2025-03-15 - The Dig: A Voice in the Dark

Ari only slightly regrets volunteering for this job. It's too early, in his opinion, so he's been forgoing his morning runs, which has not helped his general well-being, mental or physical. But here he is, blue-grey coveralls and hard hat on, just getting ready to start his day.

And that's when he hears it, the sound of a young child. Which, first of all: creepy. That's Ari's first instinct around children, which is why he's a behind-the-scenes kinda guy. But then the rest of his brain kicks in and he realizes this is definitely no place for a kid. He reaches down into his toolbox for a flashlight.

Being up early is nothing new for Roman. He has been getting up with the sun his whole life for surfing, and while the surfing isn’t as prolific here, old habits have stuck. If surfing or the like isn’t an option, which is wasn’t today, he goes running or just exploring random places. He hadn’t checked out the progress of the new build in awhile so meandered his way in that direction.

The sound of a child’s voice has him slowing down to look toward the area it seems to come from. “Well that isn’t creepy at all.” He mutters to himself. Seeing Ari he heads over toward the other man “You heard that too right? Is that like part of the ride?”

Aaron had gotten up early for work today he had some things to do before the park opened, his camera slung around his neck and dressed for work he happen to be walking past the ride that's still under construction. Stopping for a moment when he thought he heard the sound of a child then the sound of a piano, he blinks shaking his head maybe he is just tired.

He was about to continue to walk on but then looks back at the ride, something has his attention he can't just go with out making sure some little kid didn't some how get in the park or stayed over night. Spotting Ari he heads over in his direction. "Hey, NY chance did you just hear a kid in here?" he looks to Roman and nods to him as well. "Yeah I heard a kid as well."

Dante's up early to run pretty often himself... but today, he's up early for Fabricadabra's opening shift, and taking advantage of the relative quiet of the park to settle on one of the benches with a good view of certain parts of the Boo'edwalk and do a bit of sketching. The sound of the voice almost doesn't quite register, but the music following -- that's unusual here even when the park's open, and he blinks as he looks up, suddenly putting together the sounds and the time of day.

A beat, and then he rises, slipping his sketchbook into the satchel over his shoulder and moving past the 'coming soon' fences to slip 'backstage', and run into... a few other guys, all of whom look like they'd sound older than that voice. "Are we practicing sound effects this morning, is one of you sucking helium or awaiting extra belated puberty, or should I be calling security to come check that out?" he inquires.

Construction is messy work, so there's Carl, sweeping up the worst of the dust and debris between shifts where the crew will need to walk. He mostly works the Boo'edwalk, and mostly overnight, so being up and around at this hour is nothing unusual for him. What is unusual is the sound of a child's voice here at this hour - though not that unusual, judging from his subdued reaction. It's not until he notices the others on site reacting that he really stops to pay attention. "Huh. Yeah." He stops what he's doing and looks toward the tunnel. "Sounded like it was from in there, I just figured it was canned ambience."

Flashlight in hand, Ari looks up at the others assembling. "Definitely heard that, yeah," he says to both Roman and Aaron, then to Carl he says, "As far as I know nothing like that has been set up... yet. Maybe." A pause. "Hopefully."

The mention of security by Dante earns a semi-frantic nod from Ari. "Yeah, definitely do that. I'll go check it out in the meantime, if uh... anyone wants to come with." That's an open semi-question, and then Ari takes a deep breath, forging ahead on his own.

Only to double back and sort through some papers in the hopes of finding schematics. "Just, uh, in case I get lost." He looks a little worried about that.

Roman has never heard the words canned ambiance used to describe the sound effects, but he gets what the phrase means. “That’s weird right?” He gives a nod to acknowledge that Aaron had heard it as well.

“Right behind ya man.” He says to Ari as the man decides to head in. If there is a hard hat laying around nearby he will grab that and plop it on his head as he follows, with no reluctance, and a mix of concern and curiosity warring for control over his expression. “Good call.” He says and lets the man with the schematics take the lead.

Aaron looks up nodding to Dante and Carl, he looks back to Ari and Roman now tilting his head. He is just a photographer but his curiosity is also peeked. He moves to go with the two, "I'll go with, I mean if there is anything down there thas odd I can snap some photos for proof right." he moves to follow the two in.

He is quiet as he follows, listening to the piano and maybe hopefully hear the kid again if it is a kid down there and not someone playing a awful joke on them.

Well, options one and two seem clearly, if indirectly, ruled out, so Dante's hand dips into his pocket to snag his phone as it does untold numbers of times per day, and a couple swipes have him lifting it to his ear as it dials. Security's the kind of number it doesn't hurt to keep on speed dial. In the moment or two it's ringing, he nods to the others. "I'll let them know you're going." If he's at all inclined to go along, he's at least clearly not in a hurry to.

"Hi, yeah, this is Dante Kerekes. I'm backstage by the Dungeon Escape construction on the Boo'edwalk and several of us in the area just heard a kid's voice down there asking if anyone was here and could hear them. And then that piano melody played. ...yeah, that one. A few guys are headed down to take a look but-- yeah, thanks. Okay." He hangs up, and looks to the others while they're still within eye- and earshot. "They're sending someone. We could wait for someone who's getting paid to look into it." Just a note. Always good to know one's options.

He may not have entirely decided which one he'll take, given the glance around, possibly also for safety gear that might be currently unused. Or for a place to sit. Honestly kind of hard to tell.

Carl pulls off his glove and licks his thumb, holding it up like he's feeling the wind. He closes one eye and squints around with the other for a moment, then shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head. "No hocus pocus," he announces, "not down there, anyways. Could be a kid snuck off, hid out overnight?" It's a pretty thin supposition, and he knows it. No families have reported a missing sprout, at least that he's heard of. He nods when Ari asks for volunteers, leaning his broom against a wall and unhooking his own flashlight from his belt.

"Hey, kid, you down here?" he calls down the tunnel when they reach the entrance.

Knowing that security is on the way is something of a balm to what is clearly an anxious mindset, on Ari's part. His breathing calms a little and his shoulders loosen from the tight tension they were being held in before, and he gives a thankful nod to Dante for being the one to make the call.

"Thanks for coming with," he tells the people assembling with him. To Carl specifically he says, "I really hope not. This place at night would be pretty scary for a kid to get lost in."

He takes point leading everyone willing to come with him into the ride area, his flashlight beam sweeping side-to-side as they descend. It's an area he's pretty familiar with... when it's all lit up. With the darkness spreading out through the tunnels, Ari knows it'd be easy to get lost.

A shiver works its way up his spine at the strange feeling in the air. Something in his gut just knows there's strangeness afoot, but he doesn't have a pinpoint on where. All Ari can do is follow the sound of music deeper into the darkness.

Roman wasn't expecting to be ride spelunking so didn't gear up, he does have his phone though, which means he has a light source at least. He shines the beam around, it's probably not as bright or shines are far as Ari's flashlight, but he won't be tripping over anything at least. "Does anyone know what that song is?" Is it a familiar song? To any of them?

"As much as I am a fan of risk taking, I don't think that following creepy music into a work in progress ride is something anyone should do alone." Those are the words that comes out of his mouth, him actually believing it...that's another story.

"This thing open up or branch off anywhere further in?" Carl asks as they move along the tunnel. The question seems mainly aimed at Ari, probably because he's the one wearing the hardhat. Rides usually go in a circle, more or less, but some tracks are more complicated than others, and maybe there's backdoors for maintenance - he's seen that sort of thing before. "If it's just a loop we might should go both ways, meet in the middle?"

He doesn't seem particularly troubled by their surroundings, though his brow does furrow as the music gets louder. He doesn't recognize it, shaking his head at Roman. His flashlight stays aimed mostly at the ground ahead, mindful of any debris or equipment from construction. Wouldn't do to have someone trip down here.

Aaron moves along with those going in. He pulls his phone out for some light, as well as a couple of phones, and it could easily light up the area ahead of them, so they are not tripping over anything. His attention is on that music, listening as it gets louder as they move through the half-built ride.

There are others here who know this area better than he, so he follows and listens, his eyes looking around, and even once in a while, he turns to look behind them just in case, especially when the shiver runs through him as the magic tingling starts. "Split up and meet in the middle?" he asks Carl to make sure he understands what he is suggesting.

"Well, the ride branches off into separate areas for the escape rooms, but fundamentally yes, it's all enclosed." Ari pauses to hold out the schematics and try his best to indicate the general layout for everyone with his flashlight shining on the papers.

He's not sure he's done much to help, but if people are splitting up, Ari wants to make sure they have a good sense of where they're going.

Of course that's all well and good but then the kid's voice speaks up again, and Ari stops in his tracks. "Uh... that does not sound like someone who is lost," he says, then looks around to the others for their opinions.

There are lots of memes out there about splitting the party and the dangers associated with that, but Roman isn't into the type of games those memes are made about. He comes up beside Ari to look at the schematics being held up "Hold those still, I'll get a pic. If we are going to split up someone in the other group should have a visual." which means he will probably be part of that other group, unless someone else gets a pic too.

"You don't think they are talking about us do you?" Roman asks sounding dubious "That they can hear us, like we can hear them?" he turns to look in the direction he thought he heard the voice come from, shining his light in that direction.

"Exactly," Carl nods to Aaron. "Whatever's down here," he definitely doesn't sound like he thinks it's a lost kid, at this point, "we wouldn't want it slipping out behind us." He closes one eye and squints, leaning in for a good look at the schematics Ari is holding up, then shrugs. "Doesn't seem too complicated. We got two flashlights, now we got too maps," he nods at Roman, good thinking, "so I say we split up when the tunnel does, meet back up the same way?"

Strategizing their route takes a back seat when they hear the voice again. He shakes his head at Ari, agreeing that no it does not, and shrugs his shoulders at Roman, no idea. He digs his phone out and starts recording video, since he's not using his for light.

Aaron was about to ask something as they looked over the plans so everyone knew where they were going, but the,n when the little girl's voice is heard, he stops what he was about to say, then looks to Ari. "I agree." his eyes go about again looking around them and listening trying to figure out where the voice is coming from, his nose wrinkles slightly as a soft hmm comes from him looking to Roman, "Do you mean something like a thin viel?" he watches a lot of late night tv you know ghost stories and ancient aliens those kinds of things.

As the other four head down, Dante hangs back, fingers tapping impatiently but silently against his leg as he considers. Security is, after all, on the way. And they didn't actually say 'wait for us', just that they were on the way. On the other hand, four people is probably plenty to poke around. On the gripping hand... okay, he's curious. Especially when that voice remarks on the song itself and 'hearing them'. He sighs, makes sure the flashlight on his phone is on, and heads down after the others.

"I don't know who she's hearing," he notes as he comes up to the split behind them, "but the song probably is the key. To something. I only ever hear it when something weird is going on." He glances both ways, then heads after the As, on the theory that Ari probably knows the tunnels best.

After carefully holding the schematics still for Roman to take a picture, Ari gives them one more look over before he rolls them back up and starts down the split he's closest to. "I think they're talking about us. Anyway, see you shortly!" he calls back before they've gone too far.

And then Dante joins up, so Ari waves, which causes the flashlight beam to briefly bounce around given he use that hand for the waving. Whoops! "Sorry," he says, and then frowns as he comes to a stop, listening intently.

"It sounds close. Like, it's coming from right around this corner here," and even before he's done saying that he's charging ahead, flashlight leading the way, slowing only for as long as it takes him to go down the steps and then turn back to point them out to Aaron and Dante both, saying, "Steps here, be careful," before he continues onwar into the maintenance hall.

Aaron nods his head and moves to follow after Ari, "Stay safe guys." he tells the other group, he is sure they will be good its all fine right? right? He turns to look at Dante when he catches up to them and nods his head, "Hey." he holds his phone in his hand so they can have a bit more extra light in front of them. "So you heard the song before?" he asks.

Following Ari he nods as he points the phone at the steps moving down them and then continues to follow Ari into the maintenance hall. "When did you last hear the music?" he asks Dante, looking to him again, curious about it all.

"Uh, yes?" Roman says to Aaron, not sure he knows what he is talking about, but that seems like the answer that is being looked for. Either way the answer from Ari sends a shiver down his spine. "Good luck!" he calls as the group splits up.

He pinches and zooms the pic of the schematics on the screen and then looks down the tunnel that Carl and him will be heading down. "And guesses as to what this could be? You said it wasn't hocus pocus, you mean magic?" he asks quietly as he listens for the music or the child to speak again.

"No ghosts or spirits, anyway," Carl answers, a little distractedly, most of his attention on the tunnel ahead as he leads the way through the branch they've chosen. "Definitely some kind of magic, though. Can feel it, now that we're closer. God, I hope my phone is picking this up. I know someone who went to school for music, a pianist. She might be able to do something with this." He's talking about the mysterious music, presumably.

"Me? New Year's," Dante answers, "but there were a couple times around Christmas, and I heard it showed up a couple weeks later when things went weird with the Carousel. ...it's been a few months since I heard or heard about it. But it's always been weird."

He glances at the wall before them, but having been too late for the plans and not having been down here before, only sees it as a reasonably fresh wall, and they are stiil building this place. He taps a finger lightly against his leg and raises his voice a bit while the music remains audible, if a bit fainter. "If it's us you hear, miss, please say 'banana'. Because we can hear you too."

"I've heard it before too," Ari confirms, though after a moment he makes a face like he's not even certain of that any more. Either way they're definitely hearing it now, and that's not even the weirdest thing about all this!

It's definitely the spooky little girl's voice. That's still making Ari shiver. Thankfully his coveralls... well, cover most of him, so the goosebumps up and down his arms aren't visible.

He comes to an abrupt stop at the wall that shouldn't be there. "This shouldn't be here," he says, dumbfounded. Ari even unfurls the schematics to check, but a quick look confirms: nope. So he gives a shake of his head. And then Dante has the idea to try and communicate, so Ari falls silent, straining to hear if there's an answer.

"Did the song happen when that thing came up out of the water on New Years?" he asks, he remembers listening to the concert and watching the thing come up and out of the water. He hmms, interesting as i happens during certain events, when they turn the corner he looks to Ari, "This is my first time hearing it." if he remembers correctly.

But then Ari has stopped so he does looking to the wall then to the map Ari has, "Umm, from the looks that does not belong." but then Dante is talking to the little girl and he falls silent as well listening.

"That's good. Right? That is isn't ghosts?" Spirits, specifically nature related ones, are a common occurrence in Roman's culture, though few people actually believe in them like they did in the past. He keeps his flashlight on the path as he flanks Carl as they move down the tunnel. He glances back a few times as the sound they were supposedly following fades. "Is it just me or is the music getting fainter?"

"Don't know. Ghosts I can deal with. Whatever this is?" Carl shrugs. "We'll see." He cocks his head and listens. Definitely quieter. "You're right," he nods, "let's hurry up and see if we can't get back to the others, this is definitely the wrong direction."

Dante narrows his eyes at the wall when Ari expresses confusion about its presence, and leans over his shoulder to read the schematic when it's unfurled in a highly practiced manner honed by years of reading things over the shoulders of siblings exactly Ari's height. "Mm. And the music's louder here..." He moves to investigate the wall itself, though careful of touching anything that looks potentially wet. He's not down here to get paint on these clothes. He has other clothes for that.

He waits after his question, fingertips still lightly tapping against his leg, then makes a face. "Well. Either it isn't us or she doesn't want to talk, I guess. What or who else might she hear? And... we should get someone to play this tune a while. See if anything happens." While he's thinking about it, he tries a similar thought, lifting his voice again to sing the tune back. His sister may be the real singer, but he can carry a tune just fine.

The good news is, Ari is in coveralls! They're meant to get paint on them, and in fact there are a few places where paint has clearly been in the past, scrubbed out but the faint stains remain. So as Dante moves to investigate, so too does Ari... well, after a moment.

He needed that moment to have a small panic and then get himself together again. Just in time for Dante to sing the tune back at the wall and the mysterious child's voice, wherever it may be coming from. That seems to bolster Ari, somewhat.

As he approaches the wall, he turns back to check if Aaron has his camera at the ready. "I crashed early on New Years, so I wasn't there," he says. And then Ari looks forward again, lifts his hand... and knocks loudly on the wall. "Hello?" he says, loudly. Not quite a yell. But definitely using his outside voice despite being indoors.

Aaron was about to move past Ari and Dante to touch the wall to see if it was real but seems Ari was thinking the same has him, he nods and has his camera at the ready. "I haven't looked at the shots but I did get a few on New Years." he frogto why he didn't go back and check them but knows he should now.

He smiles when Ari knocks. He finds the moment amusing, but then it fades quickly when the sound of the music stops again. He tilts his head to the side, "I wonder why it keeps stopping and why she isn't answering us."

"Whatever this is, we will deal with it too," there is a pause as Roman considers his next words "hopefully peacefully." He doesn't like fighting, and he is only barely passable in the regards, because of siblings. "Yeah, let's go back, though at this point wouldn't it be faster to just go forward? This tunnel curves around to intersect the one they were heading down?" he looks at the pic on his phone, holding it so Carl can see it as well. He will follow the older man's lead in whichever direction they will be going.

"Seems almost like a recording," Carl observes, once he and Roman have rejoined the crew. He steps forward and touches the wall himself, tentatively at first, then more firmly. He gives it a knock. "Just seems like drywall," he says, looking back with a shrug. "Definitely hollow. Seems like whatever we're after is on the other side."

So he gives it a solid kick. He's punched enough holes in drywall just by accident, he figures there shouldn't be much to it. If he can knock a hole they can start peeling back the rest.

Okay, that completes Dante's current set of not-touching-the-wall ideas, and as the others move to touch the recently-painted wall, he takes a couple steps back out of the way. He's taken down drywall before (when dressed for it), it won't need all five of them to accomplish. The paint and dust can go to those who have coveralls and such, today. He'll just hold his light helpfully so they can see better.

Ari frowns contemplatively at the wall, not sure what to do next. Then Roman and Carl arrive, and he turns to greet them, pleased to see they didn't get lost.

And then Carl kicks the wall down. Ari doesn't even manage to get out a full "Wait!" before it happens, maybe just the first letter or so, but then what's done is done. "Oh god I hope I don't get fired for this," he mutters as he goes to help pull down the rest of the drywall.

There is a blink when the knock lets them know that the wall is indeed hallow, he steps back as its decided the wall is getting broken down. Yup he moves to stand back near Dante, his camera in one hand and his phone with the light in the other shining it ahead of them as well. "Careful," he tells those taking the wall down. He seems to be nervous about this, they could all be in serious trouble for this.

Oh we are destroying things now. Roman is all over that one. He steps up to help Carl with the operation. "Don't worry, if anyone asks I will tell them you tried to stop us." he says to Ari "You aren't still recording are you?" he asides to Carl, because that would totally blow up that little lie. He doesn't hold back on tearing down the wall pulling chunks of wet drywall off when a new hole is created by the kicking Carl.

"Don't worry about it. Nobody's gonna tattle," Carl says, aiming a brief glance backward, "are they? Anyway, drywall's cheap, and we heard a kid back there." He doesn't even pretend to actually believe there's a kid back there, but it's true enough that's what they heard, so that'll be his story if it comes to it. He rips chunks off the wall, letting them fall to the floor, 'til there's a big enough hole to get a solid look at what's back there.

And what a look it is. He steps back, shining his flashlight in, and gives a low whistle. "Holy shit." His phone comes back out of his pocket, where he'd put it back to sleep before he started destroying park property. Probably he won't be posting this to the employee forum, given the circumstances, but it seems like the kind of thing you want to record.

Dante has a definite dilemma: Do Not Get Covered in Stuff vs Very Curious. The former mostly wins, partly because of Do Not Breathe Stuff, but he's doing the best he can to get a good look at things as the drywall comes down. "Oh." A pause. "That's a thing." Another pause. "There's a thing in the lake, that seems to be the thing the magic comes from. My brother said it looks like this down there, that light and bronze pipes going everywhere like roots. I'm also told the thing in the lake doesn't like being touched, so maybe we don't mess with this."

Taking pictures isn't messing, though, clearly, because he's doing quite a bit of that, now.

Ripping and tearing does the job, between the three of them contributing to the demolition, and then Ari looks in to see--

"What."

He has no idea. But like Carl, his first instinct is to whip out his phone and aim his camera at the piping. He's otherwise completely taken aback, but after snapping a few pics he withdraws, saying, "I'm going to backtrack and see if I can meet up with security," then starts heading that way.

Aaron nods to Ari, he waits for the dust and such to settle a little before getting in to take a look, he brings his camera up and starts to take pictures. His camera has a nice zoom on it and so gets some normal pics and then close-up ones, he even uses the room to see if he can spot anything further in the cavern. "This is crazy, I want to say the thing in the lake changed like this, too, but I can't remember. I have to look at my photos from New Year's," he whistles softly as he captures the bronze tubes and blue light on his camera.

Roman doesn't seem to mind terribly that he is covered in wet paint and drywall dust, not when that marvel of steampunky pipes giving off the magic vibes is revealed. "Dude...." he drawls out "I got the feeling this isn't part of the ride... or one of the set pieces." He glances around to ask Ari, who has already wandered off to check on security. "The thing in the lake? The wreck you mean?" he knows of the wreck and that diving has happened several times, but he is sketchy on what exactly was found.

Carl can hear the others talking. Part of him is probably even listening. You wouldn't know it to look at him, though, the way he just stares forward into that hole in the wall. He's seen a lot of things since he came to Spellbound, but never anything like this. He stands there for a while with his phone pointed at it, then lets it fall numbly to his side, and takes a step forward.

He shouldn't. But then, he's already done a lot of things he shouldn't do. He licks the thumb of his free hand and sticks it into the hole, pressing it against one of those blue globes.

The change of the lights with the music has Dante quickly changing from photo to video, recording as much of the way the lights change as he possibly can, along with the music in the air. That is fascinating and potentially useful, even. A potential puzzle. If they can work out how things correspond and what they mean... that would have to teach them something, right?

"I just said," he starts as Carl reaches out to touch the thing, and then sighs; he's not getting any further through that sentence in time. He just isn't. Anyway, maybe it's just the main bit that doesn't like being touched? Maybe they're about to find out.

Aaron was about to say something but its to late, he stops taking pictures and steps back the vibes that are coming from the pipes are starting to get to be a bit much and so he backs up to where Dante is again, "I don't." yeah that sentence is stopped cause its to late, he rubs his arms as the goosebumps are real and intense at the moment. He pulls his phone out and starts to record just in case something happens when Carl touches the blue globe.

He doesn't know this now, but later Roman will be kicking himself for not getting pictures of the glowy pipes, but now Roman is leaning forward to look down as he hears the sound of water. "Well that doesn't seem safe at all." water being under a major bit of construction like this, but he is hardly an engineer.

He is undecided if he wants to be standing right next to Carl when the device is touched or not, but someone is going to have to pull the man from harm if it turns out to be a bad decision, so Roman stays put.

"Gkkk... ukkkk... ssshit!"

Yeah, that was probably a bad idea, Carl seems to have decided as he lays on the ground clutching the sides of his head, eyes clenched shut tight. But he's still breathing, there's no smoke coming off of him, and there's enough of his brain left to produce profanity, so the prognosis isn't all grim. He eventually manages to sit, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. "It doesn't like being touched," he says, like a completely novel observation.

Dante winces as Carl gets launched, and he hops back and to the side himself, proving that he is the kind of person who avoids the flying human, not the kind that tries to catch them. He's also the kind who stands and watches a few seconds while Carl sputters before dryly replying, "You don't say. You all right there?"

The launching, too, he has on film. At least he'll know if the lights react in any way to the touch. More data. "Someone's going to need to put the wall back. Well. A wall back. Maybe a stronger one this time."

"NO shit, Dante said that." he puts his phone away and quickly moves over to Carl to kneel, he is not a medic or anything but looks him over and tries to make sure he is not physically hurt, mentally he can't do nothing about the magic shot he just received.

He lets Carl try and catch his breath before he tries to help him up. "We should get Carl out of here and get someone to come block this again so no one gets hurt." don't ask him he takes pictures for a living its what he went to school for, he most likely nail his thumb to something if you tried to get him to do it.