A sudden revelation: Open RP

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

((Takes place a couple of days after Musical Day.  Much like last time, start a new comment thread when your character shows up.))

In the classic manner of all great ideas, this one came to Sallah at an unlikely time.

He dreamed he was walking through the Temple of Mara -- the original, not the replica.  Before him was the cistern, and within he could hear a tap-tap-tapping of metal on stone, and a voice: Becker's.  He leaned forward to hear what the man was saying, but it was faint, so faint -- six feet ... down ... below ... below ... six feet ... more ...

He leaned further into the cistern, straining to hear, and then his foot slipped and he fell, down into darkness --

-- and Sallah sat bolt upright on his cot.

Of course!

The entire entrance display to the Indiana Jones Adventure was underground.  More than six feet underground -- past the putative barrier that they'd encountered!

He burst out laughing and, too excited to sleep (dawn was still at least a couple of hours away, he guessed), scrambled out of bed and dressed.  He scrawled a note on a scrap of paper, grabbed a pickaxe, shovel, and lantern and headed out, first to tack the note onto the front gates of Adventureland, next to fill a rucksack with food and water, and then onward to the Indiana Jones Adventure itself.  He descended into the tunnels and when he'd reached a suitably deep spot -- as best as he could tell -- he set up operations.

The walkway shattered most satisfyingly when he smashed into it with his pickaxe.  This was more like it.

***

The note tacked to the Adventureland gate read:

Not done exploring yet.  Continuing work inside the Indiana Jones Adventure.  All are welcome to join.  --Sallah

Comments

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

Not done yet? Did this mean that they had potentially found a way out?

James headed towards the Indiana Jones Adventure as fast as he could.

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

Sallah paused in his work as he heard James approach. "Mr Potter? Good morning!"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"Good morning to you too," James said, and looked around. Then his face broke into a grin. "Starting from below ground this time, are we?"

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

"Indeed!" Sallah chuckled. "One of those flashes of inspiration, you know -- this entire section of the complex is well over six feet below ground. So we shall see what we find." He picked up his pickaxe. "Pickaxe, sir?"

reposting for the very simple fact that I can't notice jack...

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

Macavity studied the note for a moment, then grinned the kind of grin that did not bode well for this 'Sallah'. He hadn't actually met the man yet, and considering the fact that most of the humans he had met in this place seemed frightened or suprised by his obvious difference in species, and also the one that he was so bored that had he been in his own domain he would have killed a few people by now...exploring seemed like a very good idea indeed.

He'd only just reached the entrance to the ride when the sounds of destruction reached his sensitive ears. The Jellicle followed the noise until he encountered a fat man working tirelessly at a hole in pathway, with thinner man who smelled of magic talking to him. He crept up behind them and growled softly, before darting silently back into the shadows before either man could possibly notice him.

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

What the blazes was that?

Startled, Sallah nearly dropped his pick. He looked around wildly; then, still clutching the pick, he picked up the lantern and peered anxiously into the shadows.

"Who's there?"

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"Yessir," James said cheerfully, picking up a pickaxe for himself and enchanting once again with his back turned to Sallah.

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

Macavity grinned to himself, and mentally told the man very firmly that the shadows where far too dense for even the lantern to pierce, before slipping around and behind him to stand by the hole, behind the thinner one.

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

James started as well, though he kept both hands on his pickaxe. He frowned, held it still, and peered into the darkness. For a moment he thought it might just be a stray animal, then he realized that he hadn't actually seen much more than a duck as far as animals went since he got here. "It was probably nothing," James said slowly, more because his pickaxe was eager to start working again than because he actually believed that.

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

Sallah shivered slightly; this reminded him far too much of the original Temple and its hidden dangers. Casting about once more with the lantern, he sighed and set it back down. "This place is full of echoes and sounds," he muttered. "Perhaps it was the ride." He hefted up his pickaxe and set back to work, a little more slowly now; he was trying to listen as he worked.

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

A shiver ran down James' back, and he stopped his pickaxe again, turning around quickly.

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

"Mr Potter? What --?"

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

"Mr Kira! No, we have not yet encountered more of that strange concrete. We may, but better that we know, eh?" He chuckled. "And perhaps this time, we shall learn what the park does with the hole. It seems the last excavation was filled in by a well-meaning fellow resident of the park."

His tone was, as usual, cheerful enough, but his eyes darted nervously to the shadows, and his smile seemed a little strained.

[tas-wanderlust.livejournal.com]

Explore? Oh boy!

"What are you exploring?" Tas asked, seeming to appear out of no where beside Sallah.

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

How much startling could a man take in one day? Sallah -- much to his embarrassment -- squawked in surprise and really did drop his pickaxe this time. He stared at the -- child? Boy? and, to cover his embarrassment, bent to retrieve his pick.

"We are attempting to find out what lies beneath the park," he said, a little stiffly. "I am sorry, young man, I do not believe we have met. My name is Sallah."

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

Oh, now this he really couldn't resist. He moved from behind James to behind kira, and leant close enough to breathe on the back of the boy's neck.

"Boo." He murmured in his ear.

[tas-wanderlust.livejournal.com]

"Oh dear, you seemed to have dropped this," Tas said, offering the pickaxe to the man. "You should really take better care of your things, don't you? You'd be surprised at the amount of things people drop.

"I'd imagine there'd be a lot of dirt under the park, wouldn't you? I mean, that seems like the logical conclusion, right? I'm hardly young though. I haven't been young for a very long time. But how very rude of me!" He held out his hand. "My names Tasslehoff Burrfoot, but all my friends call me Tas." Which basically meant almost everyone, since Tas thought of everyone like his friend, and less most people could say to Tas, the happier they were.

[snitchnicker.livejournal.com]

"It was nothing," James muttered, peering into the shadows again. He decided to lift the enchantment off of the pickaxe though. It seemed to be giving him more trouble than it was worth.

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

Sallah accepted the pickaxe with a look of bemusement, an expression that didn't change as he returned the handshake. "A pleasure, Mr, um, Burrfoot." He managed a smile. "Our previous attempts at excavation revealed a solid barrier six feet below the surface. We are attempting to determine if the barrier exists at deeper levels."

[tas-wanderlust.livejournal.com]

"Wow, really?" Tas asked, looking excited. "So, you don't think it would be here? I wonder what is under here. Can I help? It sounds exciting."

[bestdigger.livejournal.com]

Sallah sized up the ... person sceptically. "Of course, if you wish," he said finally. He handed Tas a shovel and indicated the broken-up rubble that he and James had already dug out. "That will need to be shoveled out of the way. Can you do that?"

[tas-wanderlust.livejournal.com]

Tas took the shovel which was a little too big for him and nodded. "Of course I can!" Tas said, and began to do just that, looking like he actually knew what he was doing, though he was doing it a little too enthusiastically.

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

There is certain feeling of intense power to be had when you realize than where you can see perfectly well, other might as well be sightless cave-fish for all they can see, and he grinned to himself in the darkness.

He growled against, louder, then laughed, a well-toned meglomaniac's cackle that felt oh-so-very good to indulge in once in a while, and moved to the opposite point of where the echoes came, swift and silent as a shadow himself.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia took time enough showing up, but when she did get there, the girl was all business. "Is there anything I can do, Mr. Sallah?" she asked, eyeing the shovels hopefully, but still waiting for an assignment before making any move.

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

And in the deepest, darkest shadows, Macavity was doubled over with silent laughter.