prepare for what they could potentially find behind those doors as they approached the abandoned building. There had been massive beetles in a sinkhole, and an enchanting mouth at the bottom of the lake. So far, what Tony had learned was to pack light. Most likely, they were going to have to be able to run.

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The lantern itself isn't what makes Jon blink, it's rather the fact that Tony places it around his neck like a light collar one places around the neck of their dog prone to wander off. For a moment he is inclined to say something, but then decides not to and simply to appreciate the additional light.

Of course he has brought his own torches. Powerful lights acquired on Coruscant and clearly meant to dispel the darkness of space itself. They have proven their worth down in the tunnels underneath the library and former school, which means Jon has no qualms about bringing this technology along with his usual bag of supplies and tools, primarily consisting of bottles of water and a few bandages. He doesn't necessarily plan for running.

"Right. Breaking into the big one this afternoon." He notes the obvious and gives a little wave to BD-1 after nodding his greeting to Cal.

BD-1 greeted the two happily, all set for another adventure. He was an exploration droid, it was a given! When Tony produced the chip, the little guy angled himself for it to be inserted, borbling his compliance.

Cal stepped out, offering a smile at Tony and Jon. He always traveled light, but Jon was probably still the most practically minded of them when it came to emergency supplies. All the padawan had were the stims equipped in BD-1. He was sans his poncho, but otherwise wore the rest of his usual rig for its general sturdiness and the extra harness that allowed his droid buddy to cling to. At his hip hung his lightsaber.

"Looking forward to it?" he asked, his smile quirking as he gestured towards the road. Whenever they were ready.

While Jon was unarguably prone to wandering off, Tony's primary concern was a mechanical one that left as many hands free as possible to solve problems like surmounting this gate that they came to stand before. The fence appeared largely rusted and grown over, snared with vines clinging so tightly that they might bend the bars between them, but as Tony gave a rattle to the gate, it held fast and resolute. While Tony took a few steps back to look up and down the fencing for a decayed enough point of ingress, he was fairly confident that they had already come to their first conditional statement. Climbing the fence wouldn't present much of an issue, with plenty of growth to grab onto, but if they weren't committed to maintaining the integrity of the property, Cal had brought along a way to easily establish their direct route through a given obstacle.

"We don't know what's in there," Tony established, so they were all on the same level as he considered the gate once more, then started an experimental climb up where he could reach as he spoke. "So, my thinking is, worst case scenario, this could go one of two ways: either we're going to want the option of getting out quick, or we're going to want to be able to keep the doors closed behind us." By then, he was straddling the top of the fence, bouncing slightly where he stood in a way that might have dangerously tempted the tangle of weeds that held his weight to make sure they would still hold under more pressure. "I yield the floor."

Jon observes Tony's ascent quietly, but not entirely without a frown.

"So are we expecting to get chased out by zombies or by further massive insects?" He offers with a small wave of his hand towards the building beyond this gate they are supposedly about to climb. The past record of this city leaves the possibility for large insects undeniably high. And those wouldn't have any issues to climb the fence faster than any of them.

Regardless of the answer he is about to be given, Jon still reaches for the fence himself and gives it a brief, testing pull. At least by now he can say he has been climbing more disastrous obstacles. Of course that has been without actually having been at risk of suffering any harm, but Jon wants to believe he has gotten at least some exercise while crossing the UK.

Cal openly cringed at the mention of zombies and massive insects. "Yeah, I'm really hoping it's neither of those?" he offered, still managing a brief if crooked smile for all that he's serious. At least he had his lightsaber if things came down to a fight of any kind, a small comfort.

He watched Tony make his way up, and then looked to Jon as the Archivist made to follow. While he waited for them to scale the fence, he cast his senses out to see if there was anything nearby on the other side awaiting them.

"Probably safer to leave them closed for now," he suggested. Nothing had come out of here that they knew of, but that could always be simply because no one had disturbed the place in years. "See anything from there, Tony?" he asked as he found some handholds to start his own climb. He'd make short work of it, the fence being an easy obstacle compared to some places he'd had to maneuver.

Either because of its position, at the edge of town and set away from the building around it, or the nature of the architecture, lower to the ground than some of the towers crumbling under their own weight and clearly approached with care to protect precious contents within, this place did look like it hadn't submitted to the ravages of most of the rest of the city. After the kind of experiences Tony'd had with the local wildlife, he wasn't going to bet on finding a charming glownie treat locked up in this tomb, like they had found under similar circumstances. "Zombie insects," he confirmed sagely for them, and grinned at the apparent universal agreement to tread lightly, reaching down to offer Jon a helping hand once he made it close enough.

"There are windows that look like they've been boarded up, probably easier to get through than the doors," he reported. "Gardener's been away. The flower beds are an absolute mess." Tony squinted down into the tangle of weeds, second guessing that glass he had thought was from data points. If it was from the windows, the storm would have blown them inwards, and carried anything left well away in the wind by now. It hadn't yet worried Tony that this place might have been shut up before the storms hit.

The offered hand is gladly accepted, especially after Jon's own attempt to climb up that fence has been a lot slower and not quite as fluid as Tony's own. And Cal? Well, he clearly has more experience with explorations and climbing more adventurous things than this fence. He'll be fine. They all will.

Jon wordlessly turns his own attention towards the windows Tony points out. More climbing it is, isn't it.

"It does look rather different from the other buildings in the city." He observes before starting to climb down on the other side of the fence.

Zombie insects. Cal rolled his eyes, then gave BD-1 a look at the beeping commentary. "You would," he said, snorting a little before he swung himself over the top of the fence.

Now he could see for himself what Tony had described, a space he suspected probably reflected how the rest of Temba had looked before anyone had been brought in to start clearing out things. "Wonder what happened with the windows," he mused aloud, nodding at Jon's own observation.

Cal looked down to make sure it was clear below him before he dropped down to the ground. BD-1 was quick to hop down and poke around at the shiny bits in the weeds.

BD-1 was the bravest of them all, and perhaps well deserved from how relaxed the beginning of his adventure was on Cal's back, so Tony didn't doubt encountering some new creature would have been a thrill. If nothing else, they were going to have to find a chance to ambush the droid and sate his adventurous code. Tony snickered at the beeping and went dropping down after Cal, buffeting Jon from the other side and landing with less grace than the Jedi where he looked up with a grin like he really expected Jon to jump as well, hands out as though an offer to catch was any more appealing.

"I'm more surprised that so many around the city survived," Tony admitted. "Like those big ones at the bar, or in the hotel. Safer from some animals getting in and freaking out up there, I guess. But that's the first thing you're supposed to do when a storm's coming in, right? Cover the windows." That, and the timeline was still murky. Nothing here had been abandoned nearly as long ago as they had been told, that much seemed very clear.

"Thanks, but as much as I trust you to catch me, Tony, I don't really enjoy the sensation of falling." Jon notes while following the other two down in a more controlled manner and joining them a few moments later. It's slower, yes, but... At least he wants to think of it as safer.

He takes a brief look around before adding his own thoughts. "These energy storms are not quite comparable to regular storms. Aside from limiting visibility, most of them hardly affect us in any physical ways." Mentally is a different matter.

"For example, I still doubt that the storms could possibly have tossed all those data points out in front of the library as they were."

"That's just it. Nothing else has really seemed as prepared for storms. Unless it's because there's some significance to this place. But if the storms were as sudden and unexpected as they are, the Agrii wouldn't have been able to set up for them. Maybe they didn't even know what to do about storms at all, and here this one targets them directly, somehow."

Cal stooped down beside BD-1 to look at the shards in the grass, frowning as he carefully teased one out from between the weeds.

"Good point," he nodded at Jon. "A lot of things looked like they were just flat out destroyed on purpose."

There was no way those datapoints around the library weren't a deliberate action, and the ones that Tony could see in the grass by brushing his foot through it looked like they had been treated much the same. So far, this was the only other place where they had appeared like this, so maybe this place wasn't so much a palace as it was another academic structure. Or the library compound had been a political one all along.

"Okay but..." Tony started, hands up and eyes closed as he tried to compile the pattern here and Jon took his time joining them in the garden. He still hadn't quite put it in order once he was leading them through the weeds toward the front of the building, but gestured for Cal to apply his climbing practice and explore how difficult it would be to get up to a window while Tony made sure the door wasn't just going to open for them. "All of these datapoints weren't purged coincidentally right before the storms started. So someone was able to set up something," he put out for the other two to help fit the pieces together.

Standing in front of the door, the unlit tower was hidden but not out of mind quite yet for Tony, so as he gave the handle an experimental tug he twisted his free hand in the air again, trying to find the rhythm. "And, maybe this is nothing, but nothing else is closer to that tower back there. Maybe this place was hit first."

While Tony tries the door and Cal goes for a window, Jon takes a moment to look up at the building in question, leaning his head back to take in the entire structure.

"This could have been boarded up after the Agrii were evacuated. And the data point be destroyed once the planet was deserted. Just... Setting the scene for the heroes. Same with the spiders in the sewers. Those, too, were set up there. We know the tower used to be operational but no one was left behind to operate it - Unless they were teleported in by similar means than the one they use to bring us here - Or replace the power core of a space ship." He crosses his arms with a frown. "What if they lived among the Agrii while preparing this city for their new show?"

It's thoughts. Only thoughts. For once in what feels like a very long time Jon can't simply look up the answer, and it bothers him about as much as the sensation tickles him somewhere at the back of his mind.

With a nod at Tony, Cal collected BD-1, letting the broken bit of glass drop as he turned his attention to the wall he was to scale.

"That's a comforting thought," he muttered. "Would they go through all that trouble just to do prep work? It doesn't seem like their style. At least...it seems like they just like throwing things into play to see what happens."

He neared the wall, studying the potential path up to the boarded up windows before jumping up to grasp at the handholds he'd picked out, levering himself up to the next as he found purchase for his feet upon a ledge. He made it look deceptively easy as he scaled his way up to the ledge where the window was framed.

Jon's theory made sense to Tony, but Cal had been the one to see those spider cages so Tony had to look between them with a pout as he stepped back away from the solid doors. "Isn't it their style? Those spiders were just a big set piece, weren't they?" he wondered. "And all of that shit on the ship, manipulating the Graq into being there so it looked like they were attacking the Agrii. Just because we can't see the whole script, doesn't mean this isn't part of the show."

By then, Tony had wandered after Cal through the grass, then tossed his head for Jon to come closer, where Tony cupped his hands under the window. "Here's a thought," he continued, and by his tone it was obvious that it was another one that Cal wasn't going to like, "Maybe they're still here."

"Tony is right." Jon says, following the man to accept his assistance to climb up to the window himself. Climbing the side of a building surely was nothing he can manage on his own. "These Atroma are using some incredibly powerful technology far from anyone's understanding to bring us here, keep us here and even manipulate our powers." Not to mention sending them through time to visit past versions of certain city planets. Sure, that have been the Agrii, but those only use Atroma technology themselves.

Jon frowns, setting his foot into the offered step to reach the ledge of the window. "To spent that sort of resources, time and effort on something as seemingly trivial as entertainment- Well. I'm afraid humans are guilty of that themselves. We blow millions in the creation of movies that run for less than two hours. Short-lived entertainment that is consumed and forgotten. I don't see why an alien society would be this different from a human one."

"The spiders were left-over from when they were let loose on the Agrii," Cal pointed out. "I don't think heavy consideration is ever put into cleaning up after the things they decided to afflict them with. We had to bring the Graq back to their home, but if things had gone the other way then they might've been killed because they were randomly picked to play some part, and that's not even mentioning what might've happened to the Agrii if we'd just decided to attack the ships we were led to believe were the 'enemy's'."

Cal checked the window, carefully applying some pressure along one side of it to see if it might give any as BD-1 watched from over his shoulder. Most likely he could use his lightsaber to handle the problem, but given their earlier caution with the gate, he thought that maybe they'd want to keep the cover in tact as well.

He frowned at Tony's suggestion, but he could only give a grim nod. "Possible," he agreed reluctantly. "Refer back to the whole 'not bothering to clean up after themselves.' But Jon brings up the main point- they have this technology to do things instantaneously, among other things. Ignoring time is a big thing too. They wouldn't necessarily even need to plan things out, that way." Moving to the side of the window, he focused, extending a hand and slowly pulling back with the Force, the board shuddering in its place as it began to pry free.

"That sure sounds the case, especially from that holocron message. But to go to the extremes that the Atroma have? Kind of worrying that they've been able to do so for as long as they may have been, and no one's been able to stop them."

When Cal put it that way, Tony could understand what he had meant by 'their style' and glanced around at the shards in the grass not as a deliberate manipulation, but the aftermath of a long-finished battle. With Jon levered up, Tony watched with one hand still raised toward him like he might catch Jon's weight if something went wrong until Jon seemed at least close enough to Cal to get a hand up, then examined the wall to try to follow Cal's path up himself. Cal had definitely made it look easy, and Tony scrabbled with some less forgiving vines snapping under his toes until he was stretching, and eventually took a risky jump to catch the window ledge himself, sending a scattering of decaying debris knocked loose down into the garden. His voice was strained as he hung from the stone, but Tony replied, "They thought they stopped them. Cap 'n' Wanda, you know, before."

He hauled himself up to at least be braced with his elbows on the ledge, chest pressed to the stone where he could see what Cal was doing and continue more capably, "But the time thing, listen, that's interesting, maybe to them none of this has been going on nearly as long as it feels like to the rest of us. Maybe the Agrii, or whoever, weren't lying when they said it's been centuries, but that time only passed for some people, or in some places. Maybe time only passes in Temba when someone is here to make time real. We're not the only people that have been here, so..." So it looked like decades of neglect in most places, rather than centuries, and someone had been on the surface of the planet for all of those decades. Maybe not congruently...It would have been really nice if Reed were here to think about Time for them. Without finishing his thought, Tony twisted to look to Jon and ask, "Did you read that book I gave you? Someone has to be able to do temporal math around here."

Watching Cal pry away the boards with his mind is impressive even with Jon having diverted a decent amount of his concentration on the task of not falling back down. His progress is hardly an elegant one and he settles with clinging more to the side of the window for now to allow Cal the space he may need to open up a path for them. Not too different from clinging to a ladder at the side of a cliff, right?

...right?

Jon lets out a breath and looks over to Tony, not even trying to shrug in his direction. "I read it, yes. But also I quite literally broke time on my Earth. Even broken, however.... It can't go backwards. It can go slower, stop, accelerate... But not go backwards." No. Never backwards. Nothing that has been done can simply be undone again. "But that was the work of Eldritch magic, not technology. I--" Jon cuts himself off with a quick noise of surprise as one of his feet breaks loose along with the vine it has been set on and the Archivist is left with casting a disapproving look down before finding a different place to put his foot.

"Also, ah- Maybe they did stop them? But what if no one else wanted them stopped. What if they just.... Launched a Kickstarter to bring everyone's favorite multidimensional kidnapping show back to alien screens and- Here we are." Jon directs his attention up to Cal, not really wishing to interrupt him, however. "I read about the different cultures of your galaxy, Cal. There were several rather corrupt ones ruling over entire planets with no one bothering to stop them from practically enslaving entire populations." He gives a small, humorless laugh. "Hah. What they are doing with us may be harmless fun for the entire family for all we know!"

The sound of the board freeing itself from the window was a satisfying one, and Cal eased it towards the ground before he turned to offer a hand to Jon since Tony had already made it up most of the way.

"Even Ga Re thought that they were gone when I asked her about them, though. Factoring in the whole matter of time is...a headache to digest, but I think I understand what you're getting at," he said, glancing at Tony. He frowned, nodding at Jon then. Point made. "Who even knows what universe the Atroma are even from? "

He looked towards the open window, trying to see what could be made out from where they were. Carefully he moved to slip inside, if mostly to give Tony and Jon more room on the ledge while he made sure there was a manageable way down.

There were so many gaps that they were still filling with assumptions that it was difficult to theorize still, but Tony was inclined to agree that anyone who thought they had put an end to the Atroma's tortures likely weren't under the impression that they had genocided and entire species. It could have been much closer to firing a director. What universe they were from, as Cal put it, and how they interacted with time, and how they seemed to perceive the people they were manipulating did also sound to Tony a lot like the Eldritch powers that told Jon to witness people's suffering, so he raised an eyebrow at Jon to ask if he was sure about that magic vs technology distinction.

The window was open now, though, so with much less care than Cal, Tony pulled himself up and over the windowsill to start to slide, then tumble into the darkened room beyond. While the air that the window had exhaled as the board was pulled free had smelled dusty and stale, when Tony landed on something slightly soft and springy like the vines outside, a burst of heady sweetness almost knocked him off of his already unstable feet, sending him staggering back against the wall under the window.

And assumptions are all these ideas are, unfortunately. Which is a nice change for Jon, but at the same time certainly frustrating for all of them.

He thanks Cal for the help and crouches a little awkwardly on the windowsill while Tony pulls himself inside to follow their Padawan friend. "No one knows." He answers Cal's question. "And we will find out if we can even find any hints here."

Tony's reaction to actually landing inside the room on the other side of the building give Jon a pause and he sticks his head inside first rather than outright following, but this is mainly the quickest way for him to check on the other man. "Tony? Everything alright?"

That much Cal wanted to agree on. Hopefully there were any hints to find somewhere. For now his thoughts turned back towards the descent, looking a bit concerned once Tony went past him. A light flickered to life as BD-1 helped provide more of a clear glimpse below so that Cal could drop down knowing there was something relatively solid to land on.

"Tony?" He coughed as he caught a whiff of the strange smell, pungent enough that it felt like it caught in his throat. He waved at the space in front of him as though hoping to clear it, squinting against the brief glare of BD-1's light as the little droid swept it over in Tony's direction.

In the glow of the droid's light, Tony was shuffling and trying to get his footing on a dense patch of flowering weeds that climbed their way up the wall and out beyond the ring of illumination. Tony offered the echo of his name a thumbs up, then a peace sign, assuring them that he was totally fine, of course, and it was probably safe to come down, just as soon as he got this perfume out of his mouth. His head was turning, scanning the room in front of him that felt expansive from the sound bouncing off of the walls and watery indication of the last of the daylight straining through the boards of distant windows. As Tony finally got himself out of the flowerbed in a scattering of petals, he announced, "Could have been worse--hey." That wasn't directed at the group in the window, Tony still staring out across the dark room and his head cocking with cautious intrigue. When he did address Cal and Jon again, his voice was still steady and not particularly troubled but he said, "There's a guy here."

Jon remains more on the reluctant side as to whether or not he should just let himself drop down after the other two. Rather than doing so, he pulls out his large flashlight and turns it on to shine its powerful beam into the darkness below and sweep it across the room, looking for this guy Tony has mentioned.

"Tony, if anyone actually is here, I will be worried." He announces, but fails to spot another person. But he spots plenty more vines, stronger looking ones even than the ones they used to climb up to this window. Which feels to be set at a ridiculous height as far as Jon is concerned.

Still, he tucks his light away for now after picking a suitable vine to get back down without risking a sprained ankle. "Cal, if there is a person, I assume you should be able to sense them."

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