savetheearth | Below the mineshaft roads, it will all unfold;

Below the mineshaft roads, it will all unfold;

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.))

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[Anthony also jolts to a stop - much too early at his position, in his case, and with an unpleasant heartbeat, breath stopped, seax arm raised out.

When Ravindra starts speaking it's clear enough what's been found, and what to or at least what not yet ought to be done. His eyes are a tad widened as he eases up to close the distance between him and the two men, coming up and to a stop shortly behind Ravindra in time to hear it when Shou speaks up.

Throwing hasty, concerned glances back and forth between him and the tunnels ahead after that, keeping as voice as non-invasively restrained as possible, though there's a little of a ragged break in tone between breaths.]

Was that the -- ...the only - one -- ...?

[sigh, but it's resigned. he's not going to yell at Shou for letting his anger get away with him, he's just going to accept that it happened and try to fix the situation.]

[he glances over his shoulder at Anthony as he speaks, and then turns back to Shou.]

Let's go back, before it--

[oh god, what was that noise? he stops, snapping to face the direction it came from, listening intently.]

Only one I saw. It tried to grab me or something.

[ he doesn't remember exactly what it was trying, only that he twisted in a way that should have not be normal unless he was trained. oh well, his reflexes were getting better.]

What?

[Anthony starts when Ravindra turns. He edges a step back, looks on in the same direction, blinking wide and then squinting into the dark -

His brows knit as he looks back to Ravindra, not full on - head slightly dropped and angled, everything tense.]

What... -- is it -- ?

[Seconding Shou, essentially. Only cut off abruptly on conflict on the appropriateness of letting a "sir" trail on.]

Shh.

[If they're listening, they'll hear it--the sound of something shuffling closer in the darkness.]

[Ravi shifts his weight as a precursor to turning to head back, and motions for both of them to leave, never taking his eyes off the encroaching darkness before them.]

[the Vermedi that Shou ran off after is coming back for them.]

[ that can't be good. Shou shut up, a feat in itself since he wanted to ask more things, but the shuffling sound was even more obvious than just echoes. he took a step back and to Ravi's side, seeing the shadows move and grow deeper. there were points in the shadows, and he could feel the air shift against his skin.]

[Anthony, too, hushes up on demand - extends attention outward.

He hears the shuffling approaching, all right - subconsciously pictures, due to memory of the things, the size and the shape and the way that they moved, that it is a Vermedi.

Keeps looking back out into the dark. He'd been part of a group that had killed one together before. Go intercept it, something in his head says, with a few hasty, insistent different phrasings in actual words. He stays rooted; another kind of unease keeps that something overrideable by the thought not to be hasty, not to make an idiot of himself.

Rooted. Not moving to leave. He jerks one step back and flings his sword back up with nerves in anticipation on end to do something - just as soon as there was a sign that it would not, in fact, be hasty.]

[Ravi has never seen one before, but he's gotten a few secondhand descriptions, and Alex warned him about these things before he came down here. That does not mean he wants to confront one.]

[He thinks he can make out something in the shadows, and then he knows he can, because that shadow is much more solid than the others and it is definitely moving]

[He takes a step back to retreat, but bumps into Shou. He looks over his shoulder and sees both of them still standing there. UM YOU GUYS, HE WAS TELLING YOU TO LEAVE SO HE COULD RETREAT TOO]

[oh my god Anthony fine, if you want to fight it then we'll fucking fight it are you happy now. He flashes Anthony (and his stupid sword!!!) a dirty look before turning back to the shadow lumbering toward them. He takes aim at it but doesn't shoot yet--he can't see it clearly enough to know for certain that it actually is a Vermedi]

Identify yourself.

[unintelligible chittering in response. Definitely not a human sound. then it shambles close enough for the red light of his flashlight to illuminate it, a solid curtain of hair with a pair of arms sticking out, capped in nasty claws.]

[the shot that Ravi takes is not calculated. it is panic, because even though he'd been told what to expect, jesus fuck that thing is horrifying]

[It's impossible to tell whether the shot hits, because the Vermedi lunges for them at the same time, its claws out, not seeming to care which of them it hits]

Edited (whoops belated realization that he would've challenged before shooting 8|;) 2013-09-03 23:00 (UTC)

[ Shou didn't know what he was going to do but seeing the Vermedi again had him rethink his charging on after it. He was unarmed, and outside of a deadly pout, couldn't expect to save anyone, let alone himself. But that didn't mean he was going to run away. Maybe it was him being stupid, but he never ran away, not even when he knew that a lot of pain was coming his way. That was probably the main reason why he ended up in the ER as often as he did.

He jumped at the sound of Ravi's voice, turning his attention away from the shadows and feeling the air grow weird. Then the sound of the gun - flat, dull, with a sharp scent of gunpowder - made him shudder, but not from horror. There was something normal about it, as if it was a half-forgotten song stuck in his head.

Then it came, all long nails and wrong smell and Shou twisted out of the way of it's hands, all but spinning around before hitting it with a couple hard kicks and getting out of the way of those with weapons.]

[Anthony balks at the look - what? Is this - is this not a good idea?

The chittering grabs his attention back. He sees it coming out of the dark now, taking shape - size of a young child with long, reaching claws. Just the one - he feels his heartbeat quickening in dull, jerking throbs. Not scared, he tells himself, just ready to move -

And the gunshot knocks his head and nerves screaming jarred. He goes recoiling to the side, and once he's turned back the thing is already there - coming at them, grabbing at Shou - who kicks it back and then gains distance.

Anthony rushes in to take that as a cue for someone else to take their turn rather than give it a quarter. He'll do what he did before - stab it in its head. This time before it can bristle.

He starts moving to drive it in much too slow. It turns and grabs for him and with quite a yelping grunt he takes a swing on it - not striking a blow, but batting its claws aside as he takes a couple of tripping steps back.]

[Ravi does not have any melee weapons on him and frankly he doesn't want to melee that thing. When Shou attacks it, and Anthony subsequently rushes in, Ravi is more than happy to take the opportunity to put some distance between himself and it.]

[Problem: he doesn't want to risk shooting at it in the dark with two bodies in the way. he's a good shot, but he doesn't trust his shooting that much.]

[and then that sudden feeling of hollowness that accompanies an Echo, and even though he's still aiming at the Vermedi, there's a few seconds where he's not mentally present and makes for a stellar target]

[what was happening WHAT WAS HAPPENING? Shou rolled to his feet easily enough having moved to the side so that Ravi and Anthony could get at it but both sort of acted a little disconnected or something. Anthony managed a glancing blow while Ravi - he glanced over at him - Ravi looked like he just got hit with something.

his fingers itch and he reached around to the small of his back but there was nothing there for him to grab. the action was like his reflexes - there, but only when he didn't think, and Shou was just getting tired of this. he was tired of being in everyone's way and not being able to help save for with his money so, he looked around for a weapon. a rusted piece of metal caught his eye and he grabbed it and threw it at the Vermedi.

he also snarled in the gutter-Japanese that he regained a few weeks ago.]

Fucking asshole, stop jerking around!

[The piece of metal smacks it good in the side of the top of that mass of hair. It chitters offense and - in spite of Shou's words - jerks around. Sharply to the side after him - leaving Anthony taking a charging backswing into the air - and then changing direction once again, barreling for Ravindra, still chirping up a borderline indignant storm, spidering and flexing both pairs of claws at its sides.

Anthony reels and turns to look after it and he gasps - wheezily. Doesn't quite muster breath or coherency to yell a warning and goes falling over himself in a clumsy trail after it - whether Ravindra has snapped back out of it yet or if he'd need the backing up in any case, what with being the one with the gun, he can't think or tell.]

[He snaps out of it just in time to see the Vermedi charging at him.]

[This time it isn't panic or fear that guides his actions. This is a fight, and he suddenly feels the drive to win it by any means possible. He shoots again, this time hitting the monster in the shoulder.]

[The chittering pitches in anger as it grabs at him with its uninjured arm. It gets ahold of one arm, but he elbows it in the face with the other. Unfortunately the arm it has ahold of is the one holding his gun, so he's stuck trying to wrestle it to the ground instead of shooting it]

[nope, not good at all. Shou went for another piece of metal, this one having a bit more weight to it. it was close quarters in a dark narrow bit of space, but Shou's eyes always have been better in the semi-dark, so he was probably seeing things clearer than his fellow numbered. even so, it was still a little hard to tell who was who.

well, all he had to do was hit the hairy creature that was chittering, right? that wouldn't be so hard.

the head would be a logical place to hit, but Shou had played in games where the head could be gone and a person was still in danger. so he went for the middle of the back, whacking at it hard with the metal, cursing with each hit.]

[When Ravindra aims his gun again Anthony is struck clearly enough by a mental command not to hurl himself in the way - he yanks himself back, hard, into a halt, while the Vermedi rushes on.

Momentum broken, windedness then comes gusting up after him, seizes him over to roughly pull his presence down - heart thumping to send everything above rattling; breath wheezing; stiff limbs dragging down. For a couple of seconds his head is dropped down, too - eyes on the cave floor while he starts to catch his breath.

He looks up to see Ravindra grappling with the thing and gives himself a mental spurring to throw himself back into motion after it. One restarting push and three quick-shuffling steps and Shou is on it beating its back with a bit of metal. It's screeching on the strikes - he can't tell if it's dying.

In an instant to spot where he can take his space for some measure of productivity, he's heading in again - drops his left hand against his right wrist and throws both into a slice down on one of its arms.]

[thankfully it's the arm that's holding onto Ravi's, which means Anthony's freed him up, and thus freed up his gun. He slams the barrel against the Vermedi's head, finger on the trigger]

[HE SHOULD NOT DO THIS IN SUCH CLOSE QUARTERS, some reasonable voice in the back of his mind is screaming at him. Fuck you, reasonable voice, this is a monster in need of killing and he has the means to kill it.]

[he concedes one thing. he at least bothers to warn Shou first.] Duck.

[and then he pulls the trigger without waiting to see whether Shou actually got out of the way or not.]

[ the metal twists in his hands and shou tossed it aside as soon as Anthony came in close. Shou wished for a weapon, any weapon - and in the back of his mind, another, older him said that it was his own stupid fault for leaving without his guns - but things were moving and he had little time to wonder about it.

There was a second voice too now, chiming in with a dark edge, that maddening soft voice that he knew so well. Shou didn't hear Ravi's warning, instead he heard that voice lean in close, someone tugging on long hair that he didn't have and saying - in a calm, even, and amused tone -

Look out, here it comes. Your left.

twisting his body to the right, feeling the air ripple with the passing of a mangled bullet and getting splattered with something, he barely registered that slap of braided hair against his face. he was more concerned with why it felt so easy to obey a voice in his head.]

[The gun starts to click too close for ease.

Anthony hasn't drawn back yet - he gets the sense to just in time to shuffle just one step back, recoil with an arm shielding his head, shut his eyes -

His head flares keen when the shot goes off. It dies down, and he turns back to where the Vermedi was - is. On the ground, head shot through. He fumbles back forward and on some inexplicable impulse drops to a crouch with an arm thrusting forward for a final plunge with the sword.

It sticks, he grips the hilt tighter, and he pulls it back and out with an audible, short sigh - however unnecessary it was it felt decisive enough - and in the space out of which his guard starts to settle, he's caught by the swelling of a pulse - a single heartbeat harder than his own, and a dizzying empty space.

He blinks back into reality out of it - feels something small in his left hand, looks down, but doesn't look at it - looking between Ravindra and Shou with his head kept low in some sense to confirm by consensus that that's done.]

[The ringing in his ears from the gunfire is familiar and doesn't faze him. He takes quick stock of the situation, Shou is splattered in monster bits but both he and Anthony seem fine. Good.]

[Ravindra steps back and takes a deep breath, lowering his gun. He doesn't even think Anthony stabbing the monster afterward is overkill. Might as well make sure, right?]

[OKAY SO. THAT WAS TERRIFYING? He has been shot at and had roadside bombs go off right next to the humvee in front of him and THAT WAS STILL PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST TERRIFYING THINGS HE HAS SEEN. He is very thankful that he managed to keep a level head, though it was kind of reckless to shoot with the others still so close. He will just blame that one on the terror.]

[He spends a very long moment collecting himself, staring down at the body, illuminated by the red glow of his flashlight, as though waiting for it to move again. It never does.]

[when he finally speaks, his voice is quiet and deceptively calm] Is everyone ready to head back?

I'm ready for a bath.

[the monster bits were a little gross. he wiped at them with a couple moist towelettes he had in his rucksack and resisted the urge to scratch at the residue left behind. it would do no good and he'll probably smear whatever ick that was in the monsters into the scratches and that wouldn't be good at all.]

Sorry. [for charging off like he did, for being a spaz, for just being reckless.]

So am I -- [Sorry, that is. Cuts himself off in that sentence as he isn't sure whether to particularly address either one of them with it, though he ends it with a momentary stall and self-conscious cringe while looking at Ravindra.

He stops to drag a breath, and as he does so considers asking one, the other, or both if they're all right - but with the way they sound he reels and binds it back. Might be excessive, might be presumptuous. He will default to lack of objection as agreement that he's indeed ready to go back when they are.]

Edited 2013-09-18 07:08 (UTC)

[actually he has no idea what either of them is apologizing for, so he just flashes both of them a puzzled look that may be easily misinterpreted as annoyed.]

It's fine. [it's a flippant answer because he doesn't know what else to say.]

[he jerks his head toward the direction they came from, a nonverbal order for them to follow his lead, and turns to retrace their steps back to the main group.]

[he might look like he's unaffected by the whole thing, but in reality he is very shaken and the veneer of stoic annoyance is just his way of hiding it.]

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Below the mineshaft roads, it will all unfold;

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