2025-01-17 - Seeking The Source: Under The Boo'edwalk
Thomas chooses a different avenue than most to seek the source of the strange blue light from New Year's Eve. He delves beneath, into the construction site under the Boo'edwalk and makes a discovery in one of the side passages.
IC Date: 2025-01-17
OOC Date: 01/17/2025
Location: Under The Boo'edwalk
Related Scenes:
The construction on the new "dungeon escape" style attraction beneath the Boo'edwalk is concealed behind one of those big painted walls with a "Coming Soon" sign on it that conceals what will eventually be the entrance between a few of the other Victorian style structures that line the area. Most of the work is done from the other side, the behind-the-scenes side where workers come and go and equipment can be brought in without the guests seeing any of it, though during the day the sound of the work can be heard fairly clearly.
But for the past couple of days, the site has been quiet, which means perhaps there aren't as many workers coming and going from it. It's the perfect time for someone who is familiar with the area to try and sneak in and have a look-see as to what might be going on down beneath the boardwalk. And so it is that Thomas is able to approach the site from the employee side around the back undetected and work his way past what little security there is watching over it, slip through the gate, and end up in the bare concrete and I-beams below. It's quiet and dark here, a few safety lights providing the only illumination as he finds himself in a wide, featureless, concrete box with a couple of tunnels leading off in different directions.
Thomas is definitely not meant to be here, and yet... here he is. Poking around his own employer's construction area. He knows his way aroun the Boo'edwalk after all, he has an ID badge and he's regularily clothed in black. So while maybe he's not meant to be here, he can at least make an effort to pretend. If he gets caught. Which is clearly not the plan. The featureless box gets a frown as he looks around it, thoughtful. He moves quietly to one of the tunnels and then pauses ,moving to the next. At each he listens, raising a hand to feel the movement of the air - or lack of it.
Unfortunately, most construction sites look like featureless boxes until things are built to fill them. That is why we keep the guests out until they're done. The tunnels do seem to be ventilated as that part has already been built in, as well as most of the plumbing and electrical. There are even clear areas that are marked for tracks for moving vehicles to carry guests through different parts of the experience, though of course, without knowing the plans, it's hard to imagine exactly how it's all supposed to work.
Still, it's kind of interesting to see the bare bones before it all gets filled in. There's clearly some access passageways whose doors will be concealed at some point, just like the ones that he's used to using in the Haunted Estate.
It's quiet and still, the sounds of the park above completely dampened by the layers of rock and concrete. There's the occasional electric hum of the safety lights and the echo of his own movements, but for the moment it seems like he is alone.
<FS3> Thomas rolls Attunement: Success (8 6 5 4 4 1)
Thomas does take a little time as he peeks around the concrete box, pausing at each tunnel. As he lifts his hand by the northern tunnel, however, he frowns, feeling that tug of magic. He eyes the tunnel balefully, like it might be about to eat him and then sighs, carefully makign his way down it, hugging the wall as best he can, just in case there's someone, or something, lurking in it, waiting for him.
Is it indeed a Balrog? Unearthed in the depths? Just waiting to devour him in the dark? Well, the dark that's marginally lit by the emergency lighting anyway, that continues to hum softly as he makes his way further into the tunnel. It curves gently around a bend. There are plenty of tools left about, bags of concrete, shovels, wheelbarrows, trowels, and the like. There are some hats with lights on them hung on a wall, a few safety jackets and some gloves.
Beyond where the equipment is left, things begin to get a bit more rough, as though this is one of the least finished areas of the attraction. It dips downward a bit as well, and the little tug of magic can be felt growing just slightly the further he goes.
Eventually, he comes upon a side tunnel that goes down a set of steps and there, off to one side, as he's passing the dark opening, does the glint of something on the ground? In the corner? Somewhere in the darkness, catches his eye.
Thomas, athletic as he is, a former-dancer-turned-gymnast-turned-tech, is still somehow clumsy, and not always entirely attentive to where he's going. He continues following that pull of magic, letting it guide him. He dodges around those tools and does his best to stay out of the lights. But the steps? The steps are nearly the end of him. He almost misses the first one, only just catching himself before he goes tumbling down the concrete stairs.
The technicial glares at the steps like they're personally trying to kill him, catching his breath. "Fuck," he murmurs to himself, before more cautiously moving down the stairs. He's most of the way past the dark opening when he frowns, his instinct telling him there's something he's missing. He takes half a step back, his eyes drawn to that glint. Is he paying attention to where he's going? He moves towards it, carefully testing the ground ahead of him with a foot as he goes.
Fortunately "Dance like nobody's watching" also applies to "fall down stairs like nobody's watching" and while he almost does it with wild abandon, there is no evidence for anyone to witness this near misadventure. As he continues to move further into the unlit passageway, the ground feels solid. It's concrete like everything else, the crunchy sound of grit beneath his shoes no different than before. The temperature though perhaps feels just a little warmer here than it did in the cooler more open tunnels.
As he makes his way closer he can hear it, a faint little whirr, a hum, perhaps a little cracking. It's so quiet that he almost has to hold his breath to hear it, though it becomes whisper-audible as he gets closer to the glint.
There, in the corner, a little bit of the wall has given way. There's some tools and some patching material set to one side, clearly intended to fix it up. But within there's what appears to be some sort of piping. Within, behind what appears to be a bit of glass, a flickering blue energy runs along inside of it. And then more of that piping seems to burrow into the rock. It doesn't look like any piping he's seen anywhere in the park, and certainly not with that kind of strange not-quite-electrical energy inside of it.
The sound draws Thomas's attention and he carefully moves a ittle closer to that light, his hands coming up in front of him as if he miht be able to feel something in the air. When he sees the gap in the wall his brows pull together and what remaining caution he has is thrown to the winds as he steps closer to the wall and that blue light.
"What the hell..." he whispers under his breath as he leans closer to that piping, that blue energy that looks startlingly familiar. He starts to reach out towards it and then pauses as he sees the glass. Instead, he reaches for his phone, trying to take a picture of it (ensuring, of course, that the flash is turned off first).
The gentle whirring continues and as he watches, a tiny little trill no bigger than the tip of one's finger extends from part of the piping and begins to very slowly bore into the rock heading further north. As it goes, more of that little bit of piping continues to extend into the hole that's left behind, the little bits of grit and rock that are thrown off forming a little pile on the floor. Whatever it is seems to be very slowly continuing to move through the rock. At this rate, no more than maybe a foot per day? It's hard to tell.
The camera is able to capture a clear image of the piping with its glass window and the energy within.
Thomas's eyes widen when the energy starts to bore its own way into the rock, stifling a gasp. "Holy shit, are you alive?" he wonders of the energy. He risks a glance behind him before he presses his hand to the glass to see what the blue energy does.
The energy itself doesn't seem to react to the touch against the glass, though touching it does certainly increase the intensity of what Thomas can feel through his attunement. This is the source of the pull that he's been feeling. Perhaps the exposure of it to the open air is what's allowing it to be felt down here. There's no verbal response. But it sure does seem to be doing its thing all on its own with no visible source of guidance and its own power to guide it.
"Okay, not a chatty fellow," Thomas says of the energy with a small shrug. He pulls his hand back from the glass before quickly wiping it down with his sleeve to make sure he's not left any prints on the glass before he stands as well, tucking his phone back into his pocket. He eyes the piping one more time, following it with his eyes before he reluctantly withdraws and heads back towards the tunnel he'd been in. He pauses before going up the stairs, looking further into the tunnel and squinting through the darkness.
You have been eaten by a grue.
Okay, maybe not. Thomas remains alone in the tunnels with just the quiet little whirrrr to accompany him.
This bit of small piping seems to be the only thing unusual within the darkness of the tunnel. Beyond, it's just more rough concrete and more of the same -- a future passage to allow workers to travel alongside the dark ride passenger cars and exit and enter into various parts of the attraction to do work and handle issues without being seen by the guests.
There is nothing stopping him from wandering out the way that he wandered in.
An option that Thomas avails himself of, perhap choosing not to risk getting caught down here. Instead he leaves with a very strange photo and more questions than he entered with.
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