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

( okay but literally anything he's going to ask for is going to be a weird fusion animal konoha can't actually conjure, so... mako takes some of what lance had said about the various animal hybrids to heart and just says... )

... Duck?

( veerrrrry tentatively. turtleducks and lionturtles are both a Thing, so he's assuming that 'turtle' is one complete animal and 'ducks' and 'lions' are another. this is detective work at its best, thanks. )

Okay, duck it is!

[He sounds really conflicted about that choice, but she just attributes it to having too many favorite meats. She sympathizes, it's a touch call.

And she gets to work with that, "making" a duck to start... and then setting to plucking it, since her power didn't exactly mean the food came all ready to cook.]

We can save the feathers, too, good thinking...

( is that a thing people do?? mako used to stuff newspapers down into his and bolin's clothing to stay warm in republic city's bitter cold, but... maybe feathers would serve the same purpose? it wasn't like he killed a lot of animals himself, the ones they stole were usually pre-plucked. he watches with fascination, leaning into her space again. )

Why the feathers?

[Instinctively, Konoha turns slightly at the waist to offer a better view of what she's doing, quickly and skillfully plucking the feathers from the duck.]

What- you don't stuff pillows and futons with feathers in your world?

[Jeez, their worlds are so different............]

Oh.

( well. yes. but he was trying to attach some immediate, urgent meaning to them. feathers repel water, right? maybe there's a way they can do something about that lake or... some other thing? )

No. I mean, we do. I guess I wasn't really thinking that far ahead. I thought maybe you had some plan for them down here.

Right now?

[She manages a small laugh at least, shaking her head as she continues plucking the duck and placing all the feathers in a pile.]

No, I just don't like wasting things...

[Medieval upbringing or working class upbringing, you decide.]

( okay now he feels silly. he laughs a little, and starts digging through his bag for something to put the feathers in. )

I was massively overcomplicating that, huh?

[Her smile gets a little fond at the laugh in between an anxious bite as she instinctively tries to shift how she lays and... can't. Just can't, and it's because of water, and-]

I might just have been thinking too much...

[The feathers all come off, and she unsheathes her knife from her harness and sets to no nonsense carving over a simple roll of large leaves she carries around as a makeshift cutting board. Bye bye, duck head... you can... be kelpie food... maybe...]

Here it seems like people just... discard stuff all the time, even when it's useful. It's really weird...

( city boy or not, he's been around a lot of stuff like this, so he's perennially unbothered. though — )

Can I get some rice? And whatever vegetables you want? I'll start prepping the rest.

( he pulls out a knife in his pack as well, so he can carve up whatever she conjures. to the rest, ah... )

You run into that a lot. The more people have, the more they throw away. I don't think they mean anything bad by it... we'd be the same if that was how we grew up.

( meanwhile, mako wore the same tanktop with increasingly more repairwork for four seasons, so. obviously, he's in camp 'never waste anything at all' except girlfriends, heyooooo. )

The rice will need more prepping, sorry. That and tofu just don't come as nice as I wish.

[She rubs duck blood off her hands best she can before she claps them a few times in order to come up with mushrooms, water greens, cabbage, radish, a few eggs, and then... an entire armful of rice. Still on the stalk, dried and ripe for harvest but in need of cleaning and de-husking.

She offers up the bundle with an apologetic noise before she goes back to her butcher work, trying to imagine that sort of lifestyle. After all, she's squarely in Mako's camp- her kimono is worn and homespun, her hakama restitched in multiple places.]

It's just hard to imagine... I mean, I've seen rich people before, but. I don't know any. My boss, maybe, but... she's real hard-working, and she came from... well, maybe worse than nothing, so. I guess I still don't know any.

[Or... didn't, before.]

It's fine, I'll figure it out.

( although he's never actually... seen rice with a husk on it. he's seen it growing, of course, in his time travelling across the country, but by the time it arrives in republic city it's ready for consumption in burlap sacks, so. this is new. he studies it a bit, wondering if this is something he can use earthbending for, to shake the grain free from the stalk. idly, )

The first girl I ever really... dated, I guess. Her dad started out like me, but by the time she was my age he'd built up this manufacturing... empire, I guess. She had so much money it kind of blew my mind — they owned a dozen houses, huge indoor pools, servants, anything you could ever imagine or want. It was like being in a dream. My brother and I lived with her for a while... man, that was the life.

[Dating... Konoha still doesn't quite get the concept as others seem to use the word, but. It's like... potentially being engaged to be engaged?]

You courted a girl that wealthy? Wow...

[And he and his brother were almost adopted into her family? Status... didn't mean the same in their worlds, did it. The very idea of that kind of thing being allowed... she can't imagine it. Samurai class, merchant class, the nobles, the farmers... they were all so separate.]

That's really lucky... She sounds like a princess.

[Twelve houses?]

( oh he should. probably explain that, huh? mako shakes his head vigorously as he bends part of the cavern floor into a sort of bowl-like fixture, and then something rather like a pestle to match. it's the best he can think of, and he starts pulling it off the stalk to toss the husks into the dish. )

Courting and dating aren't really the same thing. Dating is... pretty casual... it's more like... you like each other, and you spend time together, go out to eat at restaurants, that sort of thing. But you don't really need your family's approval or anything. Asami's dad hated me.

( which he hid well enough, but. it still hurt, because he'd respected him and looked up to him so much. but it was just because he was a firebender. )

Asami? That's a pretty name.

[And it sounds... like a name she could encounter in her own world, so that endeared her to it already. Hearing that the merchant princess' father didn't like Mako... also made sense, because as far as she understands it he's a somewhat low-ranking shogunate official, which... was a good position, but she didn't think it came with much wealth...

Wait, she was doing it again. Applying her own world's logic to other's. She shakes her head at herself a bit, trying to rethink it.]

So you just... don't even care what your parents think? Or about getting married? You just go around together?

[So... Mako was a... man of loose morals?]

It is pretty. And she's... amazing. So kind and beautiful. Even though we aren't... together like that any more, I still care about her a lot.

( his tone is soft, talking about her. a little reverent. his relationship with korra was different, but asami was always something sacred.

at the next question, though, he sort of. cants his head. grinds a little harder at the rice. )

Well, my grandmother is always on me to get married, but I didn't meet her until I was twenty.

( she definitely wants baby firebenders. not once has she asked bolin what's going on with his dating life!! huff. )

But, ah. Marriage isn't really a big... thing, in my time. I guess times are changing. Because it's more about love than land or bloodlines now, people are a lot freer to choose who they want.

[Oh, they weren't "dating" anymore- That's right, his brother and Korra were trying to find him someone else to "date".

She's glad he has a grandmother, too, that sounds so nice... it's not something she's ever had, but kind of fantasized about a little when she had been younger just because a lot of other village children had them. But maybe that was weird to say...]

... I can't really imagine that, but. It's kind of romantic if you don't have to worry about anything but loving someone...

[Love. Her gaze is drawn to her rear, to the legs that won't obey her, and she thinks again for a moment how easily Gonta had lifted her, carried her through the mountains when her legs had gone out with fear after the wolves had attacked.

... Love.]

Wait- Are we dating, Mako?

[He said you like each other, you spend time together, you eat together... and that it was casual! So... maybe she doesn't quite get the difference between dating and actual courtship yet.]

( it's a little telling, maybe, that his reaction isn't just straight up embarrassment and a proclamation of what? no! instead he just shakes his head. )

No, we aren't dating. There's more to it than just that stuff. It's romantic, too. Uh, kissing, and holding hands, and that sort of thing.

( and, you know, sex. sometimes. but. he's not going to say that around konoha because she'll probably die. he doesn't want to teach a centaur about the birds and the catbees... )

[Wow, Mako, she knows about sex??? You're the one who is just bad at explaining and used different words for "like" and "love"???]

Haha, then we're not, yeah...

[He had her, there! But...]

I guess I've never "dated" anyone, then... you don't... really do that where I'm from. Not where anyone can see, anyway.

[Duck finished, she puts it in the pot he had prepared, putting the scraps aside to test on the kelpies and taking some mushrooms to start on.]

( look mako is just a dumpster fire, the sooner you accept that the sooner you'll understand his completely hideous explanations for otherwise simple concepts!! )

Well, maybe you'll get a chance while you're here? Maybe we can put Bolin on the case.

( he's teasing her, obviously. he would never do that to konoha!! )

What, really?

[NOT OBVIOUSLY, Mako.]

I don't know... Mikuni is the only other jinba here, and I can't date him, and I don't think any of the humans here are really... I mean, my boss' husband was a human, but I don't think anyone here wants to do that-

[Do they?]

( he laughs, and dumps the shucked rice into the pot as well. ah, the wonders of earthbending: making lives easier for ten thousand years. )

You never know. People here are from all sorts of worlds where anything is possible, and you're a great girl. Anybody would be lucky to date you.

I- I don't even know if I want to marry a human...

[D- Did that make her narrow minded? Oh no?]

I mean... I thought maybe it might happen, because there weren't a lot of jinba in my village, well- Just one, it was me, but recently, um, Mikuni and his good friend came, and-

[And.

She should. Stop rambling. And outing herself about the reason she couldn't date Mikuni.]

Thanks, though... You're great, too, Mako.

( and his 'good friend', huh? ... is that... good friend the way korra and asami are now, or...

hm. )

I didn't say anything about marrying a human, Konoha, calm down. And anyway, it'll be up to you one way or another.

( awh, she called him great. that actually makes him smile a bit, though he covers it by rubbing his cheek against his shoulder while his hands are occupied with food prep. )

[Despite her attempts to understand this whole... concept of casual dating thing that didn't lead to marriage... she definitely seems to not really be getting it. Not just yet, anyway. Maybe with time.]

Right, right, sorry...

[She chops mushrooms near furiously, flicking the finished bits into the pot.]

It's just... you know, I'm getting a bit old, so... I've been thinking about it a lot recently...

[Well, basically since Gonta had shown up...]

And my parents are getting older, I don't want them to go without seeing their grandchildren... your grandmother must feel the same! About... great-grandchildren? Wow...

( konoha you are not even a little old, what the heck. he just sort of stares at her for a moment and then very consciously decides that he isn't going to comment on it. maybe... jinba age differently than humans do? )

Oh, she's got plenty. Trust me, I have about a hundred cousins on that side of the family. I'm far from her only potential source for great-grandkids.

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