[OPEN] Like the echos in your mind you try to leave them all behind...

[radiopalkiller]

Who: Philip ( radiopalkiller ) & OPEN
Where: A nightmare! That country whose name he doesn't remember anymore! The mines!
When: 3rd to 7th of October, aka. event time (with bonus thread for the week after)
Rating: PG-13 and neighbouring ratings
Summary: Home sweet home! ...Sort of.
The Story:
[ OOC INFO: Open to all, prose and comment spam welcome. Here is a summary of all the days:

#1: Philip will wander the tunnels aimlessly and try to process that he's actually stuck in his own event.
#2: Philip will wander the tunnels deliberately, make a tentative transmission and spend most of the time murdering dogs with zest and That Unsettling Little Spark (TM) in his eyes.
#3: Philip will casually look for tools and spend most of the day sitting by the lake.
#4: Philip will get impatient, look for tools in many more places and gather supplies to make a huge bomb which he hopes will blow open the door to the incinerator, the path he knows leads to the last part of the mines.
#5: A brief public service announcement, followed by broken sobs.]

Comments

[cursebreaking]

"You scared the crap out of me."

It's the closest thing to 'yes' he's going to get. She rocks back to put her weight on her heels, arms resting against her knees, though her jeans are now soaked through thanks to having knelt in the snow. No big deal. A little snow is nothing compared to all the blood she's got on her from her tunnel travels -- she and Philip are a matching set right now, clothes torn and bloodstained and looking worse for wear.

"Considering you look like you could keel over any moment, you had me fearing for the worst, pal."

[radiopalkiller]

The worst? No, he's pretty sure the worst is further down these tunnels, and it has nothing to do with an easy escape like death.

"Hey, what's one more life down the drain?"

He shrugs, and tries on an awkward smile. That's why they come in bundles of five, right? ...Came in bundles of five. Ha ha. Crap.

Right, so on second thought that is nowhere near the most reassuring thing he could have said, in fact, on third thought he's starting to doubt that he could have said anything less reassuring than that, and actually--

Actually, standing up and moving on sounds like a great plan.

"Anyway, erm... I'm good. Really."

Straight and steady on his feet and everything, now with 100% more 'almost no chunks of flesh missing, honestly'. Which sort of brings him to the matching set of clothes.

"...What about you?"

Picking up the axe in the snow he glances back towards the door at the far end of the icy tunnel that leads down to the lake. And how about something that's actually reassuring, maybe?

"They don't-- those things, I mean, they don't seem to come near the lake, so I think we're good here."

Red used to come here plenty, but that probably doesn't count for much. Philip stares out at the ice.

[cursebreaking]

"Guess you're not the conservative type." She figures he's probably joking, thanks to that awkward smile, but she's not sure she could bring herself to be that flippant about it. She can brush off a lot of things, but even known it's not permanent, even knowing they're supposed to bounce back? She's so used to death being it, being the ultimate end that the idea of impermanence makes her uncomfortable and makes her stomach clench.

Is it worse to die and stay dead or die, come back and remember how it happened? Something she hopes she never learns the answer to firsthand.

"I'm hanging in there. Not that this place is making it easy, but I haven't gotten eaten alive yet. I'm gonna call that a win." There had been some close calls with the stuff in the tunnels, but so far, she'd managed to come out on top. "Why d'you think they avoid it? Not that I'm complaining -- seriously, that's a godsend, but seems kind of weird."

[radiopalkiller]

There's probably a terrible joke in there too, but Philip decides to lay off that branch of the conversation. He huffs a laugh. At least he can appreciate the whole 'at least we're not being digested at the moment' philosophy. Probably as good as it gets here, anyway.

"I've been--" wondering since the time he was actually here, but that's a thought he'd rather not finish, unless he has to.

"...wondering about that. Maybe something worse than them lurking in the lake?"

Hahh, there we go again. Really, that's got to stop. Philip looks up.

"It could be too bright though," he volunteers, more seriously this time.

It's not much colder than the other places, definitely not more ominous or anything of that sort, but the one thing that really sets it apart from the rest of the tunnels he remembers is its light.

Walls of snow, and a broken ceiling of ice. A big hole in the middle, a blinding blur of white light from above, and reflecting whiteness all around. What a brilliant way out that would be, if the walls would let you, or the path uphill wasn't an eternity of frozen wastelands stretching in all directions.

Still, if the spiders already hate the flashlights, maybe the dogs and all the rest have their own threshold somewhere.

[cursebreaking]

"I'm gonna bank on too bright." She doesn't sound quite convinced that that's it, as a matter of fact, but it was better than the alternative. Still, her gaze wanders towards the lake, and she has to wonder if there's something down there beneath the ice... if there is, it would have to be pretty nasty for the monsters in the tunnels to avoid it on principle. Light made sense, but now that the seed of an idea of a lake monster had been planted in her head...

Damn it. That was unsettling as hell.

She clears her throat a little before continuing. "It'd make sense, at least. If they're used to being in darkness all the time, the light would come close to blinding them. As long as you don't mind the cold, probably a smart place to camp out until it's over, right?"

Except this event already felt longer than most of the events she'd experienced since coming to Wonderland.

"How many more days of this crap do you think we have left?"

[radiopalkiller]

Philip can say for sure that these underground paths have nastier things to offer than a few overgrown worms, but for all it's worth he hasn't actually seen any of them emerge from that lake just yet. And until proven otherwise he'll cut himself a break and decide that that is definitely the rule here.

"Right..."

Which makes the suggestion reasonable, definitely the sort of thing he'd recommend, though if he could stick to it himself is another question.

Just lying here felt like a break he badly needed, but at the same time he can almost hear the tunnels calling for him, just to have a look again, to see if there's something he missed the first time around, something... something that could've changed his fate. Small chance of that, and deep down he knows it. The real decision that locked the door behind him lies in a different part of this place.

...One he hopes the others here never have to stumble into.

"It's almost to the end now."

The mine, that is.

"The days, I mean. It's-- What, the, er, the third? Fourth? That's about as long as they usually last, isn't it? Maybe we'll be back in Wonderland tomorrow."

He huffs a small laugh, when he thinks that he could almost get himself to sound cheerful at that. Wonderland. Yay. Then again, looking at the alternatives...

[cursebreaking]

"Yeah, usually just three or four. Four seems rare. Here's hoping."

She could probably manage another day or so, but she's not dying to find out. The sooner they're done here, the better, though that goes without saying. She's not one of Wonderland's biggest fans by any means, but when they get events like these for comparison, it's damn near paradise.

His words don't sit well with her, however. That so-called superpower of hers is kicking it into high gear. It hasn't been quite as reliable lately, but the fact is that she's spent most of her life around shady types and that meant learning to read people. She doesn't think he's lying, but she does think he's not telling her the whole truth.

Well then.

"I'm thinking you know more about this place than you're letting on."

[radiopalkiller]

Philip's teeth clack together with the sound of a rapid objection just as rapidly filed away. Too soon, and there goes any chance he has of giving his denial any amount of credibility. Christ, he should've seen that question coming. He grimaces.

"Was it that obvious?"

He wouldn't have thought, but then, not thinking of much beyond the event's implications was probably what made it so obvious to begin with. There's more to this mine than Wonderland has shown them so far, and Philip is not looking forward to letting anybody else in on what this place still has up its sleeve.

"I'm not sure how much I could tell you..."

Not sure how much he is able to tell her, not sure how much he wants to tell her. Not quite sure where the line between those two is. He trails off for a moment. Plain things first?

"But it is my event."

Plain things first. Just to have the obvious formally out in the open. So he can look at her, and wait. Because anything she's not asking, he's probably not about to volunteer.