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Apocalypse How Mods ([personal profile] apocalypsehowmods) wrote in [community profile] apocalypsehowcomm2022-05-16 08:09 am

Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines


Appalachia: Into the Pines

Footage plays on the television as a new story comes on, showing a series of sweeping vistas, intercut with clips of wolves that have clearly been filmed at some local wildlife sanctuary. "As far as anyone knows it, the last wolf to ever freely roam the Allegheny Mountains was slain in West Virginia in 1897. Daniel Stoffer Hamrick saw to the beast's passing, and the woods in our part of the world have gone quieter ever since. Appalachia does not forget its history, though. It buries it beneath coal and flyash, debts and white powder and pills. And the blood of people taken before their time, by the mines, by the mountain, by things we don't have names for, just hurt. But Appalachia does not forget.

"This is Cindy Parsons with Channel 5, Wolf News." Footage cuts to a newscaster standing outside a gated apartment complex with FYRE's logo emblazoned on it. "As we know, our beloved Wolf Pen is home to one of the biggest FYRE worker housing complexes in Wyoming County. It is a monument to the history of our town, and this week, we'll be on the lookout for visitors from all over the country, coming to see the grand re-opening of the historic Bluestone Mine as a museum."

Footage cuts to a nondescript businessman, identified by the news footage as Carl Watts, CEO of FYRE. He's smiling blandly as he stands at a podium and gestures to the entrance of the mining tunnel behind him. "The Wolf Pen community has been a partner to us for decades now, and we knew it was finally time to give something back to all y’all. We'll have our soft opening on Monday with a full Rumble Down Under party in the old mines scheduled for June 15th. We'll have a live bluegrass concert and anticipate a huge influx of tourists to the area to help out our neighbors itching for a few more pocketbooks to tend to." A wink.

The footage returns to Cindy. "FYRE has stated that this new museum will provide an educational tool and tourist attraction for those wanting to learn about West Virginia, Wolf Pen, and the hard-working men and women who have made this beautiful part of our nation their home. Time will tell. Time is always telling when it comes to the promises of people who have used our land and our bodies to line their pocketbooks. They fill our blood and our lungs with black tar and-"

Cindy cuts out and is replaced by in-studio anchors. "Thank you, Cindy!" a blonde woman says, smile just a little strained. "I think we're all looking forward to seeing the big opening by FYRE on Sunday and that rocking good party next month. It should be a gneiss one! Now to Tim with the weather. Tim?"


➥ Links
outofthepast: (Human (stoic))

[personal profile] outofthepast 2022-06-01 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Hold up a sec...

[When the pattern becomes apparent, Nick pauses for a moment to examine one of the support beams. He studies the notches themselves, looking for some indication of what made them-- a bladed tool, like an axe or knife? Something that required carving, like teeth or even claws? Or are the notches from natural wear and tear?]
bindlestifflost: (B and W Skeptical or thinking)

[personal profile] bindlestifflost 2022-06-01 10:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I was jes' about to say.

[He's looking, as well. Something Robin said niggles at the back of his mind.]

Hey, Nick...you ever heard a' tommyknockers?

[He keeps his voice as low as he can, both to avoid attracting attention from the front staff but also...well...anything potentially down in this shaft with them. Hell of a time to think of it now.]
pennedin: (Default)

[personal profile] pennedin 2022-06-02 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[On closer inspection, the notches definitely look like they were made with an axe or hatchet. Some look older, but many look fresh, the cuts revealing lighter-colored wood inside the beams. None of the beams are cut through; it looks like whoever or whatever did this performed just enough targeted damage to weaken the beams without bringing them down...yet.]
outofthepast: (Human (thoughtful))

[personal profile] outofthepast 2022-06-03 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
Old mine ghosts, right?

[Nick photographs the hatchet marks with his phone, and makes sure to remember this spot on his mental map.]

Something tells me they weren't the ones who hacked up these posts.

[On they go, though he's paying close attention to the stability of the tunnels, now.]
bindlestifflost: (Grim or determined)

[personal profile] bindlestifflost 2022-06-03 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
Somethin' like that.

[He takes a few pictures, too. It doesn't help to have two sets just in case.]

I ain't...completely sure about that. I talked to a woman whose husband used to work these mines. She told a story he told her one night...after his cousin died in a cave in. He saw these...rock demon things. They hacked at the supports right before the whole thing fell in.

Now, afore I came here, I'd a' said that's a load a' hogwash. A man saw something awful, maybe got some bad air. Mind'll play all kinds a' tricks on you. Now I ain't so sure. Her grandson had some weird drawin's. Said something about some lady controlling rock monsters.

They dumped a lot a' shit in the creek up that way with no sign a' the big kind a' machinery you'd need to do it. Bunch of dead fish and plants. Reeked like you wouldn't believe.

If we hear singin', we need to turn around right then. Awwright?
pennedin: (Default)

[personal profile] pennedin 2022-06-04 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
[The tunnel twists and curves now, following some old seam of coal that's long since been carved out. For now it seems stable enough, at least in the sense that nothing's moving and there's no audible creak of timber or rumble of stone. Not long after they first noticed the damage, the signs of tampering abruptly stop--the next support beams they come across are untouched and more stable-looking, and the ones after that.

It's after the damaged section that the tunnel begins to branch.
]
outofthepast: (Human (look up))

[personal profile] outofthepast 2022-06-04 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[Interesting. What would theoretically happen if the weakened supports gave way, but these ones stayed steady? He's no miner, but he can imagine a few possibilities...

And here they'll have to make a decision about which way to go.
]

Either way looking better than the other to you?
bindlestifflost: (Angry fight or flight)

[personal profile] bindlestifflost 2022-06-05 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
[He listens for a few seconds for any sounds from either side. Barring hearing anything unusual, he points to the right.]

Dunno why, but whenever I don't know what way to go, I usually head right.
pennedin: (Default)

[personal profile] pennedin 2022-06-05 03:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[The possibility that might come to mind first is that this section of the tunnel might remain intact, but a collapse of the supports they've passed would make it impossible to get back out the way they've come in. Depending on whether there's another way out, that could be...problematic...for anyone in this part of the tunnels even if they weren't injured in the initial collapse...if anyone were in here when it happened.

The right side tunnel has the same meandering non-pattern as before...until it doesn't. It splits again, and this time one narrow split goes downward through hard rock while the other slopes upward slightly.
]