sixthiterationlogs | [ MINGLE ] MINING EXPEDITION

WHO: Tony Stark & Co.
WHERE: North West Mountain Range
WHEN: November 5th - 8th
OPEN TO: Open to all
WARNINGS: Language, canon typical violence

The Hike Up/Down

After sending a message out the day before to meet him in the fountain park at dawn (daylight is important) Tony packs up. Supplies secured and a path found mostly by working himself up (not that difficult) and following the blue path only he can see (still weird) Tony guides his modest expedition up a winding way over rivers and to a promising stony outcropping at the base of the mountains before needing a moment to 're-calibrate'. AkA get stressed out as to where to head next for optimal ore extraction. It takes a minute but- again, he's got a lot of anxieties to kick into gear and it should be easy enough to nudge their rag tag little group further up until they find the right spot. Making an easy walk down- well. That's also a trick. Finding a quick path back to the village before they lose the light- marking the way they've come so they can find it the next day? Kind of important.

Digging a Hole

Breaking ground is a matter of staring, trying to think back to what little he knows of geology (not fucking much), and waiting for the anxiety to get to the point where it'll hand him something specific. They need ore, they need a good starting location, and once they manage to pinpoint it? Pickaxes are handed out, a nearby cave explored, and Tony strips down to get to work. Crack stone, haul it out, rinse, repeat. Anything usable gets put in sacks made from stolen sheets to be hauled down- not the best system he's got but they're just getting started. Regular breaks are A thing, canteens of water passed around- he's pretty sure there's a stream somewhere that should help with the 'not dying of thirst' issue in the future.

Encounters With Natives

Somewhere on the hike up, during the dig, or taking a rest on one of the craggy boulders surrounding the cave where they're chipping away at stone, signs of native fauna linger. There's a patchy nest looking thing where one can hear the mewling of peakittens, blue eyed, tiny, and abandoned by the looks of it. Loping about the slopes a few curious mountain elk that bound in at the sign of food, keeping a cautious distance but wandering close should anyone appear friendly. Near the woods, though, just as they wind their way up- or make their way back down at the end of the day? Dust Moths have taken to the air, shimmering wings leaving powder in the air.

Environmental Effects

During the hike up in the predawn there's lying mist clinging to the sides of the mountain in thin curls, swirling in the air as they hike through it. Careful not to inhale too deeply, otherwise you might find yourself a little more honest than you'd like for most of the morning, and that could make the rest of the hike pretty damn awkward. In the caves proper there's stone and ore enough- and a dark, black powder that tastes of licorice and ash. Shadow dust. Maybe the next few swings don't do as much damage- or do any at all. Maybe they picking up stone becomes impossible till you're in the light.

In Too Deep

On the second, maybe the third day all their activity and digging catches some aggressive attention. A pickaxe sunk too deep, cracking through a cave wall and finding a den of snarling, hungry cave wolves that spill through the hole all snapping teeth and snarling claws, bursting out of the tunnels to scatter whoever's dared to come close to their home. A tree felled to mark their path startles a giant boar into charging, bellowing in the night, turning tusk and muscle to clear it's own way through their weary line.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tony says left so Squall goes the other way. It isn't fighting back to back with Cloud against 1000 Heartless, but Tony sounds like he knows what he's doing. He appreciates that, because he can focus on the injured wolf who lunged at him.

The wolf jumps towards Squall's throat; he manages to dodge the teeth and hits the animal's ribcage with the blunt top of the axe. He could hear the wind getting knocked out of the wolf as the animal fell back onto the ground.

"Are there more than two?" Squall asks, looking around. Despite his nickname as the Lone Wolf, he knew wolves traveled in packs.

Center mass, solid hit- something cracks, maybe a rib? But his pick sinks in deep alongside or between two of them on the wolf's torso- when he wrenches his pickax
away it comes back red- the wheezing, wet, wrong sound that twists out of the still snarling beast he hit something vital. Maybe a lung? Fuck if he knows.

Tony squares up, keeping Squall's back covered, head cocking to get a better idea of any incoming wolves- and that is the sound of rock crumbling away, more snarling hounds scraping to force their way through. "Sounds like it-"

It sounded like a lung from where Squall was standing, and he was very familiar with the sounds different animals made when they were dying. That sounded really morbid, but Squall was a mercenary, and that wolf was dying.

Sadly, there were definitely a few more on the way. One was dead, one was unconscious, but that sounded like...two or three?

"Keep running, I'll keep them back," he ordered, and he really hoped Tony listened to him. The adrenaline and stress was starting to kick in, and Squall didn't know what that meant in this world--that he might be granted with extra powers to fend off the immediate situation. But even without that knowledge, he was ready to keep the onslaught back so the rest of the mine could clear.

"Not the best plan. Not the worst either-" But they don't have much choice now, do they? Tony shoves the wounded Wolf out of the way and starts running for the cave entrance- he can call for help or at least keep the path clear until Squall's able to peel off and join them outside. There's no real bottleneck in the mine but- the entrance is narrow enough. That ought to work.

The rock walls, the adrenaline, the smell of blood-

It's a real fucking terrible time to skid sideways into somewhere, somewhen else- he manages to hold onto a thread of the present (no wolves in the caves, at least not literal.)

Good or bad, it was right now the only thing that Squall could think of. He trusted himself with one pick-axe against a couple of wolves. If he were lucky, Tony would clear out and the wolves would see their dead comrades and would hightail it back.

They didn't.

But Squall fearlessly launched himself at the nearest wolf with a swing of the ax, holding it like a sword, although the balance was terrible for that. He glanced back over his shoulder between swings and saw Tony...nowhere. That was a good sign? Squall hoped that was a good sign.

"BULL!" Best close range fighter he could think of that had an actual weapon on hand- the only one he could really call for as he stumbles against a wall-

Only to phase through it. Something in all the dust that got kicked up throughout the day, something's covered him from head to toe and gotten in his lungs- the pickaxe dropped from his fingers awhile ago, leaving him drifting in solid fucking stone.

Which is.

Terrifying.

Squall felt better facing these wolves without Tony there, but one still got a little too close. Used to a much larger, much heavier weapon, he ruined his swing and the wolf bit his ankle.

But instead of flesh and bone, the wolf's teeth cracked and he ran back. Squall looked in shock as his skin had turned rock-hard in the face of the adrenaline of the moment. All over.

What? Had this world given him new powers he didn't know about?

He would asked questions later, though. He lashed out and chased off the wolves before turning towards where Tony had gone. The damage passed, he realized his skin had already reverted back. Weird. "Tony!? The wolves are gone for now!" The last thing Squall had heard, dimly, was the man shouting for Bull, but he didn't see either of them.

It took a moment for him to haul himself back into the cave but- he managed. Barely. "I fell out of the world for a moment."

Or. Something? He pushed his hand against the side of the rock wall and stared as it sank in to the wrist. This was- that dust. Something in the dust? He couldn't think of anything else that would set this off seeing as he hadn't really had anything else on him or around him that would cause this. "Or into it. Can you hear me?"

Fell out of the world? Squall looked openly puzzled, tilting his head. Was that..true? Tony had managed some impossible seeming work to get into the mines. Could he fall out of the world, like Squall just had special skin?

What was happening in this world?

Determined to think about it later, when he could talk to Rinoa, he watched as Tony's hand disappear. "We should move back," he said, smelling something like smoke and candy...licorice? It didn't seem natural, and he thought he was feeling weak.

"Yeah. I uh-" He squints at himself, at the cave beyond, and considers how many more of those things there might be. "Falling back is probably our best bet. Discretion, better part of valor, etc."

Focusing on walking doesn't seem any different than normal. So. Gravity doesn't have any effect? Or does he have to think about it-

Better to not, lest he sink through the ground.

Walking wasn't hard, but his pick-ax was feeling heavier and heavier. He had much better endurance than that, didn't he? He felt pretty confident about that, but he had to keep shifting it, like it was the heaviest thing in the world.

"What is that mist?" he asked, coughing slightly at the feel of it in the air. He wasn't going to stop. He refused to give up, but the weight...

[ MINGLE ] MINING EXPEDITION

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject