Night 65: Hall of Faith

[vstheworld]

[From here]

He was ready for the drop this time, but that didn't make it much easier to get down the gravelly slope that waited for them inside the door. Sure, Scott was able to better control his descent and not get horribly scraped and cut this time (always a good thing), but he still went down way faster than he would have liked. He did almost start tumbling head over heels a couple of times, too, despite his efforts to keep moving feet-first. Thankfully, the slope evened out eventually, as it had the night before, and soon the trio were at the cliff's edge once again.

"I call 'not it' for jumping first," said Scott, peering out over the ledge. Being up here and knowing he would actually feel the impact and the cold down below this time? Liiiiitle more apprehension than before.

Comments

[dualistic]

Harvey was glad that Scott had the sense to realize that it was always better to go with what they knew. It would cut down on wasted time and give them the chance to actually get somewhere. Still, Harvey felt some apprehension as he walked through the door, since for all he knew what was behind it switched around through some kind of magic.

It turned out that wasn't the case, though -- as soon as he started slipping on the gravel, he crouched down and ended up outright sitting as he slid down the rocky slope. It hurt like hell because the gravel managed to tear through some of his clothing, but it was better than falling on his face.

Once he reached the bottom, Harvey carefully pulled up to his feet and hobbled over to Scott. It seemed like jumping at the same time would make the most sense, like they had the night before. Harvey realized at a delay that there was one problem with him bringing a journal along, which was that they were about to leap into a pool of water. It was going to get soaked.

He shoved the journal under the collar of his shirt, although he realized that probably wouldn't do much good once he was submerged in water. That meant he was probably stuck playing charades for the rest of the night.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. rolled as he hit the gravel, tumbling once and then coming up into a crouch, skidding down the slope. Scott was saying something, and Harvey might or might not be answering. S.T. couldn't hear it over the noise of his own descent. He got control of the skid just in time to stand on the lip of the pit. A swan dive would look really cool, but he'd have to lose the pipe. Or risk breaking an arm or a skull when the water shoved it backwards. He wasn't sure how far the drop was. Hitting the mystical mute button on gravel hitting the water below made it seem longer than it was.

He held the pipe in his left hand and stepped off the ledge. His stomach tried to flee upwards as he dropped. Then he hit the water, legs and arms out like he was ice skating on the surface. It kept him from plummeting too far down.

"C'mon in, the water's fine," he yelled, even if they couldn't hear him. It was pitch black. They'd have to pick a direction by consensus groping, unless one of the other flashlights had sturdier gaskets.

[vstheworld]

Well, he didn't have to go first. Goal achieved. Gained 10 XP. Now what?

Oh yeah. Still had to jump into the icy cold water hundreds of feet below them. Actual achievement: zero. Good job.

Scott listened for the sound of S.T. hitting the water, but it never came. "Well that's not disconcerting at all," said Scott, assuming Harvey agreed with him (one advantage of having a non-speaking companion: you could pretty much put words in their mouths for them). As Harvey prepared his journal, Scott prepared himself, and when the two were both ready, Scott turned to the older guy. "Soooo. The water wasn't that bad last night, was it?"

One uneasy grin and a deep breath later, and there were two fewer people left on the edge of the cliff.

KER-SPLASH

was the first big sound to echo through the lake chamber after S.T. called out.

Gasp— "▬!!"

was the next.

"Ohhh my g-god it really is that bad ooo-o-oh man how did you guys do it last night?" Scott complained like a whiny bitch after surfacing in the freezing water. Coldcoldcoldcoldribshurtowwetowcoldcoldwet

Eventually, the three of them managed to find their way to the shore. The torches that suddenly lit up on the bank helped, as did the presence of an old door. Scott thought he had seen a door the night before but hadn't been sure, what with night having ended right around the same time. Every thing tended to get a little fuzzy when that happened. Good to see his semi-conscious memory had been right. By the Scott Pilgrim standards of memory, that was pretty miraculous.

"Here's hoping for something warmer, yeah?" said Scott to the others, putting his hand to the knob. A tentative pause. "But not lava. I know how this 'be careful what you wish for' stuff works. Here's wishing for a California beach. I like beaches." After the pause, the trio made their way through the door.

[To here]