acatalepsy_logs | cavern explorations.

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cavern explorations.

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the depths below.

exploring the caverns.

All of you will have the same entrance into the caverns -- it will involve going underwater and traveling about one hundred feet through a tunnel which breaks into into a massive cavern, full of air. The breeze is mysteriously fresh, for being both underground and underwater, and before you are three massive dark tunnels. It's hard to decide which one to go toward, but inevitably, you are drawn toward a specific tunnel.

For your top level comments, include what group you are in your subject line. . You will be in the caverns for roughly one week's time in order to get to the information at hand. That doesn't mean you have to stay below that long, but be prepared to pack whatever you need in order to live down there for that long There will be fish to hunt in the waters and the water itself is fresh, but sleeping on the cold marble-like surface might suck, especially if you're wet. And . . . once you get into the meat of things, what are you going to find?

group a.

The tunnel by which group A travels down is narrow, to the point of claustrophobia. And along the way, you will run into several obstacles. You will have to travel through underwater tunnels that, again, are narrow and claustrophobic. Stalagmites and stalacites make navigating through the waters treachorous, and getting stuck is not an impossibility.

Additionally, as you move through the pathways (both water and not), you begin to notice little lights flickering in the water. At first, you think it may be crystals sparkling in the water . . . but upon closer inspection, you begin to realize that they are bioluminescent eels. How cool! However, about halfway into your journey, you begin to notice that theyre getting a bit . . . larger. And, should you allow yourself to be attacked by them, not only do they bite, they seem to suck out your energy. These eels feast on magical energy, and suffering a bite from one of these eels will completely eradicate your Astoria granted powers for five hours. Have fun with that.

Finally, at the end of your journey, you will reach what feels like a dead end . . . in that you come upon a small alcove type area, with no discernable exit. And, upon the far wall, you see what appear to be cave drawings. Intricately carved into the stone, with a language surrounding the pictographs that no one understands, are what appears to be two women. One has longer hair, to her shoulders, holding a white orb in her hand. The other, with cropped hair, appears to be holding a blackened orb in her hand. Their arms are intertwined, connected, but there is a large fracture in the rock, scorched across the woman drawn in white, as if someone (or something) has attempted to blast it to bits.

Eventually, upon some investigating, you come across words that you, somehow, do understand, scrawed in a messy text, carved into the stone. Those words?

group b.

The tunnels that Group B heads down are considerably wide, all things considered. Most of the journey in the tunnels for Group B is above-ground and doesn't involve going underwater . . . which may be a good thing, as the water pathways in this tunnel are deep. The water is still crystal clear, but you somehow still can't see the bottom of it. It looks as if it goes on forever . . . and ever . . . and ever . . .

Eventually, though, you come into a second massive cavern, with a huge underground lake. The lake is full of dark shapes that dart underneath the surface -- horses, with the tails of fish, as they pop up to the surface for a gulp or two of air. But when they notice the strangers on the shores of their territory, they circle ranks and edge themselves closer . . . and if you get too close to the shore, you may feel teeth sink into the edge of your coat and an abrupt tug to be pulled into the water.

To be clear -- the kelpies themselves are not particularly violent. However, they've never seen otherworlders like you before, and are definitely scared. Not fighting against them will ensure their slow trust, and they will generally leave you alone. But if you attack them? They'll fight back, and they will drag you down to the depths below without a second thought in order to protect their own.

Eventually, you come across a third massive cavern, with another underground lake. The water seems to sparkle with energy -- tiny lights dance across the water, skipping across the surface without a care in the world. Touching the water will result in temporary paralysis of whatever you use to touch it -- magic, so powerful that you cannot possibly comprehend it. The energy is too much to handle, and you, too, cannot see the bottom of this lake. However, scattered across the walls, are runes carved into the marble. It's a language you do not understand, but you do come across something that you manage to understand . . . tucked amongst the runic symbols:

group c.

Group C enters into a beautiful crystalized tunnel, with white crystals jutting out into the tunnel. It looks beautiful, but it makes for treacherous going -- the crystals are razor sharp, and sliding through them requires elegance and grace to avoid being turned into ribbons. Move slowly -- you need to in order to make it through this maze of crystals.

Eventually, you make it to a wider tunnel with various deep pools of water scattered along the floor. The pools seem to be endlessly deep, reaching to impossible depths that you cannot see. However, the pools seem to have an . . . alluring feel to them. You are drawn closer to them, curious, inquisitive . . . you want to get into them . . . and if you dip into the pools, watery arms of the sprites that live within these pools glide around you, and coax you into the depths below . . . but you feel calm, serene. Hopefully someone is looking out for you.

But as you move through the tunnel with the pools, you begin to notice signs of life. Not necessarily plant life, or animal life, but signs that people are here. There are footsteps from one pool to the next, wet markings that seem to be permanently wet no matter how much you wipe them away. There are watermarks along the walls, handprints against the marble. And as you begin to walk, begin to notice messages scrawled along the walls, carved deep into the marble.

Every single word is the same.

group d.

Unlike those below the surface, the lakeside shores of Lake Dona seem to be relatively peaceful. Nessie is lazily swimming around and offering rides to those that need it, and campfires are soon built up around this makeshift camp of those who are sitting around to wait. The network does work with those in the caverns, so keeping in contact is far easier than it was in Struxta!

However, in the last days of the investigation, as Group A, B, and C begin to discover the messages in the caverns, storm clouds begin to roll in. It begins to downpour, a frightening crack of lightning streaking across the side with alarming regularity. And, on the final day of the exploration, a voice seems to float through the deluge. And it isn't Astoria's. But it seems to be . . . odd. And suddenly, a message appears on your watches.

¿ɯǝ ɐǝɹɥ ʎon ɐɔu ˙nʎo ɥǝdl ʇo ǝuǝp ᴉ ˙ʎno ɥǝdl ʇo ɐʍʇu ᴉ ¿ɯǝ ǝɥɐɹ nʎo ɔuɐ

What in the hell could that be?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[oh... now it's fire... ???

She's already scooted closer and she still can't feel anything from the hip down so she can't scoot back, so... okay, it's just making the food cook... please be good, fire... please make the food faster...]

I guess if you say it that way...

[It did sound better when Mako said it. It makes her think of something else, though, and her gaze slips (reluctantly) from the hot pot to Mako, silent for a moment while she thought of how to word it.]

... but. Do you think we'll change so much that people back home will notice?

( he shrugs. )

Anyone who'd notice anything about me is here, so I don't think I can really answer that.

( mako that sounds terrifically sad and lonely. although after a moment he does clarify — )

Except Beifong, maybe. She'd notice I could bend again with my left hand.

[... Yeah. A little.

Still, it gives her something, and she is curious.]

Who's Beifong?

Oh, she's. My boss back home. Lin Beifong. She's pretty great, but... she can be a little on the stern side.

( though she's softened up a lot in the last couple years. he thinks she may have even gone on a date recently, weird as that is to imagine. )

[Pretty great, but a little on the stern side...]

That sounds kind of like my boss, Sha Gozen.

[The memory makes her kind of smile, if not somewhat bittersweetly.]

She's so tiny, but she's so strong... and you don't really see many women running things like she does. Even humans have to respect her.

So she's a Jinba, then? Like you?

( that 'even humans' part is pretty distinct, he feels. )

Yeah, like me! But- way smaller. And older. And with a greyer coat.

[Konoha holds up her hand to indicate height... and if she's not being dramatic, then... that's more like... large miniature horse height centaur than proper horse sized.

Despite that, the admiration in her voice is clear.]

But she learned all sorts of things back when she was kept by humans, and that's why she's so smart now. She knows maths, and swordwork, and all sorts of things. She and her husband even started a business that helps jinba find work! I went to find her in town and she got me my current job, actually.

( what even is a proper size for horses? for all he knows, konoha and mikuni are the outliers. he absently reaches out to check on the pot. lifting the lid lefts the steam waft aromatically into the air.

'kept' by humans doesn't exactly have pleasant connotations, but. he's learned not to react to the awful details of her world. it's just her normal, she doesn't need his pity or his horror. )

That's kind of her. She sounds like a pretty remarkable woman. So does she work in the lumber yard too, or...?

Oh, no! She works in the big town, and she dispatches the people who work for her to wherever is best suited for them! So she got me the job at the lumber yard, but she sends people out to all sort of work... And she is remarkable!

[She misses Sha almost as much as she misses her parents, misses Gonta. She wasn't like a mother to her or anything, but... she was the only older female jinba in her life.]

Even after her husband died she kept on working on their business, she's so strong! He was a nice man, though, it's too bad... I wish humans didn't get sick so easily...

[Her thoughts go very off track for a moment, instinctively leaning towards the pot and the tantalizing aroma and forgetting just what (outrageous?) things she was saying.]

( wait. what? )

She married a human?

( sorry konoha, that's his takeaway here. )

Yeah...

[Honestly, she doesn't blame him for getting hung up on that! It had been somewhat shocking to her, too, when Sha had first somewhat drunkenly began extolling her husband's virtues.]

I mean, I'd heard it sometimes happens... She's the only one I know personally. And she's, um, smaller than me like I said, so... I guess...

[It was a proper marriage??????]

( please don't put that thought in his — nnnnnnope, too late. thanks, konoha. his brain has now done all the necessary computations and contortions to imagine that and he's just kind of. done. )

I, uh. I think the, uh, the food? Is done? Hungry?

( what a segue. this boy's got moxie, he's got grace, he's got incredible timing, hoorah. )

If we end up stuck here I though, you know, I wish I had asked Sha more because I might have to marry a human... Mikuni is here, but... I don't know that's almost weirder, even though he's so beautiful and kind, he's more like... a big brother? I don't know, I don't have a brother, maybe you'd know-

[Ramble already activated, Konoha continues heedless for a moment... until it registers and she realizes... yeah. She should probably stop.

So she quickly grabs a bowl and holds it out, not realizing that a back hoof twitches.]

Very hungry, thank you!

( he fills her bowl before his own, and he passes his hand over the bowl to draw off some of the heat. he can eat t hot, but if his firebending goes out mid-bite he'll get a mouthful. )

I don't think anyone's going to insist on you getting married here, Konoha.

i want to get marrie- oh, thank you.

[It's called a longing for physical touch and companionship, Mako, jeez???

He's already tried to pretend he was fine about that though, so she accepts her bowl instead, putting it up to her face and inhaling deeply, enjoying the simple pleasures of the steam and the aroma before she just starts digging in, tail twitching beneath her skirt.]

Anyway, Sha Gozen is amazing is what I'm trying to say. We can introduce our bosses if they ever end up here.

( girls are so weird. why are girls weird? they're weird. they just are. spirits save him. )

Chief Beifong's not really... the sort of woman you introduce to other people, but. Maybe. If they're both here. Sounds like they'd get along.

Everyone is the type of person you introduce if you're introducing them to the right people.

[ignorant, positive thinking or a grain of wisdom? you decide.

because Konoha is busy stuffing her face, at least not at the frantic "what is this?!" pace she'd inhaled his curry, just a very enthusiastic pace... and then she's already holding her bowl out for seconds.]

More, please.

[Two stomachs to feed after all... though a strange prickle of sensation pulls her gaze back to her damp skirt. ... did her hoof twitch just now or was that hopeful thinking?]

No, I don't... mean it like that. I mean, she hates meeting people and she doesn't take kindly to being introduced to them. It's more a her-thing than an other-people-thing.

( she's lightened up a lot since he first met her, and he's well aware of the fact that she's grooming him to be her successor. she's harder on him than she is on anyone else. rides his ass about reports no matter how meticulous, and expects him to stay just as late as she does, which she doesn't seem to ask of any of her other officers. but he's also the only one she'll say good job to with a smile, most days.

but he can't deny she has her flaws.

mako fills up konoha's bowl a second time (he's barely a third of the way through his first) and then just sighs and leans back against a jutting rock. )

I know that Astoria says time stops back home, but I'm still worried about Republic City.

No one doesn't like meeting Sha Gozen.

[And that's that! No matter how grumpy or serious or maybe even kind of rude this Beifong was, Konoha says it... with complete confidence.

Thinking her hoof moving was just wishful thinking, Konoha accepts her seconds a bit less cheerfully, though the negative thoughts don't prevent her from... still eating at a rather healthy pace.]

... me, too. I know she said it wouldn't, but... I don't get how that could be. Not that I get how we're here in the first place, but-

[Without even noticing... her tail has begun to flick slowly side to side in frustration.]

( this time, he actually notices. i'd say 'score one for cop awareness' but he's missed all those other signs so far, so maybe he's just having a bad day. this one is unmistakable, however, and rather than continue on to pursue the line of conversation, he grins and points down at it. )

Hey! Your tail.

Maiwha?

["My what?" in mouth-full-ese.

Konoha follows his gaze... and there's her tail, twitching. She can- she can kind of feel it??? Swallowing so abruptly she almost chokes, Konoha quickly tries to get up... way too ahead of herself, admittedly, because all she manages to do is sort of lunge and then awkwardly fall back and kind of onto her side, but. She just looks so blatantly and emotionally relieved, tail twitching back and forth even harder.]

Oh, I'm so glaaaaaad-

[Is she crying? A LITTLE.]

( baby no!! )

Hey, quit that. ( crying makes him awkward!! though he is definitely going to fish for some scrap of cloth in his bag she can use as a kerchief if she needs it. ) I told you it'd come back.

It's not like I didn't believe you, but...

[But it's crazy, all of it, and it's not about not trusting him so much as just... how could she have been paralyzed by water in the first place, and now it's... wearing off?

So while he's fishing for a kerchief she just rolls over and buries her face in his... well, at this angle, more the side of his thigh than his actual side, but.

Her tail and a back hoof keep twitching. Soon the rest will be back, but until then...]

I know, it's scary when it happens.

( he ran into chiblockers when he was fifteen. it's similar. having your limb useless and dead, not being able to bend. it's not something he'd wish on anyone, and this is that and more. )

But you're okay now.

( annnnd she is right up against him, isn't she. he sort of... pets her hair... )

Just stay out of the water next time, huh?

Yeah...

[She wishes she could be more eloquent, actually explain the sheer gut-wrenching fear she still couldn't shake for magic and technology so beyond her own world's...

But she just nods into his thigh.

The petting was nice- kind of like how her mother used to.]

I will.

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cavern explorations.

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