revivalproject | ♤ Like Moths to a Flame

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♤ Like Moths to a Flame

WHO: Cayde-6, Jonathan Sims, and Tony Stark
WHERE: The Green Quadrant
WHAT: ...IS THAT BLINKY LIGHT
WHEN: Sometime this weekish
WARNINGS: N/A - Will update as necessary

It had been a mystery that had consistently nagged at the Exo ever since he'd first noticed it. Taking up residence in the clocktower had only verified that he hadn't just been seeing things one evening, and every time he looked off in that particular direction of the city, the blue, intermittent glow beckoned, or perhaps taunted was the better term. He'd get to it, he promised himself.

Naturally he'd had it in his head that he'd try checking it out alone at first. That was back then, and being without his Ghost, he supposed it would be better to exercise maybe a little more caution than he tended to. He was sure that if he'd left a note saying where he'd gone, certain people might be upset with him. Clearly the answer then was to invite them along, and he'd be in good company. They had the time now, hopefully, and Cayde fully intended to make use of it before they found themselves suddenly on another extended space voyage. Jon had wanted to check out some places, and Tony, well surely he'd been curious about the light's source as well.

His message was pretty cut and dry so far as one could expect by way of invitations and intentions. He even hand-wrote them because he thought it'd be cute, and left them where he'd hoped his buddies might find them.

𝒮ℴ 𝓌𝒽ℴ'𝓈 𝓊𝓅 𝒻ℴ𝓇 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁ℯ 𝒶𝒹𝓋ℯ𝓃𝓉𝓊𝓇𝒾𝓃ℊ? ℬℯ𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈ℯ 𝓉𝒽ℯ𝓇ℯ'𝓈 𝒶 𝓅ℯ𝓇𝓈𝒾𝓈𝓉ℯ𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎 ℊ𝓁ℴ𝓌𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝒷𝓁𝓊ℯ 𝓁𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉 ℴ𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽ℯ𝓇ℯ 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝒸𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓂𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝒮ℰ𝒞ℛℰ𝒯𝒮.
𝒫𝓇ℯ𝓉𝓉𝓎 𝓅𝓁ℯ𝒶𝓈ℯ ℛ𝒮𝒱𝒫 𝒶𝓉 𝓎ℴ𝓊𝓇 ℯ𝒶𝓇𝓁𝒾ℯ𝓈𝓉 𝒸ℴ𝓃𝓋ℯ𝓃𝒾ℯ𝓃𝒸ℯ. 𝒳𝒪𝒳𝒪 𝒞𝒶𝓎𝒹ℯ

Like as there would be some light planning at best, although the Exo wasn't very big on plans, but Jon and Tony might have otherwise to say, especially considering their previous exploration endeavor. Cayde packed the essentials, which amounted to his trademark hand cannon, a few knives, and one of the guns that he'd claimed from the Graq. At least those didn't blow up in his face when he tried shooting them.

They'd met up in front of Cal's workshop and then made their way out towards the far northeastern corner of the city, well beyond its main roads.

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Jon follows the other two and casts a quick look around, eyes lingering on the controls for a moment, something that has been very prominently missing under the tower. And yet from there he shifts his gaze to Tony and steps over to him, decidedly ignoring the buttons for at least another moment.

"Here." Jon says softly and produces a bottle filled with water from his bag, handing that one over to Tony. "Take a moment to rest. We can take our time here." He assures further, adding a little nod before looking over to the displays Tony has indicated before, raising his brows in response. "Is that what Temba's current time looks like?"

With Tony moving off on his own, Cayde was free to roam. Sundance fell into place hovering at his shoulder as usual, her light beaming across the panels and all those delectably tempting buttons.

"Wait, what now?" he asked as he turned towards Jon, following his line of sight towards the weirdly shifting display and back again. "Is that what that is?" He stepped over to squint at it, not that it made much difference.

The water was welcome, but Tony was glad for the distraction of whatever that display was because he didn't need anyone knowing how much he didn't want to try to open it, working at it very slowly with one hand instead of trying to press it against any part of himself for leverage. None of the options felt great anymore. Some kind of clock would make sense for what Tony was looking at, the one part of the display made a very steady change that Tony would say measured a consistent amount of time, but he still said, "Dunno, can't read it." Maybe the one that wasn't changing was a longer measurement, like an hour or a day. "Maybe you can make it do something, crack the code," he suggested with a nod toward the controls.

"Well, yes." Jon replies with a shrug in Cayde's direction and half a glance at Tony before wordlessly taking hold of the bottle with one hand and pointedly not looking at him, allowing Tony to open the bottle himself while remaining unseen. "It doesn't seem to translate to time measurements as we know them - And the intervals aren't the same." Though that makes sense. Earth's time measurement is based in the planet's rotation around the sun. It would be a massive coincidence if both planets had the same time measurements.

Jon frowns. "The symbols don't look like any I have seen on the Agrii ship, though. Those may not even be numbers. Not in the sense we are familiar with anyway."

Cayde took little encouragement to dance back towards the controls. He studied them and eventually reached out to tap at a few buttons.

"But why would they have a clock in here of all places? I mean, looking at the outside, it's been purposely separated from everything else. The only obvious clock placement is the tower I hang out at, but I don't know how salvageable it is." He waves a hand as though to dismiss that point before they can wander too far off topic.

"Also- if this isn't Agrii-make, not surprised the symbols don't look familiar."

That was such a gracious gesture and Tony couldn't even thank Jon for it without dismantling it, so he watched Jon closely until he was very gently taking the bottle from him, only to see a new movement out of the corner of his eye as Cayde pecked at the unknown buttons. The thus far idle display had finally had a change of its own, making Tony watch it expectantly, then glance between the screens and Cayde. "Do that again," he said with a gesture of his chin toward the new symbol, just as obscure as the last. Even if there were more to see, though, they weren't going to get very far in this puzzle without more context, so Tony tried to feel out the why for Cayde by wondering more specifically, "Who's it for? Us?" That didn't really work; almost everything else they were meant to use came with a datapoint to ease them into it.

Jon keeps his eyes averted until Tony takes the bottle in his hand again and only reacts with a small smile which Tony may catch before the Archivist steps to the displays to study them. "It's for whoever is in this building - For whichever reason."

The symbols change again, and a flickering of light from where they have entered the building catches Jon's eyes, making him head over there to see outside. His reaction is a short noise of surprise. "Cayde. I... I believe you are controlling the tower. It turned from blue to dark orange."

"That's edging into philosophical territory," Cayde noted at Jon's input to Tony's prompts. Any further thought on the matter was effectively derailed what with the observations of the results of his button-pushing.

"What, this?" The Exo tapped at the last button he'd hit, brows lifting then as he looked from Tony to Jon. "Yeah?" He tried a couple other buttons. "Is it just changing colors and things or what? ...wait, what if it's supposed to be a signal for something? Steady blue's like an all-clear and anything else is 'well, looks like Larry forgot to lock the control room.'"

Philosophical was really not going to help them solve this problem, making Tony snicker at Cayde, glad it hadn't been up to him to tell Jon he wasn't thinking on a useful axis. But with Jon heading to the door again and Cayde's erratic manipulations making the symbol flicker and change along with the light on the tower, apparently, Tony was back to staring narrowly at the display again, trying to see the pattern. "Light's got to be a signal," Tony agreed, because that would be a very inscrutable design choice otherwise. For whom was still a problem, though. "Something in the air--no way you can see it from orbit, right? Not unless you were looking, I guess. That's a pretty stupid system, why not just--unless the whole thing is hardwired, can't send a signal to a ship, because...?"

Rest time was over, apparently. Tony gathered his strength to push away from the wall, focused on the controls that Cayde was playing with to slip alongside them, running a hand along the metal before trying to drag it through the dust to find the wiring that had to be behind or under it. He was either going to confirm this theory, or figure out where this whole operation was plugged in.

"...something in the air..." Jon mutters wile watching the light spring from red to purple to green, from flashing to blinking rapidly to just giving off a very bright glow.

Shaking his head and turning his attention back inside this little shed they have found, Jon frowns as he offers up another wild thought. "What if this is how the storms are created and what we are messing with here are the settings? Settings for time, duration, location, intensity..."

Shuffling over slightly so Tony could have more room to poke around, Cayde continued to poke at buttons, trying them one at a time to try and figure out what the different results were. Sundance went beside Jon to watch the light show outside and relay the responses back to him.

"Fair possibility, but I don't know how practical that would be. The storm seems to bring along plenty of physical damage along with messing around with our heads. Having controls right here in the city for it would make it just as susceptible to interference from what it's making, right?" He did hesitate in his button mashing however.

"Signals make more sense, but still have us clueless for who's receiving. Aaand I have no idea how to get it back to standard blinky-blue. Um. So hopefully if it does turn out to be something to do with the storms, it's something good."

The practicality of any of it was all feeling very wrong to Tony, who stared at the back of the console as he managed to inch it away from the wall, only to find a flat case. No wiring, nothing, leaving him resting his head against the metal and struggling to find a way to pant that wasn't painful after the exertion. "And someone would have been here," he eventually agreed with Cayde, and dropped his head lower, not needing to turn around to know they had been traipsing through the dust enough to make it unclear if anyone else had been in the building recently. "The light would have changed, wouldn't it? That last storm, no one was prepared for it, it was different."

"I would not be too certain that someone would have had to be here necessarily. Remember that they transported us all to a different planet? And swapped out that ship's engine core without anyone noticing? They made Bucky and Cloud disappear literally from right in front of us! Why is it so unlikely for them to drop someone off here for a few minutes to either make or just upload any adjustments they want and have that person gone again?" Jon points out a couple of details, then turns back to cast a worried frown at the odd clock and its unknown symbols. "...and what if this over there is a countdown...?"

Not taking his eyes off the counter, Jon pulls out his phone and starts making a video recording of the sequence. "...I want to analyze those symbols later. Maybe... I... I don't know."

"Fair on both points," Cayde said, snap-pointing at the both of them. But why have this here to begin with? I mean, sure, it could just be to mess with us but there's got to be some function, otherwise they wouldn't go through the trouble of all that weirdness getting to the tower, not to mention the self-defense mechanism."

He looked back at the control panel again, unable to resist one last poke at the buttons to see if it would reset the light. Sundance informed him that the tower was now blinking orange.

"A countdown to what is the question..." he muttered as he looked over at the screens again. "Countdowns are more concerning than just displaying time and I probably don't need to list the reasons for that."

Jon was right; if they could take people away from under their noses without a sign, then it was likely someone could be here and gone without leaving any trace, making Tony drag himself upright enough to offer a weak nod of agreement. He was even slower to look back over to those display panels, staring at them once more like this new angle and new theory would help him solve the puzzle, but was left frowning with anxiety and only the assurance that whatever it was couldn't have been anything good for them.

"Maybe it's just the time it's going to take us to get back across town. Traffic can be hell this time of day," he eventually proposed. Without any further leads, what power source either this control array or the tower itself were drawing on was starting to become a mystery as intractable as the symbols on the wall, and Tony really didn't think any further brute force was going to be gentle with them after that last blast.

"...I hope if it's a countdown to the next storm, we have set it off far enough into the future." Jon mutters through his teeth while watching the symbols shift one more time with Cayde's final button press. He sighs, then looks over to the Exo and from Cayde to Tony, who definitely keeps only looking worse.

"We can come back here." He suggests and turns his attention back to Cayde. "You easily have the best view on the tower and its light. Maybe you can keep an eye on it for now? Use your phone to make a short video every day, maybe? I would like to watch these symbols longer, of course. See if they or the tower change when the next storm hits. Then we would know if they are connected..." Jon trails off and sighs. "But before that- We need to head to the hospital. At least it's not far."

It was definitely sounding like they'd have to throw in the towel on this venture. Cayde could push more buttons, but he wasn't sure where that would get them, and even Sundance gave him a look that suggested he should probably keep from doing so, at least until they could figure it out. Whenever that would be.

"Yeah, I can do that," the Hunter replied. "Too bad we can't leave a tablet in here to keep an eye on the counter or something. Live feed?" He nodded absently in Jon's direction before glancing at Tony. Hospital trip was definitely in order. "Anyway, you good to go, chief? Gotta beat that traffic."

"I'll bring D.A.T.A. out, he can keep an eye on it," Tony agreed. "If we can see a pattern, it'll be easier to connect..." That was low on the list of priorities, though, and Tony could feel himself wilting embarrassingly, less eager to stay and prove he could survive it as well as Cayde did, than he was eager to get far enough away from Cayde and Jon to collapse in private peace. "Get back into town, get some supplies," he concluded, dragging himself back to the rotten doorway.

Pocketing his phone, Jon casts a concerned look over at Tony before moving up next to him again to wordlessly offer a supporting shoulder for the way back.

"Hospital first. Have that arm looked at and we all could use some rest. D.A.T.A. can wait a day or two, but- I haven't thought of that. Great idea!" Jon says, making sure not to let the focus linger on Tony's health. Just a little favor Jon is willing to provide as long as Tony doesn't try to argue them out of taking him to the hospital. Though the look he casts over to Cayde all about says that they will just carry Tony to see Billy if they have to.

The Exo nodded along as he brought up the rear, Sundance vanishing in her usual flare. "Maybe get some shut-eye, have a drink or two..." he quipped. "If we had a place I'd totally suggest we get some ramen too."

He wasn't arguing with Jon's insistence however, giving the Archivist a nod when he glanced back at him. If he thought he could manage it, he'd just grab them both and bounce back over to the city center.

There might have been some fight in Tony for Jon acknowledging the hospital situation as though it was going to be a group exercise, but it went out of him entirely at Jon's enthusiastic praise of what Tony was going to consider his best idea yet for at least the next half an hour. He gladly accepted Jon's support, not necessarily because he needed it (he did), but for a good excuse to lean bonelessly against him as he guided them not back through the reality-challenging, barren field, but carefully along the edge of the forest back toward the city's boundary.

"That can be your next place," he suggested to Cayde. "We'll bulldoze this fucking thing, you can put it out here. Call it the Rock and a Hard Place. Catch-Nijuni." When they actually figured out what this thing was, anyway, which Tony wasn't feeling confident about. Until then, the light would keep drawing his eye across the city, not even trying to hide, knowing he wasn't any closer to solving the mystery than he had been before braving its defences.

"I haven't had ramen in ages..." Jon muses into his relief that Tony isn't putting up a fight to being helped for their way back. Though there isn't much more for him to say at this point, his mind busy going over all the things that have happened and he would by lying if he claimed not to be looking forward to just sit down for a few moments and- Well. Maybe actually get a drink? Who knows. But a break sounds tempting.

Of course. After they make sure Tony's arm is being taken care of.

"I like it. Next on the list," Cayde said.

In a way he was glad to be distancing themselves from the place. He was pretty sure hanging around too long couldn't be healthy, the tower especially, given its area effect. Did they make a formal report on this or something? He'd be the first to claim 'not it.' Of course he wasn't sure whether people would be better off knowing there's a possible storm link sitting in town all along or not.

"Just like bein' back in the Vanguard," he sighed to himself, smiling wistfully as he trailed after Jon and Tony. He shelved the previous thought for now. Wouldn't be his decision alone to make anyway, and he'd rather make sure his current fireteam, his friends, were safe and taken care of first.

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♤ Like Moths to a Flame

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