revivalproject | On the Good Ship AgriiPop

I. Reacquaintance
A lot has happened since Cal had first ever been aboard this ship. Going back and forth from his own time and home location and back complicates things, but he remembers key things, sensations, and what data had been restored to BD-1's memory upon their return has helped to fill in other instances. But he knows it's taken a while for them to be back here, to be allowed back here.

After getting his comm updated, he starts down the halls, his droid buddy perched on his back. Upon BD-1's insistence, the Jedi has donned the pink poncho he'd found himself gifted. "I'm pretty sure I don't need to match the locals," he tells his little pal.

II. Just Doing the Jedi Thing
The ship's a lot bigger than he remembers, but Cal hasn't forgotten its origin. He also figures it's the best chance to try and find out more about the elusive Atroma. It's hard to do anything when he's being swarmed by Agrii every so often, but Cal can't really turn them away either. It's good to be able to get to know the Agrii better, and in turn the Agrii can get to know them better as well, and not through computer screens.

Still, he keeps alert for any pulls that might be tugging at his Force senses. One thing he can't forget is that ominous feeling that had once pervaded the halls of the ship when they were once empty, a sensation he'd felt in other places that weren't the Agrii ship. At some point he makes his way to the Green Space to find a spot to meditate.

I. Rockstar
The Hunter's no stranger to attention nor having admirers. He's glad he's left Colonel back on the other ship, pretty sure the chicken wouldn't care for this many people around her, and he'd like to keep potential death-by-chicken incidents to a minimum.

Naturally he's going to poke around everywhere, because that's just how he is. Has the ship always been so stupidly huge?

II. Satisfaction Brought Him Back
Eventually he finds his way to the Hero Control Room, still a terrible name and he really doesn't want to know if it's a pun.

Cayde looks over things with the air of one who should totally be there. He studies the camera situation, trying to make note of their range, more importantly, trying to see if there are any places that don't show up. He goes through the dictionaries looking for something that might be more interesting to read before his attention is drawn to the terminal behind one such pile. "Huh."

He doesn't bother looking up even as Sundance notifies him that he's got company, whoever happens to find themselves wandering in.

"What do you make of this?" he asks.

The distance helps. Felspring had been concerned ever since the gift-giving, the sensation both she and Felwinter had felt from the small box that had been with, of all things, the throne from the keep back on Felwinter's Peak. So far she'd managed to dissuade Felwinter from opening the thing, but she knows it's been calling to him, and she's not sure what to think about that.

"Let's see what this Agrii ship is about," she'd suggested, and thankfully, Felwinter had agreed. Neither of them had been prepared for so many Agrii despite knowing this to be their home away from home. Even when they'd been in the midst of them on Noth, they'd had space. The ship is huge, the map provided suggests as much, so why?

"...if you do not move, I may crush you," Felwinter warns as he stands somewhat awkwardly amongst a gaggle of Agrii children. Some help?

I. Why Are You Wet
Oh. This was a mistake.

Donnie had been eager to see the Agrii ship for himself, and Te Mi had promised him a tour. Now aboard the ship, he hasn't gotten two steps from getting his tablet upgraded when he's found himself facing… a welcoming committee? Just curious passers-by? That's not really the problem, and the turtle's quite happy to greet them and attempt to be on his way.

What he hadn't accounted for was their new alien friends to be so touchy-feely, which Donnie is most definitely not. Also, why did no one warn him that they were so…moist??? Sure, he's a turtle and humid atmospheres are more preferred than dry ones, especially for a softshell, but he objects very much to having his personal space invaded so, even more so to foreign fingers and hands on his skin. It gets borderline claustrophobic at some point, and in a panic, Donnie activates his flight shell and flees. Where? He has no idea, he just needs. Space.

Maybe you see him zoom by, or happen upon the turtle huddled up in some dead-end hall or ducked into a room he most definitely hacked his way into, trying not to hyperventilate as he gets his bearings.

II. Never Give Up, Never Surre-wait
Eventually he finds himself at the bridge, because this is where the important things happen, this is where he can imagine he's in an actual Jupiter Jim movie!! Yes he is definitely taking selfies here, and now that he has his phone, he has no reason to hold back.

But there's also business to be done, and naturally the purple turtle can't not put his hands all over the controls and computing systems. This is a chance for him to get a look at whatever tech the Agrii have been using, especially since they said they have no idea how some of it works.

…but all work and no play is not possible when you're a teenager, so he's definitely geeking out as he paws at things. …You did not see him nuzzling the control panel.

Edited 2024-01-20 08:00 (UTC)

"Unless you're unreasonably confident in your thrust system," replied a very unfamiliar voice, even its cadence more careful and rounded than the quick, sharp burst that Tony would eventually adapt as he was considering a floating robot, "I think you're left with an easily exploitable weak point. One snare and that's the end of a fight." He was staring very curiously, and seriously at Sundance, head tilted back as he was significantly shorter now than her usual eye-level, and looking a little stiff and uncomfortable in the generously soft and casual sweater he was wearing. It has been fine for the snow, but now he was on a space ship and supposed to make a proper impression, and felt severely underdressed for the occasion.

"Are we even talking about the same thing?" Cayde snorted, turning his head before a double-take. "Uh."

He squinted at Tony, stroking his chin as he measured the air above the other and back. He folded his arms in front of him as he regarded this curiosity. And then as if she'd have an explanation, the Exo glanced at his Ghost who offered him a look back and a shrug.

"Uh," Tony replied, the thousand words he clearly had at the ready quickly dissipating and leaving his mouth hanging open as the other, bigger robot turned toward him, and he had to quickly reevaluate what he had walked in on. In the meantime, he was staring at Cayde with a very familiar wide-eyed wonder, which should have been plenty of warning before he was darting closer and grabbing at the front of Cayde's clothes to pull his incredibly articulated face closer. "I thought we were talking about the aptitude of your robot in a competitive setting. What did you think we were talking about?" He might have been wrong about this robot's ability to win a soccer match, now that he saw the full scope of it.

"Hey-!"

Cayde managed to keep himself from accidentally goring the overly curious kid with his horn as he was tugged closer. He affected a sigh, quite believable for how the rest of his body moved with it despite his lack of lungs.

"Thanks but I've been in fights longer'n you've been out of diapers," he said before straightening up again to thumb towards the partially hidden screen. "Was talking about that though. Not familiar with the language although I can probably have Sundance try tapping in."

Luckily, the one thing that might effectively distract Tony from finding out exactly how this robot worked was finding out how the spaceship worked, because that had been his primary mission five minutes ago. It still took him a beat to tear his gaze away from Cayde and the way his mouth moved, toward that console. It wasn't obviously more intriguing to Tony than the multitude of other screens, and he had to wander closer and carefully rock up on his toes, hands out anxiously like he was suddenly respectful of other people's property as long as it wasn't robots and he didn't want to touch the stack of books in the way. What did get his attention was, "Hey, that's my name!," and he pointed to the screen, only for the words to shift away from his finger and make him frown. "Is Sundance who made you? Maybe he's on here, too."

Cayde at least had no qualms about tampering with other people's property, helpfully moving the books out of the way so the kid could get a better look.

"Huh," he said, not making heads or tails of the weird text as they were pointed out. Names? Stranger still, when it moved. "Sundance, you were staring at her a moment ago," he said absently, giving a jerk of his head in the Ghost's direction. "How 'bout my name? Cayde."

While Tony dutifully mumbled, "Thank you," the shifted books didn't ultimately make much of a difference, only giving him the space to plant his hands and find no obvious way of interacting with this screen. There had to be some way of controlling it, because trying to catch every name while they moved around was very annoying, and he couldn't see Sundance anywhere. What he did find was confusing, and he started slowly, "There's...is there six of you?" Even with the names moving around, he would have spotted five more Caydes on the list. It wasn't that long. "Model number six," he concluded for himself, which should have helped him find Sundance, except that was the only number on the list, too. "Everyone else is in pre-release," he announced helpfully.

"Pre-release, right." What did that even mean. "Nice job. I'm going to assume there's probably a Tommy and a Jon and..." His optics slid over towards the kid again. "What's your name anyway?" He had his suspicions; it wasn't like he'd been blind to the sudden child population back on the snow planet but it was still really weird to think about. But really, there was only one person on this ship with nearly so much interest in a robot man. ...okay, maybe two but the green kid at least kept his hands to himself.

Tony was so happy to have a helpful task that he was already tapping on the screen to point out Tommy as he hunted for Jon, and looked startled by the question. He had to gather himself to correct his mistake, an introduction he clearly was supposed to have started with, hesitating awkwardly before deciding patting his dusty hand off on his sweater was the lesser uncouth display before offering it to introduce, "Tony Stark. It is a pleasure to meet you." Later, the phrase would become a suggestive purr in his mouth, but right now it was a well rehearsed line complete with a slight hopeful tick of his brow that he had delivered it effectively.

Sundance looked on as the kid identified another name, recording things for study, future reference in case they had more to decipher. She had a feeling they would. It was at the boy's introduction that she turned and looked at Cayde, who met her look briefly as he tried not to look too stunned in spite of things.

The Hunter took the offered hand in a hearty shake. "Likewise, kid," he said in a smooth recovery. He wanted to snicker at this formality and wasn't entirely sure how to handle things in general. Well, time to do what he did best and play by ear.

"So these're all strictly names?" He looked back at the screen to try tapping at them, but if they were moving away from Tony's fingers earlier then maybe it wasn't exactly touch-oriented?

"I..." Tony turned back toward the screen, struggling with the exact language with his hands up in front of him like he was working the phrase he was supposed to use. "That much is evident," he produced, shoulders stiff like he expected this to be rejected, and moving on quickly before it was, "There's me, and you, but I don't see Sundance. And there, that's Steve Rogers, and Bucky Barnes. They were Invaders, they've been dead for a long time. I don't-- I will find out what that means, and why they keep moving around." Since this screen wasn't giving him any other feedback, he turned to the others, scanning them for anything similar, and prodding at their controls experimentally. Mostly, he saw places he didn't recognize, and what control he had seemed to be over the angle of these cameras. "These are live," he concluded quickly. "So, that must be, too."

There wasn't any rejection forthcoming either way. "A database of sorts," Cayde suggested. "Sundance won't be on there, technically she's with me," he said.

He shadowed Tony as the kid went to poke at the other consoles. "These're connected to the planet we've been staying on. So if the other one's live, how's that work and what's the point of it when it's ...what, a directory?" He squints back over in its direction.

That didn't satisfactorily explain Sundance, only created more questions which Tony was clearly not ready to admit when he was already trying to pretend that he knew what he was doing. He glanced between the two robots quizzically, like he could figure out how they worked by sight, then reluctantly turned back to the terminals. "Someone's changing it, somewhere, or it's being triggered--it's the same names, they're just moving," he said, trying to track one for Cayde as it jumped around the list. "Like those might have a motion sensor on them," he added with a glance at all of the camera feeds. "Some other kind of security system. Proximity maybe." That didn't explain why his name or Cayde's was moving around, unless it wasn't them that was moving, but the relative target.

"Motion sensors don't make much sense for a name listing. There's gotta be more to it," Cayde considered as he drifted back towards the thing. He wasn't much interested in camera shots of Temba at the moment, he knew they were being watched. ...although that prompted him to look around as though he could spy out any cameras in the current room they occupied.

"Well, how about you give it a go, Sundance?" he asked, turning to his Ghost. She floated over to the screen, her vertices twitching as she inspected the screen before light beamed from her core in short bursts towards the terminal.

It's definitely not how Tony would have designed such a system, though he was having a hard time determining what other security feature a list would cover. "Threat level?" he proposed, looking unconvinced even as he did. That was too subjective, and there were dead people on the list. He was distracted from making any further hypotheses as Sundance made her move, and the thoughtful scrunch of his face was replaced with wide-eyed wonder again as he crept closer to watch, and looked a lot like he might stick a hand in the light beam. For science.

Cayde couldn't help but be a touch anxious as Sundance did her thing. It always seemed too easy when there weren't lasers or bullets flying around you or some horde to fend off in the meantime. He kept a look out just in case, although he wagged a finger in Tony's direction, even as he continued seeking out hidden cameras.

"Let her do her thing. How'd you like it if someone bothered you while you were trying to code, huh?"

"Is that what she's doing? Is she hacking it? Is that some kind of wireless universal interface override? Can she trace where the input is coming from?" Tony rattled in return, deterred enough to withdraw his hands, only to plant them on the terminal again and stretch back up on his toes to be as close to Sundance as he thought he could get away with before someone started yelling.

"Space magic," Cayde replied with a grin. He pushed away from the table, picking up one of the dictionaries to flip through. "But she'll try and dig up whatever she can get. A lot of the tech we've come across in relation seems to go out of its way to have any sense be made of it, but we've gotta crack something eventually."

Good news, Donnie. Shaw is very much the type to squint cautiously at an upset person rather than making any attempt to smother them with overt concern or attention - and so when she spots him hunkered down at the end of a hallway, that's just what she does, from a nice and respectful distance of about fifteen feet.

"Hey," she says. "Weird question. Did you shapeshift into a little kid about a week ago? Maybe five, six years younger than you are right now?"

The turtle definitely tenses at first, but the voice is familiar enough that he lifts his head to look down the way. He grimaces a bit at the question, oh, that had been a weird experience and he's not all that sure what he was supposed to do with it. Not...that he supposes it had been all bad, at least.

"...definitely weird, but no weirder than actually confirming it," Donnie admits. "You were too, right?" He vividly remembers the strangely stolid, brave little girl he'd befriended in the snowy village.

Aliens and space travel had been a surprise, but not impossible for Shaw to wrap her head around. Magic - or things that might as well be magic, for how foreign they are to her personal life experience - has been a tougher sell, leading her to wonder more than once if she's a gullible idiot for even entertaining the possibility that this all might actually be for real. Having that magic applied to herself for the first time, though, had sent her into a day-long spiral of being utterly convinced that either she'd suffered a stress-induced hallucination, or she was still strapped down to a hospital bed back home, being force-fed VR simulations designed to make her crack.

She's still not sure that the second theory isn't true, but Donnie's response pretty well disproves the first theory, and her body goes very still as she processes that information. If anything here is real, then that had also been real.

Huh.

Okay.

"Guess I did," she says, after a pause. "That kind of thing normal here or what?"

On the Good Ship AgriiPop

Cal Kestis

Cayde-6

Lord Felwinter

Donnie

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