revivalproject | Quake (volume iii)

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Quake (volume iii)

WHO: Anyone downtown Temba! You don't have to have been part of the last two chapters to come see what's going on. If your character DID solve (or get close to) the Mystery of the...Weird Thing, you can send me or

deal_me_in a message to work out any fun details.
WHERE: Near the fountain area of Temba
WHAT: Another strange earthquake strikes, and some mysteries are uncovered
WHEN: An early November evening
WARNINGS: I'll let you know if anything comes up.

The disturbances in the city since the overbearing eye winked shut had been mild. An occasional crumble of a building on the edge of collapse as a skittering animal went darting through it, a strong wind some afternoons that sent swirls of fallen leaves dancing through the empty streets, and maybe the sporadic shout and laugh as Temba's isolated residents were brought together. The rattle of the train rolling into the station now that it was active again was regularly the loudest sound during the day, a low rumble of its weight making the ground shudder until it sighed to its brief stop or disappeared once again into the tunnel. Nearby, the quicksand that had swallowed whole trees seemed to have been sated, its relentless hunger slowing and eventually stopping to form a strangely barren, but solid patch of the dark forest floor, where new growth was already starting to venture and the falling leaves started to gather.

When the next rumble struck, it rattled the heart of the city just as the sun was setting. The water of the fountain jumped with it, sending chaotic ripples that splashed puddles around the stonework. It didn't last long, just long enough to make the remaining windows in the town square shudder in their frames like a close peal of thunder, but it must have been strong. Strong enough to slough a rough chunk of wall off of the side of the livestock nursery. It was big, and seemed to only be getting bigger as it rolled to the side, dragging a pit of ground open in its wake that left the road cracked and a churn of soft, dark earth falling steadily inward to the uncovered hole. And it kept moving, lurching upward suddenly in a shower of debris, dirt and accumulated pebbles and the fall leaves scattering around it, and it blinked. First one eye open, then the other, before it started to move, lumbering slowly and softly with the rocking trundle of the weighty shell of stone it carried tipping side to side, making its way toward the water. It was hard to miss, the shell itself at least ten feet wide, though it blended easily in with the stonework as it crouched by the fountain and began to drink, looking like this mound of rocks had been there all along.

Across the square, Tony stood in a doorway of Lauri-Ell's gym, paint still slightly damp on his fingers and smeared on his jaw, drawn out by the sound but stricken with surprise as he saw what looked to him like the road moving. "Lauri, sweetheart...?" he tried calling very sweetly over his shoulder without taking his eyes off of the thing, hoping she was actually close after spending the last half hour glad he had managed to sneak in.

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The girl nodded a little, and while not completely convinced she supposed that they were fair possibilities that Tony offered. Personally she wanted to think that the big creature had followed Tony back because it was just funny.

"It's kind of cute, isn't it?" She gave the big tusk a pat, stooping down to try peeking under its rocky shell for its face. Hermit crab? She wasn't familiar with the creature so she assumed it was something from wherever Tony was from as she glanced back at the man. "Tommy? Maybe."

'Cute' would not be the way Tony described a big rock with teeth, and he considered Omega's assessment with a raised lip, gaze darting between the pair to make sure they were both seeing the same thing, and only belatedly tried for an unconvincing, supportive nod. Kids liked such weird stuff. The creature blinked blearily back at Omega from its protective shadow, its big eye unfocused.

"You know what, that sounds like a great odd couple," Tony said, wondering out the speedster would take to this big, lumbering turtle. "Let's try to get it in with the glownies, at least. Maybe it'll take, and Tommy can take care of it." Tony crouched and gave both hands a wave where he thought the thing could see them under the curve of the rock to try to regain its attention, but it made no move to respond.

Tony would probably have objections to Omega's opinion on little rancors too. The girl edged around the big boulder creature after offering another pat on its tusk. She turned her head to watch as Tony tried getting the creature's attention, hiding a smile behind her hand.

"Maybe it needs to rest? I'm not sure where it moved from. I wonder what it eats?" she mused, resuming her exploration of the big beast's exterior. She eyed the rocky mound.

"We don't have to get it far, just figure out how to fit it through the door..." Tony argued, like Omega might be correct and he was trying to convince this sleepy animal. "And then it can eat all the glownies it can catch." Which didn't seem like many, honestly, based on the way it moved so far, so Tony doubted glownies made up a significant portion of its diet.

His next attempt was to get back to his feet then cautiously put a hand on one big tusk like Omega had done, sure it wouldn't work out nearly so well for him. The animal sniffed, but didn't seem to mind, so Tony tried a second hand to wrap around the big tooth and give an experimental pull. It sniffed again, and sighed.

Omega cast a concerned look at the suggestion of letting this thing feast on glownies, but she really couldn't imagine it doing so. -or rather she didn't want to. Quickly turning her head back towards its rocky back, she placed her hands on one of the lower outcroppings. Would it get up again if she started to climb onto it?

With Tony busy trying to haul the creature through brute strength or some attempt at physical guidance, Omega began to hoist herself up, finding some footholds to plant her boots.

Between them, they appeared to have some kind of effect on the creature. It sighed again, more forcefully, and started to rock from side to side as it got its back feet under it again, tipping its big rock shell forward. While Tony looked to Omega with some panic, not eager to have the creature give a repeat performance of the stomping circle, he only went, "Uh...hang on...?" Getting it to move was the goal right now, after all. He tried another, emboldened tug at the tusk, heels digging in to try to guide it forward.

Omega looked much less panicked about the outcome, meeting Tony's glance with an eager smile. She considered the situation and then looked for more ideal places to grab onto as she started to try climbing around towards the front of the bulk of rocks.

"That's it, now keep going this way," she said encouragingly, not that she expected the creature to understand, but that never stopped kids from talking to animals.

It evidently didn't understand either attempt at communication, as it continued to teeter its weight back and forth on its back feet but resisted Tony's pulling with its head still withdrawn and finally expressed itself with a kind of lowing sound. This unnerved Tony enough that he slowly released the tusk, not about to encourage this thing to headbutt him if that was what it was trying to tell him, only for it to abruptly do just that as he started to take a hesitant step back. Tony went, "Uff!" as the air was knocked out of him with the animal's nose in his gut, and it tipped its head back to pick him up off of the ground as it finally came properly out of its shell and back onto all four feet. Tony had to find a grip on the snout that he dangled off of as it started its lumbering forward, complaining, "I thought we were asking nicely!"

The sound coming from below made Omega pause to look down, bracing herself for any sudden movement. She winced even though she mostly heard Tony's reaction than seen what had happened. "Tony? You all right?" she called.

Hearing his complaints were as good a response as any, she supposed. With them all moving onward, she clung to the creature's rocky back so she wouldn't go tumbling off.

"Great," Tony grumbled in return, no way to play cool until he had solved this very undignified position. In the meantime, while getting moving was good, the beast was making its rumbling way in the opposite of Tony's intended direction and heading back the way Tony had come from, toward Lauri-Ell's gym and the mess of paint he had left there. He tried to correct course with a flail of a leg in the vague direction he thought the pen of glownies was, clicking his tongue and trying to instruct, "Uh-uh, thattaway," while simultaneously trying to climb up further onto the animal's face so his butt wasn't hanging off the end of its nose.

His success with at least one of those goals came with a sigh of relief as he settled into a less demeaning, though potentially no less embarrassing position straddling the scaly snout like a horse, hanging onto one of its big tusks. "Have you found the steering wheel yet?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Mmmnegative," Omega reported as she tried to figure out how to coerce the big creature into going the way they wanted it to. At least now she could see Tony, so that was one less worry.

Looking back at the rocks she clung to, she tried to move along them to its other side again, wondering if she was just too light for the creature to be bothered by her clambering around on top of it. Her fingers brushed something other than moss and rock, drawing her attention briefly from the current dilemma.

The pace was leisurely enough that Omega considered other options to getting the creature's attention. She looked down at the ground, slowly easing her way lower along the side of the beast before dropping down from it.

At least they weren't going anywhere fast, because at this rate they were going to end up at the beach. "Maybe we can lure it with a snack, or a girlfriend," he mused. This clearly wasn't working, they were just going for a ride despite the tugging that Tony was trying to do to the animal's face. He craned around to try to see what Omega was doing, only to spot her hit the ground and feel the animal roll to a shuddering stop, stamping the ground restlessly again. Tony raised his eyebrows inquisitively, and tried to turn more to look the thing in the eye, but it kind of looked like it was asleep on its feet. "Hey, come on, we were making progress..." he said, trying to give a pat between those heavy-lidded eyes to get this working again.

The landing wasn't the most graceful but at least she'd stuck it rather than faceplant. She turned about and blinked as the creature had stopped, looking inquisitively at Tony. "Why did it..?" Well, it wasn't responding to Tony, but it had responded to something.

"Hm," Omega considered as she watched the creature stomp in place. She took a few steps to the side before stamping her own feet on the ground.

None of them seemed to know what to do with this gesture at first, both the animal and Tony staring at Omega's performance for a beat in which Tony's nose slowly wrinkled with concern that he was witnessing Omega's turn into what this planet's version of a horse girl was. He didn't know how sustainable that kind of fixation could be. By the time he start to say, "Uh--...," though, the animal started to move again, laboriously turning its heavy body toward Omega's little stamping feet. Was that a good thing? Tony did not look sure, frowning at Omega with concern and hanging on to the tusk again like he thought he might be able to haul the animal's face back from snapping.

In contrast to Tony's frowning, Omega's face lit up with a smile. She turned, looking in the direction they'd meant to have the big creature head. Taking a few steps that way, she stomped her feet again.

"That's right, this way," she said, watching expectantly. If it was redirecting itself, maybe it would follow her. She just had to lead it. A few steps, a couple stomps in emphasis, rinse and repeat.

Now Tony felt particularly foolish riding this big creature while it toddled after Omega and her stomping. It wasn't particularly graceful, either, leaving Tony hanging onto the tusk to keep from sliding off and onto his ass yet again as it navigated corners and carelessly stamped down on smaller obstructions to crush underfoot with a heave of its huge shell. "This feels like a circus act," he complained eventually, "We should be charging people to witness this. If you tell anyone about it, though, I will lock you in the animal pen with this thing, you'll have to learn to speak its language if you want to tell someone stories."

Omega laughed. She hadn't given it too much thought until Tony brought it up, and now she could see just how silly he looked hanging on there. "Aw, but I think it likes you. At least all its shaking everything up hasn't brought everyone in the city out here." Then Tony would have his audience!

"I think...it's following the noise. No- the...shaking? Not that it's much, but it responds more to when I hit the ground harder than when I'm walking like this." At least now she could see where the glownie pen was. "-what if it frightens them?"

"I'm irresistible," Tony continued complaining, not exactly managing the playboy smirk he was aiming for under his pout. Omega's was right about the disturbance attracting an audience, though, so Tony had to start moving before his luck ran out. He tried wrapping both arms around the tusk for balance as he slipped off the side of the animal's snout, searching for the ground and enough footing to get clear of the trundling beast before he could risk letting go. Meanwhile, "Like a mole...?" he considered with a grunt as Omega tried to explain her theory. A mole would probably be more scared of the stomping, but a mole was also a reasonable size.

When Tony did drop, it was with a hasty skip off to the side so the creature's shell didn't come crashing into him, making its steps slow and its head swing inquisitively after Tony with a sniff at the air. "I'm still here, look, okay," Tony assured it with a frown, coming up around to Omega to keep its attention forward and following the girl. "What, the glownies? They'll be fine. They put up with us every day, and we're not even from here." Which was a pretty big assumption to make, and after a beat of thoughtfully walking backwards, one hand still on the animal's nose, Tony wondered, "Do you think it's from here?"

It was hard to draw comparisons when Omega knew very little of animals on any given planet to consider. Thus the look she gave Tony along with a shrug. It sounded like Tony knew what she was getting at, so she could only assume a mole was the most apt subject to compare to.

She giggled a little as the man made his dismount, starting along again with a skip in her step to purposely give her added boost for when she brought her feet down for a stomp. "I'm not sure where else it'd be from. You said you saw it in the woods, right? Oh-" The girl held out a folded piece of paper, a faint spade sketched on a corner. "I found this in one of the cracks," she said, pointing at the creature's back.

"I mean, it also saw me in the woods..." Tony mused, free hand out to twirl through what was an admittedly half-formed thought. Following it to its logical conclusion might mean that there were all kinds of sentient but perhaps not sapient creatures arriving and following their instincts to hide in the wilderness around them. Jesus. Tony was still considering this with a wrinkle of his nose as he absently accepted the page, not really processing that Omega had told him that the animal came with a tag, or maybe was delivering mail, until he was actually looking at it.

"What, there?" he had to clarify with some disbelief then, gesturing to the rock with the page himself and looking very suspiciously at Omega as he unfolded it with a flick.

"Which was why it could have followed you," Omega prompted, leaning down a bit to catch a glimpse of their new friend's face as they continued to lead it onwards.

She nodded. "Uh-huh, while I was climbing around," she said. "What should we name him? Or do you think it's a her?" Clearly she was focused on more important things.

The penciled cursive was undoubtedly familiar, including a couple of name drops to confirm suspicions if there had even been any doubts. The paper was already telling some age, its corners discolored from where it had been most exposed to the elements.

Irritably, Tony started to argue, "It didn't--!" before he realized arguing with a child was not how he was going to spent his time and just sighed like he had been viciously attacked. His eye was already on the discovered letter anyway, and Omega's cruel treatment was quickly forgotten as Tony realized what he was looking at. "Cayde...?" he wondered vaguely, though looking to Omega wasn't going to fill in any of the blanks for him. It did, however, let him repeat with more confidence, "Cayde. Sounds like a good name for a big rock." And they might as well put a label on it to let people know who the true culprit for its presence was.

She wasn't being cruel, she was theorizing! Not that she'd figured Tony would take it so personally, setting a hand on their big friend's leading tusk as they came to the pen. It wasn't going to fit through the gate, that much was for sure.

"Isn't that your friend's name?" she asked, glancing over at Tony with an arched brow and a faintly amused smile. She pats the tusk-thing. "Is this good enough a space? Not in the way of anyone, at least..."

The creature dutifully rocked to a stop, giving another sniff at each of them before a another stomp of its own now that Omega had stopped being so stompy for the both of them. It was very accommodating when no one was climbing on it, Tony had to admit. "Of course not!" he insisted, clutching the letter to his honest heart which would never name an animal after a respected friend, as though Omega must have been misremembering the name right up until he said, "I don't have any friends." He gave a decisive pat to the rock-beast's nose with a private smile, evidently christening it.

Considering the pen over his shoulder with a faint frown for the gate problem that needed solving, he replied in an unconvincingly high pitched voice, "Yeah. Sure." They didn't know it wasn't a good space. It was good enough for the glownies, so it couldn't have been terrible. "Plenty of room to wander around. Water every day. Someone will figure out what it eats eventually. Keep it out of trouble." The first step was unlatching the gate and swinging it away, into the pen, which very rudely did not reveal a larger portal than it had suggested while closed. Tony still looking between it and the animal hopefully, as though he could calculate a viable angle of entry until he abandoned this thought to give the post that the gate latched onto to close a good yank. Maybe they could just...move it.

That declaration got a pout from Omega, even if it was just Tony being Tony. She stepped away from their new boulder friend to have a look at the pen itself, looking from the opening and back now that the problem was verified.

"I don't think the fence would hold it anyway," she said as she tilted her head back at Tony. It probably wouldn't even notice it.

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Quake (volume iii)

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