revivalproject | Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

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Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

WHO: Cal Kestis and the Library Crew
WHERE: The Library
WHAT: Sometimes you get tired of being alone
WHEN: Nowish?
WARNINGS: N/A

His feet carry him to the large library structure. He hasn't spent nearly enough time here, or at least not nearly enough time these past weeks with any of those whom he knows have come to call it theirs. BD-1, loyal BD, he hangs off of his side as they make their way in.

"Cal. If Beedee-one is showing you this message, then I have left this place and you did not leave with me."

The words of Merrin's recorded message have plagued his thoughts these past weeks. He's not even sure how many times he's watched it, enough times at least that he knows every line of it by heart.

"I'm sorry. I wanted us to return to our galaxy together. I wanted us to walk the same path from here together, always."

With how others have come and gone, he's tried to prepare himself for such an instance, but there really isn't much of a proper way to do so, knowing you'll still miss someone. He'd allowed himself to believe that maybe, maybe...

"We will see each other again. Our path together is not over yet, despite this world's best attempts."

It hurts, maybe more than he anticipated. He knows the truth of her words, has always known that even if they'd be separated here, there would still be a later. It had been a comfort before, and now it's a promise, one he holds to tightly.

"Do not keep me waiting too long, Cal Kestis."

Being alone is the last thing he needs right now. He's had enough of that. Merrin's words are reminder enough that while there's still something to look forward to whenever he might go back himself, Cal doesn't know that he'll ever be able to see anyone else from here if he does so.

Appearances can be deceptive, however, but it's difficult to cling to melancholy when you have a myriad of mothcats flocking around you. What had started out as a few has since at least doubled in number as Cal kneels there not several steps from entering, a pair of adolescent mothcats having settled there on his shoulders as smaller ones paw at him and pounce at each other around his boots. BD-1 skitters about leading or being chased by at least three others.

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"Cal." Jon's voice is the first sign of the Archivist's presence. Of course he is aware of the Padawan's visit. Jon does keep an eye on his library after all. And that the mothcats were all drawn towards the main door of the building has just been an added give away.

Another thing Jon is well aware of is the departure of a certain Nightsister. A person Cal has been rather fond of. He doesn't have to ask why he has come here as he approaches, accompanied by further mothcats, all eager to greet the young man.

"Are you alright?" This? Is not something Jon can simply know. At least not without breaching boundaries he remains determined to not breach.

He'll blame the mothcats on being distracted, but he really should have sensed Jon's arrival otherwise. Maybe he's more out of sorts than he'll admit. Cal lifts his head when Jon speaks his name.

He's not surprised at this line of inquiry. Of course Jon would know. The unspoken acknowledgment that something's happened that potentially compromises his state of being is however something Cal isn't sure what to do with. Further thoughts on the matter are interrupted with a forceful nuzzle of one of the mothcats on his shoulder, and a breath of a laugh escapes him, about as much as he can muster. It helps though, releases some tension.

"I think..." Cal starts, before shaking his head, easing to sit on the floor once he makes sure none of the little ones are beneath him. "I don't know. It's...complicated."

Jon nods his understanding while kneeling down among the mothcats with equal care. "I know." Emotions are always complicated and it's not Jon's strongest topic, either. He wants to say he has gotten better, however.

He lets the winged felines rub their faces against his hands and knees for a while, scratching a head here and there before their attention gets drawn to BD-1 and they bounce off again. "Would you like some tea to your share of mothcat?" Jon asks eventually.

Sitting becomes an automatic invitation for mothcats to crawl into his lap, apparently. Cal won't deny them, even if he gets a face full of wings as one stretches out before settling in. For some reason, Jon's response makes him feel a little better. He offers as close a smile as he can manage at the Archivist as he drops a hand over the purring furball in his lap.

"...yeah, tea sounds good," he says, nodding.

The Archivist gives a nod and raises back to his feet before walking further back into the library again. He doesn't have to go too far given that there are several places in the library and its basement area that have developed into designated hot beverage spots. Spots where Jon has placed kettles, mugs and everything one needs to brew either tea or coffee.

It doesn't take long to prepare the tea, and yet Cal is left alone with the mothcats for a short while regardless before Jon returns with a steaming mug to offer to the Padawan. "There you go." Is all he says before settling back down himself, again welcoming the mothcats as well.

There's just something about tea, or maybe just the practice of it, and certainly the company. Cal's aware that Jon doesn't go far, which is reassuring in its own way, not that he's short of company himself.

BD-1's buried under a few kittens by the time Jon returns, giving a plaintive beep.

"Thanks, Jon," Cal says as he reaches out to take the mug, carefully extracting his other hand from a clingy paw to cradle the mug so he won't drop it on anyone.

It wasn't yet cold enough out to be worried about having enough layers, but cool enough that the sweat drying quickly on Tony's skin made him shiver as he came sauntering back inside, arms full of a load of sticks and vines that he had gathered from his slashing and chopping through the overgrowth around the grounds and were now going to keep them warm through the coming months. He dropped them haphazardly with a clatter by the fireplace the dominated the library's entrance, and swung around to collect more and the axe from the cart, when he realized the hall wasn't empty.

Of course he knew Merrin was gone. In the meantime, he was sure Cal was very expertly maintaining his distance. The last person he needed to talk to was Tony, always indelicate and encouraging Cal to invest more in the relationship. He lingered guiltily focus darting between the pair before alighting briefly with an inquisitive lift of his brow at Jon, then finally producing his charming smile to properly greet, "Mi tesoro, always a pleasure." He came meandering closer, tugging a glove off to comb back Cal's hair for a kiss, then wave the glove vaguely around at the spectacle that he had walked in on. "We can do a better tea party than this, surely. Let me get you some pillows, at least. I'll get this fire going." Jon was much more delicate, of course, and Tony was ready to flit busily away to not spook Cal off.

A faint smile touches Cal's face as another well-known presence entered the library. He can sense that wavering hesitance and is finds himself relieved when Tony decides to finally join them. "Hey Tony," he says, with the minimal expected amount of face-making at the greeting. He breathes a chuckle as he looks around. "Yeah, I guess this is kind of a weird spot but I kind of got waylaid on the way in."

He doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry to move, given that the mothcats on him seem comfortable.

Jon has been in the process of digging BD-1 out from under the pile of contently purring young mothcats, settling some of them down in his own lap and others on his shoulders where they immediately start to paw for his glasses.

He looks up at the arrival of Tony and shrugs. "They were excited about the visit. Can you blame them?"

The reveal of the droid had Tony snorting a laugh, and tipping his head in greeting before offering a hand up out of this squirming pile Jon and Cal had created between them and onto more dignified pursuits. "Right, you don't give them nearly enough attention," he accused Jon in a warm drawl. To Cal, he continued more energetically, "It's a good thing you finally showed up. This place is full of parts that I can't do anything with, have just been taking up space in the shop. You have to stick around until I can empty the cart for you to take them with you, I'm tired of looking at them." The pillows first, though, because Tony didn't have to go far for those and could keep an ear toward the pair on the floor as he gathered them and tried to get BD to carry one himself.

BD-1 latches onto Tony's hand, his beeping almost chiding as little paws reached after him. He decides Tony's as good a safe haven as any for the moment, dangling off of him.

"Sooner or later this place will be swarming," Cal chuckles, gently nudging a furry head back so he can sip his tea. He arches a brow at Tony, his smile crooked.

"Parts? I thought this was a library, not a scrapyard," he grinned. "I'll be glad to take them off your hands though, save Jon the trouble of redecorating."

"This place hasn't been a library in the longest time." Jon muses before turning towards Tony's retreating back. "And yet I have plenty to do here, as you well know!" The pout is purely decorative, though, and very much for Tony's benefit before the Archivist's attention returns to Cal and the collective of mothcats around them. "Not all of them stick around. There's rarely this many here at the same time. They like to roam the city and areas around it." And quite a few have found their own spaces entirely.

"Tony is one of those that have decided to stay." Jon adds with a nod towards one of the adult mothcats sitting right by his side.

"We've been making it a little something more," Tony agreed, this time his low purr directed at Cal as he came circling back and swung down to tuck some gathered pillows around his hips, where the animals weren't already tucked in contentedly. His smile at Jon then was wry and indulgent of that pout, though he only moved to assure Jon that there was nothing in the building more important for him to be doing by draping a blanket over his shoulders and tucking it down with some pillows securely to keep him exactly where he was with Cal, a hand lingering affectionately on his cheek as Tony drew away.

He didn't get far though, finding himself accused of being a stray and rounding back on the pair with a pout of his own and only then recognizing the continuously troublesome mothcat. His mouth already open to defend his dignity, he still sounded plaintive when he insisted, "She needs another name," as though this had ever been an effective request.

Cal smiles between the two at the banter, familiar, comforting. Nothing's changed here, and he shoves the thought away at the what if's before it can properly manifest.

"Well, I doubt Temba will have any shortage of them any time soon," he chuckles as he rests a hand atop an expectant head. Glancing at Tony and BD-1 as they come back, armed with pillows. At least one of them, anyway, but BD is trying his best with the one balanced on his head, tottering back and forth like it's a circus act.

"Something more, huh? What do you have in mind?" He hides a grin at Tony's complaint for sharing a name with a mothcat by helping himself to another sip or two of tea.

The added pillows and blanket only act as an added magnet for the mothcats around, some trying to crawl under the blanket while others seek to claim the pillows. Jon won't stop them, but he has to wonder if it has been Tony's plan to have him and Cal stuck here all day despite answering with a thankful smile. The complaint, however, is met with a look from Jon that clearly states that the feline's name will remain as it is and that there won't be any arguing about it.

He turns his attention to Cal again when he inquires about the current plans for the library. "Well, we're still collecting records, naturally. And I still want this place to become something skin to a library again eventually. An information enter of sorts." And then there is also the changes that have been made to the basement aside from turning it into a living space, workshop and lab with intricate security system.

It was difficult to remain surly about the humiliating name situation when Jon, the one to insist the space wasn't a library, went on to describe a library. Tony snorted, effectively drawn back to fill in helpfully, "And we live here," which wasn't exactly news; Jon had been here the whole time. "I live here," he amended, "Did I tell you that yet? It', you know, so--" He flapped his hands, effectively reminding himself that he still had one glove to take off and tuck into his belt where the other had gone, dismissing the reasons why so they could come back around to what should have been obvious: he had to make some adaptations. "More of a workshop than a library. R&D."

As Jon describes his future envisioning of the library, Cal looks around, still somehow mindful of his tea and all too curious mothcats who insist on trying to paw at the mug in his hand. He maneuvers it just out their reach while he conducts his observation from this new perspective of the floor, chuckling a little as Tony chimes in.

"You didn't, but I guess I'm not surprised," he says, reaching a hand out as BD-1 comes to plop himself beside him. Cal obligingly lifts the pillow next to him so the little droid can wedge himself beneath it, away from curious winged cats.

"R&D huh? Sounds like a good combination. If you need any help moving stuff around or setting anything up, you know..." He gestures with his free hand vaguely, suddenly with more free-time than he knows what to do with and wishing it wasn't the case.

As long as no one ever expects Jon to be imaginative, things will remain fine.

"Thanks for the offer." Jon replies after nodding to the additional information provided by Tony. "Tony has been converting a good part of the basement by now." Which is certainly one way to keep him busy. "And if I recall correctly, you have your own workshop as well, Cal." Which leaves Jon a little surprised that Tony hasn't started any wild projects with the Padawan yet.

"It's kind of surprising," Tony insisted, slightly flustered by bringing it up like Cal needed the reminder right now about what steps he wasn't going to be taking with his partner, and could hear himself blustering in the least effective way as his mouth continued to move, "He could have killed me instead. 50/50, honestly, it could still happen, this might have increased the odds, having you around has probably been entirely in my favour, so, you know, the heavy lifting, that's just a bonus."

Jon's acknowledgement was much more normal, though Tony couldn't tell if he meant to imply that Cal should focus his work out there on his own, and started to shake his head, narrowing his eyes inquisitively at Jon. Did he know Merrin was gone? That wasn't something Tony could just ask, so he rapidly interjected, "So does that young gal, Reno. Set up a shop out closer to the forge. Friendly competition. Hey, there's a thought. The market demands innovation. We could go head to head, make a new..." He twirled a hand in the hair and snapped his fingers, trying to produce a likely product that would serve the community, and make for a flashy reveal.

"Yeah, I do," Cal says, a little quieter than he means to. A workshop with one less constant visitor who'd sit on his bed and ask questions as he'd work, or try her hand at some repairs if she got curious enough. He closes his eyes, lifting the mug to drain the rest of his tea before setting it down empty on the floor, much to a disappointed mothcat's paw.

"I'm not so much an inventor as a repair guy," he clarifies, his smile quick, fleeting.

The suggestion that he may have wanted to kill Tony is met with a huff in protest and a small glare. "I never tried to harm you!" Jon adds to his protest just in time with a young mothcat to land on his head and paw towards his glasses. "Can we not start such rumors, please? There are people around that might be inclined to believe you." Richie being only one of them.

Jon's scowl lessens when his attention returns to Cal and he casts a look between both him and Tony. "Or you could all work together. Cal, Reno, you. Three very different worlds with very different types of technology, each very advanced to what I am familiar with." He gestures lightly with one hand while the other plucks the mothcat from his head. "If all this can be combined somehow, you might-" Pause. "You might..." Another pause. "W-well. You're better at this than I am." And this goes for both of them.

Jon's protest was met with a small grimace as Tony weighted his hand side to side, like it was up for debate what 'harm' Jon might have caused, then he quickly took a step away and out of the immediate blast range of any deadly glaring that teasing should have earned him. Once in motion again, it was going to take an extraordinary force to stop him, and he continued from there to sweep down and gather up Cal's emptied cup as his body searched for solutions to this problem that didn't involve anybody getting emotional.

"Repair guy's half way there. Inventing is just making something that doesn't work, and then fixing it," he declared, which definitely couldn't have been right despite the confident presentation. At least Jon seemed willing to buy in to his distraction method, earning him an appreciative point for the evolution of the idea--okay, maybe not everyone worked well in competition. "Cooperation, even better and badder. Between us, we've got to be able to come up with some way of getting to that blinking light out there, or tracking the storms, even neutralizing their effects." None of that would make for an effectively tangible memory of Merrin for Cal, so while all of it would have been undeniably useful, Tony looked unconvinced by his own proposals, hand still twisting in the air and walking away with the cup.

The attempts are appreciated. It's becoming more obvious that Tony's in the know regarding Merrin's absence, not that this surprises Cal. He looks at Jon, giving him a nod with the suggestion for cooperation.

"Not bad ideas." Not simple ones either, and for each storm that's come up ever since the first, Cal isn't so sure what to look for anymore. "How about working with what we've got already? Overriding the shuttles? If we could use them for more than just a taxi service, there's so much more we could see. Even check out that light."

"Acquiring full control over the ships would be useful..." Jon agrees while having to realize that he hasn't even considered that particular option. But he has never even driven a car, so the thought of freely piloting one of these ships has never even grazed his thoughts. But neither has he been considering trying to find ways to reach the new light given that even Billy couldn't teleport to it.

"Has anyone tried to learn more about the tower still in the city?" He has to wonder, thinking back to the original blinking light and how they- Well. Broke it.

While getting control over the shuttles did sound good, they were all in agreement there, Tony's shoulders tensed with resistance even as he continued back toward the fireplace, swinging the cup thoughtfully as he went. "What we've got already, that's stuff the Agrii already gave us, stuff they already have too much control over," he said, lilting like it was just a conversational musing and not a complete nightmare. All of that energy, he put into gathering up his kindling again, dropping to his knees to busily build up his fire.

This way, he was muffled as he spoke into the chimney and answered Jon, "I tried. Stripped some circuits out to use. Couldn't get it working again."

The main crew has already found him, it appears~

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