Not the optimum way to meet people again...

It was Sunday yesterday, so down to the Cavern I went. Though Jack couldn't join us, Meiczyslaw and Jishin and I had heard rumors the DRC were going to release Minkata, and figured even if they hadn't, we'd at least get a chance to poke around Ae'gura some more and do more Marker Quests.

But the first thing I noticed when I linked in was that Victor Laxman and Michael Engberg both had their KIs on. The DRC doesn't talk to us much, and I think they're tired of being mugged every time they come down into the Cavern, so usually they leave their KIs off. To have both of them showing up...was odd.

Then I linked into Nexus and saw:

1. The City was blocked off.
2. There were a whole lot of people in a couple of Neighborhoods, and that population was growing.

First I checked the Beginner's Bevin, but there was no ResEng on duty, so I went to Uru Obsession's 'hood - I know some of the people there, but more, they're a large 'hood with a lot of connections, and so the likelihood that somebody in there knew what was up seemed pretty high. Jishin poked around in a couple of other 'hoods and joined me there, while Meiczyslaw kept checking the other 'hoods.

It turns out Willow "Wheely" Engberg and her friend Rosette, who was new to the Cavern, had gone missing by the Library. And that there had been some awful cracking noises over by the Library, and shaking, and subsidance. Not to mention another big crack in the wall over by the Pub in the basement of Tokotah.

And a LOT of people had seen a Bahro screaming from the roof of the Library, a scream of a sort they'd never heard before.

Then Laxman locked the Nexus to Ae'gura, and he and Engberg started evacuating people, because they couldn't find Wheely - and somebody (Whilyam, I think?) had heard her shout just before her KI went offline in the Library. Engberg, of course, was frantic. He was apparently a little rude to some folks, though if it'd been my kid, I'd've been more than rude.

Then Kodoma-sensei linked in, and then Marie. And when nobody listened to Engberg and Laxman, they called in the ResEngs and had everybody forcibly evacuated from Ae'gura proper. And that's about when everybody I was talking to started to get a really dreadful feeling.

UO got very full at that point - I left right around when Thend linked in because I was getting seriously claustro from all the people in there. The Nexus was overloaded - everybody trying to get everywhere - so I went back to Relto and had a cup of tea, and then linked over to the D'net 'hood where Eleri and Gadren were organizing folks to try to get as much clear, solid information distributed as possible, and also to try to take some of the burden off the DRC so that folks wouldn't bug Engberg.

Because while everybody really hoped Wheely was safe? The way the Bahro were screaming...it didn't sound good.

Jishin was over in our Instance of Ae'gura, since she couldn't get into the Prime, and heard a Bahro scream - a lot closer than usual. She was around back of the Library, but when she got around front, it was gone. However, given the pictures I saw later, I'm betting there was one up there.

I got to see Blade, Annacat, Deg, and a bunch of other people that I hadn't seen since Mysterium last year. We all sort of stood around and felt helpless a lot, because, well...there wasn't anything we could do. Then Marie sent Eleri a PM saying that she was turning her KI off to help with "the recovery," and we all knew it was bad.

One of the ResEngs - Mr. Cowart - linked in to tell us that they'd try to let us know if they found anything out, and we asked him to pass on our best wishes to Mr. Engberg. And there was more talk, but really, there wasn't anything we could do. Laxman sent out a KI-mail telling folks to stay out of Ae'gura and warning us that the Instances of it may also not be safe - the ripple effect is alive and strong in the Tree of Possibilities, and if the main Ae'gura is the root of our Instances, they'll almost certainly propagate.

After a lot of conversation, we decided we'd try to coordinate reports, keep track of instances, weird Bahro sitings, and then send them back to D'net so that we wouldn't spam the DRC with reports. Various groups went out together to do surveys of the instances, but I just didn't have the heart.

It was about 11:30 pm Cavern Time when I finally linked back to my Relto to check my first aid kit and climbing gear and get some sleep. There wasn't anything I could do. (Though I did see Nick White had linked in - I have no idea what he thought he could accomplish...)

I haven't been down to the Cavern this morning - I figure keeping one less KI signal out of the mix will probably help Laxman track down Wheely's. (Expecially as the Lattice was apparently VERY cranky last night because they'd just activated a new feature on the KI, and it was making things somewhat unstable.) But...

There hasn't been any news from the DRC. And generally, when Search and Rescue's involved, the longer there's no news, the less likely the news is to be good when it does come.

I hope she's OK.