Shock

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony, Cayde, Jan, Cap
WHERE: In the Tembubble
WHAT: Tony's trying to fix some cameras, but keeps running into curiosities
WHEN: During the mermay event
WARNINGS: Everyone being fish-people and potentially doing offputting creature things.


A natural affinity for electric currents didn't always translate to reliable craftsmanship. Only one camera in the city square remained alert, watching Tony curiously as he held one of its brethren, perched together on the roof of the hotel where they were close to the sun and could overlook the gently sifting sand below. DATA bubbled occasionally with a burst of jetstream to keep himself stable, but Tony's windingly long tail draped down the facade of the building to twine into the open windows and root him while he worked. It was so smooth and matte black that it could have disappeared into the covered murk inside, but for the occasional spark that arced across it while Tony concentrated, casting small glints into the darkened rooms below. That leathery hide spreading up his body only made the tail look dangerously longer yet, snakelike even on his arms up to his elbows like he had been dipped in ink. Only flecks of yellow on his palms and the softest slope of his belly broke up that subtle colour, and the scars that stood out on his scalpel delicate hands. They were mostly faded burns and nicks, and none so starkly white as the perfect rings around several of his sharp fingers. Probably because he used them to work his way into the broken camera, forgoing any more cumbersome tools, and barely flinched when the device sparked and left the water smelling burnt. He had clearly taken more care with his unblemished tail, maybe thanks to the sheer ripple of his single, silken fin that traced a sensitive line straight down his front to his pointed tip. Even a bubble breaking from between the brickwork near it had his tail flinching away to loop again restlessly. His only scales were as synthetic as the broken camera, flashing gold covering him from chest to jaw, the edges precise, minuscule hexagons where the nanoweb blended along his skin.

"This one's fried," he murmured to DATA, who dutifully recorded the state of the final camera in the area. "The glass needs to be recast, too, just like the others. Can probably salvage the case, but..." He had ejected a computer chip, warped to itself like the device had overclocked and burst from the inside out. This was going to take some time, and the glass was going to take the forge which--...Donnie wasn't there anymore. Tony pursed his lips, the room below lighting up in a pop like a camera flash, and leaned over DATA with a gentle brush over its top like Tony was stroking his head with a free hand. "Guess that's not a problem," he mumbled, to the blank stare of the robot.

a. the outpost [cayde??]
A lobster clung to the side of the tower from which Echo had once set himself to guard over this city. As it slowly lifted a pointed leg to lodge into the next stone, so did DATA, and they watched each other intently in their measured, sideways ascent. Inside, in the cooler water and only the sunlight lingering by the windows to see by, Tony turned slowly in place, floating bonelessly. He hadn't made it to the forge. He could see it easily as he swam overhead, feeling dread slowly tighten around his heart. Glancing down at the outpost made that dread feel like a stone, dragging him down and impossible to get his arms around. He might have stayed there in the sand, until he found he was staring at the curious line held taut between the outpost and the clock tower, and frowned. It was enough to send him swimming inside, slowly making his way up the way his robot did on the exterior, and was distracted once more as he found the remnants of a cozy corner long abandoned. He had to shake himself back into focus, and by the time he finally made it to where that line was mounted into the wall, he was holding a limp, hurriedly stitched stuffed animal, its tiny limbs bright blooms of colour drifting from between his black fingers. With the other hand, he strummed curiously on the wire, watching the vibration ripple and letting his gaze roll across to the clock tower like he could see that turbulence cross the open stretch of water.

b. a much deeper pool [jan???]
The forge would have to wait. A later project, further along in the schedule. It would be pointless, after all, to do all of that work without solving the cause of the disruption. Talking directly to Billy was out of the question, too; a distraction really, and he didn't deserve to feel interrogated, he needed some time. No, Tony would have to go to where he understood the source was. Even several feet above the wide, black mouth of the mine, the water was cold. He stared down into it, waiting for movement, and starting to shiver, expecting tentacles to unfurl from the rocky sides, pull him in, hold him down until the sun was a pinhole high above him. He went darting back to the ledge of the hole, where a sticky residue remained, staining the rock in drips and keeping him circling it to avoid touching the discoloration. It had been intended to keep the threat contained, he vaguely recalled. That didn't explain the pitons he found driven into the stone, both on the ground and barely hidden by the sand, and the wall inside the pit. He had to dig his fingers into the ground to try to work one free, throwing bolts of static into the water around him while he hauled up on the rusting metal. At the edge of the pit, a pair of funfronds floated up out of the darkness, watching curiously and flipping energetically at each other.

c. the civic centre [steve???]
Tony's tail was a black banner, ribboning through the water over the roofs of Temba for DATA to track and try his best to scuttle after through the purple streets. Tony swam with the piton clutched in one hand, looking like he moved with confident aim, and feeling entirely the opposite. Who was he supposed to ask? If Jon knew what it was doing out there by the mine, would he think Tony had just been out looking for an excuse to talk to him? Was Tony out looking for an excuse to talk to him? In that case, he should have been collecting flowers, about ten hours ago to accumulate a bouquet that neared big enough to justify himself. He slowed over the greenhouse, peering down through the glass and feeling reluctant to go inside even if it would help make up for the lost time. Cutting any flowers from there had felt like a violation ever since Lauri-Ell had been so gently intent on correcting the one time he had made that mistake. In his minds eye, she practically glowed, blue skin that should have melted into the water instead shining like the colours vibrated in conflict. Tony's focus darted toward the civic centre then, only for his brow to furrow with a new question, that strange image of Lauri-Ell fading. The answers weren't any more forthcoming the closer he got, and still nothing as he sank into the strange bowl of the pool on the roof of the centre. It was half filled with purple sand, and teeming with lobsters, more secure up here than on the ground, but it didn't exactly look like a lobster sanctuary. Tony's free hand and a loop of his tail wound around a ladder bolted to its side. To help the lobsters? One of them pushed up from the sand and helicoptered its way out of the depth of the pool, onto the roof, as if to prove otherwise.

Comments

civic center

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve has been mostly keeping to himself since he woke up with a tail. He's gone about his business as usual, cleaning up the rec center, showing up for shifts at the hospital, operating on some sort of autopilot.

He doesn't think about his life prior to this, because what is there to think about? Anytime he tries reaching back for those memories, it's like he can only find a vague understanding of them.

He knows for sure, though, that Tony is annoyed with him, though he can't remember exactly why. He sees the merman swimming up to the roof, and makes his way over, blue scaley tail floating on behind him. Tony had made him a matching shirt to wear once, which was odd, but he also gets the impression that he used to wear shirts more often -- what was he thinking about, again?

"You've gotta approach 'em slower than that," he says. He comes closer, and as the more disney prince of the two, manages to get the lobster that made its way to the roof, so he can guide it gently back into the pool.

[in_extremis]

Being baffled by the lobster enclosure stood no chance of holding Tony's attention as Steve swam into view. He had opened his mouth to wonder about it, but his tongue suddenly seemed to stick, eyes wide as he took in the flash and brilliant colours of him. Of course Steve was beautiful, Tony never missed a chance to remind him of that, but it was like Tony was the one that had forgotten just how magnificent he was and didn't even realize he was staring until he felt the metal under his hands starting to heat up from the static dancing across it. He moved too fast then, rushing away from his lag and darting out of the pool to loop around Steve, up over his shoulder then circling him to end up at Steve's back with his tail draped in his path, the tip flicking by Steve's ear as a warm tingle traced across his back in the wake of Tony's admiring fingers. "Is this some kind of new workout routine, lobster herding? It's working, I'm not saying you should stop, very innovative," he said. There had to be something different, Tony knew every freckle of him-- "Oh," he noticed softly, that pinch of static landing on Steve's shoulder where the sun had brought out the constellations under his skin. Just like Tony knew, of course.

[pursuitofcappiness]

He really had thought Tony was mad at him, though he can't remember why at the moment, and Tony doesn't seem mad at all. A tail flickers past his ear and he laughs, a beautiful bubbly laugh with blue eyes crinkling at the corners. Tony looks great, of course. Sleek and handsome as ever, but the most important thing, to Steve, is that he looks genuinely happy to see him.

Which means he can't even pretend to be annoyed when there's a little shock on his shoulder. Tony was always doing that after all, wasn't he?

"I'm only helping to herd the lobsters because otherwise you'd let them get everywhere," he accuses gently. "You're in a good mood today," he says. "Did you get some good news?"

[in_extremis]

That was a surprise to Tony, who had mostly spent his day feeling cold and frustrated, and had to pause to consider before he could produce the most rational answer, "It's a relief to see you." There wasn't anything that Steve could have done to annoy him so much that it wasn't a relief, after everything else seemed to be going wrong. He was glad to have swept around behind him then, not just to admire the dip of his spine where his scales were so fine and sheer with the tip of a sharp finger, but so Tony didn't have to try to meet his eye as he explained, "My cameras all got busted, Donnie's gone home, the kids got into another fight, what else is new? We're on the upswing now, onwards and upwards."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Oh. That's - admittedly, a lot. "Do you know how your cameras got busted?" he asks. "I'm sorry about Donnie." He knows Tony really bonded with that kid. "How's Leo holding up?" He turns his torso, trying to follow Tony as he swims around, but it just gets him spinning and dizzy.

He reaches out to take Tony's shoulder to stop him from swimming so much. "At least let me catch up to you," he says, smile across his features.

[in_extremis]

The current from Tony's shoulder was much stronger, but he did stop, letting the coils of his tail around Steve slowly sink to the ground as he twisted his mouth to the side and shrugged, looking anywhere else that might have been more interesting than accepting Steve's sympathy. Only vulnerable people cared that much. It was harder to keep the tension out of his body, gripping tight around the piton he carried and drawing his elbows in as he tried to navigate, "You should probably ask him. Do you want to go ask him? Come on." That long tail was suddenly unwinding from around Steve like a whip as Tony shot upward, looking side to side like he could maybe spot Leonardo if he was high enough. The cameras would have really helped here. "It was an accident," he remember to answer then, clearly expecting Steve to keep up. "Nobody's fault. There's this parasite here, gets on you like a tick, makes you Hulk out."

[pursuitofcappiness]

Well, it's too late because Steve goes over to grip Tony's shoulder, electric shocks be damned.

"--Wait, hey, no I don't think asking Leo would be a good idea," he says. "But maybe - we could check up on him?" He blinks as Tony continues. "This the same bug that Billy caught? He put the other one in the hospital with burns. What happened? How do we get rid of the bugs?"

Hulk - he knows who that is. He's friends with him. But why can't he remember anything else about -- the thought disappears.

[in_extremis]

"Somebody should check on him," Tony was ready to agree, still trying to maintain his careless distance while his eyes went wide and pleading. It couldn't be him, he would just make it worse, but a pep talk from Steve was 1000 volts to the heart. Maybe Steve's battery was already drained, though, because Tony looked mildly surprised and had to ask, "They told you already?" Nobody had told him. That tracked, that was why Steve was the one that had to make sure Leonardo was okay, and Tony quickly shook that cold guilt off to continue, "I thought they were already taken care of. There was a nest of them, out in the mine, but those were cleared out, hasn't been a problem for a long time. There's got to be another one nearby that's, I don't know, started to outgrow its resources. Billy's magic has got to be like catnip to them, they found him both times."

[pursuitofcappiness]

"I only got told 'cause I was working a shift at the hospital when Tommy dropped Hargrove off," he says. "Said that Billy burned the other one, it was some sort of bug that made him go crazy," Steve replies. "He was in a lot of pain," he says. "But it wasn't fatal. He's still in decent condition."

It's his turn to swim circles around Tony, then. "But wait. Did - did Leo kill Donnie?" he asks, not sure if he's understanding his whole picture clearly.

b. a much deeper pool

[winsomelosesome]

A tiny golden streak swam quickly through the water and darted down to circle her friend excitedly before the object he held drew her attention too. Jan shifted back to full size and tilted her head curiously, circling him to see if it made sense from any other angle.

"What is that?" she asked, equally puzzled. The funfronds had to move quickly to avoid her spines.

[in_extremis]

The distraction buzzing around him had Tony wrinkling his nose in confusion, trying to twist to catch a better look at it and startling with a crackle as it bloomed into a whole Jan. It took him a beat to recover, and he was reaching for those deadly looking fins before he realized it, static tripping along the spines before his fingers could reach them. He had to draw himself back, chastising himself for being so distracted by colours, sinking into the coil of his tail on the ground as he answered, "An anchor." He went back to trying to dig it out of the rock for what seemed to be a fruitless moment, sounding annoyed as he explained with a tap to the hole in the thing, "Called a piton. A chord goes through here, so you don't..." He wanted to say fall, but that didn't seem right. The logical explanation felt more ominous, so he was muttering when he finished, "Swim away." That wasn't a very pleasant greeting. Abandoning the piton, he rerouted to straighten again with a quickly assembled smile. "Good morning, by the way, sweetheart," he said, hand out in a more respectful offer.

[winsomelosesome]

She giggled fondly at the reaction, Tony so easy to read by his tail. She didn't know why others seemed to have such a hard time.

The explanation earned a brief frown and she peered over, wondering why on Earth someone would want to tie someone up here of all places, and she tried to cover said confusion with an arched brow. "Sounds kinky."

Tony earned a smile and a hand. "Good morning. So seriously, is it some sex thing?"

[in_extremis]

His incessant current was a buzzing under the skin, warm and ticklish after the first spark jumped to close the loop when he took her hand and kissed her knuckles. Which might have been courteous, if it didn't end with a grimace at what weird sex things might have been happening with the giant hole, and had to admit, "Maybe a bug sex thing." Swimming closer to the ledge, he pointed to the residue on the rocks, and explained, "There was a colony of really aggressive ones down there. Might have been a few different approaches to keep them contained, maybe the anchors were to pitch a tarp, close it off." Big tarp. Probably why it didn't manifest. "They ended up putting this...goop."

[winsomelosesome]

The current ran up her arm and down through her spine, and fins, making her shiver and laugh at that grimace.

Bug sex was a lot less appealing though, she got it. She'd had countless hours of Hank's lectures trying to convince her it was interesting, but it wasn't. It was gross. And weird.

"Before I showed up? There was an actual bug related mission and I arrived too late?"

Goop though...ew. Not the solution she would have gone for.

[in_extremis]

Like this was a personal staffing oversight, Tony bent over Jan's hand again, then promised, "Potentially not." Leaning over the edge like he might see them felt like an immediately bad idea, like the pit might reveal itself to be a sinkhole and drag him in, sending him recoiling back with his hands folded over his heart. He was still watching it suspiciously as he said, "One of the kids got bit by one of the bugs just a few days ago. This is the only place I know where they had a nest." He was slow to look up at Jan then, tipping his head expectantly.

[winsomelosesome]

Maybe it wasn't exactly professional that Jan's eyes lit up at the new that some one had probably gotten hurt, and she'd loop back around to that in a sec- but first, she couldn't help but grin, all ready starting her way into the hole.

"What are we waiting for then," she encouraged. "You wanna light the way for us, Darling?"

[in_extremis]

Jan's reaction to a disaster could have been downright sociopathic, and Tony probably still would have lit up at the petname, casting her a smile with his head tipping with an invitation. He couldn't say no to that. The only problem was, he didn't exactly know how to be a steady light. He could at least lead, once he found the nerve, which wasn't as hard with a pretty gal encouraging him, but still came with a hitch of hesitation before he was swimming out over the open water and twisting around to try to remember the path he had taken down with Cayde. "I think they were over here," he muttered, sticking close to the wall where he could touch it if he wanted to, and claw his way back up if something suddenly grabbed him to yank him down. That anxiety did solve the light problem, somewhat, making his tail spark strongly enough to make arcs jump to the stone as the water quickly grew cold around him.

a is for cayde

[deal_me_in]

It was a very particular vibration, measured, to an extent, different from the movements of other creatures. It made the spike-like filaments that trailed down his spine perk ever so slightly, each tip aglow in alternating colors of amber and actinic blue. Optics that shone just as blue peered out from the dimness of the clocktower's mid-level windows before a familiar horned head poked out past the free-floating drapery, though perhaps strange to see for the lack of the usual hood.

Slowly the rest of him slipped out through the opening, his blue metal plating gleaming dully in what muted light there was, sculpted into the toned muscular structure that mimicked an organic being, His tail was segmented for smoother movement, silver-white breaking up the burnished blue like geometrical stripes. Shorter filaments created something like lateral fins that branched out at the end of his tail in wisping tendrils. Leathers didn't really seem suitable, strangely restricting for movement, but he allowed for a belt, if only so he could keep his knife on him. He was, after all, a Hunter.

Such instincts cooled as he spied the origin point of the vibrations, tracing the line that was more out of memory than actual visibility before he swam up and away from the clock tower and towards the other that lay across the way, a strange sort of hope blooming in his chest.

idk why but I was so sure he was going to look like a Cloyster

[in_extremis]

Unfortunately, it was just Tony that appeared to lean out of the open window, one hand wrapped around the wire then, drawing down on it to test its strength. He raised his eyebrows at Cayde's approach, and almost forgot his curiosity to slide all of the way out into the open water, meeting the Exo on his approach, swinging around him expectantly. "Did you..." he started, but in his curious loop hadn't spotted what had intrigued him so much, and he had to slow to a stop with the stuffed animal held by the hand limply at his side, looking as defeated as Tony sounded when he could only produce, "Get polished?" He did always very intensely want to take Cayde apart, that wasn't actually new. He just looked kind of vulnerable out there on his own, very disassmbleable.

ghgojfjg

[deal_me_in]

No loose plates here, any dismantling was going to take effort, not that the Exo was inclined to let that happen even on a good day. Cayde tilted his head, grinning wryly at Tony's greeting. His own question had been answered once he'd seen who was on the other end of the line, only mildly disappointed as he tried not to focus too much on the sad little stuffed Tooka Tony held.

"I am naturally shiny," he replied, giving a flick of his tail. "Taking inventory?"

[in_extremis]

Tony squinted, like he had reason to doubt this answer, still searching and starting to twirl around Cayde again like maybe he would find what he was looking for this time. As soon as he figured out what that was. "Well, you look great, have I told you that recently? Could be on the cover of one of those books you like. We'll find you an agency, when we get out of here, that can be your side gig, nothing is sexier than a model but a part-time model," he said, talking like he could land on what he was trying to find by chasing it down with enough words. "Full-time...whatever it is that you do. Hey, do you know what this is?" Abruptly, Tony's free hand was back up, wrapping around the wire.

[deal_me_in]

"Not recently, go on," Cayde said, not that Tony seemed to need the encouragement as he did so regardless. He chuckled, shaking his head as he stopped trying to track the other while Tony was doing circuits. "Not much for modeling though- isn't that just a lot of standing or lounging around? You know that's not my style."

He blinked, attention brought to the wire. "Oh yeah, that's-" It was there, the answer, it felt like it was, on the tip of his tongue. His brow furrowed as he frowned thoughtfully. It was for crossing from one tower to the other, he was going to say, except that didn't make much sense. Why need a line when you could just go across without it? Something to guide you when it got darker or something? That didn't really make much sense either.

"Uh. Huh. Know what, I am not really sure."

[in_extremis]

In Tony's experience, most of what Cayde did was lounging, and occasionally running away from trouble, so he looked skeptical again, and expectant for Cayde to come to the same conclusion. When he didn't volunteer it for himself fast enough, Tony goaded, "I've seen Jon holding a gun more often than you. He might be better at it, for all I know." As long as this puzzle was looking like it might remain a mystery, teasing Cayde into shooting something might have been more fun. In the meantime, he floated his way up to hook an arm over the wire instead, half-heartedly lifting the stuffed animal like he thought they might be two parts of a puzzle, and abandoning that thought quickly. It did make some kind of sense that it would be for Omega, but the purpose was still elusive. And Tony had to glance back to where it appeared to be mounted in Cayde's house, then slide his gaze slowly back over to his friend, eyebrow raised. If Cayde was bluffing, he could have at least figured out a lie.

[deal_me_in]

No bubbles were emitted with the sound of the snort he made, but Cayde still stubbornly refused to acknowledge that he tended to loiter about more often than not. But he was out and about every chance he could get- it wasn't his fault things were just boring around here.

"The only thing Jon's ever shot is me," he continued, waving a hand. He couldn't quite remember the when of it, but he was quite certain he'd been targeted more than once.

His attention had gone back to the line itself by the time Tony was looking back at him from his own study of the thing, the Exo swimming up to trace it back to the top of his tower. It was secured well enough, a deliberate placement. It should be, he thought, because he'd tied the thing. But...why? He cocked his head, squinting back across where he could barely make it out against everything else, only marked for where Tony clung to it.

"Weird, right?"

[in_extremis]

This wasn't helping. Cayde was committed to his bluff, if that's what it was, so Tony wasn't going to be getting any answers out of him. He hauled on the chord one more time experimentally, testing its tension, trying to decide if it was more likely to be a defensive or a domestic installation and not finding strong evidence for either case. Instead, he tucked the toy he carried against his chest and drifted a little cautiously Cayde's way, keeping his distance because he pushed, "That's bad. Not a hole in you. You must be terrible, then."