revivalproject | A Diving Expedition

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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.

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Tony would be able to feel Cal flinch at Jon's words. He'd been trying to smooth things out, but that obviously doesn't go as planned. He leans against Tony as he's carefully let down again, at least until he's made to sit.

Looking silently between Jon and Tony, Cal doesn't expect an explanation, but naturally hearing of anyone dying or near death makes anyone anxious. He looks over at BD-1 as the droid jets back with his catch. Using his little rocket to boost himself over seems more practical than hopping with one leg. The droid holds out the fish bits to the Archivist, head tilting with a quiet, inquisitive borble.

"No one's dying," Cal insists, setting his gloved hand on the droid. "Jon's making sure of it."

Jon casts a tiny, yet still irritated enough smile in Cal’s direction, kind of wishing the boy wouldn’t make promises for him to keep that wholly depend on how stubborn everyone turns out to be. He still accepts BD-1’s fishy delivery with a ‘thanks’ for the droid before gesturing towards his bag “Can you.... Get this over here, please?” There isn’t anything heavy in it at this point, which means the droid should well be able to drag it these few meters.

But he isn’t entirely done with Tony either. “They got you as well, Tony. It’s creeping up your neck and- Christ! Of the three of us?” He gestures from himself to Cal and up to Tony, not outright phrasing it, but Tony May get the hint. He’s the one with the weakest heart.

“I’m worried, okay? Worried. I know we can stop it. Temporarily. And I should still have the stuff at the library to make a proper antidote within..... A reasonable amount of time.” He pauses there to take a deep, rather painful breath and turn his attention to one of the fish BD brought to him, lodge this one under his useless hand as before and perform the same quick procedure on this fish as the previous one, deflating slowly now that his agitation starts to fade and he’s just starting to feel drained. “It’s poison, Tony. It’s meant so make your body break down slowly. Please take this seriously.”

The hint, at first, was lost on Tony, responding to the gesture with his own questioning one at himself because he was the only one of the three that was still mobile, apparently, distinctly upright, and that might have been entirely because it didn't matter if he was numb from the neck down with the nanoweb keeping him functional, but it wasn't like Jon knew that--and Tony wasn't eager to find out and have any more of his bites oxidize and start itching like the exposed one on his neck. He had to assume that unique problem was Extremis trying to fight the poison, which was a good thing, but wasn't interested in what that might feel like literally anywhere else. He really didn't appreciate Jon's implication that he had some particular weakness, like-- okay, maybe he did, but Jon didn't have to acknowledge it. Tony wrinkled his nose, dropping his gesturing of silent argument listlessly to his sides before flopping onto the ground in defeat with the other two. They were all dying, wasn't everybody?

"I'm serious, I can be serious," he insisted, not very convincingly in that tone, especially when he continued, "But you need to stop it, stop worrying, we're fine. I mean, you two look like hell, but we got out of the worst of it and you're already on it. We should be celebrating. Hey! Look! What the hell is this thing? Isn't that great?" It didn't stop sounding sarcastic, but he was waving the scrap Cal brought up with him and genuinely was excited to figure out what they had found. That was fun, they had a puzzle to solve.

"I can do that much," Cal says, giving a nod at BD-1 before he lifts his hand out towards Jon's bag to levitate it over. He's at least not feeling as mentally drained, but Jon has valid concerns, and it makes him more mindful of the stability of the other two, especially given Jon's insistence and motioning at Tony.

"Do we need to gather more?" he asks, glancing towards the lake. If there's going to be some antidote preparation, he's not sure how much that would take, aside from any potential extras for mistakes.

He casts a faint half-smile at Tony as the man finally joins them on the ground. "I've been through worse," he says. "...although this could've been a lot worse if I went in alone."

Looking at the thing that Tony waved about, he at least felt a little better that they'd managed to come up with anything. There would definitely be return trips, now that they know there's something down there, and hopefully they'd be better equipped then.

"It's strange though. For something that's been down there as long as it has, there didn't seem to be any traces of...well, memories. Maybe nothing to note really happened in there, but that just leaves more questions as to what and why it's down there." Right. He realizes he hadn't explained the echoes. "...I can...see things, I guess you can say. An event, a memory- something that happened strongly enough to leave an impression on an object. It's...kind of like when we were stuck in each other's dreams, but usually not as vivid."

“I will worry and you will have to accept that.” Jon reminds Tony in a tone that is surprisingly gentle given his earlier snapping. He also nods a ‘Thanks’ to Cal this time as he accepts his bag and leaves the others to wonder about their little souvenir while he sets his bag to Th e side for now and focuses on the fish BD has brought him.

The small organ is easily enough removed, but rather than offering it over to the others like the previous one, Jon places it between his own teeth, deliberately far back and tries to tell himself he is biting down on an oddly textured grape. A remarkably odd textured grape...

At least Cal’s giving him something new to listen and learn about the Force as he swallows and hopefully distract from his unhappy expression regarding the taste of that thing. But being determined to be a good example, Jon spares them any commentary and picks up another fish only to cast a raised brow about. A wordless question for the next volunteer.

Cal going for that dive on his own had Tony nodding solemnly, agreeing quietly to him, "We would have found you floating like that," with a point to the sickly bodies they had littered the lake with. "Couldn't even have a proper funeral, can you imagine? Jon would have been eating your kidneys. Come on everybody, good for the iron, shouldn't go to waste." It wasn't quite under his breath enough for Jon not to catch the teasing at this distance, but Tony wouldn't meet his eye over Cal's head, smirking toward the lake instead.

The memories Cal could sense, echoes he called them before--like a callback, Tony could get it-- still weren't super clear to Tony, but he pouted thoughtfully for the explanation. "Like--contamination?" he tried to contextualize for himself, figuring this had to be some kind of energy transfer. "That could mean there's decay. Don't know how old this stuff is," he offered, gesturing with the object again. To be fair, he didn't know how old most of the stuff Cal was going around touching was. Why it's down there, that was a good point, and Tony was glad Cal had picked up on how out of place it seemed, but Tony didn't have any hints to contribute.

And until he did...Tony was distracted watching Jon put that thing in his mouth with enthralled horror, his own mouth open with shock when Jon just went for it, and lip raising as he bit down, vividly imagining that experience just by the visual. Tony wouldn't go so far as to say he was happy to eat one himself now, for many reasons he was even more put off, but it was slightly reassuring that Jon was willing to eat one, too, and wasn't just over there finding out what he could make the pair of them do for him. So, it wasn't an enthusiastic reaction, but he accepted the next bit of fish innards, partially so he wouldn't have to watch Cal do it, too, and entirely lose his nerve. Honestly, Tony'd had worse things in his mouth. "Do I have to chew it, is that, like, part of the...?" he started to ask, shaking his head, never mind, they weren't talking about this and they were never going to talk about it again. This was between them.

Tony's teasing gets a grimace from the padawan. Yeah, some great imagery there. He lifts his good hand, giving him a light nudge in the arm with a fist.

"It could be," he admits, open to any possibility of why there were so little echoes to sense. "It could also just be this place. Took me a while to adjust to things here, using the Force. But time shouldn't matter too much, especially if something's been largely untouched by anything else for so long. And there still were some impressions. Just not actual things to 'see.'

"Whatever materials were used, it didn't seem like something that would fall apart so easily. If it's been here as long as the city's supposedly been abandoned, then we're talking over a century."

He looks over as Jon helps himself to the fishy delicacy, feeling BD-1 shift to also stare intently. It still looks unpleasant, but remedies and medical treatments usually aren't enjoyable. Cal's a little surprised when he sees Tony volunteer to be next before he has to step up to the plate, but he shrugs and just waits his turn.

There is a brief moment in which Jon wants to snap back at the teasing, but ultimately settles with an indignant huff. A slightly amused indignant huff, at least.

Seeing Tony offering to go next is a surprise, but also a relief. A visible one. Jon’s entire posture relaxes notably as he places the next of the little treats in Tony’s hand, offering some simple instructions with it. “Just... bite down and swallow.” There is a small gesture accompanying his words and Jon continues to prepare the third piece for the final member of their little party, less tense now that they have agreed to make sure neither of them wanted to die from this. And he’s having a bit more of an ear for the conversation going on at last.

“They at least say Temba has been abandoned for centuries. I still don’t think the city looks as if it’s been left to decay for that long. Decades, at best.” That’s just a little detail Jon has been wondering about for some time now.

In an obvious display of procrastination, Tony started to raise it to his mouth only to abort and ask, "Is it working? Do you feel...?" with a vague gesture kind of everywhere at Jon, only to accept that he was delaying himself before either of them had to call him out and bit the bullet. Or, gallbladder. Whatever the thing was. The squelch of it in his mouth had him going, "Eugh," again, and looking to Jon with a new level of horror and some perverse admiration for downing his as gracefully as he appeared to, and shuddered with his arms out like he would prefer to exit his body now.

While his expression didn't really recover from the experience, he tried to continue as though everything was perfectly normal and not disgusting, asking Cal, "Can you tell when a memory is from? That would solve that mystery," with a nod to Jon's point. He would argue that the alien city level of decay was difficult to map due to the whole alien factor, materials, construction methods, atmosphere, but not many of the materials were alien enough that Tony couldn't identify and use them, and the atmosphere was notably Terran. Decay rate should have been fairly straightforward.

Is it his turn? It's his turn. Cal at least he won't try to stall like Tony. They've probably been stalling enough anyway. He'll pop his helping of fish guts into his mouth once it's ready, as per Jon's instructions. While he doesn't voice his disgust, it's quite evident in the shudder and hunching up of his shoulders, the scrunched up face.

He's still making a bit of a face as he tries to keep on track with the conversation. "That's what I've heard," he says, nodding at Jon before he turns to Tony. "Not exactly. I'll admit, a lot of the time it's not the first thing I really think about whenever I read them. Getting a real idea of how old a memory is would be mostly guesswork, going by what's happened, any details that can be gained from the surroundings or the people interacted with. But sometimes it's just more of a feeling."

The tension that leaves Jon upon seeing both men following his example is a palpable one. They will be okay for now. They will be okay. All of them. He gives BD-1 a pat for good measure and finally picks up his bag to retrieve a neatly folded up plastic bag from it. Another leftover from their little trip to Risa. It will work to gather up a decent amount of dead fish. He also pulls out his lighter and a small metal box, which he opens to reveal a small amount of cigarettes of which he picks one before offering it to the other two. "We may also consider a drink now for the... Taste." Anything, really. Some licorice would be great to have right now.

He turns his attention more towards Cal now "You said you got a sense of... Hopelessness down there. Anything else?" Hopelessness, fear, weird weapons- Or whatever those things were. If only he hadn't dropped them.

That sounded fairly vivid to Tony, who had been thinking this memory was more of a feeling, but if Cal could pinpoint specific people in it then there had to be a good level of detail involved that definitely sounded useful. The scrutinizing stare he was treating Cal to was only broken by a brief chuckle at Jon as Tony said, "Is that your professional, medical advice, boss?," and gladly took this offer without a bunch of complaining to overcome the fishy experience.

Not to inundate Cal with questions, but he had just told them he could experience past events and they had a lot of questions about past events, Tony didn't even wait for him to answer Jon before tacking on his own, "Did you see any of the Agrii? Down there, or..." Anywhere, really. If Cal could even tell them that the Agrii had actually lived in Temba, that would be hugely informative.

Cal politely declines the offered death stick, deciding he'll just quietly suffer through the aftertaste. BD-1 borbles at Jon and then goes hopping off and splashing back into the shallows, presumably to help gather more dead things.

"Something to drink sounds good in general. And maybe grab something to eat when we can." Swimming works up an appetite! Cal nods at Jon. "It's...kind of hard to put into words. But now that I can think about it, it doesn't really bode well for us if whoever left such impressions were in the same position of us."

He glances between both men. "They felt trapped in the situation they were in, having to be of service. But beyond that, I couldn't pick up any who's or what's, exactly." He tries not to be bothered by Tony's stare, turning his focus briefly to bring over his boots and his utility vest. Being able to sense echoes through the Force isn't a common ability even among Jedi, so far as Cere had told him. As it is, he's not sure how people might take it, especially after what they'd gone through in those Calibrations.

"...I haven't yet. But I haven't really tried sensing echoes until recently." There's a brief glance towards Jon as he admits as much. The padawan's been working through a lot since he'd come here, but he's finally gotten over that hesitation he's had in really putting his skills to full use. He may not have a lightsaber, but there are other things he can do.

"It's my suggestion as a man that just escaped becoming a snack." Jon clarifies towards Tony while handing the lighter to the man after lighting his own cigarette and proceeding to pull a small bottle of water out next to hand that one to Cal first. He hasn't packed any food, though some plain water had seemed reasonable. Though Cal isn't entirely wrong. Actual food may not be a bad idea. At least for Cal and Tony.

Though listening to the description of what Cal has sensed makes Jon frown. Especially when put in direct comparison to their own situation. Trapped. That does indeed seem to be how some of those that were brought here feel about what happened to them. Not that Jon can blame them. In a way, they are trapped. Trapped and more or less forced to do what their kidnappers demand of them.

He dwells on that silently for a bit.

"Do you plan to... Keep records? Of what you find- What you experience from those echoes? Mark down their location, maybe?" It's something he would do, but can't exactly expect of others right of the bat.

It hadn't occurred to Tony yet to find this talent of Cal's invasive, considering it more of an archeological tool under the circumstances and how it could be applied to get them answers about this environment, not abused to get into people's heads like the Calibrations. The staring was still unsettlingly cold, but not deliberately, flicking to the way Cal was moving their stuff around on the shore with the same intent calculation. With his cigarette lit, though, he slowly tipped onto his back with relief, stretching his legs out to splash blindly at BD where he could reach the water. It didn't quite cover the aftertaste, and Tony could tell he was going to be dealing with some wretched burps, but it was satisfying after the the cold tension of their brush with watery death.

"If they were trapped," he muttered idly to the sky, "they had a lot more instruction than we did. We don't have shit we're supposed to be working on, it was just, here you go, you're here now, figure it out. Except the ships?" He went still, almost sitting up again, but that wasn't nearly a solid enough connection to give up his position. Was it? "Did kind of look like the ships," he finished, quieter. Giving up his squinting at the sky at least, he rolled his head to look to Cal again and say, "You've put your filthy hands all over those by now, surely."

Jon's certainly more prepared than Cal had realized. He smiles gratefully at the Archivist, nodding a thanks as he takes a couple of gulps of water before offering it back.

"I hadn't planned to? But...now that you mention it, maybe that's not such a bad idea," he considers. If anything he picked up could help gain a better understanding to the situation, it probably wouldn't hurt to know where. The Agrii certainly weren't forthcoming in information.

BD-1 makes a squawk-like beep when he finds water being splashed his way, more out of surprise than getting wet. He pauses from his fish gathering to kick a foot in the water back in Tony's direction.

Cal draws the rest of their things closer while he's at it. He gives his toes a test wiggle as he tries to decide whether to pull on his boots yet or not. "The ships? I haven't done much work on them. The only time I was even aboard one was when I helped Teddy load things up for the trip towards the mountains, aside from heading out with Poe to investigate the storm while it was out there."

Jon accepts the bottle back, but sets it down between the three of them to leave it readily available. As far as he's concerned, keeping records of all their findings is a given. Naturally he will later make a personal recording on tape as well. On their trip - And a separate one on the fish they encountered and the process of making an antidote. But that's for later.

He gets briefly distracted by BD-1's little noise of surprise and watches the droid return Tony's splashing as he takes a drag of his own cigarette and listens to their finding being likened to those grounded ships back at the hangar. Well, it's not wrong?

"Jesus. Don't tell me there's a wreck of a space ship down there." It's a little more than a mutter and Jon looks over to Tony, nodding towards the gauntlet. "You mapped that thing out, right?" If that's what they have been looking at, they might face a whole new set of questions.

Tony hadn't expected the droid to retaliate, and sat up on an elbow to watch him with a smile, eyebrows raised with a challenge Tony didn't think the little guy really wanted to take on. He gave another experimental kick BD's way. They were definitely going to have to find out what Cal could 'see' on the ships and compare to what he was getting from their poor salvage operation, but in general it sounded like they should have been following Cal around the city watching him touch things and getting his impression. That might be able to show them more about the people who lived in Temba than their kidnappers ever did. And by 'they' Tony did think it would be Jon and his tape recorder, making him mumble around his cigarette very unhelpfully, "You guys are going to be busy."

Right, only Cal had seen the results of Tony's work. He shifted to stretch his arm out behind Cal, palm up to project the map with a shake of his head to the connection Jon was trying to make. It wasn't a complete render by any means, but Tony could still offer with confidence, "It wasn't all one piece, I wouldn't assume it was a spaceship. I'd put money on it being from the same place, though, so why'd it be down there when the rest are in the hangar, perfectly serviceable? Those were put there."

"I don't know if its another ship, but we can't really rule it out. The design is similar to something we've seen before. But if it's not Agrii-originated, then who built it..? And why is it here?"

BD-1 shakes his head off when Tony splashes at him again, perhaps considering whether it was worth the attempt at that challenge. One can practically imagine the little droid squinting at him.

The suggestion that things were going to be busy for him and Jon made Cal give Tony a flat look. It's tempered with a faint smile, and lastly a shrug. He supposes there's no arguing it, even if he were inclined to.

It's while Tony brings up the projected map that BD-1 retaliates, using his rear rocketbooster to hover long enough to use both his legs in a quick spatter of water at the man.

"...busy." Jon echoes with a frown, which mostly results from him trying to fully figure out that three-dimensional scan. Which isn't exactly the sort of display he's used to. Outside of video games and movies he doesn't necessarily watch, maps on his Earth still happen to be primarily two-dimensional.

Of course thanks to him leaning closer to the map, half of BD's little splash attack hits the Archivist's face much rather than the intended target. Granted, he hasn't really dried up yet, but... It does cut out any commentary he might have had in favor of raising his brows at the little droid. He even opens his mouth to say something, but... Doesn't.

Instead, he leans away a little again and just exhales, settling for the obvious observation. "Right. We obviously need more information." More data to work with. More examples. More... Basically everything. That's encouraging.

Their displeasure with Tony was noted and disregarded with a crooked grin, impenetrable, because it wasn't like they could force him to participate in their boring note-taking. He'd be back for the practical exercises, the fun part. It was gone as the droid started hovering, just enough warning for Tony to throw his other hand in front of his face to protect the ember of his much too precious cigarette, a position he couldn't maintain as he had to devote his abs to the coughing laugh of delight caused by Jon taking the brunt of the attack. Of course he did, Tony shouldn't have even been worried.

Tony was still trying to catch his breath, snickering in the grass, as Jon came to the best conclusion they were going to get out of this excursion, and tried to nod sagely, definitely still worried about this, he was participating. "Can you feel your toes yet, sunshine?" he asked Cal, bringing his golden hand up to pull the suit back enough and check what might have been going on with him under there at this point. He had been saved the swelling that plagued the other two, but his skin did look, generously, gangrenous. At least it didn't immediately start itching. "Oh, that's gorgeous," he admired, then sat up on his elbow again to check how it was interacting with the gouges he knew were in his shoulder from being jammed through that anemone's hidey-hole. It wasn't actively bleeding, no one was going to lose a limb today, probably. All around, a success.

Cal laughs. He tries very hard not to, but in the end it's a failed attempt, and Jon's expression just makes it all the more funny. BD-1 doesn't look at all remorseful for accidentally catching Jon in the crossfire, only pausing once he settles back in the water, head canting as though to ask the Archivist 'whatchu gonna do about it?'

They need a lot more things, but at least this recent discovery proves that there's probably a lot out there to find. The padawan nods at Jon. "Just add it to the list," he says, smiling ruefully. They have a lot to do, but at least they have things to work with. He fixes a look at his foot, reaching over to give a brief massage down his calf. "A little? I don't think it's spreading any more, anyway," he replies to Tony, wiggling his toes. It feels like his foot's been asleep, which is at least better than feeling like a lead weight. He stretches out his other foot to tug on a boot after brushing it off.

BD-1 comes back out of the water with his latest fish-corpse haul to deposit into Jon's bag. Perhaps it's a peace offering. Cal grins at him, then looks at the two men, smiling crookedly at Tony. "I'm surprised they even managed to get through that. You feeling better?" he asks before also turning a look to Jon, inquiring the same.

There really isn’t an awful lot Jon could have done to prevent the little droid from splashing around, but Jon still directs a slightly chiding look upon him as he accepts the fish and pats BD-1 briefly, if with a small sigh.

Tonys commentary on his own bites and Cal’s question get a nod from the Archivist. “I’m good, thanks.” One of the tolerablere side effects of turning into a monster. “If you two can stop by the library tomorrow morning, I should have the antidote ready. Some food and rest will do you good until then.” He pauses a moment before adding: “I will make sure it doesn’t taste as vile as...” And he lets that sentence trail off with a small gesture.

And then his attention turns more towards Cal. “If you don’t mind any assistance in gathering notes on your echoes, we can talk about that later as well.”

"Incredible, always," Tony assured Cal as the undersuit knit back into place, flawless as ever. "It's more of a...protective coating," he explained, enough to dismiss the concern without getting too specific. If Tony could get his actual armor powered, he would be more invincible. In the meantime, he rolled up onto his knees to search the ground for his clothes, gathering him over his shoulder and more than happy to follow the doctor's orders to go completely crash. If he woke up in the morning, he might make it to the library to find out if Jon was capable of making the antidote experience any more tolerable, which was doubtful, then maybe head back here himself to pick up those pieces left behind. With a ruffle to Cal's damp hair to leave it an undignified mop and a wink Jon's way, he bid farewell with all of the earnestness in his heart, "Don't call me."

BD-1 beeps happily at Jon, walking off a ways to shake off again before wandering back over to Cal.

The padawan shakes his head at Tony but grins, probably figuring he should have expected as much for an answer. "Yeah, we'll do that, Jon. And if you can manage to do something for the flavor, I'm sure we'd appreciate it." He's not sure how well that will go, given most remedies aren't made to be tasty. "Wouldn't mind the assistance at all," he adds at Jon's suggestion, nodding at the Archivist.

Turning to watch Tony gather his things, it seems that at least it's agreed upon that they get some food and rest, now that they're not playing chicken with the poison from their fishy encounter. Cal ducks his head to no avail at the hair ruffling, moving to run slightly numb fingers through his bangs. He waves a hand at Tony.

"We'll text," he adds with a smirk.

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beholding_archivist - 2020-07-20 22:16 (UTC) - Expand

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