DUNGEON LOG - TELOVIA MINES

[phantasmods]

The day dawns bright and early - the same as most every expedition. The only difference is that you'll need to take the teleportation pad to Lodestone as a starting point - the gliders and drones are already there. There's clouds on the horizon, though, so if you're going to take a glider and go, you'd better get going.

There's some new additions, though, to the usual group of androids seeing you off. Tau is checking over the drones ready to carry those who can't or won't use the gliders, and Muon is practicing opening and collapsing the wings of a glider with bright yellow sails. She grins at anyone who approaches, shooting them a thumbs up.

"Don't worry about getting lost or falling behind! As long as Tau's here, they'll keep us all together."

And with that bit of bright cheer, it's off towards the mountains you go...

----

From the air, the remains of the mining town are almost impossible to tell from any other part of the forest. The trees - especially the old ones - are much thinner, and that's really the only sign of what's below.

But Muon's bright yellow glider, leading the way, dips down into the treeline before landing in an open space, and anyone who isn't paying enough attention to follow will feel their glider being herded in the same direction by Tau's power - control not outright taken, but more of a nudge, like, hey buddy it's this way. The group lands just beyond the border of the Fissure - a tiny stable spot in whatever's left of this world.

And a good thing, too, because landing in the Fissure itself could prove quite difficult...

Comments

???

[phantasmods]

Not long after the expedition lands - perhaps even before anyone has gotten through the strangeness of their missing senses enough to place a stabilizer - there's a feeling like a ripple. Anyone with magical or supernatural senses will be able to tell that something has happened, a feeling like the wind blowing the hair on their arms upright all at once and then vanishing again. Those with powers specifically linked to reading the minds or emotions of others will feel it as a shock of alarm, even fear, before it passes. Only a handful will have any more idea what happened than that, though.

Ruto will feel something like the onset of an Echo vision, except that what she gets is disjointed and painful, not only the headache that results (and it is a severe headache) but the images themselves. If they can even be called that - whatever it is that she's echoing off doesn't possess the framework of a human set of senses, so there's mostly just the sensation of something critical and deep being riptorntaken away.

Goro will also receive a splitting headache for his trouble, primarily composed of psychic backlash. The feeling of brokenness is present, like a rough, nasty wound to the soul that hasn't been stitched up or healed.

Phi will be escaping largely without a headache - instead, she will get the feeling of weight, of knowing that for whatever flavor of magic there is in this world, it is all weighted down towards a center point, like a bowling ball in a sheet. Exactly where that center is is impossible to determine, but being inside the Fissure is closer to it than being outside.

And as for Kurama and Jailbreak, the ringleaders of this little experiment...

CLOSED TO KURAMA AND JAIL

[thefragment]

[There are eyes on you.

Not literal eyes, but the sense of eyes, being watched by something pursued, afraid, distrusting. Why are you here? What do you want? Haven't you hurt ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉ enough?

That's the impression that the contact gives off. Whatever the entity is, it's scared and hurting... But at least for now, you've established contact.

What do you do?]

BASE CAMP

[phantasmods]

Base camp, this time, is established near the entrance to the mines - just far enough in that no one will get rained on. Though the area is initially unstable, stabilizers are quickly deployed in the general vicinity. Tau and Muon can be found here, if you'd like to speak to them; Mu might also, for her part, approach you, a bundle of friendly energy in a bright yellow scarf. It's not as well set-up as the base camp in Incendia, but it's a secure enough place to sleep through the night, recover your senses (and from the loss of them), and generally take a bit of a load off.

[fifthreplacement]

[With the base camp being the only place to actually have his balance back, Sync spends quite a bit of time just...getting used to that again. He doesn't want to get used to not having it and trying to over-compensate for it when he won't need to later.

So it's not unusual to find him doing some simple stretches and training exercises away from everyone, small ones as to not disturb anything.

Alternatively, one can also spot him in the 'corner' he's claimed as his own, looking over some of the crystals he's pilfered from the mine. There's a large earth and a few smaller ones, all stacked together. Carefully separated (he's seen how these things explode) are at least one crystal of each element that he could find, two of water. He can be found sitting down and examining them one by one now and then, particularly the air one]

loss: sight

[coagmentatio]

???


[ It's bad enough that Aiden can't see, but that feeling that something bad just happened is enough to have him suddenly going still. He's quiet, confused, and... he feels a strong urge to contact his friends. Thus him sending out a brief message to all of them (whichever very closest CR aren't with him), with the help of someone trusted, asking if they're okay. For whoever is with him, he's going to be muttering to himself: ]

What the hell was that...?



unsorted crystals
(cw: some blood)


[ One of the most dangerous problems with not being able to see, is not being able to avoid something that could potentially kill the person.

In this particular case, Aiden has encountered the danger of those unsorted crystals - in the form of accidentally knocking over a very small pile of them. And, on the one hand, it's a great thing he's durable. On the other? That still fucking hurts, and he's very definitely letting out a hiss of pain once the explosion is over. He's not grievously wounded, but he is very definitely bleeding from his arms and hands. There's a small scratch on his face, too, though that's not a remote concern of his.

What is concerning is the fact that he can't see the state of the person with him... He manages to keep his voice calm enough as he turns towards them. ]

Are you okay?



brilliant cavern / leaf storm

[ A good thing about being able to sense intentions, is knowing that the things within the whirlwind aren't out to hurt him. He's curious about them, too - not curious enough to reach out - in fact, he remains perfectly still when they swirl around him.

That is, until a leaf brushes the side of his neck, resulting in him letting out a soft chuckle.

It's not too long after that, he's exploring a little further inside, alongside one of his stubborn and trusted companions. He's definitely adjusted by this point, to the whole... not being able to see thing, which had really just required him to shift back to the mindset he required during his training days.

Of course, that doesn't mean he won't come to an abrupt stop, suddenly (namely when he's passing by some plants that might look, in the case of those who can see, very strange to some)... ]

That smell...

???

[promittere]

[The Fissure, like all the rest, seems to be more than they bargained for. There's something that's happening, but Ignis hasn't picked up on it just yet.

Which is perhaps the worst thing. He wouldn't want to be blindsided, but it seems like he's safe for now.]

Everything alright?

[Probably not, considering.]

Loss: balance

[fifthreplacement]

A - Animate tools

[After finding out that the Fissure effect here really sucks, trying to get around the animate tools is more of a pain that it's worth. He's already sporting one injury from a pickaxe that took offence to him earlier, and at this point, Sync is done with them when he comes across another bunch that are in his path - and maybe yours too]

I'd stay back if I were you.

[And after that comment, a purple glyph appears under Sync's feet. A few seconds later, a rather large block of ice appears in the air over him and throws itself at the tools, crushing them against the wall they were working at. Hopefully you paid attention to his warning.

After his cast is done, Sync walks over to where the now-broken tools are, one hand on the wall and leaning on it heavily as he does] These things are a menace.

B - Flip flop

[It's. Very obvious what's going on when he walks into the sub-Fissure. Sync is one of the lucky ones who still has his sight, after all]

...I'm not sure I like the idea of this place any better in blinding amounts of white. The darkness at least didn't look as wrong.

[Squint. This is going to be irritating]

C - The Brilliant Cavern

[The cavern is unusual to say the least, and Sync finds that he honestly prefers it to the rest of the mine. It's at least not as closed in feeling as the darkness of the mines]

Why can't the rest of the place be like this?

D - Leaf-storm

[Later on, one of the odd wind elemental creatures has found him, and Sync...honestly doesn't really mind. He has the sense to close his eyes, because the small crystal bits the leaf-storm has picked up don't need to end up in his eyes, please and thank you, but the wind around him is nice.

Though] You know, if you're going to keep that up, I'm not going to be able to move anywhere.

[Wind plus no balance is not the best of combinations. But it's also okay, he's going to open his eyes carefully and try to sit down before he falls over. Once he has, he's going to examine the wind crystal at the centre of the creature with curiosity]

flip flop

[beguiledcard]

[ Those words get a sort of scrunched up expression - the sort from a person who's silently seconding what they just heard. There's even a nod to go with it.

Akira's going to be typing up a quick message, and then showing it: ]

It looks like something out of a bad dream.

he's blind guys

[founderinglight]

Arrival; closed to Church

[It's always the one thing you aren't prepared for, isn't it?

When he steps into the Fissure and everything goes dark, Izunia doesn't have the capacity for rational thought. He doesn't have the ability to think even enough to call for Astolfo or Jetshard or anyone who can help.

He just crumples, knees into the plants, and presses his hands into his face, hyperventilating and irrational. And around him are an increasing number of orbs of light, as many and as bright as he can manifest, even in the daylight, because, because - ]

Later - around town, featuring seeing-eye Servant riderofcharlemagne

[Even knowing that the darkness around him isn't real, Izunia still doesn't venture far from the initially stabilized part of the town. He keeps a hand on Astolfo always, arm-in-arm or hand-on-shoulder - reassuring himself as well as keeping his partner from overbalancing. Really, most of the time, Izunia is practically clinging for dear life.

It's still not great, however, as the floating orbs of light that remain over their heads - Izunia's security, Izunia's insecurity - will attest. Even if they're not really doing anything in the light of day (even the most oppressively grey stormclouds never hid the sun enough to let daemons come out, he knows this), it's better to have them there.

And if there's a sound that doesn't get identified as belonging to one of their companions, well, exploding balls of light magic are enough to ward most creatures away.]

Mines, day 2 and on

[Once base camp is established, Izunia rarely leaves it - but he does try, for an hour or two each day, to venture beyond the safety of the stabilized areas. It's sometimes with Astolfo, but sometimes not, and in the latter case he's very obviously still jumpy, two or three orbs of light floating around him at all times. (At least it's that and not the glowing weapons.)

You can mostly catch him, very carefully making his way through the sorting areas around base camp, usually only venturing far enough to find a decent place to put a stabilizer before turning back - but he's determined to try, if nothing else.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Uhhhhhhh- [is what he WOULD say if he could make mouth sounds with his mouth hole. Christ, they haven't even gotten into the mine yet and something's happening?

Church carefully dons his helmet. The HUD isn't as detailed as it used to be, just a lot of basics, but still, nothing indicates that there's any actual danger. No noxious, toxic chemicals in the air. No eerie noises. No electromagnetic waves.

Just Izunia freaking out.

Hm.

That's new.

Well, Astolfo's not around yet, and he's not gonna make Ardyn deal with it because fuck that. So he makes his way over, at first weaving through the orbs--shit they're so fucking bright he has to shield his eyes, even if the visor does what it can to compensate--to just knocking them out of the way. And then there's Izunia. Who he nudges.]

loss: balance

[riderofcharlemagne]

arrival

[As with every Fissure, Astolfo sets off into it with unbridled enthusiasm and energy, excited for all the wonder and adventure it might bring. As soon as a foot lands within the threshold, so too does the rest of Astolfo's body, face-down into the ground.

That's fine, he's got this, how many times has he fallen on his face anyway? He pushes himself up, but as he does so something feels off, and he finds himself wobbling right back to the ground.

He, uh, might need a little help.]

main tunnels

[Once he has managed to stand up long enough to move to some degree of success, Astolfo sets off into the mines. He's stumbling and tripping all the way- and if you can't see him, you can certainly hear his yelps as he goes down.

He tries his best to avoid any of environmental hazards but...even A+ rank luck can fail sometimes.]

flip-flop

[The sheer brightness of the area takes some time to adjust to, but once he's adjusted the whole thing is rather exciting to Astolfo. He makes his clumsy way around, admiring the bizarre-ness of the place.

Inevitably, he falls over. What catches him by surprise, though, is his shadow against the wall of the mine, standing proud, waving down to him.]

What? Hey-!

[Astolfo gets up, it flops down. He falls over, it shows off how good it is at standing.

Those who can still hear might be able to pick up the sounds of a very one-sided argument going on.]

main tunnels

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai looks over, having apparently sustained more than a few scratches and bumps herself.]

Are you okay.

[She focuses on the ground to make sure her next step doesn't send her tripping over again.]

loss: touch

[nojohnyouare]

[town]

[Mai stops as soon as she steps into the Fissure, takes a few more steps, and frowns. She kneels down to touch the ground and, uh, nothing. What the heck. After gathering what the Fissure effect is, though, she'll get walking with a purpose toward the mines... Except when you can't feel anything, adjusting your gait as you walk is not the simple, automatic thing you might think, and Mai trips and falls face first.]

Oh.

[At least it doesn't hurt any.]

[sorting zone]

[Mai takes a look around, carefully inspecting the mine carts and tracks. They seem to look good, at least this far out, so she nods and then goes to check out the to-sort pile. Maybe if she carefully picks up a crystal...

Fun fact. When you have no sense of touch, you can't really tell how heavy something is. Mai ends up accidentally flinging a magic crystal across the room, possibly into a wall or ceiling, possibly into you.]

...

[leaf storm]

[Mai is barely paying attention to the oversized dust devil, but she does try to pet it before remembering that she can't feel anyway. So she just kind of stands there letting it fly all over around her.]

What are you. ...Alive? I think.

town

[daughterofthemark]

[With a look of concern, Arianna wordlessly extends a hand to Mai to help her up. Wordlessly, but she does move her mouth around a bit for some reason.]

Loss: Sight

[moarlazersplz]

???

[The flight from Incendia had actually been rather enjoyable, as Ruto had finally gotten a chance to tack Simi up in her full armor again and take her for a long flight. They'd managed some limited workouts around the Station, but only a bit, as Ruto hadn't wanted to go too far just yet. And so while everyone else was getting settled in the gliders and drones - or with their own wings, as she saw in the case of a few of them - she checked her bird's harness one last time before swinging up into the saddle and launching into the air.

Arriving at the Fissure itself is something of a shock after that lovely flight together. Simi lands outside of the Fissure and Ruto stays on the bird's back as they cross over the boundary - they'd arrived that way, and she's not changing that. It at least keeps her from falling over as her world suddenly and dramatically goes dark, all sight vanishing in an instant.]

What the-!

[Even as her hands tighten around the chocobo's reins in shock and anxiety, she feels her Echo starting to suck her inward. But...it's twisted, not right, even stranger and harder-hitting than Izunia's ancient memory, and with a wordless cry of pain and shock Ruto's grip on the reins fails and she slides from the saddle, dropping toward the ground in a limp heap of pain.

Will someone find her there, or even catch her? And will that someone also be able to deal with a frantically protective battle-chocobo worried about her mistress' safety?]


Grief Weed
Possible cw: blood, battle, death

[Because the whatever-it-was on arriving wasn't enough, once Ruto is finally back up and moving she's trying to figure out how best to actually get around now that she's blind. Her first thought is to summon one of her Carbuncles - Emerald is her first choice, as usual - but the little Summon seems to be just as blind as she is, stumbling around (and often into a few walls) before just backing up blindly and haphazardly like a cat with a box on its head. Ruto tries to catch it and pull it to her chest, maybe to dismiss it and try again with Topaz instead because she can sense a surfeit of Earth server here. Instead, as she stumbles after the Carbuncle, her foot catches in one of the unseen strands of weeds, and she staggers before falling full-length into the plants.

And the grief hits her. Everything that she's tried to repress, everything that she's ignored, everything that she even thought that she'd managed to let go of in the process of her journeys of remembrance - it all hits her at once. Thancred, Moenbryda, the dinner, thinking herself the last of all the Scions, the exile, Haurchefant, Minfilia, the Warriors of Darkness, Baelsar's Wall and Papalymo, Rhalgr's Reach, Gosetsu, Conrad, even Yotsuyu... All of that and more pours in, paralyzes her and chokes her breath in her throat, letting only broken half-sobs escape as tears drip from widened, blinded eyes. She can barely make a sound as she lies there weeping, dark clothes in the dark vines of the weeds, with a glowing and blinded Carbuncle still staggering in confused circles.]


Flip-Flop (After Day 1)

[By this point the Miqo'te has at least worked out that her Topaz Carbuncle is her best choice for navigating beyond the stabilized areas, with the Earth aether of its makeup allowing it at least a rudimentary sense of where it's going. Still, she's also determined to have someone else along with her now, preferably someone with sight who can keep her from stumbling into dangers that have nothing to do with rocks. When they step into the Sub-Fissure, her ears start twitching rapidly back-and-forth, head turning to try and track down what had suddenly just changed.]

What just happened? Wasn't...wasn't that sound over...there?

[And she points in the complete opposite direction.]


The Brilliant Cavern (After Day 1)

[The smell in this cavern is unlike anywhere else in the mines, and Ruto heads for it almost unerringly once she gets a whiff of it. Her sharp Moon Keeper nose leads her straight to the source, Simi happily trotting behind, and she doesn't even care when she accidentally checks a shoulder against the edge of the entrance to the cave. The beautiful smell of plants is almost overwhelming, especially when she scents...]

Nymia Lillies?

???

[fifthreplacement]

[He isn't there to catch her, not with how horrible his balance has suddenly become, but Sync is close enough by to see Ruto go down. So he walks over and eyes Simi carefully]

I know you're probably really nervous about letting people close right now, but I'm not here to hurt anyone. Someone needs to make sure she hasn't hit her head or anything though.

[His voice is calm, and being short is helpful when generally the idea is to be lower than whatever you're facing. Simi is taller than him by default. He keeps his posture non-threatening, eyes on Ruto so the bird hopefully doesn't think of him as challenging it. He's not sure how smart a chocobo is, compared to Arietta's beasts, but maybe he can get through to it and make sure Ruto hasn't gotten hurt by the fall]

Loss: Taste and voice

[redmeguca]

Arrival:

[Almost as soon as they arrive, Kyoko bites into an apple. The apple almost falls out of her hand as a shocked expression covers her face. She makes a few choking sounds before the nearest people hear her voice in their minds.]

{I didn't taste anything... and I can't speak either.}

Main Tunnels:

[Kyoko is going around using her magic to make the mine a bit safer to be in. Rocks are held back by barriers, cave-ins are cleared, that sort of thing. If anyone got caught in a cave-in, they might see a spinning spear drill out of the rocks blocking their escape.]

Flip Flop:

[Kyoko seems to be hardly bothered at all by the subfissure's effect, but she is keeping a careful eye on her shadow. Her shadow which seems to be wearing armor and waving a sword and shield around.]

{Ha ha, very funny. Whatever, as long as it doesn't attack me, it can do whatever it wants.}

Brilliant Cavern

[When Kyoko enters the cavern, her eyes widen in awe. She looks around a bit and takes in a deep breath.]

{I don't think I've ever seen anything like this! I should see which of these make good tea, just in case Mami-senpai shows up one day.}

[And she's off, admiring the flowers and taking samples of the plants. It's a bit like watching a kid in a candy store.]

entrance

[plentyfriendly]

[Phi is accustomed to other people's thoughts in her mind, but usually they're hers.]

Things are already going worse than last time, then.

loss: speech

[anarchia]

town

[It takes Carnivac a while to realize just what he's missing as he enters the fissure, not being the most talkative around. It's not until he sees the others reacting that he tries to speak, and nothing comes out.

Great.

He shifts into his robot form for now, setting off to explore the ruins of the town. Nature's reclamation of this area does something to soften the blow of the destruction. He takes some time to investigate, finding his way to the teleportation port.

Unfortunately, being so large in this form, it's harder to know where he's stepping. He tramples one of the grief weeds, and, silently, he falls to his knees, digging his claws into the ground as it all hits him. Bodies, comrades, friends.

Unable to voice it, he can only choke on his cries, staring into nothing.]

main tunnels

[With what fun there is outside, Carnivac decides to stick to the mines for the rest of the exploration. He stalks the tunnels in wolf form, with a ghostly silence. Though he can't say anything, if he sees someone struggling with their sensory loss, or appearing to be lost, he paces over to offer some help.]

sorting area

[Coming across this area, Carnivac throws a curious gaze towards the crystals in their piles, but his eyes wander towards the carts and their tracks.

Perhaps if he pushed one...

No, that's silly. It'd be wiser to just walk down the tracks himself, to avoid sudden environmental hazards.

But, again, he looks to the carts...if they're there, it'd be a shame to not use them, perhaps...]

tunnel

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai nods to Carnivac when she sees him. She looks pretty banged up, but doesn't seem to mind.]

Have you seen a sign of them?

Loss: pain

[fistsofchange]

-1: Somewhere in the mines-

Lin had been nervous when she'd realized that people were losing stuff, but when she arrived at the fissure she felt...just fine. Pretty good actually. Nothing felt like it was missing, and the mild ache from the glider harness she'd had had just faded away to nothing.

It wasn't until she stubbed her toe on an uneven part of the ground that she noticed what was wrong. It was a bad stub, but Lin didn't cry out or wince or anything. She just kind of looked confused and glanced down to see why her leg had stopped. When she saw that she'd hit something hard enough that one of her toes was actually bleeding, but she didn't feel any pain, she grew concerned.

"This might be a problem..."

-2: The Brilliant Cavern-

"Hello!"

The voice came from directly overhead. Looking up would reveal Lin sitting in a tree, kicking her bandaged feet back and forth. The Leaf-storms had investigated, but Lin already had something of an affinity with wind and had more or less made friends with them, or at least gotten them to leave her along long enough to eat a packed lunch from her bag, which is what she was now doing.

"Nice change after all those gloomy caves, isn't it? Don't worry about the whirl-winds. I don't think they mean any harm."

-3: Mining tools, several days in-

Lin could not feel fatigue right now, as that was a pain of sorts. So after around thirty hours of wandering the mines, she still FELT okay but her thinking was getting a little loopy. She was watching a swarm of mining tools going about their business and giggling quietly.

"Hee...they're like...bees. All working together. Buzz buzz buzz..."

She took one step towards them and just kind of fell over in a heap. She lay there on the ground, not moving. If you got close enough, you'd be able to hear her snoring softly.

2

[nojohnyouare]

[Mai likewise looks pretty banged up as she turns her head up to Lin.]

Like animals. Sort of. But a magical phenomenon.

loss: hunger/fullness

[plentyfriendly]

Heavy and fleeting

[Just because she can't find the center doesn't mean she's not going to try anyway - some sense she might not otherwise have had got pulled on, and even if the sensation lasted only a few moments she just needs to try to remember.

At least, that's the idea, as she wanders the tunnels the entire first day trying to chase that feeling.]

Fractal sorrow

[Phi brushes against the vines by accident, and more or less collapses into a quivering mess immediately.

That's the tricky bit about being blessed with SHIFT: you can lose people that are very important to you multiple times, as everything comes back and forth.]

Underground garden

[It's calm here.

She missed this the first few days, though she's wary that any of these plants could be poisonous on contact, choosing to relax in one of the few spots of bare rock in the cavern and let the wind flow over and around her.]

Mixture of light

[She frequently comes back to these collection rooms.

These crystals, which she still doesn't quite understand, will probably be important to her study of this - though some of them carry a weight that's not quite so specific as the one from the first day.

She's very careful - enough explosions have happened around her that she doesn't want to be the cause of one - grabbing some for herself.]

garden

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church actually really likes this part of the mines. It's nice. The flowers are cool, the trees range from normal to baby teeny tiny, and the wind doesn't bother him. It's actually kinda playful, really. Thankfully his armor keeps anything that might hit him from actually doing damage, just giving a soft plink plink plink noise when something strikes him. He runs his hand through it, and it moves, and part of him wonders if it would tickle. It moves away from him eventually, and he at last removes his helmet, shaking out his hair, and taking a nice deep breath.

He'd let out a pleased sigh, but it's just the passage of air and not actual sound. Say, what's that girl doing over there on the hard rocky ground? He waves to her. Maybe she would rather sit with the flowers and be soft?]

~19th | closed to Minato

[beguiledcard]

[ By this point, Akira is tired from exploring. It's been a pretty long several days, and not being able to talk has been a little... draining, in an emotional sense (heh).

Which is precisely why he's a little out of it around the time he spots Minato. Not to say he remotely hesitates before walking over to him, since that's the opposite of what he does. He's giving a small wave, phone lit up in the hand he's using - he's attempting to make it a little easier to spot him approaching, given there's only so much he can do with a phone.

Speaking of his phone, too: ]

How are you holding up?

[ That's the message he's going to be aiming to show Senpai. ]

[biddentodance]

[Minato looks tired, and something about his posture is slouchier than usual. A little more closed-off than usual. It's a good thing the phone lights up and creates a visual cue, because it means Akira doesn't surprise him. Thankfully, muteness and deafness are just either end of the same effect.

It's still weird to not hear his own voice when he speaks, and if he's a little louder than usual (thus putting him in normal person volume range), well.]

Fine. You?

he's faceblind, fools

[bloodyashes]

Outside

[Asch can be found relatively easily exploring the ruins, his bright red hair sticking out from the green that slowly consumes the fallen buildings. Unlike many people, he doesn't seem to be having obvious problems, and is as agile as ever climbing over building walls.

Most of the time, he's got a stabilizer slung over his back, and can be spotted actually placing it in some out of the way corner. Someone has his mind on the mission.]

Inside

[Of course, once it starts raining, he's out of excuses to not enter the mines proper.

That doesn't mean he's comfortable with it.]

Why is it always mines...?

[The tension in his body is obvious even if you can't hear the music that accompanies him. Hedoes not like mines, and as a result, if you approach him suddenly, he's a little... jumpy.

It's also worth noting that in spite of the relative dark, he tends not to make use of the flashlight tucked into his belt pocket unless he knows someone else is there. Please don't blast his eyes out with yours.]

inside

[burninglight]

Asch?

[Hard to guess it could be anyone else, what with the ambient music. Ardyn seemed a little on edge himself, walking with a hand on the wall wherever possible.]

Are you having trouble?

Loss: hearing

[biddentodance]

[hello fissure my old friend]
[They've just arrived, the Outlook is good, all things are bright and beautiful. Peaceful. Serene.

Quiet.

So, in his usual fashion, Minato puts on his headphones and switches on his MP3 player...then stops mid-step. Pauses. Checks his player, then double-checks it. Takes off a headphone and stares at it. Puts it back on, turns the MP3 player off and on again. Off comes the headphone and he snaps his fingers near his ear...

He can be found making exceedingly sad faces at his perfectly-functional musical device. And paying more attention to it than where he's walking.]

[dead dove do not eat]
[The Brilliant Cavern is incredible. Massive, fully underground, full of plants. The perfect place for a nap - or as perfect as I place as one is likely to find, here. How Minato is sleeping through those leafnados dancing over him is a mystery for the ages, though.

Of course, if you catch him awake, he's wandering, examining the plant life both familiar and not, munching on an apple. Pretty good for a magic apple...

There's some kind of alien plant with purple leaves and luminous, sweet-smelling fruits. Or some other interesting not-earth plant. And so Minato investigates these in the age-old way of the human: he puts them in his mouth.]

Pretty good...

[i can't think of a dumb title]
[We all know Minato lacks self-preservation by now, yes? That's a solid, established fact? Good. That's not what's happening this time.

Minato is accustomed to wandering the dim Halls of Tartarus, and after Incendia's subway this really isn't that new. Same story, different aesthetic. The tools that move on their own are really cool, and he marvels at them, all interest and childlike wonder. Maybe a little too much.

The noise of the tools doesn't bother him - can't bother him, like this. Which means he also doesn't hear the crack and clatter of a few stones falling from the ceiling nearby without a tool to cleave them.]

Minty, look where you're going.

[foolishjustice]

[Crow is paying somewhat more attention to where he's going, only slightly distracted by the animate tools and crystals sticking out of the walls. He notices Minato just in time to stop, though his lost sense of balance sends him stumbling to his knees.

Uh. Hopefully Minato's paying at least enough attention to where he's going to not trip over him?]

Loss: sight

[theserpentsmiles]

[we're still gonna try, gonna carry on]
That's....different. [That's his first reaction to the fissure, as soon as he sees its effect. This will be. Inconvenient. His nerves about it are there in his voice.

But Nagisa takes his time. He's not about to let this stop him. He stays outside, in town, as he covers the basics: movement, navigating by feel, tossing rocks and sticks and trying to figure out how to hear instead of see...and write. He has his notebook out, and can often be found writing, scribbling, and otherwise marking it. It's a struggle. He's going to need time to make any progress with taking notes...]

I guess I should study Braille, when we get back...

[Before too long he's moving on to more...interesting experiments. He's throwing a rubbery green knife around, for instance, and trying to climb the ruined buildings (without much success). He's maybe pushing himself too quickly...

So maybe he should just settle down in the sorting zone and start sorting. The crystals of different energies feel different, after all, he should be able to figure this out. It's something, at least. Until it literally blows up in his face--

Wait, Nagisa, don't just dust yourself off and go right back to sorting!]

[you could break these bones of mine]
[Blindly wandering around town has drawbacks....namely: grief weed. Not that he'd have known to look out for it.

The moment Nagisa enters a patch, he drops to his knees. Everything he'd been feeling when he arrived here, everything since, some things he hadn't even acknowledged - it all floods him. He's crying in seconds, gritting his teeth against frustration and pain. He can't...move...]

[i'm still the champion]
[He won't let it stop him. He's exploring deep into the mines with stabilizers, blind though he is. He sticks close to the right-hand wall, indeed keeping his hand on the wall. It's his only defense against getting lost.

A light wouldnt help him, so he isn't carrying one. Sorry if you didn't notice him wander into your area, being easy to overlook is. He does that.

Of course this means that he initially doesn't even notice the subfissure. Or that his shadowlight is tall and sauntering along like a demon mocking everyone around him for existing. Seriously, that shadowlight is just daring you to pick a fight. And Nagisa won't notice, not until someone else is there - and he's a little jumpy.]

Who's there? [He asks while looking in the complete wrong direction.]

shadow

[nojohnyouare]

Kawasumi Mai. [Said matter-of-factly. Her own shadow is gleefully dancing around as Mai just linefaces.] Sorry. A sub-fissure... Shadows?

[foolishjustice]

[I'm Marrying a Botanist and What is This] TW: potential talk of death and staged suicide

[They're here to find the missing android, but stabilizing the Fissure is also a priority...and it seems logical to make sure people coming out of the mines won't have to deal with more effects on their way to the drones. Besides, between his headache from the psychic backlash and his newfound lack of balance, it seems safest to spend a bit of time outside before trying to keep himself oriented underground.

Unfortunately, the surface isn't without danger. Stumbling over a patch of rubble forces him to grab the nearest object to keep from falling over, leaving his hand covering a patch of dark vines. Immediately, his body tenses as his mind drifts to something he never really let go of, but has generally been able to keep from dwelling on. It's not the spectacular reaction of someone hit with multiple sources of grief, or reminded of pain they'd long since thought they'd healed from...but those in the area might find him just standing there, staring at the ground with tears in hie eyes.]

[Living Up to His Name]

[Honestly, even without his new Elemancy abilities, Goro - now in his white and red Thief outfit - would have found the lure of the magical crystals irresistible. His loss of balance has him stumbling over the rough gems scattered around the bin, but not so much that he can't catch himself on the rim in order to sift through the pile, looking much like a kid on Christmas as he stashes them in his inventory.

In fact, he's maybe a little too enthusiastic. He manages to avoid getting hurt in the resultant minor explosion, stumbling back from the surprise and fortunately bumping into a wall before he even has the chance to fall over. Hopefully he didn't startle anyone else too much...]

[Rolly Poly Friends]

[Some people might be afraid of the giant pill bugs. Goro Akechi is not one of those people. In fact, he seems fascinated by the large insects, and his immediate response is to approach and see if they'll let him pet them. Since they seem docile so far, he feels free to examine them as though they were exhibits at a petting zoo.

He gets a bit more of a startle, though, when he grabs for another crystal. One of the bugs nearly as long as he is tall notices and surges forward, climbing up on him and shoving him back into a wall in an effort to get the tasty treat. If not for the extra legs and hard shell, it might almost look like an excited dog jumping up after a meaty bone...]

weeds

[nojohnyouare]

!

[Mai approaches quickly, grabbing at her side for her sword and missing entirely.]

Hurt?

Loss: Voice

[have_hat_will_travel]

Grief Weeds (CW: Death)

[Pidonus had started into the mining town quickly... But, naught a minute in, she'd realized something was wrong. Something with her breathing... It was too quiet. Then, she realized something was missing: Her voice.

Immediately, she had begun to panic. Without her voice, she didn't have most of her Bard abilities... And many of her Succubus abilities were the ones she had promised not to casually use. Immediately, she decided to prioritize getting to the base camp...

... Only to step square on a weird weed, her heel digging into a white flower and-

Fire. A village on fire. A castle surrounded by fire.

Blood, everywhere. Orcs, eyes practically glowing red, as they cut into...

... Why did she know the woman's face? Why did it hurt so much to see her cut down?! Why could she hear a voice, much like hers, screaming?!?!

What she was seeing, it couldn't be real, but it felt so much so... Like it wasn't an illusion! But-

A cage. A man she barely knew. A small disc. And a voice, exorting her to use it and escape. But if she did, she'd be leaving him to - no, she had to, she had to -

These memories were false! She had always been a Succubus! But then why... It didn't make sense...

Anyone in a short range of Pidonus would hear a voice in their heads as her telepathy went off uncontrollably - hers, screaming incoherently.

... And then it would stop, as she collapsed, entirely unconscious.]

Later, Main Tunnels

[... Once Pidonus had partially recovered, convincing herself what she'd seen was an illusion, she'd decided to make her way into the tunnels, to distract herself possibly.

It was perhaps more than a little predictable that this would end with her running from multiple angry pickaxes. Trying to shut one up was, perhaps, not the best idea...

Care to help the silenced succubus?]

Grief Weeds

[fistsofchange]

[Lin appeared not long after the telepathic scream, looking shaken. Seeing Pidonus collapsed on the ground didn't help matters.]

Pidnonus! Are you okay!?

[She ran over to check on her.]

loss: pain | cw: minor self-harm in third prompt

[burninglight]

[a; sorting zone; so wake me up when it's all over]

[Near the entrance to the mine, one could find a slightly mad scientist in black carefully looking through the unsorted crystal piles. Occasionally he'd pause to take a notebook out of his vest and a pen from thin air in a faint flash of red, writing down one thing or another before picking up another few crystal shards to examine them more closely. Crystallized magic really was nothing new to him, but not in these elements--he'd have to work on researching them. Maybe he could figure out a way to advance his own elemancy without having Fissures warping his magic all on their own.]

[b; brilliant cavern; when i'm wiser and i'm older]

[His work on studying the elemental crystals had Ardyn wandering around the mines a fair bit, and eventually he came to a stop here to make note of the more energized crystals and take a couple quick pictures of the active formations with a digital camera. The implications were fascinating to him--even after having worked on the gliders with unfamiliar wind magic--and Ardyn was fully intent on learning whatever he could.]

[Eventually he paused to take a better look at the generl surroundings, pausing at the sight of a wildly growing patch of vivid blue flowers. Ardyn stared for a moment as if trying to make sense of them; had they always grown that tall, what were they even doing there, should he bring a few back?]

[After a long and uncertain silence, he knelt down to carefully pick a couple of the bright blue flowers, cautiously filing them away in the Armiger with a flash of crystal.]

[c; main tunnels; all this time i was finding myself]

[Ardyn's night vision was better than some, yet wasn't nearly what it used to be. (Human bodies were a little lacking in a lot of aspects, really.) The glow from the crystals was enough to point in the right direction, but every so often he'd called a flame to his hand through simple elemancy.]

[So, when the tunnels grew a bit more dimly lit than he felt comfortable with, Ardyn raised a hand to summon a little fire magic...and froze dead on the spot when that fire came up black, glowing with purple tones that looked almost sickly rather than bringing any actual light to the surroundings. It was the black of night and shadows, of daemons and Starscourge and--]

[Ardyn reacted on terrified and cornered instinct, throwing his hand to the side and slamming it into the closest wall, anything to just get rid of it...then froze again as he realized he hadn't felt an impact.]

No, no no no, you can't do this to me--

[The shadows on his hand were gone, but he struck his hand against the wall again, two or three times more until it was stained with blood and quickly bruising. With rapidly growing horror he realized he wasn't going to feel anything, at which point he dropped to the ground with his uninjured hand pressed to his head.]

...not again. Please, not again.

[c; wildcard; and i didn't know i was lost]

[whatever else you got]

c because i lov to be in pain

[serrata]

[ She'd been afraid of losing her sight at first. That was what she was sure would happen. The idea of blindly feeling her way through the tunnels filled her with a horrible sense of dread. But when she steps out of the safe zone and all the sound just cuts out – when Yuuri realizes what the Fissure has taken away from her – she thinks ah, I see. This is much, much worse.

She trusts her eyes, but it isn't until now that she'd realized just how much she relies on her ears, too. Without sound, you don't know what's up ahead. You can't hear the shuffling footsteps, the groans of whatever might be waiting around the corner. She's so far from Megurigaoka now, she couldn't be further, but she still finds herself thinking of nights creeping around the school, holding her breath and straining her ears to hear the things that used to be her classmates.

If one came staggering around the turn in the tunnel, Yuuri wouldn't have time to respond. So it's understandable that she's a bit jumpy – and that when she comes around the tunnel, blissfully unaware of the commotion that's just happened, she almost leaps a foot in the air when she sees Ardyn on the path in front of her.

It only takes a heartbeat for her to realize there's something wrong though and only a second heartbeat for Yuuri to shove her panic aside and come hurrying up the tunnel to meet him. She can't say a thing to announce her arrival and she's frightened she might make things worse if she touches him unexpectedly – but she stoops down in front of him slowly, fear and concern on her face. What's this Fissure doing now? ]

shout princess minus shout

[daughterofthemark]

Arrival and only arrival

[It doesn't take long for Arianna to work out that she's lost her voice, and that means it doesn't take long for her mood to tank. So she's already feeling crappy when she unwittingly steps on a grief weed. Immediately she falls to her hands and knees, hit by all the pain of the roller coaster her adult life has been. Silenced as she is, it might be hard to tell that she's crying.

She doesn't go anywhere near the grief weeds again, mostly staying inside the mine, for the remainder of the trip.]

Sorting and Surveying

[Arianna feels a little better after taking a rest at base camp, and she spends some time here sorting through crystals. Sorting them by what? Well, mostly by which ones are prettiest. Though the very prettiest go straight into the Armiger. She does this pretty much every day, being very careful with the crystals so as not to have any unfortunate experiences with them.

Starting on the 18th she takes a lot more earth crystals for herself so she can feed the mine mites.]

Tunnels

[So it's really dark in here, and Arianna's not especially a fan of that, but it's not like she's incapable of dealing with it. She doesn't actually have a flashlight in the Armiger (and if anyone else does, she doesn't know about it), but she does have an assortment of electronic devices that make light, and she's making use of them to navigate safely. The mites are cute and she spends some time chatting with them and feeding them. The magic tools are... weird, but her desire to stay out of the way serves her well. Overall she's doing pretty well here!

Until the 19th, when she picks the wrong elevator for exploration. It makes horrifying squealing and grinding noises that start to be accompanied by worrying clangs once it's too far down for her to jump out. About four feet from the bottom it finally grinds to a halt with one end higher than the other, and when Arianna takes a step towards one side hoping the problem is something obvious, the problem turns out to be more than the rusted bolts can handle and the floor of the elevator breaks off entirely, falling to the ground and taking Arianna with it.

She isn't seriously hurt, but getting back up is going to take either a lot of walking around looking for another path, or someone miraculously finding her. She'd like to call for help, but...]

tunnel

[nojohnyouare]

[Arianna will hear someone running and then a crash. In a few minutes, though, she'll see Mai, walking with her eyes on the ground. Mai spots Arianna and runs up to her, though her arms and legs look pretty banged up.]

Arianna! I heard something over here. Are you hurt anywhere?

[That was emotion. Clearly, Mai has had quite enough of this dungeon by now.]

loss: hearing

[serrata]

miner's town

[ It could've been worse, Yuuri tries to tell herself. She can't hear a thing and she feels like she's on the verge of a panic attack the entire time she's exploring. But it's fine! She's fine. This is fine. It's fine.

Or at least she's fine until she decides to take a closer look at the grief weeds. It's the flowers that draw her in because, well, it's Yuuri and she makes her fatal mistake when she reaches out to touch one.

It hits like a fist to the gut and has the same effect. For a moment, Yuuri can't breathe properly and every time she tries, it just comes choking back out in a sob. She just about manages to keep herself on her feet and it's a good thing, too. It lets her stagger away quickly enough to duck behind one of the buildings in time to vomit.

By the time she's done, she has to just stand there and gather herself for a few minutes. The worst of it has passed now that she's not touching the flower but her shoulders are heaving and shuddering and she has her face in her hands. Yikes. ]

brilliant cavern

[ So! The rest of this place of abjectly terrible but it should come as no surprise that when you find this cavern full of beautiful flowers that you also find Yuuri. After her nasty encounter with the grief weeds she's initially a little too spooked to go near them, but once she gives it a chance and finds that she doesn't want to curl up in a ball and cry then she seems happy to settle into fussing over flowers.

She's carefully uprooting a few specimens in particular, digging them out from the soil so the whole plant can go into the Armiger and be replanted once they get back to the Station. She's still pretty jumpy and tense but she's definitely happier and more relaxed than she was before. ]

obligatory wildcard

[ i know what we're about ]

town

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church has yet to encounter the grief weeds (because he would not be here and would have the most almighty dissociative episode known to man), but he does see Yuuri staggering off looking quite frankly terrible as shit.

He gives her a minute or two, then comes around the building to check up on her and oh. Hm. Oh. That's bad.

He doesn't know what she's lost, but he still can't speak, so he can't give much warning before kneeling down beside her to wrap her up in a hug. A big armored hug. That can't go wrong.]

loss: fatigue

[dubiouslychthonic]

arrival/miner's town
[It doesn't take long for Jetshard to catch on to what the general fissure effect is, of course; with many of the others, the immediate loss, and their distress regarding it, is obvious. Which makes it a little concerning that she... can't determine what, if any, effect it's having on her. So before she descends into the mine, you might catch her standing among the rotting buildings, looking distinctly distracted as she careful inventory of what she can still sense.]

main tunnels/cave in
[She's not terribly far from the entrance - or at least, she's not until there's a horrible grinding noise somewhere behind her, and she turns quickly to see the rock crumbling into an impassible wall in the gloom a few hundred feet back. Disturbance from someone else in the area, or just coincidence of timing on a passage that would have caved in anyway? Whichever it is... Jetshard sighs, and walks back to investigate the cave in.]

...I don't like the look of that. Going around it is, I guess.

brilliant cavern
[Jetshard's still not feeling the effects of pushing herself physically, not in the unstable parts of the fissure at least, but by now she's caught on to the fact that she is wearing herself down whether she can feel it or not, and she's making an effort to take frequent rest breaks. And, well, the cavern is certainly one of the nicer places to pause in the fissure.

And she can't say that the discovery of a small stand of Alternian trees is unwelcome. She's not certain what this species is called - she didn't grow up in a wooded area, and it's a little hard to even narrow down species when they're growing crooked and spindly rather than the broad straight trunks she'd expect - but the smooth, pale blue bark and light pink foliage are unmistakable. So it's with a sense of vague nostolgia that she's taken a seat under the twisting branches and pulled out her canteen.

Anyone else passing through gets a grin and a friendly wave.]

Cavern

[nor_iron_bars]

[Jail greets Jetshard with a wink and a grin of her own, just as cheerful(ly obnoxious) despite being covered by her mask. She doesn't look too beaten down by the mines and their effects, although there's an oddly large number of little cuts and bruises along her bare arms- and for some reason, she hasn't bothered to bandage them?]

Aw, ain't that pretty? They don't grow 'em like that back on my planet.

[...It's probably deliberate that her phrasing makes it ambiguous about whether she means the trees or Jetshard herself.]

loss: night vision

[theosophomoric]

A - main tunnels
[The dignified way to put this is that Sonja doesn't realize what she's lost until she gets underground.

The accurate way to put this is that Sonja spends the better part of half an hour stumbling around in the upper reaches of the mines too stubborn to admit that her eyes just aren't adjusting. This is ridiculous! She can see, faintly, the crystals in the walls, but they don't cast enough light for her to see much of anything else. And while she might just assume that means regular light isn't working properly, there's no hint of the neathbow in the darkness, either, just the deep, flat, indistinct dark that's nearly unknown in the Neath. Nightblindness is for surface folk and denizens of some depths of the Elder Continent and, apparently now, the Inconvenient Advocate.

She just walked face-first into a low-hanging support brace. Good job, Sonja.]

B - grief weeds - CW: death, abandonment, religious horror; Fallen London spoilers
[She'll just... look around outside for a while, ok. It'd be a shame to miss something up here. She's totally not sulking.

She is having a bad time, especially when she brushes up against one of the strange magical flowers and -

- it's the moment she sees the doctor's face as he leaves her father's bedside for the last time - it's the Last Constable snarling that she never wants to see Sonja again, as the Cheery Man lies dead of Cantigaster poisoning - it's the Moth-Cloaked Vandal stepping into Sunlight -

- it's penning the letter to tell her mother she won't, can't return to the Surface - it's walking away from the Comptessa - it's following Alice's orders to the final letter -

- it's hearing the Hundred-Hearted's story - it's the Quiet Deviless's words in her ears and fork at her wrist - it's watching the lucidity fade from Tristam's eyes -

- it's like a sledgehammer to the chest and she swears as she stumbles under the weight of all of the unfair losses and rank carelessness of her past.]

loss: sight

[shipoutofluck]

i. crystal clear
[On the bright side of things, Eizen is visible to everyone. On the not so bright side, we can't say the same the other way around. Because as soon as the Fissure effects hit Eizen, he cannot see shit.

This is bad enough for most people. For someone suffering from the Reaper's Curse, it's a disaster. Now, if you have the curse, are blind as a bat, and are currently around magically unstable crystals?

Oh, that's just asking for trouble.

It's no surprise, really, that Eizen barely even needs to do anything. He only just brushes past some of the unsorted crystals and the results are pretty much instantaneous. Thankfully his own reaction time is good, because he can feel the reaction before it reaches him.

If you're nearby, hope you're lucky enough to dodge the incoming explosion too.

...And it seems more of the crystals are reacting now, too. We might have a chain reaction on our hands here.]

ii. punching solves everything
[How did Eizen even make it this far into the tunnels when he can't see, it's honestly ridiculous. For the record, he's not even really making any sound. He's just passing through. And, generally, it'd take a lot more to upset the unstable tunnels. But the Reaper's Curse takes care of that.

And that's how you get yourself a cave-in. Which Eizen is now stuck on the other side of. At least he didn't get crushed...? Small mercies.]

Well, that figures. [Honestly, he just seems tired as he touches the rocks blocking his way. This is the part where you'd want to look for another way or, better yet, hope to run into someone else to guide you through the tunnels and--] Let's take care of this mess.

[--And he's punching the rocks. He's just... he's just punching them. And actually, it seems to be... clearing the way, little by little?]

iii. home sweet... where?
[Look, Eizen knows there's a base camp. He was there before. He knows it's here. Somewhere.

But for the life of him, he can't find his way back there. Navigating blindly is hard, okay? At this point, who even knows where he is anymore. He could be miles and miles away, with no hope of getting closer. Getting back might just be a doomed endeavor altogether.

...Or he might be walking past it several times, just barely still in range of the Fissure's effects. Save him.]

3

[founderinglight]

[So after like, the third time Eizen walks by - ]

Eizen, turn left and walk about fifteen feet.

[ - someone from base camp is keeping an eye out, at least.]

loss: sight

[myocordial]

i. not this shit again
[The loss of his sight is as familiar as it is tiresome. But at least, as annoying as it is, Heart knows what to expect now. He's more confident than the last time he had to go around blindly.

In fact, you might not even immediately realize that he can't see anything, as one of those anteater-esque creatures tries to attach its tongue to the brace around Heart's wrist... only to have him catch and hold the tongue before it can. How the...]

I wouldn't do that, if I were you.

[The Reclaimer might be strong, but. So is Heart. Even if he can't see his opponent right now.]

ii. grief weeds
[Heart is being careful, going around blind. The thing, however, is that he's braced himself for creatures or other more clearly dangerous hazards. But plants... He's not expecting those to be any trouble, as he feels his way around. It's just some vines on the wall. That should be all it is.

But the second he touches the plant, he pulls away, with a sharp inhale of breath. It's like he's suddenly being crushed underneath the weight of... everything. It's a familiar pain. So familiar because he's always feeling it, though these days it's more muted. Not fresh and heavy and excruciating like this.

You'll have to excuse Heart as he collapses to his knees, but the loss of an entire species is a lot of grief to bear. It doesn't look like he's taking it well.]

iii. tunnels
[After picking himself back up again, Heart eventually makes his way into the tunnels. Maybe not the wisest place to be, but good luck stopping him. The sound of the animate tools working catches his attention, since it's hard to ignore all the noise.

But he looks confused... as you might expect, because he can't really tell... what's happening with that.]

...Are there really people mining right now?

[He sounds a little incredulous. Look, he doesn't KNOW.]

iv. tunnels 2: electric boogaloo
[It's not an active cave-in that Heart encounters and thank goodness for that. This one happened a little while ago, from the look of it. And Heart just looks sort of frustrated as he feels his way down this path only to meet all these rocks in the way.

He sounds very tired as he lets out a sigh.]

Don't tell me I came all this way for a dead end.

tunnel 2

[nojohnyouare]

Caved in. Unstable.

[Mai starts trying to heave rocks out of the way, which is very difficult when you can't feel anything and can't tell how much they weigh.]

Inconvenient.