networkinthenight | [Audio] @fjord, Unhappy Discoveries [May 11]

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[Audio] @fjord, Unhappy Discoveries [May 11]

[There's silence for a few moments, as Fjord collects himself. When he does talk, he sounds... tense, and upset, but it's wrapped up tight in a calm facade.]

During the flood, I accidentally discovered an underground tunnel that connects to the church - some sort of mineshaft, almost. I went back after the waters went back down, the other day, and I found a torch down there too, with...

[With Mollymauk's horn. He clears his throat, and continues.]

And, uh... with Soldat earlier today, we went explorin' it properly. Turns out that it connects to that trapdoor in the floor - there's some kind of fancy lock on the underside that we didn't try messing with. Followed it the other way too - about fifteen minutes of walking took us to an intersection, and about the same again took us to this big, steel door. Looks like it was supposed to be locked, but the storm fucked it up enough that we could get inside.

[There's silence, and a quiet, but audible, tremble to his deep breath.]

...well. You could almost call it a catacomb, really, there were. [Another, briefer, pause, and a faint tremor that comes out as an almost amused bounce to his voice.] Actual, uh. Dead bodies in it. There were. Five of them, all up. Covered in mushrooms and decayed as fuck, I don't-- I got no idea how long they might've been down there.

[And another pause, the longest yet.]

Kal-El, Alisaie, and... Mollymauk. I didn't see... there wasn't anything to identify the other two bodies.

[There's a light clatter, identifiable as him putting the tablet down on a hard surface. Another audible breath. And he continues a bit more calmly.]

After that we doubled back, got to the intersection and tried the second path. Not sure how long we were on it for, but given how steep it was, seems like we must've gone under the river - sure sounded like it. That took us to this big twisting tunnel going up. Not sure which direction we were pointin' by the end of it but there was another trapdoor at the top, locked again. Didn't look like there was anywhere else to go besides one a' those trapdoors or- or the door on the other side of that catacomb.

So if anyone wants to go tryin' one a' those locks to see what's on the other side, give us a shout if you get it open, yeah?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...shit. He didn't. Mean for that to make Soldat come over.

Welp.]

In my room. 203.

[Well, then don't post things to the network sounding sad, Fjord. You're friends now. That means you get friend things. Like bringing beer when a you're sad because somebody died.

Soldat is there in five minutes flat, with two bottles of beer, and a very large jug of something clearly alcoholic. There's like a gallon of it.]

These are for you. This one's for me.

[He feels like he shouldn't be surprised at how quickly Soldat gets there, but it's a little unnerving.

Still, Soldat gets a smile when he opens the door, tired as it is, and he takes the beers, stepping aside to let his friend in.]

Thanks, Soldat. Sorry to unload that on y'all.

[He'd just been downstairs, so it's not like it was hard. And they and Misty haven't moved out of the Invincible again yet, so swinging by their room to grab the booze hadn't taken long.]

It's fine. Got to tell somebody, right?

[They come in, and set the jug down, producing a small cup from a pocket to fill.]

Maybe it'll help.

[Soldat hasn't really come in Fjord's room before, huh? It's pretty bare, with nothing to really mark the room as being Fjord's. The sword they found, Fjord has since cleaned up and propped up against a wall where it can't fall over, and the spiralling horn has been cleaned of mud and placed on a shelf.]

Yeah. Maybe.

[He's definitely opening the beer at least, after he closes the door again, and takes a long sip as he moves back to Soldat and sits on the couch next to the lounge table his friend has claimed.]

It's just. [He pauses, silent for a long moment like he's debating something. Gives a long sigh, and... when he starts talking, his accent has switched to the British one.] It's a fucking thing, seeing everyone like that, you know?

[Soldat settles on the floor on the other side of that table, cradling their drink without trying it yet. (They haven't tried it yet, honestly.) Their expression is sad and thoughtful, nodding a little.]

It was a thing. A not great thing. I didn't think anything could kill Kal-El. I wish we could have identified the other two.

[They look up briefly in Fjord's direction, then back down at their cup.]

I'm really sorry about your friend.

[Soldat knows they don't have to sit on the floor, right? The couch is entirely an option, Fjord's only sitting on one cushion.]

I... honestly, I think Kal-El being there, I only realised from context, he didn't look. As dead as the others, almost.

[He pauses, then takes another swig.] Gods, I must sound stupid.

You don't sound stupid. He was an alien. He was faster and stronger than me, and more quiet. He didn't even breathe. He was terrifying.

[Soldat looks down into their cup, and finally tries it. Wow, that is absolutely some burn, but it tastes... okay.]

And he also made me cupcakes for telling him about Beacon, like it was some big important thing I did. I liked him.

Edited 2020-05-15 22:35 (UTC)

[Rosinante hadn't really meant to overhear, initially. He had only been walking past, pacing his way down the hall on his way to nowhere in particular, when he heard voices. It's an old habit of his to listen in, just in case it's something interesting or useful. Around here, it's more likely to manifest instead as lurking on network posts, rarely commenting unless absolutely needed, but listening to and reading everything he can.

But now he finds himself interested in listening in about what these two had seen in those tunnels. Before it gets weird, before he ends up really just standing outside the door and actually spying for no good reason, he instead snaps himself out of it and knocks on the doorframe as he pokes his head in.]

Room for one more?

[Fjord starts a little, at the knocking on the door, but it's not like Rosinante is an unwelcome sight. Fjord's the one in the dumb emotional place, after all.

But he does switch back to the Texan accent, seamless and automatic.] Rosinante, hey. Yeah, of course. There's plenty a' couch.

[His gaze does slide towards Soldat briefly, trying to gauge if the other man is okay with it too. He knows they get along - Rosi seems to get along fairly well with everyone, really.]

Edited 2020-05-16 03:26 (UTC)

["Getting along" is probably an exaggeration, but Soldat likes the guy. They hold up their up in a toast-like invitation. Come sit, Rosinante. They're not going to chase him away.]

Didn't bring enough beer for you. But you can have a cup of mine.

[Pause.]

A small cup. Silver swore it would get me drunk. So it's strong.

What, do I look like someone who can't hold his drink?

[There's a hint of a smile there. The corner of his mouth quirks upward as he steps into the room and takes a seat on the couch, folding his knees sharply upward rather than sprawling his legs across the floor. He's never one to take up too much space if he can help it.]

Besides, I'm outta cigarettes. Might as well make up for it somehow.

Don't try going one-for-one, it's not like we can afford it.

[A bit morbid, even with his dry tone, and he nearly winces at himself. He does reach up to rub his face with the one hand not holding a beer bottle.]

Sorry, I'm just a bit... tired, of folks dying.

Which is understandable. It's shitty.

[Soldat looks around for something to pour into for Rosi, then just hands over their own cup. They can drink out of the jug. There's no reason to worry about manners, drinking with a couple of guys.]

My experience until now has been I can't get drunk. Metabolism's too high. So maybe you can hold your drink, but not like I can. Try that.

Thanks.

[He takes a sip, and his stoic expression vanishes as his eyes widen in surprise. Yikes, yeah, better go slow with this, he can practically get a little bit tipsy off the smell of it alone. It's not particularly tasty - it's a drink made for one very specific, very potent purpose.]

And yeah. I hear you, Fjord. The flood was bad enough. Apparently we've lost one or two more since then, and somehow that feels worse. Death's common enough here but I'd hoped we'd never see losses like that first massacre ever again.

[So much for that. Too optimistic of him.]

[.......well, he's curious. And it beats talking about his own issues right now.]

I'm afraid I'm not really familiar with anything like this happenin' before. Haven't been here quite so long as you two.

Before my time, too. Rosinante told me about it first. He was the first ferry this round. I was. Third, maybe.

[They lean over to collect their jug, sitting on the floor still.]

Happened trying to get Robin hooked up to the network.

[He nods to affirm as he takes another slow drink of the super-booze. He's the last of that team, now. Winters and Five died that day, but he, Peter, and Riku had kept on. The three never became particularly close, but they all had a lot of respect for each other after the shared and very harrowing experience with one of the first green-eyed spirits the town had encountered. And now Peter and Riku, too, are lost.]

We had to run a cable out to the lighthouse itself since it got disconnected during the reset. We had several teams as lookouts and distraction just to get the handful of us through, and the rest of the town stayed back and threw a party for the spirits to both keep them occupied and show we wanted to be peaceful. We thought we had it, we were on our way back, and Robin was trying to signal to the spirits that we meant no harm and were leaving peacefully when something went wrong and they attacked Captain Winters, who was from Dr. Ingram's group originally - the only one of theirs who was supposed to survive, so he could help us. We couldn't save him, though we did try. The spirits came out of the woods, must have told the ones in town what happened, and they all started killing everyone they could. We lost about half the town in one day.

Son of a bitch...

[He takes another mouthful of his drink then, having somewhat forgotten to during Rosinante talking. Hearing some of the stories about what's happened in Beacon in the past, he always feels simultaneously lucky and somewhat useless, in being new enough to somehow miss all of it.]

Yeah, that kinda takes the cake on all this shit now.

At least then. There was a purpose to it. Things went badly, but the mission was still completed.

[A swig from the jug, and Soldat makes a face at the swallow. It's not as bad as the last thing that remotely affected them tasted like motor oil. This is better, but it's also stronger.]

This. This was pointless.

It was weather. It happens. Can't underestimate it on land or at sea.

[Not a reassuring thing to say, but he doesn't see the point in coddling these two. There's a time for motivating people and then there's a time for brutal facts and he's feeling the latter deeply right now anyway.]

Don't think there was a point to the first massacre either. Miscommunication between us and them, or something. They're as much a force of nature here as a flood is.

[Fjord can only nod in agreement with Rosi's assessment on the weather. Gods know he's seen enough storms at sea to really fear that kind of power.]

So death here was just-- really fuckin' meaningless, right up until the one time it isn't.

[Forces of nature, bullshit kidnappings, who knows whatever else these guys have faced before he got here.]

Right up 'til now, when we've finally found some fucking corpses.

[And then there's Xayah, who thinks nature "got angry" and took it out on them. Soldat makes the decision not to bring that up. It won't help anyone feel better.]

Not meaningless.

[Pointless is definitely not the same as meaningless, and they're never going to say that any of those lives lost were meaningless.]

They were people. Good people. We'll remember them.

[They have another gulp of their drink, and suggest,]

Tell us about Mollymauk. He was your friend from before. Yeah?

[For a moment he gives a stern look to Fjord, but Soldat speaks up first and so he nods, with a tip of his glass in their direction. Pointless, maybe, but meaningless? No. Finding bodies does not suddenly make those deaths meaningful, it just means they hadn't fully understood the nature of what was occurring when people died. Now they have a chance to learn something about their existence here in Beacon. Meanwhile, everyone who died before them still deserves to be mourned and remembered.

Rather than add anything verbally, he has a sip of his drink and waits in silence. Mollymauk wasn't someone he ever got to really know well, but he's interested in hearing about him now.]

[Fjord does look quietly cowed by both other men gently berating him, but he takes it in stride with a mumbled 'Sorry' around his next sip. He's not really expecting Soldat to turn the spotlight on him, but he can work with that.]

Yeah. We first met him when he was still with the circus, him and Yasha. He used to do this- fortune telling, bullshit, but Jester loved it. He was just a... real glorious bastard, always acting like he was the gods' gift to the fucking world. Terrible roommate, though. [He almost laughs as he says that.] Every time we stayed at an inn where, uh... companionship was an option I'd have to go and sleep in one of the other's rooms.

[He toys with his bottle with both hands, idly spinning it around.] He was... a good person. He was full of shit, but, uh. I'm not much t'talk there. At least his was entertaining, he always had some kind a' story to make 'f just about anything. Knew how to work a crowd, knew how to... hold his own in a fight. He died tryin' to save us.

[Long may he reign.]

[Audio] @fjord, Unhappy Discoveries [May 11]

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