Starring:
Date: June 7, 2013
Summary:
Isra has a small adventure protecting some prisoners on a mining shift.
"Miner Mishap"
Dark Cavern [Land of Water]
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From the small opening from the cliff on the outside it brings forth an environment of total darkness with cave walls, tunnels, tendrils, rocks and an abundance of life ranging from bats to large poisonous spiders. The area smells of death and decay, a thick stench floats in the air from the undisturbed grund. There are sounds of all sorts throughout, some identifiable and some completely undiscovered. No light shines through the dark caverns of this cave showing only total darkness.
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o/~ Workin' in a coal mine, Goin' down down down, Workin' in a coal mine, Whop! about to slip down o/~
That's the reality of the situation for some of the captured members of the Peacekeepers, or close enough to it. They may not be looking for coal in particular, but they've been pressed into service mining for valuable minerals in the caves near the internment camps. They shuffle through the darkness in a chain gang, carrying shovels and picks and large, thick sacks to hold the treasures they manage to wrest from the rock. Of course, somebody has to accompany these prisoners, not only to prevent them from escaping, but also ironically to protect them. The caves are a hazardous place after all, and the Daimyou of the Land of Water did order that the citizenry not be killed as much as possible. Today one of those overseers is Isra, who is deemed competent enough to handle the task on her own.
Isra made her rounds as she needed to. She was never late and ever wary. She took her job seriously, even if some may not have seen it in that way, but her sword didn't lie. This was a coal mine and that meant any wayward explosion would mean their lives and hers. Would she hesitate to use the weapon? Maybe, maybe not. No one should want to take that chance, but she does have other skills at her disposal for use, so hopefully things wouldn't have to go that far. She doesn't expect them too and really doesn't want them to. Sigh.
The prisoners give Isra sullen, over-the-shoulder glares as they work. Doubtless some of them would like to take a swing at her head if given a good chance. >P Of course, what they'd think is a good chance would probably turn out not even halfway decent. "How long we gonna be kept here, anyway?" one of the workers complains. "We gonna be slaves for the rest of our stinkin' lives, just for standing up for our rights?" >P "Don't mess it up for the rest of us," hisses a more pragmatic individual. "I just wanna serve my time and go home!" >.<; "Hah! Like we've been judged with a proper sentence to start with," snorts the first. "I'd rather die fighting to get out of here than — " "Shut UP!!!" The second guy snaps and swings his shovel at the dissident. DX Naturally the first one retaliates, and pretty soon the whole gang of six is scrabbling, half of them not sure who they're trying to subdue. Looks like Itami's got a mini-riot on her hands!
Isra shrugged. "Don't know. I'm not the one over your sentences. You'll have to make an inquiry to the Mizukage for that," she states. "You should probably get back to focusing on your quota for today. If it isn't met, it'll carry over into the next day," she stated to them calmly enough, though they seemed riled up by this point. She winces as the shovel comes across one of the prisoner's faces and then grumbles to herself. Time to contain 'em.
First blind them. Let them sit it out for a few moments, then hopefully they'll get back to work. So, with a few handseals, she holds up a flashbang tag and allows it to explode, causing a bright light to explode in their faces…all except hers since she covered her eyes.
The flash does a pretty good job of freezing the prisoners in place…most of them, that is. The loudmouth keeps flailing his pick around blindly. Fortunately, he happens to swing away from the other prisoners, and his tool bites deep into the floor with a hollow *KCHACK*! Wait…hollow? c.c; The faint echoes of the pick's bite from below are soon overshadowed by an ominous cracking. Suddenly the ground caves in, and the entire group is plunged into the darkness. They hit a slope below and slide down it in a shouting jumble of limbs, chains, and rocks. After a while of this cacophony, they find themselves at the bottom of a long slide, with the passage they came through blocked by tons of tightly packed rocks and dirt which slid down after them. Looks like they're not getting back out that way.
Isra smirked. Job well done! Sort of. The guy keeps swinging around his axe and the Swordswoman is halfway motivated to just outright attack him, but that wouldn't solve anything. It appears he's solved something himself, anyway. The floor began to give way…. Sigh.
They go sliding down all the way to some unknown parts and end up somewhere. When they stop, she rises up from the ground and groans softly. "Okay, listen up," she states. "Unless we all want to die down here, we better stick together. I'll take the lead and figure out how to get us out of here safely. I'd suggest you all don't swing your shovels and pick axes around unless you want to go deeper down here. If you thought your cause was lost before, now it's lost even more," she explained. "I'm not here to be your enemy now, but if you make one out of me, I won't hesitate to strike you down."
The prisoners are too bruised and scared to give any disagreement at the moment. x.x; They pick themselves up (a rather difficult process, with the chains and the rubble and everything, but they manage after a while) and line up behind Isra. Fortunately (although that's debatable) there seems to be only one way to go, so there's no wondering about which path to take. The group shuffles and clinks through the natural tunnel for a time, exploring their impromptu confines. Eventually the cavern opens up…and down. Their path winds around a tall cliff face, only a narrow ledge above a yawning abyss. Isra should have no trouble getting along, of course, but it's a perilous prospect for the prisoners…and the one who snapped earlier has another nervous breakdown. x.x "Oh man, I can't! I can't I tell ya! I can't go anywhere near that hole! Keep it away!" DX Well, they're certainly not going to be able to traverse the ledge with him acting like that…what can Isra do? :o
As they walk through the cave and take the paths along, they finally reach what feels like an opening. Isra looks down to see the abyss and grows somewhat concerned, but she feels she can make it through. When the man begins to have a breakdown, she rubs her head lightly and brushes her hair back to a degree. She's going to need to take the razor to her head. She can feel the fuzz of new growth on it. "Hey, hey! That hole isn't going to do anything to you. It's going to sit there like it always has. What you're going to need to do is stick close and /not panic/." She proceeds over to the chains and looks them over before reaching down and tying them around her waist. "I'm tying myself to you guys to add extra leverage. We're going to get past here, you just have to follow my lead. Alright? It's going to be fine. Keep your cool. Oh and I suppose I spoke too soon. You can use your pickaxes…/carefully/ to keep a good grip on the walls here."
Isra's words don't do much to reassure the whimpering man. x.x The fact that she's tied into the chain does give the others more confidence, though, and they gang up to force the frightened one out onto the ledge. With Isra anchoring the group to the cliffside with her chakra and the scaredy-cat being pushed along in the middle of the group, they begin to make headway.
Of course, things can never be that simple.
o/~ The itsy-bitsy spider climbs up the… o/~ No wait, that doesn't work for this situation. o/~ The bulky-burly spider climbed up the cave cliffside… o/~ That's more like it. Yup, the abyss is home to a giant spider! :D Aren't all sufficiently spacious underground areas like that, after all? And now it's coming up to investigate the squishy little morsels causing vibrations on its home. What do?
Sheeeeeeeeeeep.
A spider, of all things. It just keeps getting better. She wonders if this spider has anything to do with the spider people back in Kiri, but oh well. She'll have to handle this thing. "See, this is what we have to deal with all the time. You guys complain about how we're not protecting you and ruining everything and then something like this happens," she points out the giant spider. "But now, here's the thing. There's no room to panic right now, because if you do, we're going to fall off this ledge and become lunch for it. If you don't, then I have a chance to beat this thing back to where it came from. I'm not going to wait for you all to choose, but you all are going to watch me battle this thing, alright?"
She hums. "In fact, let me do this. I'm going to create a barrier around you guys so you /can't/ hope to move anywhere. It's just better for all of you." She takes out two tags and slaps them against the wall to create a seal barrier to hold the prisoners inside of. She's already untied herself from the chains and now all she has to do is focus on this spider. "Just to be fair, you don't want to eat us," she said to the spider. "We're not food material!" She drew Shibuki from her back and held it at the ready.
If this spider was related to the Okumo, it'd probably respond somehow to all the talking, even if it can't talk itself. But no, it seems to be just your…'ordinary' unnaturally large predator. Mr. Scaredy-Cat is practically frothing at the mouth at this point — heights AND spiders! XE The only way to involve more phobia power would be to have it involve PUBLIC SPEAKING!!! So Isra's move of sealing the prisoners inside a barrier is a good one. It actually helps allay both fears a bit.
From the spider's perspective, it seems as if the majority of its prey has withdrawn into some sort of shell. Strange, they seemed so squishy and defenseless until a moment ago…but no matter, there's still one exposed. %C The spider weaves a net of string onto its pedipalps and swipes at Isra in an attempt to wrap her up.
Isra takes some time to jump out of the way of the stringed pedipalp as she wasn't ready to be taken just yet. Placing some distance between her and the spider, she swings the blade, sending out a ream of the scroll to strike out at the spider with a small explosion. Hopefully, that might be something to deter it. She didn't want to spend too long on this thing, after all. "You guys okay, over there?" She calls out teasingly.
*KABLAM*! Okay, that's something TOTALLY outside the spider's comprehension. Prey with a defense mechanism of…it doesn't even have a CONCEPT for this *KABLAM* stuff! But whatever it is, it stings! Maybe this prey isn't worth the trouble. The giant arachnid scuttles back down into the chasm. The prisoners are less than totally satisfied with that outcome; they'd rather Isra squashes the thing, to be sure it can't come after them again. XP But they don't get to choose, now do they?
After getting past the chasm, the tunnel takes an upward turn, and eventually leads them out into a more familiar part of the cave. "Hey, I know that rock!" one of the prisoners exclaims. At the realization they're back in a relatively safe zone, the prisoners cheer and do a little dance with one another. One of them even tries to hug Isra. X) Yay, they're back! Now they can…start working again. XD
Isra doesn't mind a hug from one of the prisoners. She doesn't keep a key on her, though. Well, she does, but it isn't anywhere they could get it. "Well, now that this is all over, it's time to get back to work. Sorry, but that's how it is. I don't have any power over your sentences around here, but there's nothing stopping you all from making any appeals to change it up," she shrugs. "Just to let you know, I can get authorized to use force against you all, but I'd rather not. I doubt you all want to take explosions like that spider did."
