Tsunami At The Tolbana Hot Spring

[Elpharae]

"Of course," Elpharae allows politely, brushing back locks of his hair with a polite smile. His eyes ran over everything he could find, and he huffed in annoyance when he could find nothing. There was something he didn't like about this whole situation, somehow, besides the fact that it was dreadfully dreary. He tried to use Detection more times than he could count in this position and yet it doesn't work, like there's nothing else to be observed. He hums in displeasure and walks back into the other room.

There might be someone hiding, perhaps pulling a prank on them, with a higher level Stealth than their mere Detection. Elpharae sighs before running his hands over the sides of the rooms, frowning when he finds nothing. There's nothing. That's his problem. No clues, no things to solve, not even a particularly complicated riddle. He'd much rather be facing the Sphinx. Riddles and mysteries have a rhyme and reason, and yet, this doesn't. He bites his lip in annoyance before turning on his heel.

What is there going to be, anyways? A kobold technician named George or something, secretly using the electricity? An attack in town that somehow knocked the power lines down? An attack from dire wolves who broke into town and were mysteriously chewing up wires? A random boar fairy godmother who wanted to curse the springs because she blamed its workers for shriveling her rainbow-colored candy-scented fairy wings that shimmered pink in the moonlight?(Okay, the last one wasn't likely. But still.) His thoughts grew more and more abstract as he walked around the room.

With a quiet huff, he turned to Angelo, tilting his head curiously. "I'm coming up with nothing. Any ideas?"

[Angelo]

Not Really.. :(

Not Really.. :(..

"I guess the water room it is. It's located at the base of the stairs, to the left." Before he left the generator room, he slowly flashed the light at the four walls, seeing if there were no openings of any sorts. Confirming that, he moved towards the door back to the hallway, making sure Elp was close by.

He opened the door, which creaked an awful lot. The hallway was barely lit and nothing could be seen in the distance. Angelo moved the flashlight down the hall and could still see nothing at the very end. Why was the pathway soo long and soo dimly lit? It made absolutely no sense for such a place like this hot spring establishment to be soo rundown in the basement.

Footsteps, steam hissing, and the occasional sounds echoed across the otherwise silent space as Angelo and Elpharae headed to the water room.

[Elpharae]

"How did you know...never mind." Elpharae shook his head, remembering their earlier chat with the NPC at the front, who had seemed a little distressed during that time. But there was no need to press further if he already knew. The brunet followed the white-haired green player through the corridor, trusting him as much as possible. But why on earth was this place so rundown? Did it just change for the sake of their idiotic "quest"?

The green player scowled internally at the thought, and merely followed after Angelo. Their footsteps echoed, making Elpharae uncomfortable, and then he merely switched to Stealth, also making his steps lighter in the process. The sound, coupled with his Detection talent, made him all the more slightly irritated, and the rapier-user exhaled and inhaled slowly, letting the air flow through his system. Now, where were they?

They reached the door that said, quite plainly, "Water Room" in bold letters. Elpharae sent Angelo a questioning look after flickering back into existence before taking the initiative and opening the door. It was a little more brightly lit in the room, which the crossdressing boy thanked everyone he knew for, excluding Kayaba, because...Kayaba, and he merely sighed before stepping in after Angelo, eyes serious as he stepped in.

All quests couldn't be life-threatening monsters, now could they?

[Angelo]

I Wonder What..

I Wonder What...

What is going to happen here, Angelo thought, his eyes gazing at the door to the water room. He returned a look that kind of looked like, 'Well?' The light was definitely more lit inside the room than it was outside in the hallway. Elp entered the room Angelo in tow. He looked cautiously around the corner of the door and saw nothing that screamed out danger to him.

"Hmm.." Angelo looked around the room, leaving the door slightly open behind him. "The switch.. Where is the switch here?"

[Elpharae]

"Give me a minute." Elpharae watched as the door swung shut behind them due to a breeze that had been caught inside, and then glanced around the room. His dark eyes scanned over the room, searching for the lever, and then spotted it. He took a glance at the unsteady stepladder before him and told Angelo it was probably best if he went there to reach the lever. It was too high up for even Angelo to reach, and more weight on that ladder would most likely make it snap.

He stepped lightly, and his hand gently knocked into a rusted, slightly loose screw on a pipe, and then there was a slight swoosh of wind in the room, making Elpharae confused. Where was this wind coming from? It was probably some strange feature of Sword Art Online. He then reached up, and his fingers knocked against the same screw as he then touched the lever, fiddling with it before his fingers were suddenly sprayed by water.

What on earth-his eyes widened at the sight of the leaking pipe. Holy-he cursed in rapid French and communicated the situation to Angelo, telling him that water was now dripping on the floor in a small, steady stream. The rusted metal gave more underneath the pressure of water that was intently pushing at the pipe, and the hole grew a fraction bigger. Why was that how things worked in Sword Art Online? Elpharae swiped a cloth from a random piece of cardboard and plugged the pipe up.

But it was to no avail. The water pressure simply built up and made a bigger hole. There was a thin layer of water in the room, about a millimeter high. Elpharae made to open the door, but it remained locked. His eyes scanned the room in an attempt to find an exit. All there was in the room besides the controls were a metal shelf and a cardboard box, both of which were empty. Elpharae glanced at Angelo. Was there such thing as water damage? They were in a safe zone, after all...

But safe zones canceled once you accepted a quest. This could be...a quest event? His eyes widened, and he absently asked Angelo his opinion, Detection thrown into overdrive as he tried to figure a way out of their situation.

[Angelo]

I  Have No Idea..

I  Have No Idea...

And the door shut behind them. He glanced back at the door handle, giving it a small twist with his hand, only to realize that it didn't move. "Locked..?"

Angelo turned around and stared at Elpharae's back as he looked around the room, joining him moments later to look for the switches that operated the closing and opening of the bathhouse's water and drain. The long-haired boy found it near the top of the room. The white-haired youth himself would be able to reach it, if only he jumped up. However, there was a rickety stepladder which Elp walked upon to fix the problem.

However, he only made the problem worse by slowly filling the closed room with water. The rate it was going at was super slow though, so they had plenty of time to figure out how to get out of this mess, either by fixing it or finding a way out. His feet was covered in a thin film of water as Angelo walked around the room, occasionally looking at the lever and Elp while staring at his surroundings.

"Maybe the lever will stop the water flow?"

[Elpharae]

They don't want the truth, they just want the words

Blah blah blah blah and I can sing until I'm dead

And none of you'll remember a single thing I said

♠

The rate that water dripped out of the pipe was ridiculously slow. Elpharae thanked the possible higher powers for that, though, since he was not fond of wanting to drown. His fingers drew over the surface of the water, and he squatted down, knees bending with a quiet crack as he tilted his head slightly, fingers trailing over the surface of the water. His pale fingers disturbed the surface of the water, but he didn't much mind, watching little droplets roll across his skin and then cause ripples as they fell quietly back into the pool. It didn't pixelate when it became separate to the bigger body of water. That meant he needed to find a different solution. He blinked in frustration before standing, his barefoot legs making much less noise than Angelo's in the water.

Angelo started talking again after a pause, and he twitched in surprise. The cold, clear water steadily filled in, and he exhaled slowly at the strange, tingling sensation, before steadying himself and looking up to listen to the other, running a stray hand through his hair. His thought could work, and so he blinked in quiet agreement and vocalized his thoughts so that the other could hear, then straightening up to poke around the room, searching for another mode of exit while Angelo worked on stopping the water. As the duo worked quietly, Elpharae blinked, concentration breaking because of a sudden sound, as if something were grating on his hearing. Detection skill enabled, he felt a rush of sensory information fly at him. His eyes widened. The hole in the pipe had gotten bigger. The metal had given way.

Water was now gushing in the room by now, raising steadily. White froth bubbled out of the small opening, and Elpharae backed up, forcing himself to breathe as he tried to focus. That was right, he needed to focus. His eyes finally alight onto the ladder, and with a quiet glance at Angelo, he brings the other's attention to the structure. He can maybe use Acrobatics to leap up for now on top of the shelf, but if Angelo doesn't have Acrobatics, he'll need to use the precariously set ladder, which has begun to float. He conveys his message to Angelo before glancing up, finally gearing up for an incredibly precise jump. If he were a more humorous person, he would joke that his size actually came in handy today.

His dark eyes flit to the light-haired other, and he murmurs a prayer in reverent Japanese before leaning back and jumping. He lands awkwardly, nearly toppling over the side of the small, narrow shelf, which is structured like a bookshelf. He can barely stay there, and he knows as much. Glancing wildly around the room, his eyes finally alight on a vent. He cringes in personal disbelief. What is this, some sort of American spy movie? He can barely keep himself from rolling his eyes before talking to Angelo about the vent. He eyes it critically. It should be big enough to accommodate Angelo girth-wise, but how far does it go? He uses his Detection to check, and to his relief, it goes straight out to a place above the next room-the lobby.

His fingers fly over the metal vent, fingernails delicately used as screwdrivers. He winces when he breaks a nail, but ignores it. He swears, if Athena saw him right now, she would raise an eyebrow. He finally manages to get it free and throws the grate down, wondering why on earth (or is it Aincrad, now? He's not so sure) the room is already a half filled, even though that's not enough to cover Angelo's head. Thank god. He scrabbles straight up into the vent, pulling himself up and then across, now in the vent. He blinks before managing to inch forward, and then realizes that the vent's bottom is very, very thin. There's always a chance of him breaking through it and falling into some room.

Hopefully Angelo isn't afraid of heights. 

#000 ● Angelo ● #drowning

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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[Angelo]

The Vent? Really?

The Vent? Really?

As far as he knew, Elpharae had made a small leak into a bigger one. What could Angelo do? Stop the water flow completely? He needed to find the main lever which was probably not even in this room at all.. That left no other choice other than to leave the room.

A large creaking sound echoed across the room. An entire section of the piping had fallen down. There was literally nothing from stopping the incoming water. Angelo frowned. There was usually a solution to these sorts of things? Why was it that this of all quests had no good outcome.

His long-haired partner motioned him to the stepladder, the shelf, and the vent on the ceiling. Emerald eyes watched as Elpharae the player became Elpharae the flying squirrel and nimbly worked his way with the vent before slipping in. Angelo would have not been able to jump up to the vent from where he was, especially with the water level already reaching past his waist. He just didn't have enough leg power to pull off such a herculean effort. The boy waddled towards the metal shelf and pulled himself up to the top. It wobbled a bit from the uneven weight distribution. He repositioned himself so as to get up from the narrow side so there would be enough mass on the other side to prevent it from tipping over. Okay.. so now that he was on top of the shelf, he had to get into the vent.

Great. Claustrophobia. He could pull through this however. It wasn't a long vent.. Hopefully. He unequipped his armor and his weapon and left nothing on aside from his basic clothing.

"Is there an end to this vent? ... Can you hear me? ... Oh dear. Here we go." The water made it harder for the teen to communicate with his partner verbally and wouldn't be able to hear much with the water gushing out a meter away. The opening of the vent and the metal shelf didn't match vertically anymore. It probably moved with all the water now in the room. There was a half meter gap between the edge of the shelf and the vent. Angelo had to jump horizontally and pull himself up, leaving his bottom half dangling over water.

"Here goes nothing.." The white-haired teen pushed off the shelf, which coincidentally fell into the water. The tips of his fingers grabbed hold of the rim of the ventral opening as the boy dangled. Already, his feet were soaked with water while he tried to pull himself up with the tip of his fingers. He soo wished he could trained his grip strength more often. Struggling, he pulled himself up slowly, releasing a loud grunt whilst doing so. Finally, he was able to gain purchase and get a whole elbow in, making pulling himself up a lot more easier.

Angelo followed the direction Elpharae went, muttering to himself that this was something he didn't really want to do again.

[[GM] Julie]

Thread closed with spring cleaning. One participants active, One rewards distributed.

[[GM] John]

Thread closed due to spring cleaning. This is a flat reward, no bonuses will be added. I apologize in advance for the cut taken to your hard work of the past, however full credit cannot be issued due to the nature the thread ended in. You will be rewarded similarly to how solo threads do just without the cap, enjoy the xp from dead threads

The following players were credited for their posting: Elpharae

Elph word count: 4042
Flat XP rate: 404