She was excited; how many people got to say they got to explore the unknown and potentially break history in determining a new method of transportation? However, when Archer showed up and gave her the bare minimum acknowledgement, Chloe's enthusiasm had quickly faded as she took a step towards Vickers. She'd known Archer for years now, and when he was in one of his moods was best to just let him ride it out.

Wand at the ready, she did not cast lumos as her colleagues had because there was enough light for them to see and figuring too much light might actually be a bad thing.

Taking a double take when the walls were MOVING, unlike a couple of her counterparts, she was keeping her distance thank you very much. Even though she liked adventure, she also valued her life, and if others were to sacrifice themselves first, well let them. However the shield of her coworkers did NOT protect her from getting that awful smelling goop on her hair and a bit on her cheek. Reaching up to feel her cheek, the ginger made a face. She didn't mind the clothing; they were old and could get tossed if ruined. But her hair. She did not even want to fathom the idea of chopping it off if she couldn't get it out.

"It smells WORSE than bubotuber pus, that's for sure. It's like bubotuber pus, times a hundred," ew. She liked herbology, but the experimental factor of not knowing what one was dealing with, kind of grossed her out slightly.

Hmm? Evan glanced over his shoulder at Vickers hearing the mans whispered warning. He had barely taken a baby-sized step forward. "I wasn't planning on moving closer," he answered quietly in reply. It was simple curiosity about the unknown that had even had him taking that small of a step towards it in the first place.

Nodding his head though at the words of his boss to keep moving the dark haired man simply took a step backwards and turned to fall back into line. Wand still held in his hand shining the bright glow along the walls. They weren't moving though, it seemed their guide or protection or whatever she was supposed to be today wasn't staying away from the plants. Evan watched Lex move right up to the wall and poke one of the darn plants with her wand. Seriously? That was something his nine year old nephew would do. "Might not be a good idea do-..."

What in the?!

A large amount of goo burst from one of the plant all over the place. It was on his shirt, pants, shoes and eeewww disgusting. Wiping a hand across his forehead he could feel the stuff on his face. Lovely. Just what he needed today. The smell that came from it made his stomach churn. "What is this stuff?" Definite nose wrinkling happening he.

Lynley was taken by surprise; quite the surprise, too. The gloopy substance sprayed all over her face...got into her hair, her neck....was dripping down into her clothes. Granted, it was a very viscous substance, so the word 'drip' is used loosely here.

And Merlin, it DID smell.

"I have no idea what this is---does anybody know PLANTS?" she called out, her voice echoing around the group loudly. She did pull out a small vial from her magically expanded pockets and collected a sample of the substance.......just to bring over to Level Four. What if they were all GOING TO DIE NOW? Lynley would want to know in advance, yes.

"I...guess we should just get this stuff off," she said as she tried to siphon some of it off with her wand. She didn't even know if she wanted to keep going...this was gross. Truly gross. "Should we keep going or call it a day? We've only been in here for...half an hour now," she checked her watch. "And we now know we'll have to get rid of these bloody plants if we do anything with this tunnel."

No she did not KNOW plants, for merlins sake!! She enjoyed Herbology but if she knew them then she would be working with them, not in the transportation department.

Chloe did however realize something, when she spotted her boss taking a sample of the goop into a vial she'd brought along with her. "We should probably bring back a sample of the plant too for studies..." Chloe suggested, her voice echoing down the tunnel.

Rummaging through her enchanted small bag she'd brought along, she grinned when she felt what she was looking for and removed a glass mason jar. Should be enough room plus give it oxygen to survive back to the ministry. Reaching in her bag again, she felt for her gloves and slipped them on before casting a swift nonverbal 'diffindo' at the plant to sever some of it off and place it in her jar...

I'm game for going back but also returning tomorrow with some plant experts and perhaps going further in to see what more lies within" just being honest here, this was kind of an exciting adventure. Can they call it the Chloe M. Adara Tunnel, when it's founded ? Cause that'd be cool.

Wiping the stuff with ones hand did not work. All that happened was the goo ended up smearing and making it worse. What he did do though was follow Lynley's lead and use his wand to attempt to rid himself of as much of the grossness as he could. Even if he was just off of his face he'd feel much better. As for the stench well there wasn't all that much he could do about that at the moment except for the use of the 'bubble-head charm'. It was a simple charm honestly but right now it could come in handy at least a little bit.

Casting said charm on himself the man inhaled a small clean breath of air. Much better. His attention could now fall on those around him once more. Seeing his boss collecting a bit of the goo and then Chloe doing the same with some of the plant made him wonder why he hadn't thought of that sooner. "I don't know much about plants but I do know that something isn't right with these ones...if Level four can't figure out maybe Level nine can." Yeah, yeah he knew level nine didn't work with plants but they were the mysteries department. His sisters department. Maybe they could figure something out as well. The more people working on it the better right?

As for whether to continue forward or head back it didn't matter to him. If they came back tomorrow they'd probably end up getting goo all over them anyhow so why not just get rid of whatever they could now. However not knowing what the plants were could be a bad thing and he had a family he was going home to tonight. He didn't need to br bringing home any problems to a house with infants. "Might be best to head back and clean up since we don't know what this stuff is."

Cleaning up the goo? Oh this OCD Ravenerd was well ahead of y'all, siphoning off every little bit the slick smelly substance off him. He heard Lynley call if they should proceed or turn back, and it seemed like many decided on the latter. "Probably for the best, I will need to update the information on the maps, bizarre plants was definitely not part of the information here."

"Good idea guys...." he said to as his coworkers collected samples. As for himself, he took out another orb, one that seemed multi-faceted, and it emitted a curious light of its own, all around the tunnel. It was scanning see, taking a visual capture of their surroundings.

"Mysteries...." Vickers murmured on Evan's suggestion. Oh he knew that very well, given his Uncle's history with the Ministry "That would be a great idea, have them take a look. I could help out too if they need an extra hand." Mmhm, secrecy protocols and such, yeah he's familiar with it.

The plants had calmed down.

But something shiny...something WAS shining..

Twinkling...

Inviting anyone curious over...

What was it?

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.

Grant did Not like any of this. Not only did those weird plants get HUGE but then they exploded... ON HIS FACE! He coughed and sputtered and wiped his face to get it all off. "I did Not leave the states for this!" He stated and aimed his wand at what was left of the wall. "We should destroy the stupid plants.. forget saving them.. I mean do you smell that?"

Nothing that smelly could be worth salvaging.

"Grant, if you destroy the plants their goo could fly all over the place, even worse than it is." he called out to his co-worker. Also as disgusting as they were, he wasn’t about to kill what could possibly a new and interesting life form. They could learn something from them "Its best to just take a sample and when we know more about them, maybe we can remove them more efficiently." Makes sense eh?


Wait......was he seeing things? The eagle-eyed Ravenerd could've sworn there was something shiny a few paces away, kinda out of place from the dingy, disgusting sticky place they have found themselves at. Take a few tentative paces closer, he narrowed his icy blue gaze and realized what it was. Indeed very out of place "Wait I found something--" he called out to the rest of the group. With his wand he levitated the object for a closer look. "Seems like someone lost a necklace."

Lynley had a sample of the plant goo..but she did wonder if she should grab one of the plants for testing as well. "Yes, Evan, maybe Mysteries would be of help, too...." she said softly, but something had caught her eye.

A shiny something that Vickers was now levitating towards the group. "Um...." she pursed her lips and stared at the thing. "I...it's not mine? Did ANYONE lose a necklace? Where was it, Vickers?" she asked, wondering if moving it had been a good idea...the necklace was REALLY sparkling, and to Lynley, it almost seemed unnatural.

The dark haired man nodded to both Vickers and Lynley when they agreed with his suggestion. He knew his sister was very capable in the things she did which was how she had become department head therefore he trusted that her department could possibly be of some help to them. "If they can't help we won't be any worse off then we are now." Not that he felt that they wouldn't be able to but one could never be to sure.

Now Grant wanting to go and just destroy the plants got a curious look from Evan. "Yeah, I'm not so sure that would be the best idea right now." With all the goo they just got splattered with from one plant he could just imagine the mess from a tunnel full of them.

What was this about a necklace? "Nope. Might be something else we want to have checked out?" Could necklace be causing this plant issue? He was no Herbologist so he couldn't be to sure but it was odd how he didn't recall seeing it before.

The plant didn't like being touched, it didn't like being touched and it smelled just awful. A new discovery right off the bat. Hopefully, whatever it had just spewed out wouldn't have any ill effects 'cause....you know...she kinda had PLANS for later and didn't think she'd have liked seeing the inside of her Healer's office instead.

Lex didn't need to be told twice, she got this goop off her as quick as she could before looking to the Department Head. "Why would we leave? It's just some rowdy plants." Pause. "And that." Because Vickers had found a necklace and as no one had touched it and immediately dropped dead, there was no proof it was any more a threat than the plants that sputtered gunk.

"I agree we shouldn't go outing the plants until we've gotten some DERP people down here to check it out but...so far....what reason do we really have to leave? Aren't we working on transportation for the wizarding world? What are a few moving plants and a necklace we don't even know the purpose for." Some of them spooked a little too easily for her liking. They'd hardly seen anything and didn't truly have a reason to leave, yet.