entrancelogs | [Open] In Over His Head (The Sequel)

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[Open] In Over His Head (The Sequel)

Who: Jack and You
Where: The Deep Roads
When: 5/5-5/9
Rating: M (For Jack's mouth and violence)
Summary: Hey there, kiddos! Jack's going exploring! Death, destruction, and weirdness await! Oh, and priceless treasure!
The Story:
1) Weathering The Dark (5/5 - 5/9)

The Not-Yet-Handsome Jack found a passage, though he wasn't the first, he ventured down to the Deep Roads held within. At first, all things were well, no plight or blight in sight, but things soon changed for the wary "hero". Something off to the side caught his eye, lurking in the dark. It let out a piercing shriek and rushed Jack. Not one, or two, but three seemed to come at him from different directions, making him stumble back. Fortunately, the first slash of the blades hit his shield, sending Jack careening from the force. His back hit a grimy wall, but it stabilised him enough to get off two shots from his wrist canon into the nearest Darkspawn. The first impact knocked it back, the second delivered its elemental damage, sparking and sizzling across the creature's skin.

"Yeah, ya like that, asshole?!"

Jack narrowly avoided the second creature as its blade hit the wall, sending sparks flying. He fired off a shot in its direction, making it scream again, but he lost sight of the third while the other two were reeling from his attacks. Yeah, maybe this was a bad idea. He'd just planned on investigating far enough to see what kind of team he'd need for backup! Time to run!

The Hyperion techie pushed off the wall and darted back down the way he came, but slammed right into a boulder. It wasn't there seconds ago. Where had it come fro--oh. It wasn't a boulder. "Oh, son of a taint..." The ogre hit Jack hard, knocking him to the ground, but he rolled with the fall right back to his feet, turned and ran deeper into the Thaig.

2) Claiming The Prize (5/9)

Whomever Jack met up with along the way, they had covered eachother's asses the entire way. This was it. He was there. The struggles through the blighted Darkspawn seemed to lead them deeper and deeper into the odd ruins. There was nothing like this on Pandora that he'd seen, anyway. Was this what it looked like inside a Vault? He thought there'd be more glowing carvings or something, but it didn't matter. Wherever they were right now, it felt right. It called to him.

He approached a door, sealed off with no means to open it. He laid a hand upon the door and it rumbled. Gears shifted, grinding through the inner workings of the door until it slid open for him. "Yeah, baby. Now this is what I'm talking about! You coming, kiddo?" He asked his partner as he stepped into the chamber. It was more like a tomb. A sarcophagus sat in place, making Jack almost giddy with excitement as he stepped even closer. The dark, polished stone promised incredible treasure. Something, anything worth the expedition would be a prize worthy of a Hero and his compatriot. Was this what it felt like to be a Vault Hunter? He could almost sympathise. You know, except for the part where they were dirty bandit scum half the time. Though, his current rag-tag team, save for the FR4G-TP, were pretty damn useful.

The lid slid aside to reveal the magnificent treasure hidden within--

"You have GOT to be kidding me! What the--" Jack began, aghast, but the Dwarven Claptrap inside booted up, its blue optic flickering on with a brilliant glow that shone off the walls, casting the treasure hunters in a soft cyan glow.

"Booting sequence complete: Hello! I am your new General Purpose 'bot; C-L-4-P T-P Dwarven Robot: Class Awesome! I will stick by your side forever and never leave you alone again! We will have dance parties and you can be my wingman at all social events! We're gonna be best friends for--"

And Jack slammed the lid. "No. No, nononononoooo! This can't be happening!" Oh, by the way, friend. There's probably a treasure chest in the corner for you, too. Just sayin'.

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Darkspawn. Please. Darkspawn have nothing on this high-grade laser-rifle deal Rocket gave him. Best Christmas present ever. The only issue is the same one he had with the last event: the rifle is just so damned loud. Every time he blasts one of those bastards apart with a shot of superheated plasmic energy, another one springs up from the fucking ether. So he seizes advantage of a lull in the combat to charge deeper into the aptly-named Deep Roads.

Good thing he recognizes the silhouette of the first human being he comes up on. When you've got a fondness for that shade of yellow, you tend to stand out.

"Oh, shit." Alex lowers the rifle, raking his free hand through his hair. "Hey. It's, uh, it's you."

So yeah, that sound he hears? It's loud as hell and it's somewhat reminiscent of the laser weapons on Elpis. Sort of. Enough that he can identify it as a gun, anyway. He can hear it periodically echoing through the caverns, but it makes such a raucous, he can't really tell where it's coming from. Not until the kid comes into view after a while and he notices the weapon. Whatever the tech is, it looks a little more well put-together than a Scav or Bandit weapon, but lacks most of the trademarks of a Hyperion, Maliwan, Jakobs, or Torgue manufacturer. Hell, even Tediore has its own trademark. The kid speaks and Jack's puzzlement grows.

"Uh, yep. It's me. Aaaaand you would beeeee?" Hey Alex, remember the whole you texting thing? Yeah, he has no idea who you are. But of the people he's met so far, only one of them doesn't have even a voice to the name. "Hey, wait, you're the texting kiddo, right? With the broken ECHO? Alex?" Process of elimination. And enjoy this yellow. He plans to make it Hyperion's new colour scheme!

"Wh - uh, yeah, that's me." He blinks a few times, forgetting for a moment that communicating over text is gonna have that severe drawback. Whoops. "Alex."

What the hell is an ECHO. Right, right, this guy's from the future or something, where they've got new words for "phones" and the like. Whatever. He shoulders his rifle. As of the last event, he's become way more comfortable toting this thing around, trying to slide into this "badass motherfucker" role that doesn't entirely suit him. He can get used to it though, right?

"Yeah, so some people 'round here have guns. Comes in handy, except it's a fucking racket."

"Yeah, my guns? They just kinda seemed to piss off the bigger ones, so I went with the running for my life thing instead." He demonstrated by firing a shock round into the nearest wall from his left wrist gun. The blue mass exploded against the surface in a small arc of electricity before sizzling out. "It's got a small elemental effect chance that worked wonders on the screaming things, but not so well on the giant guy. Freaking monsters, man."

"Well, good to finally meet you in person, kiddo. Gotta say, not what I pictured." He was hoping 'Alex' was short for 'Alexis' or something, but hey. "That thing," He nods to the rifle Alex just shouldered, "is a noisy beast, but if it does as much damage as noise, sometimes the downsides are worth it. How's the accuracy? The company I work for, Hyperion, we make the most accurate guns in the business."

"Ehh, but what the hell are you doing down here by yourself?" That's not concern. It's just curiosity.

Oh shit. Alex's eyebrows cant upwards, impressed. He never would've pegged himself as a guns guy, but damn, a gun that literally shoots lightning is pretty damn cool. He adjusts his grip on the rifle, running his fingers over the increasingly-familiar contours of the thing.

"It's pretty accurate. Not like it's got a Grade-A scope or anything, but it does in a pinch. Good damage output." Yeah, like he's got any idea what this thing is. A literal freaking raccoon gave it to him. A raccoon dressed as Santa.

"Could ask you the same." Not what he pictured. Well, that's why he doesn't put himself on camera. "People on topside'll still try to kill you. At least down here everything's honest about it."

"Awesome. A good gun goes a long way." Well, for the moment, you've fooled Jack with your lack of gun knowledge. You're alive, so the gun has to be effective at the very least.

"Fair point. I was just having a look around and got my ass chased into the depths of this hell. Kinda decided that, since I'm here, might as well keep looking around." AKA: He's lost, but who cares about the details, right? "Uh, not sure the screaming freaks that like to try to assassinate you when you're back is turned are being very honest. Anyway, have you met the oversized arachnids, yet? Pandora's got its share of oversized monstrosities, but those are just freaky." He feigns a shudder and motions for Alex to walk with him as he casually strolls through ~~Hell~~ the Deep Roads.

"They've got giant spiders too? Jesus." Yeah, spiders can go fuck themselves. Not like Alex has a particular aversion to spiders, but a giant anything with more than two legs is just wrong.

Alex scratches his nose, considering the benefits of risking his neck down here. He's not usually one for it, especially without a camera, but the place is so dark he might as well be walking around with the lens cap on. "I mean - place looks kinda like a mine or something, right? Isn't there usually gold in places like this?"

Of course, he's going off narrative convention here. Two heroes braving a dark path in order to reach an end goal. That's how the stories usually go, right?

"Giant and ravenous." Jack's not really a fan either, to be honest.

His grin turns a bit wolfish when Alex mentions gold. "Or salt. Not everything has to be gold, but I'm not saying I'd be disappointed if it was." He'd be more impressed if it was something he could use, but again, he isn't going to pitch a hissy over gold.

As long as the ending to those stories has the heroes coming out on top, Jack likes these stories. Unlike that messed up story about his statue in a desert with no legacy. Yeah, those stories suck. Nothing beside remains his ass! So yeah, he's with you on this one, Alex.

"Do all these event things go like this, or was the creepy deep passageway into Hell always here and I just missed it for like a week?"

"This was definitely not here last I looked." Alex wrinkles his nose as he peers deeper into the murkiness stretching out at either end. "Sometimes events zap us somewhere else for a little bit. Sometimes they just kinda...change how things are back in Wonderhell. Usually don't last longer than a few days, though."

Of course, a few days is more than enough time for things to go horribly, horribly wrong. He knows that much from experience. Goody gumdrops.

Alex yanks a flashlight out of his pocket and clicks it on. The bright yellow beam does very little to penetrate the darkness, but at least they're not completely going blind.

"All I'm saying is something like this'd better be worth it." It'd be just their goddamn luck for Wonderland's sense of humor to present them with a big fat chest of NOTHING! for daring to venture down here. He wouldn't be surprised.

"Oh, believe me, kiddo. A few days on Pandora is enough to kill anyone. So a few days can be pretty bad in the right environment. Hell, Elpis is deadly enough. And without Oz Kits? You'd suffocate. I hear it's not a fun way to die." He almost sounds amused as he walks alongside Alex. The flashlight doesn't do much, but it really is better than walking around in the dark.

"That'd be a kick in the 'nads." The jovial tone fell flat at that. He'd be so pissed. "Do you think there's someone behind the curtain controlling this shit? Like, that queen chick or something? Pulling memories out of our heads to play with?"

"Few days is usually all we need," Alex admits, trying not to sound sullen. Because it only takes a few days of being an emotionless zombie to get shanked by someone who would've ordinarily been considered something of a distant if friendly acquaintance.

"That's the standing theory," he says as idly as he can. "Either it's the queen or the place itself is...sentient or something, I dunno. Whichever it is, they gotta sick sense of humor."

Right on cue, the beam of his flashlight sweeps over the skeletal remains of something that certainly looks like it would've been human, throwing it into ghastly, gory relief. Its jawbone is dangling off its skull, hung by a thread. Alex makes a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.

"Case in goddamn point."

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[Open] In Over His Head (The Sequel)

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