savetheearth | 14th Howl: Cave Shenanigans [Action]

Entry tags:

14th Howl: Cave Shenanigans [Action]

Lyall was less than pleased about the group decision to head out to this mine and explore, but as there was no way to forbid them all from doing it, the only option was to make sure it happened as safely as possible, and under supervision. So here he was, showing up at the site, making sure everyone had a flashlight with spare batteries, a bottle of water, some sturdy climbing rope, and a walkie talkie in case they got separated, plus a first aid kit or two. And making sure nobody went too far from the group, with any luck.

"All right, we don't know how safe it is in there, so everyone stick together and don't go exploring off on your own, all right?" he said, standing just on the outside side of the rusty, broken fence so ineffectively blocking the mine entrance off. He'd already passed out all the supplies he had, and looked a bit dorkier than usual in jeans, jacket, a Firefly t-shirt instead of his usual teacher-like clothes. "If you see something that interests you, let us all know, and we'll all look. If you do get separated, don't keep moving. Call on the radio, and someone will come find you."

He eyed the mine entrance with mild misgivings, then sighed and gave in to the inevitable. "Everyone ready? Come on, then."

((note: this is not for finding the Sage, this is just for the High School Numbers Club to bumble around together :) see comment threads below for different scenarios!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As they approach the entrance, someone else is just coming out-- someone Lyall doesn't recognize, though perhaps someone else would?

Edited 2013-05-31 15:34 (UTC)

While the network hadn't gotten itself in an uproar over the events to come just yet, Shuji had come to the caves after hearing that it was the area the statue stones had come from. He had attended the art gallery's event and felt the effects of the statue in place there, feeling a familiar pain in his chest that he couldn't explain. It was different from the emotional pull he'd felt shortly after arriving in the town, but the quick sequence of events was enough to push him towards investigating on his own. Teaming up with anyone else was something he wouldn't dare do. Being a member of the police force meant that he would be watched even more closely than anyone else in town. Keeping himself apart would make him less suspicious.

After spending a couple hours wandering around the outside of the cave and taking a few tentative walks through the first parts, Shuji had been unsure of going any further. He was smart enough to know not to go into dangerous areas by himself, as much as he wanted to keep going. If something bad would happen, no one knew he was here. So, he'd settled for snapping a few pictures with his cell phone, essentially leaving empty-handed.

Shuji certainly hadn't expected to see a group approaching as he was walking out of the cave again, bag slung over his shoulder and still as dressed up as he would be if he were going to work. He stared in their direction for a few moments, weighing his options on if he should approach or not. Just how old were some of those kids? Generic troublemakers, or other people investigating the suspicious happenings?

He opted for speaking, his English still giving off a bit of an accent from his preference and habit of speaking Japanese. "You shouldn't be here."

"Yes, well, try keeping them from it, I assure you they'll just come back another time when it's probably more dangerous," Lyall answered dryly, though his eyes were sharp on the stranger. Who went into a coal mine, of all places, dressed like that? He wanted to get closer to catch a scent, see if the fellow was with the police in the bad way or not, but he wasn't close enough yet.

He added, lest whoever this is think he approved of the whole thing, "It was all I could do to make sure they came with adult supervision and decent emergency supplies."

"There are plenty of ways to keep them from it." Already, Shuji didn't appreciate the tone this man was taking with him. He had never been a fan of when people tried to go against something he said, though he would never admit that he was intentionally looking out for people. However, this was a group of what he considered to be children, and keeping innocents out of trouble was something he'd had ingrained in his morals for a very long time. If there really was something dangerous in there, he'd want to keep it away from them. Having a death on his conscience didn't seem enjoyable.

If he'd really wanted, he could have gone as far as to report people checking out the area to the rest of the police and have a patrol put up, but he still wanted to know what was going on. Putting a police presence in place meant that it could make it far more difficult for Shuji himself to look around.

As for the outfit, it really was a habit of Shuji's to try and keep his professional appearance. He had hoped it would cause him to be a bit more intimidating if people could tell the type of person he was.

"Haikyo..." What was the English word for that again...? Of course, they were in the middle of nowhere and the rusty fence and worn signs weren't that good of a deterrent. "There's no trespassing. Exploring... abandoned places," there was the word he'd been looking for, "isn't safe. Even if you're in a group, that cave is old and unstable. I don't need anyone getting hurt."

Lyall motioned for the students to stay back, then padded up closer to Shuji. It was half to have a conversation without shouting, and half to get a good scent from him. An idiot who went into a coal mine in a suit was either trouble, or... well, an idiot, as far as he was concerned. The place had to be filthy.

"You obviously don't know teenagers very well," he began, with an aire of weariness. "Put up all the signs you like, all the chain link fences, post a guard-- but if they can't come now, with me, they'll come in alone or a couple at a time, get lost, and get hurt." He shrugged. The man didn't smell like the police did... but there was something strange in his scent. Lyall couldn't put a finger on it. "At least now they come together, with plenty of flashlights and supplies in case of an emergency, and I'll know if anyone gets separated."

"I know enough about them." Shuji already hated the tone this man was taking with him. Anyone who talked down to him was already on the list of people he Did Not Want to Deal With. Of course, he understood teenagers enough as he'd been one not that long ago, but he had hated most of the ones he'd known and knew how stupid and irresponsible they could be. Getting innocents involved in anything was worth avoiding, if he could manage to talk them out of it.

It wasn't looking like that would happen with this man here. He wasn't easily intimidated.

"No one can ever be fully prepared for what they might encounter." Shuji tilted his head to the side and gave the man an intent look. "What exactly are you doing here?" He'd never been one to dodge questions, at least not when asking them.

If it helps, he's really not trying to talk down to him. He's actually going for companionable and resigned, more than condescending-- but if Shuji is getting condescending out of it, well, he is a teacher, it's probably not impossible, either. He'd still rather be amicable than confrontational, if he can manage it, though.

"Playing chaperone, I thought that was obvious," he shrugs. Nope, not intimidated, sorry, man. If he were here officially, he would have said so and done something about it, so Lyall is pretty sure he has no real authority to send them home. "This place has been in the news, my students were talking about going, and I knew better than to forbid it, but I could at least regulate it. I'd rather them be doing this in an organized fashion than alone, that's all."

... definitely not an animal scent. Something metallic? It's unlike anything he's ever smelled before.

"This place is not open to visitors. Even if you're in a group, I don't want you going in there. Someone might get hurt." Though his tone was tense, Shuji was sincere about that. He didn't want to see anyone go in there and end up like that kid, partially because he wouldn't want it on his conscience and this group of people seemed like they really weren't trying to actively do anything bad.

To hopefully sway his point, Shuji took out the small leather book containing his badge and ID, holding it up for the other to see. "I'm not joking."

Even he was playing with fire while being out here, but he was convinced he could handle himself better than anyone else in that group.

Lyall's expression lost most of its amiability, though at least he managed to keep it from turning into dismay. Just a kind of neutral blankness. The last thing he wanted was to deal with the police, given what he knew about them and their involvement with... everything else. Even if this one didn't smell "off"-- unless that metallic scent was some new change in them-- none of them would believe him unless they were part of the network, as well. And he didn't recognize this one as someone he'd seen.

"Are you here on official business, then, detective?" he asked, lifting his chin a little and trying to rapidly, and silently, work through his options. Hopefully he had one that didn't wind up with him and all his students targeted in the future.

"It doesn't matter why I'm here." Shuji really missed the days where he didn't feel so defensive about his job, but it was hard to ask for something like that when he was part of what he considered a potentially corrupt police force. While the top ranking man had seemed an unwilling participant, Shuji still didn't feel comfortable. Maybe there was more to that story, but...

He also wasn't intent on repeating himself, so he let his previous statements stay where they were.

"Actually, it matters a great deal," Lyall countered blandly. "If you aren't here on official business, then you have no jurisdiction to tell me to leave. This is not a police matter. If you are here on official business, then we are likely in more trouble than you're intimating. And since you dodged the question, I think it's safe to assume you're not here on official business."

He tilted his head to one side and smiled coolly. "I believe we're finished here. If you're really that concerned for our welfare, you are, of course, welcome to come along for the hike."

Despite Lyall's best efforts, the group will probably fragment a little, but the goal is to stay in sight of each other!

Kurt was pretty excited about the adventure. He'd been thinking of it, however, purely intellectually and not leaving space for the fact that he was deeply clumsy and hated the outdoors. He was trying not to be a spoilsport, but his socks were already slightly wet and he wasn't even sure how that had happened.

His one consolation was that he was getting at least some results. His personal collection of kid-friendly lab stuff supplied a basic mineral-testing kit (that would at least give him direction), plenty of collecting vials, and a portable 40x microscope, in case he could think of a reason to do that. So wet socks or not, he was still pretty pleased.

Anthony, meanwhile, hadn't brought a thing but his seax, and had come in prepared to stay on physical alert. As much as was made of this place as the enigmatic source of the statue stone, geology wasn't his expertise, he could guess at best on how to truly inspect the mines themselves for traces and hints.

Kurt, who was smaller and younger and two grades higher than he was, had him further humbled by preparation.

"What should we - try to find?"

Bakura just had brought his camera (the real one, not just the phone camera. Caves needed high def, after all!) Having swapped his hoodie for a t-shirt in the face of the weather, he had it stuffed in a dice bag that was tied to one of the belt loops of his shorts.

And did his best not to snort of laugh at Kurt being burdened with his junior scientist kit.

"Anything out of the ordinary! Be on the lookout for traps, things that look too perfectly sculpted to be a real cave, anything like a false wall and monsters on the ceiling."

Totally watching to see if anyone looks up now.

"If there were monsters, I'm sure I would smell them in plenty of time," Lyall pointed out from the front of the group. It was the only place where he could be sure he'd catch scents before whatever caused them could get to the students. "The only monsters we've seen so far have had pretty specific scents. So far, here... nothing but coal and dirt."

He wrinkled his nose. Not smells he really liked, he had to admit. There were occasional hints of where they'd crossed paths with that fellow they'd seen leaving, but it was faint, and he didn't see any reason to really mention it when they did.

"Better to have too much data than not enough," Kurt added, pretty sure at least some of them were laughing at him. He was pretty used to not caring, at least. "Just about everything I found out about this place contradicts either other things I found out or the official story, so really, any more information is good." He stopped to scoop a pebble into a collecting vial, though he suspected it might be broken-off cement.

And sure he looked up, but he'd been doing that periodically, anyway. All the worst monsters were always on the ceiling.

The only equipment Kenji had brought was a flashlight and a couple of spare batteries. Although he'd never really been much for spelunking, he was probably among the more outdoorsy of the group and was bothered by neither the dampness nor the closed in spaces.

As he trailed along behind the others, he couldn't help but laugh at Bakura's comment. "Traps and secret panels, dude? Sounds like something out of an old 50s B movie."

Despite his utter lack of belief that they would find anything like that, he couldn't help but grin at Kurt's surreptitious glance up at the ceiling. Nor could he resist sidling up to the younger boy and adding, "It ain't the ones on the ceiling that are the problem--they're just the decoys. The ones you really gotta watch out for are the ones that circle around behind you."

Anthony too had taken a glance at the ceiling - and on that, he felt a chill on his back and pivoted around, sharply looking back and squeezing the hilt of the sword.

In an attempt to recover, he turned his head back, muttering "I can stay at the back -- because I have this."

He gestured lightly with the seax.

"As if anything that's been going on wouldn't fit right in in one of those," Bakura returned with a grin.

"And put the sword away, Freshmeat, it was just a joke," he assured, patting the younger teen on the shoulder. "The only monsters we're likely to spot are ROUSes."

"And I don't know that we'll even find any of those," Lyall mused, voice calm and steady. Dark, enclosed spaces didn't actually bother him at all, he was finding. It was the places where you were sure someone or something could see you from every angle that made him uncomfortable. He played his own flashlight over the group briefly, counting heads again, though he was also finding he could tell be scent who was there and who might be lagging. "There's nothing down here for a rat. Everyone just stick together, all right? And please stop trying to scare each other. The last thing we need is someone panicking. Now, the tunnel branches here: left, or right?"

On the other hand, there is a kid in the back of the group who has a general idea of roughing it is a Motel 6, and it kind of showed in the way he gripped the flashlight, knuckles white.

"Uh, so if we've got a maze in here." Tadashi was kind of proud of how steady his voice was. "Should we be leaving flares or really visible markers for the way out. In case, you know... we do get split up and lost."

"Cave fauna are totally harmless anyway, unless there are bats here, and even then we're more dangerous to them than they are to us," Kurt said quietly, sounding a little strained, as though he just couldn't help being pedantic, even knowing no one cared. "We could get rabies and have some painful shots and they could get white-nose syndrome and be wiped out..." Out loud, he added, "Right hand rule? We can always retrace our steps!"

"...Maybe we can leave markers behind us -- just to tell us where to turn to find our way back." Anthony was, again, looking back - anxiously, but not so tensely. "We could gather rocks and stack them together - perhaps."

"Rock marks are pretty easy to knock over," Bakura pointed out, thumb moving over the screen of his phone. "I'm mapping everything anyway, so yeah, make a pattern, right right left or something so we don't go in circles and I'll mark it down here too."

"Yeah, and if we get lost anyway...well, we'll just have to eat each other."

That was said mostly for Tadashi's benefit--because if you can't terrorize your best friend while wandering around in a dark cave, then who can you terrorize?

As for which direction to go, he didn't really care--one was as good as another as far as he was concerned. But...he didn't trust some the others to just pick one and go with it instead of talking it to death, so when Bakura made his suggestion, he nodded his agreement. Yeah, right right left sounds good to me. Let's go."

"Kenji, don't be ridiculous, no one is eating anyone." Lyall cast his least serious student a pointed look, but then turned back to the tunnels and started down the tunnel to the right. "Right it is, then, come along everyone. And don't worry too much about getting lost-- if we stay together and no one gets separated, I'll be able to backtrack which way we came out." And he'd be able to track anyone who got separated, too; that was a big part of why he insisted he be here for this venture, anyhow. Between sniffing out potential threats and being able to find anyone who got lost, it was the only way he could think of this as even remotely safe for them.

"Though in the interests of personal safety, I bet I taste terrible." Kurt let himself fall behind for a few seconds to scrape a bit of fungus into a tube, mostly because he was making a point at this juncture. He couldn't imagine a bit of slime mold could really have any possible impact on any of this.

There's a fwump and a scuffle in the back as Tadashi delivered a sound punch to Kenji's shoulder. "Like hell!" he hissed. Still, he double timed his steps into the rightmost tunnel even as Kurt fell behind.

"So traps, cannibals, rabies... why do monsters sound like the safest option?" He kept his own light trained at their feet, picking his own steps carefully.

Honestly, Toushirou would have at least considered bringing a weapon if he'd actually been in ownership of one. As it was, he had only the skill and not the physical object. If anything went wrong down here, he'd have to rely on his ice power. He was actually halfway decent with it now.

It wasn't until they'd gotten down a little ways into the mine that he remembered how much he disliked small spaces. He'd been more focused on the idea of finding answers to have thought about that beforehand. He wasn't claustrophobic; if he were, he wouldn't have made it down here in the first place. He just didn't like close quarters.

Which was why he kept himself a bit separate from the group. Not far enough to be too much of a concern, but enough to satisfy his need for a little space. His flashlight he kept slightly angled toward the floor, just to make sure he had a clear eye out for any hazards.

What he expected them to find down here, he really wasn't sure. But damned if he was going to miss out on the chance to learn more about this whole mess. Staying on the sidelines wasn't something he considered an option if he could help it.

"Anything yet?"

The trip is getting cut short when somebody gets hurt.

Many of the shafts had been barricaded this far in, as well and evenly as possible, with planks of wood lodged between the support beams and the ground, with slices at the sides of the openings uncovered at best.

This one was barricaded as well, or so it appeared it was meant to be, but shoddily so. It wasn't due to wear, or anything - it was simply blocked off with five slats of old wood, lodged vertically and crossed horizontally by a sixth. They appeared close enough together for no one to squeeze past. But a black drop behind was unsettlingly visible.

Anthony moved up to grab one of the slats and shine his flashlight past and down - apparently, it had been halfheartedly blocked off because it wasn't much of a fall behind. There was more ground, maybe five or six feet straight down, that took a turn to the right into a tunnel.

He pulled at the slat, looked up above his hand, and watched it bend - and turned his head over his shoulder to call back. "I - I think we can go down further, here -- it's not blocked very well. I can take down these boards."

Edited 2013-06-03 07:15 (UTC)

"Anthony, be careful," Lyall called from the middle of the group, this time. "I'm pretty sure if they blocked it off, they did so for a reason." Not that they'd found much of anything; Lyall was starting to think there just wasn't much to find.

Bakura peered over Anthony's shoulder. "How good is everyone with climbing to get back up after?"

Because he knew he could totally haul himself up that, but the rest of his classmates? Yeah, no. Maybe Kurt if he teleported it, and Kenji looked like maybe he could hold his own, but Anthony looked like the kind of kid who never made it even past the first stage on the ropes course.

"Because it would suck pretty bad to have to haul you guys back up if you couldn't make it."

Crowding up behind the other two, Kenji likewise peered over the edge of the drop. "It's not that far down," was his assessment. "So if somebody did have trouble, one of us could stay down and give 'em a boost while the others pulled 'em up."

With a shrug, he glanced over at the others, "I mean, we're already here, right? Might as well go for it, yeah?"

Kurt frowned as he peered around. "I can always cheat, so I can go. Maybe some of us should stay up here? Because climbing is way harder than it looks in movies and stuff." No one was going to successfully pull their friend up over the side. Well, he wasn't. Maybe some of the bigger guys.

They would figure it out, and Anthony had little to add, then - he'd smiled politely with a nod and an "I will, sir," back to Mr. Lyall, and as the others had come close and started discussing, he'd started to test the horizontal board - old enough evidently to feel almost like taut and thick elastic.

Then it cracked, he started unwarned - he hadn't even been so consciously pulling at it, and it split into an uneven just-under-a-half squeezed in his hands as he jerked a step back.

He glanced around and between the others - including Mr. Lyall, a bit apologetically whether or not it made sense or not - with inarticulate question as to how to proceed.

"If you think you can safely do it, Kurt, your means is probabl safest," Lyall decided from the main tunnel, listening to them chatter from behind. "Then we can set up some rope and handholds for a way down, if it's worth the trip, but it might not. Be ready to come back up immediately, if you need to, Kurt."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

14th Howl: Cave Shenanigans [Action]

Starting Off: Shuji Kiyokumi

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

For Exploring

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Can I retcon in that Bakura has a flashlight too? Because.. well.. yeah :D

Lyall brought flashlights for everybody... XD and water, rope, and extra batteries

Re: Lyall brought flashlights for everybody... XD and water, rope, and extra batteries

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

The Last Straw: Anthony

Re: The Last Straw: Anthony

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject