revivalproject

Entry tags:

Wilt

WHO: Tony, Donatello, Lestat. Let me know if you want one for ✨you✨
WHERE: The agricultural building and the beach
WHAT: Checking up after a couple of different traumatic events.
WHEN: July
WARNINGS: Lestat, there will be blood. Might be following up on any relevant Calibrations traumas with Donnie.

a. greenhouse [for Donnie]
It was even hotter inside the glass building. There was a dark cloud on the horizon that Tony looked to with longing, willing to weather whatever nuclear-level storm this planet could fabricate for them for a little rain to cool down the shimmering street, only to decide once inside that humidity was actually exponentially worse. DATA was entirely unconcerned, tapping away on his spindly legs down the aisle and brushing through the lush greenery that practically burst out of every bed on either side of them. The robot didn't have to struggle through a thick breath of dense air. He wasn't waiting for Tony to keep up, either, and rounded a corner into the thicket while Tony tugged at his cuffs to push them impatiently up his already damp arms, where there wasn't even a breeze anymore to cool them.

"Hey," Tony complained, but was already alone and released all of that pressure in a sigh with a droop of his shoulders instead of the argument he had puffed up with for being abandoned. He didn't want to spend any longer in here than he needed to, and definitely not wandering around lost, so he had to muster the willpower to jog after DATA before he had entirely disappeared. He was the one that knew where Donnie was.

Tony hadn't properly warned the kid about what that tunnel really was, and even a month spent scavenging berries was preferable to being stuck in that nightmare. He might have been a little thin and bruised, but at least Tony had gotten a tan. In his time since being violently deposited back at the fountain, a few anxious days prodding around the tunnel did mean a lot of time for Tony to have designed a new suit that may have had something to do with the boots swinging from his hand. Tony might not have deserved forgiveness, but Donnie did deserve a little freedom.

b. waterfront [for Lestat]
The arguments in favour of becoming nocturnal were mounting. Not that Tony was getting much sleep at any time of day, but he could see the benefits of being completely unconscious through the height of the relentless sun and only coming out of wherever Lestat was storing himself in the relative cool of the night. The raucous birdcall wasn't as pervasive, either, leaving the beach clear and attuned to the meditative lap of the water that slipped away from the sand silently. Not that Tony was very good at meditating, either. Or waiting. He filled that gap with his own voice then, sometimes mumbled, sometimes snatches of song, up toward the stars as his hands worked just as busily at nothing just over his stomach, fingers tapping at the air as though he sat at a keyboard rather than sprawled on his back in the sand where he could dig his toes into the cooler layers below. When the noise he made wasn't quite enough to drown out his own doubts, it would get quieter still, fading out into occasional mutters if he wasn't biting his lip, until an idea was distracting enough that he wasn't consumed with the crushing weight of its ultimate worthlessness. They were all stored on the servers back in the library, anyway, blueprints and equations or more ephemeral sketches for Tony to sort through when he returned to the workshop, maybe find something that Jon could make an approving noise at.

While he worked, his head was pillowed on his silk jacket, shoes abandoned beside him, one of them holding down the corner of the blanket where a basket and small box waited. In the stillness between each wave, while the water seemed to hold its breath, he could still sometimes smell the sticky sweetness from the picnic, reminding him every time to check his messages in the back of his mind as though he could miss a notification. Two more minutes, if Lestat didn't show, Tony would leave, and no one had to know he had been tricked into wasting his time out here. He could have been wasting his time at home.

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Donnie had all the nervous energy of someone who had been stuck indoors for far too long with no proper outlet. The induced sleep was hardly restful, hours of wakefulness blurring with what might as well have been hallucinations come those dreams and the places he found himself in.

He'd kept himself busy, maybe too busy, but it was the only way he knew to weather things, the only way not to get horribly depressed and stay shut in a room in self-imposed solitary confinement within confinement.

But now he was out and all at once it was just too much, so he latched on one thing to focus on. Focus however was easier said than done when things were just incredibly warm.

If comparing two evils, Donnie had to go with the humid heat over the dryness that seemed to greedily suck up every bit of moisture outside. It was almost comparable in the greenhouse to the worst of a New York summer, and Donnie had set up a hose to spray upwards, creating a small section of rainfall to help make the heat a bit more bearable as he checked on his plant experiments.

The timbre of that soft patter changed as it pattered onto DATA's metal case, making the robot turn his camera up curiously with only a brief slowing of his tip-tapping feet, then press on without further concern for this indoor rainfall. He came scuttling directly toward Donnie, where he stopped just as confidently at the turtle's side, and lowered himself to the ground with his legs retracting to leave him an eye staring upward, droplets sliding off of his polished sides.

Donnie glanced up at the sound, finally catching that delicate little tapping, though it took him a moment to place. He looked towards the little drone, staring blankly a moment once the little guy came to a halt.

"Data..?"

He looked at that unblinking eye, his perfectly drawn brows angling downwards in suspicion before he turned his eyes towards the vague suggestion of a pathway between the rows of greenery. If DATA's here, then surely he hadn't come all this way alone.

The only acknowledgement that DATA offered was a whirring of his shutter, half closed in focus. He had done his job exceptionally, and led Tony directly to Donnie, and nothing had gone wrong. After another moment, Tony was even there!

He approached much more noisily than the robot, beating heavy leaves away from his face and doing his best to sidle through the choked path with plenty of complaints for the intrusion of his personal space. "At least buy me a drink first," he was saying as he pushed out into the circle of rainfall, hopping on one foot to detangle a vine that had hooked around his ankle before it got ripped. By then, he was clutching the boots to his chest, elbows tucked in, and they still managed to be coated with the sticky seeds of some burgeoning flower, petals clinging to Tony's sleeves.

When he realized where he was, he stared at Donnie for a moment before accusing, "This cannot be fun for you. This is a nightmare."

It had always been a strange, tense sort of relationship between him and the metal sphere. Maybe it was all one-sided. Donnie eyed DATA again before giving him a little poke with a finger.

Tony's entrance coaxed a weak smile from the turtle. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed something so simple like people complaining, or just some kind of noise other than footsteps on hard, clean floors. Sure there were some exceptions in the Calibrations space because apparently there were people who were even more antsy about confined places than he was, but it was still all very subdued.

He looked up at Tony, blinking at the greeting, turning the words over as he worked out what exactly the man was trying to apply them to.

"Aside from the current climate situation, this for the moment is considerably paradise in comparison to previous venues."

It was possible that Tony should stop to think more before letting the sounds come out of his mouth, though choosing to do that now, after the mistake and letting his teeth click together, also cut off the apology he was trying to muster. Instead, he took a breath and glanced around like he could see the overenthusiastic flora from a new perspective now, he did get it, and sauntered closer through the shower where he had to pluck off his sunglasses as they were streaked with droplets. A fair trade.

With a gentle pat to keep Donnie steady before he could protest, Tony swept down to greet him with a kiss to the top of his head, then was swaying back again to ask, "You okay, kid?" through his teeth, like they could keep it a secret from the flowers if he wanted.

He was trying very hard not to look miserable, but being soggy in an artificial rainfall didn't really help. But he wasn't being sarcastic despite the sound of his tone, that was just how he spoke, really. After being stuck behind white walls, why wouldn't he come back to somewhere full of plantlife, mugginess aside?

Hugs from his father were rare as it was, kisses? Out of the question. Donnie blinked, momentarily thrown off by Tony's actual greeting before his eyes shifted towards the wet ground.

"...better," he finally admitted, before adding on a, "Maybe." He chewed on his lower lip for a second before looking back at Tony.

"I should've figured it was a trap, I mean, you told me about it but then there was an Agrii saying we could go home and everyone looked like they were going and... I don't know but it was the worst place I've ever been in. Like...I know there are places people put other people who are insane but this was like the opposite."

Edited 2023-07-12 23:22 (UTC)

So far, there was no real way to prepare for anything that the aliens inflicted on them--it came randomly, and was different every time, no patterns that Tony had been able to predict except that nothing could be trusted, not even his own body. He started flapping a hand to discourage any further blame Donnie thought he should have been taking for knowing any better, only for it to slow and withdraw to tap anxiously against his chest instead.

"Okay, listen, good news," he offered, suddenly chipper to draw them up out of any wallowing in the mud that was happening here, "you were already kind of insane, so..." He grimaced an apology for being the one to have to tell Donnie, hand tipping in the air now to measure a negligible adjustment in his sanity, all things considered. "I get it, though. Being away from me for so long must have been hard on you. That's very natural."

Donnie pouted for all of two seconds before conceding the point with a muttered, "Fair." Being a genius did walk a fine line between sanity and insanity, after all.

"Oh gosh how long was it even? No never mind, I don't know if I want to know. I tried keeping track at first, going by when I woke up but then it just got kind of depressing."

He looked down again, grimacing slightly at DATA there before turning that eye around and nudging the little drone to the side.

"...where were you?"

Another grimace, this time with a raised lip and small nod to agree that Donnie could have been better off not knowing the particulars, because the exact length of time didn't matter so much when it was over now, and time wasn't exactly reliable here anyway. He could go away himself tomorrow, and come back in six months three years younger.

Not particularly eager to explain his own failures, though, Tony glanced around with a hand out vaguely at the world around them, sucking his teeth, and didn't answer instead, "I'd be impressed if you could tell me something about it that wasn't depressing. I got an incredible--uh--date out of one of those dreams once, I've done worse things for love." It was more likely that Donnie wasn't so lucky, though, and Tony's expectant eyebrows quickly dropped and he gave his head a tiny shake, you don't have to answer that. Now he had to cover, "I didn't know it was coming, if that's what you're wondering. I was out of the city, trying to find something out there. Must have been--not out of range, they knew where I was, they brought me back. It's not like we can hike out and settle somewhere they can't reach us. " He shrugged, another apology, eyes on the ground then until he could scratch away the void of shame crushing his heart.

"If not depressing, then creepy," Donnie snorted, wrinkling his nose. "The text on the wall, definitely didn't help with the ambiance."

He did have to arch a brow at Tony mentioning his own experiences in those dreams, and it made him stiffen a little bit. Guh, the dreams. He supposed not all of them were bad but it had to be terribly intrusive, going through other people's heads, finding someone in his own.

Donnie shook his head then. "I...wasn't sure where you were, or if it was better than where we were." The 'or worse' was heavily implied. He wasn't sure that hearing about Tony's attempted exploits was any better. Still trapped. Still stuck.

"...something hides the door. There's definitely something between the Calibrations rooms and that tunnel, they just don't want us to find it. You've seen how my goggles work. When I'd scan where the door was, they'd just go out. I thought something was wrong with them, but the readouts would come out just fine if I looked elsewhere. The wall feels a little different too, where the door should have been." He sighed, lifting his hands and letting them fall. "Don't know how helpful that is but I mean...had to occupy my time with something aside from my battle shell. -I finished it, by the way."

From what Tony understood, Donnie should have been uniquely positioned to gain some understanding of the mechanisms of this door, and maybe knowing definitively that it was there was something of a win, technically. Maybe he'd be better prepared when he came around to his magic thing more. It was sounding to Tony like that was an important part of the equation, muttering, "Extradimensional maybe. Occupying a plane of existence we don't know how to sense yet." Even Jon's All Seeing Eye wouldn't work if something wasn't visible.

The battle shell was a welcome distraction from yet another problem Tony didn't know how to solve, and he enthused, "What--finished, like you built it in there?" He wasn't about to doubt a herculean creation under extraordinary circumstances, but couldn't imagine that would produce the ideal form that Donnie had been fixated on. So they could focus properly on these great strides, he flapped his hand to belatedly insist, "Don't worry about me, I'm always okay, I'm invincible," then raised the other still holding the boots against his chest. "I got you something. Do you know how to skate?"

An extraplanar doorway still seemed more reasonable than a magical one.

"Wasn't just the door that was blocked. I tried looking around the rest of the facilities. Anywhere that they didn't want tampering got the same results- the connection to the food dispensers, the water, even the drainage."

Donnie raised his hands again. "I had most of it together before we were stuck, but I brought all the parts and portable tools I needed for fine tuning." He thumbed over to some small storage shed a little ways from them, the vague shape of the shell-like armor sitting just within the opening and out of the immediate 'rainfall.' "Need to make a better battery pack for it. The ones I had won't last for a consistent output. Oh-"

Remembering something else, he pulled out a couple of crystals from a belt pouch, small raw ones from the caves. "These were relatively fresh before we went into the tunnel. Something was affecting them I think, when we were in there, they weren't glowing as brightly. Like they were being drained."

Not that he doubted Tony's ability to take care of himself but he still had to give him a look. No one was ever always okay and hardly invincible, but Donnie couldn't keep a rueful smile from tugging at a corner of his lips all the same. He really was glad to be able to see him again.

And then came the odd question, and his attention drawn to the boots that Tony had toted all the way here. "Skate? Uh...sort of? Usually I skateboard. Why?"

Every point of access to the outside was considered, it sounded like. Or happened to be distorted, if it wasn't the doors that were truly being tampered with, but the room itself shifting. How important was the difference? More immediately, Tony was following that gesture toward the shed, literally, moving before Donnie was finished explaining, muttering, "Hey, look at that."

He had to drop the boots by the door to run inquisitive hands over the shell, then turn back to Donnie with a lopsided grin to say, "You're a marvel, sweetheart. I'd get you a contract tomorrow." The smile faded at the sight of the crystals, making Tony cock his head with concern, back to the looming problem. Distantly, a hand flapping to dismiss any concerns, he said of the skates, "Basically the same thing."

"Needs a paint job too," Donnie felt he had to note, but Tony's praise sure did the job of perking him up. He smiled brightly, looking almost ready to hug the guy but he reins himself in, that'd be weird, maybe.

The boots are considered again, brow quirked. Wheels? Blades? He had to backtrack a bit. "Wait, wait. They're for me?"

"They were..." Tony started, their energy swapping as Donnie brightened and Tony struggled against brooding on what the crystals meant. Their powers didn't work in that tunnel, either, disconnecting them from something, like a battery...He cleared his throat, squinting to try to focus, because he was in the middle of saying something. "If you got this thing to fly, though, you might have made me obsolete. Tell me you were working out those kinks down there, I'm sure everyone else loved it."

The shift wasn't lost on Donnie. He blinked before shaking his head.

"It wasn't like I had room to give it a proper test run. I just worked in my room. But the bulk of it was all done in your forge and with your help."

He sighed, the earlier energy boost quickly petering off without someone reflecting it. "Not sure how much good it'll do in this weather, even with a better battery pack. My shell will cook under the metal in this heat."

"So, you don't know yet if it can fly?," Tony tried to parse, slightly disappointed that Donnie didn't have chaotic development stories. That would have livened the place up and given Tony at least once person to tease about it. Maybe that wasn't worth the inevitable head injuries. More disappointing, the shell wasn't properly designed if it wasn't going to be protecting Donnie from the elements, though for that Tony twirled a finger in the air and said, "We'll have to work on that, this is MK 1--or..A-1. Make sure the toys work, we get the power source sorted--Reeve can probably help. Have you asked him about the crystals?"

"It can fly! I was able to touch the ceiling. But like I said, the batteries I had on hand weren't optimal for much more. I probably wouldn't have gotten from the tunnel to the forge, let alone stay in the air any higher than a few feet." He'd finished it, yes, but there were a lot of things he couldn't properly do, like field-testing.

Tony's suggestions made him relax again, nodding before he paused, face scrunching up thoughtfully. "I...think? Ugh, it's even weirder to say I dreamt that I did because it's technically true."

That was a weird enough thing to say that Tony took a moment to parse it and be sure what kind of dream Donnie meant, then snapped a nod with another apologetic gesture scratched up the back of his neck, keeping his focus on the shell. "Those aren't particularly productive conversations, in my experience," he allowed. So maybe a topic worth revisiting, now that all parties had their eyes open. "Not for that level of problem solving, anyway. Very productive if you're looking for blackmail material. That kind of thing could convince a guy to make a power source for you."

"Well...maybe not, but it seemed better than accidentally getting hit with someone's memories." Some had definitely been better than others but on the whole it was still pretty unsettling. Donnie hugged his arms around himself for a moment. He really didn't need to know what other people's lives were like from so intimate a perspective.

"But if someone else makes it then you don't know how it's done yourself," he frowned. Not to mention it was virtually unheard of for him to have anyone make something for him. Usually it was the other way around.

Donnie made it sound like he was looking for reasons not to use the blackmail material he didn't get, leaving Tony watching him narrowly, not sure if it was some kind of cover or Donnie really managed to be thrown into one of those dreams and not see someone's most rusted inner workings, and on top of that happened to have a moral compass strong enough that he wouldn't even take the hypothetical advantage. Annoying.

"Sure you would. You take one look at it, you figure it out. You figured out how to make this thing by taking toasters apart, didn't you?" Tony argued, patting the battle shell again. Maybe that was a misguided assumption and Donnie had neglected to tell Tony about his stint at Xavier's where Forge could teach him engineering by blasting it into his head.

There didn't really seem much to blackmail on when it came to Reeve. If he had a talking cat doll wandering around somewhere then there really wasn't much else to take advantage of there. Donnie didn't even want to think about Billy's headspace.

It wasn't particularly that Donnie wasn't one to take advantage where he could, but of what he could remember, there wasn't anything he'd want to make use of and nothing he could particularly think of that he'd want from anyone of them.

Talking toasters and reverse engineering was much easier.

"Okay, point," Donnie admitted. "...but I doubt you'd be happy if I took apart your armor."

"I'd use you for kindling," Tony readily agreed. There were lines that just weren't crossed, like dismantling a man's armor. Only the worst people did that. "But I'm not the one you're blackmailing. Unless that's what you're doing right now. Am I being blackmailed?" If it was his choice, he'd also pick himself over literally anyone else to design and build something, but he'd proven too stupid to understand the energy this planet could apparently support so he didn't think that was really an option. Besides, it wasn't his head that Donnie had been digging around in. His secrets should have been safe from leverage.

"I haven't decided on who's worth blackmailing yet," Donnie said, shrugging, not that he sounded very enthusiastic about it. Going through people's experiences involuntarily was already exhausting enough the first time around without wanting to recall them. He slumped a bit.

"Can...we not talk about stuff that happened in there?" They hadn't been released for all that long in comparison to how long they'd been trapped- it was far too soon to be recollecting the whole experience.

Wilt

b- just kidding

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