out_of_order: (heard that before)
Cal Kestis ([personal profile] out_of_order) wrote in [community profile] revivalproject2020-07-10 09:24 pm

A Diving Expedition

WHO: Cal Kestis, Jonathan Sims and Tony Stark
WHERE: The Flood Plain
WHAT: When one has rebreathers, one does underwater exploration
WHEN: A few days after being freed of Calibration hell
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary


It was decided rather unanimously, and perhaps unsurprising given the time that had been spent in confinement. After being cooped up indoors with little place else to go, the opportunity to finally go elsewhere is a welcome one, and there seems no point in waiting. Besides, Cal can use the distraction. While he's not certain of exactly how many of their number have been sent away, it's difficult to miss at least one presence, strong in the Force as Altair was. Hopefully he would be back where he was meant to be.

Cal's looking forward to the outing, however, eager to be about and exploring with friends. Given the chosen venue, one might never guess from the way he's prepared. He's dressed as he usually is, BD-1 perched on a broken bit of wall, both beside the shallows of the eastern-most inner curve of the large lake that's taken up a good portion of the southwestern corner of the city.

It's a lot of area to cover, and the more he looks at it, the more he wonders just how deep it can be. The couple of times he's gone in probably haven't even covered very much of anything, and with so many places to look, he'd been practical and stuck to where he could make out the remnants of buildings. That seemed to be the most ideal place to find anything, anyway.

Glancing at his droid friend, he tilts his head. "They should be here soon. You ready, BeeDee?" The little droid borbles, wiggling eagerly, making the padawan laugh. "Yeah, it'll be a nice change of pace after all that." He turns, looking out towards the main road again for any signs of Jon and Tony.
beholding_archivist: Do not take. Thanks. (Whut?)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-14 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
There is no objection from the Archivist about following Tony. He is just as curious as the others regarding what they have found and this time he follows the others inside, yet again wishing he hadn’t lost his light.

Making sure not to let go of Cal, Jon runs his other hand over the surfaces nearby. Shipwreck, indeed. He does feel a little reminded of the ships up in the hangar, but has no way to share that thought properly. But then again, unlike his companions, Jon isn’t very versed with machines and space ships, so Tony and Cal May be the more appropriate judges for this case.

So Jon lets his attention be drawn to the creatures around them, faintly illuminated by BD-1’s light. Some of them swim close enough to brush past his arm and hand and one curious looking long species even briefly winds the top of its long tail around his fingers. He actually might like these.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-14 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
This would have been a profoundly useful bounty if any of it looked anywhere near salvageable; there was a whole construct that Tony crawled his way across to make sense of that he would have called a birthing bay if it sat next to his workbench, with a vice rusted permanently and pointlessly to an otherwise thinly eroded plate, bolted through with what might have been a pair of positioning arms, if Tony extrapolated correctly from the baseplate that remained of one. Glancing up to the meandering wires, then around as though he could see through the darkness that his gauntlet didn't really penetrate, Tony tried to place any of this in space, and found himself quite at a loss. The factories around the forge didn't house anything like this, and he was pretty sure they hadn't somehow gone inside another building. It was just...a mechanic in an open basin?

The dark made Tony back up, searching back the way he had come for the other two with BD's light to guide him, only to frown at Jon getting intimate with the locals again. Gesturing to Cal to get his attention, Tony tried to sign 'make', then 'construct' to get Cal's professional evaluation of what else they might run into with that in mind, hopeful that he could figure out what the machines Tony was feeling around might have been used to make. He hadn't come across what might have been an end product yet, but it might have been too small to survive the submersion.
beholding_archivist: (It's only a few holes in my face)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-15 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
At Cal’s quiet request, Jon lets the young man go to help Tony inspect what they have found. The Archivist stays at the edges of BD’s light, poking at various alien findings that may be tools or just extravagant art. A couple of those long underwater creatures follow along, zipping in and out of the light cast by Cal’s droid and offering Jon something to inspect he has an easier way to make sense of.

They lack fins like most fish Jon is familiar with and rather seem to move via intricate movements of their long tails, which appears to be at least two tails tightly wound around one another most of the time. And while they somehow seem to be aware of where the droid’s light shines, Jon can’t make out any eyes on what he assumes is their head. But they do appear quite fond of circling his hands when offered or his feet when Jon inspects some of the odd pieces around.

He does make sure not to lose sight of Tony and Cal, however. And whether or not they find something worth noticing while he picks through bits of broken debris, wondering if maybe they can find remains of some of those data spheres down here as well. Or maybe even another data point.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-15 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
This micro inspection wasn't producing any strong theories, apparently, so Tony shrugged and turned to dart away more quickly instead of lingering over a new ridge or component as he passed, trusting the other two to commit to the buddy system as he went searching for the limits of this scrapyard. Placing it in space, like he had tried to before, might be a better start than trying to identify individual components of alien hardware. The data points were in Tony's head, too, as one of the pieces of Agrii technology, as far as he knew, that he had worked with the most, considering maybe that was what had been made here, but nothing he was finding looked much like how the spheres were constructed. The dark, the erosion and the overtaking plantlife could have been skewing that estimation, to be fair, but the closest thing any of this appeared to have in common with the data points was the level of destruction-- it was a lot like looking at the far flung debris that had cluttered the library when he arrived, not a single component left entirely intact.

When Tony came swimming back toward BD's light again, it was to gesture for Cal once more, beckoning him closer to deposit one item Tony found while searching the sand the make sure he had reached the edge of this find. Based on the rest of what he was seeing, it was entirely possible that it was a nail- or heat-gun by the shape, but Tony cocked his head, glancing only briefly to make sure Jon was still nearby but distracted enough by his fishy friends.
beholding_archivist: Do not take. Thanks. (Not sure about this.)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-15 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
Jon doesn’t necessarily require the nonverbal invitation to paddle over, only remotely noting that the fish that seem so curious about him seem less interested in Tony or Cal. He reaches the others just in time to see Cal’s reaction on reaching for the item - And he can well guess where it comes from. The lingering anxiety down here is even stronger than outside in the dark. And it seems to get even denser the further one swims inside. Wherever Tony has picked up this thing can’t be a pleasant place.

Which makes Jon a little curious.

But he resists the impulse for now, despite casting a prolonged look in the direction Tony has returned from. Though instead of swimming away, Jon pulls forth another odd piece he has found between the pieces he has been inspecting and places it in Tony’s hand, right next to the thing the other man has brought with him. This one looks much rather like a hilt of sorts. Though one that hardly fits to any sort of knife Jon can imagine.
Edited 2020-07-15 02:36 (UTC)
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-15 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
The amount of attention that Jon seemed to be accruing and brought over with him was weird enough, and combined with Cal's physical reaction to the potential weapon discovery when the city seemed to have been deliberately swept clean of them, Tony finally considered that maybe this had been a risky idea. With some frustration, he tapped at his mouth and the rebreather, sure that he wasn't going to be able to make a convincing argument to send them both back to the surface to let him continue the map on his own with this gag in the way, only to shiver at the bolt of panic that went through him as he realized he would be left alone, gagged, in the dark. He shoved it down quickly, this was fine, he was ignoring it so far and they were trying to accomplish something here, and Jon was kind enough to hand him another distraction.

Either all of the Agrii's secrets of creation or destruction happened in the bowl of this basin, or it was where they threw the things they didn't want found. The hilt could have been for any tool in this workshop rotting at the bottom of the pond, cutting or binding, but next to the gun-shaped object, underlit by the gauntlet, it didn't come off looking friendly.

Handing them both back to Jon so that Cal didn't have to touch them, they didn't seem to agree, Tony twirled a finger for the pair to search for more, maybe they could place the objects in context with further examples, then signed 'map' to explain where he was going before kicking off again. This wasn't really getting them anywhere right now, mostly Tony was feeling frustrated and freaked out, but if he could at least pinpoint the outer bounds of this trove they would know where to send a second expedition when they had more information.
beholding_archivist: (Just let me work)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-15 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
The sudden panic coming from Tony also isn't missed by Jon, who casts the man a concerned look and for a moment places his free hand over Tony's and gives it a quick squeeze as the man places their current findings into Jon's other hand. No. There is no way they will leave any of them down here alone.

He takes a moment to look after Tony when he swims away again to resume mapping out the place, then eyes the two items once more, his posture seemingly inviting some of the creatures surrounding him to circle around his hand and arm again, tails brushing against him lightly. Jon has stopped counting them, but is pretty sure they keep getting more. Closing his hand around the potential weapons, Jon swims off to the site opposite where he has been looking before, the fish of course following along.

This site has hardly any debris to offer for Jon to look through, but he notices a few of the fish straying away from him to circle around an area covered in sand. Willing to take the hint, Jon begins to search through it.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-15 05:22 am (UTC)(link)
Meanwhile, Tony wasn't lingering anywhere for very long, only occasionally searching through sand or seagrass to make sure he wasn't missing some notable construction marking a larger territory for this dump site, coming away with a few of his own bounties that looked like circuit boards and chips that, if they were too beyond waterlogged to give up their secrets, he could strip of their copper and platinum. He made quick work circling what felt like the outer boundary of the bulk of the find, skimming his free hand over pieces that looked like arcade cabinets, long since disemboweled with wires floating like guts in the water above them, and small particle detectors, or maybe jet engines; there wasn't much difference after a while spent dissolving, really.

He came upon Cal first, hauling his...satellite dish?, and just the sight of it was enough to make Tony finally swim to a stop and let himself sink down into a seat of weedy coral on his knees, shoulders slouching and releasing a hefty sigh of bubbles back up into the duckweed far above them. They were swimming laps down here; Jon might have looked goofy, but he did spend that replicator charge wisely on those fins. Collecting his boards against his chest, Tony offered his gauntlet palm up again like he had displayed its records above water, this time to show the 3D rendering of the map it was collating so far; a strange, jagged trail of their path downward that widened into his more thorough scouting at this depth. The sensitive readings sketched out the larger structures that were sitting throughout the circle Tony had traced, highlighted in a range of colours where the read was less positive, like the incrementally more red edges of the whole map.
beholding_archivist: (That's not ideal)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-15 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Jon doesn't pay attention to the others at the moment, more focused on digging out what these fish-creatures have directed him to. It turns out to be a large gap in the metal and what he can only described as a longer version of the odd gun Tony has found. It's a sleeker design than its smaller cousin and looks a lot less like looking at a potential tool. Jon runs a hand across its long metal shape when Cal decides to check on him and his finding.

Though the Padawan is met by several of Jon's fish very deliberately blocking his way by swimming between the two men and flaring open what Jon has believed to be their heads, making them look more like jellyfish than more regular fish. Their long tails uncurl from one another towards Cal in a threatening gesture and along with them dozens of those same glowing tendrils from their previous encounter with the large anemone unfurl from where those tails connect to their heads, now glowing and swaying at Cal and increasing the formerly small creature's volume notably. There's at least a dozen of them puffing up like this threateningly before Cal with more beginning to hover behind these and yet more slipping into their found space through the gap Jon has freed up, causing the Archivist to back away from it and looking over in the direction of the others when the combined glow of these unfurling beings starts to cast an entirely new light over their surroundings.

He can't help but think just how beautiful this looks.

That's however when Jon feels the first sting-like bite to the back of his neck, causing Jon to flinch forward with a bubbly yelp of surprise but also pain before kicking his feet to back away, dropping the items he has been holding to reach for the thing latched onto his neck only to find another of these beings wrapping itself around his hand and a second bite is delivered to the palm of his hand, resulting in a similar reaction as the first sting and Jon hits the wall he has been paddling towards with his back harder than expected, stopping his attempted retreat and allowing more of the creatures to go for his arms and legs and he can already feel a numbness spreading across his neck and through his hand. And as Jon tries to cast a wordless plea for help in the direction of Cal and Tony, he can only see both of them now being targeted by their own respective groups of fish-creatures as well.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-15 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
The buddy system might not have stopped the fish from obsessing over Jon, but Tony was still irritated that it seemed to have broken down enough to get them a wall of menacing tentacles splitting the party. Jon would get into a van with a stranger, officially, he needed close supervision, and if Tony didn't figure out how to punch a school of squid, he wasn't going to be able to snap at Jon like he wanted to.

He had lagged behind Cal as they approached, but the transforming fish had him kicking up close to Cal's back, cautioning hand on his shoulder. The slow unfurling of the group kept Tony watchful over them, feeling intimidated but not immediately threatened, not sure if they kept their heads down they could maybe avoid whatever this confrontation was, and he didn't notice they had been flanked by more of the transparent little bastards until the first one spilled its glowing tentacles to catch his eye over his shoulder. Reacting in surprise, he snatched for it instinctively to squeeze in his gauntlet, but its jelly body compressed easily to pop out from under his crushing thumb and dart away, flaring up again like a static field. Another had wrapped itself around Tony's ankle in the meantime, and he could feel it trying to bite through the nanoweb, a slim enough sting that Tony had to try to kick it away as he spun back on Cal with concern. He didn't have a suit at all, and Jon-- panic, mounting panic again. With a flick of his wrist, Tony added another light to the growing glow at the bottom of the lake; a bright burst of fire from his palm that was supposed to cut through anything in their way, and with a quick sweep, seemed to work for calamari, too.
beholding_archivist: (Why is this happening?)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-15 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Now Jon really wishes he had brought some sort of weapon. Preferably one he knows to use, which limits his options notably. It’s getting increasingly difficult to fend the odd squids off and he can feel more of them on his arms, legs and back.

Then one of them pulls him away from where he has been stuck struggling and Jon looks up, baffled despite his own increasing fear and flailing, which pauses when he recognizes Cal being the one to pull him away. For a moment, Jon is simply grateful for the help. But he also is quick to realize that they still have to get away properly. So ignoring the pain and growing numbness of his legs, he kicks his feet and flippers behind him to give them a little bit of an extra push - as maybe slap an alien squid or two in the process.

They need to get out of this handy trap they maneuvered themselves into. And back to the surface.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-15 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Their approach was waved away with a rushed flailing from Tony, and he gestured for them to go up, up!, out of the dark depths where these things were spawning. He was following, kicking at and scorching the fish that darted too close and slipped their creepy little arms around him, trying to stay behind the pair to take the brunt of the attacks until-- he bolted upward, heart pounding with the effort to reach out and grab at the first ankle he could find in the gnashing disturbance of the water to drag them back down to a halt as the jellyfish kept rushing up around them. With his other hand, he flicked the torch back off, throwing up the display instead, hoping one of them could read through the churning water.

2:59-
58-
57...
beholding_archivist: (Recording)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-16 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
The sudden stop in their escape earns a brief frown from Jon at first and he manages to turn his head enough to look down towards Tony, only to catch sight of the glowing display and the numbers. And he understands perfectly what these mean. Just another of those little things his body has decided to have no need of any longer. Just like eating or sleeping.... Christ, he wouldn’t have needed this rebreather in the first place. Now if only he could find himself to be useful with these fish... He has been the one attracting them in the first place.

Between Tony’s torch, BD’s Scanner and Cal plain shoving them away with his mind Jon feels remarkably useless, glaring past Tony grimly and setting his stare on one of the fish dashing forward again. Can he maybe access their minds? Force them to stop what they are doing, perhaps? They can’t be entirely primitive by how they have gradually followed their group until they were basically trapped. There must be some consciousness presence. Some sort of...

And Jon finds it. Finds the creature’s mind and digs into it, causing the fish to freeze, then drop away. Right. This may be tedious and not as efficient as Cal’s approach, but Jon takes to pointedly pick out the closest attacking fishes one by one. Which is... something?
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-16 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
They didn't seem happy about the delay, but it wasn't like Tony was thrilled about it, either. He hadn't built the decompression table into the gauntlet's programming just in case, though-- that kind of risk didn't sound like the sort of test he should be putting his freshly scarred heart through, a third heart failure in a quarter was pretty dramatic even for him. He'd rather take his chances with these stinging stalkers.

Cal's pushing them into their own clear bubble gave Tony a moment to consider their options, gaze darting around the glowing school to try to assess the biggest bang for his buck, and it was the random fish dropping out of the regular formation that had him spinning to look questioningly between the pair to figure out where that was coming from. Jon might have been feeling the odd one out, but it was Tony that was feeling underprepared for this telekinesis party--that was the problem, that was why it was feeling so tedious and overwhelming. The fish had coordinated attacks, and the three of them weren't working as a team yet. Tony waved for their attention again and signed for 'gather', the opposite of whatever either was doing by pushing and scattering the fish. He did this insistently a few times before sending another jet of oxygen to his torch to blast through them all at once.
beholding_archivist: (Mighty Frown)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-16 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
Jon on his end can't do much to direct the fish or gather them together. But he does learn an awful lot about these creatures. How they work, how they react, and most importantly... What they fear. And that's what worries him as he watches Tony blasts an entire group of them at once.

There are worse creatures down here than these fish.

He watches the remaining fish scatter in the dark water, their bright displays of color fading away as they finally give up on their attempt to turn the group of invaders into a meal. But their retreat isn't a reason for Jon to relax. He looks from Cal back to Tony and then around them, the water now darkening again and leaving them with only BD's light to work with. Jon reaches the arm that has for the most part been spared by the fish down to pull Tony up towards them, eyes flicking to the counter nervously.
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-07-16 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
That wasn't so bad. Tony was still hyper alert, twitching around in place to watch the fish retreat while their scorched brethren floated to the surface, not entirely trusting that this wasn't some kind of coordinated feint to be on high alert for until Jon was pulling him up. Looking briefly anxious until Jon's expression seemed to confirm for him that they were in the clear, whatever his link to his little entourage was, Tony then drew his arm away to wrap around Jon's waist instead and butt his head against Jon's chest with a sigh of fluttering bubbles streaming up passed their heads. It was brief relief, a better view of Cal's limping swimming from there making Tony raise his head again then trade his hug to Cal, signing vaguely 'where?', then 'ok?', then offering the display counter again as the final question-- was Cal going to give out in the next minute? Tony could text Billy, and surely the kid could teleport right above them over the lake if it was a dire hospital emergency. Where the fish had gotten their little stinging bites under Tony's undersuit, he did feel a little cold. Cal was really going to need a suit.
beholding_archivist: (u sure.)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-07-16 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
They will worry about mobility on land once they get there. Jon's attention is primarily on Tony's counter and the hand he has used to pull up Tony giving the man a pat to his shoulder and then lets that limb rest there while he also looks over to Cal and holds out his other arm towards the Padawan. This one is only numb from the elbow down, but should suffice for Cal to hold on to when they make their combined way back up. Between the three of them they still have enough leg functionality to reach the surface reasonably.

Then they will have to head to the hospital to have those stings checked. All of them. Even though Jon expects to be the least affected of their group despite having received a decent share of bites in unhappy places.

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