tushanshu_logs | EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 12th - 28th
Location: Kithika, inside the bottle
Situation: The discovery of an artifact from the first war against Malicant reveals the land of Kithika within a dimension of the Death Plane... and just happens to be contained inside a bottle.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

OOC INFORMATION ♦ CITY OF KEELIAI ♦ INSIDE THE BOTTLE ♦ THE WORLD EATER
Arriving in Kithika is unpleasant for the most part. Transport through the glass vessel deposits you in the middle of a thick and murky swamp, with air so hot and humid it feels as though one is breathing through a wet towel. This is a place of perpetual night and there are no celestial bodies visible overhead through the twisted vines to break up the blackness, making the only light visible that which comes clumps of marsh fungus that emit a steady glow in a variety of muted colours: pale blue, whitish green, watery mauve. The only other light comes from those who can generate it themselves and that will reveal numerous broad-leaved trees, in some places standing too thick to move through. Below, knee-deep water laps in swirls at their legs, accompanied by the occasional slithery feel of something moving in the bracken against wet limbs, gone before it can be identified. A variety of strange noises from creatures of the swamp fill the air with buzzing and hoarse croaking, interrupted by the screech of mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds darting past and hungry for a meal.

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OOC NOTE: Characters will not be able to progress past the Temple and the Grounds for 48 IC hours after which point, the way to continue onward to find the dragon will be discovered. The second log will be posted on the 17th, to help spread out the tagging. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I bet they never taught you this in boot camp."

Tony is waist deep in the murky water, and he's silently just thankful that his armor connection hasn't shorted out. The last thing he would need is to be stuck wading through this swamp without any kind of defense. Despite being in relatively decent condition, he's also been complaining for most of the walk.

"Ugh. This smell is never going to come out. You'd think that they would give us a little better warning-"

And at that point Bucky shoots one of the giant mosquitoes hovering around them, splattering it everywhere with the shot.

"Well, that was gross. If the bugs are this big, I can't wait to see the lizards."

"You'd be surprised what they taught me. Wasn't boot camp, though, training with the SAS in England," he says breezily. "Learned a lot of survival stuff during the war." Tony has been bitching the entire way, but Bucky just finds it amusing at this point, the experienced soldier laughing at the city boy.

He cuts off the complaining with the shot, and he can't help but laugh at Tony's face when bug guts go flying. "Aw c'mon, surely you've seen grosser stuff than this. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours in this stink hole, you spend three weeks in the same underpants in a foxhole and then we'll talk."

"I'd be surprised, huh? Is that supposed to impress me?" He's just not a soldier; never has been. Bucky's almost cheerful attitude as they trek through the Land of the Lost was making the challenge even tougher on Tony, if only because he was so down in comparison. The armor helped, at least. He wasn't as wet, but he wasn't having nearly as much fun as his companion.

"I've seen worse. That doesn't mean I want to do this all day. Thanks for the imagery, by the way." He's trying not to grumble, but that's difficult when you're up to your waist in swamp water and your friend is trying to look on the bright side. "You really like shooting bugs that much?"

Tony fires off a repulsor blast at the trees ahead, causing a horrible scream to come back at them when it connects.

"Yeah. This is thrilling."

"Who pissed in your oatmeal this morning?" He laughs, taking aim at another careening mosquito and splattering it with one well-placed bullet. Bucky's wet from the waist down and trying desperately to keep his gear dry (the gun he isn't currently using is, weirdly enough, swathed in a condom - an old wartime trick for keeping a barrel dry, since condoms were generally not in short supply).

"Yes, I do, actually. Been a while since I've gotten to shoot anything-" But then Tony's firing off an energy blast into the trees and they're screaming and Bucky cringes, trying to wrap an arm over his ears. "Aw hell, did you have to go and do that?"

"Yes. I really had to do that. It was necessary for my sanity."

He knows he's complaining, but Tony has already gotten tired of walking through the swamp and fending off giant mosquitoes. It's been a long walk already and with the trees fighting them every step of the way, it only feels longer. He sends off another short blast into a copse, causing another shrill outcry of pain from the haunting voices that seem to rise from nowhere.

"We're not making enough progress. If they want me to stop hitting them, maybe they should let me fly us out of here."

Great. Now he was making passive aggressive comments to the wilderness.

It's not hard to tell Tony is sick of the current surroundings. Frankly, as joking as Bucky is about the whole thing, he's not exactly enjoying it either. He doesn't have a tin can to keep swamp water out of his underoos. He fires off another shot at a careening bug and picks up the pace for his next several slogging steps.

"Swamps are usually slow going, it's hard terrain to move through. I don't like shooting the trees and bringing attention to ourselves though. Think you can get high enough to at least see how much farther we've got to go?"

Tony is sick of the swamp, but as much as he complains about it, part of him does enjoy the challenge. It's familiar in a way. Traveling into the bottle in order to stop a corrupting evil--you don't get simpler than that. And with all of the complicated situations he has back home, simple is a welcome change. Sometimes he needs simple battles.

He's not so thrilled about the flying, though.

"I'll see what I can do."

It was the first thing he'd done when he hit the swamp, and it hadn't gone well. Tony takes off again, this time expecting the tangle of vines that seem to growl as they shoot up at him. He sends a barrage of missiles and repulsor blasts down at them, which holds the initial charge off long enough for him to gain altitude. He looks above the treeline, trying to orient himself through the gloom that seems to oppress the whole area. It doesn't take long for the forest to send another wave of vines up to him, and after another burst of fire, Iron Man is wrestling with oozing green coils that hiss as they touch his armor. They practically throw him down into the swamp, and when he stands back up, the armor is smoking with weird chemical burns.

"I think I saw dry land that way." Tony points ahead of him, into the trees. "Hard to tell with Ferngully going evil, but it might actually be clear if we can get to that point. Couple miles."

Edited 2014-03-07 10:57 (UTC)

Bucky stops to watch Tony as he takes off into the air, and he tries to help as much as he can - he fires off expert shots at some of the vines, as many as he can with a tommy gun, managing to take out at least a few before they can get into grabbing distance of his friend. It's not long before there are too many, though, and he calls up a quick 'Strategic retreat!'. When they toss him back down (also expected, otherwise they'd be flying out of here already), Bucky slogs back over to him to try and help him stand, frowning.

"Couple miles ain't bad. Yeesh, they did a number on the armor. That gonna be okay?"

EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

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