revivalproject | Stargazing

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Stargazing

WHO: Dustin, Open
WHERE: Temba, on the roof of a moderately tall building on the northwest side of town
WHAT: Dustin is trying to handle a wicked case of interplanetary jetlag.
WHEN: Several nights in mid-June, post-Calibrations
WARNINGS: Language

To call today 'a weird day' would be one hell of an understatement. In Dustin's mind, he thinks it more accurate to call it 'a bust.'

The first few hours of his arrival felt like a blur. Wandering like a wild animal through the abandoned city, accidentally finding another person, getting some provisions from him, discovering another person and some spaceships; learning that life on other planets exists, interplanetary and interstellar travel is possible, the multiverse is a thing. On another day, Dustin would look at the flux of data the Agrii downloaded into his head by itself as a huge boon, one that he could spend the rest of his life investigating to its furthest reaches.

But this is not that day. His options to investigate his new world are woefully limited - in some cases intentionally so, if what Cal told him about the data points and expertises has merit. He's got no tools. No adequate facilities to operate out of. No materials to test with. Not even any documentation to base his studies off of. He is completely and utterly alone.

...Well, okay, none of those things are technically true. Other people that have been here longer than him almost certainly have tools and have restored some buildings specifically for experimentation and workshopping. They might even know of some alien plants and animals with unique reagents to study and apply, or have claimed an expertise to help answer some of his questions. Even if they didn't, Dustin has found the so-called 'Welcome Center' (he refuses to think of it using the Agrii's phonetic spelling) and knows he could at least try to request some of the things he thinks he needs, or take an expertise for himself.

And yet, he doesn't. Instead Dustin sits in a state of self-imposed misery, too suspicious of the Agrii to use their resources, too anxious of the other inhabitants to directly ask for help. About the only thing he has going for him is that he knows where he can find food, and he's been given clearance to wander in and out of that place as he pleases. He doesn't even trust the beds in the ship that eventually opens up for him; as soon as Dustin discovers that he shares a room with four other people, he goes to a locker, grabs all of the sheets and towels out of it, snatches a pillow from one of the least-slept-in-looking beds, stuffs all of it into a sling made out of his outer two sweater layers and gets the hell out of there.

As he searches for a more appropriately isolated place to sleep in, Dustin gets the first inclination that his circadian rhythm is fucked. He can't claim to have a perfect sense of time and is used to taking midday naps anyway, but he feels like it's been a very long day and the sun isn't in the right place in the sky to justify it. Perhaps he has confirmation bias from checking the clock app on his tablet, where he was surprised to find it reading 21:00 hours. The sun shouldn't even be out right now. Maybe they're at higher latitudes than the plant growth and heat would suggest? Maybe the days on this alien planet are longer than he's used to? Maybe the clock's just wrong? None of these ideas make Dustin any less tired. He finds a mostly-intact building, builds himself a nest of blankets and towels, and settles in to nap.

He wakes up again to find that not only has his nap turned into an exhaustion-fueled, full-blown sleep, but also that the clock app is reading 26:30 - which doesn't make any sense. At least the sun's set by now. However, now Dustin is very awake and still lacking in the materials that are directly at his fingertips, but he's unwilling to take.

So he does what would normally be the first thing he'd try if he found himself somewhere strange: Figure out where he is. In a sense, anyway.

Over the next few nights, Dustin goes through the motions of a project. He rotates what building he sleeps in, but always returns to the same, tall-ish building in the northwestern corner of Temba. He clambers up too many flights of stairs that were made for creatures much bigger than him with a makeshift pack of his sleeping supplies, a bit of food, and a bundle of large sticks and kindling, until he makes it to the roof. There he refuels the campfire he built on the first night, grabs a few pieces of charcoal from it, lights it up again in the far corner, turns his eyes skyward and watches. A few minutes of silent observation later and he starts drawing on the roof itself. By the end of the first night, the rooftop is covered in circles, dots, traced lines of movement and annotations - a crude charcoal star map. The following nights see him add subtle changes and pick out landmarks, like distinctive star clusters, what might be a nebula, the phases of the moon. Thankfully it's been clear enough the past few days to attempt this.

Perhaps unfortunately for Dustin, the cloudless summer nights also mean that the flickering light of his rooftop campfire carries quite a distance. He's definitely not staying hidden, and there's nothing stopping people from getting to the top of the building like he did to investigate. This little secluded observatory is not likely to stay so isolated for long.

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"The Accuser. Lauri-Ell," Felwinter supplies after a moment, realizing that she might not be known from the network directory by her title, however figuring enough to believe that the boy would know whom he speaks of.

"A smaller team will be more efficient than an entire expedition." They can cover more ground, faster, and won't be taking away too much from the scant number who dwelled in Temba. He would have been fine going himself, but Lauri-Ell had brought up a good point that he couldn't really refute, when it came to the possibilities of storms and any other freak occurrences.

He folds his arms behind his back, turning to look out at the vague outlines of the buildings just beyond.

Dustin nods, his eyes flashing in brief recognition as his brain dutifully pulls up the image of Lauri-Ell supplied in the 'Dictionary.' Definitely looks like someone I'd want on my side if I got lost in the wilderness, he thinks, chewing pensively. Chick could probably snap any predators out there in half. Weird title, though - 'The Accuser.' Filing that away for later.

"Not a bad idea," he says instead, popping another baconroom into his mouth. They've quickly become Dustin's favored snack; they keep well, they're packed with enough protein that he doesn't have to eat very many to fill himself up, and they have a delightfully savory taste besides. Consistent, efficient, satisfying. All perfect food qualities in Dustin's opinion. "Fewer moving parts, less chance for any one of them to fail. How long have you two been planning this out?"

Felwinter glances over his shoulder at him. It's not like he's seeking approval for an expedition, but it's nice to see that the kid's on the same page as him.

"Not too long ago, although it would not be the first time plans have been suggested. But I think such talks have also fallen victim to planning due to scale," he admits. "We simply need to consider supplies and perhaps the potential use of any data points that might prove beneficial out there."

Dustin nods along at the back of Felwinter's head (and the odd, flickering light jostling around in there--Some kind of power source?), in full agreement all the way until the very end. His brow creases in an involuntary scowl.

"You trust that shit?" he scoffs. "Letting the Agrii stick whatever garbage they want in your brain? Willingly?"

It looks like an eye, twitchy, erratic. Broken.

Dustin's response is hardly a surprise, and one that Felwinter can't disagree with.

"No," he says simply. "But unfortunately with the way things are, here, it is made impossible to do anything in full understanding without them to some degree." He may not be very emotive, but he manages to inject some bitterness of his own in those words. "They have ensured that most of us touch at least one upon arrival. If there is a consequence from contact of the data points, we have not yet discovered it. But...I am wary."

"You should be."

The response is automatic and said with a bit more venom than Dustin was actually intending. He pauses briefly to rein in his emotions, stuffing the last of his snack in his mouth and chewing furiously as he stares at the floor in front of him.

"You see it, right?" Dustin continues. "Trap us here, spoon-feed us enough details and missions to make us dangerous, then hold the rest of it back behind a bunch of convenient fucking brainwashing devices? Obvious trap. They've gotta be piggybacking shit off of them. Maybe we don't see it yet, but it'll show up eventually, just fucking watch."

"Someone may be," Felwinter says quietly. He turns, stepping back towards Dustin, still cautiously avoiding the lines of charcoal.

"You are lucky to have avoided confinement. You would not have liked your information exposed as it was."

The firelight might make him unintentionally more foreboding as he stood there. "There is a tunnel at the eastern edge of the city. It leads to nothing, at least until someone wants us to be led to it.

"Some weeks ago many were lured there, even those who've been there before. And once we were within, we were trapped."

Dustin slowly stands up and listens with rapt interest. It's easy for the already paranoid teen to get pulled into Felwinter's own apparent paranoia, as he finds himself glancing carefully over his shoulders into the dark streets below. The star map can wait. It's not like he'll forget what needs to be added or anything.

"...Where I'm guessing the Agrii played slideshows of everyone's personal details?" Dustin makes a mental note of the tunnel. East. Noted. Avoid that. "How were you lured in? Same as the data points--mental suggestions?"

Felwinter thinks back to when they'd all stepped into the place. He shakes his head. "It was not the Agrii, although I've heard that the first time something of this sort happened, it was at their prompting. I suppose in a generalized way you could consider it a mental suggestion. Manipulation is more like it. I did not see anything, but others seemed to believe they had seen someone they knew, leading them on. Someone important to them, I think.

"But the entity that addressed us in the place called "Calibrations" was not of the Agrii. The way the Agrii speak and act is quite distinct. This voice spoke clearly enough and did not bother to try hiding their malicious intent. They hoped to sow seeds of distrust amongst us by having our pasts and any secrets open to each other. To my understanding, they are the Atroma who are responsible for driving the Agrii from their homeworld in the first place."

It's a lot to digest, he realizes, and so he is silent, waiting to see if Dustin has any questions that he might be able to answer.

"...they were not 'slideshows.' Come the night hours, we would automatically go to our assigned rooms to sleep. And there, we would dream." He still isn't sure how that worked out. "It was...some kind of mind-space. It reflected a location we were well acquainted with, or something significant. And there would be...items. Objects that represented memories, memories that would play out when someone would come into contact with them. Somehow we could venture between dreams, between these spaces."

Dustin plays the part of a good little student, diligently soaking up everything Felwinter tells him. This is a lot to take in. But he seems to be doing a good job processing it, though, as he's quick to cut in when the armored man pauses in his description of events.

"Maybe they're right to get us to distrust each other." Dustin folds his arms. His tone is cold, matter-of-fact. "I don't agree with their methods, obviously, but - to my knowledge - we have no frame of reference for why the Agrii choose the people they do. Maybe they're bringing in people they think can be easily manipulated into fighting for them against these Atroma fuckers. Maybe it's not even the first time they've done something like this. It's just as plausible that the Atroma drove off the Agrii for a reason, and they're trying to get us to see each other for what we really are, instead of this hyped-up hero crap the Agrii are feeding us."

These are points that the warlord acknowledges the potential of with a nod. "There is little actual fact we know about the Agrii that hasn't been provided by themselves. I have only seen them from their appearances on the network, although I've heard that there was an incident in which those who were here at the time had been called to assist them off-world, aboard their ship."

Felwinter shakes his head. "I would not call the Atroma a neutral party, however. They seem to enjoy the show we put on for them. You can assume that we are being watched here, by both the Agrii and the Atroma."

"Of course we are." Dustin rolls his eyes. It does not escape him that Felwinter has casually mentioned a past, physical encounter with the Agrii, on what could only be a spaceship. His suspicion keeps him from dwelling too long on it. "Control of information and constant surveillance. They both sound like a fucking spectacular group of assholes to me."

He pauses, glancing this time around the rooftop, eyes scanning every shadowed nook and cranny.

"How do you think? Strategic bugs? The tablets they conveniently left all of us?"

"The tablets are likely, yes. Cameras, I would assume. We've found a surveillance room deep in the mines, which shows live feed from the other city, not that we hadn't already figured there's some method of watching us here, we just have not found the sources." Not to mention one of the newer ships provided by the Agrii was decorated in photos of their beloved He-Rows, but then Felwinter had never been assigned to it and therefore no reason to try boarding it.

"You've been wise to avoid use of the network. I know others have had similar mindsets."

Dustin's mouth briefly twitches into a smug grin. He doesn't even have his tablet on him right now; the teen's been hiding it in a new place daily, only checking it when he moves it between stashes. But the Agrii and Atroma don't need to know about that, so Dustin keeps it to himself.

"Is the surveillance room still accessible and working?" he asks instead. "Sounds like a useful point of research."

And by 'research' Dustin of course means 'sabotage.' Maybe Felwinter will catch his actual meaning behind his raised eyebrows.

If the boy had hidden away his tablet, Felwinter wouldn't be at all surprised, although he would wonder just how effective that would be. Tablets could appear on a person when they'd been taken away during Calibrations, then nothing would stop it from being returned to you when you least expected it. But this would be a test upon how much the Agrii and Atroma were aware of.

"I have not gone to check in a long while," he admits in regards to the surveillance room, looking at Dustin thoughtfully. "The way in is narrow and I don't know if plans to widen it had ever been carried out. You may be able to fit, however. I have the way through the mines mapped out, if you are interested."

"Absolutely." Dustin gives a brisk nod. Someone else might have bristled at the indirect jab at his height, but the boy has no illusions about his stature (or lack thereof). He knows he's tiny. To Felwinter's point, it comes in handy sometimes.

"It might be for the best if the tunnels aren't widened," Dustin continues. "Besides the chance for natural structural instabilities, disturbing the area could alert whoever is controlling those stations to temporarily shut down their operations or put up security measures before anyone can get there. I can take advantage of that, or build something that can fit if I can't."

A pause. He glances over Felwinter once again, eyes narrowed and calculating. Do I trust this guy?...No. Not entirely. Dustin's gaze softens slightly. But he's been my best source of information so far, and he seems canny enough. Would be a waste not to leverage that. He deserves a trade.

"...You were looking for something to navigate through the forest with, yeah?" he offers. "Meet me back here in a week with the maps--physical copies. I'll see what I can do about a compass."

Not that Felwinter had meant anything by insinuating that Dustin was small so much as just stating fact. There's nothing wrong with being short. He does refrain from mentioning that most of the ones who ventured within the crawlspace to the room on the other side had been children, but without their curiosity who knows how much longer anyone would have waited to actually discover what was there.

"That had been among the concerns when discussing how to widen the opening," he nods. One might be concerned about giving a boy information about such a resource, but Felwinter's already established that Dustin's clever enough that he should be careful about things. Hopefully.

He pauses when the offer is made- not actually expecting any recompense but perhaps pleasantly surprised to have it all the same. Not that it shows. The warlord nods.

"Very well," he says. "In a week's time, then."

Dustin nods back. An acceptable trade. Nothing is truly free, after all, especially information. This is the most valuable thing Felwinter could have given him, assuming that it's all accurate.

Silently, the teenager palms his charcoal nub from his pocket and picks up exactly where he left off on the star chart. Seems he's ready to get back to work. This would...probably be a good time to let his guest know about that?

...No?

No, he's got nothing. Dustin doesn't even spare another glance up to check the sky.

It doesn't seem that Felwinter expects anything more to be said between them either as he simply turns away. Their business here has concluded, even if that hadn't been the initial intent, but things have certainly been made more interesting.

There's just the quiet scratch of boots stepping up from roof to ledge, and then the brief flutter of his coat as he leaps into the darkness, with no immediate sound of a landing as he disappears from the firelight's reach.

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Stargazing

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