Log:Explorer's Guild: The Sands of Time
Explorer's Guild: The Sands of Time
OOC Date: April 15, 2019
Location: Yavin 13
Participants: Explorer's Guild: Corr Waldin, Netep Muri, Yoska Lash, and Maireni; with special guest star David Ironside
YAVIN XIII
The desert stretches out as far as the eye can see. Corr stands with an hourglass the size of a soccer mom's picnic-ready cooler jug (https://bit.ly/2In5Iui) held in his hands, boots sunk into the dry, sandy sand. "So, according to the inscription what's on the top of this thing," he says, holding it out in front of him, "It'll only keep accurate time if it's refilled with magic sand from a certain oasis, and given that it was makin' perfect eggs every morning until recently, I can only assume it needs fresh or somethin'. Maybe the magic's gone out of it. I don't pretend to know how these things work," he says, of magic or hourglasses or both.
The hourglass itself is made of a bronzey material, two discs held apart by three rods and of course the curvy glass that's sporting curves in all the right places. The top and bottom and even those rods are inscribed and filigreed with all manner of decoration.
"It's got a map on the bottom so I guess we just follow it but it can't be to scale, it didn't match with any of the planetary scans I could find," he explains, offering it bottom-up to anyone who wants a look.
"'Special' sand..." Part-time desert dweller Netep shoots Corr a skeptical look as she bends at the knee to scoop up some of this free beauty treatment and exfoliate her hands. "That's why we burned fuel all the way out /here/, it is? Opposed to making the quick hop to Tattooine, Socorro...hell even Jakku and Jedha are closer an'they all have such a surplus of sand, I bet we'd track home all you need in our teeth."
She quiets, facing forward again and surveying the surrounding desertscape. "I can appreciate just how beautiful it really is, though. Seeming desolation...masking a whole tree of life just beneath the grains." Wise cracks aside, Netep does love her some desert. Sand is good, sand is great, and the heat never bothered her anyway. Dusting the grit off her hands, she reaches out for that hourglass and blows a sigh. "Y'know, maybe you just need a new cooker, man. But lemme see."
David points at Netep. "Why don't you just get a chrono? It'll fit on your wrist." he points out. "And doesn't run on magic sand from the outer reaches of the galaxy." he peers around. "Look at this place, really look at it. Looks nice? Wrong. Cactuses and rocks. I bet the river's acidic, too." He smirks. "So here I am, of course."
"Why don't you just get a chroooon-ooooh," Yoska mocks in a singsongy voice, waving his many-ringed hands in an impersonation of David that is nothing like David whatsoever. He has on enormous shades with reflective mirror-like lenses, but he keeps lifting them up to squint at the surroundings. With the heat, and perhaps his lifestyle choices, he clearly operates under the assumption that yesterday's eyeliner can be today's smokey eye if you believe in yourself. "Who cares? Stupids?" Netep seems to get included in stupids here. "You coulda whined for for free before you took the job, yah. Now we are HERE and we're QU-- no wait that's just me now we are HERE and we're NEAR and we're READY TO GET SAND IN HAND."
"Whaaaaaaaaat?" Maireni has no idea what's going on here, because she never does, it's her standard operating mode. Clueless. When she has clues, they're usually wrong. "You fools gonna get us all cursed by puttin' fake sand in a magic container like that. You want us to be cursed? That what you want?" She's not dressed appropriately for this at all, with bright green top, white skirt, and knee-high blue lace up boots that have seen better days. They haven't seen less bling though, they're covered in faux gems that catch the light, making them only more offensive to the eyes. She's got a bag with her that contains candy, and maybe a few useful items. Only maybe though. "Yoyo we gonna have to burn some things after this." There are also roughly a dozen or so rings on her fingers. There's no way she's going to blend in with anything in the natural world.
As it happens, Corr is wearing a chrono on his wrist, so the need for the hourglass doesn't appear to be an actual need. "Where's your sense of adventure though?" he questions the others, while Muri is examining the map. "Look at this place. You been here before? No. You been those other places a hundred times. You never been here yet. And look at this thing. It uses sand to tell time, no batteries or nothing. I like it." He's also a prolific paper user. Weirdo.
"I figure we'll just go to every oasis until one looks like it's the right one," he explains, shrugging as he walks, heading towards the very-nearby oasis he was leading them to in the first place. "I mean, how long can that take?"
As soon as he says it, the guild leader vanishes abruptly from sight, dropping down through the ground almost too quick to be followed by the eye with a startled 'Hrk!' So that's off to a good start.
Closer inspection reveals a sort of sinkhole where he must have fallen through, but no Corr at the bottom, only a khaki-colored stony slope that is now being littered with particles of silica that sift down over the edge of the circular opening.
After a long minute of studying that enscribed map and turning the admirably thick and heavy desk ornament in hand, Netep frowns. "How much do you love this piece, Waldin? I confess I'm beginning to place greater value in its merit as a bludgeoning tool." Running her tongue over drying lips, she squints up at Mr Beige who probably blends the best out of all of them with these surroundings. "Also, I concur, this map looks bogus. How /old/ is this? Deserts change. Often. You sure your magical oasis still exists?" She hands it back and pulls a pair of binocs from her belt to have a looksee at the horizon, turning in a slow circle to perform a 360 survey. "If there /are/ more oases out...it'll be the desert that tells us. Not your paperweight." A pause "Also, I'm not sure you understand vastne--"
Wait. Waldin? Binocs lowered, Muri glances at the others and takes a few tentative steps 'forward'. "Where the sticks did he go?" And then she's finding out, because some jerk who she assumes is a Lash gives her a shove over the edge that she's JUST seen. Was it even hands that just struck her from behind? Muri's too busy trying to keep herself from landing head first wherever this scratchy slide leads to really contemplate the details.
David is about to say something to Corr, when he disappears. He stops and squints at Corr's last known location, giving Yoska a dismissive gesture. "Y'think he found the sand and bailed?" he asks, turned towards the Ryn when Netep disappears behind him. He doesn't notice a thing, until she's just cut off in mid-sentence. "I do not understand vastne, no." he replies, turning around. She's gone too. He turns back to Yoska and Maireni. "I'm not high, am I? Like, a contact high? Where'd everyone go?" He finally makes his way over to where Netep was, peering down. "Hey, there's a ho--" and tumbling in he goes. Something pushed him!
"Corr!" Yoska gasps, and then lifts up his shades to repeat the exclamation, "CORR! ...C to the O to the double R," this is not the time or place for that, but anyway, "Gone and we dunno where you are! Down in the ground and that would be funny, except this hoe got all.... our money."
Rhyming it has left him in a quandary, because now he's apparently realized he's not getting paid if Corr doesn't come back. His ringed hands, no fewer rings than Maireni, set on his narrow hips, and he looks from the sinkhole, to his sister, back and forth. Eventually he lifts up his shades again to look at her. "Obviously the right thing to do is save him, yah," Yoska decides, and then makes a jump for it! A jump he doesn't land, so it goes like OW OUCH OW YOW ACK EEK OW OUCH jangle OUCH jingle UWAHHH NO OW jingle jangle OW as he rolls down the khaki colored slope in a shower of lost coins, costume jewelry, and other people's possessions.
Maireni is focusing on what's really important here, which is to say, she's digging in her bag for candy while nodding like she's listening. She sort of is. "We definitely gotta get the special sand if we gonna fill it," she has decided, popping a piece of candy into her mouth, while offering another to Yoska. "It shouldn't take us no time-- hey!" Hot Beige is gone now, just gone, prehensile tail giving a startled jerk which causes the bracelets around said tail to jangle. "I hate to say it, but that guy is gone." She wastes no time. "Probably dead by now." Both hands lift up to pat the air in what she imagines is a reassuring gesture for all of the people who aren't listening to her. "Don't you start to worry, I'm gonna take over the guild and lead us all to treasure just like he woulda wanted." He wouldn't have wanted that. "I got a nose for this sort of thing!" That last part might be true.
Maireni would have continued her takeover of the guild had there been anyone left to hear her, but Yoska decides to go save Corr, so she sighs a heavy sigh, gives up her dream of stealing that sweet ship Corr is always flying around on, and jumps after everyone else. Badly. There a lot of yelps, squeals, toots, and some cursing happening on the way down. Good times.
When they reach the bottom of the slope, they're tumbled out into a more open area where the darkness of the slide is replaced by dim light courtesy of a lightsource not currently in view, which probably explains why it is so dim. Corr is nowhere to be seen. The ground down here is sandstone, the loose footing of the overworld replaced, and the only sand around is what slid down with them.
What is immediately apparent are two larger passageways on either side of this chamber, both emanating the same orangey luminesence in equal amounts, and a smaller dark crevasse between them that only someone quite small would have much of a chance at squeezing into. As a sidebar, it is cooler down here, at least.
Unnngh. Eventually, Muri starts to twitch back to life from where her final SMACK and skid across the sandstone bottom konked her out. "Mmm..wh.." The petite explorer pushes her face off the rock and casts a pained squint around at the other bodies, then the eerily lovely spanse of surrounding cavern. Or big ass burrow. Or old river bed. Muri isn't sure where they are, but she can count that one in their party is missing. She stiffly rises and pulls a little light from her belt. It clicks 'on' but fails to shin.
"Droyk."
Next to try is the comlink, also pulled from belt. She presses the button and lifts to lips for a raspy "...Corr?" while wide eyes take in their options.
David looks like he landed pretty comfortably at the end of the tunnel. Go towards the light, David. No more pain, all the leather jackets anyone could need.. David however doesn't go into the light, and is in considerable pain. Maybe he's bleeding. But it's all internal, where the blood is supposed to be. "Don't see him from here." he manages to cough up to Netep.
What makes sense here? Going down the perfectly nice large open passageways? Or smashing yourself into a tiny dark crevasse? Ryn are like cats, along with knocking things off tables for no reason, they're attracted to small spaces. You might be able to set out cardboard boxes and catch them when they irresistibly need to sit in them. For now, Yoska opts to head for the crevasse, squeezing his skinny little janky body in there while announcing, "I'm sure there's somethin good back here, yah! I think that --" Oh, oh no. In turning backwards to announce that, he's wedged himself, and he's stuck. Stuck! There's an alarmed noise, maybe something in Ryn language, like someone just caught a flute in a mousetrap. "Aiyaaaah, I'm trapped!" Then he lifts up his shades, because he's still in position to do that even though he otherwise can't move, and wails, "Doctor Girlfriend, help!" That's apparently Netep. "Other guy... Generic human dude 506... help! I will get you a date with Doctor Girlfriend if you help me, yah!" He does not ask his sister for help.
Maireni lands with a thud, and a rattle of too much jewelry, sprawled on the ground and looking up into the dim luminescence overhead. "I better get paid real good for this," she declares to no one, because Corr is definitely dead and not here to listen to her demand. After a minute or so to recover, she scrambles to her feet, checks the state of the candy in her bag. Still there, CHECK. Then begins to look around properly. Tunnel, tunnel, TINY AND INADVISABLE CREVICE. Ding-ding-ding. Even though Yoska has already managed to wedge himself into that space, the rattly, nimble beast decides that's the direction she's going in too. "Hey, hey, you gotta hold still, imma just get around you and then I'll kick you back out! HA-ha-haaaa," the laugh is loud, and punctuated with a whistle-sound from her snoot instrument, which is followed by a snicker. She was definitely calling Yoska a name. This is definitely going to wind up with a blue boot heel mashed against Yoska's face at some point, but the Ryn manages to slither her way into the crevice and not get stuck. True to her word, she kicks at Yoska a couple of times, probably not at all helpful, but she seems to be having fun with it, and then wriggles onward. "He can't get you a date with no one!" she calls back, then laughs some more.
While Yoska is getting trapped and the others are dithering over what to do or like, bleeding internally, Maireni has taken and actually succeeded at an action. This means she is the first to come face to face with a small rodentlike creature smaller even than a Ryn, and a bit furrier. Long pink dish-shaped ears, a relatively flattened snout, powerful hind legs bunched up underneath, the thing stares at Maireni with something like shock before letting out a panicked shriek/squeak and leaping backwards on those strong legs. The others can't see what's happening but they'll hear the sounds.
Almost at the same time, a pair of similar creatures, bigger ones, arrive through the righthand passageway, primitive spears clutched in their paws which lower to menace the intruders as soon as they are noticed, a terse exchange of unfamiliar, chittering syllables between them.
"I've half a mind to leave you in there," Netep announces to the panicking Ryn, over the sounds of his sister 'helping' him. The strain of elevating her voice is enough to trigger a round of productive coughs. A cloud of dust inhaled during descent clears her lungs at long last. Just in time to get sucked back in by a startled swear in response to the sudden shrieks that don't /quite/ sound like Yoyo, for lack of tootling.
"Gerbs," she says with a pitchy note of surprise that almost sounds...happy? "Friends, I believe our quest for magical sand has turned into an accidental home invasion. Please look as harmless as you can?" She smile/grimaces, and just goes ahead and sits down. "Hello," she says probably in vain. "I uh...you haven't seen a man about /this/ high..."
David sits up, spotting the little spears. "That's no good..." he mutters. When he hears Netep addressing the little cuddly Corr-killers, he nods, helpfully raising an arm at Netep's assertation of 'this high'. He then uses said arm to find a hold on the wall, if there is one, leaving bloody handprints everywhere his palm lands.
"That is -- OW, that's -- are those my boots?! -- OW, MARI," Yoska suffers as his big sister crawls over him, his whining punctuated by more whistling that's no doubt more bad names cast back at her. Ryn language is like beaches on too-urbanized planets, it would be beautiful if not for the trash. "That is absolutely NOT TRUE," Yoyo sniffs at Maireni's 'he can't get you a date with no one' accusation. "....I can get him a date with me." Shades UP. He grins at Dave from where he is still trapped in the tiny and inadvisable crevice. "What're you doin later?"
Regarding looking harmless... he's got that DOWN. Yoska is still stuck. Whether he could look scary to begin with is extremely doubtful, whether he can look scary now is probably downright impossible. He gives up on life and just goes limp, stuck there in the rocks, shades back on. "Ay Netep ask them what are they doin later." He's only got one move to get out of a bad situation and that's it. And also it never works.
Maireni was so smugly victorious about her being able to fit into a smaller space than her sibling that she didn't stop to consider the fact that this might be dangerous. Though in all honesty, even if she'd failed to do anything here, she still wouldn't have considered how dangerous it might be. She's more or less crawling her way through the space when she spots a thing. A THING. There's an alarmed 'toooooootwhistlewhistle' sound through her nose that, at the very least, Yoska will recognize as alarm. Both hands plant against the ground as she drags her knees up, scraping off several sparkly gems in the process, so that she can uncomfortably kneel in this too small space, then bring up both hands like she intends to box the creature bare handed. Well, ring handed, which can cause a lot of damage if it's done right. "You keep back you weird! Only room for one of us here and this here is my space now!" Her eyes are big, her white hair is puffed out all over the place, and the tuft of extra fluffy fur at the end of her tail has puffed out more than usual in visible alarm that no one can see because she's wedged in a crevice like a lunatic. She's going all in on this home invasion thing.
The two larger Gerbs in the main chamber seem to tense up when Muri says "Gerb", turning their attention and the points of their spears on her. "Chew cheek ote Gerb het tet cheek Gerbee? Chew kote kakkum chak chak kee koka hunda chippy chip?"
The other is peering at Yoska, taking a few quick but cagey steps forward to poke out with that speartip. "Chew goota koo het tet grekker- KEE!" Abruptly a short clawed digit points with obvious consternation at the hourglass Muri is still carrying and a lunge backward is made.
The first seems to share in this dismay, eyes widening and rolling a little with obvious animalistic terror. "TA SHUUFEE! KAKUNGA OTE KEEMEN!"
"Tet hakka, tet hakka!" the small one is saying to Maireni when the fists are raised, holding up open paws and swinging them back and forth in what is either a placating or aggressive manner. YOU DECIDE. It stiffens visibly when the cries go up from outside.
Netep uses the butt end of her useless flashlight to hastily etching the sandstone floor. She was never an art student. Crude shapes of a humanoid stick figure with overly broad shoulders holding a canteen takes form under the scritch-scratch-scraping. "This guy," points at the stick figure, then taps herself and motions back to David without looking up. "Together. Us. Looking for sand," in a desert with millions of tons of it ABOVE THEIR HEADS, "For this," She pats the scuffed up hourglass where it lies on its side within reach. A flashlight maybe wasn't the best drawing utensil, but pulling a knife seemed like a worse idea.
Her stare darts back and forth, trying to make ears or tails of their jibberjabber and the FEAR. Of this? Netep's left hand continues to wield the flashlight like an oversized crayon, but her right reaches across her own body to not just /touch/ the hour glass, but picks it up by one of the supporting frame sticks. She shakily holds it parallel for a moment, then slooooowly starts to angle it on end whilst watching those two 'big' lagomorphs...namely their spears.
A few grains of sand start to trickle down..
David manages to stand up, back to the wall. The man faces down the spears as Netep draws pictures on the ground. "Yeah, have you seen any magic sand and the guy who's paying for said magic sand?" he mutters cynically. The Gerb won't understand him anyway. "Should've just been content with his chrono, Force rest his soul." he supposes. "Ask them for a way out, too." he suggests to Netep.
"Mari! MAI DON'T FIGHT IT," Yoska howls at his sister, trying to squirm around to see her, which causes him to become even more stuck. He's so stuck. He's going nowhere. "Don't fight it while I'm trapped here! Stop! Make friends with it! Give it candy, or something!" Flail flail, his tail-tip is puffed up too, clearly their white fur at the end of the tail starts standing up when they get upset. Desperate for escape, he tries to shimmy out forward again, back toward Netep, Dave, and the big Gerbs, but, again, fail. He decides to win them over with charm, and focuses on one Gerb in particular, making a whistle that is so much less language than it is obvious catcall. "Hey. Heeeeey," Yoyo croons. "You don't gotta be afraid of the sands, or these ones. You don't even gotta find that beige one with the canteen, yah? Just help me out of here... and we can be us. Run away with Yoska to Nar Shaddaa. Yoska can show you many things, but Yoska will not beg." He adopts what he imagines to be a smolder and looks constipated.
"HAKKA TAKKA!" Maireni screeches back at the Gerb, paying precisely zero attention to whatever is happening in the non-crevice world. Also no attention to the other Ryn trapped in the crevice. She's already decided that the motion being made here is aggressive, because of course she has, there's a way to make this whole situation worse and she's diving head first right down that path, just like her ancestors would want her to. "AAAAAAAA!" It's not really a proper attack, because though she's small, so is this space and it doesn't really facilitate proper attack technique. Or the technique that she's using, which isn't proper, it's mostly flailing at the Gerb with open hands, each wild swat missing and hitting the ground, or the sides of the walls. One flail cracks a ring against the ceiling of this small space, cracking a ring that she stole from her brother. "THIS ISN'T MY FAULT YOSKA!" He won't know what isn't her fault, but he can be reasonably assured that it IS her fault.
"TET HAKKA," the Gerb in the tunnel screeches in reply, backpedaling in the tight quarters, flailing back at the Ryn just as uselessly in what must be self defense. The thing's eyes are squeezed shut, so it's no surprise she's not hitting anything.
In the main chamber, both of the bigger Gerbs take a large step back and away from Yoska, and now their spears are pointed at him rather than Muri, glancing furtively between her, her drawings, and the especially suspect hourglass. "Chew /da/ kakkum chak chak," one reluctantly guesses in the tone of one puzzling things together. A digit points at David. "Chak chak." Then back the way they came. "Dakker chak chak." He waves for them to follow, then hopsteps thataway, pausing to be sure that they got the message before leading on.
If they follow, they will traverse a windy corridor that leads through more of that dim lighting to a larger, more central chamber piled high with harvested chunks of cactus and cactus fruit. Hanging upside down from the ceiling is Corr, looking red in the face but not dead. Directly below his head is a particularly spikey cactus. The other red thing in the room is the sand that this particularly spikey cactus is sprouting out of. "Guess you're wondering what I'm doin' up here," Corr grunts to anyone who actually bothered to come to the rescue. Maybe it's literally just Grek again. Corr is still talking either way.
"Hang tight, Yoska! Be right back...." And Dr Girlfriend abandons the Lashes in favor of following their hoppity hosts. And what a discovery they've made!!
"Nah," Netep's voice answers him back from where she now stands, arms folding together over her chest while that awkwardly large hourglass rests on hip. "Seems pretty clear to me." Her chin dips to stare at the red, sparkly stuff underfoot and she scuffs it with a toe. "I mean...perfectly cooked eggs could yet be in your future." She starts a slow advance on his dangly position and motions for David to give her a hand. "I'll grab his head so he doesn't get his eyes gouged out on the way down, if you'll yank. Assuming we don't end up in the same situation in three seconds."
"This is mine," she twists around to say such to the Gerbs, pointing at Waldin, then self, then back to Waldin. Her mouth cracks a slanted smile that's 1 part apology, 1 part enjoying this more than she should. "I'll just uh...get this outta your hair. Fur." But before she can grab hold of his beet colored face, she's got to drop the hourglass. Which she does. /Gently/.
David follows Netep. "This isn't going to end with them eating us for dinner, right?" he asks, following her into the next area where they happen upon Corr. A bright smile forms on the face of the pilot-by-trade, exclaiming softly "We're getting paid! Double for rescuing, I'm sure." he glances pointedly at tomato-Corr, before just doing what Netep wants and making ready to yank him down. And he does.
"AIYAAAAAHHH I SAID MAKE FRIENDS WITH IT," Yoska shrieks at Maireni when she starts slap fighting the critter, followed by, "This is all your fault!" howled at exactly the same time as she says it's not her fault. In a dead panic, he scrambles for his life, still mostly wedged, but actually does manage to get free this time... at a cost. He's lost all the bracelets and the white tail fur off his tail, leaving it a red, raw, scraped up, BARE mess and he looks absolutely horrified. He pushes the shades up to stare. They fall back down. He pushes them back up on his head again. Nooooo his tail is RUINED. His beautiful TAIL. At a loss for words, he holds the injured appendage in both hands and follows the group, staring at Corr wide-eyed like this sight is the third most horrible thing he's seen today. Second worst, Maireni wearing his gem-boots. First worst. TAIL.
"HAKKAAAAAA," is Maireni's response as the Gerb flails back at her, but they're both completely useless at this fight thing, and eventually she tires out. Wary eyes watch the Gerb for a few moments before she begins to wriggle her way back out of the crevice again, hair mussed, clothing damaged, faux gem on one ring completely obliterated, but she's fine. Just fine. It takes her time to wriggle out, completely missing the fact that her ratchet brother is even more ratchet now, with his shameful tail condition. This is going to result in extreme mockery later, for now she just focuses on squirming out until she's back where everyone was. Was. She didn't hear the call from Muri earlier, so her leap out of the crevice, followed by 'ta-daaahhhh' hands is witnessed by no one. Aw. "AY WHERE YOU ALL AT?"
Corr is pulled down from the roof of the tunnel by the gentle hands of David Ironside, lowered lovingly to earth rather than onto a bed of needles. Sad. "This is the closest thing to magic sand I've seen yet and at this point I'll take it," he announces to the others, dropping to his knees and scooping sand into his canteen with both hands. It's a new one, exactly like the last one, but new. Because the last one was destroyed by orange blorp. "Let's get out of here while they're still unhappy to see us," he decides, exchanging a suspicious look with Grek there, their Gerb escort. "WE GO NOW," he announces both slowly and loudly as though those things will aid in comprehension.
The Gerb, only too happy to see them and their mysteriously upsetting hourglass gone, escorts the group back into the area where Maireni is, and then down the other passageway out to the open air. Success! Maybe? It feels magical, right?
