midpointsaloon | Round 86: Rescue or Ruin, Part 3

PLAYERS: Bucky Barnes and Jo Harvelle VS. Hajime Aikawa, Taako, and Yoda
LOCATION: Miner Flats
GOAL: Rescue the miners without dying; or, kill everyone.
WARNINGS: Attempted murder, claustrophobia
OTHER: Questions and info available here!

The surface level of Miner Flats is a mess of scaffolding, narrow cart tracks, and piles of rubble, a scattering of tents and shacks near the mine’s entrance. The only real building is the general store, even here in this remote location, but it’s hardly any more impressive than the shacks themselves, and a shed nearby houses a single, overlarge donkey. The overall area is nothing impressive to look at - the real fun is underground.

The mines are a series of tunnels that switch back on each other, turn and twist around, sometimes with rails for a mining cart and sometimes not. The tunnels on the first and second level feed into a single massive central room full of carts, ore, and heavy mining equipment. For all this is ostensibly the stage for a show, the mine does appear operational. Even if, this week, it also appears completely empty.

Moloch Von Zinzer is the only person out on the grounds when Soldat and Jo arrive for their mission in the late afternoon, but there’s no opposite team to worry about. (Yet.) They can gear up, get any advice from the manager of this run-down mine that he’s willing to give, and head in as soon as they’re ready. There are lives at stake, after all. Finding those lives will be a trial and a half, because none of the suggested tunnels on the map below the second level seem to match up with reality, and some of those passages get pretty tight at times.

Von Zinzer is also the only person out on the grounds when Taako, Hajime, and Yoda show up the next day, ready to take out the first team; or at least do their best and try.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With their horses set to graze on what little vegetation there is around here, untacked and settled in for the couple of days Soldat expects this will take, Soldat stands at the entrance to the mine, holding the miner's helm with a light in hand. There's a lantern on their shoulder, too, tied in place with a braided strap.

They glance over at Jo. "Ready?"

Jo takes a deep breath as she mentally rechecks her supplies. She doesn't have a lot of experience with caves, but it can't be that different from a sewer, right?

She knows that's a lie. She's going to keep telling herself that anyway. After serial killer ghosts and living through part of the Apocalypse, what's a cave going to throw at her?

She finally nods, adjusting the lantern she purchased here. She doesn't know if they have everything they need, but it's too late to get anything else.

"Sure. I'm always ready to endanger myself for strangers." It's a half-joking statement said with a shrug.

"Actors. Or machines, maybe. Or maybe criminals, and this is their last chance to commute their sentences." Soldat shakes their head a little. "We won't know until we get down there. Our job is to save them. Preferably without dying, ourselves." They don't know what the other team is doing, or even if the other team is coming here, but it's a risk they're not going to ignore.

They start into the mine, not even putting the helmet on, but instead swinging the lantern on their shoulder around to open the metal shutters on it, providing warm golden light that way. (Warm golden light with a hint of green in one corner.) "Try not to bang anything on this lantern, yeah?" they suggest to Jo.

Jo lets out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding as she shakes her head.

Honestly. This place was messed up, more so than the Apocalypse ever had been. At least when the world is ending things make sense.

"I'm not planning to bang anything on ya, including our light sources."

"I know. Just. Be careful with this one in particular," they say, sounding a little apologetic, leading the way in. There are lights hung at regular intervals in the main tunnels, and in the central processing cave, but they're far apart and the lantern light is necessary. "It came with me from the last place I was kidnapped to."

Jo watches his back as he moves forward.

"The last place?" That doesn't sound encouraging. She doesn't want this to keep happening. They need her.

"Not a very exciting souvenir."

He hasn't told anyone yet what the lantern really is. It's too great of a weakness to share in a place where you are regularly forced to kill other people. But he passes a hand protectively over it, anyway.

"Still rather nothing happened to it," he says. "It wasn't all bad, the last place. This one's worse."

"Sure." As far as Jo is concerned, it's a souvenior and kind of boring.

She was never into antiques. Higher chance of hauntings.

"Did the last place at least have the internet?"

He smiles. "It had a network. With some shared apps. Couldn't really surf or research or shit like that." The smile turns wistful as they turn into the dark, lantern lighting the way. "Had an app with so much music on it. I miss that."

Jo stays quiet for a moment, fondly remembering texts to her mother and other Hunters.

"I miss music too." Even after the Roadhouse had burned and the jukebox had been lost, she had CDs and tapes. The silence here echoed in her head. She didn't like it.

"There's some music here. Not a lot, but some." They hold the lamp higher, taking a turn to the right, following the map Moloch showed them, which they'd dutifully memorized. "When we're done here. I'll show you how to work the library's collection."

Edited (pronouns arg) 2020-10-19 04:09 (UTC)

Records? What did people use before LPs?

Jo follows around the corner, stealing a glance over her shoulder as they move deeper into the mine.

"Thanks. How long do you think this will take us?"

"At least a day to get to the miners, probably more like two to get them all out. Three or four, if there's a trick. It all depends on the other team." The path ahead forks, and they choose the right fork, heading further down.

Jo curses under her breath and trudges after her teammate.

"Have I mentioned that this sucks?" Underground, with a stranger, in some random dimension without CDs or the internet.

Probably run by a demon, or an angel. Who knows?

"I'm not that good at carrying heavy things, by the way."

Round 86: Rescue or Ruin, Part 3

Rescue team!

/soooooooo late

it's fine :D

Re: it's fine :D

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