revivalproject | Into the Depths

Entry tags:

Into the Depths | Closed

WHO: Dustin, Tony, some mushrooms
WHERE: Temba Mines
WHAT: Dustin and Tony do some Funfrond-spotting and subterranean map updates
WHEN: Late November, post-event
WARNINGS: Foul language as always

Honestly, Dustin had finished this project for the Funfronds at the beginning of the month. All it took was a few more replicated biochemistry tools (before the replicator was taken and subsequently ruined by the Agrii) before he had a whole culture of spores growing, identical to the original sample gathered nearly three months ago. Dustin can no longer claim to be low on supplies for such undertakings in future; half his shop might as well be a bioengineering lab at this point.

What's kept him from distributing is second verification. And what's kept him from getting that second verification is...distraction. Pedantry. He doesn't like that there's a sheer pit in the center of town that the Funfronds tend to gather around, and he wants to be able to get out of it if he ever falls in. A couple of near-misses during last month's storm might be inspiring this impromptu project, but either way, it's set back his schedule by nearly a week and he only slightly regrets it.

For several hours every day, Dustin arrives at the cavern like clockwork, sets out a bundle of climbing gear, rappels himself down the hole and installs metal footholds as he goes. He stops for breaks, obviously - the noodle-armed boy doesn't have the stamina for this kind of sustained labor - when he runs out rope, and when he runs out of footholds. It is a long and tiring process.

But, finally, he's nearing the end. It's dawn, and Dustin is approaching the mine with more than just construction and climbing gear; now he has a backpack of non-perishable food, some towels and a blanket, basic first-aid supplies, a flashlight and batteries, a lightweight pick and shovel, among other things weighing him down. A section of Funfrond spore culture is carefully tucked away in a padded side pocket. The whole ensemble is half as big as he is, and it's all necessary.

Today, Dustin plans to reach the bottom of the pit and stay there.

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The bottom of that pit was somewhere the Tony was already very familiar with, and would say with confidence that no one else wanted to be there. This was not even an area of town that people had much reason to cross through--it was just a big hole, and wasn't exactly a midpoint between highly travelled areas. Someone hanging around kind of stood out. The figure was strangely bulky, too; very hard to miss as Iron Man arced over the height of the factories, then made to jet up and over the city, only to slow down and start to fall as the movement toward the pit was sensed and archived.

It took getting closer to properly recognize the figure, by then his engines loud and obvious, so he couldn't exactly retreat to honour the most conclusive Fuck Off. The Iron Man idled, still a distance away and hovering overhead, until it was quite clear that the kid meant to go over the edge. And what was Tony supposed to do with that? Get ahead of him seemed to be a good start. He gave a kick of his engines, pushing himself up and over to drop into the hole where Dustin seemed to be heading, and twisted around to watch a few feet from the sheer drop, the glowing eyes of the Iron Man peering watchfully just over the ledge. "You're from Earth, right? You know what cockroaches are?" he greeted, his voice modulated with a metallic burr.

For all of the less-than-pleasant memories that Dustin has of Tony, he barely reacts when he hears the telltale rumble of the Iron Man suit idling somewhere overhead. He knows this is Tony and he knows that he has a fancy robotic suit - even if he hadn't been warned of it on arrival, the guy flies it everywhere like he owns the place, making him a fixture that's hard to ignore. This could just be another fly-by on whatever errand Tony is running and Dustin couldn't care less about it.

Except, the noise doesn't go away. Dustin spares a glance out of the corner of his eye and his shoulders sag with a slight, tired sigh. Don't do this to me. Not today. Just move on...

The Iron Man does not move on. Dustin halts at the edge of the pit, expression deadpan.

"You're trying to warn me about the bugs," he says, cutting right to the chase. "Don't bother. Network accounts suggest that they've been chased off and I haven't seen any evidence of them over the last week."

'Don't bother' carried plenty of weight there, very clear in its intention to stop Tony from bothering in general. It was not enough to make him move. He continued his hovering, muttering, "Uh-huh," and watching Dustin expectantly, letting him decide what their next move was. "Moon hasn't screamed for a couple days, either," he did provide, just a suggestion, a thought experiment. "Would be weird to expect it to suddenly do that, too." There were very few patterns that could be trusted around here, and the exact migration or hibernation or whatever of the aliens on the planet's surface designed to cause them problems were definitely not for them to assume with any confidence. Better to have a backup plan for your backup plan. Like a way to fly out of the pit.

Dustin's expression settles into a frown. Tony has a point and he doesn't like it. That would be just his luck, too - nearly a year of evidence to suggest that the bugs have fucked off after the Agrii 'fixed' that particular problem, only for their solution to be just as shitty as their replicator fix and for the bugs to come back, right at the moment he decides to explore their territory.

But stubbornness wins out. "Listen," he says, folding his arms. "I'm going down there whether you like it or not. I understand the risks, I have an escape plan. Are you going to try and stop me?"

Tony was not under any impression that Dustin could be influenced to do what Tony wanted, and he was already raising his hands, empty in surrender, before Dustin asked what he intended to do. That much should have been clear already. "Do I look like I'm stopping you?" he asked in return. He was just hovering here, drifting in the middle of the pit. "Kind of a weird place to want to go," he did have to observe, since he was here and all, just thinking out loud. "Bottom of a big hole. Lots of work to get there, to find out it's just the bottom of a big hole. Might have been easier to ask if anyone had been there already, get a sense of what to expect, just so you know if the payout is going to be worth the investment. Usually the wise business move, making that kind of calculation before writing the cheques." Tony could just keep talking, a miraculous perpetual motion machine, until he was presented with a wall to crash into.

Dustin doesn't answer Tony's question - he knows full well that the Iron Man could stop him whenever he wants, and pretending that he could do anything about that would be an insult to both of their intelligences - but he does provide that wall.

"--No one else has documented when I'm looking for," Dustin cuts in, tapping his foot impatiently. "At least, not that they've chosen to disclose. You obviously haven't been down there recently, since you're still worried about the fucking bugs."

"I don't worry about anything," Tony replied, overlapping and evidently hardly even listening because the helmet had tilted down, contemplating the darkness below. It didn't really explain what he was looking at when he concluded, "Gives you wrinkles," and only hesitated long enough then to make a gesture not unlike his surrender, both hands more gently toward Dustin, like maybe this was something that the teenager should be more conscious of. What Dustin decided to do with that nebulous insult was between him and the pit, because Iron Man cut his engines to freefall into the depths. That would make for a pretty up to date fact finding journey.

It's quite a thing Tony just did - to imply that Dustin worries too much, and then drop himself bodily into a massive pit that, until recently, had been swarming with alien bugs. Dustin takes in a sharp breath and scuttles to the very edge of the hole, getting on his hands and knees so he can peer over and track Tony's descent.

Obviously this is not sufficient; the mineshaft is simply too deep, and soon, Iron Man's lights are swallowed up by the inky darkness below. Dustin is not concerned if he'll survive the drop, but there is a nagging fear in his head that Tony's landing will disturb any hibernating insects at the bottom. So he decides that he needs to get down there pretty quickly, too.

Dustin doesn't have the convenience of an exosuit with precision jets on it. Instead, he hooks himself onto the climbing gear he left behind at the top - does a brief check of the rope and hooks to make sure none of them are damaged - and starts to rappel himself down the edge. While this will still take a while, it's still significantly faster than climbing the ladder.

Tony was minutely, painfully aware of the exact depth of the hole, and was only blearily conscious of the numbers ticking at the edge of his vision as he fell, even less aware that he was holding his breath as he watching the point of light shrink above him. That was familiar. There were no unexpected hands or nets to catch him this time, though, only his own jolt out of his fugue state, feeling naggingly frustrated by not quite reaching terminal velocity. His engines flared back to life, a growl that echoed back up toward the light, just in time to send him whipping around the circumference of the pit as he corkscrewed his way back up toward the tiny figure hopping his way down.

"Hey, you're not going to believe this," he reported as he came swooping underneath Dustin, then slowed to hover just overhead this time, studying his rig carefully. "Down there, at the bottom, I found the bottom of a hole. Rocks and everything, Dusty."

Dustin isn't surprised when he fails to hear a distant impact, nor is he surprised when Tony decides to fly back up and hassle him on his own, much more controlled descent down. He's moments away from blithely asking after the Bug Situation when Tony interrupts, and this time, he does something that startles him bad enough to make him nearly lose his footing on the side of the mineshaft.

"--That's not my name." Dustin whirls his head around with a snarl, face flushed and hot. No one's called him 'Dusty' in nearly a year of equivalent Earth time and he definitely is not emotionally prepared to deal with hearing it again. "Don't ever call me that."

What threat that twisted up face presented did not slow Iron Man from dropping abruptly into Dustin's personal space, not quite touching him but close enough to brace a hand on the wall next to him and draw a knee up behind his thighs where he would take an uncomfortable seat should that flailing around actually lead to a fall. Everybody in this town was so touchy about their names. "I don't know, it's kind of cute," Tony was willing to explore, free hand twisting conversationally while Dustin snarled at him on the side of a cliff. "Unless you think you're more of the Billy Ray in this situation, hey," as if that wasn't bad enough, he started singing, "Bein' good isn't always easy, no matter how hard I try--" At least it was brief. "You know what, you're right, you do keep things exciting."

With Iron Man floating closer and his back pressed against the mineshaft wall, Dustin gets the distinct feeling, like a pit opening up in his gut, that he's been cornered and there's nothing he can do about it. Fury bubbles in his chest. He wants to punch Tony in the face, so bad. Thankfully for both of them logic wins out; getting into a fight here would not only be a tremendously stupid idea, but he would also probably break several knuckles on that faceplate, and besides, Tony doesn't seem to mean anything malicious anyway. The name was picked by chance, purely to be annoying.

Making a sound like a strangled animal, Dustin wrenches his eyes back to the wall and continues his descent, going a bit faster now. "Good to know that I keep you entertained," he growls through his teeth. "Jackass."

"Yeah, listen, it's a long way down, better enjoyed with good company," Iron Man replied, sounding as cheerful as that unforgiving faceplate could convey as he drifted away from the wall where he could get a better perspective on Dustin's whole rig. Someone had to be watching it. They'd get back to snapping under the pressure when he was safely on the ground.

The further down they went, the harder it was to ignore that Tony might not be the only one watching. "The tentacles didn't come from the bottom," he suddenly volunteered. That there was yet another thing someone might be looking for in this hole seemed pretty unlikely to him. "The bugs didn't either, for the record. From the walls. Probably should have rigged up a more exploratory system. Straight up and down, that's going to take a while."

Good company, he says, like Dustin is enjoying or appreciating any part of this. He allows himself a moment to mockingly mime the words at the wall in front of him before clamping his mouth shut and letting Tony do what he wants. This is going to take a while and will just take longer if they stop to have an argument, so he really ought to try and exercise some patience so he can accomplish what he actually came down here to do.

At least paranoia provides a good distraction, after a while. Dustin hardly needs Tony's prompting to feel like they're being watched. That's kind of a constant thing for him anyway. His head twists for a moment, sharply scanning the surrounding mineshaft, but his eyes pick up only shadows. A little, involuntary shiver runs down the back of his neck.

"Not what I'm looking for," Dustin explains, voice clipped. He's just going to ignore that comment about tentacles - he's pretty sure that's Tony pulling his leg. Hopefully that's Tony pulling his leg... "If I don't find them at the bottom, I'll explore the bug tunnels next. Project for later."

This is not a project Dustin wants for later.

"Infrared set up in that helmet?"

That answer made it sound like this hole was not only a very popular place for unusual phenomena, but that Dustin did know about the tentacle situation for some reason and might have been more of a threat than Tony had properly accounted for. Maybe that was why he was so hostile. 'Them' wasn't any further illuminating, though.

At least he had to ask about the suit's functions, unless that was some kind of bluff. It had Tony hesitating to answer, not sure what secrets he needed to be more protective of, and if getting this kid in and out of this project of his before he got hurt was more important. "Something like that," he was willing to reply. "Tell me what you're looking for, I might be able to do you one better."

Not seeing a point in hiding his intentions anymore, and completely oblivious to the fact that he and Tony are mentally sidestepping each other's personal assessments besides, Dustin answers earnestly.

"Funfronds," he says through a sigh. A quick glance is passed down over his arm; he can tell that they're nearing the bottom finally, not because he can see it in the dark, but because he just counted the last foothold he'd placed in the wall and passed it. Only a couple dozen more meters to go. "They've got to have a colony somewhere down here that hasn't been mapped yet. I'm going to correct that."

While Tony could not say what kind of answer he was prepared for, it certainly wasn't some kind of ecological completionist effort. There were a lot of weird plants and animals on this planet that weren't at the bottom of a mineshaft that could use plenty of further study and mapping, if Dustin thought it was that necessary. Which, further, Tony really didn't think it was. Where exactly some kind of grass was growing did not feel like a pressing concern to him.

He had to come to terms with all of this while hovering in the dark while staring after Dustin, who had gotten well ahead of him then, sliding down out of the limited range of the glow of the Iron Man's repulsors. "Funfronds," he eventually said. "That's why you're risking your neck?" No wonder he hadn't figured this kid out yet.

"Yes."

Dustin's feet tap the ground in near total darkness. He glances up, realizing that Tony hasn't followed him the rest of the way, but it's not like he'd planned to have someone with a full exosuit follow him down here; Dustin unhooks himself from his rappelling rig, hefts his satchel down to his hip, and fishes out a flashlight from a side pocket. It clicks on and illuminates the bottom of the pit with a narrow shaft of light, speckled with floating motes of dust crossing the beam.

Only once he guarantees that there isn't anything waiting to greet them does Dustin consider elaborating for Tony's benefit. "I've been doing some work for them," he explains blithely, like it's a totally normal thing to be taking jobs from sentient mushrooms. "Need to give them a status report."

This was only creating more questions, though these ones at least unstuck Tony from his stunned hover to cut his engines and drop down heavily next to Dustin. That sent more dust up into the air while Iron Man turned his menacingly glowing eyes down at the kid to ask very seriously, "You've been down here before? I hope they're at least giving you hazard pay for this. There's laws about kids working in mines."

Dustin passes Tony a quick, quizzical glance over his shoulder. "Not here," he corrects, continuing down the main tunnel at a steady, cautious pace. Tony's inane chatter about child labor laws is subconsciously filtered out - something that Dustin is getting a lot better at, thankfully for both of them. "Well--not this route, anyway. Wanted to make a reliable way out of the pit in case anyone falls in. Two birds."

"Weird place to arrange a meeting," Tony was muttering as he trailed along behind Dustin, tense and anxious. It wasn't quite as bad, with the suit, he could just grab the kid and leave any time he wanted, this was fine. "I've found it's better when everyone is comfortable and relaxed, best results for everyone involved, you make bad deals when you're in a hurry." He had to try to clear every other word that was trying to come out of him from his throat instead of filling the whole tunnel with his anxiety, and Dustin's reminder about falling in did not help.

"It would be better to stop anyone from falling in in the first place," he pointed out primly. Not that this was much of an issue. Only a complete idiot would fall into the giant hole, and the local idiot population was very small.

Dustin eventually gives up on shooting backwards glares at Tony while they walk - the man talks so much that it's basically impossible to lose track of him, in spite of how his voice echoes through the main tunnel ahead. His steps are cautious, but without hesitation. Dustin knows where he's going.

"Let me know when you get around to building that giant manhole cover," he mumbles. Then, changing tracks, "See anything?"

Tony had mentioned that his helmet had some infrared-adjacent technology built into it, which could make him a valuable scouting resource. But luckily for both of them, the Agrii's bug-repellant measures have been successful; the tunnels ahead are empty and quiet, and apparently have been for some time.

If Iron Man did see anything, Dustin was going to wait for the answer while he happily retorted instead, "It'll take about as long as your four hundred and eighteen metre elevator. We'll pop the champagne together," and took his time considering the tunnel and the information he did have. Reeve's maps didn't go this far, and after spending several days down here he had not found a good direction to wander out in, though see also: local idiot population. He had not done much of anything good with that time.

"If they are down here," he finally said, with a glance over his shoulder back the way they had come, tracking the movement of the air, "the only way out is the way we came down. At least--I don't know--maybe there's plant-sized access points. I'm not seeing any hotspots, if that's what you're looking for, but you might be interested to know there is a higher concentration of CO2 from this direction. If that's the kind of thing you're into."

A valid point, but not one that Dustin is in the mood to acknowledge amicably. He grumbles something irritably under his breath and sweeps Tony's quip away with a wave of his hand.

His answer to Dustin's question is much more interesting, besides. "...Yes," he says, pausing to glance in the same direction as the Iron Man's helmeted, glowing eyes. "Aside from respiration, anyway. Funfronds feed on decaying plant matter. I've never observed them eating on the surface, so that would imply they take it back to a centralized colony; whatever food storage they have should be emitting carbon dioxide at a significantly higher rate than ambient as it passively decomposes."

hello I am finally here

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Funfrond History Summary (Player Requested Handwave)