over the river & through the woods

[doggedly]

CHARACTERS: Our Intrepid Explorers (Bucky Barnes, Gavroche Thernardier, Jack Benjamin, L, Remus Lupin, Rey, Rue Lancaster, and Sirius Black)
LOCATION: UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
WARNINGS: will update if necessary
SUMMARY: an exploration with necessary details here. to seek out new life and new civilizations. to boldly go where apparently someone has already tunneled before. starters for each stage of the journey have been posted below but also please ad your own.
NOTES: BACKDATED to January 7-10

Comments

[fullmoon]

On cue, there's the bioluminescence; Remus holds the wand up to the wall and it lights around his hand, green trailing after as he walks. The other hand brushes Padfoot a few times and then settles on his head for a second to muss the fur there. Mostly for his own sake. Everyone else comes and goes—he's come and gone—and Sirius is still here. That's something.

"They're not here," he says into the dark. "When we get back we can try looking in the other direction. I heard walking in a spiral is best."

But useless if they've vanished into thin air.

[doggedly]

Padfoot's ears prick and he turns to look up at him, another flash of his eyes in the dark-light-dark of the tunnel. He isn't quite feeling up to it, but his tail wags, once, an irrepressible reaction to the sound of Remus' voice. There are a few voices out there that could get a tail wag out of him nearly in spite of circumstance, and Remus' voice is near top of that list.

Everything is easier, as Padfoot. Cora, Tyke, James. Smells that colour memories. More before them. Cora, Tyke, James, and more before them. These ones hurt. As a dog, all his emotions get screwed down; the ache in his chest becomes something else, nothing smaller but a shape that's easier to get his head around. Cora, Tyke, James.

Remus. Fingers against his skull. Padfoot licks his nose again, with a quiet whine of agreement. Then, just for fun, he breaks stride to do a circle around Remus' legs, keeping tight against him. A spiral. Get it? Dogs can make jokes too.

[fullmoon]

Remus has to stop walking to avoid tripping, for a second, but he grins—a tight, brief thing, but not fake. Ahead of them the tunnel opens up, invisible in the dark but still sensed, the sudden absence of claustrophobia even though they can't quite see the walls. A few more steps and the hand Remus has held toward the tunnel wall is held into empty air instead.

"We ought to check the ship, too." He's not out of hope yet. "It could be pulling people back in to—somewhere."

A void. It's not impossible.

[doggedly]

Grins don't have smells, or colours--even if they did, he wouldn't be able to see the colours--but the air bends around a grin. Things change, infinitesimally. Prickly fur at the back of Padfoot's neck settles a little and his gait is easier, now that he's earned that grin. If he were all dog, this would be easy.

He's not all dog. Other bits inform him, remind him. Cora, Tyke, James. James James James. The ship, the depths, a wreck he's scoured, picked through, sniffed through, bit and kicked and Summoned and pushed, in turns. Bloody finger from a cut. Sweat, angry. His fur is all prickled again and he twists away from Remus and dashes forward into the open cave, tail drooped low. These are not things that he wants to think about. That's why he's here. It occurs to him then that he's left Remus behind, but he doesn't go back just yet. The air smells funny in here, dry and damp all at once, big vast echoy cave smell. The clack of his nails becomes loud, the huff of his breath, all magnified and echoed, a dog five times his size. Perhaps he'll stay this way forever.