middleofsomewhere | Deep Dweller: Start

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Deep Dweller: Start

After the dreams some of the voidtreckers report on day Four of Grasshopper those that have been on the train for a little while will be expecting what comes the next day. Their SCA's glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preparations and Arrival

As promised the dressing carriage is opened for optional extras. There are flight suits, similar to those they wore into space but without the helmets. There are instead hard hats and some basic climbing gear as well as bags to put supplies in. There are even a few red tents if any of those planning on tackling red's mission want to grab one, they hold six people in two inner compartments and are relatively easy to put up and take down.

They have a few hours of preparation before the announcement comes. Soon approaching system #789327772. Planet Terra. Drop order: Orange, Red, Blue, Purple. Orange to doors. Leaving the void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. A sharp jerk, a judder and the view from the window changes from the void to dark cloudy skies and very red sand.

They land smoothly, and indeed it seems they have landed on train tracks. A few moments later they pull up outside a huge metal and glass building.

Orange Team

Arrival

Jumping down from the train they will find themselves outside large metal gates. Noticable is the spotlights that shine even in the day time, reflecting oddly off the red sand. It is hot and dry outside, a slight breeze sending red dust rolling around their feet.

The gates aren't locked. There is no lock though they will notice devices that are probably security cameras. The doors are glass and inside is light and airy. They enter into a large lobby, a large circular desk in the centre and a glass walled waiting room to the side.

It is empty. No people at all. All the lights are on. Time to explore.

Exploration

Going up two floors and down five the lab is large and full of all manner of interesting things. Scientific equipment, monitoring stations measuring chemical levels in the air, temperature, water levels. Where to even start is a good question. The lights remain on, which might be annoying at night.

Red Team

Arrivals

Red team to doors. The train continues travelling along the train tracks, looking out the windows they will see endless rolling red sand. Factories rising up from the ground, dotted across the landscape. As the train gets close the air outside seems hazier, through the fumes. They may even see in the distance, strange silver floating orbs.

Eventually it pulls up at a station. Just a raised block really, but easy enough for red team to disembark.

The land stretches out around them. Train tracks criss cross the surface but apart from that there don't seem to be any boundaries. No fences, roads or sign posts.

It won't take them long to find the first orbs, strange silvery spheres and seem almost liquid, until they are not.

Night Time

It grows dark quickly after sunset here, which might take them by surprise. Taking them more by surprise however may be the scraping, scuttling noises in the dark. Skittering close. There is no light out here on the surface, they are far away from the research facility that Orange found themselves in.

If anyone manages to catch a glimpse they will see grey, long limmbed creatures. They shy away from light but anyone in the dark is likely to be attacked. They fight with claws and teeth.

When the sun rises they are gone.

Blue Team

Arrival

Blue team to doors. The train continues across the landscape, passing more orbs, just floating there silently. It stops at the entrance of a cave.

The cave slopes downwards into darkness and soon turns into small tunnels. They don't need to go far when they meet the first ground of Gry. A group of young Gry, practising with spears in an wider section of cave.

Despite being very surprised at the sudden visitors no weapons are pointed at the voidtreckers, instead they are met with curiosity. They are soon led further into the tunnels and soon come to the living areas.

The Gry lead simple lives but they are all pretty fascinated to see their visitors and will allow them to look around their home and answer any questions they have.

Night Time

Most of the Gry sleep in a large communal sleeping area and the Voidtreckers are welcome to join them, though the Gry won't be insulted if they choose to seek out a more private area.

If the Voidtreckers awake in fear in the night, after strange dreams they will find they are not alone. Many of the Gry have awoken too and will reassure the Voidtreckers, tell them it is an honour to communicate with The Burrower.

Purple

Arrival

Purple team to doors. The train continues on the tracks and soon enters a tunnel itself. It's a bit of a bumpy trip, this train was clearly not made for warren systems but after some uneasy twists and turns they pull to a stop.

They are at a train station, not that it's easy to see because it is pitch black. But it is clear there are people around, some looking very confused at the very odd train.

Once the last of those going on the mission leave the train it speeds off into the darkness.

The Terran's are large and tower over most of the voidtreckers but they are friendly enough, if a little confused, once it is explained that they are here to help. They will be led over towards the collapsed section of city.

There is a lot of activity. People digging at rubble, others using their sheer size and strength to hold up beams. There is an array of rescue equipment and a group of official-looking Terran's holding large devices that are comparable to a tablet-computer and discussing solutions.

There is plenty to do to help, smaller rubble to clear, injured people to tend to. Worried Terran's to calm and reassure. Those brave enough can volunteer to use their smaller size to help get supplies through to those trapped and those with any scientific know how, great strength or magic can put their skills to good use.

Rest Time

Throughout the day people are rescued and other parts of the tunnels stabilised. There is more work to be done but the Terran's seem to be working in shifts and they will encourage their surprise allies to rest as well. They will offer to host them.

They live in large groups and will happily invite the voidtreckers into their homes. They will be curious about the voidtreckers but will also answer questions. Telling them about the strange storm and the collapse of the tunnels. They are urged to sleep early and the next day it will be back to work.

(OOC: Information is here)

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Tidus knows he was being grouchy all of yesterday about nothing happening, but does it--'things' happening--always have to start when it gets dark? There's been little rest for anyone, and Tidus, with his blue aquatic sword strapped uselessly at his side and with a lemo-sour face--

"Absolutely. Let's see what's up with these stupid things already!"

--is ready for any and all shenanigans. These dumb orbs disappeared and fiends appeared, and Tidus wants to get something out of it.

Things happen after dark because that's the exciting and best time of the day! That's the entire purpose of night and people just WASTE a perfectly good night by sleeping through it.

"Wonderful, that's just what I want to hear! Now, with last night's everything, I'll understand if you're a little uneasy about darkness--"

But any potential uneasiness from anyone at all does not prevent the Ascian from promptly conjuring up a wide swath of abyss-dark shadow over their heads as if it were an enormous sphere all its own, swirling briefly with pretty violets before deepening into utter blackness. This creates a nice pleasant shadow. "If anything untoward happens, please save me."

The patch of blackness is dropped without ceremony over Tidus, Fandaniel, and the sphere. He can see just fine in the utter gloom, Tidus might not be so lucky.

The area plunges into darkness and the orb seems to melt slightly, droppletting to the floor. For a moment it seems that nothing is going to happen. The orb is gone and the drops are still.

But a few moments later monsters rise from the ground, in this small patch of darkness with Fandaniel and Tidus there are ten monsters.

They lunge.

tell that to a tidus who needs his beauty sleep.

'Please save him'. Okay, that's a pretty drastic thing to say and even a sleep-deprived Tidus can think that, but at the same time--it wasn't like the orbs leaving and the monsters showing at night didn't spell danger. And for the moment Tidus wants to scoff and believe Fandaniel is being unreasonable--

His left hand is glowing with orbs anyway, the start of a spell he knows that should work, if danger does come.

--and speaking of.

Tidus watches hating the anticipation of what's about to happen as the orb oozes away, the silence and nothing that follows to either lead into a big fat nothing or a horrible something.

But then, there come the monsters, and there's a "Oh shit--" that comes quicker than them from Tidus's mouth.

For the time that he has, he raises his hand prepped already with magic, and before they can--or just as they do--lunge, he throws out the spell with a shout:

"You stay where you are!"

With the monsters all clustered so close, rings of gold surround about half, but it's the lightshow Tidus is aiming for than the ability. And then with that, hopefully some time to slow them anyway, Tidus turns and practically lunges himself at Fandaniel, intending to knock him down, get him out of danger but all--

"Break the spell!"

Let's do that too.

"Ah, there it goes. Can you see that? It's melting into the ground." Honestly given Tidus a light probably would have been a good idea, but Fandaniel sounds rather satisfied, crouching to prod at the earth where the sphere had been hovering. That answers for certain where the orbs went! But he's expecting the possibility of a monster, so he begins his usual pre-combat prep in the gloom, a simple regen spell for the both of them, and then working on a nice solid Protect spell--

And then the monsters come boiling up from the ground. Not just one, but many. He's not expecting more than one.

Combat without solid skilled backup is NOT really Fandaniel's forte. He can do it! If dark magic or stabbing is effective, or his shields remain comfortably unbreakable, but outside of those cases he's basically any other squishy caster easily targeted by hungry slavering beasts. Being the amazing fighter that he is, the Ascian recoils with a thoroughly undignified tiny shriek that sounds awfully like 'help!', a shield immediately popping into being around him, but that doesn't seem to bother monster claws at all, just like it hadn't last night.

Honestly it's a really good thing Tidus has his shit together; it's not that hard to tackle Fandaniel at all, but that shield is at least perfectly resistant to humans, and while this in no way keeps him from falling over when hit, he's at least not harmed at all by the sudden blitzballer impact. "What?!"

Break the sp-- he needs that shield!! Look what those horrible things did to him already! He's bleeding! He--

Oh right the darkness.

Quite suddenly, the dawn light comes flooding back, the shadowy swath of ground fading like fog.

The dawn light comes flooding back and the monsters shatter, just like those that got hit by light the night before did. They go from being surrounded by monsters, to stillness and silence.

After a few moments two orbs rise from the ground, floating in the air. Silent and still once more.

Did Tidus really just get bounced like he smacked his face in a bubble, also known as a barrier.

This is what happens when he uses himself as a meatshield to save people, bro!! (or just because what else was he going to do with that many fiends around at once)? At least it gets them both down and out of the way, if that's actually of any use, but regardless is that the spell leaves them and with it, their foes with far too many sharp claws. A sudden sharp light coating them now from high above than makes Tidus squint as he picks himself onto his hands and knees, quick to look around them.

And the danger is gone, for now. ...but at the expense of the orbs returning.

"What the!" And here Tidus is ready to be all exasperation, astonishment, crawling on his hands and knees over to Fandaniel, to make sure he's alright. "There were a bunch of them! No wonder we got swarmed last night! What are those things!?"

But for all that, Tidus is checking Fandaniel out for any wounds. Did they get an arm, bro? Let Tidus take a hold of that.

At the expense of one orb becoming two orbs, in fact.

Fandaniel doesn't get up all that quickly, he's eyeing the new orb with an expression that can only be described as baleful. It seems like one or more of the monsters did manage to catch him, as his red hoodie looks suspiciously damp in places where the fabric had been torn, but investigation is quickly waved off. "It's alright, I know a few healing spells."

More than a few in fact! But none of the really nice big ones, he'd never had use for them.

He's.. going to stay seated on the ground. The downside of the sun is he can feel the light sap some of his power, like always. "...If I had to guess," he says after a moment, carefully working on sitting up without falling over or being too dramatic after that squeak earlier, "I'd say they were voidsent. Creatures of darkness, such as myself, but with less brains. I'd like to catch one of them.."

But a dozen or so is WAY TOO MANY and now there's TWO orbs which means like thirty monsters would result..

There's a mumble that sounds a lot like 'ow'.

"..Well! Now we know what to expect!" He brightens up a bit, from his spot on the ground. They're still alive, it's all good! "We should get some rest, then I want to try it again before sunset, but with a little more preparation." And maybe backup.

...shit, what does Fandaniel mean there weren't two orbs before? That's not the news Tidus wanted to hear, though there's a few other things he wants to disagree with too.

"We should tell the others on the other teams," he starts with first, bringing his attention back from the two orbs over to Fandaniel. "Anyway, let me heal you. Your magic's gonna be useful for seeing what we can do. 'least I can do is help you out."

Come on, give him permission. Only Tidus is allowed to be a stubborn butt.

"A brief warning should suffice, unless they start seeing spheres underground or something. I don't want a bunch of people from other teams flocking over to muck around with things." It's going to require a little more containment than that!

Because clearly they themselves aren't just mucking around with things. Not at all. "..We'll have to notify the rest of red team though, I suppose." Because there's a few combat monkeys among them that might be able to straight up VAPORIZE these things, and Fandaniel's hoping that might actually be an answer.

The offer of healing gets Tidus an eyeing. "And I need you to make sure none of this gets me horribly mutilated, don't you mortals have a limited amount of aether you can expend? It's best to save it, conjuring darkness takes minimal effort."

"And healing's easy for me." Watch Tidus now, lifting up his hands where wisp-like lights--a mix of white, but also the colours of the aurora borealias--start dancing from the palms and fingertips. "You gotta know I'm not gonna just leave you sitting here bleeding, right?"

There's a cheekiness to that, and maybe Fandaniel doesn't know, but come on. And Tidus keeps that breezy manner as the energy builds in his hands. "I learnt healing from the best magic healer I know. And if I get tired later, I've got some elixirs! You can borrow one too if you need some. We'll need to stay sharp. But after this, I'll get us some drinks, hey? Heard the lab team found a hot drinks machine."

But is all that talking distracting enough? Because unless Fandaniel physically stops Tidus, he's coming in during it with the warm glow of healing to soothe over those parts that he can tell where Fandaniel got caught on his cloak, to start patching him up.

It's not at all distracting, and as Tidus chats away, he's being watched, brow furrowed, as Fandaniel weighs whether or not this is worth his continued effort. "Perhaps, but that looks suspiciously like light, and you DID hear me say a few minutes ago that I am a creature of darkness, yes?"

Not that it won't work just fine, it's not touching his soul after all and meat bodies tended to react to healing of any source basically exactly the same way: by healing. His is no different. But it's the principle of the thing. "If you're going to visit a lab, see about picking up a lab coat. I have experiments to perform and it always seems proper to go with the stereotype." Which he only knows about thanks to the train and the denizens therein, no such thing existed for his people or among the Spoken races, but he's going to ignore that!

And watch in a very obvious I See What You're Doing And I Highly Disapprove sort of way when Tidus moves in for the heal. He doesn't, very noticeably, instantly combust either.

Uhhh, look, maybe that first point does get Tidus to pause on any sneaky moves, alright. "Oh. Will this hurt?"

Because, you know, Tidus knows that this usually hurts the undead, but nothing about darkness fiends. ...Were there darkness fiends? Did everything count as 'light' that used energy in it? There's a lot of thinking and questioning here that needs to take place that this isn't really the best time for. Or maybe it is.

Can't believe his attempts at generosity may have been thwarted!

Fandaniel frowns, wrestling with what passes as his conscience. Clearly Tidus just wants to help, and he could just.. lie .. but that could be inconvenient later, like if he seriously needed healing and everyone was worried about not saving him because it might hurt.

"It won't kill me," he says after a mighty struggle with his own sense of right and wrong, "It's just unpleasant."

Which is to say it's perfectly fine, what healing ISN'T unpleasant? "Unless you start with the light beams and such, those certainly hurt a lot."

"Well, if it sucks too much, lemme know?" It sounds like a compromise. Can this be a compromise?? Regardless, Tidus isn't here to make Fandaniel more miserable than sitting with open wounds would leave him.

But he brings his hands to Fandaniel, and the stilted energy surrounding his hands spreads and hopefully, fortunately, the wisps of light won't be as much of a nuisance as lightbeams (let's hope), finding the wounds and starting to stitch the skin together, soothe the ache they make.

"Maybe you can teach me a spell that'd be better for you?"

You know. Maybe. If there are any.

He's perfectly capable of healing himself!!

He just isn't, just yet, because .. reasons. The regen he'd thrown on himself and Tidus before the monsters appeared had long since worn off, as the spell was wont to do, but there were other spells! Fandaniel does not catch fire upon application of healing spell. By all appearances it does exactly what it's supposed to, sealing up claw wounds without much marks to show their passage.

"..Possible. All you need to do is shift what element you're drawing on, from the passive of Light to the active of Dark." He makes it sound simple enough, but whether or not it actually IS.. for anyone who isn't an ascian.. "Healing spells can also be based in fire, water and earth as well fairly easily, though each comes with their own quirks. ..Thank you."

This last might be a bit reluctant, and while he seemed a bit uncomfortable it is pretty clear he wasn't in screaming agony or anything like that! Fandaniel might have been exaggerating!!! Or he's good at hiding things, who knows.

If it helps Fandaniel from feeling too awkward or uncomfortable, Tidus hums at the thanks, not drawing too much attention to it. The guy's trusting him to do this, and he's thankful for that. But again--let's not make a show out of it.

"Well, let's figure it out on the train, or if we get some time here. I know they call this White Magic back in Spira, but all of it's about...imagination, and spinning your own energy and the energy around you into what you want? It wouldn't be bad to know though, just in case."

For Fandaniel, really--Tidus isn't thinking about anyone else in a future that doesn't exist.

"First, we've got these orbs to figure out. Plus what we're gonna do when night comes around again. It's not gonna be smart staying out in the tents unless we get some lights we can stick around."

"First, I think it'd be a good idea for you and the others to get some rest. It's only sunrise, and nightfall is quite some time away." Very slowly he levers himself upright, picking at his now tattered hoodie with a scowl. "Those of us who don't really need sleep can wake the rest of you with plenty of time to conduct further experiments."

Sleep is very important for young bodies he's relying on to keep him from not dying, after all! And by his estimate, dark isn't for over eight hours from now. "Once everyone's rested, I suppose we should begin seeing who actually knows how to conjure light instead of darkness. Or lots of fire." Not that there's much to burn around here..

but daaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddd

"Alright alright, sleep after this, then figuring out what to do." Tidus cracks into a small smile, since he can't argue about that after arguing about healing Fandaniel. Which can be taking as long or as little as make sense. Tidus knows up to cura, but nothing higher than that.

"My friend used a seed last night that kept a fire burning. I don't know how many he has, but I'll ask, later." Later, after sleep as promised. "We should check out if we can use the undergrounds to hide out at night, or get a teleport over to one of the other teams."

"Good." He.. is going to continue his experiments, later, albeit far more cautiously now that he knows for certain where the monsters come from. "Happily the train provided tents, maybe we can actually make use of them this time." Instead of the whole panic and screaming and mayhem of last night.

Better to sleep in the day anyway.

Later, fire seeds. Possibly like a fire crystal. He COULD make those but it wasn't his favored element.. "Someone might also want to talk to the locals, I assume some team is doing that? If these are underground already, there might be no safety in the depths. But they might have flood lights we can borrow."

As uncomfortable as those would be..

"That'll be Blue and Purple for the locals. There's some people in the undergrounds too. Was anyway when I was..."

Just. Give Tidus a second to swallow down the yawn that's attempting to bubble up his throat with all this talk about sleep. The magic he's producing flickers and withdraws some in the distraction, but resumes as he speaks again.

"--when I was looking around."

Speaking to anyone using the warrens will find out they already knew about the monsters that show up at knock, and close the gates when they make an appearance.

Resources to make use of! He did want to meet the locals at some point, though he has other things to keep himself occupied with for now.. like these orbs.

"We'll have to stop by and say hello before all of this is over. See if there's some mundane trading anyone might be up for." But that's later, far later, and right now.. right now honestly they both should rest. Even he had a mortal body that needed tending to properly. "...Later today. Or in a week. Whatever."

He waves a dismissive hand. "We'll get to all of that later. Go get some rest."

They can think about the later when it comes, and how up to doing anything else than sleeping 'til next month they are. For now, Tidus withdraws his hands, but only by curling them inward than retreating completely.

"You better?"

Asked with a tone very much implying because I'll go as soon as you're fine and only then. Only then.

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Deep Dweller: Start

day 2, here 4 shenanigans

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