The Fog of Tahoe, Part 2 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
4/6/2017
Log
What seems like a long night due to the overcast clouds passes without incident, but the wall of fog nearby makes everything seem uneasy. Early the next morning, Smithson is busy preparing breakfast. "Morning everyone. Everyone get a good nights sleep? If we salvage the radio quickly we can make it home before nightfall." He hands out simple tin plates with everyone's portion of food with matching cheap forks and knives to eat with. "Don't loose the utencils."
For Otto it had been quite the restless night indeed. He'd taken a shift in the night watch to try and ease his nerves by doing something productive, spent a lot of the time sharpening his weapons to make himself feel safer, and yet... there was this nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he was NOT prepared for what may lie ahead. There was something unearthly about that mist... something terrifying in a very subtle, but very real way. He bids his fellow agents "Good morning!" and once the breakfast is handed out, he thanks Smithson and digs into his meal, eyes wandering around the group as he chews his food, one forkfull at a time. "There's something off about this... thing." the coyote comments and gestures towards the wall of fog "I'm no meteorologist, but wouldn't this have blown away by now? I get chills just looking at it..." he shudders and flicks the last of his food into his maw, then puts the plate away, utencils included.
Arris begins climbing out of hir tent, yawning and stretching hir arms, the gator presently nude. The night definately felt like a long one, and the gator mildly regretted choosing the shift in the middle of it - being woken once is already unpleasant, and forgetting to bring an inflatable matress made it all the more uncomfortable. "Morning." Arris gives Otto and Smithson a nod as sie walks over to the latter, picking up a plate and beginning to chow down, pausing mid-meal to speak. "Not sure about the fog. Maybe if someone has giant wings or a giant fan or propellor or something we can blow it away."
Cerl thanks Smithson, taking her plate and digging in. Keeping her eyes on the unnatural fog, she devours the food like a typical canid, practically inhaling it. Setting the plate and utensils aside, she starts pacing nervously around the small camp, keeping her eyes on the grey wall and waiting for one of the party capable of doing so to fire up their mini bubbles again, at which time she'll move closer to the fog and try to detect any bio signs inside it.
Cameron had taken last watch, making slow circles about the camp. As others began to awaken he decided to retreated back to his tent, grumbling a little, not quite haviing a full night's rest even when he wasn't on wake and allowed to sleep. Even if he had piled enough blankets on the ground to be really comfortable. Whilst Smithson makes breakfast he takes down his tent, putting it and the blankets away so that they can be ready to leave as soon as they finish eating. Once breakfast is served he settles down onto a rock, a stump or even his pack, what ever is available for a seat so he can eat up. He frowned a moment and nodded. "Yeah, one would think it would have by now." He then glanced to Smithson a moment. "Probably should have asked this sooner, but what sort of strange messages or signals this radio is sending out?" Now digging into his own meal.
Firecracker wakes up early, as usual, and takes the opportunity to explore around the area a bit while most of the others are still asleep. When she smells the food being made, she of course flies right back to the little group, bringing her bubble long with her. "Goooooooood morning peoples!" she chirps out happily to the little group before digging into her meal. "I'm Firecracker! What're your names?" she asks between bites before geturing towards the fog cloud, "And you mean that foggy thing isn't the end of the world?"
Ebreus awakens and climbs out of his tent, "'Mornin' everyone." he says as he stretches. After stretching he dons his armor and partially plated jacket before taking a plate and eating. When Otto comments on the fog he nods in agreement saying, "Yeah, the fog is strange. We may want to have a plan in case it isn't just fog." He eats slowly and methodically not messying his hands or muzzle no matter what food had been prepared.
When the suggestion of dispursing it comes up he comments, "I don't know if Fire's bubble could support it but I could try turning into a large dragon to blow it away." Then when Fire comes into camp he just slowly shakes his head and flashes his FIrecracker plushie, "We're your friends, it isn't the end of the world. There's a radio in there that Zephyr is paying us to get." he says. He considers that for amoment, "Anyone else think it doesn't bode well that Zephyr is paying Agents to do this as opposed to sending grunts?" he asks.
Draken climbs out of her tent, stretching a bit. She takes her tin, and eats like she has not eaten in two days. She looks up as Fire comes back. "Draken, remember?" She turns to Ereus, nodding. "Probably cause of the fog, Ebreus. something isn't right about it and they didn't want to risk their grunts on something so obviously off." She says. She begins packing her tent, getting ready to move whenever smithson decides to.
While breakfast is finishing up, Smithson responds: "I have a short recording of it here on my comm, just in case someone wanted to hear it." He pulls out his comm, pressing a few buttons until the audio log comes up and starts it. It sounds like someone mixed a dial-up internet tone with morse code, set it to dubstep, and then played it back at triple speed. Smithson cringes at the noise before turning it off.
"And that fog doesn't look like it will ever clear up, like something is making it. If you can shut it off, I won't have to worry about driving through the fog to pick up the radio when you find it. Just be sure to keep your comms open."
"Be a hell of a big fan to blow that away, but I too get the feeling that it won't help anyway. Damn thing is thick as pea soup. Once we go in there, we'll probably barely be able to see at all! And me without my flashlight..." Not that a flashlight would help at all anyway. He keeps his ears perked up once the question of the radio transmissions was raised, but doesn't speak up any more, not even once Firecracker arrives with her antics again. The silly pony acted as though she'd forgotten everything from the day before. Who really knew with her any more... The coyote pads himself down to check if he was missing anything, but thankfully his arsenal was still on his person. A light sigh of relief parts from his lips as he passes the time there, his glance wandering over to his mate as she paces around. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, but then again that was not unusual for her. Once Ebreus pops up, Otto wordlessly listens and even chuckles quietly once he reminds Firecracker what was going on. "Grunts?" he tilts his head "Everyone's a grunt to big Z. Pawns in their game for domination, but I see your point." he gets up off his ass and rolls his shoulders "We go in there, get what we need, then get the fuck out, I say."
Arris crosses hir arms as Smithson mentions his plan, the gator's mind clearing of sleep-induced cobwebs. "Aw, we're gonna have to go through that?" Sie glances over to Fire as she wakes. "Firecracker, you think you can fly up and see if you can, uh, see anything from above the mist?" Sie then looks over to Ebreus when he mentions grunts. "Does Zephyr have grunts? Well, either way, when you need something done right, you call the elite. Or, uh, in this case, an Agent." Sie does a brief headcount. "Eight Agents."
Cameron frowned as he listened to the noise. it definitely wasn't random and that wasn't a good thing either. Meant someone had set it up and keeping the power on and running. She knew it sounded like morse code, but had no idea how to even decipher it. "I doubt it will work either, especially if something is making it, it will just blow back in if we try and disperse it." Finishing up he set his plate and utensils aside for the driver to gather up. "Also might be wise for use to use a rope so we don't get seperated in the fog. I doubt we will be able to see more then a few feet at best." He then began to dig around for his rope, the thing long enough to scale small cliffs, so he figured it would work just well for this purpose too. "But yes, driving through that mess may not be the wisest idea, I think we will have to hoof it." The cat standing up and holding the rope. "Can either hold on to it or tie it about our waists."
Firecracker's eyes sparkle at the little plushie version of herself that Ebreus holds up, smiling brightly at her group of friends while she eats. Once she finishes her meal, leaving any meat untouched, she chirps out, "Go find the radio thingy in the fog? Okie dokie lokie then! I'm great at Hide and Seek!" Without waiting for any plans of any sort to be made, the pegasus hops up out of her seat and starts flying towards the fog.
Ebreus cringes when Smithson plays the recording. He nods when Otto explains, "Yeah, but we're the expensive grunts. So Z's got the inclination that they needed to send us if they want success." He nods when Arris does a headcount, checking her numbers for himself scilently. Take takes one of the coils of rope from his pack when Cameron mentions it for sticking together. "We could tie it to each of us. I might be able to rig our comms to be able to track eachother as well." he says. He takes another look at the fog and comments, "Too bad we can't use a spectrum of light the fog isn't visible in."
When Firecracker rushes to the Fog his eyes go wide and he says, "Fire wait. This is Z's special Hide & Seek. We don't win unless whoever finds it can see the entire rest of the team when the find it." He rises from where he had seated himself for his meal and passes his plate and utsencels to Smithson before slowly walking to the fog.
Draken listens silently, showing little reaction to the recording aside from a flinch at the noise, and nodding to the rope idea. She seems to be about to say something to fire when Ebreus speaks up, and watches to see the outcome of his words. She follows him to the fog.
Cerl shakes her head as if to clear it after trying to scan the fog with her biodetection abilities and turns back to the rest of the group. Seeing Firecracker making a beeline straight for the fog, she reaches out and grabs the small pony out of the air. "Hey, FC...how about you wait for the rest of us? You don't want to lose the rest of us in the fog, we might never find our way back out." Walking back over by Otto, she points back at the fog. "I just tried scanning for lifesigns with biodetect...it felt like I was getting a lot of interference or something, like listening to static on a tv. All the data I was getting back was...distorted somehow." She looks at the fog for a long moment. "I wonder...for the edge of the fog to be so well defined, it has to indicate the edge of a bubble. Firecracker, maybe you could stop making your bubble so we can have one person go in with the rope tied around them, and see if they can use any of their abilities."
Smithson waves as everyone starts to get up and move forward on the mission. He stays behind, clearing up the remains of breakfast and securing everyone's stuff for when the get back. "If anything goes wrong, come back. I don't want to lose anyone."
Otto takes a few steps towards the edge of the mist as well. He reaches out to try and touch it, but his attention is drawn away by the commotion behind him. He steps away from the edge just in time to see Cerl catch Firecracker before she could blindly rush into the greyish smog-like vale. He listens carefully as his mate speaks of her findings, nodding slowly, ears perked up as he draws different conclusions. The coyote was not very familiar with nanite matters, his focus was on equipment designed to function under any conditions, and he drew power from the nanites only if need be. As such, he didn't even consider the option that it was the edge of another bubble.
It made little to no difference to the coyote, so once Cerl finishes speaking, he shrugs and looks over to Arris and the others. "You heard the lady. Someone with mutant powers get over here, and bring the rope too. I've got nothing to test that hypothesis, personally... but I'm going in with whoever's gonna step up and be the testing bunny." his glance wanders over to the fog and he mutters something under his breath about being curious. He takes a few steps towards it, standing riiiight at its very edge, and looks straight up, eyeing up the seemingly endless wall of grey. What was it? How would it affect them? He had to know, and so he waited to see who he'd be entering with.
Arris extends two tentacles from either side of hir hips. "Sounds good to me, Cameron. I'll hang onto the rope with my tentacles, should allow for some more leniency when it comes to moving around fast or something." Sie then realises sie forgot to dress hirself before leaving tent. "One sec." Arris gets up from hir seat, walking into hir tent to get hir swimsuit, dress again, and bring hir weapons out of the tent so sie can get going whenever the group is ready. Sie gives the fog one last good look, before walking over to Cameron and holding the rope with a waist tentacle as sie listens to Otto. "Well, if we're gonna do that, then Fire should turn off her bubble so we can make sure our results are correct."
Cameron figures he may as well be the one to go first, he was the smallest of their whole group and he had a few skills he could test as he stepped in as well. His hands tied the rope about his bidsection and thighs, creating an improvised climbing harness. Once it was nice and secure he looked to the others. "Alright, I will go in first if that is alright with everyone. I am the smallest, and likely to draw the least amount of attention. Plus will be the easiest to pull out if things go badly." Looking at everyone to see if they agree before stepping towards the fog, once someone had the other end of his rope that is. One hand touching its surface as if seeing if it was solid. If it wasn't in he would go. The cat already preparing to summon the plates she often used to protect herself in battle as well as using one claw to cut one of her fingertips to make sure the bubble, if it was a bubble, had a maintain life forms program running. Was important to know if that particular feature was running or the nanites were just letting the life forms heal and move on their own.
Firecracker stops abruptly when Ebreus calls out to her, explaining the rules of the game. "Oh! Why didn'tcha tell me that before?" she asks, looking to the fox with a look of excitement on her face as she is held by Cerl. "Are there any other special rules? Do we get snacks? Is there a guy in a clown costume wearing a sombrero and serving chimichangas?!" As she rambles, her bubble doesn't disappear, though it does get considerably smaller in order to keep herself in it while letting those at the edge of the fog make their tests outside of it. "Why're ya all taking so long anyway? Let's go find that thingy!" she cheers out to the group from her pawed imprisonment.
Ebreus walks up to the wall of Fog, stopping two feet from entering the Fog. He scans the fog for motion before beginning to tie the rope around his waist as he looks back at the group, "I can't see into it very far but I've got a lot that'd start workin' again if I entered a Bubble." he says. He hands the rope to Otto. When Cameron mentions going into the fog first he shakes his head, "I don't think our primary medic should be first in. I'm thinking that it should be Arris or myself first or if we're primarily concerned with not drawing attention Cerl first."
In response to Firecracker's rambling he says, "Yes, there are more rules. One of them is all of the rules can't be explained at the same time. So stick close to us and listen so we can explain them as they're relevent." He takes another look into the Fog before looking back to the group, readying himself for whatever they decide.
Draken listens, noding to the rest. seeing as there are so many volunters to head into the fog, she doesn't offer. She sits back and watches, ears pricked and ready to move if she is needed. She listens to Ebreus' statement, and nods.
Cerl pats Firecracker on her head, and sets the little pony on her back. "Why don't you rest your wings, for now, Fire? We might need you to do a lot of flying soon. You can ride on my back for now if you like." She then walks back over to the edge of the fog, next to her mate. "Before anyone steps in, do we have anything we can use to probe the fog, test it to make sure it's not poisonous or cause hallucinations, or anything like that? Cameron?"
To Cameron, the fog definintely feels like a bubble, the claw making a clear cut into the skin of her finger. The scratch doesn't go away though. In fact, it seems to be bleeding a bit more, the finger starting to drip blood in small streams down her hand.
Otto grabs the rope and secures it around his right shoulder, fastening it securely such so it won't untangle and leave him with no guideline to his fellow agents. He sighs lightly and shakes his head, having expected them to have entered the fog already. Safety first? Right? Shooting a glance to his mate, he opens his maw to voice his protests, but decides against it. Rather, he looks over at Cameron and considers what they'll be walking into. With the cut having not mended itself, it made sense that if entering a strange bubble, especially one that produced a fog like that, the results would be nothing like what they experienced in Fairhaven. Otto takes a step forward and leans in, sticking his arm and his head into the mist along with his upper body, his eyes struggle against the dense fog within. He doesn't go any further, though... his lower half remaining outside~
Arris holds up hir bolt-action rifle, peering through the scope into the fog when Cameron enters it and conducts the test. Once Cameron cuts her hand, sie glances up from hir scope briefly to look over at the wound. "That's... odd, for a bubble. Actually, keep your hand in there, Cameron. See what happens when you try to bandage it up, keep it in there for a bit, then bring it back out. Will the cut heal when bandaged, or continue to bleed?"
Cameron frowned as he saw what happened to his cut when it entered the bubble. "Seems the nanites have no commands to make sure we are maintained within the bubble, it also seems to make blood flow and prevent it from cong... scabbing over." Figuring she would simplify it for Firecracker just in case. "If there is any toxins or the like, I have a few powers that will cleanse it from me." With the larger male stepping in with him he gave the yote a small nod before stepping in as well. Though he only took a step in so that he was wholey within the bubble, the cat focusing on using his power to mend his wound as well as bandaging it up just in case. Checking to see if powers worked as well.
Firecracker hops up onto Cerl's head as she is freed, plopping her rump down in her new set as she watches the others at the fog wall. "Booooored!" she announces with a groan as the others carefully test out every little thing at the bubble's edge. She flops down onto her back and starts rolling around on Cerl's head as she waits for the go-ahead.
Ebreus watches as Cameron make a test cut into their finger. He humms and comments, "An unfamiliar anti-coagulent bubble. Yep Z had to send us." He observes Otto and Cameron in the bubble for a few moments before reaching his left arm into the bubble to get a sense of it's effects upon him. He closes and opens his hand several times paying close attention to the sensations for any noticable difference in his touch or kinesthetic senses. After a moment he withdraws his arm and says, "May I see everyone's comms? I want to link them so that we have a failsafe in case rope doesn't work." And procedes to modify any comm unit given to him.
Draken watches all of this quietly, and hands her comm to Ebreus as asked. She stands up and starts pacing, still watching the others. She looks tto Fire, and smiles, but does little else.
Cerl activates her biomonitoring sight, tagging both Cameron and Otto as they test the effects of the fog. Peering at Cameron's stats, she can see the blood being drawn out of the wound faster than normal, as if the fog is sucking it out of the cat. "Cameron...you might want to pull your hand back out of there and get that cut sealed up before we go back in...and I think it would be a REALLY good idea for everyone to be extra careful in there. It looks almost like that fog is sucking the blood out. It's not anti-coagulant...it's vampiric or something."
