Like canaries in a coal mine [OPEN]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Anyone in Tulgim
Content: One of the mines in Tulgim has collapsed a second time, trapping some of the rescuers inside!
Setting: Mine 2b
Time: From late morning onwards
Warnings: Possibility of bloody or violent descriptions
Notes: Please note in the thread subject whether your threads take place either pre- or post- the second collapse

Comments

[treesurfer]

[...this was the place where it was all cold and freezing, right? Gah, I completely forgot, please correct me if I'm wrong!]

Tarzan heard the grinding rocks, he felt it along his knuckles while he had been exploring the area and watching the people. He easily leapt to all fours and weaved through the crowd and to the entrance. The entrance was, indeed, a chaotic place. But he couldn't let that deter him. He could hear faint voices over the din that told him there were people still inside.

Using various rocks on the sides and walls, he made his way into the tunnel and over the people until he reached the source of the pandemonium.

The rocks held firm as he climbed around them, trying to find a loose one. He couldn't, however, not yet. He'd need more help. "Tarzan here!" He called out to the people. "Tarzan help! Say something?"

He needed to know if the people on the other side could hear him, that way he could maybe coordinate something so that they could get over the rock wall together. And maybe without injuries?

[fatherofcute]

He should have known that there was nothing good that could come out of caves. Didn't his mother use to tell him not to go into caves? Terrible things they were, she said, with their gaping maws and weird teeth and fickle tendency to fall all over people's heads for no reason. Course, he used to think that it was because his uncle had died in a cave-in, but he was figuring out now that they really were terribly dangerous things

[treesurfer]

Tarzan heard Hughes's voice and turned his head. He turned his body around and climbed down the rocks, jumped to the wall and looking around. He spotted the pickaxe first.

"Hughes!" He called out. "Here! Tarzan here!"

[fatherofcute]

He quickly padded over, relieved that Tarzan more or less looked like he was in one piece. It was too dark here. He knelt down and struck a match to an oil lamp and held it up. "Who's in there?"

After second collapse 8D

[sekaitoonajide]

She loved her job, she really did. She loved her life, and the excitement and the idea of going into the world and seeing things for what it was outside of the stories she'd heard at work from other travelers

It's just my first posts that are tl;dr, promise.

[abeator]

Abe wasn't really the type to join rescue missions -- he was an athlete, not a fighter, and he did not fancy injuries to himself. Any injury would mean the end of his piloting days, whether for sport or not, and that was not an option. Nevertheless, he had gone and joined the rest of the crew at the officers' orders. What was the chance of a second cave in? He should have calculated it statistically instead of relying on everyone else's optimism, and then he would have figured that it was too high and he wouldn't be hereUnfortunately, the cave had collapsed that second time as he was realizing his mistake. A stone hit him on the temple, and the shaking had made him lose balance. He had thrown himself against a wheelbarrow and hoped that nothing else would hit him before blacking out

Hope you don't mind a monkey boy.

[d_luffymonkey]

Ever the Big Damn Hero that he was, Luffy of course had all but rushed into the collapsing mines in order to save the miners who were stuck there. On one hand, he did manage what he had succeeded - the miners had all managed to escape with little injuries or losses. But on the other hand, the other cave-in occurred before he could get out and so now... he was, of course, only all too obviously trapped

Not at all <3

[sekaitoonajide]

"Saionji, where are you?"

"Helloooooo? Is anyone there?"

...Voices...She had been speaking to Abe and Nami in her journal, just to ease the pain...she listened to their words over and over and over, just to try not to think about it, to get her mind off of the pain and the thought that she was really going to die alone down here...

She was just going to be alone and nobody was going to find her, and she was going to be abandoned--

No. The people didn't do that here. She had friends. She wasn't going to be abandoned...

There were voices, after all!

"HELLO! I'M OVER HERE!" She screamed as hard as she could manage, though it sounded wavering and a bit weak. "SOMEONE, HELP ME!!!"

After second collapse - RESCUE TEAM GOOOOO.

[coyotealpha]

If there was just one word that Pip could use to describe this whole situation, it would be fuck. And screw the children, they were trapped inside there.

Needless to say, the brunette was certainly not happy at all at how things were panning out. First there was all that trouble with the Reif guy, and now there were their own crewmates stuck in there! The quartermaster made a mental note to hismelf to get a nice good round of drinks for himself and possibly everyone else legal enough once all this crap was over and done with. Seriously, it wasn't as if they didn't have enough to deal with.

(And perhaps, he might have taken dealing with Team Fail over this whole thing, had they been here.)

Shovel in hand, the mercenary surveyed the collapsed pile of rocks and rubble before him with great dismay. He sighed, and then eventually turned to whoever was with him at the moment. "So, we got a count on how many are in there or something?"

Re: After second collapse - RESCUE TEAM GOOOOO.

[armorgal]

"No," Erza said cooly, "but I don't intend to leave them down there a moment longer. Step back for a moment."

There was a brief flash of light in her hand, and suddenly she was holding a large, bizarrely ornate sledgehammer. With a shout she hauled it back and brought it down on a particularly large chunk of rubble, cracking it into several pieces.

WHY ERZA WHY.

[coyotealpha]

The brunette raised an eyebrow at the order, but he did as told anyway. Actually, he took more than just a step back for good measure. What with the things he had seen from his fellow quartermaster, the man had a tendency to try and shy as far away from her as possible lest he wanted to be on the receiving end of one of her many larger-than-life weapons. (Seriously, how the hell did she keep them all anyway?)

Then he stared as the redhead summoned out one of her large-ass weapons from god-knows-where and flailed quite a bit when she started to swing her humongous hammer around in a bid to break through the rubble.

"W-Whoa zere," the man started, quickly making his way back towards Erza and stared a bit more as she started to... do her thing. "Y-You know, I don't zink we really should be doin' anyzing like zis..." If anything, she'd only cause another cave-in - and Pip sure as hell didn't want that to happen.

[armorgal]

Erza vanished the hammer in another flare of light. "I wasn't planning on smashing my way through the whole way," she said as if it were obvious. "But we weren't going to get anywhere so long as that piece was blocking our path. Now, it's a more manageable size."

She extended her hands outwards, palms down, and closed her eyes in concentration. It had been a long time since she had used her abilities in their raw form, especially for something this delicate. She breathed deeply, and as she did loose pieces of surface rubble began moving, rising off the ground. She slowly turned away from the cave-in, hands still held out in front of her, and as she did the pieces of rubble floated, wobbling through the air until they were deposited a safe distance away.

Erza released her control and slumped forward, breathing heavily. Moving things around took more energy than she remembered.

post second collapse

[starcharmsketch]

The one bright spot amongst the rubble and frantically working rescue teams was Naminé's poofy yellow coat and her blonde hair-- though both were already beginning to be dusted with rubble and sand. She herself hadn't gone in to help the first caved-in miners, figuring that difficulties moving around and staying warm would prevent her from being a real help. Now with the second cave in, she had forced herself to come out and help the medical teams and cooks prepare for anyone who would be coming out injured from the mines

[nice_young_man]

Fortunately, she didn't come alone. Quatre had missed the first rescue attempt as well, and as soon as he heard about the second cave-in, he rushed with Naminé to help. While he wasn't as weak as he looked, he still wasn't the strongest volunteer, so he set out to help with other things besides the rock removal.

Which was what brought him to the medical tent. He looked at Naminé and asked, "Are you ready?"

[starcharmsketch]

The blonde girl restlessly smoothed the sheets of a makeshift bed, glancing up when she heard Quatre's voice. She gave him a small, tense smile before nodding. "I think so. The medical tents are all set up...we just have to wait for people to be dug out so they can be taken here."

If they were dug out, some small part of her brain said, but she squashed that thought down immediately.

[nice_young_man]

The knot in Quatre's stomach continued to tighten; as much as he trusted the people who worked at the mines, it was impossible not to be scared for the people trapped inside. However, what he felt couldn't be nearly as bad as what Naminé must feel. Her worry was clear (the crease in her brow, the tense emotions on her face, the nervous energy that practically buzzed from her skin and her voice and her everything...), but despite it all, she still tried so hard to keep a brave face.

Quatre offered her a gentle smile, and said, "Let's go check on the other tents now, okay? They'll need them soon, I'm sure."

After the second collapse~!

[murcielago]

Upon the orders of one of the crew, Ulquiorra had picked up a shovel and headed out to dig out the survivors of the first collapse. Small and wiry though he was, his hidden strength was certainly an asset to the team of rescuers. Still, what he hadn't expected to happen, was for him to become a victim of an almost identical slide.

He had heard the gritty shifting of rock and a low rumble not far away, but being shin deep in already-moved rubble hadn't exactly gone a long way to providing him an easy escape. The noise had grown louder, become more insistent, the ground and walls had started shaking and then, in a matter of seconds and a flood of what almost felt like panic, everything had done dark

[freds_and_wills]

As soon as Gilbert had gotten the message, he sped to where the mine collapse was-after managing to get directions from locals, which made him... a bit late. He did manage to get in before the collapse, but then... the collapse happened.

It left him somewhat dazed. Gilbert's skull was obviously too thick to take any real damage from it, but it didn't take someone who was intelligent in regards to things that weren't fighting to figure out what was going on.

"Shit!" he yelled as he clawed his way out of the rubble. He then paused, because a) his leg really fucking hurt and b) he heard someone.

"Who the hell's that?"

[murcielago]

Ulquiorra recognised the voice that called through the rock as he struggled to his feet, but he couldn't quite place who it was. Getting up wasn't easy when you didn't have two working arms to push yourself up with, but he managed it all the same. Even at his elevated height he couldn't see anybody in his immediate area and his night-sight was perfect. It was useful being part bat sometimes.

"Ulquiorra Schiffer of the Fiertia." He replied, his voice carrying even though he made little effort to raise it.

He glanced around, his keen hearing going a long way to figuring out which direction the voice was coming from. He stood there for a moment, his working arm bracing the other, which still felt entirely off. He came to realise that although the pain was intense, it was also dulled to normal feelings and hanging decidedly limply from the joint. An attempt to move it confirmed that it was dislocated at the shoulder, but he stifled the cry that he wanted to make, instead hissing through his teeth in discomfort

[freds_and_wills]

Gilbert stood up shakily; even though he had the general survival ability of a cockroach, his leg still felt like it was going to collapse underneath him. He limped over to a wall and braced himself against it with his left hand.

"Oh, you!" said Gilbert, some sort of... not cheerfulness, but certainly slightly more chipper than a neutral tone. "Ul...ki..."

He hesitated a moment. He'd just heard the man's name, but for some reason...

"Schiffer!"