revivalproject | Connect This Space Between

Entry tags:

Connect This Space Between

WHO: Donnie and you..?!
WHERE: The Warrens
WHAT: Taking things one step at a time...
WHEN: Post volcano eruption
WARNINGS: N/A
NOTES: Will match tag format.

i. hanging in there
The trip down had more or less been a mechanical process. Just follow everyone down, one foot in front of the other. For all that he's observed, the whole matter of a volcanic explosion happening somewhere overhead was still a difficult thing to process, or perhaps it was just everything else with that just topping it all off. He'd traveled in uncharacteristic silence, just waiting for that last straw that would possibly make him snap.

Thankfully he's been able to hold it together. Fresh water helps, and having other things to mind has kept his thoughts from spiraling completely out of control. It might be an odd sight to see a humanoid turtle carrying a makeshift tank with some kind of local alien turtleish creature in it, but Donnie's clung to it like a lifeline. And then there's DATA, Tony's strange little robot-spy-camera who's apparently been demoted to a cantaloupe as Donnie's chosen method of carrying him along is by a net-like bag. But now there's space and they can rest, so they're set down while the teenage turtle tries to get some feeling back in his fingers as he slowly allows himself to start assessing their new surroundings. Data collection usually helps him relax.

ii. like mapping out dungeons
Being underground isn't really a problem for him. He's more or less lived underground all his life, and compared to the sewers of New York, this is far less complicated to navigate.

Donnie takes to mapping things out, wandering the strange tunnels. He hasn't yet managed to cobble together a replacement computer for the one he sorely misses wearing on his arm, so he's doing things the old-fashioned way, with pencil and paper. He's tackling things in sections, intent on working out every possible direction down one way before he'll commit to the next. Which will explain his absence from the main area at given times. This may not be some technical project to work on, but he's approaching it the same way, completely caught up in his findings.

Someone might want to make sure he remembers to eat or you know, sleep.

iii. no time for idle hands
If he'd been completely without some sort of access to tech he might have lost it by now. At least here the atmosphere is much more inviting than Calibrations. But it also means there's no doors he can close when he wants to keep to himself and work on things. Not that he's finding himself too bothered by people.

His main concern is potential fire hazards, and what with moss and mats everywhere, at times Donnie gathers up some of his things and relocates himself down some tunnel or another where there's less of a risk of burning anything when he tries to do some circuitry work or welding.

iv. aces wild
Choose your own adventure! Throw me a starter or whatever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While Tony had only lifted his chin watchfully, like he could deny how closely he tracked each page, Donnie's invitation had him rolling forward onto his knees to crawl closer and glare down at the map with intent. It was a lot more structured than it felt like from inside, if Donnie's estimations were accurate, like they weren't just banging their heads against a machine in here, but the whole thing was the machine. "What makes you say ship, specifically?" Tony muttered, still staring at the map.

They were as accurate as he could get, anyway. At least he'd replicated graph paper so all the lines were neat and it was easier to match up squares once pages ended and another began.

Donnie looked at this new discovery, fascinated. Sometimes you needed to step back and look at things. It couldn't all be just some personal aesthetic, there had to be some method to this madness.

"Because..." he began in his most solemn tone, "...I really want it to be a space ship."

Look, he was still a sci-fi loving teenager, so sue him.

Tony did look up from the map then, eyebrows raised without actually expecting any further elaboration. It took effort not to laugh outright and discourage any of Donnie's conviction, so Tony couldn't quite hide the amusement in the tug of his smirk before he was peering down at the notes again and giving a nod to encourage, "Okay. Let's work from that hypothesis. What does that make the volcano, some kind of propellant?" He sat back on his heels, trying to work out what else would possibly support this theory, and wasn't coming up with much, except that the whole place was clearly artificial. "You know," he started, not sure what it meant yet, "When I was out at those mountains, before they took out my suit, at that elevation, there was...The only explanation I have is that there was some kind of unnatural light refraction. The stars were closer. Or I wasn't getting enough oxygen, six to one."

"An inconvenience. The volcano wasn't here until a month ago, I'm not sure if that's directly related to this place, and if it is, it's just some big excuse to herd us all down here."

Donnie looked at Tony, head tilting as the man recounted his attempted venture. "Is anything even real? There's only so much that we've been allowed to see, emphasis on allowed. Oxygen's a questionable detail- does your suit have some kind of life support?"

"Yeah, I was just pretty high up--never mind," Tony said, flapping a hand to dismiss the possibility that he was an unreliable source for now. That should have just been a constant factor in their discovery process, not something to linger on. "What do you mean, unrelated--You think this ship is just this, underground...unit?" he had to clarify, swinging his hand around to encapsulate Donnie's map, because that would mean they were talking about different ideas. In Donnie's version, they would have to be ignoring that a space ship is at its most pointless when underground.

"-are you suggesting that the volcano's formation is due to this thing's sudden operation?" Because that wasn't an angle he'd considered, but then he supposed it was as possible as anything at this rate.

"It's clearly been here a long time, it might be older than Temba, in which case I'd love to know how it's been keeping its basic systems functioning. But so far as volcanic activity goes, this is the first time any of that have been kidnapped have witnessed such an event. Has anyone asked the plant guys how often mountains decide to come up and then burst their top around here? They seem to be the only ones who might've been here long enough to know. Maybe they know how long this thing's been around too."

"Are you suggesting this thing wasn't operating until now?" Tony responded, not sure which one of them was making more unsubstantiated assumptions. "Forget timelines, time doesn't matter to the beings running this place, I bet you I could describe your favourite street corner in New York down to the smell on Wednesdays but I guarantee you we're not going to agree on what year it is, time is not a restriction in this situation and even if it was, they lie about it, that thing that shot information directly into your dome was a lie, this city is an infant." Tony took a breath, all of that time talking not enough to save him from having to prepare himself to admit, "We should probably ask them."

That was a lot to be slapped upside the head with. Throwing the factor of time out the window was a hard thing to swallow, and even though Donnie had suggested as much a moment ago, that Tony was saying everything could be a flat-out a lie was like watching him pull at whatever neat threads Donnie had been trying to tuck into a nice little granny square and seeing every single thing unravel into oblivion.

What did that leave him with then, if it was all pointless? No, not necessarily pointless, but it still suggested that he was wasting his own time, trying to come up with angles and formulas. And it wasn't that Tony was wrong. It was clearly Donnie's fumble, in his mind. Go back to the drawing board, rework all his theories without being able to nail down any facts. It stung.

That Tony was at least in agreement about talking to the Funfronds did little to make him feel better. Wordlessly, the turtle started picking up the pages of his map, carefully keeping them in numerical order before tucking them back into the rest of his notebook.

The silence only disturbed by the rustling of the pages was painful to Tony, and at first he could only punctuate it with a sharp intake of breath that he then blew out wordlessly, all of that energy going to drumming against his thigh without anything more productive to say on the tip of his tongue. Clearly, everything he had already said was more than enough to discourage Donnie, and he should have stuck to asking questions.

"I'll let you know if they say anything," he eventually muttered, gathering himself up and hoping at least getting some distance from that callous machine would be a relief. It wasn't, really. He could still hear it in the walls.

Good news on the whole talking to Funfronds thing. Truth was that most of the Funfronds hadn't had a lot of engagement with the 'guests' of the Agrii. They were clearly so intrigued by talking animals that it was rare for one to go far, even into the Warrens, without at least one Funfrond around.

There is a pair in this case, one a ghostly shade of white speckled with purple spots, the other tan in the stalk with a yellow and red crown. They almost jump when they see Tony getting up to move. They had been trying to stay out of sight after all.

Prey instincts were always going to linger.

Being watched like that felt like they were in some weird, new experiment, quantum observation, and Tony could only react to it with an exhausted droop of his shoulders at the shudder of reliable movement. It wasn't like he could get any more humiliated. He raised a hand in greeting that he wasn't even sure they understood and drew closer, then down into a crouch with his knees tight to try not to loom over them too much. His communication was still a full body movement, just subtle, short gestures as he tried to ask, "Do you want to know what we're talking about?"

The speckled Funfrond bows a confirmation to Tony. More information is always useful.

[Study many ... of animals. Intriguing.]

The persistent gaps in Tony's understanding had him tipping his head and hesitating, wondering if it was worthwhile to pursue them at the risk of breaking down what rapport he have, when Dustin was clearly fluent and could adjust as necessary. Probably not, when Tony already had plenty of questions for them, and it was clear he had a limited window of engagement before he said something insufferable. "We were wondering if you were scared, too," he kept on track. "Being down here, and the fire above are very new to us." Was there a dance for 'volcano'? Maybe Tony should have focused on his limited vocabulary.

The two Funfronds gave each other a look at that question before shimmying a yes.

[Much scared. Thought of ... of moss-kin. Die from fire mountain. Many turnings past. Before above ... built.]

While Tony felt pretty confident they were talking about the city being built, he didn't think he had quite enough context about the 'moss-kin' to be sure of that one and it made him hesitate again before offering, "You're very brave, for worrying about...the animals, too. Is that how you knew about this place? Was it the same mountain?"

Same mountain? The two Funfronds jig a quick conversation. Tony would definitely understand that they were questioning what mountain he means. Did he think the one that just went sometimes went away and came back? That was silly. That isn't how mountains work. But they come to a consensus and speak to him directly again.

[Talking Animals help us. Give more spores, make plants sleep and of here. Very good,] the speckled one explains.

The red and yellow one continues from there. [Us live near new bones since soil got thin. Many ... turnings we learn how to work new bones. But never go deep like this. Hard to grow food. Only emergency ... . Fruit-Kin use more.]

Sure, of course, the mountain they were talking about worked in a perfectly rational way, what was Tony thinking. He tried to make his frowning at them look like focus, not even sure if they could read his expression or just the tension in his movement as he asked, "What do you mean by 'new'?" Maybe that was a better question for the Barrys.

He doesn't understand? The Funfrond that spoke taps the metal with a hand, as if to say 'this is the new bones'.

It was to himself that Tony noted in frustration, "Yeah, I get that," while waving his hands, no, no. To the Funfronds, he tried to rephrase, "How new? More new bones all the time?"

Ah, that's a good question. The Funfronds consider and look like they are trying to calculate. In fact... the red and orange one is dancing... Dancing an equation? It's definitely VERY general and not that great of math, but Tony would see it.

[Hundred turnings or more. Very old. Fruitkin have better number.]

Tony was definitely going to have to talk to the Barrys. Maybe their math was better. Before he tried to find one of them, though, he asked, "How many turnings have you seen?," with some cringing at the clumsy language he was capable of.

Ah, that is a good question. They take turns giving an answer. The speckled one says five, and the red and orange proudly announces that it's seen closer to nine.

That was some context for Tony to understand how exactly they might be using 'old' and 'new', but he realized he only had unsubstantiated theories about what 'turning' actually meant and had to follow up with a gesture toward the speckled Funfrond, "Is that how long you have been watching the talking animals?"

Oh, very smart man, this talking animal. In fact, it's the red-yellow cap that responds.

[... was new Frond when Talking Animals come. Little cap.]

Which might well line up with the roughly four years or so the He Rows had been present.

Huh. If he had kept translating 'turning' as 'years', they might have a similar perception of time to the Agrii. Tony went expectantly still, or as still as Tony got, having to restrain himself from tapping out restless nonsense to the Funfronds until he said, "Sorry it took so long for us to speak." After another beat, he added, "I don't think we knew to see you, when we're looking. We've been looking very far. Do you go very far? To those mountains, maybe?" He definitely didn't have the vocabulary to explain which mountain he meant, but hopefully his desperate gestures muddling water, mountain, very far, would orient them and one of them would give him the words for cardinal directions.

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