revivalproject | When the World Holds Its Breath

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When the World Holds Its Breath

WHO: Cal Kestis, BD-1 and you?
WHERE: Temba
WHAT: The storms, he does not miss.
WHEN: Event duration
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: Will go with tag prefs.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

He'd sensed something, a nameless foreboding that he could only hope to brace against, yet deep down knowing it wouldn't be enough. The quiet was too quiet. The peace was anything but- but in a place like this was it ever really peace?

And then the bottom finally dropped, that stifling feeling of being cut off from the Force threatening to prompt panic. But he's been through this before. Others haven't. It's that thought that Cal clings to, as tightly as the little droid dangling behind him clings to his harness.

"You're going to have to be my eyes again, BeeDee. Keep me grounded," he says. The droid gives him a solemn hoot in acknowledgment of his duty.

i. Where are you going? Is your character seeing things?

ii. Where have you been? Cut-to being found and seeking out shelter. But watch out for them projections! Will it hit you or Cal? What happens next?!

iii. Cover your ears! The moon is screaming and this Jedi's psychometry's on the fritz! Does he catch a glimpse of your past? Check here for deets!

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The uncomfortable, echoing quiet came first, though the extent of it was not yet evident to Tony as he sat at the workbench, busy hands suddenly stilling as he was struck by the increasingly familiar numbness of a dulled sense. Recently, it tended to come with a static like an itch down his spine, and without that sensation he was left narrowing his eyes inquisitively, then touching the back of his neck like he could search for the source of the problem when Extremis didn't respond. Was Jon about to walk through the door again in some new, cold fury?

Without the appearance of the Archivist, Tony fumbled his communicator out of his pocket, feeling sluggish and clumsy already, only to find it cold and blank as well. As was the D.A.T.A. unit, still cracked down one side, but had been blinking up at him as he worked at its repairs, and now didn't raise a curious limb as Tony attempted a wakeful prod. Something wrong with the network then. That wouldn't do.

It was even quieter outside, away from the constant crackle of the fire, and where the chill of Tony's breath seemed to feed into the envelope of fog gathering thick around his shoulders. He frowned, hugging himself against a cold that ran deeper than his skin, and started up the road in a mournful jangle of the tools looped around his waist. This was going to be a long walk without the Iron Man to rely on.

"Hey, Red," and a single knock was the only warning Tony gave at the door to Cal's shop, letting himself in without waiting for an answer, eager to be out of the fog that felt like it was pressing into his ears and leaving his brain empty. "Something's up with the power, get your pants on."

The greeting he'd get wasn't exactly a greeting, and as Tony found Cal on approach towards the door once he'd stepped inside, he'd probably note that the Jedi looked a lot more startled to find someone entering than he normally should. It took him a moment before he processed Tony's words, the reason for his coming by, and even then it was almost too casual thing.

"The power?" he said, realizing how dull he sounded by it but he immediately shook his head. "-I think we've got bigger things to worry about than the power."

This was actually Tony, right? Apparitions shouldn't be able to open doors, although leading you on a perilous chase was another thing entirely. Cal hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at BD-1, the droid tilting his head at him and then at Tony before hooting an affirmative for whatever reason.

She had arrived in a storm, or moments before it. And this was a worse one in her books. That one she had been able to seek good shelter in, even if her weapon had not worked. But this one? There have been ghosts, and they have not been kind.

Shelter had been her intention, seeking out the Community Center, or perhaps the ships, somewhere she could hole up and feel safe. But alas, in the deep fog she had gotten lost. Lost enough to feel turned around beyond the reasonable levels of her understanding of the city. No amount of patrolling daily had protected her from this, had seen her safe from being lost.

"Is anyone here?" she shouts, calling into the fog.

It's the brightness of Cal's hair that draws her toward him. That and the fact that he was not dressed as the projections were. This one, she hopes, is one of them. A He Row. Someone safe.

"Hello?"

The closer she gets the easier she'll make out the glow of indicator lights belonging to the little droid on his back. Cal turns towards the voice, BD-1 beeping as the Jedi starts towards the tall woman.

"Lauri-El, right?" he asks once he's a little closer to see her. Even with BD-1 confirming there's actually someone there, he errs on the side of caution, not particularly out of fear of Lauri-El but of whatever else the storm might bring. It's already been a strange one.

It wasn't so much Cal's surprise as the delayed reaction and echo that had Tony staring back at him, feeling like he had walked into the wrong building and intruded on a stranger. That fog had been disorienting. When he opened his mouth to answer, he stumbled, "Ah--," frown only deepening as Cal looked away for BD to...agree with him, like he needed a redundancy, then he glanced up at the ceiling at the grumble of thunder before he could actually say, "Yeah, sure, we all die some day and we probably all have some stuff to work out about our dads."

The thunder, the fog, the awful stillness, all of that was worth worrying about.

"But I can fix the power," Tony pointed out. At least, under normal circumstances. If this was all going to be a bigger problem, Tony would rather not have to deal with it blind, and would prefer if he could trust that there was somewhere well lit and warm for people to gather should these signals prove miserable.

"That's not-" he started, falling silent at the rumble of thunder overhead.

His concern had definitely been elsewhere, and with Tony insisting on there being a problem with the power, Cal wondered that it had been knocked out, or if it was just some byproduct of what was going on. He really couldn't be surprised if it were the latter.

"Tony, I'm cut off from the Force." If this was a storm it was a very strange one, so he went with what he knew for certain, grim as such a fact was difficult to admit.

It sounded like Cal was about to argue with him again, which Tony was already rapidly losing patience with because they could deal with whatever the next problem was better when he could just connect to the network again, so he responded to his own name by interrupting, "Cal," both hands up, then freezing.

Okay, sure, that did sound like a bigger problem. The actual scope of what the Force meant was still beyond Tony, but this was a problem at least as big as Tony not being able to text anymore, probably.

Hands slowly lowering, Tony led with, "Join the club," to try to relieve the pressure, because most of them got on fine without the Force, they could handle this, and they could fix it. That second part was more complex, and Tony tapped thoughtfully at his chin, gaze darting between Cal and BD with concern. "It's a storm," he finally had to acknowledge, another rumble answering him as though to confirm. More must have been coming.

Confirmation didn't make the situation any better, but Cal nodded. Better they get that realized sooner than later, especially if this storm carried along with it the usual unpleasantries of previous ones.

"If comms are down I don't know how possible it will be to fix them with a storm going on, but that means there's no easy way to warn everyone at once, and there's a lot of people who haven't gone through one before." Even with all the warnings they might have been given, nothing really properly prepared anyone for a storm. Cal thought of Merrin, brow knitting in concern. He needed to find her.

Still impatient, this time more distracted and processing, Tony interrupted again, "Not until we try," because they might have been thrown into chaos when the network had gone out previously, but this time it seemed like they might have had a shot at repairs. It wasn't so bad outside the door, after all, just...unsettling, and if that wasn't going to last, this wasn't time to waste being immobilized by pessimism.

"Come on, we've got a few braincells between us, we can do two things at once," Tony instructed, tossing his head for Cal to get himself together and follow back out into the fog. "We make our way to the hangar, knocking on doors, make sure everyone's secure, recruit them to get a headcount in, and get any systems back online that we can. If we can get a ship in the air, problem solved, ground covered..." They did still have an obstacle to deal with once they got there, making Tony mutter, "...dammit, Poe...," but there were a handful of people that stayed with the ships. With any luck, one of them knew how to get them off the ground.

Tony was right, and it was better than not doing anything. Cal drew himself up with a nod, making sure he had his lightsaber at his side as he started after. It wasn't as though he hadn't meant to go outside already. And at least with Tony here that was one less person he needed to worry about.

"One thing at a time. Let's see who else is out there then," he said. "I know the ships shorted out the last time we hit a storm, but the Agrii actually sent us out to investigate a possible source before, and we used the ships to go out that way." Trying to be positive here..! Maybe there was a chance they'd be functional again, after all. So far, things were merely uncomfortably still and foggy. Cal wasn't sure he was ready to say it was any better than the rains, however.

A list of things to do was technically one thing at a time, so while Tony frowned he didn't talk over Cal this time to rush him on. Maybe that was the fog, though, making him shrink cautiously as they started back down the road, wrapping himself in a hug again against the dampness of it and scowling faintly at its unfamiliar stillness.

"What--they had a lead?" he asked, having not heard of this ship-venture before. It sounded like there could be some useful information that hadn't reached him yet. "Or did they just want to get you out of the city again?" That seemed to be a pattern.

Cal shook his head, walking alongside Tony. Dimmed in the fog, BD-1's lights blinked and shifted as the little droid moved around behind Cal, using his grip on the harness of the Jedi's vest to go from one side to the other.

"They detected a building storm before it reached Temba. I guess they figured it would be a good opportunity to seek out the cause, and that was well before anyone had any better ideas as to what they were about. I think it was the first storm anyone had experienced. It was definitely mine, and I hadn't arrived all that long before it." There wasn't much he had to go on from anyone at the time, now that he thought about it.

"...Poe was the one that took us out," he said quietly. So many of the people he'd met back then were gone now, weren't they? It was a little sobering to think about. "A few ships went out with whoever wanted to try investigating. Others stayed back here in Temba." He sighed. "It was bad out there. We were out in the mountains chasing ghosts and powerless. If BeeDee wasn't there I would have fallen off a cliff."

That wasn't significantly more enlightening than Tony was hoping for, mostly leaving him feeling bereft with a new chill that he couldn't hug out of himself, keeping his focus pointedly on the road. That must have been a long time ago, and they weren't any better at handling these storms now, only had lost more friends.

"Chasing ghosts and powerless, that's a theme," Tony pointed out, head tilted slightly and not feeling great about recognizing that particular pattern. All it really told him right now was that they had half of the equation already, and should be expecting the other to factor any moment. "You can't argue yourself out of something that's in your own head," he continued, apparently expecting Cal to follow the leap--if there are going to be ghosts, how do they fix that problem. "You need serenity. Accept the things that you cannot change. That takes practice, takes patience."

"It does," Cal agreed with a nod. "I was...in a much more vulnerable place at that point so it didn't help things." He'd come a long way since then. He liked to believe that if his master's image showed up again during such a storm, he would be ready. Or would there be something else found to prey upon?

"That advice sounds like something a Jedi master would say," he suggested with a bit of a grin, not that he wasn't being truthful. His smile faded just slightly. "I'm not sure what we were meant to find out there when we were sent out, but...it seemed like something was there. Getting near the eye of the storm made things worse, and it wasn't dealing with hallucinations. Something didn't want you there. I don't think anyone managed to find anything out because you'd physically feel unable to withstand being there."

At least that implied that Cal was in a less vulnerable place now, however he was measuring, so Tony eased his hug around himself enough to give a supportive grip to Cal's elbow for that work he had done. It dropped as Tony snorted and gave a proud lift of his chin for his Jedi master wisdom, the absolute model of one, it was about time Cal figured it out.

"Something is more than anything else we've got so far," Tony pointed out. Everything else that seemed to be some kind of lead fell through their fingers, like that radio tower, so until proved otherwise a 'something' was a positive step. "And if it's the eye of the storm...That moves. Listen, it's not a natural storm, sure, we can't make assumptions, but it does seem to function based on those patterns--it moves, it comes in and it blows out, so we might get another chance at the eye. Then it's a matter of being prepared. Serenity. And maybe a space suit."

Jedi Master Stark. Cal gave Tony an amused look at that. It improved the mood little enough, and if it weren't for that obvious absence of the Force that registered so prominently to him almost like a missing limb, it could have simply been a particularly dismal day.

"There's nothing natural about this, that's for sure. I don't know what to make of it, but it can't be good." And if there was a pattern, it was difficult to say. "It would definitely be easier to find its core from above. It's harder to do so when you're in it. Who knows how big this stretches..." He glanced out towards the nearest edge of the city, which was still a good ways out, wondering if they'd be able to get out of its zone of effect if they went far enough. But something else caught his eye, movement in the fog, and he looked frontwards again. "-is someone there?"

He had left Tony considering how exactly they could get above the storm if they couldn't rely on anyone's powers or electronics, tapping his chin and staring up at the grey sky with a thoughtful frown. The easiest answer was that the ships still worked in the storm, sometimes, but if they didn't...

Slower to react, Tony looked toward Cal first at the unexpected question, still walking a few steps until he followed Cal's gaze then slowed to a stop, nose wrinkled at the weird, hunched posture of the figure. It was coming toward them, Tony realized, and the noise it was making didn't sound human, making him flail a blind hand out for Cal again to drag him off of the road and into the nearest doorway, his heart suddenly in his throat.

Even BD-1 saw it, which made Cal less certain about what exactly it was they should expect. He tensed as he saw it start to pick up speed as it came at them, and he started towards Tony, feeling the man's hand grasp at him once he found something to hang on to. BD-1 beeped in panic, clinging tightly as they made a run for it.

"-what do you mean it's not registering?" The news didn't exactly sound good. Were they dealing with actual apparitions now?

"It's right there," was a pointless argument, Tony did logically know that, but he still snapped at BD like the droid could do anything about what he sensed. It did look strange, though, as Tony looked back towards it as if to confirm for himself, making him hesitate as he tried to parse why exactly it didn't look right; it was the way everything else was reacting to it, or more appropriately, wasn't reacting at all. No pebbles disturbed on the road, and no swirl of fog in its wake, like the puff of his own rapid breathing that he could see, or the way the cloud stirred around the fall of Cal's clothes.

And it was a person, despite the strangeness and those noises it was making, Tony realized now that it was so close, so shockingly fast for making no impact around it. One that he recognized, though in a nagging, abstract way, because he certainly didn't know this person--it wasn't anyone he had seen at the diner over breakfast. "What...?" he had started to say, but he had already hesitated too long and only had time to tighten his grip on Cal and start to roughly haul him out of the reckless path of this...thing.

It couldn't have actually been a person. It exploded, shattering into the fog and dissipating as it crashed into Cal, unbalancing Tony entirely in his surprise. He fell against the overgrown wall of the structure he had meant to shelter them in, still dragging at Cal.

It looked like a person, but Cal knew better than to discount BD-1's input. He'd started to notice the strangeness of the thing's passing as well, the lack of any sound aside from whatever that horrible noise was that seemed to be coming from it. Then Tony abruptly slowed, and he had to stop himself before he ended up plowing into the other. It was almost just as soon that Tony had started forward again, yanking Cal along, but not soon enough as the thing was suddenly right on top of them. He gasped, preparing for impact and suddenly finding himself no longer in the fog.

It was raining as they stepped out of the train, flanked by Stormtroopers and stranger, more dangerous looking troops armored in black with red visors. Cal was certain they could see him for what he was, but he forced himself to look away, following the other scrappers as they were led to stand single file while a pair of Imperial starships landed not far off.

Cal had stopped following Tony altogether, his gaze unfocused, but he looked tense, cautious as he stood there, looking off somewhere past Tony. Behind him BD-1 hooted inquiringly, but the kid was unresponsive.

Since Cal was still upright and seemed to be in one piece, it took Tony a beat to notice that coiled tension, reorienting himself and brushing down his clothes in case some of whatever that was had ended up on him in its burst, and muttering, "What the hell was that? That wasn't one of those--that looked like one of the people from the fair, no one told me they recognized any of them." That would have made the whole experience much creepier, and this didn't feel like the kind of ghost anyone felt any compulsion to chase. At least, Tony's instinct had been to run in the opposite direction.

It was only at BD's prompting that Tony properly assessed Cal, glancing between him and the droid as no answer came, lip slowly raising to share an inquisitive look with BD. "Cal, sweetheart, you still with me?" he tried, bringing his hands up slowly where Cal should have been able to see them before trying to take him by the shoulders, searching for any reaction in his eyes.

Two more figures in black armor disembarked from the ships and stepped over to address the line-up of scrappers. Cal averted his gaze, looking anywhere but straight ahead, as though trying to avoid eye-contact, even as Tony moved his hands within his range. The Imperials were bad news. He had no idea who they were, but they cut right to the chase in informing them that they came for a Jedi. It wasn't until the Second Sister stated that everyone would be executed if he was not surrendered that he looked up, fresh fear in his eyes.

BD-1 glanced from Cal to Tony, beeping worriedly. And then Cal moved, looking to the side as though at someone there, panic clear on his face as he reached out a hand as though to grasp at something- someone? Eventually he let it lower, still looking anxious, even as he slowly started to slip his hand back for the lightsaber hanging at his belt, as though not wanting to be noticed.

"Prauf..."

He watched his friend step boldly out from the others, half-terrified that he'd be sold out. His hand gripped his lightsaber even though he wasn't sure what his next steps would be. Fear continued to grip him as well, building as Prauf denounced the Empire. The Inquisitor stepped closer to him, igniting her red lightsaber almost casually, its blade punching right into Prauf's chest and out his back.

"No!" Cal shouted, and it could have been at Tony for he was all who was standing there in front of him. His eyes weren't looking at him, his mind elsewhere, else-when. He yanked his lightsaber free, almost clumsily- but then he hadn't dared draw it for the five years he'd been in hiding, the blue blade thrumming to life over his head.

To Tony, it looked as though Cal was avoiding his gaze and picking a very strange time to explore some untapped brattiness, making Tony frown irritably and raise his hands again where they hovered with an unspoken question. "It was moving fast, okay, I didn't know how to handle that," he argued, assuming this was coming out of some frustration for letting that thing hit Cal, which, sure, Tony deserved that, but Cal could at least yell at him about it.

It was only when Cal made that strange movement, looking scared and clearly just as unrecognizable to his constant companion, that it became unavoidable that Cal was clearly...somewhere else. "Hey, hey, hey," Tony tried again, louder this time, and snapped his fingers first by Cal's ear, then in front of his nose to try to get some reaction, ducking to try to stay in his line of sight. "This is not the time to take a vacation. We're in the middle of the street, I don't know when another one of those things is going to show up--"

That must have been the wrong move, because now Cal was yelling at him about it, and it wasn't nearly as satisfying as Tony was hoping. He retreated a startled step, then shrank back again toward the mossy cover with a hand out behind himself in the deadly flare of the light, searching for anything that might block a laser. He wasn't feeling optimistic. "Caliente, a little too hot now, time to cool it down," he suggested lightly, like they were even at the same table to negotiate.

BD-1 squealed in alarm, just as startled as Tony. Cal seemed desperate, afraid and angry all at once, which was never a good combination. He moved forward and swung out with a yell, although against all reason, his blade stopped just inches from Tony, as though something else had intercepted it.

The Second Sister ignited the other end of her lightsaber- a dual-headed one that effortlessly blocked Cal's own blade. She just as easily parried him away, sending him stumbling back.

And back Cal fell from Tony, foot catching upon uneven ground. This didn't match up with what he was seeing, gravity pulling him down when he should have still been on his feet, and hitting the floor sent enough of a jolt through him that the memory snapped like a rubber band stretched too far. BD-1 had abandoned ship once he'd realized Cal was going to fall, and the moment the Jedi hit the floor his lightsaber got knocked from his hand, deactivating itself.

The only thing that Tony could do, empty handed and terribly vulnerable without his suit, everything so dark and quiet around him, was scramble back and quickly run out of time. His eyes were wide as the blade came flying down, and then it was like they were both holding their breath, the light burning Tony's vision away and making the sweat on his forehead sizzle, and it felt like an eternity that he couldn't move.

When Cal was just as suddenly flung back, Tony had the hysterical thought that BD had somehow intervened, so was just as shocked to see him on the ground. Worse, watching Cal fall felt sick somehow; Tony had never seen him stumble, he was sure, the kid was always so graceful, so the impending doom that had clutched Tony as the blade came down toward his face only tightened with the assertion that there must have been something here that could kill them. He had to work himself free from the dread to rush to Cal's side, kicking the handle of the lightsaber out of reach then kneeling, hands up cautiously and itching, not sure if touching Cal now would just make whatever episode this was worse. "You've freaked everybody out now, sweetheart, good job, mission accomplished," he breathed quickly, searching for any obvious damage.

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When the World Holds Its Breath

kind of ii?

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II - I'm thinking her getting jumped by the projection? if that's cool

fine by me!

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