Faction Rolling in the Deep | Treasure Hunting with Darkwire

[Daiya]

(Post Soundtrack: "Human" by Ellie Goulding)

Daiya laughed. A sound that came to her as if from far away, as if from someone else. Ecstacy crept up on her, an old friend to embrace her from behind, surprising the teen while deep in the depths of the Abyss. It was the first time she felt it since coming down here, perhaps the first time since the moment the teen's nimble fingers had lifted the key from the old spacer in a drunken slumber. She laughed as if it had been there the whole time, standing by with its promise of life and hope for the future while Daiya struggled through planning stresses and their terrifying ordeal so far in the deep.

For now she rose up, clinging to a creature the defied all her expectations. The ringing sound of Brie's amplified voice came to her across the void between their chosen tentacles, and Daiya tipped her head up toward her friend's gasbag host. Her tongue stuck out in playful retort, only managing to touch the restrictive plate of her facemask instead. With Brie rising beyond earshot, Daiya just cocked a snook at her friend instead, answering the scrapper girl's ribbing in the only way she could now.

Her laughter met a discordant harmony in the sardonic wit of the boy nearby, his sense of humor making Daiya wish she'd picked another creature to ride now. She soured at his joke, aiming a withering gaze over at the ginger boy, piercing through him as if she could spy into his very soul. Her voice lost its gaiety as the young shadowrunner spoke low across the meter or so between their chosen tentacles. "You know what I read once? That if you're planning on taking out your treasure guide, you should really do it without witnesses."

Daiya didn't feel the need to gesture at the other Lotkaasi nearby, the watching form of Brie above them, or guide catching up from below. Her arms just shifted her grasp on the tentacle instead, leaning out from it as if she had not a care in the world. She opened her blue eyes toward Cartri, hoping he'd keep his mouth shut long enough to hear the meaning of her words. "But you've been on my case this whole trip, ragging on me and second-guessing everything I do, and everyone's sick of it. I don't think anyone else would mind if I made this gasbag one Human lighter, do you?"

"So what gives, Cartri," she asked, using his real name this time. "What's your fething problem?"

“My problem? What in the name of kark are you on about Daiya?" Cartri questioned back to her, his head tilting slightly from her sudden outburst of anger towards him. Did the stress of the spiders get to her? Or did that headache really mess with her senses?

“Sure I’ve been annoying, but that doesn’t give you the right to berate me. Has it not kept you on your toes and forced you to give your mind a moment's rest from the mission?!” the boy urged in a stern whispered voice between them, biting back at Daiya for saying those stinging words “I honestly don’t hope you think I mean it... Come on Daiya, you’re more smarter than that.”

"Wait, wait, wait. You think you're doing me a fething favor?!" Daiya stared bewildered at a boy she thought was only annoying. Somehow, in the midst of the most absurd setting she could have ever imagined holding a conversation, Cartri had managed to shatter her low expectations. "Were you raised on a starship? 'Cause I can't imagine how else you could treat someone so badly and think you're helping."

“Firstly, no I wasn’t raised on a blasted starship and secondly you’re blowing this way of proportion! We’re alive are we not? If it wasn’t for your little headache back there we probably would of been bug grub.”

Cartri slowly shook his head and looked down to the floor below them, a frown crossing his lips in remembrance of where he was really raised, “Who cares where I was brought up anyway, all I had was a run down orphanage for the past fifteen years,” he said in a lowered tone, clearly sensitive of spilling the truths of his past “The other kids there were as rock bottom as I was, but I still chose to at least try and make their loneliness tolerable. Back in that dump, it was the only way for us kids to keep our minds hopeful...”

Finally looking back into the eyes of the fiery girl he took a deep breath and bravely answered to her face “I’m helping in the only way I know Daiya, so if that’s what you think of it then so be it.”

"Well," Daiya started, trying to absorb the boy's whole life story in one go. "That fething sucks."

There wasn't much else she could say about it all.

"I don't suppose you'd want to hear about my childhood, but it sucked too. I get it, Cartri." The teen really felt a pang of sympathy for him, when Daiya had hit her low, she found Shenn and eventually Tawrrowaldr to help lift her back up. "But you need to seriously chill out. You're not helping, you're not even being funny. Look at me, am I laughing? Your jokes aren't humor, they're just crude. They hurt, Cartri. Call me a Headache, whatever, I don't give a chit, but everything else is just fething rude."

Cartri hated when him and Daiya argued, the thought of spiraling out of control again worried him to the core. The girl was someone he admired and more, being around her made life more tolerable. In other words, Daiya was one of a kind.

“I’m sorry if I’ve made you distressed alright? I-I just want to help you get out of this in one piece...” the boy said softly as he lowered his head. The teen's cheeks would lightly blush from what he said, almost embarrassed that he said something nice to a girl he liked.

“If that’s what you want, I’ll shut up and keep to myself. I’d rather not be a hindrance on the mission...”

For as long as he knew Cartri thought he was helping them out by giving their minds a moments rest from a stressful situation, but in reality he was only making it worse. The wake up call hit him hard, sending him into silence for the first time in a while. Daiya was nothing but correct, he had been selfish and crude to everyone on the mission.

“You were right and I was wrong, I don’t even know why I even questioned it to be honest,” said Cartri in almost a grateful tone, as if he was happy to finally get a kick up the ass for how he was acting. With a shy smile, he looked back to Daiya and sighed.

“Am I always this annoying to you?”

Daiya waited out the boy's diatribe, watching him put himself down better than she could. Her heart twisted a little to see it, Cartri really wasn't such a bad person. She'd seen him be noble, bold, and even a little sweet. So why did he insist on being so acerbic to her every time he opened his mouth? "Only when you talk," the teen answered, her small grin hidden behind a facemask. She sighed. "I didn't mean you have to shut up and keep to yourself. You could just be a little nicer."

She had no idea how to make Cartri understand, or if he even could. Daiya glanced up at the beasts of the air, wondering how long they would ride them. Until they reached the lower city again? That would take an eternity, even longer if Cartri kept being the misanthrope here. "Look, I didn't tell you off for coming along. I could have, and you know I would have if someone chit showed up. I don't hide behind jokes or politeness, so I guess I'm just kinda at a loss when someone does. Just say what you mean, Cartri, please?"

“I-...I like you Daiya,” he said in a lowered tone, his pale cheeks flushing brightly as he looked away from the girl he admired “You’re awesome, you’re funny... a-and dare I say it cute,” the boy muttered with a shy smile, almost like he was too afraid to look her in the eye and see her emotion.

In all honesty, Cartri had liked her from the very start. The fact they kept teasing each other was a telltale sign of their personalities bouncing off each other, and that was something he loved most about her. She was annoying, but she was one of the few that stood by him in his darkest moments. Daiya really was a friend he couldn’t let go of.

“There, I said it...I love you Daiya.”

Daiya just stared, her jaw loose as she blinked a few times. The teen glanced away, trying to focus on something in the distance. As if that was less complicated than listening to Cartri's declaration of love while clinging to the tentacles of an organic dirigible creature that lived and died thousands of meters beneath her head at night. Her jaw worked behind the facemask, her voice escaping her at the moment.

She sighed, a mournful pang that echoed her desperate wish to have ridden any of the other creatures. The young shadowrunner glanced down, as if there was an alternative beneath her feet. Nothing. Daiya could only cling to their generous hosts until the guides figured out their next step, stuck for feth-knows-how-long across from a boy who just ripped her offer wide open to knock directly on her heart. It pounded it her chest, mercilessly beating at Daiya for her own stupidity.

"Wow," was all Daiya could say for a moment, not willing to look back at the knuckleheaded boy yet. "So, you annoy the feth outta me...because you love me?"

“Well, I wouldn’t of done it because I hate you,” Cartri replied, his head finally looking up to finally gaze at Daiya with an unsure expression “T-the truth is I’ve always admired you Daiya. Not only were you there during my times of need, but you forgave me when I didn’t deserve it,” the teen frowned from the memory of what he did to her.

“So yes Daiya, I do. Our little insult contests is something I cherish greatly, even if it’s silly it really makes my day just speaking to you..."

"I don't get it, Cartri. You mean, all this time you've been puppy-tailing and insulting me because you're in love with me? Did you take a whiff of the toxic air down here?" The teen shook her blonde curls, pulling herself tighter to the Lotkaasi tentacle. Her world was spinning and her heart pounding, making unrealistic demands of her. She squeezed some more, the tentacle's firm flesh had just enough give to offer the teen some steady reassurance. "'Cause you're not making any sense, you keep doing the opposite of what you're saying right now. Like, you 'love' me? Oh my stars! I don't even know what to say to that, and this is so not the time or place. What do you want me to do, rip off our masks and make out with you until we suffocate?"

"Can we please save the loverboy act until we're not one slip away from death?" Daiya finally looked back at Cartri, her eyes pleading with him alongside her tongue.

Cartri felt his confidence return slowly after finally spilling the beans on the secret he had been hiding away for almost a year. A smile began to brew in the corner of his lips from the classic response she gave, one that forced him to nod in compliance.

“You could probably say I have to be honest, my mask probably had a leak somewhere,” he responded with a shy smile before pulling himself further up the tentacle “I do know it’s not the time and place Daiya, but you did want me to be honest after all. What else was I meant to do, lie through my teeth?”

The teen wasn’t berating her by any means, but calmy reminding her she was the one that really wanted to know what he was thinking. Sighing loudly through his mask, he look to the side to see something approaching in the distance “We can talk about this after, alright? Maybe then will it be a more suitable setting.”

Daiya let out another heavy breath, craning her head up to see if she could spot one of their guides. Or Brie. At least someone other than Cartri right now. It was as close of an agreement as he was going to get right now. "Havn? Sera?! Are we close?"

It wasn't just a simple desire any longer, the teen's whole body surged with a need to get off the Lotkaasi now. She could feel it rising into her throat, forcing her to struggle over it to breathe. Daiya knew the sensation, that gripping worry that she was about to miss something, just not where it came from.

"Sera spotted a place to get off, it's just coming up." Havn's words drifted back down, and Daiya felt a drop of relief.

Soon enough, Daiya saw what the guides had spotted. A massive cavern rose within one of the buildings, and enough of the crumbling stone walls still stood to make out what it used to be. The teen felt the constriction in her throat ease when the Lotkaasi drifted into the cavern, as if sensing the desires of their group.

It wasn't until Daiya touched a solid platform beneath her feet again that she spotted a building the center of the highrise-cavern. The need in her body unwound all at once, filling the teen with an overwhelming confidence to point out, "That's it!"

She pointed to the dome-topped structure, a grin consuming her beneath the facemask. The young shadowrunner could hardly stop from dancing in place, grinning at each of their surviving group in turn. "I swear that's it, that's where we'll find Nas'roth's treasure!"

At long last, Daiya was certain now, they stood on the threshold of uncountable wealth and greatness.

Taking a final cheap shot at Cartri's expense, the teen declared to the group, "Okay, now you can love me."

Phalsi Drynchen Brie Jaxx Doc Painless Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Doc Painless]

Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down.

The Doc repeated that mantra in his head over and over, a chant, a creed. He kept his cybernetic eyes facing firmly forward, into the leathery hide of the gasbag he was clutching with a literal durasteel grip. The teens' banter seemed distant as his head spun and his stomach churned, the strange feeling of rising without any visible means of propulsion - and his knowledge of just how far there was to fall if he slipped, whether he was actually looking or not - filling him with nausea. If he let go, he would plummet for multiple minutes, tumbling down into seemingly endless darkness until he hit a bottom so ancient and isolated that no sentient creature had trod upon it in millennia.

He was trying very hard not to think about that, but he wasn't doing a very good job.

What his head-swirling vertigo did accomplish - well, that and the fact that he'd grabbed a different gasbag, one a little distant from the ones his companions had leapt onto - was ensuring that he missed the entire contentious conversation between Daiya and Cartri. Which was just as well, because it was one that needed to happen between just them; whether it was fueled - as Daiya suspected - by toxic air or just raging hormones, it was private, and if the Doc had known about it he wouldn't have wanted to intrude. He, too, had been young once. He, too, had embarrassed himself trying to work through his feelings, had loved and lost, had said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

At the moment, however, he was just pressing his face hard into a leathery, malodorous hide.

The street medic didn't remove his features from that poor excuse for a safety blanket until Havn's shout reached his ears, letting him know they were about to have their chance to get off. Carefully, gingerly, Doc Painless shimmied down the tendril he'd grabbed and dropped to the cavern floor. He could not recall any time he'd been more grateful to be back on solid ground, without an endless pit yawning open beneath him... but as the Lotkaasi he'd "ridden" began to drift away, he felt an odd pang. That was it, then? The creatures had saved their lives, presumably without knowing it (he doubted they had much in the way of brains), and now they'd just drift away?

"Thank you," he whispered to the gasbag that had delivered him, a little embarrassed for speaking to it.

But whether or not the creature could understand him, he was grateful.

Feth spiders, and feth heights, and feth this fething trip.

Still, as the Doc turned around and looked out across the cavern for the first time, he had to admit that what he saw was striking... and promising. The gaudy, domed building that sat at the center of the vast cave was exactly the kind of thing a Hutt would build, and that was the best sign they'd had for the entire expedition. Had all their travails actually somehow led them to the right place? It seemed impossible. But then, Doc Painless had seen a lot of "impossible" things, and even done a few. Sometimes fate itself seemed to take a hand in the way things went. Call it destiny, call it the Force, something out there fethed with probability sometimes, and no one knew why.

Plenty of people claimed to know, of course. But the Doc was a scientist, and this kind of thing couldn't be studied.

He was skeptical of all explanations, from Jedi creeds to the ravings of street prophets.

"I think you actually did it, Daiya," the Doc said, his voice echoing in the huge, hollow space. "Well, you and our guides," he amended, offering the group of professionals a grateful nod and a wan smile. "Let's get over there!" In spite of everything, he found that he was excited. Truth be told, he hadn't really believed this particular legend. He'd come along to help keep Daiya and co safe, not because he expected them to find anything. But he was open to being dead wrong - wasn't the first time, wouldn't be the last - and he would gladly eat humble pie if they all managed to crawl back to Denon's civilized levels laden with whatever treasure the Hutt had hidden away down here.

The little group crossed the colossal cavern, the guides in the lead, picking their way across the rough and pitted floor, and for once the trek was uneventful. There were great pits of pollutants to avoid, industrial runoff that had eaten through the stone and lay in churning, noxious lakes that you really didn't want to fall into, but whatever wildlife inhabited the area chose to keep its distance. It took them a little while to make the journey - it was a big cavern, and excitement made the distance feel even further than it really was. But before too long they were all standing at the base of the soaring structure, its gaudy golden dome reflecting the dim lights they'd brought with them.

"Okay," the Doc said, "let's be careful. Who knows what kind of traps Nas'roth left behind." Nothing seemed obviously threatening - the great doors weren't even locked, grinding open before them as they approached - but it always paid to be careful. Stepping inside, they found themselves in a huge, hollow space, cathedral-like in its volume and majesty. The dark stone pillars that held up the complex soared up as high as the eye could see before vanishing into the darkness, the ceiling so high that it was far beyond the reach of their small lights. It was majestic, an architectural masterpiece. It was well-built, easily withstanding the test of who knew how many years.

It was empty. Nothing awaited them inside but their own echoing footfalls.

The Doc's heart sank. Had someone beaten them here? Had they managed to clear out Nas'roth's hoard without anyone finding out? Didn't that defeat the purpose of finding the treasure? Wealth was one thing, but who wouldn't want to become a Denon underworld legend? And what the ever-loving feth was he going to say to Daiya? She'd be devastated, surely, after coming all this way. No, dragging them all this way. She might argue that this couldn't be it, that the treasure must still be out there... but it was too dangerous to keep looking.

"Daiya," he began, trying to think fast, "I'm sorry. We gave it our best, and this place is amazing, but I think the treasure is..."

He never got to finish that sentence, because just then, the entire floor collapsed.

Coughing and spluttering amid the stone dust, tumbling head over heels, the Doc plunged through the worn-out masonry. He curled himself into a ball, trying to shield his head, grateful his metal arms couldn't suffer all the cuts and scrapes he'd otherwise be getting. His neck still picked up a few, though. Tumble, smack, thump, down he went... until he finally came to rest on something less hard than stone. He uncurled a bit, looking around. "Is everyone alright?" he asked, voice hoarse with dust. "What are we sitting on?"

Roots, he realized. They were sitting on the huge, gnarled, twining roots of a great tree...

... one that had grown through the floor of the true vault they'd just tumbled into.

Daiya | Cartri Keswoll | Phalsi Drynchen | Brie Jaxx​

 

[Phalsi Drynchen]

GOTTA FIND THE SHINY
Objective: Search...and not die.

Spoiler: I got this on me or in a bag

Equipment: Under-Armor, Clothes-The look, The Mask, Just in Case Cloak, Scope- on belt, Wrist Device, Slicing/Gaming Tool, The Encoil, Zerek Stowaway Node, ICE/iBorg Clarion Personal Translator
Weapons: Four Zenji Needles, Pair of Blue Lightsabers, Hard Light Weapon, Pair of Shock Whips, Heklerkok FP-01
Extra Pocket Stuff: Standard Magazines x4, Lodestone Devices x4, Journeyman Knife, Security Spike, Scramble Key, Anti-security blade, Field Security Overloader, Canteen/Waterskin, Energy/Food Capsules
Ship: Psf-01 Shadowfire

Tags: Daiya Cartri Keswoll Doc Painless Brie Jaxx Bryn Celli Ddu Xan Deesa Zole Jerec Asyr Darkwire Shadow​

The ride was nothing short of being both terrifying and amazing. Never in her life had she pictured herself riding the currents on a gas bag, never mind feeling the emotional currents of those above her trying to sort things out. Her eyes squinted behind the mask, trying to figure out who exactly was doing the emotional dance as she tried to comfortably adjust her hold on the lifeline she had.

The shout of a jump point cleared her mind, eventually finding solid ground to let loose of their rides before the group gathered and trudged ahead. The small announcement by Daiya not missing her ears as the blue lit mask turned to her and Cartri briefly. Saying nothing, she moved forward with Doc instead of mull on the possible conversation the two had held on their harrowing journey to this point.

The structure came into view, a small sign of potential hope as the doors opened into-

Nothing.

Phalsi stood silent, turning her head side to side in her different visions behind the mask. Confirming what Doc had informed the rest of them as she turned to confirm what he said. The floor gave way before the other could finish, throwing them down beneath the empty room and into a different cavern.

A strange feeling being weightless on a planet with gravity. The lingering moment of the floor giving way an alarming feeling as she curled up tight at first. Then loosened her muscles, a trick she'd learned piloting vessels. The worst injuries always came when you tensed. Muscle and bone fighting to hold form against the energy against them.

Eventually, and with an uncomfortable groan accompanying the unfurling, Phalsi pushed masonry from atop her. The mask was intact at least. She checked the seals as Doc spoke up and brought their attention elsewhere. It was far too comfortable to be anything other than dirt. Or something close to it at least.

"I thought the Abyss was all metal an-" Her words stopped as she gazed upward, spotting the tree. "Is that a tree?" Disbelief stained her tone, glancing to the others with confusion.

 

[Brie Jaxx]

Brie shaked her head and rolled her eyes in a hopeless manner towards ginger boy, as he obviously tried to fool them about the, apparently, very docile creatures behaviors. While Brie had been reluctant at first, her stoic person had quickly accepted that she were now being carried upwards in the Abyss by a transport with a mind of its own. She didn't even care to comment on ginger boy's useless try to scare them. Instead, she wondered where Cartri got all the energy from. An answer to that would soon come, as the ginger boy suddenly proclaimed his fondness of Daiya, upon which Brie dropped her jaw and looked over at the two lover birds. Here? Now!? It wasn't the most appropriate place to do such a thing!

The most interesting part was to see how Daiya reacted. Brie had known of the ginger boy's love interest since Froswythe, but she had kept her mouth shut despite their disagreements. For being a scrapper girl, Brie had learned a lot from her holobooks and journeys through the galaxy, which was why she ignored their old grudges and honored his assumed wish to tell Daiya himself. To see him telling her that here was shocking, though. If Daiya would have looked at Brie, she might have got a hunch that her friend knew about it before it was now revealed.

''I was starting to wonder when you would drop that, Cartri. I wonder who has got the heebie-jeebies, feeling that they need to tell something like that right now!'' Brie called over to the lover boy, then glanced over at Daiya seeing that she was equally amused of his revealed secret.

As the Lotkaasi carried them into a huge cavern of sorts, Brie glanced around in fascination of the great halls with ceilings reaching hundreds of feet above them. She let go of the creatures tentacle about the same time as Daiya, making a controlled landing on her knee a stone's throw beside her friend. Brie walked up to Daiya and followed Doc and the rest inside the catherdral-like building, were they were greeted with a floor giving way under their feet. Brie was quick to grab onto the ledge but finger by finger lost the grip and she eventually ended up at the same place as Doc, Phalsi and the others.

Daiya , Doc Painless , Phalsi Drynchen , Cartri Keswoll , Bryn Celli Ddu , Zole , Jerec Asyr , Darkwire Shadow​

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Yes, it was probably the worst time to express his love for a girl but he couldn't hold it in much longer. Daiya wanted him to be honest, and he did just that. At least it was out now, he didn't have to keep hiding away from it much longer. Choosing not to look at Daiya from embarrassment, he looked over to the guide she was shouting at and noticed the ground they were referring to. A large cavern lay before them, one that made Cartri gulp deeply as the creatures slowly took them further down.

It didn't take long for them to finally find strong ground below, providing them a foot to stand on as they all stared straight ahead at the structures before them "That's it? are you sure?" he said excitedly to the fact, his mouth forming a wide smile from the brilliance of Daiya. Although, her last comment seemed to change that. Shaking his head slowly he looked away from the girl and slowly stood beside her "Good job Daiya, whatever you did certainly has us on the right path. No-"

Suddenly, just as Cartri was about to celebrate further the ground broke beneath them without warning. His first instinct wasn't to protect himself but to protect the girl he admired most through any means necessary. The teen snapped his arms around Daiya and pulled her in close, protecting the girl with his body as they both tumbled back first into the whole. For a few seconds, they felt weightlessness, up until Cartri's back hit the floor with a loud thump. To make matters worse, Daiya's weight fell on top of his chest.

"Ughhhhhhh..." Cartri gasped, his body covered head to toe in dust. It seemed like he struggled to breathe for a few moments before his deflated lungs finally sucked in the fresh air it had been lacking. Not only that, but his back was in immense agony from the sacrifice he had just undertaken. Luckily, it didn't seem like anything was broken for now "O-oh S-hittt..." he groaned, the arms around Daiya unraveling to let her go free.

In the corner of his eye, he finally picked up the strange thing that everyone was staring at. Blinking a few times he still kept on his back and let out another pained groan "A-Am I concussed? Or... or is that a tree?"

Daiya Doc Painless Phalsi Drynchen Brie Jaxx Xan Deesa Zole ​

 

[Daiya]

(Post Soundtrack: "Cities in Dust" by The Everlove)

A bubbling mirth rose in the young shadowrunner's throat, excitement that followed praise from Doc and Cartri. She even found appreciating looks from their guides, behind the fleeting skepticism on the part of Havn and Sera. Daiya accepted it wholesale, even counting the look from Phalsi in her direction, wearing it all as a badge of honor. Let no one doubt that she could lead them to treasure through the depths of the Abyss itself!

The teen spun in a circle, letting her arms fly on her self-made breeze, indulging in her moment of pleasure. A hum floated to the top of her throat, building to a crescendo that echoed throughout the whole place, a determined promise she had never wavered from. "Let's...Get...RICH!"

A cackle of glee escaped her, tempered at last by the harsh glares and quick shush from their guides. Daiya's elation was at its peak, even a clamped hand against her mask —though it was only for show— couldn't dampen her spirits now. The blonde-haired shadowrunner nodded her agreement, though her intrepid resolve was hardly leashed to it, begging to defy even Doc's cautious warning about traps. Her voice was lower and softer, at least, when Daiya remarked, "We got this far, we can handle any traps!"

It was Havn who pulled the great door open, and Aylya who ventured first. Lights and the sound of quiet footfalls bounced within the cavernous space at their entrance, with Daiya on the lookout for the lock for the vault in particular. Her eyes and lights scoured the place, seeking even when the guides and the others in her party seemed to give up. Her desperate mind searched for answers, unwilling to accept that she could have been so close and still a failure.

An apologetic overture from her wisest companion wasn't helping things either, Daiya whipped her head and charged back to snap in his direction. "Shut up, Doc, this isn't ov—"

Daiya felt the hands around her stomach first before it flipped end over end, the sudden weightlessness drawing a scream from the girl. The fall through the floor, which had so suddenly given way around them, felt endless. Plenty of time to strip away the bounds of her success and leave her with only emptiness at the hour of her demise.

"Aghhh!" She gasped, wheezing with the effort. A burning desire filled her lungs, forcing her to breathe in, and rewarding the teen with air so dusty even her facemask couldn't filter it all out. Daiya coughed, rolling away from her unexpected guardian angel, feeling a stroke of indignation to spot Cartri in the place she had landed.

Loverboy's damned savior complex was the last thing she needed now!

She managed to shake off that frustration, and brush herself off to stand up inside their newest discovery. Daiya smacked a hand against her mask, one of her lights had gone out in the fall, but there were enough within the group to get the enough of the picture. They had not landed softly upon a mound of treasure, nor did the young shadowrunner wade within untold riches swarming her feet. She barely kept from tripping on the roots that sprawled over the floor, and her cheek earned a short, thin gash before Daiya learned that the edges of its leaves were sharp.

"A TREE?!"

Her desperation from above had followed her down, and now it rose in a great knot through her throat. An anguished sob rushed around it, the teen stricken with a torrent of grief and rage all at once. "A fething tree? Of all the fething...stupid...chitty...aaaaahhhhHHHHHHHHH!"

Daiya lashed out at the tree, slamming the toes of her boot into the blue-grey bark its trunk. It produced another shriek from the girl, and her foot flew into her hands as she hopped around to keep her balance. Tears of pain and anguished welled under her eyes, and in her bleery vision the teen tripped and collapsed backward into a crevasse between the roots. Her feet dangled and her arms hung backward over the pair of roots, and there was nothing left for the teen to do but laugh.

It started from her belly, mingling with a few lingering sobs. By the time it reached her throat, the teen's clear laugh was ringing from the speakers in her facemask, her whole body shaking in sync with her mirth. Daiya shook her head, then turned back to the party, "Feth me, right?"

She threw her head back, her single light illuminating the tree's pinkish leaves. On any other day, on any other adventure, this might even be a place of serenity. Daiya was tired, sore from the fall, her head still pounded from her induced vision —and Cartri's untimely confession, and her foot throbbed inside her boot. But even after all that, the teen pointed up to the branches of the tree. "At least that's pretty. How the feth does something like that grow down here?"

Daiya shook her head, and started to extricate herself. Her hand grabbed onto a flimsy root branch, falling deeper into the muck the tree was planted in. The young shadowrunner frowned at what she felt underneath, and clenched her hand around it to pull out whatever it was. Bringing it to her working light, she opened her hand to find the crumbling remains of a credit chip. "Huh."

Managing to right herself again, Daiya perched above the muck and plunged another hand deep inside. She had to lay on the root to get enough leverage, before grabbing ahold of something firmer to extract. She squinted at the rock in her hands, turning it this way and that. Even in its filthy state, it seemed to catch the light. Maybe it would be worth something.

"Soooo," Daiya mentioned to the group again, pulling up another handful of decaying credits chips, one among them still looking intact. She fished it out, flinging the muck off to hold it up for their inspection. "Anyone up for some buried treasure?"

Daiya giggled at the suggestion, her heart buoyed by the thought of a meager success from the day.

Phalsi Drynchen Brie Jaxx Doc Painless Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Doc Painless]

Am I concussed, Cartri asked, or is that a tree?

"Both can be true," the Doc replied drily.

Pessimistic assumptions aside, no one seemed to be too much the worse for wear; despite their tumble amid the jagged rubble, the Doc couldn't see any blood on any of them, which was a good sign. The shattered stonework had stayed mostly beneath them, without much potential to cut or crush their bodies, and the spongy roots they'd landed on had broken their fall without breaking them. So their bones were thankfully intact... even if their moods were not. Daiya had been put on an emotional rollercoaster over the past five minutes, going from triumph to despair, then the same cycle again. She'd snapped at him before they'd fallen. Her disappointed anger would be white-hot now.

Sure enough, she'd declared war on the tree. The Doc kept his distance as his young friend vented her anger, knowing there was nothing he could say that would make this any better. To have lugged them all along through such terrible danger for nothing was bad enough; to have believed twice that it would actually pay off, only to see those hopes dashed, was just about intolerable for her. He got it. So he just let her rage, screaming and kicking at the bizarre plant... until finally the ragefuel tank ticked down to empty, and the girl sank down against the trunk, laughing helplessly. She'd gotten it out of her system. Maybe now they could talk about how the feth to get out of this place.

It was really, truly over at last... or so he thought, until Daiya made one last discovery.

"Is that... money?" The Doc squinted at the corroded objects in the girl's hand, baffled that such things would be coming from beneath the weird tree's soft roots. Sure enough, they were credit chips, though whether they were spendable was anyone's guess. But if there were credits down there, well, there might be other loot, too. "Buried treasure after all," he murmured, smiling bemusedly despite - or perhaps because of - everything he'd been put through that day. "And a lot more literally than I was expecting." He wondered how the feth this had come to pass. Had the tree once been a seed stored amid the treasure horde, gradually growing over it in the dank conditions?

Or had the mad Hutt actually planted it there on purpose, one last layer of "security" to conceal these decaying riches?

Or was it just another strange Denon coincidence, life finding a way to grow amid metal and duracrete?

Maybe it was symbolic, a demonstration of how even on this city-planet nature could not be contained, and was more powerful even than wealth... or maybe it was just a strange but beautiful tree that'd managed to grow in a strange but beautiful spot. It was a sight that almost made the whole wretched, terrifying trek worth it, and the Doc filed it away in his memory, one more weird little wonder of the galaxy he'd been lucky enough to witness in his life. He'd treasure that, and the fact that they'd all made it here safely, more than any actual treasure. "If you're going to rummage under those roots," he advised, standing back, "do it carefully, please. Mind your hands."

"There may be sharp, rusty edges down there. And critters that bite."

He certainly wasn't reaching in there. But he'd never come along for treasure anyway, just to watch over the others.

And all in all, despite everything, he felt he'd done a pretty good job.

Daiya | Phalsi Drynchen | Brie Jaxx | Cartri Keswoll​

 

[Phalsi Drynchen]

GOTTA FIND THE SHINY
Objective: Search...and not die.

Spoiler: I got this on me or in a bag

Equipment: Under-Armor, Clothes-The look, The Mask, Just in Case Cloak, Scope- on belt, Wrist Device, Slicing/Gaming Tool, The Encoil, Zerek Stowaway Node, ICE/iBorg Clarion Personal Translator
Weapons: Four Zenji Needles, Pair of Blue Lightsabers, Hard Light Weapon, Pair of Shock Whips, Heklerkok FP-01
Extra Pocket Stuff: Standard Magazines x4, Lodestone Devices x4, Journeyman Knife, Security Spike, Scramble Key, Anti-security blade, Field Security Overloader, Canteen/Waterskin, Energy/Food Capsules
Ship: Psf-01 Shadowfire

Tags: Final Post​

Righting herself, she listened and examined the scene around them. A false floor, a hidden treasure, all strange and unknown given the nature of the Abyss. A sigh punctuated her standing and moving around to make sure everyone was alright.

The soft wave of her hand to those moving to stand lacking the concerned face given the mask covering her features. She spent only moments checking, eventually stepping close enough to examine the tree before snapping a picture of it as a memento for the trip.

Hands on her hips, she nodded twice before shaking her head and looking for an exit for them. The guides would probably have a better idea, but it didn't hurt to help.

"All sorts of crazy in the universe." A mumbled phrase as she scanned the room and began looking for an exit for them to use. Hoping in small measure an exit wouldn't be as hectic as the entrance.

 

[Brie Jaxx]

"Is that a tree?" asked Phalsi in disbelief.

"A-Am I concussed? Or... or is that a tree?" went Cartri, doubting his own eyes.

"A TREE?! A fething tree? Of all the fething...stupid...chitty...aaaaahhhhHHHHHHHHH!" yelled Daiya, probably making more than Brie jump and all the eyes fall upon Daiya instead of the tree.

Indeed, it was a tree, and Brie kept herself from falling into the half-silly choir asking themselves if it was or not. Brie guessed Cartri would have taken her stoic silence for boring and humorless, but the situation they were in was not funny at all and did not need any humor right now. As Brie glanced around from her half-sitting position on the side, she were just glad to see that everyone seemed okay except a few dust spots here and there.

As the group gathered and dusted themselves off, and their guides trying to figure out exactly where they had ended up and what options they had, Daiya discovered something in the ground near the tree. It seemed that the ground close to it was soft and porous and if you digged depp enough, decaying credits and other things had fall victim to the tree. Some things, like the gem Daiya held up, looked like it had rather been preserved, even if it needed a good clean up and polish.

"Anyone up for some buried treasure?" Daiya stated in a lot more satisfied and considerably happier tone than before.

Brie stumbled to her feet and walked over to her best friend. She listened to Doc's advice, and while the gemstone had been preserved, it didn't breathe and Brie were not meaning to fall into the muck and be preserved herself. She carefully held onto a branch looking strong enough, before digging into the strange ground one-handedly. After a short moment of careful digging, her gloved hands felt something and pulled it up. A tech belt of sorts, probably broken right now, but she could give it a try fixing it and see what functions it had.

''See? You were right, Daiya. This must be it; the treasure. Who knows what these things will do?'' she noted while examining the belt.

Phalsi and the guides looked to have an idea to get to the top, and considering they had got through all of this, Brie trusted that the group of shadowrunners and guides would be able to reach an exit.

Daiya , Cartri Keswoll , Doc Painless , Phalsi Drynchen ​

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

"Ughhhhh.... so I'm not concussed then?" he groaned while a hand slowly found its way behind his back. He was disappointed when Daiya didn't even give him thanks for being her human cushion. Although, it was Daiya after all, knowing her she was probably still in the heat of the moment. As well as this, Doc Painless also seemed to throw a smart comment his way. Why did so many people want to see him suffer so much? was he really that annoying?

"Oh, come on Doc, don't rub salt in the wound..."

Mumbling all the way to his hands and knees he crawled in agony to the rock wall and pulled himself up, thankful that his spine didn't snap in two when Daiya dropped all her body weight on top of him. Leaning over like a hunchback he shuffled his way over to the tree with the others, his back in absolute peril from a rocky floor colliding with it "This is just my luck..." he grumbled before reaching them. Cartri's face was glum and fed up at this point. Not only did he not get a hero's thanks from Daiya but there was also no treasure to compensate them!

"So... We just managed to escape a hoard of critters, dangerously flew on some weird creatures, had a mare expressing my love to Daiya, and almost paralyzed myself only to be gifted with a tree for our efforts?! it's not like we can cut it up and take it back to Denon piece by piece!"

Leaning himself against the tree with a grunt he slowly folded his arms in a grumpy fashion and looked at the ground, doing his best to hide the torture in his eyes. All hope was lost now, they had come all this way to look at a pretty piece of wood hidden in a cave. However, this was not Daiya's fault at all. She had no idea this was going to be the end result, and she did well in even getting them this far.

Suddenly, a voice of joy rang out amongst the group. They had found treasure? where? how?! Cartri could move his battered state from the tree fast enough to get a better look, and sure enough, there was a whole heap of credits below. The pain almost seemed to fade away at that moment, eyes filled with a shine and his once frowning lips transforming into a wide smile.

"Daiya!" you're a genius!" he proclaimed, thanking her for single handedly getting them through hell and back. Giving her a thankful pat on her back he looked back down to the credits and scooped a bunch in his hands, nodding slowly in consideration of what he should use it for.

"No holes in the walls? or a better Holoscreen? hmmm, the horror flicks would look good on a bigger environment..." he said to himself as the rest helped themselves to the rest of the spoils and figured out an exit plan. If Daiya could get them in, he was more than confident the smart Daiya could get them out.

Brie Jaxx Phalsi Drynchen​

 

[Daiya]

(Post Soundtrack: "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic)

The blonde adventurer's pockets were swollen with dirty, crumbling artifacts. Souvenirs, she told herself, at least something she could take away from this journey. The Abyss had swallowed most of her treasure, leaving a tree in its place, one the teen glared at from time to time as she went about the vault. She circled it, trying to piece together some measure of meaning to make sense of the whole ordeal.

Her trek had been marred with dangerous creatures, near-death encounters, a nigh-irrelevant vision, heart-stopping scares, and now the discovery of the vault chamber defiled by a tree. She was sore, exhausted, in emotional shambles, and the skin around her facemask itched from a reaction of the toxic atmosphere mixing with her sweat.

Daiya just wanted to go home.

Doc seemed to be supervising their recovery efforts for the treasure, yet only Brie and Cartri seemed to have found anything worth taking back with them. Phalsi had moved off from their group, and though the teen was far from telepathic, she could almost feel the woman's urge to get out resonating from across the vault. The buzz infected their guides as well, and Daiya nearly jumped when Havn placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Aylya found something you should look at. Do you still that key?" The man's voice cut short, as if he wanted to say something more. No one had commented on the teen's earlier tantrum, Daiya had been trying not to think of it herself though she was far from self-deluded to think that it had been forgiven by her party members. She waited, waiting for the words that Havn wouldn't speak, and hating herself for wanting to hear them.

A breath of air left her mouth, dismissing her own wishes. She nodded to the man, her head bobbing in an undulating sequence, selling herself on the words as much as her guide, "Yep, yep, I'll be there. I just have one more thing to do."

The task wasn't obvious to her yet, either, but the promise was good enough to make Havn nod and walk away. Daiya stood a ways apart from the others, wondering what it was that she needed from this place. Her hands were obviously empty, while her heart was irrationally angry. She glared over at the tree again, gritting her teeth as an idea came to mind at last.

Daiya stalked over to its branches, climbing over roots and ducking under its clawing, sharp-cut leaves. She pulled out a knife, sawing on several of the thinner, spindly branches. They were covered in leaves, several with flowers or buds on the end, and their tender stalks plied to her hands as she bent them to test. The teen grinned beneath her facemask, stealing from the tree a morsel of what it had stolen from her.

At least she could weave herself a victory wreath, as hollow as that might be.

Then Daiya finally turned away from the tree, gesturing to her friends and guides to follow. If their journey hadn't provided its promised treasure, at least it had provided for their survival. Her heart swelled at that thought, she felt almost light-headed by the mere knowledge that they hadn't perished, despite their numerous opportunities. If anyone from her party didn't make it back up to the city above, that was really their own fault, the entire group had done everything right to bring them all home.

Aylya was standing in front of some rusted architecture when Daiya drew near. She and the guides had cleared some debris away, and one of the tree's roots had been hacked apart to reveal a hole in the wall. The young shadowrunner finally pulled out the key for the vault that she'd lifted from the drunken spacer. Daiya stepped forward and brushed away more dirt from the keyhole, and inserted the object, hoping that it was, at last, the puzzle piece they needed to unlock the last leg of their journey.

She turned the key.

Mechanisms that were decades —perhaps even centuries— old clicked and whirred, grinding against metal and time. Daiya's eyes squinted, her face cringing in a tepid hope. An anticipation, that all of this hadn't been for nothing, that she hadn't come all this way only to find a broken machine or to be stranded by an ancient lift. The teen had trusted herself, trusted the legends she grew up hearing, but now she stood in front of it in the flesh, waiting for the moment of truth.

"Oh!" she couldn't help the exclamation jump from her lips, a grin spreading behind her facemask when the doors parted. A lift that looked even older than their first one, though in much better shape, revealed itself behind the unlocked doors. Daiya found herself giggling, spinning around again until she found her friend's face. The teen took Brie's hands in her own, uncontainable excitement shouting louder than she needed, "We're going home!"

For the whole trip back up the lift, Daiya spent her time in a state of youthful high, a newfound confidence that kept her on the tips of her toes and made all of her problems seem trivial.

Surviving the Abyss would make anyone feel invincible.

Phalsi Drynchen Brie Jaxx Doc Painless Cartri Keswoll​