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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It was rare enough that anyone could be heard calling out anywhere on this planet, so few of them spread out as they were and even more so in this unforgiving city. It was downright strange that anyone would be calling Tony's name. At first, he processed and dismissed it as some rhythmic bird call, pitched high and tight, but it became much harder to ignore when the bird very distinctly asked a question.

Tony wrinkled his nose, then slowly looked up from where he was bent over the broken data point to consider the foliage around him. It didn't seem wise to immediately move from where he was perched, legs crossed, on the edge of the fountain, in case this was some predator trying to lure him out, so he otherwise froze with a shard of the data point in one hand, the other still raised with a fine screwdriver poised. When the call came again, Tony turned his head, pinpointing the unfamiliar voice finally back toward the direction of the hospital. Maybe something had happened to someone, something that could change their voice, and they needed help. Enough people knew he'd be nearby, after all. Abruptly, Tony dropped everything he had gathered into the front of the silken shirt he had found in that big warehouse, pulling up the hem to go jogging toward the voice with a rattling pouch that he hugged against his stomach.

And so his approach came in a rush, and a jangle of metal and glass that crashed through the leaves and a very not mothcat like demand, "I'm close, one more time."

No, definitely not the sound of an overly playful mothcat. The strange sound had the girl pause, looking around uncertainly. She was also looking for a good place to hide when a voice called out unexpectedly, and startled, she froze as she considered her options.

"H-hello?" she called out again, this time more hesitantly. The voice hadn't sounded like anyone familiar to her, but she'd only met so many people. Not being alone while she was looking for her lost fuzzy friend didn't sound like such a bad thing.

"I'm over here!"

That was definitely not the voice of anyone Tony knew in Temba, unless the tragic accident that had befallen them in this alien city had also given them a new accent. Was it someone he knew outside of Temba? And if so, how did they know to call for him? Frozen again in an incredible moment of panic, Tony had to very quickly consider and then also compartmentalize that the systems the Agrii were using to bring them here were capable of bringing multiple different version from other dimensions across time, and maybe this city already had a Tony in it who had gone through this same torture and these people were still here...!

That anxiety spiral was going to have to happen later. Tony had to reboot himself, tipping his head again like he was tuning to that signal to follow it to its source, working more carefully around the plants now that he had to fine tune his direction closer to the voice. That didn't make him much harder to track, still rattling his tools in the pocket of his shirt, so his arrival wasn't entirely unannounced as he rounded a thick tree trunk and ventured, "Uh, hi." Now that he was here, sure he had triangulated himself close to the call and hoping he could lure them the rest of the way, and had found a myriad of reasons to panic on his way, Tony had no idea to what degree he should actually be panicking. It left him searching for words, and eventually he produced a very ginger, "Are you...okay?"

Completely unaware of the crisis that Tony (the human) was having, Omega looked around, trying to figure out which direction he was coming from. The sounds were getting louder, whatever odd thing made such a racket, but the voice hadn't sounded like a droid's so it couldn't be mechanical.

Finally the noise focused into a more definite direction, and cautiously the girl made her way towards the massive tree she'd thought the awkward greeting had come. "...I'm fine," she said, a hand placed on the tree trunk as she stepped around it, wondering if she'd ever find the other end. "I didn't mean to come here, but I guess I'm stuck for now."

Her words grew louder as she neared Tony's position, finally coming into view, probably not at all what he expected, but then she didn't know what to expect either.

As they both rounded the tree and Tony was finally confronted with his crisis, he had to pause once again, brow furrowed in confusion then slowly raising in surprise and a generally bewildered attempt at open compassion for whatever was happening here. Outside of specifically being called, that was its own issue, he had just discovered what appeared to be a child wandering around in the abandoned forest-city on her own, calling for help. What she got was a tall man, staring at her and holding his shirt folded over against his stomach and clearly laden with whatever was making that racket, like a mechanical kangaroo.

"That about sums it up, huh," Tony replied, because she could have very well been talking about not-Temba, or the general experience of being stuck on this planet without warning. "Did you...I mean--you were looking for me?" he tried then, frustrated by his own imbalance in this situation but forcing himself to disengage from the tree to saunter more naturally where he could see more of her. She didn't look like the kind of thing that Temba had otherwise made him imagine.

She probably wasn't even in her teens, some several years shy of them. She looked like she was wearing some kind of uniform for how color coordinated her tunic and pants were. That probably wasn't camping gear strapped to her back. Now that she had a better look at him, the girl still wasn't sure what to make of the man and his makeshift pouch.

"I... no?" she replied, looking confused at that. "I was looking for...well, he's small- and not exactly a person," she tried to explain, shaping something small and vaguely loaf-shaped in the air between her hands. "I'm not sure what sort of creature he is- but he can fly. And he's got little antenna like this.." She brings her hands up, fingers pointing outwards like horns or rabbit ears of some sort.

Having no way to anticipate this answer, Tony went, "Ah--...oh," at her pantomime, lip raising at the pantomime of antenna on this flying thing that this kid made seem too big to be the kind of bug Tony would want to meet. "It really sounded like you were saying..." And, okay, it wasn't like he was the only person named Tony in the known universe, and he probably wouldn't turn around if someone had been calling the name in Times Square. Probably. Maybe. Bad example. But it immediately felt to Tony that it was more likely that someone was messing with him, and he glanced around suspiciously at what might be effecting the acoustics of this area to make him think he had heard his name, before actually offering, "Tony," with his free hand to his chest.

It didn't seem like the man was at all familiar with what she was trying to describe, and it wasn't like she had the knowledge to really explain in any better detail. Still, she couldn't help but look a little disappointed at Tony's response, although her confusion once again took precedence as he verbally meandered through his thoughts.

And then came the introduction, which suddenly made things come into focus. Her mouth formed an 'o' in understanding as she began to nod. "That's your name?" she asked, just to make sure. "I can see how that might've...been strange." Random kid calling out your name in the middle of a big abandoned city? Definitely unusual.

"Um. I'm Omega," she said, accents and all.

This was already, easily the most awkward interaction Tony had experienced with a kid in a very long time, so he very deliberately had to diffuse the surprise that was evident in his expression at her name before he made it any weirder. After all, it wasn't the first odd name he had heard in his life. This conscious choice did not stop him from asking, "Lots of siblings then?," before quickly flapping it away with a small shake of his head, terrible joke, don't worry about it. "It is my pleasure, Omega," he corrected, and offered to take her hand with a small bow that sent a pair of tweezers tumbling from his haphazard pouch. "You can call me any time."

A quick smile twitched at the corner of her lips but didn't stick. "You could say that," she said, trying not to get caught up in that all too familiar wave of loneliness in missing her brothers. She looked at the hand Tony held out to her, the bow he paired with it making a faint smile ease more into place as she reached out with her own hand. Her eyes flicked towards the falling object that surely spoiled any real attempt to make the gesture a regal one on the man's part, but it still served to cheer her up. "Thanks, Tony." It's a little weird saying it to him when she's gotten used to calling a little mothcat the same name.

"Can you help me find my little friend? He must be scared and lost here."

Meanwhile, a young mothcat completely oblivious to the concept of being lost was gliding along looking for fun things to play with or shiny things to divebomb. A certain Archivist would perhaps hear a familiar prrrp! in his vicinity.

Meanwhile, a certain Archivist is, yet again, crouching over that hemispherical piece of stone, trying to figure out something new about the inscriptions and their potential meaning. Along with Tony he has set up camp in the library of this city and Tony has made good work at making the place a comparably safe place to sleep in. The green creature they have encountered on their first day has turned out to apparently be living in that garden and has taken on the habit of lingering about and observing them.

Just as it is doing right now, hanging upside-down at the trunk of a large tree near Jon, watching the Archivist almost thoughtfully while treating itself to tongue after tongue full of the bugs and other small creatures that are very plentiful in this garden. At least it hasn't tried to get more skin of either Jon or Tony and it has been agreed to leave the animal be.

The prrrp! reaches Jon's ears just as he notices something about the stone and looks up in bewilderment at the familiar noise, only to see a young mothcat flutter his way. Next to him, the large green reptile also lifts its head, eyes rolling forward at the approaching, very much snack-sized feline. It slowly opens its mouth, readying its tongue to lash out the moment the mothcat comes within reach- Only to get an elbow against its neck and a stern look from the Archivist. "Frank, no!"

Frank instantly closes its mouth and slowly turns its entire head to look up at Jon. The head stays that way, but its eyes start drifting in other directions, one back to watch the mothkitten, the other down to where its source of approved snack remain present.

When the sticky tongue darts out again, it goes for the bugs.

Leaving the strange creature to it, Jon heads forward to meet the fluttering feline, which clearly recognizes him and is on his head and shoulders right away, purring and pawing for his glasses. "What are you doing here?!" Jon asks the animal, reaching up to pick it up and keep it from flying away again. "You shouldn't be here, you know that? It's dangerous here. Even Frank wanted to eat you!"

He is half muttering to himself, half berating the mothcat in his arm as he makes his way back outside where he knows Tony has been working on the broken data point.

"Tony! Have you seen-" But Tony isn't outside any longer. Jon frowns and casts a look around, scanning the area. Of course Tony would vanish in the most inopportune moment. Cursing slightly to himself, Jon focuses. Yes, Tony wouldn't agree on him using his powers to simply know his whereabouts, but clearly this is an emergency.

And so, not long after, a certain Archivist is walking up to Tony and his new friend, napping mothkitten secured against his shoulder. "Tony! We have a problem!"

They hadn't gotten far. Omega's request a very easy one to agree to but not a particularly easy one to realize. Finding something smaller than a breadbox in a rain forest had its own difficulties, before introducing mobility to the thing, the sheer amount of vertical space the buildings around them provided compounding the problem, and the simple matter than Tony attempted calling his own name a total of once and had to develop some other ways to lure a Little Friend without knowing at all what he would respond to. Clicking his tongue didn't feel profoundly less humiliating, but Tony was still working on a more methodical plan of action for finding this needle in a haystack. It was about when Tony proposed, "Do you know what he eats? What his favourite music is...?" to try to narrow down their field that he heard the approach.

At least he knew that voice calling his name, but with a sidelong look to Omega he replied, "You're going to have to be more specific. About the Tony and the problem." By then, Tony was once again being bewildered by a new appearance of yet another animal committing itself to Jon, and he raised his free hand, eyes darting between Jon's and the fuzzy head, with the question that some researcher could write a whole paper on at this point. Did Jon have some kind of pheromones? If it got any worse, they were going to have to concoct that perfume that Drew used to suppress hers.

Omega, while glad to have the company and the assistance, was a little frustrated about being unable to provide further insight on exactly how they'd find the little Tony-thing. She frowned, not exactly all that familiar with him save for what she'd observed when he wasn't blowing her cover. "He likes shiny things?" she hopefully, as though this would narrow things down.

Another voice called out Tony's ever growingly popular name, and Omega looked over, brightening immediately as she began to run off towards the Archivist and the little troublemaker.

Tony! Jon shouted, and the little thing mewed.

"Tony!" Omega shouted, and once again the mothcat meowed.

Initially Jon would have thought that the mothcat only reacts to his voice or the shouting in general, but when it reacts a second time, he stops and raises a brow down at the feline, lets his bewildered look wander to the unfamiliar girl and from there over to Tony. "...please don't tell me someone trained the mothcats to react to your name." Because that just might lead to some awkward moments.

Jon sets that thought aside for the moment and proceeds towards the girl and Tony, nodding at her, but his words remain addressed to Tony. "I have no idea how he got here, but I don't like that he is here." He pauses. "Frank wanted to eat him."

This was too many revelations at once for Tony (the one without feathers), making him raise his free hand to stop the assault, eyes closed to process some of it while Omega went to reunite with her friend. The one that she called Tony, and had made his way here on the train, presumably, and Tony did recognize now that he was wiggling around with all of the excitement. With his cautioning hand, he abruptly pointed emphatically to correct, "That's Burps When You Touch His Tail." Tony, that didn't even mean anything, that was a terrible archiving system when there were so many mothkittens to worry about. "Go ahead, try it," he encouraged, then threw Jon a slightly helpless look over Omega's head, because he didn't know too much more about this situation than Jon did. What he did know, he quickly provided, "And this is Omega. I don't know what makes her burp, but we could try shaking her."

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."

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Oh Where Could He Be?

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