Let's Go Spelunking!

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Let's Go Spelunking!

Who: Brooke, Ez and Luci
When: Backdated to 10/28
Where: The caves (the outside, for now)
What: Testing out powers! Obviously nothing could go wrong here, right?

Given the nature of the beast, she was more than prepared. Given enough time after school to head home and change, she tried her best to look as indistinguishable as possible; white, baggy t-shirt, light blue jacket, running pants, and hair tied well away from her face. The last thing she wanted, should they be caught, is to be caught as a Starling student and have to explain just why she was doing what she was doing. Not that it was necessarily trespassing. That didn't start unless they actually went into the caves, right?

Slung over one shoulder was a backpack, within which she packed a rather large medical kit and flashlights. Again, she hoped they wouldn't need it. Finding a nice rock to sit on and wait, she pulled out a book. They still had a few hours of sunlight left.

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And better to make use of that daylight while they had it, right? Brooke had parked nearby and walked the rest of the way, just to give herself some plausible deniability if anything went pear-shaped. She'd been able to control her arm for a few days now, to the point where she was confident enough to drive short distances again. (Something was probably wrong with her car, for how long it had been since she'd last driven it, but she'd deal with that later.)

Dressing down for Brooke involved jeans, black leather gloves, and an awful Halloween sweater that she'd gotten at a thrift shop a while back. It was more to protect her arm from being seen than anything else. Walking towards Luci, she probably looked pretty odd—swinging your arms when you walk is supposed to be autonomous, and only one of hers was actually moving. But that wasn't the point. The point was that she was more than happy to finally meet up with Luci in person and get in on this power exploration thing.

"Hey," she said, once within reasonable earshot. She didn't want to use Luci's name out loud. "How've you been lately?"

Luci picked it up almost right away, the odd movement, and she did her best to not stare--at least too much. Marking her place in her book, she set it aside, standing up. "Surviving. I'm beginning to think the teachers are out for blood, as far as midterms are concerned. You?"

Okay, it was starting to get to her, that bubbling curiosity. Was it impolite to ask? Maybe she had gotten hurt? If she had, wouldn't there be a cast; and she couldn't say for certain if wearing gloves was really something Brooke did, as this was the first time they had met outside of the network. It would wait. It would have to wait. That wasn't the reason they were there, after all.

"Yeah, they get kind of vicious around this time of year," Brooke said, still smiling. "You'll survive, though. Most of them don't hate you that much." And in her experience, Luci was damn smart on top of that. Probably smart enough to have noticed, if nothing else, that Brooke didn't have her cast on anymore. Not that it would've taken much to notice that.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a third? E—" She stops herself short of saying his name and crosses her arms over her chest, obscuring a pumpkin on her sweater. "You know, that guy."

"I don't remember it being this bad freshman year." Not that she wouldn't still score ridiculously high. At the mention of their third, however, Luci made a bit of a face. "Ez, yeah. He's late." Which was to say she was neither surprised nor would he be getting out of it without a decent amount of heckling from the blond. Quite honestly, she had no idea where the other teen was, but it was his decision to be late. Or possibly on time, as the two were technically early. But then, in her eyes, early was on time, on time was late, late was... well, another thing entirely.

"So what's with your arm? I thought you got the cast off a while ago."

Ever since Brooke lost the ability to drive, she'd made a habit of leaving for places way earlier than she needed to. It made sense that the two of them were early. Of course, Starling had a way of grinding that mindset into you, too. Brooke nodded before Luci got to ask her question.

And when she did, well. The older girl looked around, much more subtly than she usually did. Coming in close to Luci and using her own body as a shield from prying eyes, she rolled up the right sleeve of her sweater. Underneath, her arm was gray, volcanic stone, which probably wasn't much of a surprise at this point. The new development came when the fingers on her right hand deliberately wiggled. Brooke looked at Luci and smiled broadly.

Not quite sure what to expect when Brooke rolled up her sleeve, this certainly wasn't it. Her eyes wide, she simply stared for a moment, before looking back up at Brooke, still looking just as bewildered. "How long has it been like this?" She'd never seen anything like it. Was there some kind of freak accident, or had this been what the woman meant about having at least some vague control over the earth? The two couldn't have been just mutually exclusive.

"I started it in August," she said, rolling her sleeve back down. No sense putting too much evidence out there in the open. Though she'd never gotten a tattoo, she at least tried to make it sound like that's what she was talking about. "It was really scary at first. You should've seen it when I got the thing off. It was pretty strange."

She moved on quickly, once she realized that she was losing the metaphor. "Yours is pretty cool, too, you know. And so's his, I bet. I can't wait until we can show them off."

There are footsteps echoing from, of all places, INSIDE the cave, and Ez comes out wearing a big grin and already a little dusty.

"There you two are! I was setting up some markers inside to help us see."

"I bet. It doesn't hurt or anything?" Honestly, she was dying of curiosity, but understanding when Brooke left much of the information off. They were in at least somewhat of an accessible area, and it was hard to say whether or not the walls had ears. There was a bit of jealousy as far as pulses were concerned, but she kept it well enough hidden, laughing at Brooke's comment. "Hardly. And I don't know where he is. I texted him when I got here..."

And, as if on cue, the blond popped out from within the caves. Luci huffed a little, putting her hands on her hips. "There you are! I've been trying to get a hold of you for fifteen minutes! You could have told me you were already here."

"Probably not a lot of reception in there," Brooke said with a smile and wave in Ez's direction. "Nice to meet you in person. Both of you, actually. Wow, I've been talking with you so long I forgot it was all online."

As though she's afraid she'll be seen if she's out here too much—well, yeah, she was exactly afraid of that, so she decided to cut right to the chase. "Should we go gently into that good night, then?" Wait, that's morbid. "...I mean spelunk. Should we start spelunking." She motioned towards the cave with her hand, but looked first to Ez, then Luci, then off into the distance with urgency.

She wanted to get across the message that they'd probably be more free to speak about this stuff inside, but she'd never exactly studied pantomime, either.

"Let's go!" Ez agreed, stepping back to the foot of the cave. "You'll find I set lights along the path every 10-20 feet for a bit of the ways in. I have a lot more in my bag and they're battery-powered so they'll last us awhile. Watch your step, there are some roots and rocks that can trip you up, I tried to mark them as best I could."

She smirked, walking into the cave as well. She wasn't really sure what she was expecting, but somehow, given the stories that she had heard involving the Sage, it seemed a bit... underwhelming. She saw the lights he had set up and smirked. "It's still a little dark in here, though."

To say she had been practicing a little bit was an understatement, and it took her only a few seconds before a sphere of light appeared at her hand. She tossed it, almost like a ball, before letting it go sailing down the pathway, a bit of residual light sticking to a few of the stalactites further down and causing them to glow.

Hah. Of course Luci was prepared. Ez didn't call her Lux for nothing, and obviously she'd had way more practice than Brooke at her own powers. Which... she wasn't sure how much good she'd be able to do. Still, she shot a smug look over at Ez in the magic light and peered down at their path.

The roots, she couldn't do anything about, but the small rocks were a different story. Closing her eyes, she focused energy through her flesh-and-bone hand; opening them again, she swept her hand to the left. All the marked rocks she could see—at least, the ones that were small enough—tumbled off in that direction. They didn't exactly form a pile, but it made the trip a little easier all the same.

"Path's clear."

Ez let out a low whistle.

"Impressive. The first fork is up ahead, one stays relatively level and the other goes a bit further down."

He continues on, leading the way.

In the pale light of the cave, one could still see the smirk on her face directed at Ez. However, once Brooke got to work, that fell away, giving way to surprise and a bit of adoration. "Whoa. You weren't kidding..." Not that she had doubted her, but seeing was definitely believing.

"How well do you know either direction? And which do you feel more comfortable with, Brooke? This is more your element."

"Hey, I'm as shocked that that worked as you are."

Hearing her options, though, she dropped her funny-girl act and sobered herself up. "I think we should stay level. I don't want to cause a cave-in or get lost or anything." Without Luci, there was no earthly way of knowing which direction they'd be going once they got too far away from the entrance. And if Brooke got Luci stuck in the cave, well. That'd be bad.

"I've explored both to a degree in the past. The level option should be all right, I've been meaning to find out where it goes," Ez said. "Ah, here we go. This is as far as I got when I went in myself. From here, we'll need to start manually marking. I can take care of that but do either of you want a few lights to hold on to just in case?"

Luci nods. "Then that's probably the way to go. I've been meaning to see how far I can get my lights to extend anyway, and it's easier to tell in an area that's more flat and level." She looks around a bit. "I can take a few, but I want to see just how far I can go without needing them. I have a few in my pack as well, just in case."

"Yeah, I kind of came ill-equipped. Throw some my way, Ez?" Even with two others in tow, Brooke would have felt weird not taking any assistance. She walked over to his side, not taking the throwing thing literally. While she waited, she stared down the path they'd chosen and wondered just exactly how deep it went. Maybe this was another Thunder trap. It would be just that convenient, wouldn't it?

Ez tosses a few lights to Brooke.

"The button on top turns 'em on. You can set them down and they should stay barring major seismic activity. I've been down this path away it stays straight for awhile and should fork again in about half a mile. Let's get walking."

And with that he starts moving down, placing lights at regularly spaced intervals.

Luci takes the rear of the group, focusing on her own lights and willing them to move. At first, they seem a bit stubborn, flickering and wavering, before finally starting to move. It proved more difficult in execution that she originally anticipated, however, and she frowned a bit. "Well, I was hoping to use that as a way to mark where we had been, but I can't seem to make any more, or get them to really move. Sorry. Just make sure when you put any lights down that you keep them on the right side of the cavern; we can use that as a marker of how to get back."

Although it was a straight shot and she wasn't too worried, knowing Ez he would want to go deeper. As they walked, she threw her lights out, casting a blue glow upon the path ahead before letting it dissipate and throwing it out again. She would rather know what was ahead of them than what was behind.

"Cool." She drops what will fit into her pockets and carries everything else, making sure to keep her left hand free. She falls into place between Ez and Luci, mostly just looking around and trying to get a bearing on their surroundings. It's strange, but something about this place feels right to her, like she belongs around earth. Maybe not as dark and spooky as this cave, but something close enough to it where she feels almost at ease. The lights are helping that, too.

"What were you even doing exploring this place, Ez?" She can't remember whether she'd already gotten an answer to that, but it's conversation, at least. "Does spelunking run in the family or something?"

"What can I say, if there's a cave around I gotta explore it," Ez replied with a laugh. "If I had my way I'd be out on digs in exotic places, but I can't do that as much since I'm here and in school. I gotta keep my skills up somehow."

"You're into archaeology? Aren't you missing your whip?" she cracks, trying not to pay attention to how her voice is subtly echoing around her. Not a huge fan of the concept of echoes lately. In the light of the cave she tries imagining a fedora on Ez's head, then nods to herself. Yeah, he's probably one of maybe ten people who could actually pull it off. "I could never do that stuff. It's way too dirty for me." Not like human bodies at all.

"'Fan' isn't quite the right word. I've been helping my uncle on his digs since I was very young. It's a bit dusty, but the stuff you find is definitely worth it."

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"Man why do my friends get all the cool stuff" Luci's life forever.

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