Eureka Subway, Part 1 - RPLOG

Participants

• Junes
• Narwen
• Pteryx
• Theia
• Ysadora

Date

23/7/2023

Log

(Pteryx) Pteryx tries to walk behind the group. The mutant's brightly coloured shirt contrasted just about everything about this situation, socks and sandals, on his back legs, a pair of rather worn short jeans, he looked to be about as unbattle ready as possible should things go rough. Some small drones surround him, possibly to make up for his own lack of dexterity. Plastered on his face is a growing sense of dread, as he walks along the others going in the same direction. Looking for just about anything to break the ice, he says as loudly as possible, "Uh, every heard of them mutant that lost their left arm and leg, well they're all right now!"

(Theia) Brushing tunnel dust off one rolled-up sleeve of her black leather jacket, Theia hurries down the tunnel with her head bowed, clearly keen to spend as little time as possible in the dirty tunnel. In her haste the feline accidentally nudges the wall of the tunnel on more than one occasion, much to her clear annoyance. Reaching the room she was directed to before any others, she finishes picking bits of rock out of her pale hair and awaits the arrival of three familiar mutants she recognises, one hand resting on her hip just above her holster. "Hey guys! At least I'm not stuck down here all by myself... you here for Elena's notice too?"

(Ysadora) Ysadora picks her way carefully through the mines. The dust in the air has combined with the water vapors hanging around Ysadora to form a patina of grime that coats her clothing and clumps her hair into a matted mess. Every once in a while, she stops to shake the excess off like a dog. "Um... Elena Martin, Elena Martin... Does someone actually have an office down here?" Despite her grimy state, Ysadora's voice and manner are upbeat. "It's cozy enough, but it'd be even better with some wooden walls or something." Sputtering light fills the tunnel as Ysadora raises one hand holding a candle. Another hovers limblessly behind her, loosely grabbing the handle of her scythe.

(Junes) Junes came running in nearly tripping but tails moving to readjust their weight as you see a chimeric skunk look back up with a wave "wow good to see you all! sorry i got caught up a bit" district their unusually open sweater and tights off "any prep we should take or plan?" patting their backpack

(Narwen) Elena's Office in the Mines

It's dirty, it's dusty, it's noisy. The Eureka mines began life as Termite tunnels, and this office sits in a side branch of hard-packed earth. It has a mix of sturdy, industrial furniture that's been dragged down here -- filing cabinets, an ancient battleship-grey steel desk -- and a few unvarnished wooden chairs that look to have been put together on the spot. A fold-up camp bed in steel and canvas, heavily chewed up by nanites, is propped upright against a wall. There are no computers or electronics in sight; the most advanced piece of equipment is probably the stapler.

The air here is cool but a little damp, and room smells of that, of paper, of rust, but mostly of its main occupant: a human female. The earth muffles the noise of the city above, but less so the constant irregular sound of pickaxes striking rock, less-frequent thumps from something heavier -- hammers? some mutant's iron-hard fists? -- and the constant chatter and cackling of the miners.

(Narwen) It was a small adventure just getting here. The entrance to the mines is easy to find -- just follow the sound of pickaxes -- but the inside is literally a warren: old Termite tunnels, dug out and then abandoned, now taken over by workers from the city. An exhausted group of miners, heading out after their shift with cash in their pockets, pointed you in the right direction to get to "the Boss's office". And here you are, shuffled into an appendix of the tunnels that barely fits even this many people plus the battered, industrial furniture.

"Listen, thanks so much for coming. I'm Elena. I run the mine, day to day." She's standing with you, leaning against the desk and running a hand through short-cropped brown hair -- and it's actual hair, not fur. In fact, as far as you can tell, she's entirely human. Not so unusual out here in Eureka, but a strange sight for anyone coming from Fairhaven. She's maybe five-six and lean, boots and denim, wearing a hard-hat like all the other workers you've seen. There're bags under her eyes. "I wasn't sure anyone'd show. I can't pay you, can't offer any reward -- the mine belongs to the city, and the city doesn't give a shit as long as ore's coming out -- but if you can find Linda I'll buy you a drink or six." She breathes in and out, organising her thoughts.

"Linda's from Third Shift. Doug here's the shift lead," she says, gesturing to the other new face, some kind of human-rodent mix, taller and a lot heavier, wearing orange coveralls. "The missing worker's named Linda McKee. She's a bit shorter than me, mostly human but got a bit of coyote in her. Red-brown hair, tanned. Tail. She would've been wearing coveralls -- grey, right, Doug? -- and boots plus a helmet and lamp. She's been gone a day and a half now. Everyone's supposed to take spare water with them, but if she didn't, or if she lost it, and she's stuck somewhere, she may not have a lot of time. We already searched all the active parts of the mine, plus the tunnels we've worked out. Spent a whole shift on that, and I can already hear the Council typing up angry notes about the drop in output. There's no cave-ins, no flooding, and she's not asleep in a storeroom somewhere. But," she continues, taking a breath, "there's the old tunnels, all the mess the Termites dug out and whatever that leads to. We don't go down there, because -- well, because we're not idiots, basically. I took a look at the entrance to the upper part last night, didn't see anything, but I'm not sending my guys in there and losing a whole crew. Needs someone who can actually handle themselves." She smiles wanly. "That's you, I hope."

(Pteryx) Pteryx stares with curiosity, human!? Pure human!? Though he tries to catch himself from the moment. The skunk beast tries to get up on two legs, reaching out for mayhaps a handshake... Showing off 4 arms before he crashes back to all fours... "Dag nabbit... Howdy huma... I mean Elena, thanks fer them physical description on the missin, any er, unusual behavior frum em as of late too?" Lookin 'round the place, this... did not look too safe as a working condition, but them workers seemed to know what they're doin.... "Oh right, howdy, names' Pteryx and if we find yer missin, also a human? We can fix em up in too shakes of a lambs tail! Or at least get 'em stable enough fer sendin ta a hospital..."

(Theia) The snow leopardess raises an eyebrow at that last part of Elena's explanation. "So, you won't go into those old tunnels because you're not idiots... but *we* are idiots for even considering it? How does that work, then?" Theia lets out a long sigh, before unfolding her arms, both her expression and her voice softening. "Listen. I'm sorry about your miner. We can go look for her. And as you were upfront about it, we can do it for no pay too... we just need to know what we're getting into. What's down in those tunnels that's gotten you so concerned?" After waiting for Elena's response, the feline nods thoughtfully. She turns to the rest of the group to see if they're happy, before continuing. "And while I get that you can't pay us... salvage rules apply here instead? If we find something of value down there, it's ours if we can carry it out and we get a cut if we can't? You're asking us to risk ourselves, after all!"

(Ysadora) Ysadora waves with a free hand. "Ysadora here! I wear many hats, but I work with the Embassy sometimes so that's probably the closest official business I can claim this time. Hey Theia. Pteryx. Junes. We should be able to handle this, right? What's down there in the 'old tunnels' that's a match for a buncha veterans like us?" After slapping Pteryx heartily on the back, she glances at Elena briefly but doesn't actually wait for an answer. "Do you have any other information, or uh...something Linda might have worn?" Realizing how this sounds, Ysadora raises a couple hands with palms out. "Not like, anything sexual, but maybe one of the others can get a whiff of her scent to help track her down.

(Junes) Junes nodded to ysadora before giving a quick hand raise to elena and doug "junes! and yeah i wouldn't mind going in after her but she has a point" looking to the snow leopardess and then surprised at pteryx "i thought you saw other humans around before? huh" brushing at their okami head and looking down at their currently different form, primarily skunk but waving into view are the familiar nine kitsune tails with a range of colors and utility "any natural dangers like structure and gas leaks? oh and" pulling a small compass out of their bag curiously to look "any directions or things she said before heading down?"

(Narwen) "I try to run a tight ship, but we're working with manual tools and the nanites chew everything up. It's as safe as we can make it, and we make it as safe as we can with what we got, but we're on hand-me-downs here," Elena says, starting to lean forward, then sinks back and waves a hand. "Sorry, sorry. Not your fault. The old tunnels're what the Termites dug out. They're not shored up, and-- well, I can't tell you exactly, but I'm pretty damn sure there're ferals down there. Big bugs, not sure what else. We're tough but we're not soldiers." The question about salvage seems to faze her. "The mine belongs to the city, if you pull ore out you gotta turn it in -- but I guess if you find other valuables, that's none of my business. Can't say I expect you to, though. Doug, you want to tell them about the shift?"

Doug reminds you a bit of a beaver, though he's something different, without that wide, flat tail, and he's only partly infected: one arm, his legs -- which are stumpy in proportion to the rest of him and end in blunt-clawed paws, no boots -- plus part of his face and one ear sticking out from the hard hat. Maybe his general body shape too, unless he's just naturally round. "She clocked on. I saw her from time to time working the face. Don't remember seeing her towards the end of the shift, but people work different parts, or take breaks, or punch out early. Sometimes they punch in and plain forget to punch out. It happens." He looks away for a moment and sighs through his nose, making a whistling noise. "Mostly happens to her. She's been distracted recently. So it took a while to realise she was gone, then a while to check she wasn't in any of the places she's supposed to be, then a while more to send runners to make sure she wasn't just in a bar, drunk off her ass. I was sure she'd just be in someone else's bed and show up the next day like nothing'd happened. Was all set to chew her out. But she never showed." He shakes his head. "She sometimes missed a shift, but I never knew her to miss a payday." Ysadora's question comes back to him. "Should be a change of clothes in her locker. Maybe more, couldn't say."

(Pteryx) Pteryx wings puff out on Ysadora's slap, "Eek, gotta couple frayed nerves 'round these parts... Red-brown hair, tanned, coyote tail, standard grey miner's uniform..." His head shivers along with his drones, a kind of headset with a large antenna on his left ear has its emblazoned Z glow a bright green. "Ugh, it ain't nano magic doohickey stuff but them brain tech still tingles... Drones should be set ta focus on folk matchin them description!" Trying to whisper to Junes, he mentions, "They still ain't too common..."

As Elena's description of what may lie ahead of the group, Pteryx lets out a sudden loud laugh, with no joy in it, only nervousness... "B--bugs ey?" A shiver cralws through his whole system. Taking whatever he could get from the... rather haphazardly mutated beaver morph? the only thing he could really get out of was... "Distracted?" A histry of alchohol use was moot in the age of nanites, so there wasn't much he could think ado with such information. "Well sounds like itsa good think ya had a search earlier than later! More likely ta find folk that way!"

(Theia) Nodding along to Elena's words, Theia seems satisfied with the answers she received. Well, most of them. "Bugs... are not fun. But that can't be helped I guess, can it? Lets try not to waste too much time down there..." The feline turns around to Junes, in a somewhat different form to the last time they met. "Heya, Junes... how's your sense of smell in that form? Not sure if your, uh, 'changes' have made that better or worse. Might be worth a try?"

(Ysadora) Ysadora nods, then places a hand on her forehead to stop it from rolling off her shoulders. "We'll get started then, unless you've got more you think might be helpful. Which way's Linda's locker?"

(Junes) Junes shrugs "always can track in whatever form... usually anyways im used to being mixed up but yeah i can track just fine, hmm if we know what bugs are here hopefully we could defend against em better but for now those clothes should definitely help with finding her so to the lockers!"