(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

river tam 🌠 open 🌠 non event starters

[enchangement]

→ @ the gas station 🌠

[ What is River doing at the gas station alone? No matter; she's found the clothes and underwear, gathering up slips to use as dresses and several sizes of underwear for everyone in her household. She's also giggling at the assless chaps, imagining the look on her stuffy older brother's face if she offered them to him to wear.

Other things of interest to River in the gas station includes ice, chocolate candy, leftover weird flavors of ice cream that have some freezer burn on them, fruit cups, batteries, flashlights, three of those giant bug zapper thingies, and every first aid supply she can get her hands on (they're for Simon and she's sure it'll come in handy eventually). Feel free to run into her during her first (or third) trek to the welcome haven of cool AC and ice solo. ]

The sausages are dry, [ she'll say by way of hello. ]

→ @ the lake's edge 🌠

[ She sits in a tree near the edge of the water, frowning out at it several times per day. ] Suction and disappearing, [ she announces, whether or not you're aware she's above your head, ] a whirlpool towards the center in a few solar days' time.

[ And then, if she's ignored, she might just lob a pinecone at your head. ]

→ @ the porch 🌠

[ River is on a porch. Is it the porch of the house she lives in? No, probably not, but it is a porch, and River is feeding blackberries or whatever they are to the little hands under the floorboards, cooing at them quietly. There's also dried fruit ropes from the gas station at hand if the little hands get angry and want to eat something else. ]

→wildcard 🌠

[ Want to run into River elsewhere? Throw me a top-level! ]

the gas station

[facelikeyours]

[He'd tried not to panic too much when he woke up and River was gone. She'd returned in a few minutes anyway, with an armload of -- well, with an armload.]

River, what on earth is all this? [Most of it seems to be clothes, which is nice. And clothes he can wear, which is even better. He'll settle for not having his waistcoats as long as he has some sort of trousers and a long sleeved shirt.

But then his sister is off again, and he follows after.] What store is even open at this time?

[enchangement]

Clothes, [ she announced, stripping out of the dress she'd woken up in and swapping it for wearing a dark blue slip as a dress instead. There's also the first aid stuff under the pile there, but she'll let him discover that on his own.

But he follows her, and that's good. She'd rather have someone to talk to anyway. ]

Outpost station between us and the woods. Advertises fuel. No post-holers.

[facelikeyours]

I see that they're clothes -- River, please. [He turns his back while she changes, then makes up his mind to follow suite, switching out his buttondown shirt for a long sleeved one she's brought him. A little big, but comfortable.

And now, apparently, they're going back.]

For making holes. [Though it's said mostly to himself. Remembering that backwater planet that had so needed a doctor. Remembering the ooutpost station with the wooden carvings and painted plates.]

How are you buying all of this? Do they even take credits?

[enchangement]

There's no one there to demand credits. [ River rolls her eyes a little at her brother's goody-two-shoes-ness. Do people look at him and realize that he defied the very government he grew up under just to save her?

Besides, it's not at all like River is the one who would be able to keep up with a credits chit, or even an ident card.

She marches ahead of him for part of the walk and then loops back, doing a cartwheel in order to stand next to him and grab his hand. ]

The absolute least they could do, after intergalactic kidnapping.

porch

[shivving]

[ It's Joel's porch, as it happens, and he's not expecting a stranger to be on it. He slows as he approaches, watching as she picks up blackberries and - what is she doing with them, exactly? He can't quite see. ]

Uh.

[ He clears his throat, trying to get her attention without scaring her. She doesn't look like a threat, at least. ]

You, uh, a friend of Ellie's? She ain't here.

[enchangement]

[ She's dropping them through spaces in the wood of the porch's floor, though for every ten she lets go of she pops one into her mouth. Apparently having numb lips and whatnot is not a deterrent to River Tam.

She glances at the man out of the corner of her eye. ] Don't know Ellie, [ she replies softly, ] should she?

[shivving]

Oh.

[ So much for that explanation. Or any other he can think of. ]

She lives here. An' so do I.

[ He takes a step closer, cautious, still not quite close enough to see under the porch. ]

Are you - feeding something?

[ Or just making a giant berry pile under his porch? ]

The porch

[theprezident]

[ So, you know, life here isn't super great and all, but for the most part it's pretty chill. Some weird stuff going on, but isn't that just what life has always been? So Rhys is in a decent enough mood, minding his own business, when he passes by whatever porch River is on and glances in her direction and what the actual hell is going on.

He stops mid-step, eyes wide and mouth agape at the sight. The super creepy tiny hands eagerly reaching out to take the berries offered, and the woman just talking to them like they're some kind of cute pet.

What the hell? ]

Are you--? Are you feeding the hands?

[ Okay, so it's pretty obvious that's what she's doing but why is she doing that. Why is any of this happening. ]

[enchangement]

They aren't disembodied hands. They belong to the ring-tailed bandits, listen:

[ She drops a piece of fruit rope and there's gleeful chittering from beneath the floorboards. The hands all vanish and there's a bit of a struggle and scrambling fight before they start to reappear again, pair by pair. ]