♤ Bored of Being Bored Because Being Bored is Boring

[deal_me_in]

WHO: Cayde-6 and you!
WHERE: Around Temba and maybe its outskirts
WHAT: Catch-All for the rest of May, Cayde doing Cayde things
WHEN: From now until the end of the month
WARNINGS: N/A


Still Life (For Jon)
Although Cayde had given himself some wiggle room for the possibility of tardiness in his arrival due to distraction, there really isn't very much along the route to the library to do so, or around the city in general. Unless something was on fire (haha...who'd do that?) or there were some strange noises that begged investigation, nothing pulled the Exo off course as he wound his way to his destination.

"Jon?" In a building this big and this empty, his voice is much louder than intended, not that it seems to bother him terribly. He looks around for the Archivist and the still he'd come to help move, gaze sweeping the shelves as though in hopes of spotting anything new amongst the shelves. And when there proves none of the latter, not that he's terribly surprised, Cayde sets a book of his own in an innocuous spot, fancying it like a bit of a treasure hunt for the self-proclaimed librarian. No notes scrawled in this one yet, a collection of some several novels of The Lone Ranger.

The Exo innocently continues along towards the desk he'd seen last time. "Am I late?"




The Hole In the Ground
It's big. It's gaping. And Cayde really wants to know what's going on in there. Of course, he'd feel better about jumping down a dark, mysterious hole in the ground with a loaded gun and plenty of spare ammunition. Having Sundance along for the ride would be even better. Yet that hasn't completely stopped him from considering...

He's standing at the edge, as close as he can get without pitching over as he tries to spy...well, anything, really. And if he's not doing that, he's looking for some rocks to toss in, just to listen for how far it is to the bottom. ...there's a bottom to this thing, right?




AKA the Greenhouse
The Exo's figured he should have a look at what all the agricultural building has to offer. It'd be nice to know what can be potentially made into drinks, basic and fermented, because what's a bar without beverages? That Tommy kid seemed to know about the stuff that was in here, at least. At this rate Cayde's sure anyone would know more than him in this place as he just stares at the spread of greenery, and are those blue bananas?

Yeah, this isn't exactly his scene.




The Bar Project
Maybe you've seen him in passing as he makes his way to and from the nest of buildings (O-13) in the southeastern (orange) quadrant of the city. It's an interesting collection of structures for the fact that whatever had happened in however much time had passed while Agra 10 had lapsed into disrepair, water had completely filled the space in the center of the small fortress-like formation, enclosed by the walls that adjoined each of the six towers making up the complex.

Sometimes he goes through a door. Other times he decides to be weird and scale the wall or one of the towers. He doesn't seem terribly concerned with being seen or followed, and should the latter find him in someone's otherwise unexpected company, well, he'll roll with it.


((OOC: As always, will match format if you prefer action over prose, etc!))

Comments

The closed prompt~

[beholding_archivist]

The desk, Cayde may notice, had taken on a whole new level of being cluttered. Stacks of papers are gathering on it, each of them filled front and back with neat, small handwriting and an occasional sketch. Among them are some of Jon's notebooks, also at least partially filled with text and stray sheets of filled paper pushed between the pages. Several broken pens also litter the desk as well as the floor around it. If Cayde bothers to check and can read Jon's writing, he will notice that the most obvious sheets are filled with nothing but raw information on entirely random topics. Various parts of human anatomy, medical topics, various animals, plants, Chinese traffic laws... Almost as if someone printed out random Wikipedia entries - Without a printer.

The Archivist is sitting behind his desk - On the floor. Another notebook resting on his knee with the man's attention fully on it while writing away on lobsters, eyes glowing a faint green. He does look up from his work at Cayde's words, however and answers with a short nod before setting notebook and pen aside.

"You're not. I actually thought you would take longer."

[deal_me_in]

It should probably come as no surprise that Cayde does bother to poke about the desk and skim a few of the pages of apparently random information handwritten by one Archivist. He tilts his head and replaces said things as he works his way visually across the desk until he catches a glimpse of the man behind it. On the floor. Writing.

The eyes are a new touch. Cayde's metal brow quirks up, but his expression eases into that casual grin of his once Jon looks up from his work.

"Eh, to be fair I wasn't looking too hard for a distraction. What're you up to down there? Aside from having run out of desk space?" he asks, side-eying the pile that practically obscured the desktop from sight.

[beholding_archivist]

Standing up from his place on the floor, Jon shrugs once, eyes returning to normal as he gestures for the Exo to follow him to where the pieces of the still are waiting.

"Ah, that's... I just... Know- things. Can't control it, but I believe I can open myself to it. Decided that if I just write down everything that comes to me, something useful should be among it? Then I can group it, sort it and we might end up with some content for the library. Hopefully." It's tedious work and maybe not exactly efficient, but he is gathering... Something? Content?

He leads the way over to the gathering of metal pieces, gesturing with one hand while looking over at Cayde "There it is. Tony made it bigger than I would have expected. But... I'm surprised he even still made it."

[deal_me_in]

"'Know' things?" he echoes, producing finger quotes at the emphasis. "Huh. So things just...come to you?" It sounds both handy and a pain, considering some of the random topics he'd skimmed on the desk. "You should get a typewriter. You seem like a typerwriter kind of guy."

Cayde turns and follows Jon to the still then, eyes brightening at the object in question. "Ooh. Maybe he just really likes booze. Or thinks we need to do some serious production. Looks good though! I'm not complaining. One less thing for me to try figuring out."

[beholding_archivist]

The first bit gets a short shrug from Jon "Pretty much. Most of it is useless. Like someone opened up a random site on the internet and shoved it into my head. But sometimes... It's something I can work with? And I'd rather have my laptop, to be honest. A digital database would be a lot more helpful instead of creating a massive mess." He adds another shrug and he lets his eyes drop down to the parts before him. One is a big kettle almost half his size, next to it a smaller one, filled with various smaller parts.

"Right. I suppose he just wants to see some results - And I may just owe him those." If only for attacking him twice already - And for sticking around much longer than he was likely comfortable with after that second incident.

He gestures towards the larger piece "Can you take that one?"

[deal_me_in]

"Can't you just get one from the replicator? A laptop? It should be able to spit one of those out." Cayde strokes at his chin as he thinks. "Or figure out what all the Agrii might have used- they don't seem unfamiliar with technology so maybe there's something of it that still functions." Although any dealings with the Agrii just seems to promise a headache along the line.

"Results, huh? Well in that case, I hope his still works." He does give Jon a questioning look at that. What sort of deals clandestine have been struck between the Archivist and the Transhumanist?

Cayde glances at the still pieces and steps closer to the larger of the set. "Yeah, sure. Make me do all the heavy lifting," he says, not without a smirk as he stoops down to lift the thing.

[beholding_archivist]

The Archivist shoots back a look of innocence while picking up his share of the load, making it a point to not show any sign of struggling with it "That was the plan, Cayde. I'm sure you will manage." Of course the Exo will have to lead the way from there.

The suggestion of trying to acquire a laptop from the replicator? Now that gets Cayde a little snort.

"Right. Because the Agrii certainly run their space ships on Windows." He actually chuckles lightly at his own words. Jon may not be the most adept at dealing with technology, but even he expects a space ship running on Windows to... Not get very far. "Besides, we only have to look at the data points to get an idea what they work with. An Agrii laptop likely is little more than the spheres we found the remains of in the library. No screen or keyboard, likely just linking directly into your mind. Your mind becomes the screen and all your files and documents you browse through mentally and- Ha! Imagine one of those Sergey Ushanka chat bots running inside your head!" A disturbing idea for Jon, who got a little carried away by his own train of thought.

[deal_me_in]

Cayde forces a heavier than necessary sigh as he straightens up with his load. It's more an awkward size than weight, but he manages to get it situated against him where he can see around it. "All right, let's go. Hope you're up for a walk," he says, starting back towards the doors.

"Oh, that's true. They don't seem to have much concept of privacy, do they?" Jamming information in people's skulls, yanking them from wherever they were and depositing them wherever they pleased. "Heh, that sounds like it could be a real headache though. I'd rather type my searches than think them, got enough going on in here without extra voices."

He cuts between the library and the civic center with the intent of getting to the main stretch of road so they wouldn't have to deal with too many obstacles on the way towards the Towers.

[beholding_archivist]

Well, Jon rarely is up for a walk. He's much more of a basement-dwelling desk-person than being out in the open much. Still he will follow along without complaint, if at a slower tempo than the Exo. So far the way isn't too bad, at least. Yes, there are holes in the ground and rubble to step around, but it's in the middle of the day and at least he can spot the obstacles in time. Hopefully.

He gives a slightly bemused snort at Cayde's commentary on extra voices.

"You really think they would bother with adding voices? I would rather expect them to tie the streams of information directly to our thoughts." Jon pauses briefly, glancing up "Which wouldn't be any different from what I already have to put up with. Having to tell apart that from my own thoughts can be difficult already. Just.... I feel I'm better off just writing everything down manually for now."

[deal_me_in]

If he can't, at least Cayde makes the effort to point out things like potholes and rubble or an extra overgrowth of weeds as they progress. There unfortunately aren't many opportunities for shortcuts, not that most would consider a Guardian's shortcuts practical when they tended to leap over walls and up buildings and things to get around. The quickest way between two points is a straight line, after all.

"And that is exactly why I'm not volunteering to touch any of those data orb things. Maybe you should write up a tutorial on manners for them along with whatever other lessons you had planned."

Once they come to the main road, he nods towards the clocktower before turning his back on it to head onward. "That's where I hang out whenever I'm not everywhere else," he decides to mention. "Fair warning, there's no railing to the stairs and some of the steps have seen better days."

[beholding_archivist]

"I... Actually have written that one up already." Jon admits while making himself appear preoccupied with shifting through two larger pieces of a collapsed nearby building. Of course he has certain priorities for these lessons he has been planning "Though the data points aren't really that bad. In fact, I wouldn't mind working with a slightly altered version of them - Preferably one not so prone to breaking." Going by all the broken glass that had been in the library, there has once been a massive amount of knowledge in that building.

Knowledge that is now all gone.

Jon casts a look towards the clocktower once it is being pointed out and raises a brow "Can't say that isn't oddly fitting for you, actually. And don't worry, I'm not very likely to break into your chosen home. Agrii stairs are... Well. I find them a little troublesome to climb." As obviously the Agrii have much longer legs than your average human. And Jon can't claim to be a very tall human. "Please tell me the view from up there is at least worth the effort."

[deal_me_in]

That gets a laugh from the Exo. "Of course you do." He's amused, probably because his suggestion had been a partial jest. After all, he can't say that it wouldn't be practical...if the Agrii can manage to understand it.

"Kind of weird though, don't you think? The library's wiped out, but there's still certain points sitting around and functional. Either they managed to set those up or they're tougher than the standard ones. Or someone went and broke things on purpose."

Cayde grins over his shoulder, not that he really catches a look at Jon with the motion, but he continues towards the orange sector. "Now why would I tell you where I live, expecting you to break into it. The stairs ain't so bad though, although after that blackout I guess maybe I should consider some lanterns or something so no one goes killing themselves on 'em. But the view's great. Main reason I scoped it out."

[beholding_archivist]

It's a small, abstruse noise Jon makes at Cayde's laugh and verbal commentary. Because it's not untrue.

"To be fair, the spheres at the library were a lot smaller. More delicate than the ones we can find outdoors. I'm not surprised to find them more breakable, to be honest." A rather simple observation. "Still. It's a shame not a single one survived. I... I think I would have liked to have access to some more of their knowledge." The idea that someone destroyed them on purpose.... Well. It's not one Jon likes. But vandalism is a thing.

...and so is war.

He takes his eyes off the tower and back on the road ahead, adjusting the weight in his arms "Well. Maybe one day I come to check out the views - If you promise not to throw me off your tower."

the hoOOOLE

[in_extremis]

This was not the most inviting attraction that the city had to offer. Not that there were many options, this wasn't exactly a dream destination, but there were definitely places that Tony felt he was more likely to encounter company, like anywhere that didn't pose the immediate threat of falling to a perilous death. There were a couple of those. Of course it was Cayde that Tony found tempting that fate, he never seemed to crop up anywhere normal and was starting to become an inauspicious figure. If Tony saw him at a restaurant, he would probably avoid the fish.

There hadn't been a disastrous enough incident to make Tony hesitate as he approached, though, clapping Cayde on the shoulder a little too roughly for the proximity to the pit, just his weight as he sidled up sending a cascade of pebbles down into the void. With a wry grin, he bunched his fist in Cayde's cloak like that would be enough to hold him back, promising he wouldn't actually push him, maybe, that could have been a risky gamble, and offered as a greeting, "It glows at night, have you noticed that?" Tony did look like this wasn't his first visit to the location, and that the last time he was here the hole had won. Not only had his hair not entirely recovered yet from their bonfire, he was decidedly scraped and bruised along his forearms and chin and had come back with a vengeance with a bag slung over his shoulder and what looked like a pair of dull, gunmetal greaves, spurred liberally up the back of his ankles. Cayde was here just in time for a mission.

[deal_me_in]

Places didn't have to look inviting to be interesting. What secrets or horrors lay in wait at the bottom of this hole? Inquiring minds wanted to know. Or at least this one.

...make that two.

Tony Stark had started off on the awkward foot with the Exo, but if Cayde shied away from every weird and awkward experience then he'd probably be missing a good chunk of his life. But on the other side of that technical obsession that the man hadn't bothered to hide, there was someone who had a sense of humor and more importantly, the ability to roll with punches. Having a curious streak as big as his own certainly didn't hurt either.

Which was why it wasn't a complete surprise to find Tony there, even though the gesture gave him a bit of a start. The look he gave the man would have translated to a thin-lipped line and a stare that could bore through a person's skull- all for a half a second before it melted away with a grin and a slight nudge back, yet might have held a silent promise of 'if you push me, I'm taking you with me.'

"It does?" News to him, apparently. "I haven't come by at night. There's other things that glow around here- not on four legs neither." Go figure Cayde was one to get distracted by shiny things. If anything, the news of something in this pit glowing just had him lean in for another look as though to catch a glimpse. He pulled back and turned towards Tony, perhaps finally wondering what brought the man out, taking note of his slightly beaten status, the partial armor. His head made an up-tip, exaggerated by the extra length of his horn.

"Who'd you tussle with?"

[in_extremis]

Tony leaned with him as though he hadn't stared enough into this enigma and didn't know perfectly well already that they weren't going to spot the cause of this chasm from here, muttering, "Thanks for noticing," about the other glows to be found in the city. He hadn't made it a habit of lurking around this wonder of their tiny world at night, either, but was naturally nocturnal enough on a normal diurnal cycle and was drawn back to this particular curiosity the night of the very mysterious blackout after his visit to the power plant. The glow of the caves had been a strong contender for his attention, but that was a distinct bioluminescence that didn't fit the profile he was working with. If there was other options to explore that weren't down a hole, though... "Wait, what else is glowing?"

He stepped back as well then in time to notice the raise of Cayde's chin, eyebrows jumping up in response and looking down to try to spot what was making him feel so judged by that expression. It could have been anything, really, there was not a good tailor to be found in this place, he didn't need someone else telling him his public image could use some work. "Just a pre-climb," he defended, finger up to make his point. "Hey, turns out a blind descent can really get away from a guy, she's feisty." With his gesturing hand, he dug into the bag to produce the first line of defense he had brought; one of the crystal rods from the plant, ready to be used the same way Hux had to illuminate their way around the machines in the dark, and a less produced, pulpy looking tube with a fuse in either end that, in a closed testing environment, wasn't entirely unlike a flare. It remained to be seen what would happen outside of the lab.

[deal_me_in]

Cayde on the other hand loved to roam, and found himself restless more often than not around here. Too quiet. Too empty. It'd be a lie if he didn't hope to run into something dangerous on his outings, if only to change up the mood. The caves weren't yet a thing known to him, but he liked to think he had a good idea of the city's layout by now.

"There's something out in that corner of the city," he said, pointing towards the west. "This blue light that just winks on and off, on and off. Haven't gotten around to checking it out yet."

He grinned as Tony explained his slightly scuffed up state. "First step's a doozy, eh? -ooh! Now that seems a lot more solid than our torch experiment," he noted as Tony brought out the crystal rod. The second tube with the fuse was given a squint, not so much out of judgment as it was just to figure out whether it was meant to explode or not. Because he was hardly going to complain about having explosives.

"Well look'it you. If I'd known we were going on spelunking, I woulda brought..." He paused and looked at his current and most standard of gear, gun at his hip, knife at the other. "-well okay, so I wouldn't have brought much else except maybe a few more guns and some grenades." Hopping into dark holes and caverns back home usually meant running into some Hive activity, which meant you went packing heat.

[in_extremis]

They were having very different experiences of what Tony thought couldn't have been a very large place to roam, and Tony turned in the direction he pointed to squint with one eye shut as though he could see this mysterious light across the distance and through the glare of the sun. They were really going to have to start compiling their own map and list of curiosities to pry into. That sounded like the kind of task he could dump onto Jon to keep his invasive little hands busy, and Tony was still winking as he turned back, this time distracted in thought as he tried to compose that text. It probably still came out largely incomprehensible, but Tony was busy--he gladly brandished the crystal rod, prepared to make his case and only stumbling slightly over Cayde's spelunking checklist. Not surprising, necessarily, just unconventional. How much the torch had inspired the flare could be a surprise for later.

"A few days ago I would have said that was your worst idea yet," he started. "I thought this had to be some kind of natural gas deposit, first theory, and the glow was from it burning off, like Darvaza-- do you have that, the Door to Hell? But--" Tony didn't really care about an answer, surely Cayde could get the picture, gas burned, and waved the rod as he continued, "Then I went to the power plant and found out the whole place was running on these beauties. And I would have thought, fine, some kind of synthesized battery, the glow is just waste energy because it's not hot at all, but..." It could just as easily be a natural resource, he thought was implied, mined from a great big hole in the middle of the city that Tony peered over the edge of again. It certainly looked like the kind of reckless destruction anyone on Earth would have done to run a few microwaves. "So now I gotta know." And he might have had a personal project on the side that could use the resource to speed up the process.

[deal_me_in]

"Excuse you, I thought it was very practical," he snorted, not that Cayde was at all sore about the suggestion that he had terrible ideas. He listened as Tony went on, watching the glow rod as though expecting the guy to be trying to trace his name in the air, which would have probably worked better in the dark. For a moment he hung on that trailed off implication, not immediately catching on until Tony looked back down again.

The Exo grinned crookedly. "Only one way to find out, right?"

It seemed to make about as much sense as anything in this place, and the Agrii hadn't been very forthcoming in how any of their stuff worked, save by contact of those data point thingies, not that Cayde had experimented with them.

[in_extremis]

"Glad to have you on the team, Hot Stuff," Tony inferred, returning the grin and gesturing for Cayde to offer his hands for gifts. Back into his bag, Tony pulled out a few carabiners and cams to dump onto Cayde, assuring him absently, "These shouldn't shatter," before letting the whole thing fall with a heavy whump to the dirt, most of the space in it clearly monopolized by coils of rope already slithering out as they hit the ground. Tony had come here willing to risk his own life on his fire-work, he was confident enough in the accessories. "You've climbed before, right?" he asked, only making the briefest eye contact with the question before he was away to make his anchor, choosing to assume the best and leave Cayde to figure out a harness, too focused on his path to worry about that kind of detail. He only seemed unsure for a moment as he hauled up a generous enough looking rock to hammer his pitons into the ground and paused to scrutinize Cayde, trying to assess his weight not for the first time, but shrugged and drove the first spike in. If he did his math right, and he always did, this new element to the plan wouldn't matter in the distribution. "Just try not to blow anything up, unless it's...." he suggested, miming a swift attack to the face. It could happen, they didn't know what was down there.

[deal_me_in]

The offerings weren't exactly the Exo's idea of gifts, but he still took them into his possession as Tony handed them over. He looked down at the pile that had been unceremoniously deposited on the ground.

"Oh yeah, sure," Cayde replied, not absently enough to be insincere. He'd climbed plenty! Just not with equipment. Seemed kind of moot sometimes, when you could jump and boost yourself as far as you could. But not everyone was a Guardian, and so perhaps to humor Tony, he started to toy with the harness as he dug around the dusty corners of his mind for some insight in how to fasten them properly.

Tony's suggestion received a two-fingered salute in response. Now if he'd been told not to blow up anything at all, he'd have issues with this whole excursion.

[in_extremis]

When the anchor was satisfactory, Tony came to inspect Cayde's progress, still clipped and focused and tugging carelessly at the rope to check his knots with a frown of impatient irritation when it didn't seem like he had read Tony's mind. "Like this," he demanded, tucking a length of rope into what he guessed was Cayde's off hand from where he carried the gun, looping it around him before knotting and snapping their carabiners in place, trying to demonstrate the hold that he should have obviously guessed, "so if you fall, I catch you, if I fall, you get the picture. So it doesn't-- can you feel rope burn?" There was always something, Tony didn't even know if he was saving Cayde any discomfort. Tony certainly could feel it, anyway, and he would rather the worst burn he got today was this ever present rend of curiosity that Cayde kept dangling in front of him; that was aggravating enough. "After you," he encouraged, gesturing for Cayde to take the lead into the pit. As confident as Tony was that his belay would work, he wasn't eager to have Cayde fall on him and find out his weight that way.

[deal_me_in]

After a few insistent attempts, Cayde finally let his own hands fall away to let Tony tie things off. "I got it, I got it- okay, we good?" He felt silly enough without getting tangled up in rope, but from a few test tugs it seemed that at least things were holding.

He didn't feel the least put off at having to go first, and if it hadn't been suggested by Tony, he would have done so either way. At least, harness set-up aside, the Exo knew how to rappel. Not wanting to press his luck or accidentally end up pulling Tony down with him prematurely, he eased himself down, pushing off at a light bounce, his glowing gaze shifting along the wall as he studied the rocky edges for any snags or potential handholds.

"...this'd get awkward pretty fast if we found out this thing really was bottomless," he called up towards the opening, at least still within reasonable reach with a few rebounds.

[in_extremis]

Tony followed after a beat of watching the tug on the anchor, feeling reasonably confident that they wouldn't die that way, and dangled briefly on the edge of the hole over Cayde's head to kick what had been spurs down into place under his feet, his own cams to grip with the right kick at the wall as he bounced his way down. At least for the descent, this kept one hand free to try to light their way with the crystal rod, which quickly felt less effective than it had been in the power plant only a few feet into the chasm. "And then, what? We get stuck perpetually down here, instead of stuck up there?" he asked, not seeing much difference in the gaping void below them and the empty city that their hosts had abandoned them in. "Maybe," he offered instead, so it wasn't all fatalistic, "it's a rocket launch site."

[deal_me_in]

"Well, the only way to figure it's bottomless is if we fell and just kept falling, so there's that. That'd be a boring way to go," Cayde decided after some brief thought. He craned his head to look below, entertaining the idea of a rocket launch site.

"Could be. Wonder if anyone else has stuck their heads down here." Or maybe they were the only ones dumb enough, not that he'd call themselves such. Adventurous, curious, yes. Dumb? Never! How else did anyone ever find out about things without taking a few risks?

"Be nice if there was a rocket to go with said site. ...you got enough rope?"