vestigelogs | (event) WAY DOWN WE GO

Entry tags:

(event) WAY DOWN WE GO

EVENT LOG: WAY DOWN WE GO

AUGUST 14TH - 24TH

 ►  THE BASICS

fill back up

 ►  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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

BREAK TIME, event

( while the vast majority of these couple of days are spent down in the cave, even stealing the occasional couple of hours' sleep in nook a few yards from the digging efforts, there's a point midway through the second day at which the heat and fatigue are enough that a bit of kicked-up dust catches in his throat and he can't quite find the air to properly clear it. and so wei wuxian admits surrender, retreating with a tight-throated 'be back' to whoever's nearby and climbing his way back up to the hatch.

compared to the phone-flashlight he used to navigate the tunnel, the sun is downright blinding, and he drapes one dirty arm heavily over his forehead to shield his squinting eyes as he coughs a bit and finally manages to dislodge the dust, all the while his way out into the foot-and-a-half of lakewater remaining between he and what aid awaits on shore.

but that's silly, honestly, because he doesn't actually need the aid on the shore. food, water, all of that has been delivered down the hatch. what he really needs is to cool down, and so anyone watching from shore will see that he seems to have changed his mind entirely about heading their direction, lowering instead to sit heavily in the refreshing cool of the shallow lakewater. no, even better: he's letting himself lean back into it, though not without carefully holding his phone above the surface. the looser bits of two days' digging grime washes from his robes now and clouds the otherwise crystalline water around him, but he couldn't possibly care less. if the lake wasn't supposed to be dirtied, perhaps they should've thought better than to trap people down a godforsaken hole.

anyone on shore is welcome to wade out to him, or call to him from the beach. alternatively, anyone coming up from the hatch behind him will find him floating gratefully like some sort of dead fish. )

WILDCARD, event

( go ahead and do a wildcard for any part of the event not prompted - i skipped past a lot of parts that were difficult to prompt for, but i'm very down for interactions while digging (he'd definitely be down to chat while he digs, to pass the time), or while he's helping organize, or while they're magic-ing the ceiling in place to evacuate the strongboys. )

COLLAPSE, event, closed to current cr

( they did it. they made a hole big enough to get everyone out of the cave-in without the ceiling coming down on them any more than it already had, and they even managed to fasten that ceiling in place long enough to get their plethora of overly-strong men out from under it to escape as well. wei wuxian hadn't doubted they would, but there's something oddly surreal about it regardless.

or perhaps that's the fatigue. or maybe it's the blood loss. as it stands, he hauls himself from the slick-floored tunnel purely by the distant firelight (or maybe phone light) of the last retreating forms ahead, more on autopilot than anything. gods, is he tired. he very much would rather have slept before making the journey up, since it has been days since he's had more than a few scattered hours of it and between the physical exhaustion of digging and the spiritual overexertion of a thick-enough stack of talismans to secure the heavy stone ceiling briefly in place - but he assured lan sizhui that he'd be just behind them, wen ning as well, and he won't make a liar of himself.

this time when he crawls out of the hatch, it's against a waterfall of lakewater pouring into the hole from all sides. the lake is deeper now, because of course it is, now coming up past his knees. too deep to lie down in this time, to his brief flicker of dismay, and so he pulls the hatch closed behind him and dutifully makes his way to shore this time - not in the direction of those who gather for aid, but off toward the shore nearest his cabin. there, wei wuxian wades up out of the water, trudges across the dry lake bed and then the proper sand,

and promptly collapses in the grass.

sorry y'all, that's legitimately as far as he's going to make it. he's perfectly content to rest there for a while, but i get the feeling that's not gonna fly for long. )

SEARCHING, everywhere, aug 26th

( two days. two days since jiang yanli has been seen, since his shijie has gone missing, and what with so many others disappearing in the day or so prior, wei wuxian is low-key losing his fucking mind.

and by 'low-key' i mean at great volume and with no sense of decorum whatsoever. over the course of the day, there isn't a part of the containment zone that he doesn't come power-walking/jogging through with a sharp worry creasing his features, calling - ) Shijie! Shijie?! ( and casting a dire searching gaze all around the area. sorry about your peace and quiet, literally everyone. )

SCAVENGING & COOLING OFF, gas station, aug 31st

( the wei wuxian of today is much more chill, and i mean that both figuratively and literally:

anyone in the gas station will see a pile of (non-refrigerated) supplies haphazardly dumped outside of one of the freezers, looking very much abandoned until one drifts close enough to look inside the freezer and spot the whole ass human being inside, lying lengthwise along one of the mid-height shelves once occupied by various flavors of ice cream.

no, it's not a corpse - in fact, the way his arms are crossed behind his head, he looks very much like he's napping. or perhaps you've caught him before his nap, and the man in the freezer lies there tapping away at his phone as if such a thing is entirely normal freezer behavior.

what do you want from him? it's fucking hot out. )

Edited 2020-08-25 23:35 (UTC)

[Once the lake started filling back up those up top had waited as long as they could before the water threatened to swallow them up. So most everyone had moved to the shore again and Huaisang is there as well of course. Fanning himself and watching for any sign of his good buddy and pal who'd been down the hatch.

Thankfully Wuxian does appear at last and he figured he'd come join everyone, but he ends up wandering off away from everyone before just collapsing.]

Ah- Wei-xiong!!

[Huaisang rushes to run along the shore till he finally reaches his friend. Some what out of breath he'll crouch down beside Wuxian and shake him by the shoulder.]

Wei-xiong! Wei-xiong, you better not be dead!

[He's not actually serious, he's clearly breathing, but still. It doesn't mean he's not still worried.]

( he's definitely not dead, his heavy exhausted breaths say as much, but it takes him a second to acknowledge huaisang more than a flicker of his brow into the briefest little scowl - one that huaisang can't even see, since he's collapsed on his side and an arm is draped over his face to shield his closed eyes from the sun. )

Not dead, ( he says anyway, more words mouthed on the back of a breath than actual speech. the arm over his eyes drops now to swipe at a tickle under his nose, smearing what turns out to be a nosebleed halfway across his cheek. it doesn't quite occur to him what he's done, and so he ignores it entirely, tacking on - ) Or dying. Don't think the eulogy's ready yet. ( the one huaisang said that he'd revise, remember? )

[He almost hands him his fan to help hide from the sun, but then Huaisang sees a glimpse of blood and he shuffles around to the other side of Wuxian. Setting his fan aside he'll pull a handkerchief from his jeans pocket and offers it to his friend.]

Don't push yourself so hard, Wuxian. I'm not even close to having it done!

[Huaisang motions with his hand for Wuxian to wipe at the mess on his face and hand, not caring if the handkerchief gets dirty, he can clean that. His fan is a different story.

Speaking of said fan he'll hold it to help keep the sun off Wuxian's face.]

It's too hot here... maybe if I ask Klaus really nicely he'll let us borrow his big noisy fan. It's so nice and cooling.

( no, keeping the fan away from a dirty and perhaps even bloodied wei wuxian is very much a wise choice at the moment. he's not so terribly considerate of the cleanliness of personal belongings at current as one might hope.

meanwhile, the hand motions have him knitting his brow, then taking hold of the handkerchief and dutifully wiping at his face as indicated. ah - blood. it makes sense, he supposes. that was certainly a quantity of talismans he used to hold the ceiling in place for even as long as it did (he heard the crash of the talismans failing when he was just barely halfway up the tunnel), a quantity that might be considered 'inadvisable' were the circumstances less dire. which reminds him, huaisang has told him not to push himself so much, and he chuckles weakly now. ) I'll bet you wouldn't be saying that if you were down there. ( if he was one of the people wei ying had pushed so hard to dig free.

there's a sudden darkness now, and it takes him a moment for his eyes to focus enough to recognize that the darkness is in fact the shade from huaisang's fan. it's blissful, honestly, and he lets out a grateful sigh. his friend may be complaining about the heat, but - ) Ah, but it's already better. Just keep the fan right there.

[He's more than okay with keeping the sun out of his friend's face, holding it there as best he can. No doubt it's not a perfect shade, the sun can be seen trying to peek through and around the dark ink of the painted scenery on the one side and the words written on the other. Still far far better than the sun beating down on poor Wuxian.]

Wei Wuxian you don't know that, tsk so arrogant!

[Mostly Huaisang is just teasing with a tinge of beratement. Look maybe Wuxian is right, partially, but that still doesn't mean he wants his friend to hurt himself and wear himself down so much. It can't be good for him.]

... you helped save everyone, but you should think of yourself too you know.

[If that's a statement on Wuxian's life as a whole or not, who can say.]

( he sure doesn't know that, that's why he said he'd bet instead of he knew. but he doesn't bother to argue that point right now, not when there's a perfectly good secondary point to argue instead. )

I am thinking of myself. ( he insists, albeit tiredly. ) Myself wants to lay here in the grass. It's much nicer than rock. Softer.

[Huaisang definitely doesn't want to argue with his friend either. He's just glad he's alive and hopefully with some rest will be okay.]

While you lay here, at least have something to drink. Here.

[Pretend Huaisang has had one of those plastic bags from the gas station with goodies in it. He had been trying to keep people fed and all that after all. He pulls out a bottle of some flavored water stuff and sets it beside Wuxian, so he can then hold his fan over his face again.]

There's some food in here too. Eating wouldn't hurt either.

[Some packages of fruit gummies, a couple of those freezer pops that have long since unfrozen, chips and there may be one pudding cup left.]

[It has taken a...while for Daemon to feel like he has rested enough that he won't leave chunks of himself behind as he passes through the rubble and back to the trapped. Longer than he'd expected or hoped, and long enough for him to acknowledge that the digging efforts are going to be what gets the majority released and not the use of his powers.

Since his ignominious collapse bringing Fran out of the depths, he has slept, scrubbed, and changed into far more rugged clothing for the excursion back down. He has also packed a pack and vanished it to take with him, what small amenities he thinks might be useful for attacking the digging from the other side. The balance between his need to assist and the knowledge that he is not in any way invincible here means that he is only just now air-walking over the surface of the lake toward the hatch. The soles of the boots he'd found in the gas station hit 'ground' about an inch above the lake water.

He pauses, however, before he heads down, to study the floating Wei Wuxian.]

Any change?

[They have had no proper introduction, but they have both been working toward the same goal for long enough that Daemon doesn't bother with the politesse he might attempt in a non-crises situation.]

( the words draw his attention - his eyes were closed against the glaring sun, but now they open again to find daemon where he-... floats? after a brief moment of 'gods is he tall', that's the realization wei wuxian comes to. quite a handy trick, though certainly less so at the moment than his marvelous ability to teleport himself through walls of fallen rock.

he closes his eyes against the sun again, but otherwise offers: )

Ah - no change, just progress. We've got a handful of obscenely strong men to hold the ceiling up, so the rest of us have just been clearing rocks away. Shoveling dirt and whatnot.

Progress is good, and I am more than grateful for those "obscenely strong" among our number.

I intend to head back in and, perhaps, help from the other side. I don't know if anyone down there will want to leave before everyone can, and I don't wish to force the issue, but some of those down there are from your—[Vague hand gesture.]—I believe.

[This is said idly, as if of no consequence, as he watches Wei Wuxian and his closed eyes.

Daemon wears the Black. This kind of little disaster should be nothing. Still, he'd chipped off a hand just a little prior (though it had...grown back?) and the chipper informational pamphlet had called for their deaths, among other things. The toil seemed to be part of whatever this was.

After a considering moment, he offers:]

I didn't expect to collapse so suddenly after the first exit. Or I would have returned before this to try and ferry others out.

[Not quite an apology.]

( at the general 'some of your vague-hand-gesture', wei wuxian exhales a bracing sort of huff - he already knows, believe me. in fact, he's got one of them healing the other one up because somebody just had to break his leg.

but now the man's talking about his earlier collapse, and that reminds wei wuxian to give him a once-over to see if he's more-or-less intact, which he does indeed seem to be. ) Mm, so that wasn't normal then? ( if not, he should perhaps be concerned after all. ) And how, exactly, is it going to be different if you go back in?

[He is indeed more-or-less intact. He's certainly rested more than he anticipated since this whole ordeal began. Daemon's lips twist into a bitter smile.]

Not normal at all, no. My Jewel doesn't drain that fast and yet, it did. It has. Of course, there was no way I could have expected it, since this is the first I've really tested it since my arrival.

[And, well, that sounds like an excuse to his own ears, so he waves it away as nothing to pay attention to.]

It might not be, but I will only be taking myself back in. It takes more power to move two through stone than one. If I'm conscious of this new limit, then there should be no problem.

( wei wuxian hasn't the foggiest clue what this man's 'jewel' is, so he's going to mentally liken it to the golden core (except, it seems, less reliable) unless otherwise corrected.

and sure, 'only taking myself in' sounds all well and good, but - ) And if it isn't different, we're to- what, have someone carry you the whole miserable way back up the tunnel?

I am cognizant of my own limitations. [And that's an amused drawl with a hint of steel beneath it right there.] I wouldn't be going back in if I didn't think I would be, in some manner, useful to the rescue efforts. I believe it's an acceptable risk, considering the circumstances.

[ Maria has come by to see the haps at the gas station, and if there are any goods here that can conscionably be made to turn a profit, so she expected to find a person or two. She did not expect them to have bodily displaced the ice cream.

She clears her throat lightly as she approaches -- visibly not human, dressed in a simple white dress, and apparently giving no mind to the heat. ]

There is a lake.

[ Just, you know, in case he hadn't noticed. It seems more effective for cooling down than a glass container coffin. ]

( the muffled voice has him glancing over, and he chuckles sheepishly (with little actual embarrassment, mind you). ) Yes, well - ( oh, but his words sound muffled to his own ears, so his brow knits and he pushes the freezer door open now, sidling his way out to gain his footing on the gas station floor. )

Ah, there we go. Anyway, the lake is all well and good, but the sun is-... ( a vague upward gesture, as if toward the sun through the gas station roof. ) Well, you've seen what it's like, and the only shady bits of lake I've found are right in someone's backyard. Obviously that won't do.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(event) WAY DOWN WE GO

wei wuxian (event + other!)

Collapse

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Break time~

no subject

Lemme just...retcon his nerf right in here

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

gas station!

no subject