=> Whimsical Underground Adventure 2000: Kids and Fun

[Green Minuet]

∞ Ephias Sagine

Cops and Robbers
Route: C
Health: 5/5

Ephias listened to each of his team-mates in turn. So far, they all seemed agreeable enough. Voscil, the yellowblood, was exciteable but eager to contribute. Etsali, whom Ephias was already somewhat familiar with, was just as eager and presented her own unique perspective to table. Finally, Zindel, the other redblood, had a cautious, straight-thinking mindset that reminded Ephias a bit of himself. It was a solid group. Sure, everyone came from the lower end of the spectrum, but they each brought different ideas and types of thinking. Hopefully that would allow everyone to utilise their strengths without generating conflict.

Ephias slipped his hands into his pockets, mentally going over their options. No matter how fun Voscil thought they looked, he would rather avoid the stairs until later. They looked precarious and there was no point in someone getting injured if they could help it. The walkway was not a bad idea, but had likely been well traversed. If there was a problem along it, someone would have already noticed. That left the main pipe and the smaller intakes.

When Voscil spoke up again, Ephias turned to her. Her foot tapped against the ground. She was getting impatient. As much as he would have like to weigh every little nuance, he could not afford to debate this forever. They were on a time limit after all. And Vos made that time limit even shorter.

Speaking of... Good grief. There she went, strolling down the hall without waiting for so much as a mumble of agreement. Ephias supposed her gung-ho attitude had its place. Still, would it kill her to wait another minute?

“Etsali brought up a good point about the main pipe.” he said to the others. “We aren't the only ones down here and someone else is bound to look there. Let's investigate the small-smaller intakes. That keeps us on target but hopefully widens our search results. All right?” Then he called to Voscil, who had travelled a good distance in that short time frame, “Voscil, f-find the offshoots! We should split from the main pipeline.”

After confirming that everyone was all right with the decision, Ephias followed Voscil. Wolly trotted after him a short ways, sniffing around and sneezing and then bounded ahead to catch up with the yellowblood.  

[Sypon]

Tamiya didn’t mind the flickering lights. It reminded her a bit of OHC – Civisect City, now – in the old days. With Kabukidad by her side, she commanded these two young bluebloods – one who she had met on a prior occasion. Alexin. They were a decent enough help in the WACKY adventure. She was young then. This adventure would not be like that particular folly. She was ready to leave, and catch whatever unholy perpetrator dared to upset the balance in Chittentown. For Sinter and the rest of Alternia.

It was best they split up – Tamiya had assigned Sinter to watch over two other lowblooded trolls. Outreach, perhaps. She had instructed him lovingly to carry on her messages in her absence, being “woefully unable to mingle with your sand-shitting people”. It was only after that comment that she realized her tongue may have made accidental offense. She clarified that she was aware that lowbloods do not defecate sand. And that it was merely a figure of speech. She made sure that Sinter would let his team know that.

Tamiya scratched Kabukidad between the ears. She had suggested he come. He was very good with children. The station seemed unremarkable, and she was itching to get deeper into the cave. But no sooner had she gotten her bearings than the higher-blooded troll had made a… Rather aggressive suggestion.

Tamiya stood stalk still on the walkway, her painted white face distorting into an aggressive expression. “I see your lusus has failed to teach you some goddamn manners, Miache. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Tamiya Aiguma. Your friend. You will both be collaborating under my capricious and righteous cranknasty care during this expedition so that we may focus on the task at hand. This s**t is not about you. This is about our holy damn jamslithering slosh-like existence on Alternia and the greater goddamn good. Is that something you squirming little pusjesters understand?”

Pusjesters was an appropriate compliment for the children – wigglers, growing up like beautiful moths into the carnival of life. Gorgeous. She tightened her grip around her weapon and stepped forward.

“In any case. Let us go. That way,” she pointed down a different direction, but still following the smaller intakes. “I shall send my father down the way you suggested, however.”

With a sharp whistle, Kabukidad took off alternating on his front and back legs.

(Group 5; name pending! Alexin&Tamiya&Miache!

5/5)  

[thyPOPE]

What was that? Regina Marian...recognized Dictys? Ey thought ey felt a little lightheaded. "I was indeed involved in the earthquake relief efforts; it's fortunate you weren't there to experience it. There were so many looters - it's disgusting what the low-minded can get up to," ey sniffed. Dictys was clearly opinionated on this matter.

Ey took note of the fashionable one's and the little one's names, as well - Klymen, Lorata. They'd be captains alongside Dictys, although of course Dictys would be promoted first. Ey was simply the best, after all. But there was no better time for forming connections with peers than now, while they were still on-planet. Dictys inclined eir head at Lorata. "Interesting is certainly a word that could describe what's been going on lately. Were either of you involved at New Hemisect City?" Ey adjusted Mommydaddy's position wrapped around eir neck carefully, as if to emphasize what ey'd lost in the...eurgh, scuffle.  

[seekingCylem]

Group 3
HP: 5/5

[ Once again Sinter had found himself out in the desert on some kind of royal mission. Honestly he should have been getting paid for his service to the empire at this point. Still… He could hardly complain. He was the one who volunteered, after all. He happened to be one of thousands directly affected by the drought.

Lophie finally arrived from her ride down. Confused by her surroundings, she quickly locked onto Sinter and shuffled up to him. While Sinter knew his lusus was to accompany him, he was still surprised by the sight of her moving around above ground. Lophie seemed similarly confounded by her attempts to walk her angled claws across the bedrock. She burbled miserably and her lure slumped. Sinter gave her a consolatory pat on the nose.

Now that the gang was all here, Sinter turned to his teammates. It had been a while since he’d spent any extended amount of time with fellow lowbloods. It was a little strange, actually. If anything he felt exposed without Tamiya to soak up everyone’s attention. It was almost as though he’d forgotten how to converse with his peers.

…Or maybe he just didn’t know how to converse with these peers. Sinter gave the girl and the boy, an orange and yellowblood respectively, a once-over. The girl looked normal enough, if not a little… er, withdrawn. The boy, however…

Sinter cleared his throat and adjusted his suspenders with a jingle.

“…So… We should be heading out… Yes?”

Sinter gestured with his eyes and head. He was more curious as to what his teammates were going to do than anxious about the mission. Granted, he was anxious about that too. Also about his teammates. ]

 

[T-Kai]

Splitch was squashed and feathers ruffled as they carefully plodded their way over to the trolls. The giant screechbeast filled the space ominously, two heads staring at the two trolls that they were turning their charge over to temporarily. Mum hooted quietly, and Dad kept his beady eyes on the older troll. Older trolls were DANGEROUS, after all.

Alexin remembered Tamiya, but he didn't remember Tamiya being quite so...tall. Or intimidating. She blinked up at Tamiya for a few seconds as she spoke. She was so...so...perfect. Stars almost literally in her eyes, Alexin nodded as Tamiya spoke. Look at that LANGUAGE. So rich with meaning, so carefully crafted. A little crude in places perhaps, but Alexin understood that the other's religion (so noble...) dictated certain practices such as direct speech including what could be misunderstood as crudeness. Thankfully Alexin was well-read enough to know it wasn't crude. Yes. A point in his favour, of course!

Miache....Miache on the other hand Alexin wasn't sure about. The immediate direction would have usually been a point in his favour - decisiveness in a highblood was to be admired. But he had failed to show proper respect : Tamiya was the highestblooded here, and therefore the rightful leader of the expedition.

"Alexin. Tamiya, lovely to see you again. Miache...a pleasure to meet you."

There was the slightest of pauses that suggested that wasn't quite true, but it wasn't long enough to be a protracted insult, either. A clever thing, because if pointed out Alexin could simply dismiss it as Miache's imagination - but the slight was there to be seen, should Miache choose to acknowledge it. Or they could ignore it. Either way, Alexin felt that their displeasure had been noted.

--


Nervit was nervous, there was no way about it. She seen seadwellers on the way in. In fact, she was pretty sure she'd glimpsed none other than the queen. the QUEEN. Maybe she was wrong, though. Hopefully she was wrong. The idea of the queen being around was more than a little unnerving. So she was very quiet as Sinter spoke, though she was glad that she was in a team with other lowbloods - it made her feel very official, and it also meant there were no scary highbloods. On the other hand...a team of lowbloods was awfully expendable. She worried at her bottom lip before responding.

"Yes..does anyone have any idea where we should go? ...I'm Nervit, by the way."  

[amicableAggressor]

"Um.....yeah. Right. Bad stuff, lootin. Causes social unrest and uuhh, all that stuff." Besides, she hadn't managed to pick up anything worthwhile in the chaos, only some junk that she had tossed after. The queens face remained poker-calm and laid back, she was used to lying through her teeth. Besides, she hadn't actually said 'i did not participate in the looting in any way whatsoever', so it wasn't even one. Just a misdirection.

Her eyes then slid down to the small excited seadweller with the cute lusus, and she gave a grin. Stories huh? "Hey there little minnow. Yeah - I guess I got a few stuff I could tell. Though it might all be classified, I'd have to check." Of course it didn't matter if it was, she was queen and when it came down to it, she'd do whatever she damn well wanted. But to keep things running smoothly, you had to know when to shut your yap. Even to a cute little seadweller, who knows who'd they pass the information on to.
better than you - 5/5  

[Gl!tch~]

Reemus had been looking at all the highbloods from afar, his pumpbiscuit beating hard with both excitement and trepidation. He had never seen blue or purple-hued bloods before! Seadwellers were even here! He was half-tempted to flop on his back in submission when any of them so much as glanced his way without actually looking at him, per se.
It was only a jingling from Sinter's bells, which made him c**k his head, that distracted him from his distraction and look at his team mates. Or really stare at the suspender bells before snapping out of it and looking over his crew. There was Nervit, who he already kinda knew, but was excited to be running around with again. Then there was this kid with all the shinies and the red face. Reemus didn't judge, though, or pay it much mind compared to the bells.

From what he could tell, though, his lowerblooded team mates needed to be led somewhere. Being the mustardblood of some prestige compared to orange and red, he supposed that fell on him. "Oh. Uhhh..." He started looking around. There were so many options to take! Couldn't he just pick all of them? Probably not. Petting Gillian's fur for some comfort as he was thrown into leaderly duties, his gaze shot from thing to thing to thing. "Uhhhhh...."

Well, the highest-of-high bloods were going down one way, but the not-as-high-but-still-scary-high bloods were going down another. But the seadwellers likely knew what they were doing more than anybody else, being purpletastic and all. Maybe he could take a page out of their book?
"Hey, mates, let's give the big ol' pipe down there a burl!" He barked almost literally, pointing, already raring to go. Maybe they could do full introductions on the way down.

Group 3 chose Option D!
HP: 5/5  

[Hivestuck]

A) You head down the walkways, which come to an end at a series of chemical basins. Interestingly enough, the machinery is all in working order. A malfunction in this area was certainly not the cause of the water stoppage. Due to the functionality of the machines and the resulting well-lit path, you are able to proceed deeper into the caves and beyond the processing facility with little trouble. The party advances.

B) You hold on for dear life on the rickety stairs and make it to the bottom of the facility, where – as luck would have it – a rest area for working drones has been established. There isn’t much here, but easy access to the deeper cave structures are worth the visit. The party advances.

C) You follow the smaller intakes, which lead away from the main paths. All of the pipes are bone dry, which clues you in quickly that you’ll have to go deeper into the caves to find the answers you seek. You waste no additional energy, but do not proceed as fast as the other groups. The party rests and does not advance.

D) Following the pipe around the corner, you realize that this pipe leads to the source of the raw water collection tank. You proceed… And proceed… And proceed. After a while, the terrain becomes difficult to navigate, and in the shallow cave system the heat begins to wear on the entire party. Only after you reach the huge, empty tank do you realize that the trek was fruitless. You’ll have to backtrack and follow the smaller intakes to the inner caves. The party loses 1 HP.

With no luck finding the source of the drought, or where the plugged pipe is, in the station, it is clear that you will need to dig deeper. The lights of the way-point begin to dim as you proceed, making it necessary to find path markers. What strategy do you use to find your way?

A) There are plenty of colored pipes leading from the surface, and following them will give you a good sense of direction.
B) What few footsteps you can find in the dust from the workers of the plant may lead you somewhere useful.
C) Keep feeling along the walls and descending. The cave floors are steep, but following the beaten path won’t get the group anywhere fast.
D) Use the group’s lusii (or alternatively, simply tracking the signs of Alternian cave fauna) to lead the way. The animals here may have migrated to where the water was, after all.  

[grayseasons]

"No, I wasn't involved with New Hemisect recently." Klymen admitted to Dictys, a frown on her face as she thought back. What had she been doing then? She didn't quite remember. Not that it entirely mattered, she didn't enjoy the city much anyways.

Her attention was drawn to the younger seadweller, Lorata she reminded herself, and she smiled. Stories were always great and she had plenty! Mostly about surfing but those were definitely cool. "Sure do. Mostly about surfing though. Maybe a few about other things." She said, grinning the whole time. She wasn't always the perfect shining example of a seadweller, adventure was always fun after all.

Their failed trip to the pipe, and the return trip back, took her mind off stories for a bit as she realized that this had been fruitless. At least they had a new choice to make and this time, Klymen made the first move, using the walls to go deeper and forward. If they were to look for something new, might as well stray from the beaten path.

Team BETTER THAN YOU has chosen option C.
feat. Lorata Gorgos, Klymen Carcha, Dictys Glauci, Regina Marian

better than you: 4/5 hp
 

[seekingCylem]

Group 3
HP: 4/5
Choice: Option D

[ Sinter was caught off-guard by his teammate--previously distracted by the sights and sounds--to have such an exuberant outburst. He probably should have anticipated some level of devil-may-care attitude, given the outfit, but Sinter still found himself nodding dumbly and following along. Inspecting the main pipe seemed like the most straight-forward way to go about things after all.

Of course, as it turned out, the most obvious course of action was not the source of the problem. Or it would have been fixed already. Sinter face-palmed at the realization. The heat was getting to him.

"Well, now what..." Sinter mumbled, to himself mostly, considering that last detour had left him more than a little skeptical of his teammates.

"Hmm..." His teammates! Sinter did a double-take at his canine companion--or more accurately, his canine companion's canine companion.

"How's your lusus at tracking?" Sinter asked. Lophie might have been able to find a water source, being a desert native and all, but a howlbeast seemed like a better guide as far as seeking out a path trolls would be capable of following. Sinter was already feeling claustrophobic. He didn't want to start digging his own tunnels. ]

 

[LordPocky]

"Ow--I just--No!" the pale raptor issued a set of hisses and clicks at its ward, nipping sharply at the back of his neck before bonking the scaled head against the back of Miache's tiny noggin. "I apologize for my poor manners and allowing my eagerness to see to this task get the better of me...." Was that good enough? Did that make you proud DAD?! He glared scathingly at his lusus but settled into a mild pout. He just wanted to get things over and done with! And he really hadn't wanted to make a mess of his suit or polished black loafers. He'd hate to have polished them only to scuff them moments later. Lucky for him he'd thought ahead, his pockets were stuffed with simply necessities. Shoe polish, fresh combs, a face cloth......one could never know when onen would have to tidy himself up! He couldn't risk being out of his house and away from all ability to preen himself. The idea of getting himself all messed up simply made his skin crawl.

Feathers quite clearly ruffled, Miache settled down for the moment, folding his arms and settling into a firm sulk. He hated when Raptordad was right....which was always! Of course in his huff he paid no heed of any slight implied from any inflexion of the other blueblood. Insults had to be a little more direct to bother him. "Fine!" he huffed, sounding rather childish in his muted tantrum, "Which way would you suggest we go?" he asked, looking at Alexin. Miache had made the first choice (An admittedly poor one) which Tamiya had seconded (In a rather round-about manner) so it made sense to let the.....percieved well-mannered other chose. Subtleties were something Miache hardly bothered with, preferring a far more direct means of communication. In his mind his direct choice hadn't been ill-mannered. Sure he should've introduced himself first (As Raptordad had CLEARLY scolded him for), but he was just eager to get through the labrynth. But he paused again to eye the purpleblood. "Or did you feel particularly partial to a certain route? I can't say I feel inclined to any direction this way or that...." he said, pursing his liips a little. At least this time the options didn't seem to be as possibly filthy as the prior options....

Group 5
HP: 5/5  

[purplerosesbeauty]

Candy Dandies Team HP: 4/5
(Eostre & Aandes)

Choice: C

Okay, with that planned having failed miserably (and wasting a s**t ton of time), Eostre decided it was time to take a bit of a shortcut.
She placed her hand along the edge of the cave and made her descent into the darkness. What's the worst that could happen...?



((I'll fill this in more later))

 

[Sypon]

Aandes was now especially hot and sticky. He shuddered with repulsion as he slicked off his arms of now building sweat. The tension building up had only become more obvious in the long, long walk that wasted both of their precious time and energy. He was already in need of a rest - in fact, he felt some serious signs of heatstroke coming on!

"That was a bust... My apologies," Aandes mumbled. Taking the blame for it would paint him as incompetent. He had to make up for it somehow. Aha!

Fortunately, Aandes remembered his trade. He'd saved some of the (very profitable) water he'd been hocking in his bag, and shooing Koalapops out would be simple as soon as he could wake him up. "Psst... Pops, get outta there..." Aandes whispered sharply. No response -- the koalameleon was latched on firmly and had fallen into a deep sleep. Some guardian.

Aandes pried some of his lusus' fingers off of his back and dug into his pack, searching through fur and goods. Finally, a lukewarm bottle of water rolled onto his fingertips. "Hey! Eostre..." Aandes exclaimed. He slid his hand out of the pack and held it up for her to examine.

"Here - spring water from back home. Won't make us go faster, but should take the edge off!" He smiled and looked up at her hopefully.

The two began their slow descent down into the caves, and Aandes watched every step carefully. Maybe the heat would recede the farther they got from the surface.

Candy Dandies (Eostre/Aandes)
4/5