ruminate

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony, Eli and anyone hungry.
WHERE: Vanto's Diner
WHAT: A regular meeting of a breakfast club, and some investigative interviews to build a database of the city
WHEN: Most mornings for a while, if Tony remembers to emerge from his mad lab
WARNINGS: Tony.
YOU KNOW I HAVE NOTES: If you want to have an interview with specifically Tony, Jon or both of them, just make that clear somewhere in your tag, don't stand on ceremony. If you're coming to breakfast, do threadjack.


for Eli
Food in general had been a series of continuously upsetting discoveries since Tony's arrival, everything native entirely new and having either an unexpected flavour profile, a very wrong texture, or turning out to be highly combustible. The latter had made him frustratingly skittish about even trying something else new, reducing his options even further, until he was sure it didn't come with adverse side effects like a total alcoholic relapse. Some gassiness he could deal with; he didn't know if he could handle an entire break from reality right now, that already felt on edge with his reality so inscrutably distant. While he hadn't ever been great about his eating habits, this situation was a test. His patience was already questionable, and he was starting to lose focus. The forge was difficult enough to run on his own, if he started losing more mass the work would slow to a crawl.

Most importantly, he hadn't had a cup of coffee in a brutal lifetime and a hit of caffeine would really solve all of his problems. His most reliable company in Temba weren't really big eaters, if that was something, but he didn't have to ask around; the little sign in the window declaring 'Vanto's Diner' had been a consistent enough curiosity every time Tony had to cross through the centre of town. If anyone could offer Tony some relief, it had to be the Vanto of the diner, which this desperate morning Tony was imagining had to be one of those retro type, vinyl boothed, checker floored staples where a waitress had a pot of coffee in either hand at all times. He could practically smell it. He wasn't exactly disappointed that it clearly wasn't when he had dragged himself all the way up from the forge, but he still closed his eyes and sniffed the air as he stepped inside, sad to see the fantasy go. It was dark, the long night not quite subdued yet by the rising sun, and the scattered tables were empty when Tony allowed himself to accept the reality and look around, but the one promise the sign lived up to was that this place didn't seem as abandoned as the rest of the city. "Hello?" Tony tried, wandering further into the room, wondering if this was a self-serve situation, and offered to the space, "You should maybe get a bell, something, liven the place up..."



the breakfast special
It got lively in Eli's diner by mid-morning. It was one of the few communal spaces established in the city, and with the population so small and spread across the crumbling area, it had to be a natural contact point for even the most reclusive residents when the cabin fever, as it were, set in. The one thing they all confidently had in common was that fountain outside. Everything else, how or if they settled in this city and what they did with their time, what planet they were from, what time period, what species, were all barriers between them that the fountain flowed through. Tony didn't have a lot of faith in Eli's branding or business plan otherwise, but the location was an undeniable spark of genius.

He wound his way through the diner back to the table that had been claimed while he waited for their meals, balancing several plates from Eli that rattled ominously as he tried to carefully lift them over other people's heads, but couldn't confidently tell anyone what was on any of them. "Which one of us got the...blue, herby experiment? I've got a kind of orange porridge concoction. And this looks a lot like a tea biscuit, which, honestly, I'm threatened by," he announced as he arrived, ready to dole out however a meal was claimed; he had faith he could eat what remained, if anything.



take a seat
The video shared to the Net Work had been short, with Tony looking off screen with a question in his expression directed toward someone who seemed to be with him when he didn't seem sure how to construct his message. "Listen, this isn't working, we're all over the place," he had started, commiserating with the camera with what must have been a shared frustration with their situation. "Every day someone tells me something about this planet like it's common knowledge, like I'm supposed to know that if I turn three times in place clockwise at sunset, I'll summon Billy for fashion advice. When do you think I figured that one out, what was I supposed to be doing to make that breakthrough?...Okay, sorry, here it is, we're going to make a database, we want to start figuring this stuff out and sharing it, so there's a record in the library. We could use your help, everyone has figured something out or has seen something interesting that is worth looking into, and maybe together we can get a better idea of what we're working with, properly distribute the resources, that kind of thing...If you've got a minute, we'll be at Vanto's, it'll be super casual, no commitments, just the dirty parts. Must be good on camera, bring a headshot."

Video wasn't actually part of the recording process, but it was slightly imposing. Jon's tape recorder alone set a certain mood that Tony wasn't getting used to, but he brought with him to arrange on the table a small globe, not entirely unlike the data point outside the diner, that glowed faintly and connected by a myriad of wires to the exposed hardware of his communication device cracked open in front of him. He wasn't great at waiting without someone sitting with him, so if he was meant to be alone the globe pulsed ominously, abandoned on the table, while he flitted around the room or disappeared into Eli's kitchen to assess his hardware with a general impatient disappointment until he had a quick solution to a small problem that he thought he could get away with. With the Archivist, Tony lounged more easily, draped across his seat and nursing a drink, working out his impatience by obviously needling Jon and getting him just on the edge of snapping at Tony for the leading questions, trying to find new buttons to push with a taunting grin he wasn't even hiding.

Comments

[in_extremis]

That a weather event might be actively psychologically manipulative wasn't the conclusion Tony would have come to, and he shook his head slightly at Jon's look with a shrug. He would be more likely to believe that if the storm was showing people things they had never seen before, that their panicked subconscious couldn't be providing under pressure. But Jon was the expert on the depravities of abstract concepts, and the emotional support right now. "What was he doing?" Tony risked pressing while Jon took Cal's hands, knowing firsthand how effective that could be.

[out_of_order]

Cal closed his eyes, shaking his head slowly. It wasn't like he'd forgotten it, and he still carried the guilt of his failure to be of any help to his master. Failure was a difficult thing for him to deal with, particularly for a padawan whom had previously known no failure.

He managed to force his hands to ease their tension under Jon's, if a little. "He was just...there. Walking. Always just out of reach." He forced a laugh. "Not exactly an ideal place and time to be chasing ghosts. But maybe that was the point. It felt like the storm didn't want us there, which probably sounds absurd, but...who knows anymore? I nearly fell off a cliff. If BeeDee weren't with me, we wouldn't be sitting here with you right now. -he was fine, by the way. The storm didn't affect droids the way it was affecting us."

[beholding_archivist]

It's Cal's phrasing of the storm not wanting them there that brings a frown to Jon's face and he gives Cal's hands a brief, reassuring squeeze before drawing his own away, the frown remaining.

"I... Will admit that when I first saw the storm - And decided to head inside... I thought it to be of supernatural nature. I have listened to a statement regarding a sand storm tied to the Buried. Which is why I went in. Having been in the Buried before I- I believed I... I could... maybe..." A pause. "...Jesus, it was a foolish idea the first time. But I can say it felt different. Very different. If these storms have a supernatural origin, it's not one I am yet familiar with. Showing us people we know, even care about and trying to lead us astray... It sounds very deliberate. And that worries me." There are other Entities that would use such approaches.

[in_extremis]

Tony still wasn't convinced. Stress had made him chase plenty of illusions that he was longing for right off of metaphorical cliffs; the weirdest element of the story was that it wasn't an isolated situation and it wasn't only Cal that could describe the same experience, but there had to be a rational explanation for that, not malevolent clouds. What they did know was that the Agrii could conjure all walks of life, living or dead, from across space and time and take them away just as easily. Wasn't that a more reasonable explanation? If Tony could make it fit with the idea that 'the storm didn't want us there'. It definitely felt better than a repeat of the experience that Tony knew Jon had with the Buried, and he finally drew himself up in his seat to plant both feet on the floor, shifting his casual lean with his elbow on the back of Jon's chair to drape an arm over his closest shoulder. "When's the last time you saw him?" he tried to Cal. Maybe the pattern was the kind of person the Lost Boys thought they were chasing.

[out_of_order]

"...I think by the time it reached the city it had mellowed out, but not by much. Back up in the mountains, the deeper we tried to go into it, the worse things got. You'd think that the eye of the storm would be calmer. It shouldn't...feel wrong. It shouldn't hurt either. We had no choice but to turn back."

It was only fortunate that there had been places to shelter in, between stumbling blindly about the storm and attempting to get back to the ship.

Cal looked up at Jon. "Believed you could what..?" he asked. The suggestions put forth from the Archivist made uncomfortable sense to him, and having witnessed it himself, he had no reason to argue otherwise.

Tony's question caught him off guard, the padawan meeting his look, and not without a subtle flinch. He averted his gaze again, pulling his arms inward to lean against the table. "...not long before I first got pulled here," he said quietly. "It...was more like a vision. His shadow. ...a test." He lowered his head, dragging a hand across his face. That test apparently hadn't went very well, the encounter dredging up those unwelcome feelings again.

"He died five years ago, saving me. That's the last time I really saw him."

[beholding_archivist]

Just a few years ago, Jon would have very willingly agreed with Tony. Would have sought a scientific explanation at any cost and viciously disproved anything else. But a lot has happened, and while he can still perfectly understand such reasoning, Tony's question surprises the Archivist as well and he turns towards Cal for the Padawan's response.

Five years ago, huh? So that's when the war started Cal has spoken of.

The boy still seems far too young to having had to put up with all that. At that age Jon has been an annoying student, knowing too much and yet asking even more questions. Often pressing his tutors to the limits of their knowledge. Cal... Has been drawn into a war that would devastate his world. His entire galaxy, even.

Jon doesn't miss that certain sort of dread Cal emits and regrets not having held onto his hands a little longer.

"I'm sorry." he says, sympathetically. "Your master has been important to you, and..." Jon trails off for a moment, placing his hands flat on the notepad before him and looking down at it for a moment "I think I want to hear a little more about him. The Jedi. Your Order. We can... Make a full report about them - For the library. Later. Whenever you feel like it." It's a suggestion. An offer for Cal to sit down and speak freely about everything. Tell people about the people his galaxy has lost to a war that could have been engineered by the Desolation itself.

He doesn't pick up on Cal's question at this time, though. Jon doesn't like seeing Cal this distressed and is well aware that he has few pleasant answers to give at any given time.

[in_extremis]

While that was the kind of answer Tony expected, how hard Cal was clearly taking it made it the wrong question, and he didn't feel great about confirming his suspicions about the nature of the particular ghosts. Thank God, Jon seemed to know more about the situation and could wield that deep voice just as easily for compassion as he did slaughter, because Tony grimaced, feeling distant across the table and without a smooth reassurance for any emotional outbursts that might have grown from Cal's flinch. What Tony had was a wry suggestion, "Are you old enough to drink yet?" head tipped in apology for having brought it up despite the brazen twist of his smirk. He had another question at the ready to walk it back anyway, quick to ask, "Why do you think the Agrii wanted everyone to go into the storm?" to the whole table, spreading his free hand between them to tap on the wood where this piece wasn't fitting the puzzle. The storm wanted them out, the Agrii knew full well how destructive it was, sticking a bunch of meat into the middle of a natural disaster was not an obvious way to put an end to it if anyone was to believe the Agrii's stated goal.

[out_of_order]

BD-1 had gotten up and nudged at Cal's hand with his flat head, and Cal patted the droid as he considered Jon's suggestion with a noncommittal nod. He'd think about it, but for the moment he was thankful that Tony was trying to shift away from more personal matters. His weak attempt of a smile didn't stick, but he gave a small nod back.

It took him a moment, but he forced his own thoughts back to the storm and the Agrii. "The storms are the main problem for the Agrii, and why they can't return home. They might have been eager to finally get their 'heroes' to figure out the problem. I mean, it makes sense, given their direct approach for things." Cal shrugged, watching as BD-1 got up and went wandering over to poke about the recording equipment. Really, he supposed it was only a matter of time, given the droid's propensity to play with random buttons aboard Greez's ship.

"The Agrii claim the storms are lethal to them, but won't outright kill us. They seem convinced that we're protected somehow, that we're stronger than them. We're different- not that they explained very much, but it's what they told me. You know, before we had the replicator to set up, there was a box there. The Agrii had it as some kind of...request fulfillment. They'd respond to simple messages through it too. It's about the only contact I've had with them directly."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon takes a moment to listen, though there is something restless about his own fingers by the time Cal is about finished talking.

"You mean the replicator replaced our means of communicating with the Agrii?" That's not the sort of information he likes hearing. Not when he has been hoping for a way to reach out to their captors this entire time. "We haven't really heard anything from them ever since returning from Risa either." Ever since they were called to that meeting with this Section 31 agent.

"Has either of you spoken to T'Pring while we were on Risa?" Jon asks both of the others, not outright wanting to phrase some of his concerns.

[in_extremis]

Tony wasn't sure if he would have called the Agrii's approach 'direct'. 'Blunt', maybe, he could agree to that, but even that approach didn't explain trying to keep the rain off with a baseball bat. 'Direct' suggested more, well, direction, and Tony wouldn't even be having these conversations if he didn't feel so lost. What they might have had to say to Cal when he had his chance seemed more interesting to Tony, but Jon was going down a path that made him frown, shaking his head to the question--Tony was still working out how much of his life was real and what was a fever dream then, he wasn't getting involved in the political intrigue. "Are you working up a conspiracy, boss?" he followed.

[out_of_order]

The conclusion wasn't an unexpected one. Cal shook his head again, feeling he'd been doing so all too many times this session. "No, I don't think so. I don't think it was ever meant to be a means of communication. It was for supplies. Er. 'He row soup lies'." Finally a flicker of a genuine smile, brief as it was.

BD-1 was watching the recorder before nudging it with a foot. He then wandered over towards the glowy sphere and inspected the wiring, head cocking in that birdlike way.

"We kind of heard from them? When they'd brought us back and invited us to that party, right? But you're right, it's been a while. Not that I know how frequent the Agrii tend to touch base with people here." He glanced at Tony, perhaps picking up an inkling that he'd wanted to say something, but Jon brought up another name, and Cal himself had to frown.

"I did," he replied, looking between the two men. "Someone out there is aware about the disappearances."

[beholding_archivist]

"She said she works for the security department of the United Federation of Planets. And that they are aware of the disappearances, yes." Jon nods in Cal's direction, then turns his attention over to Tony "And I asked her if her people might be able to get in contact with the Agrii, maybe even help them if possible."

He pauses to pull out his phone and bring up the map, setting it down on the table "They did fix our map - And we have the replicator. Section 31 does know where we are - Maybe even got into contact with the Agrii as T'Pring said they would try to." Those words he lets sit for a few moments, looking from one to the other to let them come to their own conclusions before tossing his own concern bluntly on the table.

"What if- What if they destroyed the remaining Agrii and just left us stranded here for good?"

[in_extremis]

This was well outside of their original intent, Tony realized, as Cal shook his head again, not sure that Jon wanted to deliver this conversation to the Agrii where they analyzed the Agrii's intentions and potential genocide, but if they were watching all along they couldn't be unaware that their He Rows were not enthusiastic participants in this disaster, and were prone to fatalism. At least BD-1 maintained the spirit of curiosity, and Tony smiled as he approached the D.A.T.A. sphere and gladly leaned onto the table to show him the seam along the orb to press and let the two halves fall apart, exposing the network of wiring along the inside like nerves holding the pieces tenuously together along their interior surface, and the computer core.

To combat the fatalism in that spirit, Tony pointed out, "They wouldn't have brought in new people then. Unless this isn't about the storms at all, and the Federation thinks whatever human experimentation the Agrii had started is worth seeing through." That was ludicrous, though, and as the resident Star Trek expert, it was up to Tony to educate the uncultured, offering, "Wouldn't even get to that point, though. The Federation wouldn't wipe out the Agrii, they wouldn't eve interfere unless it was to help the other planets that were being put at risk. Ours, I guess."

[out_of_order]

That seemed a big jump even to Cal. Brows furrowing at the points and possibilities Jon puts forth, he thinks a little more on the conversation he'd had with the Vulcan woman back on Risa. "...they don't know the origin point, either way." He glanced between them again. "She mentioned that they'd picked up large energy readings surrounding members of some Star fleet, corresponding with small time gaps, which makes sense given that those who've disappeared and come back here said they didn't remember nor seem to miss anything upon being returned."

He backtracked before he got too far, not that he had much information from that meeting. "T'Pring said that they couldn't trace the origin point but she and whoever she's working with believe it's as far as another galaxy or even universe. Whatever the Agrii have been using, it's far beyond anything even this Federation has understanding of." Cal splayed his hands in a partial shrug. "That's about all the information I really gathered from her. She seemed more interested in getting information about me."

BD-1 stepped back as Tony opened up D.A.T.A. before nearing again, rising on his hind legs to get a better angle of inspection. He leaned back on a foot, raising the other up, the foot angling to a point, electricity sparking at its tip. Attempted repair? Misunderstanding? ...science??

[beholding_archivist]

"I don't think we know enough about this Federation or its Star Fleet to be certain." Jon counters, clearly not too concerned about this conversation being shared or listened to. He's much too used of constantly being watched.

"And even if we were certain about either of them, there's this Section 31. The last Section 31 I encountered dragged me into the woods and tried to cut my throat." He points a thumb at the scar on his neck. Why are all these secret departments of official institutions all named Section 31 anyway? Jon drops his hand back onto the table and curls it into a fist "Their agent was also remarkably resistant to my questions. She could have easily lied to me." Trying to compel her... Had hurt.

But he leans back a little, bringing both his hands up flat before adding "This is not to say that I think this has happened for certain. But it's still a possibility we shouldn't dismiss entirely. Especially if we keep not hearing of the Agrii."

[in_extremis]

Whatever BD had been attempting to accomplish, it did make Tony wince, snapping the sphere closed again before he felt that spark in the cerebellum. "You two can go out to play after work," he promised, mumbling down to the droid and fanning out the wires for him to indicate that D.A.T.A. was a little too tied up right now to be experimented on and rolling the globe along the table to show that it had come back together easily and the seam was barely visible, nothing to worry about. They already knew the Agrii weren't working within the confines of one universe or temporal dimension, familiar faces from very different places had been enough evidence, so Tony was still muttering to BD-1 until Jon mentioned his personal encounter with Section 31. That was a very coincidental overlap. It was a yet disproven theory that the unfamiliar faces still had some universal constant between them, the pattern that Tony had been looking for.

He glanced Jon's way, gaze lingering on that scar before jumping to meet his eye, apologetically sympathetic, not eager to make anyone else at this table relive their pain and yet... Tony reached in front of Jon, twisting his tape recorder around on the table and putting Cal symbolically on the other side of it.

[out_of_order]

BD-1 hopped back at Tony's sudden intervention, settling on both feet again with a curious if hesitant borble, apologetic. Oops, did he do a bad? Well, he wasn't yelled at, at least. The droid studies the once again made whole sphere, beeping his understanding.

It didn't take a Jedi to sense the growing tension from Jon, the unease as the interview had taken quite the turn into something more theoretical. Cal winced at the parallels as Jon explained the origin of that particular scar. He wasn't very sure what was meant about the T'Pring being resistant to the Archivist's questions, but it was clear enough that something about the Vulcan woman had been unsettling, and Cal couldn't really argue that he'd been uncomfortable with the meeting.

"I'm not sure how much I trusted her either," he said quietly, watching then as Tony brought the tape recorder over with the slightest of nods. "Those are valid concerns, but we also don't know how often or not the Agrii do tend to get in touch with those they've...chosen. It was well over a month before I'd seen an actual attempt to speak to us, and that was when they'd sent us to Risa with a note. Then there was the welcome back. It might be better to ask others who've been here longer to try gauging Agrii interaction. Otherwise I think we can only hope that no further problems have developed. It's not ideal, but without proof either way we can only focus on matters here."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon's eyes have shifted down to his recorder the moment Tony has reached for it and have been stuck with it as he listens to Cal's words and eventually just nods in a somewhat resigning way.

"We... Don't really have much of a choice anyway." They are still stuck here. On this planet. In this city...

"All we can do right now is to- Keep trying to build a place we all can at least survive in." He's deliberately not calling it a city. The most they are currently doing is patching up the remains of former buildings after all.

[in_extremis]

Clearly, neither of them wanted to talk much more about T'Pring or Section 31, but they didn't seem thrilled about what they did want to focus on: the state of the city. This whole discussion had been far too somber, which wasn't at all what Tony thought they were going to get out of this venture. He snapped his fingers and drummed a rousing beat on the edge of the table to change the energy before prompting, "Right, we've got a lot to do," much more enthusiastically than their grumbling about it had been. "Cal, sweetheart, where have to been sleeping? You got a good setup, need anything, find some resources the rest of us could be dreaming in?"

[out_of_order]

He'd been trying, but the mood had been on quite the downward slope, and it was hard to get it back up again. Tony at least was on the right page for that, and this time Cal nodded more deeply, leaning back from the table as he rolled back his shoulders from being hunched over for so long.

"Mostly at the shop. It's...not really much, just a corner I cleared out. I haven't gotten around to finding a place to really stay at aside from the hotel. I think there's some things at the bottom of the lake, but I haven't gone back down in a while."

[beholding_archivist]

Lifting anyone's mood has never been one of Jon's strong points. He much more adept at achieving the opposite.

So he settles for the one thing that catches his interest "You were at the bottom of the lake?"

[in_extremis]

"What were you doing down there?" Tony elaborated for Jon, looking shocked at this revelation. He thought they were talking about housing and bedding, a subaquatic situation wouldn't have been the first thing to come to mind for Tony-- it hadn't even ranked on his list of scavenging possibilities. Suspiciously, he added, "Can you breathe under water?" because he hadn't worked out Cal's telekinesis yet and that would really throw off any theories.

[out_of_order]

Cal nodded. "Never know what might be hidden in places that weren't originally flooded." He had to laugh at the response, especially Tony's additional inquiry. "Kind of," he said, grinning slightly. Leaning over a bit so he could dig into one of his belt pouches, he pulled out a compact, crescent-shaped object no longer than his hand, some kind of mouthpiece situated between two...filters of a sort?

"A rebreather. I used one of these a lot when I was exploring other planets, mostly out of necessity than poking around to see what was under the water."

[beholding_archivist]

"Christ..." Jon mutters at the sight of the small, yet obviously very useful device. What is it with everyone wandering off to potentially dangerous places? Is he the only one that worries about possible dangers? Or is this the sort of behavior that is expected of him and he should toss all caution aside and just wander into the next likely death trap without telling anyone?

...because that certainly would work out well.

Jon swallows those thoughts and looks back up at Cal "So... D- did you find anything?"

[in_extremis]

While Jon was contemplating a watery death, Tony eagerly leaned over the table, eyebrows raised curiously to admire the equipment. He had never seen anything like it that compact, it must have been incredibly efficient. "Can you make more?" Tony was already asking with a grin while Jon stuttered through his anxious question. Or that, Tony could concede, maybe hold off on a group outing until they knew there was something down there worth exploring.