revivalproject | RATtrap

Entry tags:

RATtrap

WHO: Tony and Cal
WHERE: The Agrii ship and the Mainframe
WHAT: ReBoot. You guys know ReBoot? 🍁
WHEN: March, after the AI message
WARNINGS: Extra fake violence?

Returning to the ship had not been part of the plan. The plan, however, had not factored in the sheer amount of activity back in the city, so keeping his distance had become more relative. It still made Tony anxious to pass by the Glitter Food, then disembark on the Agrii ship in a slow saunter that might have come across as a swagger as he took his time assessing who was in the hangar and how to best get by without being engaged. Compared to the hangar back in Temba, it was downright peaceful, without so many little bots learning their basic programming and plants chattering anxiously. Tony could push his sunglasses back up his nose and heft D.A.T.A. against his chest, patting the side of his shell restlessly. Maybe it wasn't so bad. The trip had given him a few more hours before he had to say goodbye to the little nuisance.

It was only when he was close to the engineering bay that he sent Cal the text, brief and to the point. I'm here. Going to try the astromech. The timing was meant to reduce how likely he was to be seen around anyone else, but it didn't account for the cluster of Agrii around Enide's casing, slowing Tony's approach cautiously. They did seem excited to see him when they noticed, but it was Enide who greeted him, causing the Agrii to scatter and leave Tony considering the tools left for him. While Enide explained that she intended to go into stasis and these gloves and helmets were to interface with her in that state, Tony set D.A.T.A. down on the console to extend his spidery legs and wander a familiar ginger, tapping rhythm along the metal, leaving Tony's hands free to examine the new interface curiously.

"I kind of brought what I hoped was a workaround..." he ultimately said to the AI, thought he hadn't put the strange headgear down yet. A workaround wasn't actually as effective as eliminating the problem. Even if it meant putting his trust in untested devices and dampening his senses. And connecting to her network via Extremis only had him bouncing off of those same bugs. D.A.T.A. came tip-tapping back toward him, peering up at him with that big, guileless camera eye that said the bot knew exactly who Tony was. He didn't need Tony to mutter, "See if you can find a place to plug in," to keep him busy while Tony brought the helmet up.

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Closed behind the wall now, Tony felt very aware of every sound he made, his armor jangling and cape swishing, with nothing else to disturb the pristine environment. It was much darker, too, with the sky hidden beyond the barrier and only a vague, ambient glow that seemed to radiate from the ground. The effect had him dropping his voice as he trailed after Cal, searching restlessly even as he walked, twirling on his heel and skipping backward to get a full 360 assessment, "It's like a lab on power-saver mode. After hours. I thought this was where the party would be." Without Enide awake, they might have been without those lively resources.

His anxious searching didn't stop him from dropping into a casual lean against the doorframe when they approached the castle, head cocked to listen and elbow braced as he rapped a playful rhythm with the other hand. He had propped his knocking hand on his hip and crossed his ankles, lips pursed and ready to shrug at Cal when the door creaked open, just enough for one wide eye to peer out.

"Would this be equivalent to the AI dreaming, then?" Cal voiced as they made their way towards the structure.

"...I don't know what to make of the system. You know, when I asked about nearby planets and data regarding the Agrii's world of origin, it crashed and rebooted the system or something, whenever I tried prompting the latter. Which...I guess isn't too surprising if there's been some data that's been blocked off, but the weird thing? I could...sense it. The computer was somehow projecting feelings. It was actually becoming upset and disappointed in being unable to assist as it was requested."

It was fascinating. And the reason they now stood...in front of a door of a rendered castle, he supposed.

He blinked as the door opened, putting on what he hoped was a friendly smile. So long as they weren't being jabbed at with a spear, he could be friendly!

"Hey there," he greeted. "We were asked to take care of a bug problem. This the right place?"

"The PESTS!" the voice from inside wailed, the eye disappearing as they reared back then collapsed dramatically to the floor, letting the door meander open. After another nudge from the overcome boy on the ground. He did look very young, small and slim limbed and dressed modestly, for clothes made of space blankets. When the door was properly open, he let himself collapse again, hand to his forehead. Tony watched the whole display with raised eyebrows, then shot Cal a sidelong look, which was a beat of hesitation too long for the theatrical youth who moaned, "Well, hurry up, inside already. The Master isn't here, I fear he's been overridden by now. Does that make me the wizard of the realm? I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility."

Cal jolted back slightly at the response, looking back at Tony before the boy on the floor spoke up again.

"Er, right. Sorry," the Jedi said, shrugging as he stepped on in, carefully over those spindly legs. "Did your master go to deal with the problem?" he asked, wondering if that was of any importance as he took in the interior of the castle. He had to double-take at the surroundings, which stretched up and on far beyond what the castle's exterior limits suggested. If he were familiar with the style, he might have likened to it to something Escher-esque.

"What can you tell us about what we're going to deal with?"

While Tony helped him back to his feet and neatened his tunic for him, the boy was happy to breathlessly explain how the infestation had been stopping them from getting into any of the conjuring chambers, halting the important work that kept the citizen's busy. The Master had simply disappeared. Naturally, he went swooning into a chair the moment he could, and Tony let him go down again, leaving him moaning to himself while Tony considered the stairs twisting above and below them, and the hallways arcing off into a dark distance.

"She did something similar to me. I was trying to compile a timeline of the development on Agra-10 specifically--when I was asking about other planets, other species that she had records of, I didn't run into those problems. She'd do a reboot, forget what we were talking about when I asked about building Temba, what had come before transplanting the Agrii there." They might be able to use those datapoints and find their commonality to navigate these halls.

An infestation was never a good thing to hear, and it made Cal think of such problems they'd had on Temba, distant as those days seemed to be. Well, clearing out bugs still seemed largely better than going through various levels of programming, but he assumed that was essentially what they were doing.

He gave the melodramatic lad a pat on the shoulder before turning to once again regard what they would probably have to navigate somehow. Oh, that should be fun.

"Yeah, that exactly. Happened a couple of times. BeeDee tried to track the problem as it happened but he got shocked out of the system before he could do anything further. But it's definitely something acting on the offensive." Maybe they wouldn't have to do much navigating if something caught wind of them being a potential threat.

"Shooould we bother asking where the conjuring chambers are, or shall we just pick a staircase?"

Edited 2025-04-08 06:13 (UTC)

There was clearly so much to this place that just continuing to stand here was making Tony impatient, eyes darting and jaw tight while he nodded through Cal's response. He might have been listening. He had definitely stopped when he interrupted the question, "Yeah, listen, you do that, let me know how it goes," already walking away with an encouraging flap of a hand, moving with confidence toward a wide staircase that he could feel a breeze from.

As though the space was just as anxious, Tony had barely alighted on the first step before he was making an aborted grunt of surprise, followed by the jangling crash of his armor hitting the stone floor that had abruptly smoothed to a slick slide under his feet. It was already steep enough, and the fall threw him with momentum, metal screeching down into the waiting depths.

Cal watched him go off before shaking his head, throwing one more glance back at the fellow on the chair before following after Tony. His faint smile promptly vanished as the other suddenly fell.

"...or I guess that works too," he muttered. Shrugging, he hopped down the ramp, bending low as he began to skid downwards, unable to help for an excited whoop as the speed picked up.

It was a long enough slide that Tony had long seconds, on his stomach with his arms outstretched like he could dig his fingers into the trick stairs and slow his descent, to give Cal following behind him so gracefully an unimpressed pout for exacerbating his humiliation. Cal could at least look a little less cool. By the time the floor evened out, Tony was going fast enough that he went sliding several feet into the cold, dark hallway, until he bumped gently into a wall and took a cue from the man of the house to collapse there in self pity for a moment. Maybe the kid had come by it honestly.

That was the saddest look and Cal was visibly trying not to laugh by the time he came sliding out after.

"There were these icy areas up in the mountains of this one planet I was on. Sliding was the easiest way around, sometimes," he explained as he walked over. He looked down at Tony, grinning wryly before he offered the man a hand up.

"Of course, also annoying to get around too if you didn't manage to avoid them when you needed to."

"On my planet, we call that skiing," Tony replied as he accepted Cal's help up, then daintily helped Cal straighten his poncho like he had been the one so abused. "It's just, you know, usually on purpose." And ice would have been a helpful clue before Tony stepped off the ledge. He primly gathered himself as he finally got a look around, tugging his cape back around his shoulder and combing his hair back, feeling fairly confidently that no limbs or parts had been left behind, though still ended up frowning back the way they had come. Very still and solid there were a set of normal, innocent stairs leading back up.

"Wait, I think I've heard of that too. That's when you use something on your feet for it, right?"

Once Tony's finished fussing with him, Cal turned to look around at wherever it was they'd found themselves in. Compared to the glimpse of what they'd seen upstairs, it looked relatively straightforward. But then that was probably because it offered but a singular new door to go through. That faint breeze wafted from there, although when Cal peeked around the opening all he saw was roughly hewn geometric rock formations, backlit by the faintest aquamarine glow. A cavern? He frowned, starting to look back over at Tony before freezing as an odd, skittering sound echoed from beyond the doorway somewhere.

"You hear that?"

Tony had made more than enough noise on his way down that his tiptoeing after Cal, hands splayed carefully and breath held to listen, must have been pointless caution. If there was something beyond the door, it was more than ready to receive them. Maybe that was why Tony couldn't immediately see anything as he leaned over Cal's shoulder, hands on his back to keep him steady for a listening beat. Something was definitely moving, though; a tap-tap-tap sound with a hollow echo, and the more Tony listened, the more he thought that faint pulse of light followed it along the inside of the wall. He tapped a finger where it still rested on Cal's shoulder, indicating subtly with his chin where the light might have been skittering and then came to a stop simultaneously with the sound, pressed into a corner.

Cal nodded slowly as he watched. So the light source was what was making the noise, was it...?

He had to wonder how well they'd be able to sneak up on anything given the armor, but at least they weren't going to be completely caught by surprise if something was waiting for them beyond that doorway. Cal put a hand to the hilt of his sword, glancing at Tony before he slowly drew it from its sheathe.

Time to go into the creepy dark cave, then...

With less confidence, Tony followed by finding his strange maybe-gun, both hands around it by his hip as he went creeping into the cool dark close on Cal's heels, watching over his shoulder for any other movement. The glow did seem to be everywhere in here, that richer pulse harder to spot now that it had gone still and blended into the ambiance. Slowly, he pulled one hand back to his holster, feeling along it for the snap that he knew was there and came away easily with a tug. It was a tiny, light notion, weighing less than a coin. Tony held his breath again as he flicked it with the nail of his thumb toward the corner where the movement had stopped.

He couldn't be sure if it even made a sound when it hit, but the reaction was immediate. All of the light in the room suddenly swarmed, bright and flickering enough to make Tony squint, that skittering noise suddenly a crashing wave as the the whole room seemed to shift with the roil of it. The light receded, fleeing from the contact, pouring its way down into the cavern. In its absence, the room suddenly felt warm, and dark.

...okay, that was a whole lot more than Cal was expecting, and he was left staring, almost mesmerized by the light show, making a slight face at the noise that accompanied it. Wow, but that sounded horrifying.

The Jedi started after the light, but the sources were moving far faster than he was, even as he threw caution to the wind, imagining that his steps would well be masked by the sound of their retreat. He slowed again as the darkness settled in, not liking the difference of the atmosphere that settled thereafter. The sharp sound of metal colliding with rock had him wince as he staggered to the side of a blunted stalagmite.

Tony barely avoided running him over in the dark, the sound of the collision his only warning to pull his own brakes and still bump up against Cal's back with his free hand finding a hold under his arm. Quickly then, he was feeling up to wrap around Cal's mouth, pulling him back against his shoulder and into the breeze of his shushing under his breath. The sound of the strange retreat hadn't stopped; it had changed. Tony could still hear it, whispering away from them, but in its place was an air pressure change, pressing against his ears, making him very aware of that growing warmth. He wasn't claustrophobic by nature, but he was sure then that he was trapped, teeth in the dark already poised to bite down around them.

No wonder Cal said that the AI had felt afraid. The slightest brush against something they might have been looking for had been replaced with a black hole. At least they had found the problem.

It was unsettling, how heavy the stillness felt, and Cal stood very still as Tony held him, eyes futilely scanning the darkness for signs of anything.

He didn't need the Force to know he had a bad feeling about this, the wrongness left in the wake of things. What he wasn't quite sure of was whether something was still there or if it was the environment itself that turned hostile the moment something intruded where it shouldn't.

Standing there didn't seem like a great idea, but aside from being held back, Cal wasn't quite sure pressing ahead in the dark was any better.

Cautiously, Tony drew his arm back to tuck against his side, just holding the fold of Cal's cape yet to keep track of him in the dark. He should have been getting used to it by now. Instead, he was sweating, and felt the urge to reach the other hand out toward the wall, gingerly searching for where he thought it must be. One of them had to break the silence eventually, but Tony kept it to a low murmur as he hoped, "Maybe they'll come back."

Tentatively, Cal stuck out his foot before remembering he was still carrying that ridiculous sword. He slowly moved it about at foot level to try and circumvent any more roadblocks as he started forward. He wasn't even sure there had been a real path through this, they hadn't had a great look of the place even when it was briefly lit up.

"Maybe," he quietly considered. "...would that be a good thing?"

Tony started to take a breath, then cut it off to shrug; a rustling of his cape and subtle shift of air in the dark. "The light was nice," was the most conclusive reply that he could provide. "Can't you, you know--" he tried to ask with another whisper of movement, and faint chiming of his fingers ringing together up near his temple.

Cal looked over in his direction, barely able to make out the movement but for the sounds that came with it. He shook his head.

"It's not quite working the same way here... unless..." He frowned thoughtfully. If Venidelosia was able to generate actual emotions, maybe there was something to work with within...well, however one defined a computer's subconscious. There was an awareness there, so perhaps there were also some responses to the intruding code even when the AI herself wasn't quite aware of it.

"I was trying to focus on more basic senses since it was throwing me off not sensing things like the guards at the wall," he explained, sounding like... wait, was he? Yes, yes he was. He was sitting himself down on the floor.

When Cal first demurred, it had made immediate sense and Tony was ready to acknowledge that psychic powers probably didn't work in a simulation. Everything else felt so vivid, the sweat down his back and the shimmer of the metal as it shifted over his shoulder, that it took the reminder that these weren't real senses to make him nod and start flapping a hand to recalibrate. By then, though, Cal's voice was dropping, not lower but physically, drawing Tony's chin down onto his chest, then eyebrows raised as he tried vainly to search around above them like he might make eye contact with a judgmental passerby. "If you need a nap we can, I don't know, come back..." he prodded.

"Venidelosia's becoming more aware of herself, somehow. Almost like becoming alive, if that's even possible. I wouldn't be able to sense her frustration and fear otherwise, but something to her programming and the system itself seems to be advanced enough to allow for this. Maybe there's something more to it that we don't know, but..."

Cal folded his legs, closing his eyes as he settled into place.

"If there's that much of a response, then maybe I can try to narrow things down. Let me know if anything changes, just in case."

This time when Tony glanced around, still hovering protectively close to Cal and not eager to step any further away in case he lost the kid in the dark, it was both an anxious search like those changes might happen immediately, and a thoughtful scan. "Don't you feel those things from BD?," he wondered. Cal spoke about this development like he hadn't even considered it a possibility. "He gets scared, he gets annoyed. Of course synthetics can feel. It just happens backwards, you know, you can out screaming and then had to learn the math..." It only occurred to him then that maybe Cal needed to concentrate and not everyone worked as well as he did with the constant sound of his own voice. There was only a brief pause before he was filling the dark again, "They can lie, too, of course," then he was sucking in a sharp breath to press his lips together in a sort of apology. Even that didn't stop the restless drumming of his fingers on the metal plating of his armor.

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