Below the mineshaft roads, it will all unfold;

[vetala]

Who: See tags
When: 08-30; 5PM and onward
Where: The mysterious (not)abandoned mines outside of town
What: Kanti has finally called everyone together to
Warning: Content warnings will be tagged as the threads progress. Prepare for possible violence at the least.

After much planning, the trip to the mine is finally coming to fruition. Granted, this fruit could be ripe and juicy mangoes or disappointing red grapes with the seeds still in, but the point is that it is coming to a head. The supplies have been purchased and packed. The lunches have been made and also packed.

Early Friday morning, a post goes up on the network that is filtered to the known volunteers with directions and the words:

Today. 5PM.

What does this all boil down to?

Aww yeah motherfuckin' mines!

((OOC: The details of what to expect in the mines have been posted in the Gdoc so check that out before you post. The info is a bit too long to be posted here. People not involved in exploring the mines can feel free to tag in the Pre-Trip Preparations thread if it's suitable.

Sorry for posting it this early, but I work late tomorrow and I don't want anyone to have to wait up for me.))

Comments

Pre-Trip Preparations - You've got a lot on your slate.

[vetala]

((OOC: Preparing at your house alone? With a friend? Preparing at your house alone and then suddenly a friend appears and tries to be the voice of reason? Driving with a bunch of noisy assholes to the mine proper? This is the thread for all your pre-mine needs.

Note: Participants in this thread do not necessarily need to be going to the mines, it can just be someone trying to dissuade your character/last minute encouragements/etc.))

Backdated Sandwich Party at Karson's - Thursday Night - ATTN ARIA MEGIDO, SHOU CHINEN, KARSON VANTAS

[vetala]

[Those lunches aren't going to make themselves. Kanti knows this and she is prepared to stay up all night making them. Well, not all night. Maybe until, like, 2am? Ish?]

Wednesday; Travis' house, TRAVIS MARTIN & ARIA MEGIDO

[eras]

[ After school, Aria gears up (boots, jeans, an Indiana Jones shirt - don't go exploring a mine without one! - and a backpack of supplies) and then, after kissing Mara's cheek and listening to a full-on lecture of what she should and should not do that night (do: come home alive, do not: die, or I will bring you back to kill you myself), she decides she has one more person to swing by on before going off to go into the mines.

Which almost assuredly still have monsters in them.

So about half an hour after classes let out she makes her way to Travis' house, sending out a quick coming over, heads up before leaving. You know, to give him a heads up.

Despite this, she still rings the bell. ]

Obtaining Karson's Dog

[counterclock]

[Even though it sounds like suicide to skateboard anywhere near anywhere Karson is going to be, Avery does it anyway as she heads to pick up his stupid animal so it doesn't get killed when everyone else gets eaten by vampire bats in the mines. When she arrives at the address she was given she does not knock, or even try to set foot on the property. Avery is not a stupid girl: she's heard more than enough stories about Karson's dad. From a full houselength away, Avery pulls out her phone and texts Karson to let him know that she has arrived.]

Pre-Entrance Mingle + Announcement - A mine is a terrible thing to waste.

[vetala]

[After everyone is parked and gathered in the general area of the mine. Kanti decides a speech is in order. She doesn't so much lightly tap a glass with a fork as she does shine her stupid-huge flashlight at people and says 'Excuse me' a lot. Then she sort of stares blankly ahead, flushes to her ears (because public speaking really isn't her thing because it isn't anyone's), and clears her throat.]

I assume you know why we're here and what we're hoping to find, but in case you are not, allow me to explain. We are here because it is one of the few leads we have, and we are hoping to find anything that links this place to Thunder Corp. I'm sending in the drones to scout about for anything that is dangerous, but they don't have unlimited range, so we will be going in with a certain amount of blindness. Anyone who didn't bring their own supplies will be provided with them, and can get them over there.

[She points to a small foldout table piled with decently sized bags. Inside the bags are various supplies, such as a helmet, a ducklight, water bottles and so on.]

Mr. Solus and Mr. Savarna will be the medics of this expedition, and Mr. Brown also has First Aid Experience. [Point point point.] So see them if you're injured in any way.

We will be staying in a group for the most part, but those who wish to split up need to be absolutely careful and need to note that it is unsafe and that they will need to remain in contact At All Times. We will be using reflector tape to mark our way. Everyone is required to carry a flashlight and a watch, and to wear a helmet. This is non-negotiable. If you don't want to comply, feel free to stay up here and wait. However, if you'd rather not carry a flashlight, feel free to stick close to Karson. He has enough light for all of you. [Point.]

If any police officers come by, Marissa has our cover story ready. The cover story is alcohol. [Point.]

Lunch has been provided by Shou. Most of the supplies have, aside from what you've brought with you, have also been provided by Shou. Thank him. [Point.]

I believe that is it. If you have any questions, come see me and I will answer to the best of my abilities. We go into the mines in half an hour.

[She steps of whatever car hood she was standing on to speak and turns away, partially because she is smiling and proud of herself, and partially because the smile is a bit more clenched teeth than it should be and she thinks she might be sick. There are ways this could go horribly wrong, after all. She is not used to leading things and taking responsibility.]

((OOC: Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Get to know the people you will be sharing extremely dark and cramped space with!))

[enrages]

[ Karson has at least 12 ducklights duct-taped to his body. Teresa is behind him, ready to wind them up as soon as the lights go out.

He has never been more ready for anything else in his life. ]

[eras]

[ Aria's looking as cheerful as ever. Apparently the prospect of entering a dangerous, dark mine that probably has monsters in it and definitely is of interest to Thunder Corp. doesn't put her out of sorts. Not quite yet, at least. There are no flashlights attached to her person, but she does carry one with her (her own; no ducklight, sadly). She's one of the people who came with a few supplies of her own, including a first aid kit - which she's trained with, although the doctors and firefighter should be everyone's first choice for obvious reasons.

She's chosen to wear an Indiana Jones t-shirt in addition to jeans, a jacket, and boots. It seems appropriate, okay. ]

[schild]

[ Ryan is actually a little excited! But mostly just ready for the worst; that's all part of the job. Being the responsible parent here. But feel free to approach his manly form! He might go into soldier firefighter mode later once they're inside, but for now he's just chillin. ]

[ Oh and he's not wearing his Team Dad shirt underneath his off-duty jacket, no way. This thing is flame retardant it's not like he... can't wear whatever he wants underneath. Shh, it's his Numbers Club shirt, ok. ]

[wirsinddiejager]

[Alan is...looking kind of rattled, actually. His recent echoes have been unnerving to say the least and he's really not looking forward to potentially having to fight things.

Still, he's also feeling a little excited. This is real hero stuff they're doing here! Maybe there won't be anything dangerous down there and it'll just be a cool adventure!

Ha ha, dream on, Alan.]




[He is also smuggling a number of capes in his backpack under the mine expedition stuff. Blame Octavia.]

[selfassured]

[ Derek is just going to lurk right at the back of the group. It's how he does things, okay? Slightly creepily. No, seriously, he's one of the likely candidates to sneak up on people later.

At least he's not scowling at people and seems relatively prepared. The jeans are questionable though. ]

[hawaiianheir]

[He's actually not wearing some hideous greaser outfit for this expedition! Though he is semi-nervously adjusting his still-sorta-new glasses and squinting a bit. He's wearing somewhat normal, if slightly heavy-duty clothes, just in case.

Oh, also, he's got a sledgehammer in a mock rope-shealth, head secured around his waist as he mingles about, stretching and looking around and trying not to appear too excited to go mine diving.

Because he's not, okay? That's totally not what's going on. At all.]

[healspec]

[Ravi raises his hand when Kanti points him out, so that everyone can identify who he is and know who to go to if they get hurt.]

[He is ex-Army. He is hells of prepared for this shit. He's even wearing a BDU blouse as a jacket and his old combat boots. He's also got a boatload of spare 550 cord to supplement the rope supply.]

[And, most importantly, he brought a few radios to pass out. Organization and communication is v important. All the designated medics get one--himself, Ryan, and Dr. Solus--and the rest he is just...going to hand over to Kanti for her to pass out, since she is the de facto leader here.]

[There are 6 total, 3 for the medics and 3 for whoever Kanti decides to give them to. Choose wisely. Don't choose Karson.]

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa is standing in the front of the small crowd in front of Kanti. She has on blue jeans, boots and a free T-shirt she got for some shitty country band that she wears when she doesn't want to care about getting dirty, along with a backpack containing a first aid kit, a flashlight, a coil of camping rope, and snacks. She is armed with a broom that she has slung over one shoulder. It's not a great melee weapon, but it felt right for some reason, and she was confident she could get a good swing with it at least.

She feels SUPER prepared this time.

[doomedtheworld]

[Vanessa is over to the side and in the back of the crowd as Kanti makes her speech, listening in even as she checks out her equipment. She came in a pair of jeans, yet another new pair of sneakers, and a decent jacket over her t-shirt and a pair of gloves just to keep her hands from getting scraped up.

She doublechecks her flashlight once before stowing it in a pocket with a few spare batteries for easy access on the off chance it ran out. Otherwise, she has a few large bottles of water in a backpack along with several energy bars, just in case, and a good supply of steel caps along with some of the left over pewter coins she'd got from Isaac and Miria. She swallows down one of the caps with a gulp of water and stashes the pewter for now, it ran out a lot faster than steel and wouldn't be much use unless she got tired or hurt anyway.

She pauses for a second before drawing out her dagger, now in a sturdy leather sheath she'd gotten from a sporting goods store of all places for a hunting knife. After a moment of consideration she slips it onto her belt.

Satisfied, she zips the backpack shut and swings it onto her shoulders as she stands up.

Bullshit story or not, something was telling her that these mines still meant something and she wanted to see whether or not that was true with her own eyes.]

[chalicejoker]

[Hajime's just waiting off to one side, fiddling with his belt. It's not a normal belt. He's got it out because it tends to pop out first when he's about to transform into his giant bug form, and for whatever reason, when he feels like he's about to go into a dangerous situation, he feels better when it's visible. Not like he can take the thing off.

The belt's large and silver, with a red buckle that looks somewhat like a stylized heart. There's a card box clipped to one side of it, and Hajime's absently flicking it open and closed, waiting for things to get moving.]

[originaloddcouple]

[Isaac and Miria Dian didn't actually know what was going on. Well, that wasnt true. They knew things were happening and that it was important for alien-fighting. Which... they still weren't entirely behind. But hey, it'd probably work out. If so many people thought it was a good idea, it couldn't be a complete bad idea. (Little did the Dians know that their line of thought was shared by most of the participants of the French Revolution). Besides, it might distract them from their... painful looking, car accident related echoes.

They saluted dramatically at the end of Kanti's speech. Given Miria's decision to wear an army helmet, it seemed to suit them. Isaac's football helmet considerably ruined the salute.

The moment he accidentally slammed his baseball bat into the helmet didn't help either.

With Miria now holding the honorable position of carrying a bat, Isaac was relegated to granola bar duty. The couple can be spotted walking around, chatting up anyone who seems talkative. All while wearing their ridiculous hats, carrying lethal looking bats, and sharing granola bars.]

[hollowleg]

[Shiro is a little late, but he catches the tail end of the speech. He drags the ice chest full of extra water that he strapped to the back of his bike over and parks it under a tree near the mine entrance. Then he parks his butt on top of it. He isn't sure how much help he can be, but he feels like he should do something. He takes his motorcycle helmet off and replaces it with his leather outback hat]

[testsonseashells]

[Mordin is tapping at his omnitool mostly, half-paying attention to the events around him. It doesn't matter if he misses something actively, since at this point he can basically replay anything that has ever happened to him in his head. His gun is in a holster on his hip.

[scramasax]

Anthony listened to Kanti's beginning speech at attention - and, as soon as she concluded, limped over to lean on a nearby boulder within scanning view of everyone else gathered - he'll keep out of the way as much as he can until it's time to move; it's oddly thrilling by now even openly hanging close to a group of this size - and the mine entrance, tapping a finger all the while at the sharp edge of his sword, though not pressing, although he does have the morbid curiosity for it.

He's admittably another of the group very much excited and raring to enter; it isn't even nearly as much of an ominous excitement as a plain quietly adventurous one. He has been doing effectively well convincing himself since the last trip that indeed he really has minimal to be apprehensive about but doing a bad job of fighting should it come to it, or being dead weight, any interpreted pun unintended. There's too much more hopeful chance by contrast, meanwhile, to miss - he isn't going to let himself consciously note that he wants some sort of danger to face.

[hopediesalone]

[Raul's pretty much ready for this. Wraparound shades (which he'll probably take off soon as they go in), gray fatigues, a black jacket--that may or may not have this stupid shirt underneath it--steel toed boots, sap gloves, his burned yellow scarf, and...yeah, that's definitely a shoulder holster crossing his hilariously nerdy shirt.

What is he doing, you ask? He's got two hard cases stacked in front of him, one longer than the other, and on top he's disassembling and cleaning a 9mm pistol. May as well be ready for what they'll be facing in there.

It shouldn't be too hard to guess what's in the cases. He's got five more 9mms with mounted lights, a fair amount of extra ammunition, and in the longer case is a 12 gauge shotgun. If he has reason to trust you with a gun and you know how to use it, he'll probably let you borrow one of the handguns for the mine expedition.]

Mine Investigation - It's sedimentary, my dear Watson!

[vetala]

[After sending in the drones and retrieving them, Kanti has distributed some bare bones information to the team. The general consensus is thatthe top portions of the caves are rather safe, but that what lies in the lower portions is unknown and not reachable by drone.

Where do we go from here?

In, of course.]

((OOC: Anything having to do with going into the mine should go here, including encounters with Vermedi, any possible Vermurder and encounters with the weird buzzing noise deep in the mines.
Also on the menu: Getting lost, getting found, being blinded by flashlights, falling down holes, unfortunate revelations and tender moments that make your heart flutter with unwanted feelings.))

[eras]

[ And once they're inside the mine, Aria proves fairly capable. At least, she's not afraid of the dark and seems to have a good sense of balance, and remains calm until and unless she gets drawn into some sort of attack. She's willing to speak to people, although somewhat more quietly than she might have done up above, and appears to be searching the tunnels quite thoroughly, although she attempts to stay with the group or near the group (or at least a subset of the group).

If anyone wants to pull her off from the group to explore a side tunnel, or wants to talk to her, get distracted, and get lost, here would be the place to pull her aside. She's going to stick around to the lower levels where the buzzing occurs. ]

[wirsinddiejager]

[By the time they enter the mine, Alan's calmed down a little. He's still a lot more quiet and subdued than normal though, and not particularly eager to rush ahead. He'll just stick with the main group like a good boy.

Except that eventually he and Octavia manage to get lost in the lower tunnels and run into a Vermedi. Whoops.]

[doomedtheworld]

[Inside the mines, Vanessa is pretty quiet as usual. For once, being tiny has its advantages and she can get through any smaller passages or crevices pretty easily.

But she is still pretty bad at this whole "working with groups" thing and is fairly likely to wander off somewhere on her own and get into trouble. Also, despite her better judgement, she'll come quick if somebody nearby runs into a problem.]

Mine Exit/Post-Mine Mingle - Schist happens.

[vetala]

((OOC: For better or worse, you've made it out. Probably. Whatever the consequences are, you will need to deal with them for the rest of your life. But are you still sure it's yours anymore? Who are you? Who am I?

One things for sure, what happens in the mine does not stay in the mine.))

[hollowleg]

[Shiro is waiting outside the mine with bandaids, linen bandages, alcohol, and god knows what else he packed in his little first aid kid. If you need something patched up, he'll do his best to make it happen.] Is anyone seriously hurt?