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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

Cal blinked at Tony, puzzled by the man's observation. "I...think I have to agree with Jon," he concedes, turning to look out towards the rest of whatever space was open to them, trying to make out whatever or whoever it was that Tony had seen.

"I'm not..." He trailed off, hand slipping towards his side, brow furrowing as he stepped away from the wall, peering towards the darkness. "...don't sense anyone, except for present company," he continued, although he sounded a little uncertain at that. "I thought I saw movement though."

It was great that they had their opinions and Tony didn't expect them all to agree on everything, but there was definitely someone standing at the foot of the stairs sweeping up and away into the twisting heights of the building. It wasn't an Agrii, either, though the details were difficult to ascertain in the dark; they couldn't have been any taller than Tony, and had a very human looking number of limbs, which might have explained why the stairs behind them appeared shockingly human-sized. Tony had gotten so used to the Agrii's steep steps that he stared at this construction with surprise almost long enough to not notice the impatient tapping the figure was doing with their foot, right before they suddenly bolted and made their way to one of the doors lining the side of the room. There must have been at least six of them on that wall alone, and the figure moved with confidence and unnerving silence across the dusty floor, leaving Tony staring at the dark portal left open behind them. He tried shouting, "Hey!," stepping quickly away from the wall and toward the stairs, only to round on Cal and Jon again, arms up. They saw that, right?

Jon only partially takes note of what's going on with the other two, but Tony's sudden shout for some reason makes him let himself finally drop the remaining bit back down and land with an inelegant tumble onto his hands and knees in another cloud of sweet dust. Coughing, Jon picks himself back up on this unsteady ground and staggers a couple steps away, casting a wide-eyed look first at Tony, then around the room.

"Wha- What was that for?" Jon asks, brushing off his hands and squinting through the darkness. "...Christ. We really need more light in here."

They weren't alone. That was the vague sense that Cal got, and he wasn't sure if it was just that this place was so big that it was hard to pinpoint anything, or if it was the place itself. Obviously things were thriving in here, but it seemed mostly of the agricultural sort. BD-1 had hopped down from his shoulder to scan some of the nearby overgrowth, taking with him the light source he offered.

Tony's yelling jarred Cal from his attempts to focus through the Force, and he looked as the man started past him and then stopped to glance back with that expectant look. The padawan couldn't quite stop himself from giving an almost exaggerated shrug of a response in return. What? What was it?

"...light does sound like a good idea. Then we won't have to be jumping at shadows. I wonder if it's still connected to the main power. Let's see if we can find the main breaker."

As frustrated as Tony looked by this very slow agreement of a very immediate reality that was very weird, he started back toward Jon with a steadying hand out and inquisitive nod to make sure he was okay as he found his feet. At Cal's annoyingly reasonable suggestion, Tony threw another impatient look toward the darkened doorway like he might just bolt after his mystery man regardless, then made himself take stock of the situation they were in. There were the stairs heading upward, which Tony ruled out for now because that wasn't where he would have expected to find a fuse box, the doors to one side that had already drawn his eye, a larger set of doors facing those across the hall, and the exit.

A basement could easily be down that dark passage.

"Come on," Tony said, clipped and already moving without waiting for alternative suggestions. The hall was dusty and lively with more of those pungent petals, but despite the vines creeping their way across the floor, the stone didn't look cracked or sagging anywhere like the roots had made their way under the foundations. The growth wasn't old enough for that, like it had only taken hold recently. It felt slightly more decrepit once through the beckoning doorway, but that was due to the battered nap of the carpet underfoot and musty smell from the years of still water soaked into it, letting the plants flourish; the kind of subsidence that had taken out entire walls of some of the other structures in the city hadn't made an effect here yet.

Tony's wordless inquiry about his status is answered with a wordless nod while Jon takes out his flashlight again and turning it on to illuminate the overgrown floor between them. For a building this dark there is an astounding amount of plant life healthily growing here.

Though his lamentations about the local flora is set aside when Tony moves on. Jon just casts a look towards Cal, which gets a small shrug added, then he makes to follow Tony, shining the powerful beam of light this way and that and almost expecting it to flicker out once he steps through that door. It doesn't. And while the sweet smell from earlier lingers in his nose, Jon takes a curious, yet critical look around this even more pronounced growth. Where even do these plants get their nutrients from...?

"I don't like this." He announces, if only to avoid further silence.

Splitting up seemed the least reasonable thing, given they weren't sure what might be locked away in here. Cal returned Jon's shrug, starting after Tony after calling for BD-1 to come along.

That scent was close to nauseating, although all things considered there were probably worse things it could smell like. For all that the place was overrun by plants, it looked mysteriously surreal and oddly beautiful. And yet Cal couldn't shake that feeling that there was something...

"Yeah..." he said, glancing over at Jon as he brought up the rear, still not convinced that nothing might be creeping around. With Tony claiming someone was here and neither of them able to fully dispute that, it was better to be on their guard. "Wonder what kind of plants these are?" Plants that didn't need sunlight, apparently. Ah, those times when the agricultural datapoint might have come in handy, if only to satiate curiosity.

Tony had come to a stop to get a sense of the hall, trying to listen for the figure that he was sure he had seen, but it wasn't an offer to turn back when he reached for a steadying touch to Jon's arm and said, "We know where the door is." He knew better by now than to suggest any of them retreat yet; that conversation was already boring.

At Cal's indication, Tony finally thought to consider the plants themselves, thus far aware of their proliferation in the same way he was about the density of the forest around the city. As in, it was there and annoying, but not inherently interesting in its finer details. He moved closer to the wall, where the flowers seemed to cluster more, to crouch where a bunch were working their vines up another doorframe and to shine the light nested in his palm at one of the blooms. It was small and pale, and wilted a bit pathetically in the glare, shedding a petal like a teardrop in a shimmering trail of that pungent pollen. More interesting to Tony, he noticed familiar glint among the foliage and drew back up onto his feet with another shard of what had to be a datapoint. "We should have asked the Agrii where these things came from," he lamented, twisting the shard in his hands and looking up and down at the new row of doors that they faced. Maybe it was here.

Right. They know where the door is and how to escape should it become necessary. But right now no one should be concerned with potential retreat.

"The data points..." Jon muses instead, more to himself than anyone else. It's true that they don't know their origin, but at the same time no one has really questioned these little spheres up until now. "If they were part of Agrii culture it makes sense that they would be everywhere to some degree, but-" He cuts himself off, eyes stuck at the ceiling for a moment. Then he directs his light upwards and seems to search the ceiling with it a few moments.

He brings the light back down with a shake of his head and a frown. "What was that?"

BD-1's scanning was already at work, the little droid's light switching between the more linear blue whenever he was caught taking in new information, building up a render of the map as they went along.

Cal nodded to himself as he saw the resulting of the plants once Tony shone his light upon it. That was one thing explained, then. "There's a lot we need to ask the Agrii," he sighed, although he wondered that they'd get any real answers.

He was stepping towards the nearest of the doors Tony had found, brow furrowed as he thought he saw something curling and twisting its way between the vines, when Jon's question had him flick a brief glance back. He followed the man's look up. "What was what?"

The sudden reaction from Jon looked to Tony like he must have heard something, or at least Tony thought that was the only reason to look up despite not hearing anything himself as he strained to listen in the muffled passage; there was a whispering wind outside that occasionally buffeted against the window boards, and a nearby sound of dripping water that must have been inside somewhere, but nothing that would turn Tony's attention to the ceiling like the beam of Jon's light drew his eye. "Maybe he made it upstairs," Tony murmured, still try to listen for possible footsteps. They were going to have to move faster than this.

Back to his impatience, Tony spun a half circle to call this area done, explored, nothing more interesting of note to keep them lingering like they were spooked, and started toward the sound of that dripping. Maybe that would lead them to the basement.

"N-no, I think I saw--" Jon starts muttering to himself, sweeping his light across the floor of the room once before shaking his head with a frown and turning to follow, his jaw setting into a stubborn tenseness. Moving on while paying attention to their surrounding seems like their best choice, he is quite willing to agree with that.

"...with how much these plants have spread in this place, we should expect to encounter other creatures to live here as well." This is less muttered and more mused aloud for everyone to keep in mind. Their chances to encounter yet more insects seem only to be growing, though Jon would rather welcome some more harmless amphibious creatures.

"I'll let you know if I sense anything...or anyone," Cal added, glancing from Jon to Tony as the latter continued on. He stooped down to gather BD-1, pausing to study one of the flowers the droid had been scanning, which seemed to softly implode at that moment, breathing a fresh wake of that strange, almost sickly sweetness right by the padawan's face.

Cal coughed, sweeping a hand ineffectually at the air as he sank heavily to a knee to steady himself. "Y-yeah, I'm fine," he reassured his droid, letting BD-1 clamber onto his back again as he shook his head. "Not sure what's worse, the stale air or the smell from the plants..."

He started to get up again, only to pause once more as his surroundings seemed to inexplicably expand, a disorienting feeling that had him remain in place, tensed as he waited for things to stop moving around him. He lost track of the light from his companions completely.

Jon made a good point, there were supposed to be reliable systems to nature and with plantlife this plentiful, there should have been the buzz of flies or spiders' webs that flourished from it, and the rodents and birds to eat those bugs, a whole ecosystem to make Tony's skin crawl. That could have been what was causing the shadows to move, but Tony slowed to turn an inquisitive look back at Cal, not sure if that meant he would only sense something larger, or he was already confirming that they were very unusually alone here. Tony knew he saw someone, though, so maybe the problem was actually with Cal's powers...

It didn't help that Tony watched Cal sag, then waver in place with that strangely distant expression, and after a beat tried to get his attention back with a sharp, "Hey," then, "Kid." Something was wrong. Tony swung around to look for Jon again, only to go stumbling back as the wall he scanned his light across welled up and burst. The drip that had lured him into the room had been a steady leak from the ceiling that had been resolutely flooding the room and soaking into the carpets since the city's water had been restored, Tony had to assume, and they had made it here in time to witness its breaking point as the pressure behind the walls finally was released toward them in a torrent. Tony flailed out a hand blindly to grab for Jon instead and try to drag him back toward Cal before they became part of the debris.

While Jon has initially moved on a little further into the new room, shining his light into all of its corners and raving the path of thick vines as best as possible with how they intertwined and merged with themselves, he doesn't notice that something is wrong until he hears Tony call out for Cal. Jon turns back around with a frown of concern.

But before his attention can fully settle on Cal and what is happening, he is first hit by a wave of acute terror, then sees Tony lunging for him, one hand grabbing his arm and pulling him back out of the room, nearly causing Jon to stumble over some of the vines.

"Wha-?!" He manages to get out before the wall bursts not far behind him. Any question he may have had are being set aside as Jon almost automatically corrects his course to make for the stairs.

Behind him, BD-1 beeped quizzically, and maybe more than just a little concerned. Cal scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand, peering back out into the darkness for Tony and Jon's lights.

"I thought... Weren't things getting bigger just a moment ago..?" Even as he spoke he started to question even himself. That was impossible, wasn't it? He slowly rose to his feet, as though expecting things to start moving again. There was a lingering dizziness that he wondered was part of when the room had seemed to expand, but he wasn't given much time to study everything around him when he heard the sounds coming from further off. BD-1 squealed in alarm, indicating it was where the others were.

"Tony? Jon-?" Cal started to call out, maneuvering unsteadily in that direction and just as quickly halting at the wetness splashing beneath his feet, confusion crossing his face. Why was it wet? He stumbled back with a start at the flash of a glimpse of teeth, a gigantic maw he was about to step into, with a meaty tongue the welcome mat. Something at the back of his mind nagged that this wasn't right somehow, and between that and the panicked beeps from his droid companion it only made him more anxious.

That wide, open mouth had a chilling, wet sigh to blow into Cal's face, its breath a sweet swirl of that heady pollen and the rot of stagnant water. From the throat, too, though, Jon came running, followed by Tony diverting long enough to crash into Cal with an arm flung around his chest to drag him away from the door and the flood on their heels. They definitely needed to get upstairs, up and away from the threat of the water, go up--Jon was on the right path, but Cal was decidedly denser than him and Tony had time to shout, "Come on!," with a panicked glance over his shoulder. The water was roiling in the room they had left behind, and seemed to be perched to come crashing through the door, waiting for Tony to see it coming. He could hear his heart thumping, but hardly noticed how quickly he was panting or the sweet taste on his tongue anymore.

Jon was fortunately oblivious to any hungry mouths at this point ans simply kept rushing towards the stairs, being able to correctly conclude from the noises behind him that the others are about to follow after him.

Of course running through the vines and other plants that have begun to grow inside the building isn't something Jon can well manage without the occasional stumble and the steps of the stair are hardly any different. Only that underneath the soggy carpet and vines isn't stone, but wood. Old wood that has been rotting through for some time now and only adds to further hidden traps to step into.

It's halfway up the wide staircase that Jon manages to find one of them, his foot breaking right through the moldy wood and sending him flat onto the stairs with a yelp of surprise and a sharp curse. "Shit!" To his credit, he doesn't crash through entirely. But he is still left in a glamourless heap on the stairs and in a fresh cloud of those nasty sweet dust. While pulling his foot back out of it, he finds time to further complain. "Christ, this place is falling apart! None of the other buildings in the city have been rotting from the inside!"

It was more his Force sense than the visual that prepared Cal for the abrupt reunion, and even then he wasn't quite ready for Tony to nearly slam into him and try dragging him along in this sudden retreat. But given what he'd seen...or thought he'd seen? Cal wouldn't blame them for running either, even as he reeled back slightly from the gust of unpleasant smells that wafted from the corridor.

He turned gracelessly to follow, but at least needed no further urging from Tony as he ran for higher ground, and was quick to keep pace with the man as they both barreled after Jon. BD-1 shrieked a warning when Jon went nearly plunging through one of the steps, Cal gasping before reaching out to try helping the Archivist out once they'd reached his position. He froze partly in the process, eyes staring at the hole Jon's foot had breached, seeing not rotted wood but another, albeit smaller but no less hungry maw, teeth gnashing angrily at a missed meal. His hand flew to his lightsaber, pulling it free without hesitation nor flourish, the blue blade igniting with a snap-hiss as he looked about ready to attack a stair-step.

The water was already rapidly flooding the stately entrance hall that had seemed so strangely untouched a moment ago as Cal and Tony went splashing across it to the stairs, the tide quickly rising at their heels as they went scrambling up the steps like it hadn't just been a pipe in the wall that burst, but a city mainline threatening to turn this area into another floodplain. By the time they caught up with Jon, he was already working his foot free but Tony still dropped down next to him to try to help lift him clear of the rot without disturbing too much of the splintered edge any further, one hand on the step above and the other curled under Jon's arm where he was once again looking over his shoulder and to the threat urging them on and upward. The water washed across the hall, filling it like a dark pool and crashing against the walls in a storm of waves that made it difficult for Tony to be entirely sure that it was movement that he could see underneath the surface, dark and with a shimmering crest that lasted for long, horrible seconds. They were going to have to find another way out, and hope this place really was sealed.

The searing sound of Cal's lightsaber snapped Tony's attention back to the immediate problem, yelping, "What the fuck?," and redoubling his efforts to drag Jon out of the range of the sword.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject