gippal (machinasyh) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2012-02-16 10:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | eli powers, shelly cooper |
who: Eli Powers and Shelly Cooper
what: Ghost hunting and a discovery of ruins that totally weren’t expected.
where: Vulture City, Arizona
when: Friday, February 10, night [backdated]
machinamaw At some point in the conversation that Eli and Shelly had about this trip, it began to become clear that they were going to be going as just a duo. Try as she might, Shelly couldn’t really shake the feeling that this was what Eli had planned all along, and that this was some kind of weird date. Still, it meant that she got a free ride out to a ghost town that she heard had recent sightings of mysterious figures who in all rights shouldn’t be there. A few more people wouldn’t have gone amiss, if only for better recording opportunities, and to explore more of the place in one night. Still, she knew she could get by with two people and if initial results were promising, they could always come back with an actual crew.
For a lot of the trip, she had been double checking equipment, thankful that Eli had offered to drive. As a rule, she tried not to drive anywhere, it was so boring, and sometimes she got distracted really easily. She’d had too many close calls to be really comfortable in the driving seat. However, this meant that she had absolutely no reason to sing along tunelessly to the radio because she didn’t have to concentrate. Unfortunately for her hunting partner, this meant that her singing was inflicted on him several times over the course of the drive up to Vulture City. At least she tried to keep it to a minimum, stopping whenever she realised she was singing and falling silent for a while. Despite living at Eli’s house for an entire week, she was still a little too embarrassed about some of her habits for them to be thrown around publicly with people she didn’t know well, and her singing was definitely embarrassing.
“I was thinking of just dropping a few dictaphones around to catch some EVP, the bar seems like a good spot for at least one from the research I’ve done." She explained, realising that they were getting close to the end of their two hour journey. “You wanna man the camera?" Videoing the encounter was pretty idiot proof and it meant that she wouldn’t get distracted by anything she saw on it as they went around. “And we should definitely go down into the min--hey! Is that it?" Shelly asked, leaning forward and peering out into the night. She was sure she’d just seen some buildings in the light from their headlamps. Almost immediately her demeanor changed, becoming fidgety as she tried to catch another glimpse of old buildings. She always got this excited as she arrived at her target hunt spot. Best to get it out of the way while she was still in the car instead of while walking around potentially dangerous buildings.
machinasyh It was just as well she didn’t want to drive, because Eli was one of those annoying people who had to drive. He hadn’t initially intended it to be just the two of them, although he certainly wasn’t complaining. In the end, the dogpile of paranoid...vampire hunters or whatever they were convinced him enough that this needed to be a duet adventure. And, really, he wasn’t worried. Gippal and Rikku had both had a hand in saving Spira--Rikku twice. They could certainly handle a few ghosts.
So, he’d pack the stuff up in his convertible. Assuming Shelly was okay with it, he was going to drive with the top down as much as possible. Where was the fun of driving a convertible if he couldn’t? The lingo was going way over his head, but he nodded with a serious expression to humor her. “Yeah, sure," he managed. He could man the camera. That wouldn’t be hard...right?
“Yeah, this is the place." He turned in and looked for a parking spot. “Not getting scared, are you?"
machinamaw Despite the fact that the top down had completely messed with her hair (eventually she had given up and tied it into a scruffy ponytail), Shelly didn’t care. She was mainly just glad to be back in the desert air. Ghost hunts were infinitely better when you didn’t have to compete with bad weather. She shifted in her seat, pulling her belt forward and staring at the buildings that were still standing. She checked her watch briefly, then pulled out a dictaphone. “Arrival; Eleven fifty-two pm." The button clicked back onto pause and Shelly looked across at Eli as he pulled the car to a stop. “Are you kidding me?" Without pausing, she hit the release on her belt, and started pulling herself out of the car.
“There’s no reports of bad spirits in the area, just wanderers. Only thing we’re in danger from is collapsing beams in the mine." She grinned at him as she extracted herself from the car and reached back in for her equipment. They had four hours, at least, four ideal hours where they’d get the best readings. She wanted to get started right away. She switched on her flashlight, and swung the beam over nearby buildings. It only took a few moments to take in the scene and decide what building she’d drop off her audio recorders. “Move it or lose it, pretty boy. We’ve got work to do."
Shelly wasted no time herself, hoisting her backpack over her shoulder, and moving off toward the nearest building. The beam of her flashlight bobbing along the floor.
machinasyh He shook his head and turned off the engine, following at a more casual pace. While he moved, he was figuring out the camera and--aha, there we go! It would only focus on Shelly’s, ahem, finer assets for a minute before swinging upward. What, him? He was a perfectly behaved angel.
“Pretty boy?" he complained. “Fydlr ouin duhkia, fusyh." Oh, right. Maybe he shouldn’t speak Al Bhed while the camera was rolling. He cleared his throat and followed, humming lightly to himself.
“So, what do you do if you find ghosts?" he asked. “Try to make friends with them?"
machinamaw Shelly twirled mid-stride in response to the lilting Al Bhed command, continuing in a skipping backward motion. “Make me, pretty boy." She called back, immediately regretting it. While Eli might have been the perfect gentleman for the week she was stuck in his house, she couldn’t ignore that he was the reason she had been there, or that his personality didn’t differ greatly from Gippal’s. She really needed to watch what she was saying or this trip was going to turn into something entirely different. And she definitely didn’t want that caught on film.
To hide her sudden embarrassment, she turned back around once more, immediately lurching over an unexpected stone on the ground. She caught her footing again, and carried on as if nothing had happened. Yep. That was super graceful. Stepping up onto the porch of one of the run down buildings, she threw open the door and reached into her bag for one of the recorders. In a few seconds she had made sure it was working, and had it ready to drop off inside. Which she did, waiting until she was back outside to answer Eli’s question.
“Sometimes." She said, distracted as she rifled through her pack for another piece of equipment. “Normally you don’t get much until you go back over the recordings." Finding what she was looking for, she pulled out a device, and tapped the front of it before shaking her head. “Nothing yet, anyway." She glanced up at Eli, green eyes bright with anticipation. Even when she knew there was barely any chance of a close encounter, wandering around creepy ruins in the middle of the night was thrilling. “Why, you wanna make some friends with unquiet spirits?"
She pointed over to a building that she judged to be the town’s bar. “There next."
machinasyh “Hey, careful!" He moved forward as though to catch her, but Shelly had managed that on her own. Instead, Eli cleared his throat and waited for her to return from the building. The answer to his (not so serious) question made his eyebrows shoot up. He pulled a face. Really? This girl was definitely Rikku.
“How many of these trips are successful?" he couldn’t help but ask. He knew he had agreed to come along, but--well, he was dubious. There could be all sorts of tricks on the recordings that didn’t necessarily indicate the presence of the supernatural...right? “I’m good, I’m good."
His eyes followed where she was pointing. Eli nodded once, then started to the bar. “Well? C’mon, slowpoke."
machinamaw “I have a good track record. If only because I do my research first. No point going somewhere that sounds like kids just playing around or the only reports come from the local crazy." She answered, keeping her beam to the floor, to avoid more mishaps with the uneven ground. The EMF meter in her other hand was kept close by so she could keep an eye on it. “This place has promise. A few mining accidents, the old jail house. There’s reports of someone wandering around outside of houses. Yanno, standard."
At Eli’s own jibes about speed, Shelly scrunched up her face at him. Annoyingly, he was hard to dislike. “I’m not slow!" She complained, but increased her speed anyway. We hit the bar, sweep it for EMF and with the video just in case, then go for the mine. Hope you’re not claustrophobic." She skipped the last few steps to the door and pushed it open with her ass disappearing into the gloom of the building.
machinasyh “How much did you research this place before you agreed?" Eli teased. He was definitely trying to fluster her with that. Then again, he hadn’t suggested it without looking into it a little himself. Barely whistling, he followed and let her chat about her findings. “Oh, of course." Spoken like he had a clue about it.
He smirked and followed her inside the bar. The camera panned around the area, and he moved forward. For all his ribbing, he was actually taking this...fairly seriously. Imagine that! “Me? Claustrophobic? Please. I am fearleAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH--"
Poor Eli hadn’t been paying attention and stepped on a weak spot of floor. With a loud crash, it and he were send shooting downward. It seemed like he had been falling forever before something hard broke his fall. Groaning, Eli sat up, rubbing his temples before opening his eyes.
And staring. All around him were ruins, with an eerie glow to them. The melancholy singing of pyreflies filled the air. Slowly, he stood up, not quite believing what he was seeing. “Rumo cred. Drec ec Zanarkand..."
machinamaw Shelly had stopped really paying attention to Eli once she got into the bar, focused instead on where she wanted to leave equipment. Her meter was throwing up funky readings too. Unusual. She watched it while she waited for Eli to follow her in, muttering something about not wanting to take bogus trips with him. Clearly, the trip was going to pay off if she was getting something like this so early on. Hell, she was beginning to wish she’d packed her Ovilus, maybe she’d get a conversation out of this kind of reading.
She heard the door open behind her, heard Eli’s now familiar overconfident tones, then the creak of the floorboard that became more than just a simple creak. There was no way in hell that she was fast enough to get there and catch him, instead she was just left screaming his name as she skidded along the the edge of the hole in the floor, peering down in the darkness. It looked...a lot further than just a simple basement level. Crap. Oh crap. What if he was hurt?
Half panicking, she threw her bag from her back, almost losing it over the edge of the hole, but grabbing it before it could complete its slide. Okay, she had rope in here. She could rappel down there...it was gonna be okay. Providing he hadn’t broken his neck. Mother of God, where was the rope? Why did this have to happen? Of all nights? When there were just the two of them. God, if they’d actually brought along the crazy people that wanted to come, she’d actually have a little more help here now that things had gone wrong. At least angry spirits weren’t attacking her...
“Yeah, great, Shelly...go ahead and jinx it." She muttered, hands scrabbling about in the bag. “Aha!" She pulled free a good length of rope, picked up her flashlight and looked around to find something to tie it to. Once she had it knotted securely, she was back in the bag, hoping against hope that she’d thought to pack carabiners. Her hands closed around a cold metal object, she sent up a silent prayer of thanks and began hooking herself up to her very basic equipment. Dropping the remaining rope over the edge, she tucked the flashlight into her pants. Really, more preparation should have gone into this. Oh well. This would just have to be a case of dealing with abseiling in the dark. A final look around in the darkness, and she lowered herself carefully over the edge and into nothingness.
Which was about the time that she noticed the sounds, and as she lowered herself, the weird glow about the air. All of which was striking some familiar chord in her. For a second, she dropped the rope, and almost began free-falling, until her mocked up harness caught, and she jerked to a stop. “Oh...oh...boy." She freed the rope, and continued her descent at a faster pace than she’d normally use, twice drawing her hand back as she got rope burn, then her feet touched the ground. “Eli?" She asked immediately, reaching back for her flashlight, even though now that her eyes were getting to grips with the glow from the pyreflies she barely needed it. “Are you hurt?"
Why did it always take her so long to find things when she wanted them? Shelly finally tugged the flashlight free of her pants (and the rope) and snapped it on, effectively killing what night vision she’d gained in her descent. She preferred the stronger LED light over the soft glow of of unsent souls when checking for injuries though, so she’d deal. And then she’d have to deal with the fact that she was in freaking Zanarkand.
machinasyh “Here," he called back. Eli was brushing off his clothes as he glanced around the dome. Zanarkand. Goddamn. He had never thought that he’d actually get to see places from Spira. Having them actually exist was--okay, he supposed if he could have someone’s fictional character living in his brain, then why the hell wouldn’t fictional places be there? Bizarre...and he had to wonder if anyone accidentally found their way down to Spira and got eaten by fiends...
Now, that was wonderfully morbid.
“I’m fine," he grumbled, brushing off any attempts to check him over. Carefully, he made his way to the edge of the--it looked like they were on the roof of an otherwise collapsed tunnel. Eli crouched and glanced down below. He nearly jolted as he saw a group of seven people below. “Hey! What are you doing?"
It took him a moment to realize that they weren’t really there. It was a memory drudged up by the pyreflies. High Summoner Yuna and her guardians, fighting their way through the dome. It was weirdly humbling. Eli swallowed and carefully stood, glancing back at Shelly. How bizarre would it be to see the voice in your head in action?
“Should we explore...?"
machinamaw Eli didn’t seem too concerned about any injuries he might have sustained, and if he could get up and move about, that was good enough for her right now. It meant that they had a much better chance of climbing back out at any rate. Shelly let herself breathe for a second, now that her fears had been put to rest, she could actually concentrate on where she was. She turned around, directing her flashlight around to points of interest. The fact that they’d landed on top of a tunnel was lucky all things considered, another few feet and the fall might have caused serious damage.
She swung around as Eli started calling over the other side, wondering what he’d seen, and edged her way over to the other side. She wasn’t really prepared for the sight below her though. Slowly, she dropped to her knees, staring down at the seven figures below them until they began to fade away. “Yunie..." She whispered, sadness sweeping over her. Damnit Zanarkand. That wasn’t really something that Rikku wanted to see right now, it just brought back the charged emotions of those last few hours of being Yuna’s guardian...the defeat of Sin. The Fayth sacrificing themselves. Actually, she was just kind of glad that there wasn’t a Yuna around to see this.
Oh right, she was still here with Eli. She coughed, glad she hadn’t let go of her flashlight in her minor dramatic moment. “I uh...yeah." She said, finally answering his question. “Just..wow. We should make sure we can get back here." Shelly looked back up towards the hole she had descended through, she couldn’t see it from here, but then it was still night time out there too. A thought struck her.
“Wait...did you bring any weapons, because this place is usually crawling with fiends."
machinasyh “We’ll find a way. Even if it means wandering around Spira until we can get an airship or something." He wasn’t as concerned with getting out, because--well, if they couldn’t, freaking out wouldn’t change that. They’d find a way, somehow. He shrugged a bit and decided to move on.
At her question, Eli just gave Shelly a look before holding out his hand. Out of nowhere appeared Gippal’s huge gun. “Nifty little trick," he commented airily, slinging the thing over his shoulder. “What about you, little cactuar? You have any special tricks up your sleeve?"
He hoped so. One gun against Zanarkand’s worst was...not advisable.
machinamaw This was perhaps one of the ways in which Shelly and Rikku differed in personality. Rikku had spent so much of her time wandering over Spira, first as Yuna’s guardian, then as part of the Gullwings. Shelly on the other hand had spent so long in Arizona with only occasional trips to other states that she felt a lot more grounded. That factor made her think things through. She had a job to go back to, in a lab, doing something she’d spent years working towards. Okay, so she still did frivolous things like hunt ghosts, but really, she needed to know she could get out of here and back home. She needed the solid fact of the real world. So now she was memorizing exactly where they were. Trying to pick out familiar bits of the ruins so she’d know which part to climb back up.
Still, she kept an eye on Eli, watching his gun appear which gave her cause to breathe a sigh of relief. Only to take it back a second later. She froze, realising that the only weapons she carried with her, were Rikku’s but...they were tangled up in dresspheres. And she only had one with her. She could almost guarantee which one it would be, too. If they really were going exploring though, she’d just have to suck it up. This wasn’t the sort of place to be fussy about what you were wearing if you wanted to stay alive. Shelly rubbed her eye and made a face, a face that said she really wasn’t looking forward to this.
“You could say that."
Finally, the blonde woman reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a spherical object, that began to glow. “You have no idea how ridiculous and ‘magical girl’ these things are." Shelly commented blandly, before squeezing it slightly and giving herself over to the transformation. Her own, sensible clothing, dematerialised leaving her in one of Rikku’s skimpier outfits. But hey, at least she had a scarf? It would be fair to say that ‘Girl, what were you thinking?’ was a question running through her mind at that moment. Instead, she gave Eli a look, and just in case that hadn’t got the message across, commanded him to “Say nothing." At least she had Rikku’s daggers now.
machinasyh “I’m not saying a word." No, but he was definitely thinking plenty of things. Him and Gippal both. If you think that’s nice, you should see the Lady Luck dressphere, Gippal was commenting cheerfully in his mind. Eli turned from Shelly and bit down on his lip to hide the pleased smirk. That would get him punched. He hid the act by surveying the area below.
“Right. Down we go!" He sat on the ledge of the tunnel before hopping down to the road below. Shouldering his gun, he glanced back up to the roof. “Here, little cactuar, let me catch you."
But, he was curious. “Toward the exit or toward the dome?" On one hand, Gippal was really itching to see the place. He had avoided the Zanarkand Dome since Cid decided to turn it into a tourist attraction. On the other, there was a part of him dying to see how much of Spira was here--including Home.
machinamaw “Good." Even if Eli was struggling to keep innocent thoughts, at least he was doing his best to be subtle about it. In her current condition...which was practically summed up by ‘beachwear’, Shelly wasn’t going to complain hugely so long as he wasn’t outright leering at her. She spun the daggers in her hand, concentrated and they disappeared. Now if only she could do that without having to wear the dressphere...Well, she couldn’t do anything about it now. When she had time at home, maybe she’d try working through the complexities of a sphere and see if it was even possible to separate, for now she had better follow her companion. She wasn’t lying about the fiends in here, and she didn’t want to be left alone with them.
She hopped over to the edge that Eli had just launched himself from and looked over. All right, it wasn’t so far down. She’d make the jump easily without anyone there to catch her...but he’d used that name again and somehow in her mind, that made it okay to let him have his way. She picked up her flashlight, snapped it off, then stuck the thing in her new hairband. “You better catch, because if I land on my ass, I’m not gonna be happy." She called down before leaping into the air. Rikku got the better of her in that moment, and she completed a somersault before reaching out to catch herself around Eli’s neck, closing her eyes at the last minute. She didn’t want to see if she ended up slipping through his arms.
When her fall ended, cushioned by flesh instead of stony ground, Shelly peeked one eye back open. “I say exit. I’ve...Rikku’s been here too many times. You can, uh, put me down now." She whispered, her hands sliding down to his shoulders, very aware of how uncomfortably close they were right now.
machinasyh “Whoa!" He dropped the gun and reached out to catch Shelly. Instinct had him tugging her close to him and swinging around once with the momentum. Eli laughed and couldn’t help himself. He kissed her hair before finally obliging with her request. “Alright. To the exit we go, then." They’d have to come back this way to leave, though he wasn’t going to mention that.
It took him another moment to pull away, but Eli stooped to pick up the gun. “Lead the way, boss."
machinamaw Shelly was beginning to figure a few things out about her companion. Namely, that he did as he pleased, and if she was going to squirm away from whatever he was doing, it would likely just encourage him. Instead, she just raised her eyebrows, shot him a look and then moved on. Even if all she wanted to do right now was die of embarrassment. With her feet firmly back on the floor she looked around, holding a brief conversation with the soul that shared her head space. She needed directions, and Rikku was the obvious person to ask.
Instead of just picking a way to go, however, Shelly’s stance suddenly changed, becoming a lot more relaxed with the fact that she appeared to be wearing almost no clothing. Her shoulders settled back, and she turned back to Eli, smirking. “E caa lryhkehk puteac rych’d lryhkat dra vyld dryd oui cina ghuf ruf du sundevo y kenm." She chirped in a voice that definitely wasn’t Shelly’s. The timbre had changed, seeming lighter, a little more youthful.
“Ymm nekrd! Mad'c ku drec fyo!" Rikku exclaimed before throwing herself straight into a jog along the ruins.
machinasyh Hey, Eli had no regrets. He was a shameless flirt and, hey, why not? The change in stance was registered with a quirk of his brow. “Rikku, rir?" he murmured. A slow, lazy grin spread across his face. There was a very slight change in the way he carried himself--shifting his weight to one side, carrying the gun with more ease. “Cdemm bnadahtehk mega oui tuh'd mega ed, ar?"
Eli--well, Gippal--followed her at an easy pace, glancing around the area for--whatever inhabited these ruins. Fiends? Unsent? Machina?
machinamaw Rikku raised her arms in a neutral gesture, it was obvious she was trying to shrug without breaking from her run. She wanted to get out of here and investigate the possibility of travel as soon as humanly possible. Zanarkand was a long way from anywhere, and trekking through Mount Gagazet in these clothes didn’t appeal. Besides, Gippal’s attitude didn’t bother her in the same way it used to. Rikku had grown up, just a little and now she lived in a world that wasn’t at all like Spira. Things changed.
"Bnadahtehk ec vun getc." She answered simply, which was neither a confirmation nor denial of Gippal's statement. "Oui drehg fa lyh veht yh yencreb du Pegyham uid drana? E ymsucd ruba drec bmyla ec cdemm y duinecd yddnyldeuh." Suddenly she slowed her pace, treading lightly. She’d spotted a coeurl slipping through the ruins up ahead, and ideally she wanted to get out without getting into a huge battle. All the same, Rikku opened her palms up, allowing both daggers to reappear in her hands, and dropped into a battle ready stance. They could still probably sneak around, or use the element of surprise to their advantage.
machinasyh “Ir rir." He smirked to himself briefly, but he was quickly back on to serious guardian (ha ha) mode. “Oui caa yho duinecdc semmehk ynuiht? Cyva du cyo dryd ed’c hud." The monkeys milling around were kind of cute, though. “Hud cina. Fana drana suna dryh dra Lamceic yht Vyrnahraed? E tuh’d nasaspan yho uv dra tekc lusehk ib fedr yhodrehk mega druca." It was possible--it was always possible--but he doubted it, somehow. If there were other airships, they’d need excavated first.
“Mad’c ku drec fyo," he suggested, nodding toward ruins stacked above the walkway. If they didn’t fall, they should provide a safe passage past the danger.