revivalproject

Entry tags:

Outage

WHO: Tony and fellow 10s exclusively.
WHERE: Heading to the power plant, open to suggestions
WHAT: Tony gets into the civil engineering game, for his own purposes. He has disrupted the grid. Sorry.
WHEN: Now? Whenever you're ready?
WARNINGS: Thread is horny.
SOME NOTES: This is a blackout that I didn't really intend to last very long, but that's up to you. If you want to use it to do some power outage shenanigans, let me and/or Hux know and we'll stay distracted from fixing the problem.

network
[Shortly after all of the power seems to cut abruptly, whether or not anyone noticed or were peacefully asleep in the dark, absolutely everyone receives a direct, private text message at the same time.]
I will fix it. Not a problem.

problem solving
It was inevitable that this would become a problem, but Tony didn't anticipate it happening this fast. There was a whole city out there that, presumably, had been run on this very same grid when fully populated. How was he supposed to know that the entire alien power load was only built to anticipate a single Gamecube and a dinky water display? D.A.T.A. was still smoking in the dark from the surge when Tony wandered dejectedly back into the workshop, no luck fixing the outage locally-- this wasn't a fuse problem. It was everyone's problem.

At least one thing was obviously not part of the same grid; the network hadn't gone down for Tony, and while that was further bad news in the long run, he could take the blessing to try to address the issue before anyone got hysterical about it. He sent out the mass text as he tore the data spheres down from their suspension and meticulously worked in the low light from the simmering forge to feel for the heat and melted warp, and gut the most damaged pieces, leaving them spread blindly on the workbench. That was really going to fuck up his schedule.

He knew where the power plant was, kind of, in theory, and it wasn't a trek he was eager to take without the full light of day on his side, but it wasn't like he was getting anything else done here. It would be faster than it looked, he could run, there was probably a generator up there and the way was going to be brightly lit and not an dark, creepy forest at all. Deep breath. Tony grabbed his jacket and his tool belt and started across town.

Elsewhere, the hum of power had gone silent, lights winked out, and the steady bubbling of the fountain at the centre of the city murmured to a stop, until the surface of the water was still as glass.

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That was One, and Tony found himself laughing, too, at the casual recount, even with his brow still bunched in baffled concern. The timeline still wasn't making a lot of sense to him, and Tony wasn't sure how invasive this question was but he was asking anyway, "How long have to been Six?"

He held out the almost complete torch for Cayde to pour his juice, still not convinced that this would be an effective fuel but it wasn't like they had anything to lose. If it didn't work, they could just get Cayde to scream at anything they couldn't work out in the dark.

If all else failed, Cayde supposed he had at least one party trick up his sleeve, but it wouldn't do good in the long run. He was still really holding out on that this drink stuff would burn as potently as it hit people when ingested. Which was probably why he nearly upended the entirety of the bottle's contents over the rag, just to make sure it was thoroughly soaked.

"Huh? Oh. Honestly, I can't remember how long it's been since my last reboot." He paused. "Incidentally, reboots aren't the same as deaths- otherwise I'd be like...Cayde-somethin' hundred. The Light fixes that. Reboots are...they're for the mental side." He tapped at his noggin. "Human brains and robot bodies don't mesh so well- who'd have thought?" With a slight roll of his eyes, he shrugged. "So Bray's fix was to reboot Exos every so often- ease up the mental stress. Can't do it too much or it really messes things up in there. Got a friend named Banshee-Forty-Four, and the number's not just for show. Poor ol' guy forgets things left and right."

With just an inch or two sitting in the bottle, Cayde eyed it before tipping it into his own mouth. Wouldn't do a thing for him, but there was something for going through the motion at least.

"Not much helping for it either, any working research on improving things fell through when the Darkness hit and there was a hell of a lapse between then and when Guardians finally started getting their act together and survivors gathered to rebuild." Just thinking back on it made him feel old, which he figured there was no point in denying, but reminiscing was a reminder of people that had been lost for good, too. He rolled his shoulders back, tapping his fingers against the empty bottle in hand as he tilted his head at Tony.

"So, got a light?"

The liberal soaking made Tony snort, stretching the torch further away to avoid any splashback on his shoes and continued to hold it out after Cayde seemed satisfied with his handwork, the rag dripping a generous pattering of juice on the ground between them. This was certainly going to do something.

The winding tale of Cayde's long, lived history had been engrossing enough to distract Tony for this long from the question of an Exo's mechanics, but that was bound to come back in full force eventually. There wasn't any filter in place that could have stopped Tony from asking, "Do you still have a wet brain?" with an unmasked curl of disgust. That should have been the first thing to go, that thing was unreliable.

Right, the matches. Tony started to pat down his pockets, sure he hadn't left them anywhere since tying the bundle together.

It had better do something, otherwise it'd just be awkward. Never mind that Cayde was beginning to have his own doubts about it- he was stubbornly going to hold on to that belief that this thing would catch fire up until it either did or didn't.

He squinted at Tony, but otherwise didn't seem terribly put off by the question. Maybe he was starting to acclimate to the man's behavior. "Presumably? That's why we Exos got issues. Not that I'm all that eager to crack my head open and check though."

Assuming that the guy was looking for something to try lighting their makeshift torch, Cayde tried not to tap his foot as he waited.

Tony's expression said that he was eager, because that was a sincerely weird design choice, and he hadn't considered yet at all that Cayde had any one of his original organs somewhere in the works. He had even opened his mouth to ask, but the matches were in hand by then and Tony had absently struck one alight on his belt and moved to find out if the juice would ignite.

It exploded.

"Fu--!" Tony's instinct was to fling himself away from it, but his second mistake was to throw the torch down, dropping the flame and the already disintegrated bundle of matches he had still held in his hand into the muddy puddle of juice between them. The reaction burst outward, making the weeds lining the road flare up so quickly that the fire had eaten through one almost as soon as it had made its leap, creating a rippling wave of scorched earth from the blast zone that hissed and steamed angrily as it fell into the puddles of the flood plain.

See, that was the problem right there. Cayde had a feeling Tony would be all over any possibility of seeing what all made the Exo tick. Thankfully they were for the moment thoroughly diverted by the more than visible proof that yes, the so-called juice? Very much flammable.

Cayde had taken a step back with something of a yelp as the flames erupted perhaps even more eagerly than Tony's hopes to poke at his brains. Throwing a hand up before his face had been a secondary reaction, but it was half out of fascination that he watched the rest unfold as Tony dropped the torch into an unfortunate spot and the fire started to spread outwards.

"See! What'd I tell you!" Maybe now wasn't exactly the best time to point out such a triumph but the Exo was the sort to take what he could get. Also, he liked being right. He paused as he watched at least some of the flames meet resistance by the sogginess of the flood plain, and then almost comically darted over to where the fire still licked along the weeds to try stomping them out.

The fire burned white hot at its base around the combustible fuel, ensuring that their torch was most definitely as gone as the local overgrowth problem, throwing orange sparks up several feet into the sky that Tony was sure could be seen from the hotel at least. On the other side of the crackling display, Tony had fallen back onto his ass and did a crab-walk scramble away from the heat, staying put in the dirt as he panted through the adrenaline spike and Cayde went prancing into the charcoal.

Belatedly, he reached to check with his less scorched hand the tender skin of his face, definitely ten minutes too long in the tanning bed, then rubbed the soot that had been his eyebrow between his fingers with a pout. He didn't really know how long that would take to grow back, that wasn't a test he had put his healing abilities through yet. He dropped both hands back onto the road to slouch back with a sigh, watching Cayde's largely pointless attempt at damage control with a growing grin. "What is this, Riverdance? What are you doing? You missed a spot." So much for the torch. The door that Tony had torn into for the plank gave a shuddering grown as the fire consumed its last tenuous hold on its hinges, and it fell inward to rumble away down into the tunnel, throwing up another gust of soot and smoke into the burn.

Cayde stumbled back and twirled around to make sure the ends of his already raggedy cloak weren't catching fire behind his back. He took a moment to try directing a frown at Tony but the man's grin and maybe his missing eyebrow made it very difficult to keep a chuckle from bubbling up.

That he knew he probably looked pretty ridiculous trying to stamp out the fire didn't really help either. In spite of the fact that they could have potentially if accidentally razed a part of the city, the Exo started to laugh because the circumstances that had led up to it suddenly struck him as incredibly funny.

"Lookin' toasty, Stark. You all right?" He wandered over after one last, halfhearted stomp of a boot, to flop down beside Tony, still snickering. "Aw hell, what a mess."

The laugh was infectious, and Tony was perfectly alright, giggling through, "How's my beard, is it okay?" as Cayde approached, turning his chin in the light of the fire as though he was really concerned. One of them really should have been able to anticipate this outcome, they had gone into it with such confidence.

"It's not so bad," he insisted once he could keep his voice even because, in the grand scheme of things, this wasn't really the worst thing Tony had done tonight alone. He turned to brush some ash from Cayde's hood that-- oh, that had been part of the hood, sorry about that, it could probably be patched by someone with the skills that Tony's grimace suggested he certainly did not. "Think of it this way, anyone else could have been here. Luckily, nobody's been down this road in weeks, not a soul." By the time the fire burned out, it was going to be hard to tell what happened and it wasn't going to be easy to point any fingers.

"What's left of it, anyway," the Exo reassured before squinting. "-oh wait, that's how it always is." He grins and gives Tony a light elbowing.

Turning his gaze back towards the flames as though they were just enjoying a casual bonfire. They were lucky to have been doing this somewhere damp, and not say, in the middle of the city where they'd be sure to attract a lot of concerned people's attention. "Yep. Totally wasn't an accident. Everyone should be asleep anyway, not wandering around in the dark like certain other parties I won't mention by name."

After a moment he glanced back at Tony. "...I won't tell if you won't."

Tony was happy to nod along, confident in their alibi, until the dig at his nocturnal wandering and eased a sidelong glance Cayde's way, canting his shoulder away like he was ready to fight back if he had to and Cayde was going to try to pin this on him. Tony could fight dirty, he hadn't lost a he-said robot-said in his life, he was ready to throw Cayde under ten buses if he wanted to play that game.

It would have been fun, but Tony wasn't about to turn down the deal. "I've never met this man in my life," he agreed. "Shockingly handsome, though, we should get a drink sometime. Have you tried the juice? I've heard it feels the same way coming out. Burns all the way through."

It wasn't much of a dig, really. Cayde had been partially referring to himself as well, not that he didn't have a good reason for wandering about late at night. He arched a metal brow at the man, along with the slightest cant of his head as if waiting to see which foot would drop, even if he wasn't too sure why one would be over the other.

Then came Tony's response, and the Exo grinned that amber-lit grin of his. "I know, the blue and gunmetal look is especially fetching, and that beautiful, beautiful horn." Never mind that Tony probably wasn't referring to him. "Eh, I've had better, but the juice still doesn't disappoint."

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Outage

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