revivalproject | Oh Where Could He Be?

Entry tags:

Oh Where Could He Be?

WHO: Omega, Tony (the Mothkitten), Tony (the Human) and Jon
WHERE: Not!Temba
WHAT: Just some Lost Children on an Unplanned Adventure
WHEN: End of July
WARNINGS: N/A? Will change as needed

Roughly one hour and twenty minutes ago...

"Oh no..."

Hugging the squirmy mothkitten to her chest, Omega turned just in time to see the doors slide shut to the train before the floor shuddered underfoot and the scenery began to slowly but surely move past the windows. She clambered onto one of the seats, pressing her face against the glass as they began to pick up speed, catching a glimpse of the ARC Trooper she'd been trying to tail earlier before ending up chasing the mothkitten aboard the transport. Sheepishly she offered a wave as they quickly sped on past.

The winged furball mewled and tried to get comfortable in her lap as she sighed and flopped back into the seat.

"This is all your fault," she scolded lightly.

Twenty minutes ago...

Omega was jolted awake when the train seemed to finally pull to a stop. The mothkitten in her lap yawned and stretched, and she scooped it up as she approached the doors, peering out into the unfamiliar station.

"This must be the other city..." she observed, for the moment forgetting her situation with the eagerness to see more of another new place. Letting the mothkitten clamber up onto her shoulder where he seemed to like being, not that it was a bother because he was so surprisingly light, the girl started towards the exit. Maybe someone else was still around. And anyway, it would be boring sitting on the train waiting for it to start up again.

She hardly got two steps onto the road from the station when the mothkitten abruptly took off, wings fluttering, eyes big as he took in the new smells. Right before he went darting off.

"Oh, no, no, no- Tony! Come back!"

Now...

It's hard to enjoy the scenery when you're busy looking for a runaway kitten. She'd feel terrible if anything happened to the little one. "Tony!" she calls out every now and then, hoping she'd hear that familiar reply and see him come drifting back.

"Tony, where are you?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While the adults were trying to make sense of things, Omega was simply relieved to find Tony (the mothkitten) in one piece. She reached up to scratch under the little troublemaker's chin, her own facial expressions changing like the phases of the moon as she listened in on the conversation between Jon and the other Tony.

"I didn't name him. I heard that ARC Trooper calling him that, and he answers. Don't you, Tony?" she asked, receiving another mew in response. She did offer Jon a smile and a little wave as Tony the human dispensed with an introduction of sorts before frowning over her shoulder as his talk of burps and shaking her. What? Strange man. She looked up at Jon again.

"Who's Frank?" she asked, looking quite offended that someone wanted to try eating the mothkitten.

"...oh, Christ." Jon mutters in response to- Well. Everything. The mothkitten being here, Echo of all people apparently naming them after Tony - Or maybe even other friends of them? Who really can say before he has been back to his library and called out the names of random people and see if any of the mothcats react to them. Then there is talks about burps and... Well.

After a moment, Jon's attention drops down to the child. Omega.

"I, ah.... J-Jon. I'm Jon." He pauses for a moment as the mothkitten Tony throws his head against the side of his face and stretches his front paws. "Frank is... An animal that lives here. Has been staying around our camping site. Lizard-like. Tried to eat Tony's boots one morning and got stuck because they proved too heavy for it to lift. So.... You have met Echo?"

Omega's frown was met with an innocent smile and mischievous glint in Tony's eye, but he did take that as a sign she wasn't going to respond to this kind of teasing as well as she did the flowery fantasy of his unconvincing bow. Tea parties over fart jokes, maybe. When she looked away again, Tony's expression quickly transformed to his meaningful raised eyebrows at Jon again, she said 'the ARC Troooper', did you catch that?. Between the strange uniform and the animal affinity, this could be yet another Jedi, and that was going to make it unavoidably obvious that the Agrii were sure this skillset was the key to solving their problem.

"Did he take his helmet off for you? He's very shy," Tony noted as he worked his way around to the best way to ask. Jedi and Nightsisters and everyone else all seemed to be profoundly weird about each other depending on the day of the week they thought it was.

The girl tried and failed to fully hide a laugh as the mothkitten shoves himself against the Archivist. Her thought process of trying to picture Frank with the description provided was unexpectedly derailed at Jon's question, and she looked at him almost shocked.

Omega looked between the two men as they clearly knew whom she had spoken of, her eyes wide, but still somewhat uncertain. "Wait. Are saying the Arc Trooper is Echo?" She looked stunned at the revelation. "I...I haven't spoken to him yet. I wasn't sure who he was..." she admitted.

Jon returns Tony's look while the girl is still occupied with the mothcat, giving a tiny tip of his head to the side. He much prefers the Agrii decide Jedi or superheroes are the way to go than that they find an odd liking for dread avatars. And if this child turns out to be another Force-sensitive? Well. At least Temba already has a dedicated home for those.

His attention returns to the girl and her surprise, blinking once at that reaction. "Well, yes." He pauses. "I... hm. Let me guess, you weren't certain if you could trust him." An assumption. He has come to know a bit about the history of this particular galaxy to know that some here considered the Clones their friends and allies, but others, who used to consider them their friends, have come here expecting to get hunted down by them. Jon has to wonder how Echo feels about this...

"That's what he says," Tony answered at the same time, that look to Jon becoming creased with worry for what this recognition could mean. Ideally, no one would start crying, so Tony took it upon himself to get ahead of that problem by crouching down to Omega's level at her side instead of bracketing her between these two strange men, careful hand on her shoulder. "There's a bunch of Jedi, back in the other city, that have been looking out for each other and would be thrilled to meet you. They were surprised to see Echo, too," he offered, hoping some more familiarity would be reassuring in this situation. How exactly that was going anymore, Tony had no idea, but no one had killed anyone else thus far.

These two were acting strangely. Were they also from their corner of the Galaxy? Omega nodded slowly at Jon. That had been part of it, she wasn't going to lie. She was traveling with deserters, after all.

Looking at Tony as he crouched down near her, she arched a brow as he brought up the Jedi. "That's...very specific," she said carefully, eyeing him as though trying to work out what his angle was here. "I've met Ezra. And I found where the Jedi set up a...temple, I guess?" Which was all very nice but what good was that going to do her? But she knew why they would have been...surprised to see Echo, especially if they were from the same sort of timeframe as herself. The thought of time did make her fold her arms as she considered.

"I didn't know it was him. He must be from...from before."

Before. Jon knows what she is referring to and winces a little. But unlike Tony he remains standing. "You will find several beings from your home... Galaxy... Brought here. Most of them from very different times. Very few appear to have known one another before having been brought here, even." He shrugs, not entirely certain how that works, but of all worlds or galaxies represented on Agra 10, they can piece together the most complete history time line of this particular one.

Jon then proceeds to bring a little clarity to Tony's words. "You aren't another Padawan?" The way she talks about the Jedi doesn't make it sound like she considers herself to be one of them.

Omega's baffled reaction hadn't really been what Tony had been anticipating, making him drop his hand at her defensive posture and look to Jon again, this time for some help because he had a much more thorough understanding of that distant galaxy. If she wasn't a Jedi..."How do you know Echo then?" Tony was asking before he really thought about it. It wasn't like Echo had been entirely unsociable, but no one had made it sound like these clones had spent much time with anyone outside of their military units. That wasn't exactly the point.

"Yeah... Ezra told me something about that," Omega said. She blinked at Jon's question. "What's a... padawan? Something to do with Jedi?" Given the context, that must be the case. Maybe it wasn't such a strange thing that they assumed she was related to the Jedi in some way, given how many Ezra had spoken of. Given Jon's wording, apparently these two weren't from 'home', but otherwise were acquainted enough with those here who were.

Turning her head towards Tony the human, she hesitated at a response. "I'm part of his squad."

"Padawans are young Jedi, still training under their masters." Jon explains, but can't help the frown. Though it should make sense that she doesn't know about the different training stages of the Jedi, given that most of them may well be... Well. Gone. In her time.

Though he feels more curious about the information she shares. "You are part of Echo's squad?" Does that mean she is military?

Tony very suddenly found himself hoping that there was a perfectly good reason that military-produced clones were socializing outside of their units. Not that the Jedi had proved above training children for their battles, but if this one wasn't even a Jedi, then Tony was starting to see why they might have been pissing people off. "Hey--" he interrupted, before Omega had to elaborate about her child soldier situation out here in the middle of a strange jungle. With a gesture toward the mothkitten, he suggested, "Hold that thought. We should get him somewhere safe and see if he's hungry, huh?," gaze lingering on Jon again, hoping he could confirm that had something that they could feed Omega. Maybe Tony was going to get to test that tea party theory.

It would be a lot to unpack, and she wasn't even sure how much they were familiar with, let alone regarding Echo. The girl grimaced at Jon's own echo. "That's what I said, isn't it?" she said with a slight jut of her lips.

She was thankful for having the attention off of her. Turning her own attention back to the mothkitten in the Archivist's hands, she held a hand out to him with a faint smile. "Is he yours, then? Maybe that's why he went on the train- to look for you." She'd bet that it was more just because the train happened to be there, really.

The response the girl gives him and the way she delivers it leaves the Archivist to just stare at her for a moment, mouth half open and brows pulled together. He shifts his irritation over to Tony with a little motion of his head and a twitch to his brow. Is it really that natural for kids to be soldiers in this galaxy that they get offended by the irritation of people about it?

"I, ah--" He tries with all the attention being directed at the mothcat he is holding. "They live at the library. Over in Temba." Is the answer Jon settles with. He wouldn't say the Countess or her litter belong to anyone, always willing to deny being a pet owner. He just... Looks out for them. Makes sure they are okay and well. Then he sighs and nods. "But- Right. We have something we can feed them- ah- him."

Feed the mothkitten, feed the child. Unless the child decides she needs to hunt her own ration bars or whatever it is they feed child soldiers in that galaxy.

Jon was not finding any refuge in Tony, because he was clearly battling with a charmed smirk at Omega's stubborn pout. Jon's look only managed to make Tony get control of his own expression enough to return an innocent blink and the smallest shrug, yeah, man, what's your problem?, but Tony did have to suddenly give his beard a scratch as he drew up to his full height.

It was hard to tell exactly how old Omega was, so offering that hand was something of a gamble to find out which way her age might have leaned and Tony quickly talked through the gesture so it seemed natural whether Omega took it or not; "The train'll be back eventually, but this place isn't so bad if you're an animal gal. Honestly, I was just starting to think Temba was too quiet. Do you get that? If there isn't a traffic jam, three ambulances, and a dance party going on outside my window, it doesn't feel like home. Big city, everyone shouts to get what they want."

Clearly there was a lack of understanding here- mostly due to the fact that Omega had no normal upbringing to compare to whatever sort of expectations Jon had. Jedi didn't even factor into things so far as she was concerned. She tilted her head at the Archivist's slip, but she wasn't going to say not to a snack if they had anything. It had been a long train ride.

She looked at Tony and the hand offered, hesitating. The last time she'd went along with someone by the hand, they'd turned out to be a bounty hunter trying to take her away. But if they were all stuck here, where would they go? Finally she slipped her little hand into his, deciding it was meant to help him get to his feet but if he wanted to hold hands to lead her to their somewhere safe, she wouldn't begrudge it.

"It is pretty quiet," she agreed. "We've been staying in a city and it's a lot more noisy. And questionable, I guess. But I like it."

Leaving it to Tony to tend to Omega, Jon settles with making sure the mothkitten is kept secure in his arms and leads the way back to where they have set up camp at what counts for this city's library.

"I believe we should seek out the- w-well. I'm not certain it really counts as a museum, but- It appears these people at least had a place where they collected items of value." Jon points out over his shoulder, not quite sure how to contribute to that conversation about busy cities.

Not sure which vector was contributing the most to Jon's discomfort, or if trying to needle him about it was the best way to put Omega at ease, Tony only raised an eyebrow at his back for this stumbling suggestion then grinned at Omega to conclude, "Treasure hunt?" Giving them all something to do on equal ground wasn't a bad idea, even if it was coming out of Jon's chronic work fixation and distracted briefly from Tony's careful probing. He had to get back on track with a gentle shake of her hand to ask, "Who's 'we'? Back home, I live with my whole team. One of them smells like a dog and spills beer on my couches constantly, but mostly I miss them."

The girl brightened, glad to be included, although she supposed that bringing her along was probably the best thing to do considering there was no one else around. "Treasure hunt sounds fun! What were we supposed to be looking for here anyway?"

She pursed her lips thoughtfully before grinning a little as Tony mentions his own team. "My squad. Technically we live on our ship but we rent space to dock it in between our missions." She considered before adding, "Guess it does smell a bit but it's a gunship so it wasn't exactly made for long term passengers." Her face fell a little as she thought of them. "But I miss them a lot too. I've never been on my own before. It's...different."

"What happened to your parents?" Jon asks plainly what he assumes him and Tony both to have been wondering this entire time. Clearly this girl must have parents - Or be an orphan. Both plausible, yet even for an orphan to end up as a child soldier is harsh in Jon's opinion.

That was far more direct than Tony was trying to be while they weren't somewhere that he was sure Omega was comfortable, making Tony's genial smile harden as he tried to catch Jon's eye with a tick of his head toward the kid. She already sounded a little sad; if Jon made her cry, she was going to become Jon's responsibility.

"Figuring out the rules is part of the game," Tony answered, and it was supposed to be conspiratorial but most of the energy had gone out of it in his dread for whatever sad response Omega could possibly have for Jon.

As much as Tony's response basically suggested they had no idea, Omega supposed it was fair enough in a way. She pouted thoughtfully at that before directing her attention to Jon again.

"I've never had any," she replied, her answer so matter-of-fact that it was borderline dismissive. She at least kind of knew what parents even were to give a proper answer in that regard, but she hadn't felt particularly robbed of the experience.

"...you never had any." Jon repeats, his pace slowing as he works through those information.

In the end, Jon just nods. "You're a clone, then. Like Echo..." Different model, he assumes. But it would explain the demeanor. "I... I will admit that I still struggle with fully picturing that." Clones. Human clones going out to fight wars. It feels surreal even after having passed through an entire apocalypse. At least that was all supernatural. These clones are- They are real. They are people.

That casual delivery from someone who was still young enough to hold Tony's hand to navigate safely broke Tony's heart enough to leave him grimacing at Jon again in a quick transformation from his accusatory look to one clearly begging for help. Omega being one of the clones wasn't a leap that Tony had immediately made, assuming they just found her himself and didn't know what else to do with her, because this wasn't at all how clones worked in Tony's experience. The clones of the Avengers were fully formed, not...grown. That was horrific, and Tony was reluctant to look back toward Omega for confirmation. Struggle was one way of putting it.

"You grew up together?" Tony assumed, trying to work out the relationship with this new context--no wonder she didn't recognize him. It wouldn't be the first incidence of a timeline not quite matching up, like the twins being different ages. More importantly, did that mean Omega had that chip in her head? Tony did not know how to communicate that concern silently, but maybe it wasn't an immediate one. After all, Echo got to...whatever age he was without being triggered.

You're a clone, then. Omega's fingers tightened slightly around Tony's hand as she looked cautiously at Jon at that observation, unsure of what their feelings on that matter might be. She gave an emphatic nod.

"He's my brother. Like the rest of my squad. But we're considered defective," she said, shrugging a little. "The Regs don't much like us. That's why when I saw Echo in this armor, I wasn't sure if he was...well, a Reg."

She kicked at a pebble that she came across, shaking her head at Tony's question. "No. They were already doing missions. They're all made to age faster. I stayed on Kamino. Mostly I was acting as Nala Se's assistant. She's one of the ones in charge of the cloning program."

Edited (what is english) 2021-08-03 22:59 (UTC)

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