Exploration: Red

[truthdecided]

Who: Akechi, Emporio, Akira
What: Exploration: Red
Where: North of the outpost
Warnings: Environmental hazards, probable combat, and overall peril.

The shift from forest to sweltering heat happens instantaneously. Even knowing the risks, Akechi winces as the temperatures spike. The glaring light hardly helps, hindering visibility severely when combined with the smoky haze. Grateful for his Safety Goggles, Akechi flutters forward. The glow of lava veins shines eerily through the blackness of the smog, and a towering structure beckons them...

But it's not long until a dust storm sweeps over them, the force of which knocks Akechi back. Desperate, he clings to the top of Akira's Shellder helmet to steady himself.

Gasping for breath, he reorients himself and peers down at his teammates. "Are you all right?"

Comments

[truthdecided]

That's... concerning. Very concerning. Judging by Emporio's reaction alone, it seems touching the structure is unwise.

"So touching the structure directly causes some sort of mental reaction?" He really shouldn't. It's like sticking a hand in a bear trap, but curiosity gets the best of him, and—

"Gah!" He wobbles back, cringing at the cacophony of voices. "...This is clearly no ordinary volcano. We should... report this to Mightyena-san."

But he is not directly touching it again. That was a mistake.

[hundredeyesoni]

There's no sound as the others attempt the same? Hm...

"I wonder if it's another telepathic system like ours, or if it's more like a gathering of lost souls! What I wouldn't give to examine it with my own eyes..." A strange statement while they're already there in person, maybe.

His Shellder's eyes have already opened as if going through the motions, but even so, it's just not possible to see what sort of magic's behind any of this. Then he'll press his hands to the glass again and focus, tying to make out what he can among all those voices. Trying to understand, even as they drown out everything else around him.

[seacub]

"Th- That's not what you need to be doing at all!!" Emporio protests, rushing to try and pull the Slowking back. "Listening to that for more than a few minutes could leave us deaf...or worse!"

This is a difficult act, given the size of the other compared to him. "We'd end up having to drag you to the clinic if you touch it too long!"

Desperately, he looks at Akechi for help.

[truthdecided]

"Akira-san, I understand that you're intrigued, but you mustn't place undue stress on your mind when we need to return to the outpost." He glances at Emporio, nodding. "And seeing how neither of us is particularly large, it would be rather inconvenient to transport you, were you to lose consciousness from over zealousness."

[hundredeyesoni]

No, deafness shouldn't have anything to do with it when the noise is bypassing his actual sense of hearing. But.. stress? Right, the mental toll of taking in so much information at once could be a problem, if he could only manage to pick it apart to learn from it. What would that feel like, anyway? Right now it's just kind of...

Disorienting...

He's not sure, when he finally snaps out of it, slumping down to just sit there instead, how long he may have spent trying to listen. Seconds? Minutes? Is the Cubone still at his side? Whatever the case, there's an urgency to Akira's voice once more when he speaks up.

"Ah!! Right, we can't leave before we've copied the text down!"

If that's the most concerning part of all this, he's.. probably fine.

look up ancient greek wax slates they're so cool...

[seacub]

That's super bad! That's super not fine!!

Emporio trades an anxious look with Akechi, but ultimately chooses not to address anything about what just happened aloud. Instead he just....nods.

Slowly.

"Y...yeah. Let's just copy what we can see, and then head back. ...I'd say we could take rubbings, but paper would burn up here, so we'll just have to use the wax slates..." he mutters, pulling out his own.

[truthdecided]

"It's better than nothing." So, naturally, Akechi follows suit and tries his best to gather as much of the text as possible. "No doubt we'll be well regarded by the other guilds for our efforts, even if we leave without a complete picture."

It's still a major breakthrough. Something they can build upon with time.