revivalproject

Entry tags:

Orbit

WHO: Tony, Jon and Omega
WHERE: Above and below Temba
WHAT: Tony just trying to keep it together now that he's made the moon scream, apparently.
WHEN: During the SCREAM event
WARNINGS: Event-related traumas might occur. Alcoholism mention at the top.

a. Before the storm... [For Jon]
There had to be only so many times Tony could make this apology before Jon stopped accepting it. In fact, Tony might run out of stuff he could possibly give Jon before he was done making all of his apologies, because his replicator charges went quickly to an ever growing list of necessary components, and the local gift shop had really atrocious service. Jon never even seemed particularly appeased by the flowers. Maybe because they weren't roses. Tony should have gotten Felwinter making more of them.

Apologizing to Cayde for the disastrous Prime thing was much easier--he'd had to make a lot less apologies to the Exo, that line still had some slack, and the pool table had almost been finished before Tony had been distracted by the next incredibly pressing bolt of inspiration. The biggest challenge here was that it had left Tony standing, alone, in the middle of the Deep End, surrounded by the parts that needed some assembly, and a very different kind of distraction standing proudly along the bar. Maybe if he brought one of those bottles to Jon, it would solve both of his problems at once.

He was standing outside the library by the time he realized what an awful idea that was, some distance and fresh air between him and the bar bringing a terrible clarity that left him sitting on the cold step and rolling the pilfered bottle between both hands to watch the liquid roil. If Jon had wanted a bottle, he could have gone to the Deep End himself. Tony would just have to bring this one back to the forge, ruminate on a better apology, maybe not come out again until he had built himself into a someone worth forgiving. The mist starting to gather along the roads in wispy, damp patches was making Tony feel like it was already too late, so much like the cold dew heralding the sharp, unforgiving crest of the morning sun.

The weight that had grown steadily heavier in his pocket wasn't supposed to feel like an apology, and if he didn't figure this out before this dark night was through, it might end up yet another ring in his most shameful collection.

b. Gathering clouds... [For Omega]
There was an unfamiliar focus to this storm that Tony couldn't help but take personally. The others that he had experienced had been so chaotic; as if designed to separate them, and designed to hurt them. The stillness of this one felt intentional, like Tony was meant to reflect on what he had done, cut off from the expansive distraction that was Extremis, trapped in his own head with only the rumble of thunder to fill any of the space.

And that awful scream.

Staring at the moon, hideous enough to the naked eye and no more revealing under telescope, hadn't told him much about how he was meant to fix this problem he had caused, unfortunately. It had just left him very exposed for when that noise came again, making the nanoweb jump out of his skin and leaving him feeling like he was tangled in his own bones, and sending the plates of the armor crashing around the forge erratically. He had to take his investigation out of that danger zone, trying to plot what the moon might have been distracting from. Those figures that appeared looked so much like the holograms that had been at the fair, but it was gone, an empty field with no more to tell. The light in the distance continued to blink, and the one atop the tower continued to be dark.

And what of those strange tunnels? That wasn't a place Tony had investigated for himself yet at all, trusting Cal's reports of the spiders and their strange cages. But if they were part of this whole system, there to spring more tortures on them, maybe they had more terrible secrets. Maybe that was where the projections were coming from.

It did look very dark down that ladder, though. The flash of lightning bursting across Tony's vision only made the darkness deeper in the afterimage.

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Omega knew storms, although mostly from the secure, solid if sterile form of Tipoca City's reinforced structures. The skies were always so dark beyond the windows, rain and waves lashing up onto the platforms and making everything blurry as things raged outside and lightning split the skies with brilliance. Even then, she'd never been in them.

This phenomenon wasn't anything she would have registered as a storm. It was quiet, and although there were clouds and the occasional rumble of thunder, it was so oddly still. That was what unsettled her, that stillness. Even for all the solitude Tipoca City exhibited at times, it was never quite like this. It felt...anxious to her, somehow. Like something was waiting to happen.

It never occurred to her that it might be dangerous going out alone like this. She meant to look for Echo, or anyone she knew, really. Her energy bow was slung on her back, the bag she'd sewn together with Shiro at the faire holding her beefy Tooka plush. Some company was better than nothing, after all.

How she found herself in the dark tunnels below the city was anyone's guess, Lula long since having been pulled from its matching bag to held close as Omega beamed her torch about the dank space. She was certain she'd seen her brother come down here, though for whatever reason, she couldn't fathom. But surely there had to be one.

"Echo...?" she called out, her voice doing just that, ringing hollowly through the abandoned corridors.

The voice came just as Tony had convinced himself that dropping down into the dark was a ridiculous, impulsive decision, and he couldn't start being impulsive, that wasn't in his programming, he could come back some other time with a light. It made him freeze, staring down into the hole, eyes darting like he could see anything. "Omega? Is that you?" he called back, though he didn't really need the confirmation; he would know that voice anywhere, or at least in any situation she was calling out while wandering around strange and unknown territory. They had to stop meeting like this. What Tony really wanted to know was, "What are you doing down there?"

Not that the answer would change the fact that he was already impulsively scrambling down the ladder. There might have been one, tiny little impulsive subroutine buried in his code, and it might be able to override some other traits he totally didn't have, like very irrational fears of the dark and cockroaches.

The voice that responded wasn't one that Omega expected, although it wasn't necessarily an unwelcome one. "Tony?" she called out, hesitant at first, but the question that followed chased away some of the anxiousness of being alone. She turned, looking around as she sought out where he was.

"It's me- I...I thought I saw Echo come down here," she said, sounding a little less sure of herself as she admitted it.

It was definitely exactly as dark as Tony was afraid of down here, leaving him immediately feeling disoriented and looking up at the hole of grey light he had left behind to stand in the damp underground. On the bright side, the New York sewers were definitively a worse experience, and he had survived those enough times. In order to navigate, though, he was going to have to rely on senses other than sight, and had to steel himself, holding his breath, with a hand raised to touch to the slimy wall, even with his sleeve pulled over his fingers.

Only Omega's voice spurned him rapidly forward, feeling his way toward it. "What--you're not with him?" he called back, which was another question with an obvious answer, but mostly he needed her to keep talking to be able to track her down and didn't want to directly tell her that this was the flawed system they were working with, and partially he meant, like, in general. He had kind of been trusting Echo to keep that part of this disaster managed.

Light flickered from one of the adjoining tunnels ahead as Omega started towards where she thought she'd heard him, sweeping her torch about.

"No, I was heading to his outpost to see if he was there, but then I thought I saw him come this way," she said, hugging Lula tighter. Which was probably silly in hindsight, she thought. Why would Echo have come down here? But then she had been so certain she'd seen him...or someone who looked like him. "The weather's strange, isn't it? I've never seen anything like it."

It was unsettling enough that they might see people they knew from home, where the trickery might have an obvious tell, so the suggestion that one of these illusions could be the image of someone already here to disorient them made Tony pause in his anxiety, watching the strange flicker of the light. Was that really Omega he was hearing?

Haltingly, trying to fashion his confidence as he spoke, so either Omega didn't hear that anxiety, or the illusion didn't notice the change, he offered, "A little strange. Sure. Yeah." He could try actually saying something, that would be more convincing. "It's just fog. Clouds on the ground. Cold and wet, all you need." He cleared his throat, feeling his way toward that flickering light, and pressed, "What about the animal? That's not with you, is it?"

"Animal? The other Tony, you mean?" she clarified, as there weren't too many other animals she'd been particularly close to, and surely Tony hadn't meant the big pile of rocks. "He's not here. I don't know where he went. Maybe he's hiding in the library with his brothers and sisters."

The light bounced a bit along with the sound of quickening footsteps, and soon she emerged from the adjoining tunnel, the light beaming one way then right at Tony. He might not be able to see it, but upon seeing him, Omega smiled with relief as she hurried over, unaware of any hesitance and anxiety that the man bore from fresh paranoia.

If this was a figment of Tony's imagination, it would know just as well as he did that the mothcats had all seemed to vacate the library as the storm hit. Right? He wasn't feeling any more confident as that light swung around and dazzled him, making him throw a hand up and squint against the sudden flare, and leaving him more blind than ever as he had to decide how much of a threat those little footsteps rushing toward him were. Before he had decided anything, he had already stumbled a few cautious steps back, and the hand he pushed out with his fingers splayed might have looked like he was trying to ward off that blinding light.

"Izzat you, Stardust? It's okay, I didn't need to see, overrated," he tried to feel out lightly.

To be fair, the girl didn't even know this was a storm, and no one said anything about animals taking cover from it. She'd been nowhere near the library to check on her fuzzy patrolmate, which was probably why she opted for bringing the stuffed one.

"-oh! Sorry!" Omega blurted as she saw him squinting and waving his hand about. She redirected her torch towards the floor as she continued towards him. "Yes, it's me! Were you looking for someone down here too?"

This was the least threatening ghost Tony could imagine, really; not nearly as horrible as those running, chattering things, and nothing like the horrors he had seen after their ships had crashed. As his eyes adjusted, he could see that she looked pretty normal, too, aside from that...weird thing she was carrying around, which Tony would not take responsibility for conjuring. His shoulders finally dropped with relief, enough so that he quickly met her in the middle to scoop her up from the dank ground in a protective hold against his hip. "No, ah--no, kind of--" he started, trying to decide how transparent to be about the situation, and taking a deep breath in the meantime. Time to stall.

"You stink," he observed, "How long have you been down here? No wonder Echo's keeping his distance, geez. Hey, you ever had a bubble bath? I got something for you."

Flapping his free hand like Omega had been the one to distract them, he continued quickly as he decided, "Those fake people who were at the renaissance fair were showing up again, and I thought maybe the thing that was making them could be down here."

Maybe it was his relief that helped the rest of her own anxiety bleed away. As she was picked up, Omega gladly clung on to him in a hug, sandwiching Lula between them. She never liked being alone, and the fog and the quiet had made it all the worse.

"Bubble bath..?" The wrinkle of her nose at being told she stunk gave way to puzzlement, although she still gave him a bit of a pout. "...maybe Echo wouldn't be down here after all. He always complains about smells." At least the grumpy one she knew.

Fake people... It took her a moment to figure out what he was referring to. "The projections? Why are you looking for them?"

That wasn't something Tony knew about Echo, making him chuckle in surprise, giving Omega his own puzzled frown. "Does he? Is that what the helmet is for then?" he wondered.

With a glance back the way he had come, then forward again with a determined sigh and pursed lips, he explained, "I never figured out where the projection was coming from. It's light, it has to be from somewhere. It's cloudy now, though, and there's still...some around, so it can't be from the sky. From below then, right?" It sounded rational to Tony, anyway, though that wasn't exactly the question Omega was asking. More stalling. He let her slip back down to the ground and suggested, "You want to help?" She was the one with the forethought to bring a flashlight, after all, and he couldn't exactly rob a little girl and send her on her way.

Omega giggled. "Maybe it helps," she shrugged.

As she was set down again, she stuck close, carefully tucking her black and red Tooka into her bag. "I didn't think to look when the faire was still there," she admitted, beaming the light around. "I guess that would make sense though. Something wired underground, you think?"

At his question she looked up at him, nodding. "All right. We're here, after all. And I don't think I want to go back up alone."

"Being up there alone is terrible," Tony muttered as though to himself. Maybe this was better all around, maybe if he was right there couldn't be any of those projections down here, and they could even be cut off from hearing the moon. He waved for the gal with the light to lead the way, with a quick pat down the back of her head to assure her he was close behind and watching their backs.

"Have you seen anything strange while you've been playing around down here? What about your little friend?" he asked.

She was feeling a little braver with him there, so she took point without complaint, also well aware by then that she was the only one carrying a torch, apparently. Leaving Tony to watch their six, Omega led the way.

"I wasn't playing," she felt she had to correct. She wasn't quite sure how that worked when you had no one to play with anyway. "I haven't been down here very long, but I thought I'd gotten turned around. I haven't seen anyone else besides you in a while though."

That sounded like a perfectly serviceable answer for Tony to nod along with as he followed Omega through the dark, until it occurred to him to ask, "What do you mean, 'a while'?" That either implied she had seen someone down here, or that she had been alone since this whole storm had started, which meant they both had every reason to be concerned about Echo. He would have come to find her, right?

The girl offered a faint shrug, and her being ahead of Tony made it easier for her to hide a sad frown. "It's a big city. Everyone's spread out. ...and Kyle's gone, so I thought it'd be strange to stay at their place. Maybe most people are staying inside since it's so...quiet."

She navigated her way around some particularly damp ground, beaming her light back for Tony to see once she'd picked the best path. Once he'd joined her, Omega looked around again. "Quiet until that awful screaming, anyway," she said, making a face. "I don't know what it was, but I wasn't sure I wanted to find out."

Maybe that Echo thing was a misguided presumption. Tony watched her find her careful path with his own frown of concern, and had to quickly school it away as she swung the light back around for him, hurrying a little less carefully after. "The phone works both ways, you know," he pointed out, sounding irritated that she even had this problem and wasn't calling her favourite person, Tony. Also sounding horrifically like his dad, so he immediately cleared his throat and scratched restlessly through his hair, impatiently brushing past her like he could check around the next corner for them.

"It, uh...it's the moon," he admitted, and did not know how to prove that he wasn't messing with her this time, because it did sound so suspiciously like something he would say to mess with a kid. Making up another explanation right now could do more harm than good.

She hunched up her shoulders a bit at that, even if it wasn't exactly a reprimand, but it still threatened to sting like one. She didn't want to be a bother to people, wanted to prove she could do things too. Not that it was really happening at the moment. She looked up as Tony moved past her, pushing down a spike of irrational concern that he just meant to leave her behind.

"The moon? How?" He wouldn't have to look back at her to see the confused, uncertain look on her face. "I've been on a moon, and they don't scream. Unless it has very big, loud creatures, but the sound wouldn't carry from that far, would it?"

"You know, listen, Stardust, those are very good questions, very astute, and I do not have an answer for you. I do wish I could tell you how it was possible, because then I might know how to make it stop happening, because I really hate it. Have you met Peter yet? You'd love him," Tony replied, leaving Omega to figure out that Peter had similar concerns. "My working theory is that it's..." Deep, disappointed breath, "Magic. But if we can find some evidence of a source for those projections, we might be on a path to figuring out the moon thing, too."

"Peter- I know him," Omega said, nodding. "I helped him get untangled from his hammock a few weeks ago." The kid was a little awkward, but he seemed all right.

As Tony admitted to his theory, the girl frowned thoughtfully, perhaps not entirely approving of the idea either but not dismissing it. From what she'd learned from Ezra, magic could encompass a lot of things. The Force he said he used, Lark's sewing tricks, so why not screaming moons?

"Well, let's see what we can find," she said then, looking more confident that they'd do just that.

Edited 2022-03-20 04:41 (UTC)

That should not have been so easy to believe, and yet Tony's eyes were rolling up to the ceiling with a sigh and a nod, not doubting for one second that Peter would manage this, and Omega would be enthusiastic enough to help him. It was a good thing the kids had each other around here, though the tact could use some work. "You're not telling people embarrassing stuff like that about me, are you?" Tony asked, just as his voice bounced in a strange, echoing way from the left, making him tilt his head attentively. That was water, he realized after another echo came, a clear drip that was somewhere down a hall they had come alongside. "Deeper that way," he surmised. "Probably not where we want to go."

Brows lifting, Omega glanced at Tony before smiling a little. "That depends on what you consider embarrassing that you've done," she countered.

She fell silent then, listening for whatever he had heard, her own head tilting as though to mimic him. When he suggested they redirect, she glanced down in that direction, squinting after her light although it didn't reveal much more than a deceptive reflection of wetness. Probably a good call. She was about to turn the light back down the main way they'd been going along when she paused, flicking the torch back through the damp darkness. "-I thought I saw something," she said, taking a step within the opening. "Hello?"

Calling out to a thing that lurked in the sewers could not have been a good idea, and Tony quickly stepped up after Omega to cover her face with a hand (more her forehead than her mouth that he was aiming for) to keep her still and quiet for any acknowledgement of her greeting. It didn't come quickly, but Tony still kept his voice a low whisper as he bent closer to answer, "I've never done anything embarrassing, I'm the coolest person you know."

With a pat to her shoulder to indicate that she should follow his lead, he slipped around her again to creep down the hall, sticking close to the wall and avoiding disturbing any more puddles. It took a beat of hyping himself up, and a glance back at Omega for assurance, to stick his head out past the wall and try to assess what they were creeping up to.

Which was pointless, because it was still very dark, except for the watery, grey bloom of the edge of Omega's light.

As was probably the reaction with most kids in such a situation, Omega tries to duck out from under Tony's hand, nudging it away in mild annoyance although not enough for it to stick. She did smile as Tony proclaimed that he was impervious to embarrassment.

And she did intend to follow once he'd started along again, save that something had caught her attention once more, her boots scuffing the floor in her abrupt halt. Her heart felt like it had leaped up into her throat. Had that been a flash of black and red? She looked again, certain she saw someone this time, someone familiar.

"Hunter!" she cried out, not a sound of alarm or fear, but shock and hope. "Hunter, wait!" Her feet were already moving, carrying her down the other way despite the nagging thoughts in the back of her mind. Why would Hunter be here though? Shouldn't he have heard her?

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