(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

it's incredible

[kinkprofessor]

[ Excuse you, his game is amazing. So says he, anyway. That's clearly an extremely unbiased source.

Either way, the professor watches his reaction carefully. He always finds it so fascinating how different people feel about his alien limbs. He seems genuinely interested, curious; his smile stays strong too and that's a good sign. It means it might be easier for him to get more intimately acquainted with his tentacles down the line.

It's a swing and a miss as far as his clever wording, but that's fine. He's actually just as happy to talk about tinkering. ] It depends! I'm a biologist, mostly, so my tinkering tends to be with the genetics of different species, but... I've dabbled in other fields as well. AI creation, for example. Very fun stuff.

[ Granted, the AI his company made is actually the same person across several universes they'd taken the consciousness of and smooshed together but- Details! ]

[mannerless]

( speaking of swings and misses, 'biologist' and 'genetics' and even 'species' are very much not concepts he's familiar with, but in this case at least he knows there's something to ask about. )

So I definitely know what all of those things are, of course I do - but hypothetically, how would you explain such things as biologists and genetics to someone who... say, comes from long-ago China? ( perhaps quin isn't full of shit, but wei wuxian most certainly is. )

[kinkprofessor]

[ Oh. That's cute. He can respect wanting to save face, however, and simply says- ]

Of course! My world is a lot more advanced than most so you're not alone. Biologists study natural life. I'm a Xenobiolgist so technically I study the natural life of other worlds.

As for genetics, well, that's what makes us look the way we do. Many of your people have black hair, I'm assuming? That's part of genetics. [ He got a little off-track there but finds his footing again. ] And might I say, I think you have some very nice genes with a handsome face like that.

[mannerless]

( biologists study natural life. such a sentence implies the concept of unnatural life, though that only trips him up for a moment before he recalls wen ning. yes, wei wuxian supposes he can understand unnatural life. in fact, if there's anything he himself studies, it would probably be that - most anything animated or brought to power by resentment energy is technically considered unnatural, though that seems terribly prejudiced considering how positively useful such things are.

as for genetics, that simply seems to be... which parts of one's parents combine to make them, and that which comes form neither? which is understandable as a concept, and now he's wondering if there's really a pattern to such things - like, is it predictable whose eyes a child will get? which shape of nose? he's not entirely sure how it might be useful unless one chooses to wander the countryside placing bets on the nose shape of a given couple's unborn child, but -

that's approximately when the topic shifts to his handsome face and he blinks, exhaling an embarrassed sort of laugh as he lifts his free hand to scratch at his neck with the end of his flute. but oh, he can't let that stand, this tentacled man doesn't get the upper hand just like that. )

Aha, I see now, ( he says, lifting his eyes again with a raise of one brow. ) You lure them in with the 'oh, touch my tentacles, they're terribly soft,' and this so-called study of what makes us look as we do. Not bad, not bad.

[kinkprofessor]

[ Maybe someday they can discuss the importance of genetic. How there is a pattern more than just noses and eyes. It can help find the likelihood of disease or complications a person might have- Among other things! He'd likely have been just as keen to spew scientific jargon at Wei Wuxian but, despite himself, here he is instead distracted by a pretty face.

Which is immediately, deservingly called out for. Ah. That just makes him that much more interested. ]

It's one of my classics, I do admit. But it looks like I might have to break out the more creative lines for you.

[mannerless]

( disease is, as it turns out, never quite a thing he has been terribly fussed with. even temporary illness has only really plagued him in the last year or so. call it a privilege of being a cultivator, i suppose. they may as well be immortal until someone runs a sword through them, and sometimes even then.

now, wei ying may be clueless but he isn't stupid. he recognizes full well that he's walking into more of (one should picture nebulous handwaving here) whatever it is that this man is attempting - but he can't at all stand knowing there's something he doesn't know, and a statement like that has him entirely too intrigued not to tilt his head slightly and say, ) Now I'm terribly curious what those might be.

[kinkprofessor]

[ And there it is. The interest. He wants to know more, which is the perfect time to not provide. ]

A man has to have some mystery left to him, doesn't he? If I use all my moves now, it won't be near as fun in the long run. [ Granted, he's not often a "long-run" type of person but- He can be patient if he feels the prize at the end might be worth it. ]

But this certainly has been a fun exchange so far. We should do it again sometime soon.