revivalproject | [Open] Not His First End Of The World

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[Open] Not His First End Of The World

WHO: Reeve Tuesti, Richie Tozier, Open
WHERE: Temba, The Warrens
WHAT: Volcano Event Catch All
WHEN: August
WARNINGS: N/A

I. Help I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up | Closed to Richie

It wasn't that Reeve had meant to ignore the evacuation warnings. In fact, he'd taken them very seriously, especially because the warning had come from Jon. The man knew things and Reeve trusted the warning of his friend quite seriously. No, for him the problem came from the fact that there were earthquakes. Not even because they made him nervous, giving him reminders of what it had been like when Midgar had been collapsing under Meteor.

No, the issue was how easily Reeve got sidetracked in trying to save as much of his work, his designs, and his tools as possible. He himself would get a few bags and a small crate of supplies. Mini would get another two smaller bags of his own, ones that would be packed with the more fragile papers. Papers that he was carefully slipping into the cat's satchel along with some design books for the wood working and...

And he didn't see it coming. The quake shakes and trembles, he's immediately thrown off balance before he can run, and...

When he wakes up it's with the ground still again, his body pinned under a heavy shelf.

"Reeve!" Mini was saying, his voice filled with sorrow, as the little construct tried in vain to lift the shelving unit Reeve was trapped under.

"Mini. How-?" he starts to croak out. And frowns. Long enough for his throat to be dry.

"Hours," his feline companion said. "Ya communicator is trapped with yah. Ah cannae get to it! I cannae get help! We're runnin' out of time."

Reeve groaned. Because of course this would happen to him.

"Guess Karma's finally found me."

II. They Slice Metal Like Cheese

"How do you think they're doing it?"

Reeve Tuesti spent more hours here than he perhaps should, legs carefully folded under him so that he wouldn't put extra strain on his sprained ankle. The one that was kicked up on... well, not a pillow, but rather on Mini's back. The feline construct was sitting on the floor himself, his head tilted to the side, so Reeve's ankle could be supported on a fuzzy shoulder, cushioned by Reeve's own suit jacket.

In a way, it's almost adorable. Maybe. Unless you're worried about the cat. Or how closely the feline is watching the Funfronds darting around, his tail lashing from side to side in clear feline interest.

"Maybe thay're tha ones who made this place?" Mini suggested, watching as one Funfrond skirted around him. His hand flexed for a moment before going very still, as Reeve sighed.

"Neither of us believe that," Reeve reminded his companion. "And you know you shouldn't upset our hosts with that sort of behavior."

"Maybe ya shudnae have made meh feline then," Mini countered, his tail still flicking. "Cannae help mah nature."

III. Sauna? Sauna.

Bad news: cleanliness. It was an issue that they really needed to take care of and it was far from easy to expect the limited amount of showers he was aware that Dustin kid was working on to account for all of them all the time. And how, Reeve wondered, was the kid going to solve the heat problem? Well, honestly, he figured he'd leave the kid to it because the work would require interaction with those little plant creatures and Reeve couldn't understand them at all.

Good news: there were always ways to improvise solutions. A small collection of cloths gathered from that kind weaving woman, a few stools put together from the scraps of wood he'd managed to collect from other people's supply boxes that were empty, and two glowing stones set into the metal bracelet at his wrist.

The final step had been stringing up one of the rush curtains the little people made and then setting himself another stool just outside of the room. He rested there, eyes half closed, head leaned back against the wall, while Mini sat in his lap and waved at anyone approaching.

"Need some sauna time?" Mini asked with a wave. "Nae better way ta pass some time and get clean! And entertained! Magically powered it is!"

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Richie hadn't ignored the warnings at all. He might not like Jon, but he knew the guy was able to just know things. If he was saying shit was coming, shit was coming, and Richie wasn't about to get caught up in it just because he had a grudge. So he packed nice and early. All his clothes in a bag, the few cleaning supplies he held onto from Eddie's time here, and the other few mementos he had from the years. It didn't amount to much which was good. He got into the safe space with tons of time to spare.

So, yeah. Something had to go wrong.

Richie kept a watch on the door to make sure everyone he knew was coming in. York, Eddie, Cayde, Tony, Reeve... And yeah, that last one was noticeably missing as time ran out. He tried not to worry. Surely Reeve wouldn't be stupid about this. Surely he saw the messages and would be here any second.

Time ticked and there was still no sign of Reeve. And finally, when it was clear something had to be wrong, Richie couldn't put the worry off any longer and raced out to find him.

"Reeve?!" If he was anywhere it was here. The earthquakes had stopped, thank God, but it was clear shit was going down. Richie walked through the shit that clearly had fallen down, looking for his friend. "Mini?! C'mon, guys. Time to roll! Andale, pal!"

A voice. Motion. Time between the quakes. Mini yowls loudly. The most cat-like his vocalizations have ever gotten, from a back corner behind the bookshelf where he himself was, trying to reach Reeve's arm.

"Help!" he adds. "Please!"

Reeve himself groans.

"Richie?" he asks.

The yowl is what gets his heart rate up. Mini is here and he's distressed. Richie takes off running toward the sound as fast as he can without getting caught on the rubble.

"Mini! Reeve!"

Finally they come into view and Richie lets out a low curse at the sight.

"Well," he says as he reclaims his level-head. "Congratulations: I'm not gonna yell at you for being late."

Reeve gets out a low, bitter laugh at that.

“Get to safety,” Reeve insists. “Just… Don’t worry about me.”

“Worry about him!” Mini hisses angrily because how dare he not. “Help me get him out. I’ve been trying. But his comm is with him, and I can’t get to it.”

And he can’t go far enough to find people if they’re all in safety.

"Oh, yeah. Right. Don't worry about you. I'll get right on that."

Richie looks around, trying to figure out what to use. The thing pinning him down is heavy and Richie has some strength behind him but not enough. Luckily, he watches a lot of TV and read a lot of comic books.

"Mini, we need something round that I can use with a lever. Find me something like that." And he starts looking around for a piece of metal he can use to wedge under the shelf and crank it off with. Other shelves and pieces of debris look pretty useful.

"Okay," he continues. After Eddie, he learned quite a bit about torso injuries in the cocoon of his self-loathing. "Reeve, pal, anything in your chest area feel sore when you're breathing? Any piece of you feel cold or wet?"

Listen, Reeve... he's just a few years behind on catching up to this part of his fate. It's okay to leave, Richie. To choose to be safe for your own sake. Mini, meanwhile, is running off to try and scavenge something to be a lever.

"No broken or cracked ribs I think," he answers. "Can't move my arms enough to tell if there are any issues. My ankle hurts, though."

And he's scared. He's really good at hiding it. It's part of the job at this point.

Richie pulls over a piece of metal that can probably take the weight of the shelving unit. While he waits for Mini with the rounder object to rest it on, he pulls his jacket off and rolls it into a pillow to put under Reeve's head.

"Okay, that's good. We'll look at that ankle in a second, pal. Just stay still and... you know. Deep breaths. In through the nose and out through the mouth." Eddie had panic attacks all the fucking time. He's a pro at this shit.

"You have to do that at least five times before you can bitch at me about how stupid it is and how you don't need it."

Mini is soon returning, slowly. He's hauling a broken bit of Reeve's bedframe. Oh well, that just happens he supposes.

"Treatment for panic," Reeve says, because he knows what Eddie's trying to do. Still, he tries to obey. "Maybe you should too. I'm worrying you."

Yes, he's going to start the breathing now. He'll bitch after. He just had to get the bitching in first too.

Richie blows a dismissive noise. "You kidding? This doesn't even crack the top five scariest moments for me. You could sandwich this between 'Bat-eyeball thing flying at Eddie' and 'Friend had a vision of my gruesome death'. Waaay down there."

But yeah, he's worried. He slows his breathing as he goes to help Mini haul the piece of frame over.

"We're gonna wedge that other shelf there under the one pinning Reeve," he explains to Mini. "One of us is gonna lever it up and off, the other is gonna help pull him out from under. Which one do you want?"

It doesn't crack Reeve's either. But what in the fuck is 'bat eyeball thing'? Okay, you know what, he'll let that go.

Mini looks about to weigh in on things when he goes very still for a moment. Then the feline shakes it off and glares at Reeve.

"Dunnae use yah energy tah answer through me! Magic is still doing something. He said breathe!"

Then the cat nods toward the shelf.

"Ah ain't gonna be able to do that part. This ah can try."

"Alright." Richie wedges the shelf under the other one and pauses for just a second. He turns back to Mini and lowers his voice. "If you see blood, just tell me to lower it again, okay? We don't know for sure nothing...stuck him. You know? And we don't want him panicking."

But the shelf could be applying much needed pressure if there was a wound. It would be tricky.

"Otherwise, tell me when he's clear. I don't know how long I can hold it."

He dries his hands on his jeans then and gets the best grip he can. "On three..." And after the count, Richie puts all of his body weight into pushing the shelf down so the bottom can lift the other one up.

Yeah. Yeah, it's fucking heavy. Richie prays Mini moves fast.

Oh, Mini moves fast. The little guy gets under the thing and tries to pull at Reeve, who is groaning in pain. And... Yeah, not happening. But...

"Hold another moment," he says, before wedging himself under one of the shelves. And he just stands there. "Lower it! Ah can hold it here and ya can get him out!"

His frame, after all, was very sturdy metal. The shelf would rest on him very well.

The minute Mini is in position, Richie is off.

"Okay. Think light thoughts," he says with a smile as he loops his arms under Reeve's armpits. With those locked, he starts carefully but quickly sliding the man out.

"Almost...there...Mini. Just a little...more..." He grunts at the last few pulls. "Enjoying being a fancy broom, Reeve?"

"It's weird, right? And irritatingly effortless."

Donnie's been studying the Funfronds when he comes upon them. His interest has been particularly piqued by how they've been able to manipulate metal to such a degree. "Just what are those tools they're using?" he murmurs, pulling his goggles down to observe the Funfronds at work.

Is heat involved? Some kind of chemical reaction? Magic?

Reeve looked like he was sleeping sitting up, which couldn't be right because Reeve did not sleep, as a general rule, and thus must have been having some kind of breakdown. That sort of thing was inevitable, for someone used to being productive and distracting himself with more than he could take on. Not that Tony would know anything about that.

He hesitated, glancing back over his shoulder for anyone that might be more suited to managing someone else's emotions and being supportive and other such talents that Reeve would have preferred to Tony's solutions. He had made it pretty clear already that they were not particularly effective for him. But Mini was waving.

Cautiously, Tony sidled closer, looking aside as though he might spot someone else that the cat was trying to talk to, hands wringing restlessly around the hard-skinned fruit that he carried. He was quite unprepared for the invitation, making his eyebrows raise and ask, "What?" like he needed it repeated, only to continue before Mini could answer, "Aren't you supposed to be afraid of water?"

Reeve wants to laugh but he holds his breath as he tries try and push with his one good leg to help move. Help Richie move him.

"You're sweeping me right off my feet."

Mini makes a choking sound.

"Dunnae make meh laugh!" he chides them. "Trying to think sturdy thoughts."

Edited 2023-08-18 21:39 (UTC)

"They look almost like little toothpicks. Of metal," Reeve says, sighing in frustration.

Mini's paw is about to reach out and Reeve grabs his arm.

"Not attacking our hosts. Please, try to be less feline for a bit."

Oh Reeve absolutely sleeps, as a rule. More so now that Richie gets on his ass (literally and metaphorically) about it. York too. He's got himself a new little crew of 'please take care of yourself' people. It's... nice. But he's definitely not sleeping here. He is, though, resting to let his mana levels rise once more.

But Tony's comment earns a burst of laughter from Reeve.

"Do you really think either of us contributed parts to him that would be hydrophobic?" he teases with a light smile as he opens his eyes to look at Tony. "He can handle it. And it's better than constantly going in there myself."

It was definitely ineffectual to try to argue his case, but Tony would argue nonetheless, hand splayed in disbelief as he said, "You said he was a cat and couldn't help it. Cats don't like water." It was difficult to point out what other cat-like behaviours Mini was prone to as he sat up in his outfit and invited people to saunas, but that didn't mean there weren't any, and the mothcat certainly hadn't appreciated her bath.

"Is it not a cat thing, that's one of us that made him a little liar?" Tony pressed, planting a hand on his hip and raising an eyebrow, daring Reeve to assign the blame for that one. "Can't be that entertaining, if you don't want to go in."

"Yeah..."

Donnie frowns as he continues watching through his goggles, his expression scrunching up before he finally sighs, shoving his eyewear back up again. "I can't even say it's magic," he grumbles, folding his arms as he flops down to sit on the floor, looking rather petulant about it.

"Times I wish I had a sense materia," he says with a sigh. Would be useful for detecting magic.

"Maybe we can borrow their tools?"

"He is definitely a cat, and it is a cat thing, but he's a higher thinking creature," Reeve points out. "So he can ignore things like that. Usually. He's not as good if there are little creatures."

"Is nae mah fault thay look good to bat at!" Mini protests.

Reeve rolls his eyes. Mini was rather problematic with those. And the mothcats.

"And I can't spend all of the day in the sauna, Tony. But if you're scared to go alone I can."

"What's that do?" Donnie asks. He vaguely remembers what Reeve had told him about materia, anyway.

"That'd be something, although using something that small for any work to our scale is going to be extremely tedious." From what he can see, just holding the tool is going to be a pain. Like using a super tiny pencil. At least he only has three digits to worry about but still!

"It allows me to perceive traits of things through magic," he admitted with a shrug. "Sometimes it's very useful. Sometimes it's a headache with no purpose."

Yes, small to work on their scale. It's a damn fine point. Reeve has to consider that actually.

"They seem so very familiar with these sorts of things. Look at how quickly and expertly they work the metal to their purposes. How long have they lived around this stuff to become so adept with it?"

"Huh. That sounds useful. My goggles do that to some degree. I mean, it tells me what might have magical properties or what's behind magical illusions aside from usual technical readouts." Which can also be headache inducing but he hasn't come across too many things aside from the crystals in the caverns that do that.

Donnie looks back at the little guys, nodding. "Well... if they're the actual locals to this world then maybe they've been here even before whatever this place was established...or at least long enough to figure out how to integrate with it and find its usefulness."

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[Open] Not His First End Of The World

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