Tony Stark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
in_extremis) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
revivalproject2021-07-12 11:41 pm
in_extremis) wrote in revivalproject2021-07-12 11:41 pm
Succession
WHO: Anyone on the first train out of Temba!
WHERE: Not-Temba, the Not-Transport Station
WHAT: First look at the new city! Tony has some specific things in here he's doing, but you can make it your own first impression experience.
WHEN: As soon as possible after receiving Ga Re's message, time to Ex Floor.
WARNINGS: I'll let you know if this gets weird.
a. Arrival! [OTA! This is a mingle option, so display your preferences accordingly]
The last time they got an urgent message from the Agrii about travel plans, they were headed to space to fight a war. So when Ga Re said far, Tony was not expecting to be standing at the train tracks, staring at the vehicle with some bewilderment. It hadn't been that long since the last time Tony had come this way, and it hadn't looked to him like this station was going to be in service for a good, long time at that point. Even now, as he looked down the tracks to where they disappeared into the woods, he wouldn't confidently say they looked serviceable. Even if the train itself had the juice, it very much looked like a rusty bolt and warped metal was its first and last destination.
That was a problem to solve when they got to it. Tony wasn't the only one ready to find out what was going to happen, and he glanced around the platform to the few people who had dropped what they were doing to come see Ga Re's train with a faint, wry smile, before turning back toward the city to watch for Jon with a flurry of encouraging text messages to spur him on. They had plenty of time already to hang around Temba, it was time to go forward.
The train itself was a sleek tube, like a subway car, lined with seats on the inside that weren't particularly comfortable or inviting. It wasn't giving a long-distance impression, without much room for luggage or travel comforts that a long-haul vehicle might. It didn't even appear to have any kind of control system that Tony could find after some frustrated investigation; just walls and windows and a button to open and close the door, that swished enough times to be irritating before Tony fully gave up on it. He was about ready to apologize for not solving the go puzzle when the car gave a rattle and lurched forward of its own volition, starting its slow roll toward the woods. From there, while Tony bounded for the window to watch Temba disappear behind the foliage, the train rapidly picked up speed, until the leaves were whipping by and then they were suddenly plunged into darkness.
An hour, when you don't know when its going to end or where you are even going, is an incredibly long time.
Abruptly, somewhere deep in that dark tunnel, Tony could feel a snap at the back of his neck, a tingle that numbed the base of his skull enough to touch it gingerly as he realized with a pitch of dread that he couldn't reach out to the network anymore. He reached for Jon's hand first, waiting for a steady breath as he stared distantly out at that endless darkness before he stood to get the rest of the car's attention. With his communication device in hand, he announced, "We've been bricked."
It was possible that Tony should have better prepared for this. It was possible that he should have been ready for the rapidly mounting anxiety as the train burst back out into the sunlight, lashed from all sides once again by the dense, untamed growth of the abandoned planet. And he should have been thoroughly anticipating stepping down from the train as it sighed into the strangely familiar station, and looking back over his shoulder with the realization that they had no control interface, and no way to contact anyone back in Temba.
Were they stuck here now?
b. Transport Station [For Bucky, but you're welcome to join!]
If they were meant to be here for the foreseeable future, the immediate experience wasn't what Tony would call hospitable. He never experienced Temba as it was when the He Rows first arrived, only coming to know it well after some progress had been made and there was clean, running water, and he hadn't realized how thankful he was for that small mercy until he disembarked the train in this new abandoned city. If he didn't have the map to orient himself and assure him that this place was a strange mirror of Temba, he wasn't sure how quickly he would have recognized the shape of the transport station obscured as it was under the tangle of vines and enthusiastic bushes. It took Tony some work to pick his way out of the snarl of it, thorns managing to catch in the seams of his heavy, metal boots and snagging where they met the nanoweb on his thighs, to turn and take in the structure as a whole, looking for a place to start. Where Temba could be shockingly quiet, here Tony could hear a whole cacophony of life calling and chattering high up in the branches of the expansive trees. The air itself smelled sweet with the overripe rot of lush fruit that hung heavily everywhere Tony looked, and littered the ground where more plants yet would grow. Tony wrinkled his nose and planted his hands on his hips. The train wasn't broken, that much was clear. There had to have been a way to make it run.
WHERE: Not-Temba, the Not-Transport Station
WHAT: First look at the new city! Tony has some specific things in here he's doing, but you can make it your own first impression experience.
WHEN: As soon as possible after receiving Ga Re's message, time to Ex Floor.
WARNINGS: I'll let you know if this gets weird.
a. Arrival! [OTA! This is a mingle option, so display your preferences accordingly]
The last time they got an urgent message from the Agrii about travel plans, they were headed to space to fight a war. So when Ga Re said far, Tony was not expecting to be standing at the train tracks, staring at the vehicle with some bewilderment. It hadn't been that long since the last time Tony had come this way, and it hadn't looked to him like this station was going to be in service for a good, long time at that point. Even now, as he looked down the tracks to where they disappeared into the woods, he wouldn't confidently say they looked serviceable. Even if the train itself had the juice, it very much looked like a rusty bolt and warped metal was its first and last destination.
That was a problem to solve when they got to it. Tony wasn't the only one ready to find out what was going to happen, and he glanced around the platform to the few people who had dropped what they were doing to come see Ga Re's train with a faint, wry smile, before turning back toward the city to watch for Jon with a flurry of encouraging text messages to spur him on. They had plenty of time already to hang around Temba, it was time to go forward.
The train itself was a sleek tube, like a subway car, lined with seats on the inside that weren't particularly comfortable or inviting. It wasn't giving a long-distance impression, without much room for luggage or travel comforts that a long-haul vehicle might. It didn't even appear to have any kind of control system that Tony could find after some frustrated investigation; just walls and windows and a button to open and close the door, that swished enough times to be irritating before Tony fully gave up on it. He was about ready to apologize for not solving the go puzzle when the car gave a rattle and lurched forward of its own volition, starting its slow roll toward the woods. From there, while Tony bounded for the window to watch Temba disappear behind the foliage, the train rapidly picked up speed, until the leaves were whipping by and then they were suddenly plunged into darkness.
An hour, when you don't know when its going to end or where you are even going, is an incredibly long time.
Abruptly, somewhere deep in that dark tunnel, Tony could feel a snap at the back of his neck, a tingle that numbed the base of his skull enough to touch it gingerly as he realized with a pitch of dread that he couldn't reach out to the network anymore. He reached for Jon's hand first, waiting for a steady breath as he stared distantly out at that endless darkness before he stood to get the rest of the car's attention. With his communication device in hand, he announced, "We've been bricked."
It was possible that Tony should have better prepared for this. It was possible that he should have been ready for the rapidly mounting anxiety as the train burst back out into the sunlight, lashed from all sides once again by the dense, untamed growth of the abandoned planet. And he should have been thoroughly anticipating stepping down from the train as it sighed into the strangely familiar station, and looking back over his shoulder with the realization that they had no control interface, and no way to contact anyone back in Temba.
Were they stuck here now?
b. Transport Station [For Bucky, but you're welcome to join!]
If they were meant to be here for the foreseeable future, the immediate experience wasn't what Tony would call hospitable. He never experienced Temba as it was when the He Rows first arrived, only coming to know it well after some progress had been made and there was clean, running water, and he hadn't realized how thankful he was for that small mercy until he disembarked the train in this new abandoned city. If he didn't have the map to orient himself and assure him that this place was a strange mirror of Temba, he wasn't sure how quickly he would have recognized the shape of the transport station obscured as it was under the tangle of vines and enthusiastic bushes. It took Tony some work to pick his way out of the snarl of it, thorns managing to catch in the seams of his heavy, metal boots and snagging where they met the nanoweb on his thighs, to turn and take in the structure as a whole, looking for a place to start. Where Temba could be shockingly quiet, here Tony could hear a whole cacophony of life calling and chattering high up in the branches of the expansive trees. The air itself smelled sweet with the overripe rot of lush fruit that hung heavily everywhere Tony looked, and littered the ground where more plants yet would grow. Tony wrinkled his nose and planted his hands on his hips. The train wasn't broken, that much was clear. There had to have been a way to make it run.
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It was only when he hit the ground that he responded, "Of course not."
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"You good?"
Bucky would be thrilled to know he has maintained a reputation of being anything like graceful here, and that no one will ever see his plummet from that plane.
He trust Stark to have some plan for getting them out again if it came to it, or that could be a problem for future them to solve, he wasn't overly concerned, stepping curiously into the dark space that seemed to run parallel to the tracks above.
He kicked some rat like creature from underfoot with a frown. "How about a light?"
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"Please, I'm a gentleman," he answered like he hadn't just come up short on the rope thing. He could probably use a little power up and still have enough in the tank for a good emergency blast. The faint glow from Tony's metal-clad palm was easy to track in the dark as he raised to toward Bucky, and the distinct whine of it spinning up echoed eerily in the underground as the light intensified. The yellow light threw Bucky's shadow against the wall beyond him, diffused across a snarl of ambitious roots.
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Then a beat passed and he blinked, refocusing and swallowing uncomfortably as he tried to shake it off. His lips twitched into a brief, forced smile to try and reassure Stark, turning away from him and trying to distance them from having to acknowledge whatever that was.
"...I'm gonna see how far this goes."
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"Yeah, okay..." he breathed, not feeling in the least like the tension was gone, but he wasn't going to be given much opportunity to balance it. A screeching protest of metal rang out from above them, making Tony drop his hand even further as he tilted his head back in surprise. They weren't given much time to ponder its source before a shudder knocked a rain of dust loose from the ceiling above them, and a slow, distinct ker-thunk of gears shifting and twisted tracks being forced into alignment under rolling weight echoed down the length of the tracks.
"The train," Tony breathed for them, head turning like he could trace the length of the tracks and see the mouth of the tunnel from where they stood. By the time it got up to speed and hit that tunnel, their chances were going to be slim if they wanted to be in control of that train. "Barnes--now!" Tony demanded with a scoop of his arm as the only actual instruction outside of the familiar whine filling the cavern again.
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Shit.
There wasn't time to think, just curse mentally as he turned and sprinted back to Stark.
Apparently the controls weren't down here.
"Get me up there and I can catch it," he huffed.
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The concussive blast of the repulsors from his boots and gauntlet was enough to crater the floor of the tunnel they stood in, leaving a strangely round impression directly under the hole while Tony squeezed around Bucky and they jumped straight up toward the light. That was it, that was the emergency blast, and it got them as far as Tony flailing out for the edge of the uncovered opening before they could sink right back down into it, already regretting the impulse with a heartstopping panic at the very immediate threat of Bucky's now uncomfortably familiar weight. Tony could calculate at exactly what angle that drop at this velocity would jerk his shoulder out of place.
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And thankfully Bucky had the reaction time to take the brunt of the weight for them, mirroring that grip round Tony's waist with his flesh and blood arm and catching the edge with the vibranium one. Judging by the gritted teeth and pained grunt it didn't feel too great to him either, but it held a hell of a lot better than Tony's joint would've.
Hoisting them up, Bucky stalled only long enough to make sure Stark could pull himself up the rest of the way before racing after the train to try and catch it before it disappeared from sight.
It was a long chase before he caught up, into the tunnel, just shy of hopping onto the outside when he slammed face first into an unseen forcefield. It fully laid him out for a moment, and he was grateful not for the first time that Sam wasn't there with Redwing to see him in moments like this.
His face was a mess when he walked back out, and he flashed Stark an uncomfortable, stiff smile. "...Yeah, there's barrier in there," he informed, as though that wasn't obvious.
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By then, it was uncomfortably quiet. The rumble of the train was a distant noise that Tony had to strain to pick up, and in that moment of stillness Tony fully accepted that Bucky had caught the train and was on his way back to Temba. With a sigh of defeat, he dragged his heavy legs out of the cavern to start disassembling the darkened boots as well. He was down to one boot and the undersuit when the movement from the foliage caught his eye, and he glanced up only to give a start at not necessarily the return of Bucky, but the blood on his face only looking more gruesome from the...was he trying to smile? Tony scrambled up to go limping stiffly with his heavy foot dragging, as quickly as he could to meet Bucky as he approached, one hand already up to hover gingerly over his shoulder, then his hair as Tony asked, "Did you try to catch it with your teeth? Did you break something? Here, put your head down..." The other hand came up to cup under Bucky's face like Tony meant to catch any more of the bleeding, which was a very normal way to determine if his face was bleeding too much.
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The blood was all ready congealing, none dripping down to dirty Tony's hands, and he shook his head, more or less sure nothing was broken. Well-
"Maybe the nose, but it'll be fine-" He touched his fingers gingerly to the swollen bridge of his nose. Not his finest moment.
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"Mm-" Bucky turned his head, trying to focus. "...That way, maybe," he offered, not entirely sure, but with no way back there wasn't much harm in exploring a bit.
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