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Jul 21, 2023

The Science of Getting Lost

TIMING: Early May LOCATION: The Mines PARTIES: Jasper (@eatdearth and Gael (@lithium-argon-wo-l-f SUMMARY: Just a normal, scientific investigation involving a geologist (Jasper) and a chemist (Gael). They definitely don’t get separated in the mines. CONTENT WARNINGS: Family Death (Brief mention)

Well, Gael managed to put his name on the list in time for this “expedition” team to make a trip over to the mines to do some investigatory research regarding the strange goings-on in and around the area. There was supposed to be a team of five, including himself and Mr. Langston. Samples were to be taken and what could be tested on the site would’ve been, with the rest of the results being a job for the labs back at the UMWR. …At least, that’s what he was expecting as he arrived at the scene of where everyone was supposed to meet up and he found that he was alone. He glanced around the area briefly, holding up a wrist to his nose as though that would stop the sulfuric stench from entering it. His other hand pulled up the information he’d saved to his phone, eyes quickly glancing to the clock in the upper right-hand corner. This was the right time, this was the right place… and it was also the first time Gael had been part of the expedition. Perhaps there was a common consensus that they ran fashionably late? Or worse: they canceled and no one bothered to let him know. He wondered if that was the case and, messenger back with equipment still hung carefully over his shoulder, he now checked his phone for an email he might’ve missed. He was so focused on trying to find that email that he didn’t realize that his head tilted sharply as he heard movement coming from behind him. ----

Jasper yawned as he wrapped his hands tightly around the straps of his massive backpack. He was making his way to their scheduled meeting place, once again alone, though he was unbothered. His teaching assistant, Yvonne Jung, the daughter and only child of his mentor who implicitly leveraged Jasper’s many owed favors to get his daughter the position, was not available today.

She shouldn’t even be available any day, to be honest, considering she wasn’t a fan of this field and was just being forced into the study by her controlling father. Typical Asian family dynamic. Though Jasper, who was half-Asian, wouldn’t know, considering his own spellcasting kin was murdered by his late uncle, unbeknownst to him.

What was ‘beknownst’ to him, aside from the fact that that wasn’t even a word to begin with, was that he was going to have to do all this again on his own. He had no faith the other members of the ‘expedition’ team would even show up, as they were all a bunch of lazy, disrespectful, uninterested, cool in an anti-authority kind of way, and definitely busy pseudo researchers that just wanted to get their name included on the credits should this whole gamble actually amount to anything, which no one except Jasper even had faith in. Or maybe there was someone else as bored and as socially un-busy as him. “Hello? Who are you?” ----

He wasn’t sure how long it was before Gael heard another human’s voice and he whipped around on the spot so quickly that the messenger bag swung to hit his other hip with flair. “Oh hi!” He replied, the relief that he wasn’t actually going to be alone in this himself evident in his tone. Before him stood a man, taller than him and with amazing facial hair. His dark eyes danced over the stranger as his hands messed the strap of his bag to adjust it back to his shoulder properly.

“I’m Gael Córdova, the chemistry professor,” He introduced, holding out his hand once they were done with the strap and taking a few confident steps towards the other man, who presumed was… well, one of the members of the awaited expedition. “I wasn’t sure if I was super early or late but I was starting to get worried that I’d been set up.” He scoffed. “Oh, er… If you aren’t with the university then sorry but– it’s still nice to see someone else here.” ----

When the stranger turned around, Jasper immediately recognized him. He’s seen him around the Chemistry Department of the University once or twice when he had to pay them a visit to remind his usual contact over there that he still needed help on something or another. These chemistry professors can be forgetful, probably because of work and stuff. At least what Jasper thought. If he wasn’t so oblivious, he’d realize his usual contact didn’t really like working with him. Probably all those rock-related dad jokes.

“Ah, yes, you’re from the Chem Dept,” he said, matter-of-factly, as if that shortcut of a term caught on with anyone else when it didn’t. Jasper took his hand and vigorously shook it with both of his, excited to work with someone new. He was a lonely man, and it was even lonelier down there, so this was a great deal for him. “Yeah, I’m just about to set up,” he heaved a sigh as he carefully placed his backpack on the floor. “Jasper, Jasper Langston, from the, d’oh, Geology Department. It’s just the two of us, I think. You good with that?” ----

Oh, it was Jasper from Geo. It seemed obvious now that Gael took a longer look at the man. The enthusiastic shake of his hand didn’t go by the professor unnoticed, though, and he offered a smile with a nod. “Honestly I’m just glad I’m not by myself again.” He remembered having gone up to the general area before, returning with nothing but a splitting headache and zero answers. “I don’t mean to make assumptions but at this point, I’m sort of guessing that maybe you and I are the two scientists who actually, y’know, want to see what’s going on around here.”

Gael removed a small, rolled up picnic blanket from a clip around his belt and he turned away from the geologist to open it up, sighing as he did so. “I don’t have, like, a professional tarp; I kind of figured that we’d have a team that came with supplies.” He admitted. “At least I have a cute little blanket so we can pretend that we’re professionals.” He set the blanket down and placed his messenger back on one of the corners. “I’ve been up here once but care to let me in on what this place is?” He glanced up at Jasper expectantly, his dark eyes curious. ----

“You and me both,” Jasper chuckled at that before taking out a handheld device that was much wider than a phone. He started pointing it at the walls, at the ceiling, at anything he could of the mines basically, but it just beeped casually without really any urgency. He turned to Gael with a shrug. “Yeah, maybe,” he heaved a sigh, clearly disheartened at that fact. “My teaching assistant just has something important to do today, but I can’t speak for our peers.”

Jasper could always count on Yvonne, his teaching assistant, so he always cut her some slack. For someone who wasn’t interested in this field, who’d rather be doing something else, she carried her weight, and sometimes even his as well. With the rest of their peers, well, he wasn’t popular enough to warrant some respect, so it was always like this for him. Still, the science was worth it, so who cares about all that social junk, right? Jasper does.

“We usually do, but as you can see, it’s just me at the moment. We’re actually just doing a quick rescan of the mines today, but I do have our usual equipment in a truck outside if you want to help me bring them in? Definitely a lot of weird stuff going on down here,” and as Jasper said that, his device suddenly died on him. “Hmm, fluff.” ----

Oh, they were going inside. Perhaps Gael should’ve, y’know, asked before starting to set anything up. Well, it’s not like he thought they were in danger of getting robbed or anything so he left his things where they were and he found himself looking at the device that Jasper was holding - a frequency scanner? Did it read mineral deposits in the rock?

Gael wished he had something like that that could read the air. He tried before, he could remember trying before but for some reason, all his samples returned corrupted or sometimes, not at all. It was almost as though something was sabotaging his results. Then again, that was an insane thought and Gael wasn’t insane (though the stench in the air didn’t help the budding headache he could feel in his temples again).

While he was ruminating in these brief thoughts, Jasper said some sort of soft curse and Gael glanced from the direction the geologist pointed the truck to be in back to his temporary companion. “Uh oh, your thing died?” He asked. “...Sorry, I didn’t answer your question. Yeah! Yeah, I can help bring the stuff in. How far in did you want to go?” He asked. “You got batteries for that in your pack? . . . What even is it?” He didn’t mean to sound like he was ignorant but curiosity often won out at the end of the day in his brain. ----

The device was, unfortunately, old as fudge. Jasper had gotten it as a hand me down from his mentor, Professor Jung, before the old man left for greener pastures. What were greener pastures for a geology professor? Jasper may never know. He doesn’t see himself following in his mentor’s footsteps. Well, with regard to retiring or leaving the university any time soon at least. Jasper needs the university. He needs the social experience more than anyone will ever know. It might be the only thing saving him from throwing himself down the mines full time.

“Yeah, well,” Jasper heaved a sigh, shaking his head. It was routine by now, the device breaking down. If Jasper actually paid any attention to the damned thing, he would’ve realized it mostly does that inside the mines. But no, Jasper had already zeroed in on the fact that it was aged, ancient, and might be due for replacement by a newer generation device. Right under his nose, really. “It does that a lot. Batteries are new, so it’s probably just its age catching up to it. Department really needs to invest in new stuff.”

Jasper tried to downplay his disappointment with a chuckle, but dead air followed that right after. He lost himself in thoughts of why the department rarely listens to him, rarely caters to their own needs, rarely invests in useful stuff for them as well. Do they hate him? Or do they just not care about the field in and of itself? “Anyway, yeah, I’ve got the drills, hammers, and bags in the truck. They’re in a hard shell case. You know how to use a drill, right?” ----

So there was an old machine that scanned the rocks that routinely broke down, a bunch of drills, hammers, and bags in a truck when there were two people to carry it around, and… a crew of people who just decided not to show up to an excursion.

Gael wasn’t going to say that this was a bummer but it was kind of a bummer.

Part of him seemed to deflate and Jasper’s none-too-subtle disappointment in trying to pass off the fact that they gave him old, outdated tech only helped in making him wonder if it would be less of a waste of time to just… try this another day. However, Gael wasn’t a quitter and he put his hands in his pockets, adjusting his position so that he could start moving wherever he was told to go. On the other hand, though… “Iiiii do not,” He replied with an unusual amount of confidence for essentially admitting that he didn’t know how to do something. “But I can carry stuff sometimes. I can be your muscle and I’ll leave the geology tech up to you,” He offered.

“Or we could… do this another time?” He suggested after a pause. “Or, like… if you’re familiar enough with the interior, you could just show me around at what you guys might’ve found so far.” He was spitballing at this point; while Gael had a deep well of patience for people, and he certainly felt sympathy for Jasper seemingly being the main one who was interested in actually trying to figure out what was going on around there, he had considerably less patience for situations he acknowledged were out of his control. The smell wasn’t helping at all. ----

“Ah,” Jasper stated plainly. He didn’t even expect anyone else to come today, so why would he expect the only guy who did show up would know how to use a drill? To be fair, to him, though, it wasn’t just a drill. Certainly not a normal drill ordinary people regularly used in their households. It was more of a compounded drill, a specialized one, that geologists and miners used outside, in places like this, not inside households. That would be too much. “It’s all right. Yeah, maybe just carry the stuff and…”

Jasper heaved another sigh. There were two of them. Just two of them. It would have been challenging with just him alone but another person didn’t make much of a difference. Then again, him and Yvonne just did fine on their own sometimes, though carrying around heavy equipment, into and out of the mines, wasn’t something they did on their own. Maybe this guy was right. He stared at Gael with a raised eyebrow. Should he be calling him sir or something? Jasper should really socialize with the Chem Department, even though the last time he tried, he got brushed off by that cutie in a lab coat. What was her name again? Something that started with a letter A?

“Yeah, sure,” Jasper gave him a nod before leading him further in. The tunnels, he was very familiar with. At least the ones closer to the surface, the ones that didn’t have those miners that chased him off. Corporations are always a dick, he realized at a young age, which was why he supported local businesses instead of hoity-toity franchises. Screw Starbucks. This town has Sharma Tea and Bread Cemetery and a million other coffee places that taste better. “We should be close around that bend. Careful not to stray far from me, though. Unless you’ve been here before?” ----

To Gael’s relief and after what seemed like a bit of internal debate with Jasper, the latter agreed to his suggestion to give him a tour. The chemistry professor gave a small nod to the other man before starting to follow him in where they were abruptly greeted with darkness, even with the lights that offered shallow light… and the smell. The air was thick in the mouth of the mine entrance and only seemed to get thicker as they progressed and Gael felt his brow knit, placing a hand to his nose in as subtle a gesture as he could.

“Boy, it’s… pungent down here,” He remarked, trying to be light in his delivery but it was feathered with a subtle urge to gag. He kept his keen eyes on the geology professor, however, and when asked if he was familiar, Gael shook his head. “Unfortunately not. I moved here a few months ago but I was still getting my bearings.” Though that seemed like a flitting thought in his head as he grunted under his breath. Stick close to Jasper, don’t stray too far. Don’t listen to the sudden urge to scratch at your brain, digging into it and pulling out the feeling of sinking your teeth into a stranger’s arm.

Not Jasper’s arm. No one’s arm, what was he talking about? He opened his eyes, not realizing that he’d closed them and though something made it so that he could see better than complete blindness, he somehow lost sight of the geologist. “...Jasper?” He asked dumbly. ----

Jasper nodded fervently as he led Gael deeper and deeper into the mines. Or at least to where they had made their last progress. The geologist had gone much deeper than the rest of their team, though he would never advise the same to anyone else. Something about the mines, some things inside the mines, were not friendly. Jasper may not have encountered much of those unfriendly things, but just going off the vibes, the mines were not a place you wanted to hurl yourself into with just a phone. The flashlight’s useful, for a bit, but eventually, you’ll lose your signal. Or worse.

“Yes, well, there are certain chemical reactions that could very well be responsible for those smells,” Jasper explained in his professor’s voice, using a bunch of words that held no deep meaning for him, all while he continued to stare straight forward, never looking back behind him. Why would he? He knew the mines like the back of his hand. At least the parts where their team had explored. He knew where they were supposed to go. The other guy was also a professor, so he was also smart. That meant he would follow his advice and not stray far from him. He would not get lost. “...so rest assured, we’re pretty safe down here.”

Jasper then started talking about how the mines were a geological marvel, how certain things followed the rules that they were all accustomed to, the rules of the earth that they’ve studied over the years, the only rules that they’ve ever known, and how other things did not. There was enthusiasm in his voice, the same enthusiasm he’d have when talking about the Fast and the Furious franchise, the same enthusiasm a Marvel ‘fan’ would have when talking about the Disney Plus shows (that wasn’t She-Hulk twerking-related, even though if Deadpool did that, they’d all figuratively bust a nut, as his rival and student Jeremy would often say; maybe even literally, who knows?)

But that enthusiasm was soon replaced with concern when Jasper looked behind him, his wide smile turning into a frown, eyes widening into confusion and horror, and found the chemistry professor was nowhere to be found. “Gael? Professor Cordova?” Oh, dear. Not again. ----

“Professor Langston?” Gael’s voice rang out and he only called every once in awhile, falling silent and trying desperately to hear any indication of where he was in relation to the geologist; sound normally carried so why did he feel like he was being smothered in deafening quiet? While normally he would’ve stayed rational and calm - indeed, when it wasn’t around ‘those instances’, he held value in his ability to rationalize things calmly and logically - he was having immense difficulties as he wandered in the winding tunnels of the mine. Where he was now had no more light, and not even his vision ‘gifted’ to him by his brain injury could decipher details anymore.

And the stench.

Maybe… This was Jasper’s idea of a joke. Maybe he was fed up with not being taken seriously by the board or their team so he decided to punch down to Gael, the one newer and less experienced than he was. The chemist had no idea where he was going, he didn’t know his way around, he didn’t know how to escape, he didn’t know anything. He didn’t even know that as he walked, craning his neck to hear and calling for the geology professor, the foul odor that permeated the rock and dirt inside the dark tunnels crawled around inside him, fuelling this unjustified rage, dropping him to his knees and starting to shred through his clothes.

Skin covered itself in fur, gasps of pain turned into twisted snarling, teeth fell out. Claws. A tail. Ears. Snout. Not quite wolf but not quite man. Neither. Both. Pain. Exhaling a hot breath through long canines, Gael widened his amber eyes and let out a small, but still pitched howl. THAT echoed through the caves. ----

Jasper was a mood, swinging between indifference and professional concern. On one hand, Professor Cordova was a grown man. He could find his way out of the mines…right? Sure, Jasper’s already lost one person to the mines, but that was years ago, and she was just a kid. He was, too. Professor Cordova was a different story. He was an adult. Surely, someone with that big brain could escape the tunnels with relative ease. Right?

On the other? The mines have their fair share of missing persons. Jasper had gathered as much from his own unprofessional investigation, haphazard interviews of miners he had conducted without their knowledge and sometimes using a fake name, nothing of which could ever hold up in court with zero physical evidence, just some drunken blue collar worker rambling about the Steves and Joes that were never seen again, ramblings that an expensive team of attorneys can so easily squish.

Jasper heaved a sigh, shaking his head. Professor Cordova wasn’t a Steve or a Joe, but if he goes missing, it’s Jasper’s ass on the line when he returns to the university. Unless of course no one knew Professor Cordova’s schedule? Maybe he had a drinking habit? Maybe Jasper can just feign ignorance and pin his possible disappearance on— “What the fuck was that?” Jasper gulped, his hand pressed hard on the side of the mines. He had never heard anything like it before, certainly not in there. As he pressed the rest of his body against the cold hard rocky surface of the closest wall, he felt his heart race fast. Faster than it had ever in recent memory. “Shit. What if it— No! Professor Cordova!”

Against his smarter instincts, Jasper ran to where he had heard the howl, fearing that his companion was the cause of all that howling. A stray wolf having jumped a chemistry professor? It would be the first time he’d witness such a thing! Unbeknownst to him, he would be witnessing a different thing for the first time. ---- Still in the dark but now equipped with more proficient tools, Gael held his head up and attempted to sniff the air, feeling the fur on his hackles stand on end as all he seemed to smell was the disgusting rot. A low growl rumbling at the bottom of his throat, he reached up and felt the ceiling close to his head and while he was content to walk on his hind legs, he needed to be more careful in these narrow tunnels. He dropped to all fours quietly and he started stalking forward when he suddenly stopped, turning his head sharply as he heard a noise coming from a different direction. He wasn’t alone in these dark tunnels. Not even sure why HE was where he was, Gael decided to go in the direction of the new noise but didn’t have to travel far when he stopped short, hearing rapidly-approaching footfalls and his bright amber eyes fell upon a silhouette. A human. Unable to contain his excitement, his tail started wagging wildly and he bared his teeth, his lips seeming to form a wide, doglike smile as a noise that sounded like an unholy mixture of a human laugh and a yelp ripped from his throat.

From the corner of his eye, Jasper caught a glimpse of a vague form that stood like a human would. He immediately thought it was Gael, which he wasn’t exactly wrong about. Just not the Gael he knew, apparently, though it wouldn’t be apparent until he was close enough to realize what creature truly waited for him. ----

“Ah, there you are,” Jasper shook his head, still oblivious to the horrifying truth as he made his way toward its actual form, still some steps from actually laying eyes on its shadow’s owner. “Didn’t I tell you to stay close, Professor… Cordova?”

And there it was. The stark realization that Professor Cordova was not where Jasper thought he was. His immediate thought, now that he was staring at the abomination with wide, terrified eyes, was that Gael was somewhere else, somewhere safer than where the geology professor stood. As the creature glared at him, Jasper gulped. What the actual fuck was it even? A dog? A wolf? A hellhound? Probably that last one since the fucking mines must be connected to hell or some shit.

“Nope,” Jasper squealed before turning around, running away from the predator as it half-laughed and half-howled at him. At least he thought that was a laugh and a howl. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!”

One minute, the shadow was there and the next it was gone but Gael knew better. He could sense it, give it some time to run - the wolf enjoyed the chase, proud of himself for being able to catch things like birds and squirrels. They ran, tried to fly. This was similar yet different. He lowered himself onto all fours and rather lazily trotted after the shadow, trying to get more of a scent even though it was difficult with the stench of something else permeating the area, seeping through the walls.

The wolf didn’t actually start pursuing the shadow until he turned the corner where his amber eyes saw something illuminated faintly in the murk of the dark. It seemed to be… light dancing on the shadow. Confusing as it was since there didn’t seem to be any light for it to bounce off of, the wolf dropped to a creep, his body coiling with potential energy before he sprang forward into a bound. He easily caught up to the figure with a loud growl.

With a forward-reaching leap, his arms out in front of him, the wolf’s beetle-black claws snagged on something and the two of them were sent crashing to the ground. Wasting no time, the wolf snapped his jaws, catching what he perceived to be skin between his long canines and he proceeded to shake his head, pulling at it with everything he had like a dog playing tug of war with a toy. ----

Jasper ran as fast as he could, though that wasn’t saying much, considering he was no athlete. As he huffed and he puffed his way away from the monstrous wolf-like creature that was most definitely going to eat him, he wondered how the hell could it have gotten inside the mines. He’d been going there on his own, sometimes even with company, and he’d never come across such a thing. Was it lost? Did someone, or something, leave it there? Or was this whole thing connected to the weird happenings all over town?

He made one single mistake of looking back, trying to see if he was clear, if by some miracle his pursuer decided he wasn’t worth the jog, but the next thing Jasper knew, he was down on the ground, wincing in pain as his body collided with the hard ground of the tunnel. “Fuck…me,” he groaned, as he heard a faint ringing in his ear. “This is like that car thing all over again…except no pretty girls…” It took him a few seconds, wasted time he didn’t really afford, before he realized the predator was inches from his flesh, toying with his recently acquired hoodie, a gift for himself by himself just because he was feeling it, that had the word ‘SNACC’ emblazoned in unnecessarily huge font smack-dab in the middle of it. How appropriate.

Jasper grimaced as he tried to delicately free himself from semi-captivity. The creature did not seem to be sinking its teeth into his flesh with rabid urgency. Instead, it seemed to be under the mistaken impression that the hoodie was part of his flesh. He wasn’t quite sure if it was a race thing, which his non-concussed brain wouldn’t have even thought of, but he struggled and fought as discreetly as he could until finally, by some miracle or divine intervention, he managed to set himself free.

Thud!

Jasper fell on the ground on all fours. He took a moment to see if the predator realized what had happened but he dared not look back. Not again. Not this time. That fucked him over the first time. “Ah, fuck it,” he just bolted out of there, huffing and puffing his way away from the big bad wolf thing. “If I survive this, I’m going to work on my cardio…” ----

His fangs were still embedded in the flesh, tasteless though it was and in a mighty motion, Gael threw his head back, stripping the layer from clean off his prey.

Literally. He wasn’t expecting it to come apart so easily and he fell backwards with a yelp, the skin he pulled off landing gently on top of him for a moment as he began flailing wildly as the thing he wanted so badly was suddenly wrapping around him. This wasn’t in the plan, he didn’t know what was going on all of a sudden. He flopped onto his stomach, using a clawed hand to pull the skin from where it’d covered part of his back. The sound of fabric ripping could be heard down the dark hall by the time the wolf realized that what he’d gotten caught in his jaws was not, in fact, anything tasty or worth his time, he growled and abruptly abandoned the not-skin after sticking his nose into it. No blood, no flesh, no meat.

Worthless.

To make matters worse, the wolf turned his gaze up and forwards but he saw nothing in front of him, nothing but what seemed to be an infinite dark tunnel. He looked behind him and was met with the same vision. He lifted his nose and tried to catch a scent but all he got was that infernal stench, the one that riled him up and caused him to snarl to himself as he lost his prey. With a huff, he started to whine quietly, feeling pain in his stomach that seemed to start there and stretched itself to his extremities. His tail twitched, his hind legs cracked as he moved them and as he pinned his ears, feeling pain starting to wash over him like a rising tide, he snatched up the not-skin and buried his nose in it to catch a scent.

He lost the prey but maybe the prey knew the way out. And the wolf would be sure to find it before he went back to sleep.

#wickedswriting #writing: the science of getting lost #writing with: Jasper #family death tw #[mentioned]

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