(event) WAY DOWN WE GO

[vestigemods]

EVENT LOG: WAY DOWN WE GO

AUGUST 14TH - 24TH

► THE BASICS

Not halfway into the month of August, the lake starts to recede - slowly at first, but then in great leaps and bounds until only a foot and a half of sun-warmed standing water remains. The lake going dry is concerning, for certain, but it's hardly the least of our problems... because on the lake bed is a hatch, askew and emblazoned with an unknown but eerie insignia, and beyond that hatch lies nothing but trouble.

Over the next few days, a brave and reckless team of explorers delve into the cave beyond - what is later revealed as a maintenance tunnel, just before the ceiling of that very tunnel caves in and traps them from both sides. Their supplies are limited, and phone signal is shaky at best. And what's worse, not more than a day or so later, the lake begins to fill back up, water pouring down into the open hatch. Can those who remain stage a rescue in time to save the explorers from drowning?

► MOD NOTES

• This log is a general dump for all log threads pertaining to August's Way Down We Go event - and in lieu of the lack of catch-all for August, you can feel free to do non-event log threads here as well! Go ahead and utilize vestigenet for any event-related network posts you'd like to make.
  
• The main chunk of the event takes place between the IC dates August 17th (reveal of the hatch) and August 22nd (the latest the spelunkers can be freed before they drown). No rush leaping on this event post, since I know most folks are honestly still plotting about it.
  
• All event information can be found on the July Event Infopost!
  
• Please take special care in this event to label your top-levels with identifying information such as the IC date, any prompts specifically pertaining to event roles (spelunker, rescue efforts, etc), and/or 'non-event' for any non-event prompts you may include. Just trying to keep things organized!
  
• I'm going to help solidify the plotting efforts over the next few days to help make sure everyone's on the same page, but none of it will be set in stone just in case latecomers want in too. If you want in, chime in on the spelunkers, rescue efforts, or support roles top-levels as applicable!
  
• Any questions can be directed to this top-level or, for a quicker response, to Trace on discord/plurk.

Comments

parker ryan | open

[shittalk]

[ one day i went aspelunking ]

[ It's a hell of a way to wake up, bleeding out and cussing and grasping wildly for your gun. Parker is slow to calm down, but ... the sight of a dark and damp tunnel all around her kinda helps. There's no one she needs to kill down here, as far as she can tell, and the guy who shot her in the gut seems to be long gone.

She takes a quick inventory: rubble all around, what looks like a totally busted-up elevator peeking out of it behind her, and ... a long, dark, spooky tunnel before her. And not one single Sarah in sight. Well, fine, she's been left unattended before, maybe she'll only burn a couple things down before Sarah finds her again. She hops to her feet, grimaces about the gutshot (gonna have to take care of that at some point), and skitters down off of her rubble throne.

That's about when the faint sound of activity reaches her. She's quick to duck behind a few larger rocks from the cave in at her back, and listens carefully. Well, sort of carefully.

Alright, she barely listens at all before she comes to her decisive conclusion: she's gonna do ghost noises. ]

Ooooo... ooooooohhh! [ Does that sound like sex noises? Maybe. Damn, she's bad at this. For authenticity, she adds: ] Oooooo, I'm deeeaaaad!

[ rescue me! (set me free!) these are lyrics i promise ]

[ The cave in gets serious before Parker has much of a chance to look around, and in a rush of noise and force, she finds herself pinned. Actually, it's possible that both of her legs are crushed? She can't feel or move them. And that sucks.

This is shaping up to be one of her weirder days, she would say.

Ghost noises probably aren't going to help this time, also the pain has kind of killed her mood a little. She shoves at the rock still pinning her down, but -- there's too much rock on top of it. She's gotten really fucking strong lately, but apparently there's a limit to these things.

Okay then, zombie noises: She groans, because it seems like the most natural thing to do right now. It turns into words, a low mumble that echoes around fallen and still-settling rocks. ]

This fucking blows. [ And then a little louder: ] Yo, anyone there?

[ anything else! ]

[ Something after they make it out again? On the way up? Three weeks later? Here is my excuse to make this a catchall post and also here is a wildcard option! ]

the lyrics one, this tag is garbage but idc

[mannerless]

( since i'm going to assume she's still bitching by the time he makes it down there about fifteen minutes later, her answer comes solidly from a quarter-sized gap in the rubble. )

Hey, hello? Can you hear me?

( wei wuxian is restless to get to work - to start digging, or he supposes first to find some means by which to support the ceiling, good thing wen ning is not far behind him - but digging is going to be loud, so it's probably best to see about making contact with those inside before it begins. )

[shittalk]

[ Oh, shit, is that a voice? Calling for help got old pretty quick, so Parker had switched into a kind of rambling, running monologue of current thoughts instead, which trails into silence at the sound of Wei Wuxian's voice.

Then, the voice echoing from under the rubble suddenly redoubles with optimism: ] So anyway, 'm pretty sure that's a flat kidney. Actually — you know what, where the fuck is a kidney? Shit, I couldn't steal one if you gave me a knife and a bathtub full of ice, I'd just be pulling intestines out and shit.

[mannerless]

( oh, she's. she's just gonna keep talking. that's... not really evidence that she heard him, but that pause may have been, so - )

Hold on, let's back up, something about your kidney? It's flat now?

[shittalk]

Like a pancake!

[ It's called back too cheerfully to sound true, and maybe it's an exaggeration, but Parker is relatively sure there's a good few things messed up in her body right now. ]

Are you here to save my ass, or what?

[mannerless]

( well, she sounds either spectacularly chipper for someone with a crushed liver or entirely full of shit. alas, wei ying doesn't quite have the time or sense of humor (for once) to figure out which.

'are you here to save my ass, or what?' ) Precisely that, ( he says, stepping back now to scope out the way the rubble has fallen (the weak points, the places at which the rubble supports the ceiling, et cetera). ) Are you - alone, in a pocket? Or in with everyone else? If you can see a boy in white somewhere, tell him to come heal up your liver, or at least the hole it used to be in.

[shittalk]

Eh, just me.

[ Or she'd definitely have tried to eat whoever and gotten herself out of here just fine. She lays there for a second on her rocky bed, staring up at a way-too-close ceiling of rock and frowning a little. There's something in what he said that doesn't make sense.

Oh, yeah: ] Wait, heal up my liver, what, like he's a doctor?

[mannerless]

( shit. he hadn't considered there might be smaller pockets of cave-in. this might be a bigger mess than any of them considered.

eyes return to the ceiling, the way that a chunk of it seems to be leaning against the top of the rubble, and he sounds slightly distracted when he calls back - ) Ah, no, not a doctor. Just a bit of a nerd. ( but it occurs to him a moment later - different worlds, so that was probably unhelpful. ) It's- healing, not medicine. Call it magic, I suppose.

[shittalk]

[ She doesn't hear any shifting of rocks, or whatever a rescue would sound like. Parker sighs heavily, flopping her head back against hard rock, as she decides she'll probably die in here. ]

You know that's bullshit, right? Magic crystals or whatever? You can't put a rock on a necklace and say it's gonna cleanse your body, shit doesn't work like that.

spelunking

[kinkprofessor]

[ While those are the least unconvincing sounds of death he's ever heard- ]

That's a pity. My condolences on your likely recent passing. [ He mourns you, Parker. Truly. For approximately .3957375793 seconds before asking the wildly inappropriate question of- ]

Would you be willing to donate your body to science?

[ Him. He's science. ]

[shittalk]

[ So, it's possible her ghost act isn't convincing enough to get hilarious results? She might have to rethink this approach. With a quick huff of a sigh: ]

I already did.

[ She pops to her feet, ready with a squint to scrutinize her new company. The dark won't stop her from getting a good look. A perk of having donated her body to science. ]

Who the fuck're you, what're you doing in here?

[kinkprofessor]

[ At least, not for him. He knows what real death - and undeath! - usually sounds like. Don't ask how. It's not important.

He doesn't have incredible dark vision but its better than the average person. It comes from having those lovely deep-sea creature genetics. She'll catch the subtle movement of a couple extra limbs with a bioluminescent dashed pattern along them; they remained tucked close behind him though. ]

I could ask you the same thing! My name's Quintalian, you can call me Quin, and I wish I could tell you what I was doing here. Truth be told, I'm not quite sure.

[shittalk]

[ It's not exactly the most reassuring or thorough of answers, but considering it matches Parker's almost exactly, it does the trick. She scoots out from behind her half-cover of rocks, hands pocketed and a cheery (slightly fangy) smile in place. ]

'Sup, Quin? Nice tentacles.

[ Is that what she's seeing there? Tentacles, kinda hiding behind his back? It seems like it. She decides she's probably really, really high, so high that she forgot she got high. Wouldn't be the first time. ]

Dude, you think they got a burger stand somewhere down here? Like, cave people burgers. I'd kill for cave people burgers.

[kinkprofessor]

Why, thank you. [ Don't mind him preening a little at that. Almost like a peacock would, four of the alien appendages appear and fan out behind him. Complimenting his tentacles is the fastest way to inflate his already enormous ego.

He takes notice of those fangs though. Not likely human herself. Interesting. ]

Unfortunately, this cave seems woefully bereft of burgers. But since I found you I'm hopeful about the possibility of people.

[shittalk]

[ Yep, there they go, fanning out. She's absolutely tripping. She nods to herself like it confirms some suspicion, and drops to a lean against her chosen rock. ]

Ehhh, bad news. Pretty sure it's just me, and I'm bleeding out.

[ Slowly, not very alarmingly, but there is still a bullet in her. She can feel it. She offers a shrug. ]

So maybe just you again soon, huh?

[kinkprofessor]

[ That's honestly a reasonable assumption. As she leans against the rock, however, those tentacles reach out to grab just in case she falls. She doesn't so they instead hover nearby, just in case, and his brow furrows at what she says. ]

I am a doctor, you know. Granted, my specialty is xenobiology but I'm sure I can medically assist the average... person. [ Close enough. ]

Maybe I could help?

[ I mean, even if she does bleed out and die that's still something for him so he wins either way. She doesn't need to know that though. ]

[shittalk]

[ She has no idea what xenobiology is, but it doesn't sound like medical doctor to her. Still, though, with a growing little smile as she clutches at the hoodie over her bullet hole: ]

Yeah, I bet you could. Let's give it a shot, c'mere.

[ She's definitely gonna try and eat him, and there's a little gleam in her eye that suggests maybe she doesn't have great intentions. But hey, it will help, she always heals faster after a meal! ]

Spelunking

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Someone else being down here isn't strange by itself, because there's no reason Geralt would be the only one intrigued by the appearance of the hatch. It's not strange, either, that the person's first instinct when they hear someone else is to get in cover, especially when he breathes in the sharp and familiar smell of blood.

What is strange, is that the person then decides to make noise. Noise that he can't quite place until she decides to claim that she's dead. Is she trying to sound like a ghost?

Surely, she knows that wouldn't fool anyone?

He stops, turning a blank face towards the caved in tunnel the noise is coming from. ]

You an idiot, or do you think everyone else is?

[shittalk]

[ Alright, fine, so her ghost noises aren't cutting it. She makes a face, but keeps crouched behind the rock. It's just occurred to her that the gutshot is probably going to really hurt when she straightens up, so — how about she just doesn't do that. ]

Why not both, huh? There's always room for both.

[ Maybe ... this is someone she can just, like, eat. She's new to attacking people with her teeth, but so far it's seemed like healing goes faster with a fresh guy in your stomach. After a second for thought, she adds: ] Yo, c'mere, I found something.

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Yeah, that's not suspicious at all.

He adjust his hold on his sword, and starts heading towards her. Not all that slow, but definitely cautious. ]

What?

[shittalk]

It's a -- [ oh fuck she didn't think this far ahead ... Rat. A huge fuckin' rat, I never seen a guy this big before! Damn, he'd plug up the whole sewer with his ass, you gotta see.

[ She points behind the nearest large rock, for extra conviction. C'mon guy, just get in biting range, don't make her work for this. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Just ... raises an eyebrow.

Really?

At first, he wants to scoff at it, tell her that there's no way he has any interest in a rat. But if it really is remarkably huge, maybe that could be important somehow? He doesn't know, but it's been two months and he's at a loss.

So he makes a face, but comes closer anyway, leaning forward to peer around the rock. ]

[shittalk]

[ She's ready with a point, arm held out straight like a hunting dog pointing out the pheasant. Except she's pointing out absolutely nothing in the shadow behind the rock, and her eyes are tracking the guy way too closely.

He's got some kinda armor thing on, she thinks. She's fairly sure she can't bite through that. But his neck is bare enough. ]

Oh, guess it kinda ... wandered off. Back there. Got his pizza to go and took off.

[ As soon as he's close enough she goes for it -- the point becomes a hooking arm as she flies for him, aiming to tackle him to the ground. Pinning his arms to him would be a nice bonus. Mostly she's just looking to get her teeth in his neck and grab dinner. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ If he hadn't been ready for something, she might have been fast enough to get a good taste. But he is ready, and while she manages to knock him down if only because he wasn't sure exactly what she'd do, he manages to put an arm against her chest and shove her to the side before she bites too deep. Her teeth still break the skin, but he doesn't even feel it as he rolls onto his feet and raises his sword.

A vampire? His medallion has been acting strange ever since he arrived here, but if she is a vampire, then the lack of warning is at least like it should be. ]

[shittalk]

[ Oh, shit, she's not used to people actually matching her strength and speed. Or, was that skill or something? Whatever, who cares. She bounces back up to her feet an instant after him, with just a faint, tantalizing taste lingering in her mouth. Except ...

She makes a face. ]

Dude, you taste weird. [ She licks her lips, but -- it was too small a taste to make anything of it, really. She eyes his sword as she wipes her mouth, and wonders if it's more than just a prop sword. It kinda looks ... well-used. ] The fuck is up with everyone around here, tasting weird? Isn't anyone normal?