revivalproject | So Keep Pace, How Slow Can You Go

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So Keep Pace, How Slow Can You Go

WHO: Felwinter and you I guess
WHERE: Temba
WHAT: A warlord returns from his explorations
WHEN: Mid-July
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTE: Will match tag format/preference!

It's strange when you come to realize how acutely different it is to be traveling anywhere without company. True, with just him and Felspring, it had been easier to cover more ground. The old paranoias had never left, but it had been somehow easier to weather with even an additional two, even when one had needed more looking out for than the other way around.

These were thoughts that the warlord turned over in his head during his venture. Felspring had detected strange disturbances in the southeast, the source of the tremors, and they had gone to investigate without a second thought. It had been quite a distance to cover, but for an Exo who needed no food nor really any sleep, it was more than manageable. The terrain was certainly more forgiving than some of the wastelands and rugged mountains he'd crossed.

He took his time out there. He'd even taken a page or two from Dustin, gathering samples, not that he personally had any use for them, but at least someone would find them interesting. Plants. Rocks. Dirt once he and his Ghost had arrived where the newly formed mountains had begun to push up. Concerning, that. Mountains didn't just come into being, especially in such a span of time.

The return trip had been made as hastily as his departure from the city.

But now the warlord is back in the city, a bag over his shoulder, still wearing his helmet and greatcoat in spite of the sweltering temperatures. He starts back towards his tower, well, the communications tower, that is, but he'll be on the look-out for Dustin.

Even so, he can't help but keep casting distracted looks back towards the wilderness he had just come from.

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Dustin isn't an easy person to just stumble upon; in general he prefers to keep out of sight, not draw too much attention to himself if he can get away with it, and quietly move out of people's way when he sees them get too close. Even the people he's more comfortable with are not an exception to this rule. Dustin is aware that Felwinter is in a similar sort of boat, so the fact that he hasn't seen the warlord wandering around the abandoned city until today doesn't surprise him.

What does immediately catch his attention, however, is that bag. He knows Felwinter generally travels light. Whatever he's carrying around, then, must be important - plus he's moving awfully slow for an Exo on a mission. It's like he's looking for something.

Curiosity has been piqued. "Felwinter," Dustin's voice calls from a nearby building, moments before he inelegantly clambers out of the remains of a window he'd been spying from and into the street. The oppressively hot weather has forced him to dress down, shedding everything except the innermost long-sleeve shirt and rolled-up pants, but he doesn't dare pull up his sleeves; aside from drawing unwanted attention to how frail he is, Dustin knows any of his exposed skin will be fried to a crisp in the afternoon sun. He's even found a new use for his green-checkered shawl, which is now tied around and over his forehead in an attempt to give his face some shade. "Where have you been?"

While Felspring can detect movement on her radar, she can't pick up specifics usually. She however does alert Felwinter even though by that point, Dustin's come out of hiding to greet them.

The Exo slows and turns, watching as the boy slips out, noting the difference of clothing. Ah, the weather. Hopefully looking at the still fully-clothed Exo doesn't inspire him to sweat more.

"Dustin." He nods before turning his head slightly towards the south and the distant but not so distant mountain that had virtually formed during his journey. "I went to investigate," he says, raising a hand to point. "At the first tremors. They have risen much too quickly since."

Felwinter's state of...well, lack of change just makes Dustin wonder how efficient an Exo's internal cooling must be to keep them from overheating. If they're built anything like Cayde's hoverbike engine, which has done nothing but purr in spite of the sweltering heat, it must be pretty damn good. Dustin's actually kind of jealous. If only he could hook something up like that for himself - some kind of external liquid coolant system, biologically compatible...

Not important. "Ah," Dustin murmurs, twisting to follow Felwinter's hand in spite of already knowing exactly what he's referring to. How could he not? The rise in the ground, subtle though it was earlier in the month, was already pretty obvious to Dustin when he returned to the surface, and has only gotten more apparent in the couple of weeks since. The little earthquakes, too, have been hard to ignore. Having never experienced one personally before now (that he remembers), Dustin's had to adjust pretty quickly to their now ubiquitous presence.

Felwinter going on a personal expedition to look for himself is also not at all a surprise. "Did they start last month?" Dustin asks, turning back. "Didn't feel any underground."

The span of development and structure between Exos and a hoverbike are probably not even on the same level to start. Exos had been designed to be humanity's solution to immortality. Most of the knowledge of that suspicious study was long lost.

"Early on," Felwinter confirms with a nod. He pauses then. "Underground?" What was the boy doing underground?

Dustin blinks at him.

"You didn't...?" Know that Calibrations was happening? Didn't notice that a significant portion of the population disappeared overnight? Didn't care? Dustin squints, a little perturbed now. "We were walked to an underground bunker, in the mines. White walls, no doors out, forced to experience each others' dreams and memories? The old guard made it seem like this wasn't the first time this has happened."

That clarification makes the warlord stiffen.

"...Calibrations," he practically spits, and despite the helmet, one can imagine the narrowing of those burning optics. There is no questioning his opinion of that place. He hesitates, knowing it pointless to ask such things as 'are you all right.' He'd been there once before. Once is certainly enough.

"I was gone before then. I have only just returned." And yet he lowers his head, clearly feeling some guilt for it. Perhaps he could have kept them from entering, although he'd heard the tunnel couldn't be sealed off. Would he have been able to hold people back?

Dustin's stare narrows further with empathized distaste. Calibrations - right. That's what was painted on the wall, wasn't it? His memories of the layout and his experiences are annoyingly hazy, in that way that they have been when he loses his abilities and tries to recall events when the come back, but that doesn't stop him from being profoundly, emotionally and physically affected by the process anyway. The greasy strands of hair matted to his forehead and kind of feral look in his eyes probably communicates that well enough.

"Lucky," Dustin mutters. It's almost a mirror of what Felwinter said to him last year - You are lucky to have avoided confinement. You would not have liked your information exposed as it was. - which is on purpose. The word Calibrations brings Dustin's memories of that conversation forward in a rush. "It was basically what you described. Hallucinated an Agrii promising a way home, followed it, stuck in the mines. No malicious Atroma voice to taunt us though. Not that I remember."

He glances away, looking very uncomfortable.

"What did you find?" Dustin continues abruptly, with a quick gesture at the sack. "At the mountain, I mean."

"An Agrii...?" Felwinter raises his head at that. "...another trick. They must employ different methods to lure people there.

He raises a hand towards Dustin as though to set on the teenager's shoulder, hesitating before he withdraws it, instead dropping it towards his bag.

"It was still in the process of forming. I'm not sure what the cause is, but nothing should be causing such a rise in the terrain so abruptly. I don't know whether this is something to be expected of this planet or if it has been caused by some other means." He shakes his head before slipping the bag off his shoulder, holding it out to Dustin.

"I took samples while I was out. I...noticed you doing so the last time and wondered if they would be of any use or interest."

Looking away and otherwise preoccupied with his own thoughts, Dustin misses the aborted gesture. It's hard to say if this is a good thing or not; he's just relieved to talk about something else.

Only to be struck by a very different pang of emotion, one much harder to place. "You..." Brought back stuff just for me? Dustin doesn't voice the thought, but his eyes glitter when he looks back at Felwinter, only for a moment, before he drags them away to focus back on the bag. He clears his throat. "--Yeah, uh. Soil samples could be useful, especially if new rock is being formed or existing minerals are being shocked into new states. I'd predict some kind of caldera forming, but..."

Dustin shakes his head pensively.

"...The rate is way too fast. It should be centimeters of elevation per year, not per day." His brow furrows. "Screams of artificial interference."

"I have brought such samples. Soil and rock. I have noted approximate mileage from the city. Plants...I was not quite sure how to store, but most of the specimens are pressed in a book."

Felwinter nods slowly in agreement with Dustin's observations. "I have considered the same. They have formed too fast. It would not be surprising if this was from an external cause. In that case, the concern should probably also be as to what the purpose is."

Dustin nods back. "Agreed," he murmurs, frowning. "Could be a new underground complex - the Atroma seem fond of using those. I had assumed they coopeted existing structures, but it's not outside the realm of possibility for them to make their own."

He pauses, then shakes his head again, more dismissively this time.

"--Enough speculating," Dustin sighs. "You were planning on unpacking your samples first? I can come back with something to transport the ones you don't want to keep."

They're good points that Dustin expounds upon. Essentially, they can't rule anything out if it comes to the Atroma.

There's however a pause at Dustin's question, and behind his helmet, Felwinter blinks. He reaches up to slip the bag strap from his shoulder, offering it to the teenager.

"They are yours."

Dustin patiently waits for Felwinter to set the bag down, divvy out the bits that he's willing to part with, and then fuck off to do his own business. But that doesn't happen. His own confused, blinking reaction is much more plain to see.

"...All of it?"

The warlord nods, still holding the bag out. His head tilts just slightly to the side almost inquiringly, a silent echo of Dustin's own confusion.

"...you do not want them?" he finally asks.

"No--" Dustin vehemently shakes his head, eyes pinched shut as he internally swears at himself and his own stupidity. "--I mean, yes, I--I do want all of it. If that's an option. I had just, um--"

Assumed all of this wasn't just for me. He doesn't voice the thought, though - something about it makes his chest feel tight, an emotion that he's having trouble placing between happiness and morose. It's too complicated to deal with right now.

"--Never mind," Dustin mutters instead, pinching the bridge of his nose, and then he abruptly reaches out to snatch the bag away before Felwinter can change his mind.

Felwinter's grasp is easily relinquished once Dustin takes hold of the bag. It's a slightly weighty collection, bearing a few little jars perhaps half filled with various soil samples. The book is no thin tome, heavy enough to act as a press, and clearly bulging with its own samples of flora. And then there's a few other things loose in the bag, rocks that looked interesting, things that wouldn't fit in jar or book.

The warlord nods, not expecting further explanation even as Dustin dismisses it himself. He however pauses, his head turning slightly, looking in a different direction from the woods. It might be harder to tell, given where they are, but in his mind's eye he can see the tunnel on the opposite end of the city.

"...I am sorry I was not here," he finally says.

Dustin is expecting something heavy, but it still manages to unbalance him when he's given the meat of it, forcing him to let it drop to the ground (doing his best to at least control the descent so nothing is damaged) before assessing the most efficient way to pick it up again without hurting himself. Not before sparing a peek inside, of course, to satisfy his curiosity.

What he sees brings that complicated feeling back to the surface again. Not only had Felwinter brought back samples purely for Dustin's benefit, but he'd done so in the same ways Dustin collected them on their previous trip together. He'd paid attention and saw use in replicating his methods. He respected him. It's everything Dustin ever wanted from a relationship with the people he once saw as his peers, back home, and for some reason that realization makes him incredibly sad. But also really happy? Feelings are hard.

Either way, Dustin's eyes have gone misty and he's having a hard time figuring out what to say. After a few moments he manages a croaked, "Don't," then quickly follows up, "--Don't be. I didn't need--"

No, that would be a lie. Dustin cuts himself off with a wince; he would have preferred it if Felwinter were there, even if it meant the warlord suffered with him. He can't help but feel like it would have made him feel safer somehow. But there's no use dwelling on something like that, especially now that he's out.

"--This is more important," Dustin corrects, setting his jaw with a sniff. He swallows thickly. "Thank you."

Felwinter looks back down at the boy. His own feelings are complicated on the matter. He considers the people here his responsibility to some degree, but they don't depend on him nearly as much as the people he'd more or less inherited when he'd taken over the other warlord's keep. Maybe most of the people here didn't need him, maybe Dustin doesn't really either, but...

His glare is thankfully unseen as he narrows his optics back towards the other end of the city. He wouldn't have been able to do anything for them in there, would he?

Dustin speaks again, and the tension from Felwinter's shoulders seems to ease slightly. He hadn't been there for the boy then, but he can at least be there now. He nods.

"...is there anything else you need?"

Felwinter's response: Terse, matter-of-fact, expected. Dustin can handle this. It centers him somewhat, helps him repress the more complicated feelings that are keeping him distracted.

"Are you planning on going back?" he asks, twisting the bag closed so he can at least attempt to heft it over his shoulder. "I want to go with you, if you are."

Is he? Felwinter's gaze turns back towards the woods that he'd come from, where he knows mountains that hadn't been there roughly a month ago have started to make their appearance.

"I will consider it. But I do not know if venturing back when it is at such a stage is wise. Their formation had been previously unpredicted, even unnatural for its speed." Even Felspring is uneasy by these changes, and he trusts his Ghost implicitly.

"I do not like it."

It's rare he gives very firm declarations of anything, rarer still for him to share these opinions with anyone.

Dustin agrees too strongly with Felwinter to directly notice how unusual his behavior is, but something about it still gives him an almost instinctive sense of unease. If someone like Felwinter finds all of this unsettling...

"Yeah." He shuffles anxiously between his feet, then with a grunt of effort and a stumble, hoists the sack of samples over his back. It's heavy. "At least it's far away. The earthquakes are probably gonna get worse, but otherwise we shouldn't see too many directly destructive consequences from something like a volcanic eruption."

"...I don't know how reliable any information of how such events normally occur may be if it comes down to that," Felwinter observes grimly. "We can only remain vigilant."

He looks to Dustin. "Shall I carry it for you? I...might have overdone it." And given the build of an Exo, hadn't really thought too much on how much different a burden it would be between him and a flimsy human at the time.

Dustin's only response at first is an unhappy hum in the back of his throat. He knows Felwinter is right - Dustin had said so himself, hadn't he? That this isn't a standard geological event, not by any standards. The size and distance of the fast-growing mountains can't be directly correlated to events he's read about from his own world unless he makes some pretty hefty assumptions.

Maybe they'll have to evacuate. The idea of picking up everything and leaving is an uncomfortable one, but not insurmountable. Dustin's pretty confident he can manage something.

Speaking of picking up and moving-- "It's fine," Dustin insists with a wave. "About the samples, I mean. It's not too much, I just, um. Well I have something to carry it with, but I'd have to go back to my shop and--I guess you should just carry it instead."

Being paranoid is more or less a consistent state of being for Felwinter. Perhaps here he doesn't have to worry about warsats falling from the skies with the intent of crushing him, but if the very world itself decides to become hostile, there isn't much to be done there. It's quite frustrating.

He holds a hand out to take the bag back with a nod as Dustin reaches his conclusion. Less time wasted this way, and more importantly Dustin can be out of the sun sooner.

Looking a little sheepish - and kind of anxious, as the thought of the new mountain on the horizon opening up and destroying everything sits in the back of his mind - Dustin awkwardly slides the sack back off his shoulder towards Felwinter. The process is not terribly graceful.

Suddenly, a realization strikes him. "...Do you know where my workshop is?"

So Keep Pace, How Slow Can You Go

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