Event log: Buried Alive

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone participating in the event!
What: The event log for the Buried Alive event!
Where: All around the city
When: January 16th-January 19th
Warnings: Claustrophobia, starvation, premature burials, all that fun stuff.

On the morning of January 16th, half of the game's characters wake up to find that they are not where they were when they fell asleep. Instead, they're surrounded by a claustrophobic darkness, cheap satin cushioning, and an intense feeling of weight directly above them. Unfortunately, all of this adds up to the fact that your character has been buried alive.

Luckily, they'll have their phones, which can function as a source of light, communication, and hopeful distraction. They'll be able to talk to the other folks who are buried around the city, as well as their would-be rescuers. Thanks to Hope's timely post on the network, the rescuers know where everyone is, even if they're not sure who is buried where.

This is where organization, planning, and a little bit of luck come in! The aboveground characters will be supplied with shovels via the armory and are encouraged to go dig up their buried friends. Dig quickly though, because the air supply is pretty thin, and by the morning on January 19th, the characters who are not yet dug up will find that oxygen deprivation is a rather unfortunate way to die.

So, grab your communicator, grab your shovel, and get to work!

► This log covers January 16th-January 19th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► Please remember to report any deaths to the Death page!

Comments

[themightykamina]

Kamina's no stranger to hierarchy; he's just never been much of one to care about authority. It's just one more barrier he's gotta break through. But that same stubborn determination serves him well, in situations like this; he's not just sitting around waiting to be rescued. He's got a belt knife he's been using to chip away at the wood above his chest, though it's slow going, and he's been stopping now and then to conserve air and reassure those who might be listening. Even if he dies, he knows he'll go out swinging.

It's nearly two days later when he hears the scratching above him. At first he thinks he's imagining things. Over the course of the next several hours, he's almost convinced himself it's Simon, drilling for him. So he works harder, and the first piercing of light through the hole he's created is nothing compared to the blinding flash when the coffin lid is thrown open. He automatically lifts a hand to shield his eyes, the one that's holding the knife, knuckles bruised and scraped raw from contact with the rough wood. There's a sword at his side, too, still sheathed, too long to be drawn in the coffin, but it only takes a minute before he tries to move, to spring into a crouch that actually is more of a twitch carrying him into the fetal position.

His legs have gone numb, and apparently so have what little manners he has.

"Ow, shit...who're you?"

[xiake]

Luckily, Sunny doesn't subscribe much to manners, either. He looks the kid up and down. Young, but not as young as some of the others his come across. The slashes in the coffin top tell him all he needs to know about this one.

"I'm the guy who dug you out," he says. He reaches over and dangles a bottle of water into the pit. Actual plastic bottles. He's only seen them washed up on dirty shorelines before this place, but these were new. As if someone's still manufacturing them and all the other stuff he's found.

"Can you get up?"

[themightykamina]

A good answer. Not a full answer, but Kamina doesn't need one of those, not yet, anyway. He's the guy that dug Kamina out, and that's good enough. His eyes are slowly adjusting to what passes for daylight in this pit, and as the muscle spasms in his legs fade into tingling, Kamina pushes himself into a sitting position, pounding on his thighs with an empty fist. The water bottle is the first thing he sees, and he reaches for it eagerly, downing two measured swallows before answering. "Yeah, soon as I can feel my legs again. Give me a second."

His standing is cautious, for once. Gotta make sure everything's still attached. Once he makes it to his feet, he takes his first look at the stranger, offering a grin that's almost his usual cocky self. "Thanks for the rescue. I'm Kamina."

[xiake]

The kid doesn't seem all that concerned about being buried alive. Sunny decides he might like him, though he still doesn't get how all these people are not only staying alive this well but even awake. He knows enough to understand that there's not a lot of room for breathing when you're under a few feet of dirt. They should all be dead by now, but the last time he peeked at this phone -- which he's mostly figured out by now -- there's people talking to each other.

"Sunny," he says. He doesn't smile back, but his nod acknowledges the thank you. He offers a hand to help him out of the pit and stands afterwards. He nudges the shovel out of the way with the toe of his boot. "You know how you ended up down there in the first place?"

[themightykamina]

Even if he was concerned, even if he was scared, there's no point in showing it. Always give the world his game face, show them that even if he is scared he's not gonna stop fighting. He doesn't know any other way to be. And anyway, didn't it work out alright? Just like he'd hoped, everyone still unburied pitched in to dig, or enough of them, anyway. It's a good sign. Teamwork, or close enough to give him some hope that they'll get out of here after all.

Kamina takes Sunny's offered hand in a firm grip and vaults out of the hole, not bothering to look back into what was almost his grave. No point in looking back, right? Pulling himself up to his full height, he shrugs, tattoos moving on bare shoulders. "Fear, probably. One of the gods or whatever that're in charge of this place. It's BS, there's no such thing as gods, but they're the guys in charge, which mean they're the guys we're gonna have to beat to get the hell out of here." And...that's the full extent of his master plan so far.

"Plenty of time to talk about that on the way to the next guy. There's still more people that need to get dug up, right?" He's itching to get to work, throw in the gods' faces just how stupid this whole plan was to begin with. Screw them, seriously.

[xiake]

No, there's no such thing as gods. But something strange is obviously going on, enough so that there's now a myth that's been spun around these people. Sunny doesn't doubt a lot of that was on purpose.

"Knock yourself out." He hands Kamina the shovel. The boy is eager and Sunny has no problem putting him to work. There's a second set of coordinates he's marked down. "This way. Don't fall."

The ground is full of open holes, dug haphazardly with mounds of dirt piled beside them. It's a mess and even he's nearly stepped into an open grave once. When he walks off, he doesn't look back. It's clear he's used to being followed.

[themightykamina]

Personally, Kamina doesn't care one way or the other about what they wanna call themselves. Clearly they have some sort of ridiculous control to be able to pull stunts like burying half of them like that, but all that means is he's gonna have to work harder to find a way to bring them down and get the hell out of here. And he's not leaving anyone behind for them to screw with when he goes, he's determined.

Taking the shovel and resting the blade on his shoulder, Kamina strides off after Sunnny. The first few steps are a little slow and stilted, and there's a few quiet curses while he works the kinks out, but it isn't long before he's keeping up just fine, sandaled feet dodging holes and tackling the rough terrain like it's nothing. Clearly he's used to it not being easy going. "So how long's it been? Since he put up the list." How long have most of them been underground? He's just trying to get a feel for what's happened while he's been out of commission.

[xiake]

"Two days. Give or take." Most of these people should've been dead yesterday, but Sunny's not questioning it. It's obviously not meant to kill them, just frighten them, though for what purpose he doesn't know. He's sure there are some better answers if he could just read more of what's on this network thing, but it scrolls back a long way and he's not good enough to sit and decipher that much writing. It's not as if anyone here has time to read for him.

It's frustrating. (He could really use Veil.)

Eventually, Sunny stops in front of an unearthed plot.

"They're all still talking to each other." He leans against a tree. "So we have at least a few more hours."

He's anticipating at least several dead bodies to surface in the end, or maybe some who aren't found at all.

[themightykamina]

Kamina hadn't even really bothered with his phone until being stuck in that box. Even then, a lot of it just doesn't register. Yoko or Leeron would be great with the thing, but he's not exactly the reading type. Honestly, if he hadn't accidentally discovered the text-to-speech button on his phone, most of what was going on would've gone right over his head both literally and figuratively.

"That box wasn't big enough for two days of air," he says like someone who would know. "So I guess Fear did something to keep it coming. It'd make sense for that asshole. Everyone says he's just trying to scare us, not actually murder us." He's picked up on a bit, from listening in and talking to people. But just because whoever's buried here isn't likely to straight-up die doesn't mean he's going to leave them there, so Kamina plants the shovel and starts digging.

[xiake]

There are a few minutes where Sunny is silent, contemplating this. It shouldn't be possible, giving someone more air, but there's a lot of technology around here he's never seen before. Maybe something like that exists now.

Or maybe it's something else, something ancient and deadly like M.K. (He hopes the kid hasn't gotten himself killed yet.)

"Everyone talks about these people like they're mystical. Fear, Rage." He tilts his head. "Is it true?"

[themightykamina]

"I dunno about mystical," Kamina grunts, slinging a shovelful of dirt to one side. "They're all dicks in one way or another, and they sure want us to think they're gods. Personally, I don't buy it. Gods are just stupid superstition. You know, back where I'm from, there was this village we visited once--me and my bro, and Yoko, Leeron--where they worshipped a Gunman, calling it a 'face god.' They had no idea it was just a Gunman. They didn't want to. I figure it's like that. These guys, Fear, Hope, Rage, whoever else they wanna bring back--whatever they are, it ain't gods. They're just more assholes who wanna use us and keep us buried." He doesn't pause in his digging, even his story not interrupting. He's not letting anyone stay like that.

"You know, even you and me are still buried. They've got us stuck in this pit, just like I was back in Jiiha. But somewhere up there, there's a surface, and my bro's waiting for me there. So I figure, whatever they wanna call themselves, there's nothing that's gonna keep me down here, even a god!"

[xiake]

The kid talks a lot. Sunny actually only understands half of what he's going on about, but at least they can both agree there are no gods -- though if there were, he would buy this variation of them, maybe. Destructive and cruel. Still, even if he's not one to get philosophical, he knows on a common sense level that there's nothing supernatural that sent the badlands spiraling into the bloody system it exists under now. Just men.

It shouldn't be any different here.

"You were underground where you came from, too?" he asks. He looks up at the ceiling that stretches to infinity. He does miss the sun. The temperature here is comfortable in a way that unsettles him. He's used to the scorching summer heat and warm rains. "How did you get out?"