( closed ) mystery transmission

[winscenario]

who: James T. Kirk, Leonard McCoy, Poe Dameron, Beverly Crusher, Loki
what: an exploratory mission in search of a vessel
when: from July 10th to July 20th
where: abandoned area, along the river, the delta and waterfalls; between the first and second walls
warnings: monster attacks, probably some injuries/blood, don't expect anything more than that; add any needed warnings on your own threads as needed, please!


After a transmission tower in the Abandoned City was repaired following the storm a few months ago, the Perimeter Guard radio center has been picking up a continuous eerie transmission that sounds like a combination of a sonar ping and a staticky voice saying a long series of seemingly random numbers. The transmission has been tracked to its source, which seems to be some sort of vessel that's under one of the many waterfalls in the delta area of the Abandoned City. It is not known if it is easily accessible or if caving will be required to reach it.

The objective is to follow the signal to its source with specialized equipment and find out whether it is a distress signal, an important piece of abandoned technology, or something else entirely. Besides the usual environmental dangers of traveling for several days by land into the Abandoned City, including monsters and other dangers, there is heavy speculation that whatever is sending the signal is super haunted. Additionally, some caving may be required to reach the signal source.

[ ooc: this is a mingle log, so everyone feel free to write up your own top levels and/or tag around as much as you like! ]

Comments

[dancingmd]

"Don't say that." She murmurs back to Leonard. "They'll... they'll be fine." She suppresses a shudder, not wanting to imagine that. Falling down a shaft like this once was one too many times already.

"And well... I am lighter than you, if it comes to that."

[ikols]

Loki keeps to himself as the doctors fret, peering over the edge of the chasm to catch the last echoes of conversation filtering up to his enhanced hearing. Waiting to hear the duo have made it down, attentive as a fox on high-alert because whatever he says and however careless he acts, he really doesn't want Jim to turn into a smear on the cave floor.

[winscenario]

"No, I'm alright," he shakes his head, glancing at Poe and offering a sure smile. "I'll try to go lower first. If it works and I manage to reach the bottom, then you join me. Before we're sure we can make it, it's best not to risk both of us getting trapped down there."

While he talks, he starts working on tying the ropes to one another, doing two knots so even if one starts to give out, it won't unravel and he won't fall down the rest of the way. Hopefully.

It takes a bit of wiggling and struggling to get both knots to pass through the eye, but once he manages, he officially moves onto the second rope. That done, he lets the group up above know he's been successful with that, then promptly starts descending the rest of the way, the ground looking closer and closer the lower he goes, and the sound of small streams of running water reaching his ears.

[legendary_hands]

He didn't like that thought. The thought of Beverly going down there alone, but she had a point. "Only if it comes to that." He pointed that out with certainty. He just had to have a lot of damn hope that improvised rope extension held. Not that it made him feel any better.

Glancing over at Loki, it was pretty obvious he wasn't too sure about any of this either. Moving closer to the edge, he tried to squint and look down after the duo. He shouldn't get so close. Ground erosion could drop them all to the cavern floor should it cave under the weight.

[followhim]

"Got it." Poe lets Jim take the lead, keeping an eye on him (the best he can, anyway, what with the hanging from a rope) in case he needs any help. He's eager to get down there, but follows his directions to wait until Jim makes it to the bottom — if Jim makes it to the bottom.

After a few minutes, though, his impatience gets the best of him. "How's it going? Find anything yet?"

[dancingmd]

Beverly creeps closer, though not so close as Loki and Leonard. It's obvious Loki is trying to sense what's going on down there, so fo a few minutes she remains silent, giving him the time and space he needs to focus. Eventually, however, her worries get the better of her.

"Can you hear anything?" She whispers to Loki.

[ikols]

"They've attached a second rope."

He has two options to get down there and astral projection isn't the safest while his body is up here, alone with two doctors in the wilderness, so he takes the second and reaches for the edge of the cavern where the ropes are braced on the overhang.

"I'm going to take a closer look."

Between one blink and the next his arm appears to lengthen along with the rest of him, and then there's a green snake in Loki's place. He slithers down the rope, coiling around it as he goes.

"Whoaaa, headspin!"

[winscenario]

Loki's a little too far up for Jim to see him, though he does hear the voice echoing in the cave. He stops for a moment, glancing up. "Loki? How are you climbing down here?"

He doesn't tell him to stop because he has a feeling Loki wouldn't, not to mention he's likely using some sort of magic to be able to climb down like that. Either way, Jim goes back to gliding down the rope, not wanting to slow down or stop now that he's so close to the ground.

His light reflects on the floor, which looks to be only another fifteen or twenty feet down, at most. He picks up his pace, eager and a little less careful now that he knows he's unlikely to get hurt if he falls, and after a few seconds he finally touches the ground. "Made it!" he calls out to Poe first, then grabs his comm device and sends the same message up to the rest of the group, while he unhooks himself from the rope. "I made it to the ground. I'm waiting on Poe to join me next, and we'll set up some lights and look around for a while. We shouldn't all come down here until we're sure there's another way out, or we might all get trapped down here."

[legendary_hands]

The doctor watched, a little impressed by Loki's change and easy way of sliding down the rope. Not that he showed any pity for the 'dizziness' he complained about along the way. At least he could go down and do so easily without disturbing the weight of the rope too much. Well, at least he hoped he wouldn't weigh too much.

Not that it made him feel any better about Jim being down there. And honestly, he hated waiting.

So when he got that comm message, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. When he let it out, he finally answered. "Glad you made it in one piece. Maybe you oughta check around for other ways in and out before we all climb down. Just don't muss nothin' up and cause a cave in."

[followhim]

Poe is kind of like UHHHHH WTF when he sees a snake starting to come down the rope, but Jim's calling out makes him wonder aloud,

"Uh … I'm really hoping Loki is this snake, because otherwise, we might have a problem."

That said, he starts heading down, excited to be back on some kind of ground and not hang out with a snake that may or may not be Loki. "I'm following Jim to the ground now."

[dancingmd]

Blinking in some disbelief, Beverly stars at Loki's snake form. Well, all right then. Why didn't they just send him down first, if he could do that and light his own way? Well, what's done is done now, she guesses.

"You're okay. That's definitely Loki," she reassures Poe.

Then she looks at Leonard. "We might be here a while while we wait for them. Might not be a bad idea to set up camp." More importantly, it'll give them something to do, keep Leonard from worrying too much.

[ikols]

"It's not me, he's coming to eat you. Better move fast!"

Slithering his way down the line, he waits until both men have detached and slides to the ground, tasting the air. His magical lights continue to float overhead, dimmer now with him having shapeshifted but still persistent above the explorers.

"This place is more stale than a Starbucks post-weekend leftovers."

[winscenario]

Jim rolls his eyes when he hears Loki's voice, that alone enough to let him know it's just the god being a little shit as usual. "Very funny, Loki. And completely believable."

He glances up, trying to catch a glimpse of the snake, but he can't see much more than a vague outline, lit up by the faint lights. He works on setting up some flares and beacons around the floor, more and more of the cave revealing itself to them.

"What's a Starbucks?" Jim asks with vague curiosity, then moves over to one of the ropes. "You need help slithering down the rest of the way, or..."

[legendary_hands]

"That is the best idea I've heard all day." Grumbling softly, he really wasn't as sour as he made out to be. It served more as a front to get past the worry and not think about Jim lord knows how many feet under ground in darkness. "Since they made it in one piece, probably best we get that done and just say alert."

Breathing in slowly, he turned his attention back to the comm and addressed the team below. "While you're down there havin' the time of your lives, why don't ya look for another way into the cavern at the same time. Might prove useful."