revivalproject | Log // Catch-All for April

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Log // Catch-All for April - OTA

WHO: Cal Kestis, BD-1 and you!
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Exploring, fixing stuff, poking around and scavenging
WHEN: Catch-all for April
WARNINGS: N/A

Without the threat of a storm looming over them, Cal figures it's as good a time as any to try to get anything done. There seems to be plenty to see, and he's had his share of experiences when it comes to roaming ruins. The replicator project has been a success, and in no small part due to the help of Cipher Nine and Hux. What else needs fixing around here? Other than...well, everything.

Green
In the northwest part of the city he's begun clearing out one of the larger buildings. The space had seemed ample enough for a suitable work area, and the adjoining room suitable for storage. If not moving things around, Cal can be found bringing in some things, likely broken, very much salvaged, from wherever his wanderings have been.

...or you might catch him napping on a makeshift pallet in a corner while BD-1 plays around in a box of junk. Hey, even Jedi get exhausted! Who knew?

Blue
Running around some random ruins is probably training enough, but sometimes it's nice to know you're in a controlled space. The old theater looks sturdy enough, and given it's still standing as it is after so long, Cal hopes his trust in the architecture isn't unfounded.

If he's not found climbing along the sides of the highest raised rows or making impossible jumps (or heaven forbid, wall-running), he might be found at ground level at the theater's center, going through some exercises with a metal rod (probably a thin pipe) he'd found somewhere. It's far from a lightsaber and it makes him miss the one he's lost, but he goes through the forms fluidly and with as much care as if he still wields a blade of light.

Alternatively he can be found by the flood plain, looking very much like he's contemplating a swim as he wonders what the waters have swallowed up.

(OOC: Or choose your own adventure/wildcard! If you're up for doing anything else or have any ideas, tag away or PM/plurk/discord (Trilobite Punch#4073) me! :D And if action tags are more your thing over prose, I'll go with whatever your pref.)

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Oh, so Cal did just not know how to keep his distance, and Tony laughed again at that expression but put his free hand up in apology for it. Sorry, everyone learned at the own pace, it was only a little funny. He didn't know why Jon was getting on his case, though, because it sounded to Tony like he was making Tony's argument for him. He hadn't even really thought about the story Poe had told him, but that was really just another way the Agrii could be a threat to them-- it was only the Agrii, so far, who had control over who came in and out, their picks could have been very calculated.

"I'm not comfortable with the idea that most of us can't defend ourselves," Tony added, only a little pointed. "If somebody comes at me with a lightsaber, I'd rather have one in my back pocket, too. Don't try to make that a slippery slope, it's just rational. It's not like we've elected a town sheriff to keep the peace." He looked between them then, hoping either of them could correct him on that observation; a system of government would have been more solid ground to work with than individualist anarchy.

"I don't like to think we need to defend ourselves in the first place." Jon frowned back at neither of them, but clearly troubled by the mere idea. He half-crosses his arms, fingertips tapping against his own elbows in a remotely nervous fashion "Even if I had a weapon-" And for a moment he wants to ask Tony if he knows how to use a sword, but cuts himself off. He sure doesn't know how to defend himself, thank you. He has tried in the past, but so far has always failed spectacularly.

And not unlike Tony, Jon lets his eyes shift between the two other men, unsure of where a solution may lie. In the end the best he can do is offer a shrug.

"It is... True, that we are currently relying on everyone being more invested in returning home than causing trouble." But aside from that, this planet is basically a lawless land. In his opinion, adding weapons to that mix might only complicate matters.

"As far as I'm aware of, that was the only incident involving someone potentially hostile into our midst. That's not to say he would have been the most or least dangerous of anyone brought here."

The Agrii had after all brought a Mandalorian into the fold. While Cal isn't personally familiar with the beskar armored man outside of the few encounters he's had, he knows that Mandalorians were formidable warriors and doesn't doubt that the same goes for this one as well, with child or no.

"I'd rather we don't have to worry about defending ourselves from anyone or anything else either, but given how much we don't know about so much here, we can't discount the possibility that a situation might come up. Not that I'm promoting making weapons. Preparation, that's different." Cal looks between Jon and Tony. "So far, the only real threat has been the storm, and that didn't even need a weapon."

Tony picked up on what Jon had been trying to say, and clarified, "I don't think everyone needs one. Just the people who are equipped to take on the responsibility, if shit goes sideways." Just like the Avengers wasn't a open membership to the public, someone had to be prepared to defend the people who couldn't. Who that actually meant was more complicated here, assuming they were all 'he rows' as the Agrii put it, but at least Jon was self-aware enough to want to sit out the physical combat. "Back home, we've got a team on standby just in case a meteor is headed for the planet. Here, we're going to be chickens with our heads cut off." Tony's personal involvement in that team wasn't necessary information. No one else seemed to be maintaining secret identities, but he didn't even have the suit here to out him. It was worth hanging onto that one for now.

Preparation could have meant plenty of things, and figuring out who to trust in the worst case scenario was one of them. They could have still been on the same page. "What makes you so sure you should trust me not to be a threat?" Tony challenged Cal, open palm up with a small shrug because he couldn't see a good reason. As far as Cal knew, this guy who had just wandered into his practice session had a bomb strapped to him. "What about you?" he turned on Jon. "How do you know no one else is just biding their time?"

Jon gives a sigh in response to Tony's question "I don't." He possibly could know, but... Part of him just hopes that he knows when he needs to.

"This team you speak of sounds an awful lot like the plot of various comic books, I must admit. And I believe we even have a few bored superheroes around." Just herd them together and tell them to team up? Is that how superhero teams work?

"And yet, Cal is right. Neither weapons nor superhero team-ups might help us with the storms."

A group that could take action if needed, that sounds ideal, but Cal hardly knows how many people total are even here. The matter of trust also goes without saying, but Tony's suggestion is something he feels is worth considering. Protecting those who can't protect themselves or just need help in general is still something deeply ingrained into him from his Temple days.

Tony's question gets a nod in Jon's direction. "I trusted his judgment." He hadn't sensed anything amiss from either of the two men either. "I don't know what you would have had to gain even if you did turn out to be a threat. But you're right. We don't know. I have no simple answers for that, but given the response with that one case, I'd like to think that for the most part, those present at least understand the gravity of the situation we're in over holding old grudges and questionable morality."

His stance shifts as he feels BD-1 scrabble to the opposite side he'd been clinging to, a natural movement for how accustomed Cal's been to the droid's presence. He doesn't have to look to figure his little buddy is glancing this way and that at their present company, beeping inquisitively at something, to which Cal can only shrug. "What's the difference between heroes and...super-heroes?" he asks in BD's stead.

Edited 2020-04-23 01:12 (UTC)

Tensions were high, they were in a stressful situation. Some people who would consider themselves perfectly normal and morally reasonable had all the reason in the alien world to react to this situation negatively, and find small disagreements feeling monumental. Hell, Tony could have easily knocked Jon on his ass for pulling his magic shit on him, but he doubted anyone in this room wanted that to be how the city was settling its differences. And there were far greater power imbalances to worry about. Grudges, Tony thought, should have been high on their list of concerns.

The droid's language was similar enough to the others that Tony had met that he was starting to think he could pick out phrases, but he wasn't competent enough to understand the subtle distinctions in the question he had. "Comic book stuff," he agreed with Jon for an answer with a smile, but Tony could see this was finally his local culture in the cue and he could be a little more helpful than that. "Anybody can be a hero. You know, firefighters, nurses, the guy that feeds your meter when you're stuck in a meeting. A superhero is someone with the kind of gift that they use to help other people, that easily transcends obstacles that would otherwise be insurmountable for a baseline human. Flight or...telepathy, shooting lighting out of your hands, that kind of thing. That kind of thing isn't quote-unquote normal where I'm from, anyway. The real difference is, you know, a cop can stop a mass shooter if he's got really good aim, and he would absolutely still be a hero in that situation. But a superhero, a really good one, wouldn't have to shoot. They've got other options."

Tony didn't feel like he had to convince Cal any further that being armed and ready wasn't a bad idea, but he did give Jon another questioning look, wondering if that did anything to bring him around on the idea of weapons. They weren't supposed to be used for execution.

It's true, Tony could have easily knocked Jon out had he reacted in a more physically aggressive way. And for a moment that's what Jon thought might happen any moment. Even now, all this talk about arming themselves and he can practically feel all these weapons turning on him, the evil, brain-sucking monster. It's that train of thought that has Jon reach for his own neck, not fully aware of the motion, but very aware of the scar Daisy left there when she wanted to go through his voice box.

He lets out a short exhale at the memory and nods briefly a simple at Tony's answer to BD's question "Right. They are people with special powers that set them apart from regular people. Depending on the plot, these powers can be genetic, caused by experiments, stem from mystic sources or similar. And they... Help people in need." And sometimes fight super villains. A role Jon can very well see some of the other avatars fill in happily.

"And I still don't like the idea of creating weapons." Here, he sighs. But it's a sigh reluctantly admitted defeat "I also don't think this is a decision we can simply make among ourselves."

If the two get into a physical disagreement of some kind, Cal would hate to play the part of peacekeeper. Even now he can sense the growing tension, and he closes his eyes for a moment as if that would distance himself from it, even as he simply hopes that nothing would happen. He'd much rather make friends than enemies, especially when the latter vastly outweighed the former back in his galaxy, and that mainly because of who he is and what he can do.

He relaxes just a little when Tony obliges BD-1 and his own question. Comic books draw a blank, but he begins to nod slowly as the man explains what it is to be a superhero. "I see," the padawan replies, looking down again.

His eyes lift towards Jon, knowing the man's unease yet lingers, and he catches the movement towards his neck. The Archivist had his own burdens, and when he finally spoke up again, Cal once again dips his head in a nod, acknowledging, understanding the concerns.

"It's not a necessity. But it's an option that I'm sure anyone who usually makes use of weapons has probably considered, especially if they're brought here without them. We can't tell anyone what to do." It's also not their call, as Jon has said. "But not everyone needs physical weapons either. Because they're kind of like superheros, right?" He glances at Tony then, not out of assumption, but because he'd provided the explanation. "There are people with abilities here."

Tommy with his speed, Teddy with his shapeshifting, Wanda with... He's not quite sure where her capabilities lie, but from what she had said, and from brief demonstration it had seemed along the lines of the Force, if not vaguely reminiscent of the magick of the Nightsisters from his limited experience. And then there's Altair, and himself.

Edited 2020-04-23 17:15 (UTC)

The delineation between heroes with weapons and superheroes who didn't need them was not that clear, and Tony sucked his teeth with a shake of his head, neither yes or no, to Cal's question. Cap and Thor might have been powerhouses on their own, but they definitely preferred to work with their shield and hammer. That was Tony's own idealism getting in the way of the explanation he gave; he had stopped producing weapons a long time ago for a good reason. He also kept the Iron Man.

It was the exact people with abilities that Cal wondered about that Tony would say he would trust with their own kind of lightsaber in a heartbeat, but they had only been vetted on Tony's Earth, and it was possible none of them were really the kind of people Tony thought-- both cosmically, they could have been from different enough universes that their morality could come to surprise him, and under this microscope they could react in the destructive way he was worried about. He didn't know any of them well enough, not even Steve, who his gut reaction was to trust implicitly, but this wasn't his Steve. That was the tension in this delicate discourse that made him feel the most sick.

He just wanted to see the cool sword. Tony took a deep breath, waving off the larger complexities to ask, "So, what, we put the question to the group? Just make a network post, hey guys, just wondering, how do we all feel about gun laws?" That would have been a dangerous question in any public forum where Tony was from, but maybe it didn't translate properly. "That's going to put everyone on edge, that'll be the spark that causes the explosion," he clarified.

"Making it a big, public discussion is a bad idea, I agree." Jon says with a soft sigh and a nod in Tony's direction before looking down at his feet.

"And don't get me wrong. I understand your reasoning and see the points. Right now everything still seems to work out fine and we don't seem to be in any acute danger at the moment, but of course that all can change in an instant. Most likely when we least expect it and knowing that is just as terrifying as the thought of having someone try to murder me with a blade of pure energy." And this is where he is slowly but surely drifting off into frustrated venting territory.

"Yes, I want us to be prepared when something happens. And I want there to be an us to be prepared. But I have seen these sorts of discussions on Earth and they rarely result in the required unity. And so far... There isn't even much of a unity to speak of in the first place! At best we might risk shattering even that."

"I wish I could simply know what awaits us. What our best course of action is. What the deal is with the storms and the Agrii and if what we try to achieve here even has any value to it." He pauses for a moment to exhale with a slight snarl, pressing his eyes shut into a scowl and taps his own temple with one of his knuckles "And I know the answers are all there. But thankfully not all of us have control over their abilities and instead of finding anything useful end up knowing what everyone's favorite cereal brand is."

And it's his own lack of proper answers that frustrates him the most. Because he knows they are there - Just out of reach, mocking him.

This is far from anything Cal had intended to spark with his simple habit. He hadn't even thought anything of needs for defense or danger existing within their own circle of fellow kidnappees. Should he have? Past the normal caution he's learned to exercise, he'd just not sure what else he's supposed to be doing aside from whatever the Agrii somehow expected of them.

Again he closes his eyes, distancing himself from the conversation, perhaps, but he's still listening, still very much aware of the flaring emotions, the concerns, the frustrations. In part he feels guilty that just having brought up his specific weapon has now given Jon a new idea of fear that he probably could have done without.

BD-1 ducks behind him, while not sensing things as Cal does, plenty able to determine emotion from the tone in which the Archivist takes and the expression that crosses his face. He makes no sound, but tips his head slightly when the padawan expels a sigh that comes out louder than he'd meant it to.

"...I'm sorry."

It seems almost a non-sequitur response following everything else that's been said. Cal half turns away from the two men, shaking his head before looking down at the pipe in his hand like it's suddenly to blame. He knows better.

"This has gotten more complicated than it should have been, maybe even than it should be. I'm sorry I brought it up. It's not going to happen anyway, either with my old one or in trying to make a new one." A note of frustration escapes in those words, the incident that had led to his damaging that lightsaber still fresh, still painful.

"Lightsabers and weapons won't do anything against storms that can dig into your head and summon ghosts only you see. They won't do anything for a storm that can cut you off from whatever abilities or powers you might have. I'd like to know too, what to expect, what to do, how to help, but I've got nothing."

An us, in Tony's experience, didn't always work best as a publicly known institution--part of protecting people, for most of Tony's career, meant doing plenty without them ever having to shoulder the burden of knowing what that took. And while he wouldn't wish that role on anyone, not with the headaches and inability to look oneself in the eye that came with it, Tony very much would do it again if that was the best solution. An us might have been what was necessary here, too. But Jon clearly needed to spool down for a moment before Tony made a suggestion like that, and before Tony thought it was time to fill the space again, Cal was...apologizing?

Tony realized he had been staring intently at Jon, fist pressed to his mouth again, when Cal's voice drew him out of the scrutiny and surprised Tony with the kid's posture. This place clearly wasn't meant to be the philosophical salon today, Tony had intruded on a much lighter schedule. He wouldn't have expected any of the Young Avengers back home to have this discussion with him, he would have been encouraging them not to worry about it, do their homework and get into a good college. Finally, Tony got up out of his seat, bouncing onto the stage with Cal and searching the area for something else long and pipe-like. "For the big problems like that, you can't take them all on yourself, you've got to trust your back up," he said with a clap to Cal's shoulder. From there, he spotted what could have been a fire iron wedged against a seat near Jon, and gestured for him to investigate and bring it over. "We're looking at this too close, we're in the weeds. Jon's right, unity is the problem. There can't be that many of us here, it's not nearly as monumental a task as it seems-- I've seen a whole football stadium unite in bloodlust for a stupid mascot. We've all already got a shared goal."

Cal's sudden apology has a much similar effect on Jon as it has on Tony, effectively pulling the Archivist of whatever mental venting ground his mind has started to bury itself in and leaving the man at a lack of words. Though after a moment, he opens his mouth as if to say something, only to notice the movement of Tony getting up and walking over to Cal. And when Tony speaks, Jon closes his mouth, listening.

He doesn't fully shed his frown of frustration, though. But he has pretty much laid bare most of what's on his mind in the matter by now and from the looks of it they are in agreement that there won't be any grand decisions happening this very day.

And that's fine, he supposes.

Tony's gesture for him is another thing Jon doesn't expect. Though the moment of stupor is short-lived and he does look in the indicated direction to locate the - Fire iron? Jon raises a brow at the item, then moves the same look over to Tony before bringing the wordlessly requested item over, unsure as to where this is supposed to lead. Is the other man planning to challenge the Jedi?

Is that what he's doing? Taking everything on himself? Maybe he hadn't meant it to sound so, but that feeling of helplessness isn't one that Cal's missed. His friends were depending on him back where he'd left them. His master died because he'd failed to do anything to help him. There was no back-up then. But this isn't then, nor there.

Cal draws in a careful breath, turning his head to glance over his shoulder at the hand that's been placed there before following it to its owner. Slowly, he nods. Tony's references make little sense to him, but in the rest of the context he can understand the points being made.

Turning about again, he glances over at Jon as the Archivist brings over whatever it was that had caught Tony's attention. Behind Cal, BD-1 perks, his antennae at either side of his head pointing upwards as he wonders the same as Jon.

Even Cal does so as he sees the long implement, brows lifting as he looks to Tony again.

Well, he had been planning on challenging Cal, but a) all three of them looking at him like that after Tony had just tried to lift the mood in here was very discouraging, terrible energy to bring into a spar, and b) Jon carrying that piece of metal over looking like he really was about to stoke a fire, his confusion reading listless like he had taken desperately ill in a Victorian drama, was an opportunity in the making. Tony curled a finger for BD-1 to follow him, out of the way of whatever they might discover Jon was capable of. "We're supposed to be practicing, right?" Tony reminded them. With a gesture between the pair, he suggested to Cal, "Why don't you show us what this is supposed to look like?"

And just as Jon is about to hand the fire iron over to Tony, the other man steps away, beckoning the little droid to come along to make room?

"P-Practicing?!" He echoes the word, his voice one of disbelief, finely laced with a rather particular brand of panic as he looks down at the metal in his hand and from that over to Cal and the pipe the younger man is still holding with such terrifyingly little effort.

Letting his attention jump back to Tony, Jon casts him a grimace and points the fire iron at him, getting an idea of what he has in mind - Aside from humiliating Jon again, of course. Somehow that little hobby still hasn't died out, it seems.

"This is not a good idea, Tony!"

On the contrary, Cal somewhat appreciates the attempt on Tony's part. He'd suspected as much, given the object Tony had requested. Another distraction? Perhaps. Except there's the fact that it's not Tony who's offering to do the sparring.

BD-1 beeps, looking between the two before scampering down the padawan, hesitantly peering over at Jon once on the ground.

Cal looks at the Archivist as well. "We don't have to if you don't want to. But maybe it couldn't hurt to give it a try, Jon. I'll take it easy with you, I promise."

"Au contraire, I've never had a bad idea in my life," Tony said with such confidence that it absolutely could not be true. Of course, the chance to watch Jon struggle with his balance was the shiny chrome finish, but his intentions weren't all trickery. Once he had put enough distance between himself and the odd couple to be reasonably sure he would come out of this with both eyes, Tony crouched and gestured to BD again to keep following; Tony was supposed to have a partner here, too, and he could take this chance to get a close look at the droid all while getting a better sense of Cal's swordplay skills. "Don't worry about them, sweetheart, your guy's got this under control. Right?" It was going to be easier to observe how Cal thought he should introduce the skill to someone else and what combat looked like, than trying to live it and parse it for himself.

"...goodness." Jon mutters more to himself as he looks after the retreating droid, feeling just a little helpless despite the weight of this improvised sparring equipment in his hand. Which he shifts to hold it in both his hands, then slowly turns towards Cal, steps and face doubtful.

He sighs, dropping his shoulders.

"Fine... I'll do it." He tips his head back a little to look up at Cal and decides to trust that the Jedi won't willingly hurt him. At least not this very day.

"How- How do we start?"

BD-1 sounds an affirmative, but the next inquiry of beeps is directed at Tony as he asks why the man himself isn't volunteering or joining in.

Cal glances over and laughs. "I can get him in next," he assures, perhaps trying to make Jon feel a little better. Directing his attention once again to the Archivist, he smiles a little, giving him a nod when Jon finally just goes with it.

"I'm no Master Yoda, but I'll do my best. We'll start with a proper stance, first off. Feet apart- not too much. Do you favor your right or left?" He'll stand beside Jon to demonstrate how to position himself, whatever the response. "Shoulders back, but not too tensed, double-grip the hilt and just hold it up like so."

Tony didn't quite catch that question, but Cal filled in some context for him and Tony nodded as he sank further down to sit with crossed legs with BD on the floor; yeah, definitely, that was totally part of the plan and they weren't going to be ending this whole production the moment they were inevitably ferrying Jon to the hospital. For this brief moment in time and space, Tony wasn't the least jacked on the sparring mat, and he was not above taking his chance to feel a fraction of the joy Thor clearly felt when Tony pulled a muscle while trying to keep a hold on Carol. He didn't think he would laugh quite as much, but that depended on Jon.

To the droid, Tony wanted to keep him talking to figure out that grammatical structure, and find out what he was supposed to be for if it wasn't playback equipment, so he asked, "What is it that you usually do for Cal?" The relationship had to be codependent in some way.

If Jon has one thing going in his favor at least, it's the part where his body heals disturbingly fast by now. Even if he had to find out that particular detail when he tried to cut off one of his fingers. Still that doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt to be hit by a metal pipe.

And to his credit, he does make an attempt to follow Cal's directions. Though it's painfully obvious that he has never done anything even remotely similar his entire life. His posture and stance are awkward and paired with a thoroughly doubtful expression on his face that only gets surpassed by the tension that may well be holding his entire body together.

"I feel ridiculous." He observes with a glance at the metal between his hands. Just please ignore those awkward little wave-y motions he's doing with the fire iron in what may be an uneducated attempt at gauging its weight when in motion.

The last thing Cal wants to do is hurt anyone. He can still tell how anxious Jon is, and he's not so sure that it's something that will just dissipate after a few swings.

The weight of the weapon in question is a matter he'd forgotten to take into account, so when he sees the man trying to get an idea of its weight, he nods. "It takes some getting used to, true. You have the general idea. Now...show me how you'd swing the weapon." It might be easier to see how to go from there.

BD-1 looks from the two to Tony, bouncing a bit before launching into some enthusiastic hoots and beeps that entail his usual tasks of scanning and ziplining and crate diving, adventuring besides.

The chances for the anxiety to go away? Pretty low. The chance that Jon will stubbornly press on regardless? Actually remarkably high. Especially now that he has agreed to get along with... Oh, whatever it is they are even doing here.

So once Cal tells him to swing his... Weapon, Jon casts the younger man a short glance before focusing his attention back on the fire iron which he then raises and swings downwards in a diagonal ark with about as much force as a twelve-year-old and the balance of a toddler, causing him to stumble forward with an undignified yelp.

It may be pure luck that he manages to catch himself before tripping entirely and to his credit he reassumes the stance Cal has set him into before and tries with a few even less forceful sideways swings, trying not to feel too flustered by his initial display.

"...I suppose I'm not bludgeoning anyone today." He muses with some reluctance.

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