[MINGLE] PLOT: Down the Tubes: Alarm

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: The bunker & elsewhere
WHEN: 1 September 2018
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn on threads
NOTES: Plot Details | Bunker Details | Bunker Map & Key
Threads may take place ANYTIME during the plot, including before, during and after the tubes have been opened, just please do not godmod tube arrivals without explicit permission. Related threads not in the bunker are welcomed, as are general bunker exploration/reaction threads that have nothing to do with the arrivals. Please reference the bunker key doc for what is and isn't available to explore at present.

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Deep under the mountain, tucked away in the newly-discovered bunker complex, there is a room where everyone begins. It is filled with equipment — Computer consoles, monitors — but the point of it all resides within ten vertical stasis tubes lined neatly along a far wall.

One of them has been cracked and lies dormant, dry. In six of the remaining are bodies, unconscious and floating in their familiar vari-colored scrubs, vital signs ticking calmly off on their respective readouts.

In the corner, near the cracked tube, the ceiling has shattered and tumbled inward, across the floor and over the largest console in the room — The one flashing 24 HOURS UNTIL STASIS FAILURE.

Comments

[majorlyugh]

"You got lucky," Major mumbles under his breath, offering Liv a bit of a smile in greeting. He can imagine how awkward it is to have them both here, both in the larger village sense but also in the immediate proximity sense, but it isn't like they haven't gone 'round and 'round with this before. He'd swallowed his pride and his feelings when she was dating Justin. She'd done the same when he was dating Shawna. And for as much as they were more or less forced to push each other out of the other's romantic lives, they ended up coming back together in some way or another.

He's told her before, and he'll continue to mean it, that he really hopes they can continue to be friends. It's just .... going to be complicated, and maybe if he and Bucky had met with Liv already there as a buffer, it might've gone differently. After all, Major hasn't gotten too petty or anything when she's dated other people. But left to his own devices, under the duress that the village is constantly thrusting upon them, it's hard not to find something else to focus his energy on.

Sorry, Bucky.

"Yeah, she probably didn't want to make you feel intimidated or anything," Major replies from the other side of Liv, peering over her head at Bucky. "'This guy' would be her ex-fiancee and one of her best friends."

[freightcars]

He dips forward to peer around Liv and assess the guy again. Ex-fiance is news to him, and while he isn't by nature the jealous type... Well, you know, it's not so often the girl you're dating lives in a creepy murder village a million lightyears from home with her ex-fiance.

Still, he arches an eyebrow, takes in Major's form, and decidedly declares, "Yeah, that's probably not it."

Hard to intimidate a 6'2 supersoldier that killed JFK and a hundred other people, to be honest. He dips back, shrugs, and says, "Guess if it was important it would've come up."

At least he doesn't sound the slightest bit upset Liv didn't mention having an ex living in the village. Everyone has history, he knows that, he's really not all that bothered by it.

Except on a tiny little masculine level. You know, just a... little tiny comparison thing.

[majorlyugh]

Major won't deny the build of the guy, and if he wasn't completely being an idiot, he'd even admire him. It's obvious that Bucky trained or regularly trains to look the way he does. Major might even call him a good-looking guy. But his pride and his pettiness, especially with Liv quite literally between them, aren't allowing him to see that.

Nope.

All he sees is a giant, walking asshole that he decides he doesn't particularly care for in that moment. Sure, there are tubes and people floating in goop or whatever, and this only confirms that they've definitely all been experimented on. But instead of facing that existential crisis, it's a hell of a lot easier to go for childish rivalry over a girl on the playground.

"It's really a commendation on Liv and her wanting to spare someone's insecurities and not go directly for the jugular like that. But I guess you guys must not be at the stage where you start bringing up exes and sharing deep, dark things. You know, the meaningful stuff."

[zomboligist]

It's not hard to catch up to them, even if he is running like a lanky giraffe just learning to walk when he sees the last text about 'measuring'. It isn't until he's panting and closer that he realizes how ridiculous this is going to look. "Goldilocks and her Three Giants," he notes in a wry aside to Liv, staring between the two men warily and not sure he wants to get involved in this.

Should he pretend he never saw them? It might be awkward to just turn and walk away, even if every iota in his body is screaming to do so.

"So," Ravi says, too loudly and like he's trying to remind everyone that he exists, he's here now, and he has a medical kit, doesn't everyone want to look at his shiny medical kit that he'd scrounged? "How are we all feeling about today's little adventure?" It's a pointed question, given that the tail end of the conversation he heard means that Major is definitely feeling meow and he hasn't even been eating cat brains, as far as Ravi knows.

[living_proof]

Oh yeah, this is... This is fine. Just fine.

It takes everything in me to not just grab hold of Ravi and run away. I mean, they would catch us — I do not have giraffe legs — but I still want to do it.

"Okay, LOOK," I say, holding up both hands palms-forward as I shoot a pained sidelong glance Ravi's way. "There are three penises here and I have touched two of them. It's a thing. They were both nice in their own ways, nobody is better than anybody else. I think we can all just move right past that and try to focus on the people maybe DYING that we're trying to help. Yes? YES."

[majorlyugh]

Major's glad for Ravi's sudden arrival, if only because he thinks it means he's got someone on his side. It makes it feel more balanced, since Liv is obviously going to side with her current boy man toy. But when Ravi's contribution to the current .. er, competition .. is a change in subject, Major can't help but feel a little .. disappointed. Even though it's a completely legitimate thing to discuss, and yes, there are much, much bigger things at play ...

His feelings, Ravi! His feelings and his stupid, primate brain that feels the need to defend his "things," even though Liv is not and has never been a thing, there's still a weird territorialism at play here that he doesn't want to try to start dismantling. Major pouts a little with a glare shot in Ravi's direction until Liv calls everyone to order.

It feels very much like a little kid being scolded by a parent for eating a mud pie or something equally ridiculous.

Guess that's not all that far off the mark.

With a sigh, he nods with a roll of his eyes and a puffing out of his hands to his sides before they flop back with a pat against his jeans.

"Dying people. Tubes. Experiments." He suddenly wishes that he had some sort of smart scientist brain to munch on. He won't be much good aside from brute strength on this mini-Fellowship's expedition.

[freightcars]

And with that, finally, Major manages to crack his cool with only the slightest of tells- a visible scrutinizing narrowing of the eyes. Probably... not a good thing to listen to that Russian voice in his head helpfully suggesting he could probably snap that guy's neck in about three moves. Nope, yeah, that's terrible, he's truly a terrible person.

But he totally could.

Shut up.

It'd be so tragic, they'd have to have another funeral, Liv would never talk to him again...

He sighs internally, fights back the desire to roll his eyes to the sky. Dear Catholic God, please give him the strength and the serenity and whatever else it is you give people who don't want to murder their girlfriend's exes in stressful situations. That's probably a common prayer, right? It's gotta come up from time to time. Give him a healthy dose of whatever that is.

And don't let him reply some more recently than others to Liv's declaration. It's a struggle, but he stamps it down.

Compartmentalize. Focus on the mission.

"Six distress signals, and the rescue team's already left. Steve, Clint, and Tash are searching the bunker. It's not so much about finding or fighting now, it's just recovery." He supplies helpfully, switching kindly to Mission Mode. "So far, no reports of anything dangerous. No trap doors leading to sketchy torture dungeons, no villains lurking in the dark, nothing. Doesn't mean there won't be a cave-in eventually or something, but..."

He gestures to his pickaxe, hanging loosely from his satchel. "We're fine if it comes to that."

And... then maybe a sidelong glance at Major. "And if we get cold, I guess he brought blankets or something."

[living_proof]

For a moment there, I actually think it's worked. Major caves because, well, he's Major, and Fillmore Graves brainwashing not withstanding, he's usually pretty good at backing off when you call him on being a dick. I'm not fooling myself into thinking it's a permanent truce — There is some kind of caveman junk wagging thing happening here that logic is not going to stop — but I think maybe a respite. Just long enough to get something done.

But clearly, I am an idiot.

Eyes widening, I snap a look over to Bucky where he's walking beside me. "James Buchanan Barnes," I hiss. "I swear to god..." And I don't finish the sentence, but I'm banking on my expression saying very clearly that I will not be touching his penis ever again if he doesn't quit it.

[majorlyugh]

Major rolls his eyes at Bucky's comment, because of course he'd need to keep making comments. But Major doesn't say anything in retaliation, nor does he engage in any kind of similar behavior. He knows Liv too well, and apparently, Major's suspicions are correct that Bucky doesn't.

Major can feel the tension in the air, radiating off of her body without even touching her, and it's the widening of her eyes that makes him put some distance between the two of them. He looks over to Ravi, who knows just as well as he does that Liv's temper is a thing to be reckoned with. She's about to let loose, and he doesn't want to be caught in the crossfire.

He swallows down the childish giggle that bubbles in his throat as he keeps walking, letting the two of them have their moment. He imagines that Bucky's going to need a second or two to recover from that, just as anyone would. Her strength has always been something Major's admired about Liv, even if her angry face instilled the fear of God into him from his head to his toes.

He replays the report Bucky gave in his head, trying to make sense of it all. He doesn't know Steve or Tash, but he remembers Clint, even if they haven't had a chance to reunite since he's been back. He wonders who put those folks down there, and why there's been a shift from the usual fountain arrival. Who are the people who've been unfortunate enough to be all Luke Skywalker circa ESB? (His easily distracted mind wonders whether they have that big, weird diaper that Luke did in the tube). He wonders what's going to happen to those people if they don't get them out quickly enough.

Glancing over his shoulder, he looks at the two of them, mostly at Liv.

"I guess none of us know how long they've been down there? Or what we have to do to get them out?"

[freightcars]

His lips twitch, though not in apology so much as in amusement. He hasn't been three-named since the forties back in Brooklyn, it's as surprising as it is alien to hear and - yeah, okay, he gets the sentiment behind it. Check himself before he wrecks himself. He will, it just kinda slipped.

"Sorry, ma'am," he murmurs wryly, nudging her shoulder a little with his bicep. Appropriately chastised, he falls quiet to allow for someone else to answer Major's question.

[zomboligist]

Oh god, this is a waking nightmare that Ravi's found himself in the middle of and he wants to wake up. He's glad Liv is ready to be an authoritarian master, though he definitely lacks the parts that make up a person who either man will listen to. Even as Major's best friend, he thinks that it's probably not going to go as well as he'd hope if he asked everyone to get along.

Best to focus on the task at hand, glaring at Major as if in warning not to say anything stupid and then giving the other man a wary look, because he doesn't know him well enough, but if he's one of Liv's boyfriends, then he has an idea about the sort of person he is.

"We've got coordinates," he says firmly. "And if people down there need medical help, we should keep going so Liv and I can help," he says, lifting the medkit as if a reminder why he's there, seeing as he didn't want to be an awkward onlooker to this. "Now, do I have to fetch a get-along sweater?"

[living_proof]

"Ma'am," I silently mouth back at Bucky, my eyebrows imperiously arched. Oh, he's gonna be calling me ma'am next time he wants to see me naked, that's for sure.

And that is not a mental image I really need right now.

"I would not rule it out," I tell Ravi, although it's entirely possible that the get-along sweater would get shredded with those two in it. "And thank you for reminding everyone of the point of all this." I flick a glance to Major. "I haven't been down to this place, I have no idea what to expect. I talked to Bull after he first came back from checking it out, but the only real info I got was that it's underground and abandoned, and—" I pull in a breath and huff it back out again. "Owen said it looked like they were all breathing, but I'm kind of afraid that we'll get down there and Elena won't be."

[freightcars]

To be fair, ma'am is totally genuine. Maybe that's just a 1940's thing that doesn't translate so well across generations. He's not so sure what to make of the look on her face or the implications that follow it, so rather than dig himself a hole he opts to duck his head and study the ground before them in quiet contemplation.

Their group trods on tensely.

He hasn't been to the bunker yet either, he'd been adamantly steering clear of it in fact, so he can't contribute much insight toward the layout or what she can expect. His real use will come later when something tries to eat them or they need someone to punch a tube open. Until then, he's going to focus on the big questions.

By peering around to Ravi with a furrowed brow to ask, "What the hell's a get-along sweater?"

[zomboligist]

If they're breathing, then at least there's a chance of them getting them out. If they're not...well, his furtive glance to Liv and Major hopefully goes unnoticed, but he hates that literally every time he thinks of death now, he thinks of the relief at a food source being readily available.

Lucky for him, he doesn't have to dwell on that because the boyfriend asks about a get-along sweater. "Keep fighting and you can find out," Ravi guarantees. "Neon orange, I think, the two of you snugly inside it until you get along."

"Come on," he says, mainly to Liv, trying to nudge her to pick up the pace to avoid more bickering. "Let's go find out what kind of day we're about to have."

[majorlyugh]

"I'd like to see you try to even get a get-along sweater on me," Major retorts with a half-playful, half-serious flick of his eyes in Ravi's direction. There's a "try me" look slapped all over his face, but there's also an underlying amusement. Mostly because it's a hypothetical with no basis in reality. If there had been any inkling of it being truth, Major would be a lot less jolly about it.

"What's happening is that Ravi is trying to dad the two of us into getting along better," he offers to Bucky. It isn't exactly an olive branch, but Liv and Ravi are right - there are bigger things at play here, and Major's willing, and able, to put all of the new-boyfriend-hooplah behind him to deal with the bunker. At least for now. "Call his beard Princess Sparkles if he tries it again. He loves it when I do that." He tosses in a shit-eating grin to his best friend before shifting the pack on his shoulder.

When he catches Ravi's flash of a glance, he responds with the flicker of one of his own before looking ahead again. He knows what it means. And to think, he'd thought he'd escaped all the brain nonsense by coming to the village. That was the one saving grace of the place. It had to be too good to remain true.

"You guys," he gestures to Ravi and Liv, "are the medical folks. So whatever you might need me to do, direct me." He's had some CPR training, and he's learned more from his mercenary trainings with Fillmore Graves, but it's all pretty basic. And it's all pretty zombie-centric.