[Event] Revisiting a Dark Place Down Below

[beholding_archivist]

WHO: One Cal, one Tony and one Jon
WHERE: Deep in what's usually Temba's lake
WHAT: Exploring Idiots?
WHEN: Mermay
WARNINGS: %

There are few places Jon can't See. And it's those places he always finds himself drawn to. On most days when the pull becomes particularly strong Jon manages to distract himself. Other days the mothcatfish that share his dwelling place keep him occupied. And then there are days when he can convince himself that going to these places is simply too dangerous.

Today is not one of those days. But it's one of those days he finds himself reasonable enough to understand that he shouldn't be heading out alone. Not that he wants to go alone but he will if he has to.

For now, however, he does the sensible thing and sends out two messages including a picture of the large cave located in the South-West part of the city. It's one of those places people avoid for how cold and dark the water gets once you dare to swim down. Everyone knows there are creatures down there that are better left undisturbed. They already went down once and ended up disturbing at least one of these creatures which had resulted in a hasty retreat.

'Remember this?' The message he sends to both Tony and Cal reads. They were the ones that accompanied him the first time. 'Will you please join me?'

Comments

[in_extremis]

The light couldn't have been any brighter than BD's dim glow. As the other two explorers came up behind him, Tony watched it cautiously, waiting for any shift in the way the light bounced or a shadow to pass across it. When it didn't come, he could only offer Cal a shrug, and slither on ahead to find out for him.

There was no hiding his approach to the yawning open doorway, but Tony slipped down to swim low to the bottom of it anyway until he was peeking inside. It felt as though his eyes had adjusted too much already to the darkness, making this glow difficult to make out once he was facing it and he had to squint. It didn't come any more into focus for him, and with only a raised hand to Jon and Cal, he was winding his way into the room and closer to the light source. It looked a lot like...him. Rather, a blurry mirror of him, the reflective smear hovering in the water making the image look ethereal and gauzy in its own glow.

[beholding_archivist]

Jon follows after Tony with an initial caution that is quickly pushed aside by his general curiosity. Just like Tony he has expected any sort of movement to disturb the light and he might be equally perplexed by what they end up coming across.

"Wha-?" He manages at the sight of the glowing mirage of none other than Tony. Jon has to cast a glance at Tony to ensure he is still where he should be before carefully inching closer to the glowing version of him. It's very hard not to reach for him and Jon has never been great at resisting such urges in the first place. Maybe it would have been smarter to reach out with one of his tentacles first, but Jon doesn't. And as he reaches his hand forward, he can sense a warmth coming from their finding.

[out_of_order]

For all the quiet tension of things, Cal can't help but be amused as the two who were so worried about him are the ones putting themselves boldly ahead into the unknown. His smile only smooths out slightly as he follows after Tony and Jon, head tilting at the discovery.

What is it? A holoimage? The Jedi tilts his head, letting BD-1 grab onto his bracer so he can be held closer to scan the source.

[in_extremis]

There was plenty of noise in the room, from machines hollowed with rust to clutches of barnacles clinging to the corners, but the thing before them that shifted languidly did seem to be entirely biological. Slowly, the glowing figure seemed to grow another head, or a little boxy extension out of its shoulder. And it reached to meet Jon's hand in return, a perfect mirror with fingers splayed curiously. Tony's real hand was much harder to anticipate, black skin disappearing in the murk and darting out suddenly to snatch Jon's wrist with a pop of light and electric jolt as he made contact to yank Jon back. This thing was trying very hard to mimic them, which would be an unsuspecting fish at ease to swim into a familiar school.

[beholding_archivist]

Jon flinches at getting grabbed by a hand he doesn't expect to make contact with him and his attention darts from the false Tony to the real one, eyes wide and brows perplex. It takes his mind a moment to catch up and his mouth to pull into a pout as he glances back to the glowing figure still floating not far from them and continuisly morphing into a reflection of their small group. It hasn't worn glasses a moment ago.

"Christ..." Jon mutters and backs away again, which only prompts the false Tony to slowly move towards them. "W-what are you?" Jon asks, because clearly asking questions is the way to approach a potentially dangerous being they have encountered deep within these sunken structures.

[out_of_order]

Not that the subject in question being organic keeps BD-1 from scanning it; he's an exploration droid, he'll scan anything and everything to add to his database, and this is a new curious entry.

Cal frowns, growing a little more wary as he watches the display. He senses the vague confusion, and underlying it, a hunger. Oh, he should have picked that one up, how many hungry creatures has he every come across for every planet he and BD have traipsed about on?

"Guys, I think we should back off," he suggests, unsure what else the creature is capable of but not wanting to provoke it into thinking them hostile if it fully isn't.

[in_extremis]

Tony did kind of want to find out if the thing would answer, and left a tingling trail down Jon's side as he released his wrist and glanced Cal's way inquisitively. No one had tried talking to it yet, and Cal didn't make it clear if that suggestion was just nerves, or his magical intuition. The creature wasn't moving very quickly, after all, and when Tony looked back at it, it was twinkling like the light that was reflecting off of Cal's scales. "This isn't exactly what we're looking for..." Tony did have to admit, using the hand still floating at his side to press gently into Jon to lure him away as the glowing blob split into a dozen more reaching hands.