revivalproject | Oh Where Could He Be?

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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?"

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While not freezing, the water was still cold enough to shock the unsuspecting. It was simultaneously like entering an entirely different world as everything lit up around them following the wild reaction of the flower that had fallen in. The water was much deeper than it had appeared from above, easily a couple meters down to the bottom.

Omega had squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness. She twisted her hand in Jon's grasp, trying to hold onto him before realizing he'd fallen in with her. Squinting against the lingering brightness as she dared opened her eyes again, the girl tried to work out which direction was up, a feat that proved more difficult than she'd expected as she found one arm meeting resistance. Tony!

She tugged at the leash to pull the very confused and panicky mothkitten over. He was all clingy claws, latching onto her as she tried her best to swim up to the surface.

For a moment, Jon can feel Omega's hand holding onto him, but he is also quick to realize that he is more likely to pull her down further, especially with Tony gripping onto him. So he twists his hand free and instead finds one of her feet to give her a little boost upwards while he himself gets dragged the other way a little bit further.

Surprisingly enough, him and Tony don't quite hit the bottom as Jon has been preparing for. Their involuntary dive slows quickly and they find themselves drifting a short bit above the stones. They are bigger this close and Jon has to wonder... But then he remembers why they are even down here and he looks over to Tony, quickly checking on him, then up, to see if Omega has made it to the surface.

The fall and the chill of it shocked the air out of Tony, and the moment he had to see past the white noise of the churned up water to stare, surprised, down to the bottom of the pool and the stack of stones that had looked so reachable from the surface, it was cut short by the urgent burn in his chest and a wild look for the other two to make sure they weren't struggling. He met Jon's eye, and it finally occurred to him to release his hold on Jon as they both looked up after Omega, who probably didn't have Jon's miracle lungs. Tony left him with a warm palm cupped against his cheek before kicking away after the girl to make sure she broke the surface.

As he caught up with her, he didn't wait to find out how she was managing before wrapping an arm around her middle to haul her with him up to the ledge of the pool where they both broke out of the water with a splash that sent a new wave rolling across the smooth stone of the chamber floor. The fall has already spread the water throughout the room, and where some thrown puddles had met the walls, the water had lapped at the lowest flowers and left glinting runnels around the edges of the room. Bracing his free arm against the edge of the pool to keep them both up, Tony quickly panted, "You okay...?--oh," the breath squeezed out of him once more by the lurid claw marks on Omega, but mostly the way she faintly...glowed.

Swimming one handed wasn't very fast going, so the added boost from Jon was definitely helpful. Omega was trying her best to kick up to the surface and felt her breath already straining to be held. She caught a glimpse of Tony just past her before she found herself suddenly scooped up and being propelled upwards. Coughing and sputtering once they broke through the surface, she felt for the solidness of the pool's edge, her other arm still wrapped around a soggy mothcat.

"I-I think so," she managed once she'd caught a few breaths, trying to brush back her bangs as they draped across her face. She gasped a bit as she caught sight of her own hand and the faint luminescence, and he turned her head to look over at Tony, brows lifting. It probably stood to reason that they'd be glowing after taking a dip in glowing water, but it was still a surreal sight. The girl blinked before looking towards the water again. "Where's Jon?"

Jon watches Tony swim back up, reach Omega and bring the girl up to the surface with him. To which Jon just nods before returning his attention to the stones and swimming down that last bit towards them. It's not polished stone by any means, but there clearly are carvings in them as well. He runs his fingers over the lines and curves of the uppermost stone and peers down the side of the small stack before giving the first stone a testing nudge to see if it can be moved, or even lifted.

It doesn't budge.

He inspects the pile a little closer and then looks over to the others, but it gets clear quickly enough that these aren't piles, but rather columns of solid stone, shaped to look like piles of rocks. Scowling at that discovery, Jon looks up towards the surface before finally swimming back up and break the surface with a displeased expression on his face.

"I need more light down there!"

How healthy this was for any of them was up for debate, but this was definitely not the environment for a mothcat, so as Omega seemed to get her balance Tony tried to ease the animal off of her without it digging its claws in any further. He looked more pathetic than he had when Jon has first set him down in the harness, tense and sulking and vibrating with the cold, and as Tony set him down on the stone by the pool he clung to the floor and mostly let Tony wring him out with a strong stroke from his neck down his tail with some growling complaint. The only move he made was a harassed flick of his wings, then a sulking attempt to lick them dry while Tony turned back to Omega to help push her hair back similarly with the bubble of a laugh that was cut short by Jon's sudden, splashing emergence and sharp demand. Tony jumped, hand to his heart, then looked sidelong to Omega to see if this was the answer to her question that she was hoping for.

"Right away, boss, not a problem," he sang sweetly like he wasn't just about to accuse Jon of being a shark, and pushed himself off of the ledge toward the back of the pool where he could easily reach a fistful of those flowers climbing up the wall. They had light in abundance. Before Jon could argue that he meant something less volatile, Tony was diving again with his bounty, leaving a trail of that glowing pollen in his wake like he carried a flare.

Edited (a strong strong) 2021-08-23 00:48 (UTC)

Omega clung to the edge of the pool as Tony pried the bedraggled mothcat from her. The scratches she'd suffered from the wet creature's panic stung but weren't too bad, and it was a relief not having him digging into her arm. "Poor Tony," she said, scratching the little one's head. She offered the bigger Tony a faint smile before giving a small squeak at Jon's sudden reappearance.

Well, at least the Archivist was all right. The girl blinked at his demand, then looked over at Tony who was happily providing. She watched as he went back down into the depths, bringing a hand up against the glare from the fresh glow that flared up in his wake.

While Tony reacts to his words right away, Jon takes a moment to look over Omega and the mothcat as he swims to the edge of the pool to drop off his back and jacket there. A concerned look is being directed at the girl. "It won't be long. Try not to get cold. Both of you."

In response, the mothcat gives a big shake of his head, fur and feathery followed by some quick flaps of his wings to shake off the worst of the bothersome liquid. Chances are that the feline will be dry long before any of them.

Taking along only his phone, Jon then follows after Tony. There is no arguing that this flower method will work, at least and he joins the other man down near the rocks. He gives Tony a short nod before pointing at the rocks and then gesturing above them. This is where he will need the light. So he can take pictures for them to analyze later.

By the time Jon joined him, Tony was already circling around one of the columns and had just aimed an experimental kick at one to see if it would dislodge. The optical illusion from the surface was certainly artful, because it was solid. He blinked owlishly at Jon for a moment after his instruction, because Tony didn't understand what they were really expected to do with these if they weren't secret levers or had mysterious cooling properties on the water or something, but quickly enough he was swimming an arc over the stones leaving a trail of flowers behind to slowly sink to the bottom of the pool. He showed both palms to Jon when they were empty, then started back up to catch a breath and make sure Omega wasn't left alone too long.

He emerged once more at the side of the pool where he could fold his arms on the stone and keep himself up despite the heavy drag of his clothes, panting at the effort it was starting to take to make that swim, and still reported jovially, "You found something! It's a bunch of rocks, but there's some markings on them that might mean something. They better, anyway. Weird place to keep your garbage." He pulled himself up then to sit on the ledge in a great wash of the water sloughing from his clothes, reigniting the glow at the edges of the room, and left his legs dangling in the pool which he quickly found were the least chilled part of him, making him hunch with a hug around himself as the water wicked away in the cool, dry room. "Jesus, are you okay? It's hot upstairs, we shouldn't be long..."

While the two investigated the bottom of the pool, Omega managed to worm her way up out of the water, and not without a little effort. It was amazingly difficult trying to get out of water when you were soaked! She still couldn't help but be fascinated by the afterglow that lingered, or the way things continued to light up whenever stray droplets of water went flinging towards the flowers. Her being dripping wet kept her from wandering too far as she settled by the pool's edge, tugging off her boots to empty out what had drained into them, watching the rivulets flow along the floor towards the paltn growth. Both she and the mothcat looked back to the waters when Tony once again broke through the surface.

"I did? Is that what Jon's looking at now?" she asked, though his excitement was infectious as she grinned back, scooting aside to allow him some space. Sitting there with your clothing plastered to you wasn't exactly comfortable, but she didn't seem terribly bothered. There wasn't really much to be done about it, anyway. "I'm fine. Will the glow go away?" she asked, looking at her hand, ignoring the scratches as she watched the water that dribbled from her sleeve along her wrist, dripping down into the pool's waters as they already started to grow still again.

The moment Tony is heading back up, Jon is already starting to take pictures and record videos of the different rocks to try and capture every detail of whatever is written on them. In fact, he believes to be able to make out parts of it even while taking these pictures.

He still stays down there maybe a little longer than needed to take further pictures, glad about the phones being perfectly usable underwater. The second time Jon emerges from the water, he immediately makes for the edge of the pool to join the rest of the party.

"Christ! What were they thinking putting these up like this?!" Jon complains to no one in particular once he finds himself subject to the rather fresh air himself. Which has him cast a concerned look at the others, which is when he actually notices the glow. "Oh bloody hell..."

Tony could anticipate what the glow did now that it was on them as much as he had anticipated the glow occurring at all, which they had all witnessed and he could not argue, so this time he shrugged and didn't look particularly put out by that. It would probably go away. It was just one dip in a glow pool. More immediately, he glanced back down into the water and chuckled, indicating for Omega to watch as the surface stilled again and see how that strange distortion that had Tony believing he could reach out and grab those stones made Jon paddling around them look doll-sized. Watching him surface was like watching a train approach, shockingly fast with how quickly he 'grew', and Tony was much more prepared this time to just smile back to Jon's complaint and be the one scooting over to make room just as Omega had done, vaguely helping with a hand on Jon's arm to get him out of the water so they could all sit miserably shivering in unison. That he was equally concerned about the glowing as Omega made Tony laugh again.

"It's not so bad, listen, we've got to go back through that awful dark place again, not a problem now, that place is nothing. We've got nightlights preinstalled, never be in the dark again. I'd say you look like an angel, but there's more of a drowned rat effect going on across the board, and the glow isn't really helping, it's rats drowned in the Hudson, absolutely toxic."

The effect of the water was a strange one, definitely. Omega gave a small laugh as she watched Jon moving about below, brows lifting as the man came back up. She didn't try very hard to hold back another laugh once the man emerged from the water, a complaint already on his lips.

Pulling up her legs, she wrapped her arms around them in an effort to keep some warmth to her. Jon's observation of their glowing state made her nod. Yup. That was a thing. She grinned as Tony was quick to explain the upsides of the situation, stifling a giggle behind a wet sleeve.

"Were you able to figure out what those rocks are there for?" she prompted, looking over at Jon.

"Well, I hope it isn't toxic." Jon grumbles mildly while stepping over to where the mothcat is aggressively grooming himself dry but pausing at Jon's approach to look up at him and give an irritated flick of his wings. Kneeling down before the feline, Jon holds out a dripping hand to him, from which the small one recoils a little.

Jon decides to take no offense in the reaction, but keeps his hand offered while turning his attention back to the others and nod once at Omega's question. "I have an idea. We should be able to know for sure once we have a proper translation. But for now we should leave. Get somewhere warmer."

By the time he has finished talking, Tony the mothcat has come to rub his head against the palm of Jon's hand, albeit mindful of the liquid.

As fun as the mysteries of the pool were, Tony was more than happy to get above ground where Omega was less likely to get sick. He pulled his feet from the water in another wash across the floor, and stooped to collect Jon's sodden bag and the flashlight that he had kicked across the room in his fall, giving it a flick to make sure it wasn't too soaked from all of the splashing. "There's definitely more words on them then?" Tony confirmed as he did his best to put himself back in order, wringing out the front of his shirt. "That's gotta be something. That's two stone things with writing on them, so--we can't assume that this kind of etching was rare. There should be tons of those kind of structures all over this city, but someone's taken care to get rid of them." Tony still suspected these 'accidents' were intentional, but the possibility that this place was just too strange to navigate and no one had thought to clear the pool wasn't unlikely. There was still the distinct possibility that the three of them were going to have difficulty finding their way out now.

Omega wasn't going to argue about going somewhere warmer, as pretty as it was down here. She nodded and reached for her boots to pull them back on, making a face at the cold feeling. Getting to her feet, she looked for her own light, caught amongst some of the plants where it had rolled. She picked it up, pausing before plucking one of the little glowing buds nearby, tucking it into one of the pouches on her belt.

"Come on, Tony," she said as she turned to loop the vine leash around her wrist, gathering up the mothkitten. She looked towards Jon and Tony, frowning a bit. "Is someone trying to hide something? Why would anyone go through all the trouble of getting rid of something like that?"

"We can't say for sure yet." Jon answers Omega's question as he picks up his wet and cold jacket and turns his back towards the pool - The direction they have come from. It's distinctly darker there, but the chamber remains illuminated enough by them and the flowers around them.

As he starts to walk forward, he turns his head towards Tony, nodding. "I could make out a few words. Something about the sky, soil, the sun - Nothing untypical for an older script, unfortunately. I almost feel like we have stepped into a sacred place to the Graq that lived here."

As Tony waited for the other two to get themselves together again to follow where he could see them, he tapped thoughtfully at his beard with an absent glance around the room for any other sign that it might be sacred. Not that Tony felt confident he could identify such a thing if he saw it. "If it is, maybe there's something written there about their watchful alien overlords," he suggested hopefully. That would have been convenient. "I told Ikora about the sundial, and she wasn't convinced that was its actual purpose. She suggested the 'light' was something more like that blinking light, but we can't see it from here, and I haven't seen any towers that resemble the one that was blinking at us in the first place."

With the pair and their mothcat herded in front of him, Tony followed to make their now gently illuminated way down the tight, dark hall, much less tense than when they had first made their way through making it feel like plenty of room for Tony to fill with his voice. After all, Jon might have known what Tony was talking about, but Omega didn't have the luxury of being beaten up by a tower. "We think the Agrii really do need our help, but there's been someone pushing them around that has been keeping plenty of secrets from us..." he started to explain, doing his best to outline what they knew so far, the mysterious voice on the Agrii ship and what meeting the aliens was like, and the strange familiarity of this city after meeting the Graq so far away.

Alien overlords? Omega made a curious if uncertain face at that, but between these Graq and whatever else Jon and Tony knew of a bigger picture to the Agrii's plight, she wasn't sure where to go about in asking questions. Thankfully Tony began to cover some things, a reminder to her that they'd been here so much longer than she had.

"Do the Graq need our help too?" she finally settled on asking, glancing back at the two glowing men. What a sight they all must be! She still kept the light Jon had given her turned on and directed at the floor in front of them as they retraced their way up and through the darkness. "If the Agrii all left this world when everything started happening, did the Graq leave too? Or did they leave before?" She wasn't sure that they had those answers either, but she was more or less speaking her thoughts at that point.

"That's a very good question." Jon sighs as they step out of the dark tunnel and back into the first dark room they have found. Remembering where the buttons are has been simple enough and the mechanism hasn't been set up to keep anyone trapped down there.

The air is warm back up here, at least, but they may still be better off to return to their little base and set up something hot for them to drink.

"The Graq we met were unfamiliar with space travel and even the Agrii up on the ship haven't really lived in Temba. They do however believe this to be their home planet." And the Graq may have been thinking that as well. "Let's head back to Frank for now. I want to know what is written on these rocks."

The glow got distinctly harder to see as they approached the light and started to climb the staircase that had brought them down to the sealed basement. With a glance behind them, Tony could still see their dripped trail, softly luminescent, in that oppressively dark room and hesitated a few steps behind the others, wondering if this was a way to track intruders to a restricted place, like dye packs on a thief. When he glanced up toward the ceiling, like he had so many times in Temba, searching for the cameras he knew watched them, he noticed instead how much further ahead Jon and Omega had made it and went bounding after them.

"I'm not sure how much that kind of question matters," Tony said to Omega as he caught up. "When something happened, before or after or whatever. Time is being controlled as well, it's a dimension that we can't consider as rigidly linear. Jon is from the same place as me..." More or less, it was reasonable to assume all Earths occupied the same space, and Tony took his chance then to sidle up behind Jon again and nudge a ghost of a kiss behind his ear to his wet hair while Omega was navigating the stairs, "But he's from the future. He's seen days on Earth that I won't experience for years."

At least as things got warmer, having wet clothes was slightly more bearable. Slightly. It was still no fun walking around with cold wet boots and having your clothing cling to you. Omega nodded as she listened to the two while they continued onward. She could agree that she was just as curious about what was on those stones they'd found, even if it might not make as much sense to her as the others.

Even though the whole matter of time differences wasn't new to her, it was still such a strange thing to consider. The girl scrunched up her face a bit as she tried to understand it. "So...will my brothers know that I'm gone?" she asked carefully. "Does anyone know we're gone?" If enough people go missing here and there, wouldn't it affect...something? Maybe not so greatly when people are spread in a galaxy, but worlds were more confined.

There is something to Tony's words combined with Omega's question that has Jon remain silent for a few more moments than necessary before looking over his shoulder and up at Tony's glowing form to catch his eyes for the moment that follows. He lets that moment pass before looking back over to Omega and shaking his head. "No. No one knows we are missing. Somehow time stops and moves on at the same time. When- When I was back... On my Earth... I haven't missed a single day of work." He hasn't missed the apocalypse. "Now I'm back here. Where... Surprisingly little time has passed while I was hiking across the UK for six months."

As Jon retells this, his hand has drifted behind him to find and take Tony's. Just a minor gesture to make sure the man is still present.

Tony didn't think it was that simple, but in the time it took him to try to work through that nuance, head tilted back and hand twisting in the air to construct a digestible theory of time travel for someone in elementary school, Jon had looked back to get his attention. Tony raised his eyebrows, not sure what Jon was trying to communicate this time, but tried a smile of encouragement anyway. It was only when Jon reached for his hand that Tony realized the edge he had balanced them on, between dimensions and feeling like ghosts haunting both.

"Time stops and moves on at the same time sounds about right," he ventured, trying to ascertain which was more upsetting for Omega, her disappearance not being noticed or her brothers worrying about her. "I can't buy that the world stops turning without us, so your brothers are probably looking for you right now, and maybe they're already on their way. But Jon's not the only one that's gone home and come back, and--it'll be like you blinked, no matter how long you've been here. You'll be exactly where they left you." And exactly how, so Tony squeezed Jon back briefly before he continued. "I know they must be looking, because if you leave here, the friends you made will be looking for you, too, and missing you, and hoping that you're happy, and if we're lucky we'll see each other again, and it'll kind of be like blinking anyway, only you might have a few more grey hairs." Clearing his throat, Tony waved his free hand loftily to point out, "I won't, I'm exquisite."

She wasn't sure what to make of the quiet that followed her question. It certainly didn't make her feel any better about the possibilities. When Jon said otherwise, it was like a weight was being lifted from her shoulders, if only just.

Tony's input made more sense, or at least what could be made any sense of when you were talking about possibilities that would have never come to mind under ordinary circumstances. It left her no more certain about things than she'd been, but Omega nodded a little as she digested this information. And still she had to smile a tiny bit as she looked back at Tony with his last said.

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Oh Where Could He Be?

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