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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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."

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.

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