Snakes and Mines

Snakes and Mines
Date of Scene:	29 September 2012
Location:	Mythril Mines
Synopsis:	Shiki and Reize escape the Midgar Zolom and explore a mine.
Cast of Characters:	Shiki Misaki, Reize Seatlan

---

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Morning has risen, allowing for the sun to shine high. The clouds are clear, allowing the sun to show its brilliance. It's a nice day to walk through the forest. Rocky terrains are becoming more appearant in the plains. It shows that the Mythril Mines is not too far.
Seeing the massive cavern nearby, Reize is brightening his smile. The tiredness from the travels cascade as the renewed energy sparks.
"Oh!" He turns to face Shiki, "We're almost at the cave!"

Shiki Misaki has posed:
It's always nice when you've got a nice environment to move around in. Shiki is, by this point, pretty much convinced and consigned to living the life of a fantasy adventurer, with her handy knight by her side. By which we of course mean Mr. Mew.

"This'll be another first in my life for me," she says, voice sunny. "What do they call it? Spelunking?"

She holds out her hands and runs it through the leaves of a tree as she walks past it. In some ways, she feels like a princess who's just left to explore the countryside.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"I suppose you can call it that, yeah." The boy stops, letting Shiki continue to walk ahead. As she finally seems to be ahead, Reize looks up at the tree and then towards the cavern entrance. "How does it feel to finally be an adventurer?" He brightens, "It was a bit rough when I first thrusted into it, but..."
While the boy muses, something is starting to run along the ground. It almost seems slithering.
"Once we make it to the through the mine, we'll reach Junon and meet with our friends. Overall, the trip has no been too bad. I think the road will get easier from here."
...RIP!
From behind, the ground slowly ripples open as a long, slithering beast emerges. The vicious giant cobra is looming behind the boy, who seems pretty unaware of its presence.
"I mean, we haven't ran into anything too horrible so far!"

Shiki Misaki has posed:
It was all going so well. Well, you know, tolerably, anyway.

Before the snake showed up, Shiki was getting a big lungful of air.

"Feels pretty good!", she'd say, looking at a tree. "It's a change of pace, but it's not like I haven't done this kind of thing before, y'know, with a bit of a different appearence, but this is pretty..."

And then, snake happened.

"Huge," Shiki says, very very squeakily. Just stands there, frozen. Oh my gosh it's huge. It's so huge. It's bigger than Ovis Cantus-huge. And that was pretty huge.

Oh well, at least you know where you stand with things like this. When it was Ovis Cantus you were ninety-nine percent sure Higashizawa was going to eat you. With this one, you are one hundred percent sure.

._.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The boy, unaware of the impending doom in the form of a massive snake, is looking at Shiki's change of expression. When her voice squeaks out the word 'huge', Reize quirks an eyebrow at the massive snake.
"Shiki? What's wrong?" He quirks an eyebrow.
*HISSS!*
Reize lifts his head up, then he sees the giant snake looming before them.
Meet the Midgar Zolom.
...
Reize has a sweatdrop coming over his head. "..."
*HISS!*
First thing Reize does? He quickly sprints towards Shiki, moving to grab her hand, "Let's run, run, run!!!"
Zolom hisses, then it starts moving towards the two, tearing the ground beneath it.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki Misaki screams like a girl.

That is a big snake, and she is armed with a very small cat which isn't even really a cat. It's so lucky she never met a Drake or a Woolly Noise before this, isn't it? Because if she did, she'd probably be doing what she is right now, mentally:

Blind panic.

Clutching onto Reize's hand and running with a speed she never thought possible before, Shiki pumps her legs and goes in a complete panic, mentally going .oO(Gonna die gonna die gonna die wait already dead gonna get EATEN gonna get eaten!)

Let's hope she doesn't trip on any rocks or tree roots like that one just ahead of her!

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Not good. Not good. Not good.
Those were the thoughts that came to Reize's mind as they came across a very huge snake that could likely eat both of them in one strike. The boy tries to think to himself as to what they can do against a snake. Warding off snakes is an important thing.
Especially when it is huge.
While Shiki clutches onto his hand, he looks back at her. He will protect her.

Meanwhile, the snake is 'swimming' through the plains, speeding up after the group. The head emerges from the ground with its fangs out. HISS! It is tearing the earth apart, seeking out its victims.
On the bright side, the entrance of the cavern isn't too far. Just a bit longer...

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Don't look back, thinks Shiki. Don't look back, or you'll end up getting one last look forward before you slide down the styx into some serpent's stomach. Sibilance. Sibilance. Check, check.

This, sone dull part of her mind, makes three problems: Noise, Heartless and monsters. Well, it could be worse! She could OH CRAP I JUST TRIPPED ON A ROCK.

Shiki almost goes head over heels, momentarily looking like a long jumper and screaming again.

"P-pact?!" she shouts out desperately as the two of them book it, the wild idea of shoving a Piercing Pillar down its throat momentarily entering her mind.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Not good.
Reize can see the light, the two almost making it. However, when Shiki trips and nearly goes head over heels...
His hand loses her and...
"NO!"
He quickly turns around, reaching for his bag of tricks.

The snake emerges from the ground, staring down at Shiki. Its eyes loom over the victim, its prey. Its fangs opens wide before it dives down towards the girl.

...Just in time for its face to meet something explosive across its eyes. Reize tossed out some strange objects that crackled like firecrackers in its eyes. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" Reize roars.
"Pact!" Reize reaches over, seeking to touch her player's pin. "We need to act fast!"

The snake's head is coiling back, hissing and turning angrily. Its eyes fall upon the boy.

> Reize is now locked into its memory.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Pa-cu-to.

Shiki screams again, before the force of the explosion pushes her back. She almost topples onto her butt, but desperately stays up, looking at Reize with terror in her expression.

She can't die here! The morning had just started! And she still needs to find them!

She has to find Neku... she has to protect her partner!

And then, the little blank white pin on Shiki's hat... flickers. One orange star appears, intertwined with a pinky-purple one... oh, and a cat is there too.

Next thing the two of them know, Mr. Mew's gotten roughly ten times bigger, badder, and more capable of flight. Hold on tight to that cat's back, everyone! You are now riding the catbus, destination- punching Midgar Zolom in the snout!

FUSION UNLOCKED

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Something as simple as the pact allows Reize to join with Shiki in partnership against the vicious creature.
And the strangest thing is that Mr. Mew is becoming huge, "Whoooaa!" His eyes widen, sweatdrop falling as the large creature now looks like it can nearly loom over the Zolom. Thankfully, he and Shiki are on its back. Clutching onto the creature, Reize lifts a hand into the air, "GOOO MR. MEW!"

Zolom is busy shaking off the cobwebs from its snout. As soon as he can see again...
WHAM!
The fist of the flying stuffed cat socks him across the snout. This sends the Midgar Zolom reeling across the air. As it haphazardly flies, it lands on the ground with a harsh thud. The ground shudders as it skids across before its final stop.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Wow, that was something, alright.

"Reize, let's rock!" Shiki shouts, bouyed up by the sudden reversal of fortune they just experienced. Time for a magical flight to the land of we're not gonna die, courtesy of Mr. Hanekoma. Of course, no sooner than the mighty attack connects will it peter out, giving Reize and Shiki enough time to hit the ground safely before Mr. Mew goes back to being his normal soft self.

"And now," Shiki observes, watching the snake skid and slalom into some stones.

"We run away."

And so she does.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
After landing onto the ground...
Reize looks towards Shiki and Mr. Mew with a smile before he follows after them. "That was amazing!"
And they finally disappear into the darkness of the cavern.

As the snake starts regaining its senses, it looks over towards Shiki and Reize as the depart. It locks its eyes onto Shiki.

> Shiki is now locked into its memory.


The snake disappears into the depths once more...

Welcome to the Mythril Mine....

Now relatively safe from the snake, the group are introduced to the area proper. There are numerous paths along the sturdy gray rock. There seems to be pathways that lead to different areas.

"Wow! We finally made it." The boy brightens, looking towards Shiki, "That was amazing what you did back there. It gave us time to escape!" He sighs, "... That thing was huge."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Yeah, come back any time, I'll kick your ass again.

That is what Shiki would like to say, if she wasn't currently on the ground a safe distance away, panting, as soon as they get inside the mine.

"I'm, never, going to make a joke about, the chocobo, eating your hair, again," Shiki ekes out eventually.

Eventually, she gets up. "Thank Mr. Hanekoma next time we see him," she says, resting against a wall and taking off her hat to look at the fusion pin, which has once again turned into a blank white design. "He gave this to me after Neku and I had a..." 'He almost murdered me' "Rough spot early in the game. If I synch with my partner we can do cool things like that."

She looks at the various paths laid out to them, putting her hat back on and looking around. Maybe there will be treasure chests somewhere.

"Let's hope we don't have to use it again any time soon."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
At the comment regarding the chocobos and his hair, Reize's eyes narrow and mutters about the birds. "Oi, thanks." The tone is a tad dry regarding that subject. His antenna hair wiggles a few times.
Nevertheless, Reize smiles, glad to see that Shiki is okay. When she notes about the fusion pin, Reize blinks and he tilts is head over at the object. "...I see. Well, glad it's all ironed out." He brightens, "Synching, huh?" He muses, "Great!"
He looks over towards Shiki and then back to the cavern, "I agree with you. That thing was tough." He smiles.
"I am sure it has forgotten about us by now."
Now, with the mythril mines in place, Reize walks along the path. He looks over towards the depths of the cavern, walking ahead. The cave is pretty strangely shaped. It'll take quite a bit to navigate through.
However, for now, it seems pretty straight forward.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
That hair's got a life of its own, seriously.

Cut to the Midgar Zolom standing outside the mines, glaring at the entrance. It will have its revenge. One day. Oh yes. Revenge will be sweet.

"Having someone to fight alongside always feels good," Shiki says, having caught her breath enough to reconsider walking. She looks up and around, just to check how low the ceiling is, before they keep going.

"Should we do something to mark the ways we've gone? Don't wanna get lost," Shiki says. It's said sincerely, not as a joke about Reize's poor luck with maps.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Blink.
"Yeah, you're right." Reize thinks to himself, rummaging for his pouch. "...I think I have something here." As he rifles through the belongings, he procures a small jar. "AH! Got it!" He brightens, "If I leave a trail of these little seeds, we should be good."
He grabs a few of the small seeds on the ground. "Let's get through this place! We should hopefully make it to Junon before night fall."
It's a long trek through the rocky terrain. There are jagged rocks everywhere but the ground seems to be solid enough. The thickness of the atmosphere seems a bit claustophobic, but easy managable.
Looking ahead, Reize walks through the next part of the entrance.
There are a couple of treasure chests here and there. In fact, they seemed to be unlocked.
"Oh! Treasure chests! It's been a while since I've seen them."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Like Hansel and Gretel, we go.

Shiki follows Reize, and reminds herself once again how good an idea it was to /not/ buy those tempting high heels in Wall Market. Things would be a lot worse right now if they were on her feet.

Shiki can't really resist the idea of treasure, though. The idea is just so novel! She's an adventurer, now, right? Journeying through the world of ruin and exploring caves, right? So treasure's a part of that!

"Shall we open it?" she asks Reize, although she's sure she knows what his answer is going to be. She looks enthusiastic at the idea, as if it would be a badge of honour.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
It has been a while since he seen a chest at a journey that he traveled through. He also knows that this is Shiki's first time adventuring. What better way to have the journey than to let her have the chance to open the chests?
"You go ahead!"
Reize is supportive to this idea.
"This is one of the perks of being an adventurer. Opening the chests to see what's inside! Many good things come out of them!"
For Shiki, there are about three chests in front of her.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Maybe, if we're very lucky, there will be one thing for me, one thing for Reize, and one thing we can share?, thinks Shiki.

Although not if it's a potion, that'd be gross.

She wonders, idly, if like, anyone refills these things. Hey, that's an idea.

"After they've taken something from these, we should put something in for the next person that finds them, don't you think?" she asks Reize. She taps the top of the left one, and then opens it...

Reize Seatlan has posed:
As Shiki opens the Shiki gets Mythril Bracelet!
"I suppose that would be a good idea," Reize muses towards Shiki's comment. The boy reaches into his bag of tricks, procuring a set of small explosives. He piles the tool inside. So, Reize decides to look over to the next chest.
When Reize opens the next Reize gets a small locket!

Blink. Reize looks at the small locket, peeking over towards it, "...This is strange. Well, I'll hold onto this for now..."
Well, there is one more chest.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki rummage rummage. She finds a 5000 Yen pin and a tissue, folds the tissue up, puts the pin on it and then closes it again. People always like munny, right? Surely nobody would not realise that this is a form of currency.

She gets a slightly worrisome feeling about the last one, though.

"You know, Reize, I'm not sure if we should open this last one," Shiki says. She runs a finger across the rim of her player pin awkwardly. "Actually, now I think about it, hold on a second."

Proving that she'd full of tricks, Shiki closes her eyes and taps her player pin. There's nothing obvious, but inside, she can cast out her mind and see if any monsters are in the local area- like, for example, inside that box. Or coming up behind them. What will she find?

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Reize is uncertain about the locket. It seems to belong to someone. Uncertain as to who, the boy decides to pockets the device. For some reason, he can feel his pendant react to the locket. He looks rather confused for a moment, but dismisses it.
Inside of the A flan hides inside.

Of course, nothing seems to be coming from around them, but the creature does lurk inside the chest. The young man looks over towards Shiki, tilting his head over, "What did you find, Shiki?"

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Mr. Mew hops down in front of her, in way of answer, shaking an adorable little fist with its not-so-adorable little claws.

"A monster's hiding inside," she says slyly, feeling a little more confident in herself following her awful showing against the Midgar Zolom. "Probably thought it could catch us out."

Mr. Mew crosses his arms, and stares with its little plastic eyelets that don't actually see anything as Shiki puts her fashionable new bracelet on.

"Wanna pop it open and give it a whacking anyway?" she asks.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Well, it was something for Shiki, something for Reize, and something for them to share.
Reize looks down at Mr. Mew, scratching his head, "Hrm..." Shiki's answer sheds light on the situation at hand, "Guh." He sighs, frowning. However, Shiki does present confidence in the monster being handled by the two.
Reize grins, "Yeah! Let's do it!"
When Reize opens the chest....

The giant flan comes out with going, "Blaaarrggggggggghhhhhhhh!!!"

Reize is ready for it.
That is why Reize launchs his right foot out with a roundhouse kick at the creature's head.
Unfortunately, his foot is stuck in its blobous body.
"...Uhhhh..." Sweatdrop. "...Shiki...?"

Shiki Misaki has posed:
"..."

Only you, Reize. Only you.

Shiki's all ready for a battle with this yellow blobby thing, pins at the fore, when Reize... sort of...

Well, she can see the thought process behind it. It should be like kicking a beachball, right? Unfortunately, it didn't work, it was sort of like... kicking a big blob of jelly. Sadly it has less structural integrity than we expected!

Shiki looks a little dismayed, since she can't really think immediately of anything to do. Then suddenly!

She begins to tap with her fingernail repeatedly on another pin, this one a white one with an ice-blue eye on it. The Eyes Have It!

"Swing your foot at a wall!" she suggests, trying to freeze it with the Frostbite psych!

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Eyes widen as a shade of darkness creeps on his face in horror. Not good. Not good. This is good at all. With the fact that he is pretty much stuck, he is trying to peel his foot away from the creature.
The blob grins at the boy, arms outstretch to hug the boy. Reize, however, manages to sweep his head over and shift his body to the side to try to pull away. Now, when Reize swings his foot towards the wall, he finally rips out of the body.

The creature finds itself freezing from the Frostbite psyche. "Grrargggghhhhh!" It roars in pain, the essence of magic making it more solid.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Hey, no need to sweat it. Just gotta keep... cool.

YEEEEEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Shiki pouts. Stupid thing! You made Reize upset! SHIKI SMASH.

She grabs a black pin in her hand, one with an image of three spikes tearing through a parchment map. She holds it in her fist and slashes through the air across herself, and the pin forms into a shiny needle-shaped spear with funky graffiti-tattoos all down its length. Now armed and ready, she's going to try and pop that thing like a zit!

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Okay. So. Kicking that thing. Not a good idea. Reize will need to think of a new idea. In fact, Shiki may be more effective in this fight than Reize would.
As Shiki has the needle-spears pierce against the creature, it manages to tear against the monster...
And it bursts into droplets. All fragments all over the place. As it disappears into the mist...
Some gil are left over.
Reize gives a sigh of relief, then he looks over towads Shiki with a bright smile. "Woo! You did it, Shiki!" The boy cheers happily.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Shiki gathers up the gil and presents it to Reize.

"Now we know how to deal with those things if we find any others. Here," she says, offering him the Gil. "I think I got a better prize than you, so it's only fair, right?"

Besides, we both know Shiki would just spend her money on new threads and she doesn't have enough inventory space to carry any more big things :(

Reize might need it to buy a new boot, anyway. It'll last until we get to Junon, assuming he doesn't kick any more of those.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
When Shiki presents the gil to him, Reize gratefully takes it, "Thanks, Shiki." He grins, then he muses thoughtfully, "Yeah. Unfortunately, I can't quite deal with them..." He sighs, "Head on, anyway. I'll have to improvise, next time." He's generally good at that.
With the boot filled with grime, Reize winces and he turns to kick the boot off, letting the globs of the ooze drip off.
"Blech."
After fitting the boot on, Reize sighs, "Ah well. Let's go for now." He smiles at Shiki. The boy continues onward, tossing the seeds out.

The cavern gets a little more tricky, few curves here and there. Should the group keep their wits about them, they should be able to navigate out pretty well. There are mutiple entries, but many of the may seem like dead ends.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Fortunately, we will not be lost in the darkness forever, having escaped the terrible snake only to fall victim to the smaller ones, or the electric crabs, or the horrifying gigantic pink humanoid things with masks and flails.

That last one's a real thing!

And eventually, we might even find some tree roots or plants or something so we can climb up some inclines and look for some daylight.

"Haah," Shiki says, brushing some slime off her shoulder. "Aside from the part where we were terrified out of our minds and almost died in like, the worst possible way, this was pretty fun."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Electric crabs, gigantic pink humanoid creatures with flails, miniature dragons...
What all sort of friends to make. Thankfully, against those types of creatures, Reize was able to handle himself fairly well. Any sort of flans would have to be sorted out through Shiki's badassery. ...She is the only one with magic.
When they arrive over to the last platform that features the tree roots as ladders, Reize climbs along the incline after Shiki.

When they arrive at the top of the ledge, Reize's eyes widen at the sight of the light.
"Ahhhh! We made it!" He brightens considerably, turning towards Shiki with a smile. At Shiki's description of the event, Reize faces her, "That is part of the joys of adventuring. You don't know what to expect. Danger is part of it and reward is the other. However, the important thing is that we've learned from it."
He pulls his Monster Book out, showing Shiki the monsters that he recorded with a little sketches. "Everything I've learned through the battles, I annotate here. I'm able to share the information with others when possible."

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Sword and sorcery?! Well, more like sword and s-ychokinesis. Psychokinesis.

"Yep," says Shiki. "We've learned to always make sure that whenever we go into any new places, that there are no huge enormous gigantic parts of the terrain which are actually huge gigantic monsters just waiting until we're not looking at them. And we've learned sometimes monsters hide in treasure chests!"

Just wait until we meet the ones that /are/ treasure chests. Good thing the Unversed aren't around any more.

Shiki leans over and looks at the Monster Book. "Make sure to add in a note about not kicking Flans," she teases.

And so, back on the trail we go...