"You think they're takin' bets on who's gonna make it?" Mary Grace asks the others, jutting her chin in the direction of the teachers. So far they've kept their promise to maintain a polite distance, but so far all they've seen is just some beautiful fucking country. Pretty trees. Cool rocks. A rabbit. But no Hell. "'Cause I got bets on them."
Audrey, surely, is way up there in the rankings for Dies First. She cuts a particularly small figure today, only because she's had to bury herself under about sixteen layers of coats. But she's alive. For now. And she glances back to assess their chaperones. "Youngblood's...more outwardly scrappy." She theorizes. "But Trullinger has tricks up that sleeve. In that beard. I bet."
Merlin, who has been silently pondering how to approach the topic of the cicada with Youngblood (or maybe just find a subtle way to get it close to him and see what happens), huffs at this turn in the conversation. A dramatic white puff escapes into the air and he adjusts his scarf, almost completely covering the lower of half of his face. He's as prepared as he can be, but it's still cold out here.
Then he retorts, "They're both worse off than any of us, if you ask me. But everyone's making it. Val and I have got this covered."
Holland, who opted for cute and practical for this hike so she's less likely to die, makes a small face at the conversation. It feels like courting disaster, but she doesn't want to say anything for fear of being labeled a worrywart. Mostly by Merlin. She momentarily glances at him before focusing on the path ahead.
"I'm sure everything will be fine and uneventful," she says, which probably exposes the fact that she's uneasy. "If they're taking bets, they're terrible and ridiculous."
And for the most part it is fine and uneventful. The hikers' trek through the snow only seems to reveal more and more dense wilderness. Sometimes a bird passes by overhead, sometimes they spy a pile of deer poop, but otherwise it's woods, woods, and more woods.
They've been at it for a couple hours when someone stumbles on a small pile of loose bricks, covered in snow.
Trudy is pretty confident that they're all going to survive, particularly with teacher backup here, but she's still steeling herself for cannibalism, just in case. Mostly, though, she's just bored. They haven't found anything even remotely spooky or unusual. "Oooh, what's that?" she says, rushing over to the brownish-red pile to toe at it with her boot, glad for something unusual to investigate.
The bricks are perfectly normal bricks. A loose pile, coated with snow, sits next to a few rotted wood beams, and a few yards away, a chunk of asphalt leans up against a young tree.
Merlin rolls his eyes at Mary Grace's question and moves around her to follow after Trudy. This might not be exciting, but it's the only unexpected thing they've seen all day, so it at least warrants a look. He glances at the pile of bricks and the rotten wood before making his way over to the asphalt slab leaned against the tree and tilts his head thoughtfully. "...Wonder how long this stuff's been out here," he murmurs to no one in particular. The tree isn't that old, so it can't have been all that long, right?
"No, no! This is just like what I saw on our last camping trip!" Val announces excitedly. She, for one, is very excited about the bricks. "This means we're on the right track, it must be part of the road that once led to the town, or something."
She's already unfolding her map to check, hopeful that it'll validate her enthusiasm and optimism.
"It can't be all that old, because it would be more buried bye leaves and dirt. Then again odd that it's all in pieces, right?" Trudy looks around the group for confirmation. "Even over time, nature might reclaim a road and bust it up, but this is just a chunk. Where's the rest? Was it blown up?" She leans down to get a better look, examining the signs of civilization for any signs that someone blew up a hell town.
Mary Grace kicks up some snow, but it only reveals rocks and dirt and no signs of a road or a town or hell.
"Planting trees over something you wanna hide ain't exactly unheard of," she says and moves closer to the brick pile. "Just don't know why we'd need to be hiding shit out here."
As far as Val can see on paper, the group is still pointed toward the mysterious ink splotch, following the general bent of the Muggle byway cutting through these hills.
Off paper, there's more wilderness than road. One of the beams of wood is rotted and grown over with moss, but if they look closer they can just start to make out some words.
Wandering alone for a moment, and newly trained to look for glyphs and words, Audrey crouches by the beam. She scrapes off a little moss, and pockets it. Itโs...probably just moss, but on the off chance it does something special, she wants to know. Squinting, she canโt quite make out if the words are just carvings, or what. โGuys.โ She murmurs to the group behind her, โdoes this say anything?โ
At Audrey's question, Merlin turns back from the concrete slab with furrowed brows. He moves to join her and leans over her shoulder to get a look at the writing or symbols or scratches that she's seeing in the wood. There's definitely something there, but it's difficult to tell what even with the moss gone. He pulls out his wand, murmuring a quiet Lumos and holding the light close to the markings to (hopefully) bring them into clearer relief. "...Maybe?"
As the hikers continue, more signs of life crop up—an old signpost with no directions here, a pile of bricks or rusty nails peeking out of the snow there. No one is here, that much is obvious, but someone was here, once. And maybe not that long ago. The woods around Peckenpaugh are old, an unknowably ancient home to the creatures and spirits of Appalachia, but the trees here are younger.
The further they go, the more prominent the signs of life. There's an old outbuilding, nothing inside but a paintcan rusted shut, a rocking chair for either a child or a very small old woman left to the elements.
More than anything, though, it's getting warmer. Hard to tell if that's just a consequence of all this walking, or maybe they're just freezing to death, but the icy cold is a little more tolerable as they come up on another sign. This one is in much better condition, and written in several languages not covered in any Peckenpaugh textbook (though at least Gobbledegook is covered in there):
GREATER APPALACHIAN BEING RESERVE
* * * * * RESTRICTED ACCESS * * * * *
NO ENTRANCE WITHOUT A PERMIT
It's not the only sign. There are more signs, similarly written, but bigger, and some with exclamation points, and eventually, they see more than that. Buildings, in the distance, taking shape against the sky, while the students find even more signs of a life once lived in this area. One student finds a picture frame with a photo only partially destroyed behind the cracked glass, another finds a dog leash, and a third finds the wall. Wandering through the woods they slam right into an invisible barrier just behind the final RESTRICTED ACCESS sign.
The students walk along the barrier, but they can't find a way in. Their access is, apparently, RESTRICTED. Eventually they stumble on a bowling bag sticking out of a tree. When they open it up they find a bunch of bowling shoes of all sizes, and on the tongue of each one is a single, tiny rune in the shape of a swirl, scribbled in ballpoint pen. There's a rustle in a nearby bush as they look at the shoes, but the students see nothing. Huh. Must have been a rabbit.
SETTING OUT
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
Then he retorts, "They're both worse off than any of us, if you ask me. But everyone's making it. Val and I have got this covered."
THE HIKE
"I'm sure everything will be fine and uneventful," she says, which probably exposes the fact that she's uneasy. "If they're taking bets, they're terrible and ridiculous."
THE HIKE
They've been at it for a couple hours when someone stumbles on a small pile of loose bricks, covered in snow.
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
"You think that's a pile of hellbeast droppings?" she calls out and makes no move to follow Trudy. She's holding out for something more exciting.
THE HIKE
But does that matter?
THE HIKE
She's already unfolding her map to check, hopeful that it'll validate her enthusiasm and optimism.
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
"Planting trees over something you wanna hide ain't exactly unheard of," she says and moves closer to the brick pile. "Just don't know why we'd need to be hiding shit out here."
THE HIKE
Off paper, there's more wilderness than road. One of the beams of wood is rotted and grown over with moss, but if they look closer they can just start to make out some words.
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
THE HIKE
THE DESTINATION
THE DESTINATION
The further they go, the more prominent the signs of life. There's an old outbuilding, nothing inside but a paintcan rusted shut, a rocking chair for either a child or a very small old woman left to the elements.
More than anything, though, it's getting warmer. Hard to tell if that's just a consequence of all this walking, or maybe they're just freezing to death, but the icy cold is a little more tolerable as they come up on another sign. This one is in much better condition, and written in several languages not covered in any Peckenpaugh textbook (though at least Gobbledegook is covered in there):
* * * * * RESTRICTED ACCESS * * * * *
NO ENTRANCE WITHOUT A PERMIT
It's not the only sign. There are more signs, similarly written, but bigger, and some with exclamation points, and eventually, they see more than that. Buildings, in the distance, taking shape against the sky, while the students find even more signs of a life once lived in this area. One student finds a picture frame with a photo only partially destroyed behind the cracked glass, another finds a dog leash, and a third finds the wall. Wandering through the woods they slam right into an invisible barrier just behind the final RESTRICTED ACCESS sign.
The students walk along the barrier, but they can't find a way in. Their access is, apparently, RESTRICTED. Eventually they stumble on a bowling bag sticking out of a tree. When they open it up they find a bunch of bowling shoes of all sizes, and on the tongue of each one is a single, tiny rune in the shape of a swirl, scribbled in ballpoint pen. There's a rustle in a nearby bush as they look at the shoes, but the students see nothing. Huh. Must have been a rabbit.
(frozen comment) MAKING CAMP
OOC ๐ป DISCUSSION
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Valfox is Perfect. ♥
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HAVE FUN!!
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I still know all the words to this show, surprising abso nobody I am sure