Rising of Phoebis

Andile took the few moments the rabbit spent swimming towards the docks to examin their airship! He had to admit, he was impressed - It wasn't everyday you saw something like that... and weird stuff seemed prone to happen here.

And then the rabbit surfaced, and ruined the entire mystery by calling out about if the others were cops or not. It was at this moment that Andile realised h'ed... probaby wasted a lot of time - certainly, he'd apparently been so caught up in looking at the airship, that he'd missed it's owner surface, as well as missing Tangerine proceeding to make her way past him! He hadn't even realised she'd been following him, so he turns and quickly hurries his way up the stairs, and emerges onto the scene on the elevated platform above, arriving just as one of the figures he couldn't see declared themselves military force!

As he breached the top of the staircase, Andile hesitated, taking a moment to take in the scene before him - more importantly, he made note of where all the different individuals were, and picked out those in uniform. And then before he knew it, his gaze was snagged by the site of the landscape beyond the tiny pond of tents.

Carefully weaving his way through, Andile's path was clear - he was definetly going to check out that giant, intricate carved door, and nobody was going to stop him.

He takes a moment to take in the sites

After ascending the rest of the stairs, Tangerine allowed herself to pause and scan the new area that it seemed much of the group was congregating in. While the others were, for the most part, distracted with the new arrival, she looked over the many characters already here. It was certainly an interesting bunch--Wait a second. Her eyes squinted slightly as they came to rest on the silver-furred wolf. Wasn't he familia--

Another interruption distracted her as the newly-arrived rabbit called out a blunt question from somewhere behind her. An amused snort escaped the reptile and she glanced back over towards him with a raised eyebrow. People with fur did tend to look funnier when wet.
Her attention shifted back over to one of the members of the military group here as a reply was made. For now, she would leave them to it. Her curiosity had been temporarily nabbed as she was certain she saw someone at least a little familiar.

...That or she was being rude and mentally implying that most wolves looked the same. Awkward.

The dragon spotted the wolf breaking off from the group, but she still wasn't sure exactly where she had seen him before. Especially since she could only see him from behind. He seemed to have the right idea, though, in moving away from the talkers and getting this whole exploration thing over with. She just wanted to find something cool, but preferably nothing she'd been sent here for...

Instead of just following after the wolf like a stalker, though, she chose to head a different way. So she started off more towards the right, primarily to go around the many tents here in the sand, and eventually continue past them. The huge door, after all, seemed to be the most logical place to begin.

The talking got Volt's attention and he immediately turned back to the military group. "Soldier guys, then?" Volt asked maybe a little casually. "What kinda military exercise is this? Exploring is supposed to be fun!" 

He looked back over at the rabbit. Oh, was that the guy who...? No, no. It was probably better to not think about it. 

"There's no use in waiting around anymore though! The place isn't gonna explore itself!" Volt looked past the group towards the rest of the structure, then he locked his eyes on the two that were headed towards the door. He jumped up and started running towards the door with the others- this is where the real fun began! He wouldn't have to stare at anymore water inside... hopefully! 

... He didn't even wait for the Trinus guys to answer. What an impatient kid.

Whip was surprisingly annoyed by how quickly his question had turned off so many attentive eyes, never mind his earlier complaints. 
It was a legitimate question! He refused to believe every single one of these people were 'scientists' and 'researchers' looking to 'observe the pristine environment of an undisturbed city' or whatever.
Even his current subjects of interest, the military group (plus strange cow woman currently eyeing him down) were no-doubt up to something fishy. Not that it mattered to him. So long as he found whatever valuable things were down there first, he didn't care what kinds of crazy whacked-up things this second-rate military was up to on Bring-Your-Daughter-to-Work Day.
Though the cow lady giving him attention did please him a little.
"That's cool." He dismissed immediately, trotting up the stairs. "I've got a friend in the military too. Weird guy."
He fully intended on simply passing by the military group and making his way inside, concerns appeased as he believed they wouldn't immediately arrest him. Though, this was not before giving an ego-boosting click of his fingers at the cow lady. 
Anyone who recognized how cool he was deserved it~

Saturday at first opened his mouth to respond to Volt, only to have the rabbit give off his own interjection. Turning to respond instead to that little remark, he found himself interupted by the clicking motion towards Anna, before wandering on away. The small motion garnered a child-like giggle from the woman, a reaction which seemed to elicit a frown from the jackal. A frown that only deepened as he realised the majority of people present were already departing on their own investigations, including the hedgehog he had initially been wanting to respond to. The frown practically became a full-face-wrinkle as one particular ferret turned up on scene, completely ignored him, and walked on past to the great doors behind him.

Still, all those that went to the doors would probably have found themselves coming to the same question; How do we get in?
The doors were enormous, and seemingly made of rather thick stone. Trying to pull them open would definitely be a large group effort - though even then, there were no proper handles to grab onto. Arguably, the overlayed patterns of weaving brass could perhaps be used as makeshift holds, for pulling or climbing - still, they blatantly weren't designed with that purpose in mind, and definitely wouldn't be cooperative in the matter.
"The General was considering blowing them open, but Sarah seems to think it may be part of a larger mechanism..." So Sarah was the bird then? "...Add the fact we're, uh, quite limited on our explosive capabilities."

Wolf meanwhile had seemingly gone his own way, bypassing the large plate which seemed to stand just a few feet away from the group's current platform, to make his way to the side of the dome. It was rather a malformed shape, built to sort of clutch oddly onto the edge of the area as the cylindrical tower it capped off made it's way down the side.
A quick glance in one of the holes along the formation's top - assumingly some kind of window - allowed a view to the interior of the tower.
It seemed to be almost a temple of sorts, the view descending deep into the ground - perhaps lower than the sea that surrounded them. The few beams of light making their way down reflected off small puddles, giving the idea that perhaps this particular area HAD suffered from the great city's time deep below the sea. Of course, all that was if one looked past the statue.
Aaah yes, the statue, standing deep below Wolf at the bottom of the tower was a statue of... some sort of praying woman perhaps? Her arms were outstretched as her unfeatured face stared skywards, her form apparently eroded by age - if perhaps, the artist had intended any form in the first place.
Beyond that however, it was hard to make much out deep below. If Wolf wanted a closer look, well... it was a long way down.

Wolf listens as the conversations taper off and the majority of the people who had arrived after him headed off. He briefly took note that they were heading towards the large doors. He was in no hurry to join them though.

He wasn't much for problem solving. If the people who had already been here for a while hadn't figured out how to get inside, it wasn't likely that he was going to just stumble upon the answer over there. There were plenty of other things to check out for the moment that were smaller and easier to take in all at once.

Taking a look through one of the openings in the dome, Wolf was surprised to see that it was like a shaft leading downwards. He wasn't really sure how to gauge the depth it reached to. He knew that he wasn't going to reach the bottom and then return without the gift of flight or a lot of help.

*Hmmm... It's a way down. And it probably leads... somewhere.* he thinks.

He turns to glance towards the doors at the far side of the clearing past the tents.

*Might be a point of entry should those door refuse to move...* he thinks, *Assuming I suddenly feel the need to get inside there at least.*

He turns and glances towards the plate that he'd walked past, but not over to reach the shaft he'd just looked down.

*Hmmm... Guess that's the next feature of interest. A big circle on the ground...* he thinks as he begins walking over.

He pauses at the edge of the plate, looking it over from close range, before he decides to step out onto it. All the while he's wondering why it was so different from everything else here.

Whilst on the surface it appeared that Andile was indeed ignoring all the militar personal, as he walked he made a mental note of them all. After all, whilst he may not militaries in general, that did not mean he was simply going to forgo possibly asking them for help, or information in the future. I mean, they had been on this island longer than him, there was a chance they'd figured something out already that may be useful to him later.

'... Brass?' he pondered allowed as he reached the door, and began running his hand over it - seemingly able to identify the metal by touch, if not by sight alone - 'Interesting... that means they had... or have... access to Zinc and Copper, and they don't immediatly appear to use any odd materials, hm..'

After a moments thought, he appears to take a small breath... and the brass briefly mirrors him, expanding just a fraction, before shrinking back to it's normal size when he exhales. The change would perhaps normally go unnoticed, but surely with the pure expanse of metal, someone would have noticed it.

'...No, this'll be of no use. Even if they used enough zinc to make it into a harder brass, shaping it into a ladder would be fruitless... especially for whoever goes up and over, because it'd be on this side, and theres... hmmm, no wait... there must surely be some kind of mechanism on the otherside to open and close it...' he said again, seeming to relish the chance to just speak to talk outloud to himself. Although with the purpose and lack of whispering, it did seem he was perhaps waiting for people to join in on the thought process.

Slowly, he pulls his hand away from the door, and rubs his right shoulder, glancing around for whoever was talking about explosives. Apparently someone he'd noted earlier was talking to him, or he had completely missed someone else by the door - but then, he thought, who could blame him? The door was just a mystery waiting to be answered, and he didn't feel any shame about perhaps seeming rude about ignoring people in favour of it.
'Blowing the door up is a bad idea, anyway. There's very few ways of knowing what lies beyond it, or if there is some kind of defense mechanism set into the door for such an event.' he stated flatly, trying now to adress whoever mentioned the explosives, but upon failing that he seems to just be talking outloud again. 'It would be... super bad to try and pit ourselves against defenses so early. Heck, we might even cut some things off... no no no, it just will not do. We will have to get this door open through natural means, I think.'

As many of the others all began to go about discussing the matter of the massive doors before them, the dragon remained silent. She hadn't really gone too far from the ferret, currently, though her gaze was more at the walls around the door. Maybe there could be a hidden switch or something within the stone...?

Rapidly approaching footsteps made her turn to glance back at Volt and she just happened to catch a glimpse of Whip heading this way as well. There was talk of using explosives to forcibly gain entry into whatever these doors were barring them from. Considering how old this place looked, Tangerine had to wonder just how overly destructive that could be. Surely there was an easier way to get the doors opened? No visible handles so there had to be a switch or a lever or something. Especially if this was anything like movies and video games showed, right?

She listened as Andile seemed to be thinking aloud and studying the doors, but she missed when the metal was somehow just slightly manipulated before him. Her focus instead returned to slowly moving along the wall off to the right of the doors. One paw was dragging idly along the stone as she continued to peer about in search of perhaps another means of getting inside. The sooner the door was opened, the sooner she could have a quick look around, then get right the hell out. She wouldn't admit it to anyone who asked and it was hard to tell with that rather serious facade she had up, but something about this place just seemed a little eerie and... off.

Volt, instead of looking, immediately thrust his hands out as he practically ran into the giant metal door. He tried to skid to a stop as his hands met the metal but ended up bopping his head against it anyway. Pulling away, he rubbed his forehead with a muttered 'ow', then looked back towards the door. He put his hands back on the door, not paying too much mind to the musings of those around him and began to push. He pushed, and pushed, and pushed some more. 

"Well... we could... always try... pushing it together..." He puffed out a sigh as he stopped pushing at the door. "Is this a pull door?" He tilted his head, there were no signs, so it's not like they knew for sure is it? Either that, or he was just terribly dim and didn't catch on to what everyone else was saying. He put his hands on the door and began pushing again, it might work if he tried hard enough, right? He pushed his feet into the ground as he tried to walk forward, the soles of his shoes skidded across the concrete as he pushed into the door without giving in this time. What was he doing? Why? 

It didn't seem like he was going to stop, anyhow.

A door with no handles was a good way to keep thieves out, present company excluded. He was happy to see some obstacles, because that meant there was something worth protecting inside.
This was really the only worthwhile observation the rabbit made looking at the door. There were no openings, no pulleys or other opening-mechanisms visible, and he could easily climb up those metal bits to the top of the door, but what for?
The explosion idea he idly heard someone mention sounded like a cool idea, but yeah... he was gonna have to agree with Andile on this one. If there was even a chance that blowing up the doors would break something expensive, he'd rather not. He was slippery. If they all couldn't figure out how to open the door, he'd figure another way through.
Buuuut... that was easier said than done. Yeah he was pretty stumped. The rabbit was used to failing to move large objects, so he didn't need to give the door a push to know it wasn't going to budge. At least, not without someone much stronger than the rest of them nearby.
That said, he nonetheless couldn't help himself from snorting outloud when the hedgehog face planted himself against the door.
"I was gonna say 'maybe we should try knocking', but thanks for taking care of it for me!" He chortled. "You're not gonna get anything done like that. Push or pull, there's no way you're getting something that heavy open without some help."

As Wolf took the short hop off his current platform, and onto the large disc, one thought would perhaps immediately come to mind;
He had just stepped off of solid ground.
Not that the rock he was stood on now was particularly unstable... Indeed it seemed to support his weight without much issue. Still... there was a slight tremble as he landed. As if the disc had fell just a couple of milimetres, and rose back up again. It was the tiniest sensation, easily missable, especially to anyone who was simply watching.
Still, from Wolf's new vantage point, he could at least get a better look of how the disc was attached to the side of the area on which the rest stood. From their angle, it would perhaps seem that a simple angled pillar of rock extended from the bottom of the plate, assumingly attaching to the side of the platform. However, from Wolf's angle, the cylinder seemed to slip inside the main area, currently sitting at the top of a long vertical slit, too narrow to fit inside, and certainly too dark to really see what inside actually supported the pillar.
Before Wolf could have any chance to consider this however, he would find a slight interuption to his investigations;
"I think you have the right idea there." Sat before him, legs dangling off the edge of the platform, the hawk scientist had seemingly decided to join him.
"Everyone else is looking at the big door, but we've already been over it a few times - seems no way to open it there. Stands to reason something else in the area is probably gonna be our best bet."

Speaking of the big door, Andile seemed to be making his own observations about it;
"There must surely be some kind of mechanism on the otherside to open and close it..."
"Well..." the human spoke in response, staring up at the great structure before them, "We did bring a rope with us to help with traversing the area. Buuut we don't really have a way of getting it up there." Of course, then Andile's focus shifted to the potential for defenses. The doctor would have to admit... he'd been rather worried about that himself. Saturday however, seemed less concerned...
"We should be more than capable of dealing with any defenses the isle may have," the jackal approached, still no sign of anything higher than 'resentment' registering on his face, "After all, we have-"
Suddenly, face met door, as Jolt bypassed the group and straight into the great structure. Ow... well, that had to hurt. Still, he seemed to have his wits about him, he was certainly of well-enough mind to pose a key point;
"Well... we could... always try... pushing it together... Is this a pull door?"
Without immediately responding, the human reached into one inside pocket, pulling out a small handheld torch. Approaching one of the outer-edges of the door, he shone the light down the small crevice seperating it from the wall.
"If you look through, you can see the rock corners and extends slightly behind the door. It means the doorway is ever-so-slightly smaller than the door itself, with a slight outcrop for the doors to rest in. I'm not sure how much small the passageway on the other side is, but the set-up essentially makes it so you can't force the door inwards due to what's behind it - the door has to open outwards. It's something of an anti-intrusion mechanism you'll find on certain doors, since in most cases with more standard-sized doors, it'd require less strength to barge them in than forcefully pull them open." ...For a scientist he seemed to know a surprising amount about breaking into doors.

As the conversations around continued, Anna seemed to've been allowed to get up to her own devices. For the time being that seemed to be... awkwardly approaching the group near the doors. In particular, she seemed to be sheepishly edging up behind the large-eared rabbit, fiddling slight with her hands as she moved.

Wolf felt the minor shift in the ground beneath him as he steps onto the plate. He came to a halt once he noticed it, but now that his weight was entirely on it, the sensation was gone. He still felt a bit ill at ease. He didn't like it when something happened with no apparent reason behind it.

He resumes glancing around though, not sure what to make of this thing he stood on.

*What even is this thing? It's not like the rest of the area around here...* he thinks, *It's like... someone made it and put it here.*

He's then interrupted by a nearby voice and turns to look towards the source. He sees the hawk and listens to her.

"Well... I guess they all want to get inside." he replies, "I'm not in that big of a hurry. There's still plenty to explore out here first. And presumably what's inside isn't going anywhere, so it's not like there's any need to get in there right away."

He turns away to continue looking around, but keeps listening in case she does have a reply for him.

'A rope would certainly be easier to climb than all this metal...' Andile murmered softly, his attention already seeming to wander from the human. '... but as you say, I can't think of any immediate way to get it up there. With enough time, I could make the brass drag it up for us, but there'd be no easy way to secure it.. hmm.. and I doubt any of our new friends here can fly.'
and then he paused, his attention shifting to the Jackal as they spoke. 'And whilst I would like to agree with you, I've seen people with extremely advance technology beaten back by those they deem lesser. Plus, to be honest - we can't even get past their front door. That doesn't bode well for us dealing with any form of tr-'

He paused, glancing at the door as it made itself aquainted with the face of Jolt. He winced in sympathy, then looked thoughtful at some of the ideas - and the revelation of door size brought on by the human - came to light. 'I must say, I didn't know that, but it makes sense. But it also makes a few things clear. Either the people here never left the island, or they had some kind of look out positioned up above the door. That then means they either had people positioned on the other side to open it, or they did indeed have some form of mechanism set up to do it for them.'

He again paused for a moment, scratching the back of his neck as he seemed to begin running a few mental calculations. 'It's been underwater for... so maybe? But then everything else... no, that doesn't... hm...'
'...How far around the area have you scouted?' he muttered suddenly, his gaze fixing firmly on the Jackal now. 'Do we know if this is the only door? I was going to suggest that maybe some of the outer wall had cracked elsewhere, but.. most of this looks pretty sturdy, and unaffected by it's time below. However...' he paused, guesturing to some of the surrounding buildings 'Clearly people lived out here, or at least used these buildings for something. Maybe they had some kind of back entrance? Or perhaps some of the dividing walls there will have given way, presenting a path?'

((Incoming short post! Sorry for the wait, y'all.))

Amidst the conversation between several of the people here trying to seek a way beyond this large obstruction of a door, the dragon remained silent. She was listening, sure, but otherwise keeping to herself. The wall beside the door where she was had revealed no secrets and she wasn't entirely surprised, considering there were others already investigating long before she had arrived. And so rather than stand there, staring up close at the problem, maybe she might try gaining some-- Oh, ouch.
Her train of thought was interrupted by the impact of Volt against the door. It made her raise an eyebrow, but she cracked a brief smile at least.

Anyway.

Tangerine turned away from the door and started walking back across the area. She spotted the wolf and the hawk apparently investigating something else. He did look awfully familiar. She was probably going to kick herself once she remembered where they'd met.
In the meantime, though, once she felt she'd moved about halfway across the open space, the dragon turned back around. With furrowed brow and unseen ears still at attention, she started to look over this challenge again. Maybe from a distance and with more than just the door in her sights, some little lightbulb would come on.

Then again, she'd never been good at puzzles either...

"Well..."

Volt took his hands off the door for a moment, looking at the human who had approached the door and began to explain the inner mechanisms of the thing. He nodded every so often, so he was obviously listening, but when the explanation was over he simply tilted his head. "So..." He started, turning back towards the door and thinking real hard. 

"It is a pull door!" Volt exclaimed. "Thanks mister, but where's the handle?" He looked around at the door, not finding any great places to grip the door to be able to pull it- as if a mobian of his size... or any size, really, would be able to pull open a door this big. "Hmm, this is really hard... but I guess it wouldn't be fun if it was easy!" Volt laughed.

Whip was only vaguely listening to the group of nerds plus Volt discuss the door. Seriously, how boring could a conversation be that it would gear itself over the mechanics of a door? 
And sure, there were points he could contribute to, like say, mentioning that a climb up this doorway to secure that rope would be like jacking candy from a really ugly baby, or that the scientist had a long-winded way of saying the thing only opened from the inside, but why bother? This was starting to feel like he was wasting his time standing around some eggheads geeking over a fancy metal door.
The thought of using the rope to tie the door to his airship begun to cross his mind, though it was interrupted by his spine tingling. His ears shifted, and with the shift he could hear that cow lady sidling up behind him.
Buuuut not starting up a conversation, apparently. Just content with nudging up on him? Alright, fair enough, he was worth it, and he understood. Hard to walk up to a guy like him and not be nervous. Besides, she was the only one here so far that offered him the proper respect, so she was worth a little patience in-kind, even if he was totally losing patience overall by waiting for the smart people to open the fricken door for him.
"....Somethin' the matter?" He addressed to Anna, turning his head enough to see her out of the corner of his eye. She was taller than him, but she certainly didn't feel like she was.

Back over at the disc, Wolf would probably struggle to find much new of interest. There were a few things evident from here - how the oddly-topped tower to one side descended all the way to the ground for instance - and how far down that ground was from them, standing at maybe just-above sea-level at a guess. It was like a deep trench which seemed to circle around and a way - kind of like a moat, only without water.
"Well, you say the inside isn't going anywhere, however a reminder that we still don't know how this place got under the water in the first place," the hawk reminded with a warm, albeit quizzical smile, "Even so, I think if anyone is wanting to get inside, we're gonna have to look a little further than the door itself. Mechanisms tend to come with a few parts to them," she clambered back up onto her feet, "Personally, I believe you're gonna get more done poking around, than anyone else is gonna do just staring at the brasswork..."

Speaking of the brasswork, it seemed none of that group were having much in the way of luck - including Tangerine, who had seemingly took a step back to do her own staring. From her point of view, it would seem pretty evident that well... there didn't really seem much of anything to do. No evident levers, no evident buttons, no evident hand-holds. Just two large, seemingly immobile doors. The best guess anyone could probably get from there was maybe to just jam something in the thin gap between the two doors, to try and pry them apart? It'd have to be a pretty strong object though.
As Tangerine observed, Andile calculated - and seemingly said everything within his power to annoy the jackal. The suggestion that the large figure would perhaps be incapable of dealing with the matters on hand had certainly rubbed him up the wrong way - definitely not helped by the torrent of questions which came next. It was increasingly feeling like a set of complete strangers had walked in and completely taken over his supposed 'military operation' without a moment's thought.
"We've scouted as much of the area as we physically can," he stated bluntly, "And perhaps we'd've already found out more if we hadn't wound up standing here answering question for people like some goddamn makeshift tourist agency!" It was funny, in a way. Whilst some would describe such an outburst as someone 'snapping at them', and attempt to deem it a pathetic tantrum, the jackal seemed to hold enough of an authority in his voice to make it seem more... serious than that. He was here to do a job, and as far as he was concerned, the rest of them were getting in his way. Turning in his heel, he clumped his way back to the large tent.
"We haven't really found any alternative route..." the human scientist addressed both Andile and Jolt, not even offering a glance Saturday's way as he left, "Though we're guessing their may be a passage at the bottom of the tower over there..." he gestured towards the somewhat deformed structure to the far left of their platform, "We were planning to drop a rope down and give a scout around at the bottom of there before we got, uh, somewhat sidetracked by the large arrival party."

"...Somethin' the matter?"
Off to one side, the impatient rabbit had seemingly taken note of the approaching figure of Anna. She was... seemingly caught rather off-guard by his turn towards her, as she opened her mouth to try and think of something to say;
"I-I... um..." she looked at her feet a second, before closing her eyes as if to concentrate. Eventually, she opened them again, giving a slightly put-out look, as if disappointed with herself over something. Reaching one hand into her pocket, she took out a phone, quickly inputting something into it before looking up at the rabbit again, speaking slightly slowly;
"No, everything is fine, how are you?" ...Had she just read that off her phone?

Wolf was about to reply to the hawk when he heard the raised voice of the jackal and then watched as he stomped off to the tents. It took him a few moments to gather his thoughts.

"Wait... this whole island was underwater?" he asks, "Like it had sunk at some point before?"

As Volt threw out the suggestion about the pull-door, Andile opened his mouth to speak once more! ... And uh, then promptly shut it as the jackal began their small rant. For perhaps the first time, those green eyes can be seen taking in the large cut of Satuday's figure, as well as their attire. Surprisingly, he does not seem overly... threatened by the nature of thje jackal's commanding voice, and instead his eyes scrunch up in a tiny frown. Still, he stands there in silence and watches them as they begin to walk away.
A keen on-looker would notice Andiles mouth twitch slightly, as if uttering a retort of some kind, but whatever it is he's saying is spoken too softly to be heard. Oh well!

Anyway, after a moments hesitation, his eyes flicker back to the human scientist, and his eyes return to that thoughtful expression. He nods slightly as they mention a possible entrance, and slowly his head begins to turn in that direction. 'Hmm... that.. that would make sense. If it's a tower, as it's looks somewhat imply, chances were it was an external look out point. I'd imagine somewhere there would be an entrance either onto, or into, the wall itself, or underneath it...' he mutters in something akin to a stage-whisper, before slowly scratching his chin. 'I'd offer to join this scout of yours, but I suspect your... commander?' he questions, his eyes glancing back in the direction of the tent which Saturday had entered 'Would not approve. Still, I suppose he cannot stop me from looking around.'

And so, he begins to walk over! Before pausing and looking back at the human scientist, a look of minor disbelief spreading over his face. 'Oh gods, sorry I completely forgot to introduce myself. Andile Alin.' he states, thrusting his hand forward a little awkwardly, a bashful smile settling across his face. 'Free lance scientist and inventor. Pleasure to meet you, Mr ....? In fact, pleasure to meet all of you, yourself included again Miss Tangerine.' he says, turning that grin towards the dragon and Volt, as well as Whip and Anna if they can draw themselves away from their.. raptuous conversation.

Tangerine listened to Volt's reasoning and snorted softly in amusement after. Well, at least someone was staying rather positive in regards to how the group seemed to be rather stuck. The dragon was idling her fingers over the shape of her cell phone in her back pocket. She could hear the conversation in her mind already.

"Yeah, I did everything I could, but just couldn't get into the place, sorry."

"Oh, bother, that really blows but great job, Tangerine, you're the best and here's some gas money. With interest!"

Raised voices snapped the dragon (haha, snapdragon) back to reality and there were several blinks as her eyes re-focused to find the source. She had evidently missed something, oops. She caught the end of the jackal's... words before he retreated into one of the tents. As the conversation closer to the door went on, her attention was diverted again towards what was mentioned to be another potential entry point. The tower was eyed by the reptile but she didn't appear convinced. Then again, she wasn't getting paid to be here either. Who said she was going to work like it then? Sure, she would just casually tag along for now. Mm mm, laziness.

She wasn't entirely paying attention when Andile introduced himself, but the sound of her name drew her gaze. A little nod was the only response she managed to give before he looked towards the others nearby. For such a cheerfully colorful critter, this Tangerine was certainly no ray of sunshine.
Her paw withdrew from her phone. At least she didn't have to worry about introducing herself now for the most part.

Volt folded his arms, resting his head on his hands behind him and leaning back. His ears flicked at the Jackal's yelling. "A-aww, don't be like that. The more the merrier! You know...?" He said, quieting down considerably before his voice halted completely. Maybe this guy just wasn't in a people mood, they seemed pretty official anyway. His attention turned back to the human as he explained the potential scouting of the tower. 

At Andile introducing himself, Volt took a look around at the large group that had accumulated. He was so absorbed in trying to get the door open that he didn't notice that so many people were around in the first place. "Nice to meet you, Andile! ... Uh, I can go next right?" Volt looked around "I'm.. Volt. Haha." He gave a short laugh, realizing he probably shouldn't have jumped into that as fast as he did.

After that, he looked towards the tower. "When you guys are ready, how about we go check that out?" He suggested as if it was totally his idea to begin with, looking back at the group to confirm this course of action.

Yyyyyeeeep. This was a crowd that was going to try and get buddy-buddy, rag-tag-bunch-of-misfits style. 
It started with the cow lady, glancing down at her phone mid-sentence. She seemed so funnily familiar, right down to being annoyingly taller than he was, and the robotic return she gave to him was lucky enough to be somewhat endearing, if only because of circumstance.
He still thought she was weird as heck, but endearing.
Still, as riveting as that was, it only got better with Mr. Social Doorinhisface trying to commune everyone together. He was normally all about teaming up with others; being small and flighty meant that having a few bodies between him and any potential traps in there would be great. However, considering his intentions possibly conflicted with many and directly conflicted with at least one person in the group, he was gonna pass on that.
Funnily enough, perhaps his fellow comrade-in-Tangerine and he shared more in common than either of them cared to note; He certainly wished he'd decided to stay an arm's-length from this crowd now, like she and that wolf guy had. Unintuitive though it was, the wolf definitely lucked himself ahead of the crowd. Too bad he wasted that head-start by not being small and nimble enough to fit through the underpinnings of that tower and climb down inside.
...Although....
This got the rusted gears in the orange rabbit's head a-turning. He may not have been the smartest person there, but he was pretty good at formulating running paths on the fly, and it just so happened that, thanks to the attention Volt drew to the secondary tower atop which the wolf once stood, he could start to see one lay itself out ahead of him.
If there was a hole or entrance on that tower like the frumpy grumpy military man was whining about, and he hadn't yet sent anyone to investigate, perhaps he could use that to get himself dibs on whatever was in that first room and beyond. He was dexterous and agile enough to slip in there, not to mention attractive and charismatic enough to talk his way into the offer obviously. 
Of course, on the other hand, he wouldn't be able to back stab anyone once he was inside, since he'd have to come back out eventually and there was a neat little military base parked right under his getaway ship. So if he decided to join up with them, he'd certainly have to be a bit careful about anything he nabbed.
Still, opportunity was certainly knocking at his door, and he'd be a fool to not try and seize it. So friendly play-along Whip, it was. 
"I'm alright." He answered rather plainly to Anna. "And uh, if we're doing intros or whatever, then call me Whip!"
Natural, smart. He kept the roll going and turned to aside the gentleman who'd previously thrown a intimidating(to anyone besides him of course) tantrum, smoothness dripping from his very being.
"I'm flexible and good at climbing, especially down tall things on a rope. You know, just saying."
Like wax on oil.

Back over with Wolf and Hawk - the individuals both who's names seemed efficiently descriptive of their nature - the scientist was helping educate the young man on the island. Well, as far as she could;
"Yyyes?" she responded to his enquiry, kind of surprised that someone had arranged to come here without knowing the basics, "The island was completely underwater til it... rose rather recently. Not that we're entirely sure how long it's been underwater. Or if it actually sunk, or that it was designed to submerse and re-emerge... Or... anything, really. The place is a huge mystery - it just rose up from the sea one night, and that's it. That's why we're here - to try and find out a little more."

The rest of the group seemed rather eager on making their way down into the oddly-topped tower-structure. In fact, both Andile and Volt had made mention of the matter. Albeit, once they'd introduced themselves.
"Well, I'm Ethan Francis," the human scientist gave his own name with a smile, "Most just call me 'Doctor Francis'..." his smile dropped for a second, "...Which is shockingly impersonal now that I think about it." He paused for a second, before shaking his head, clearing it before gesturing for the outskirts figure of Anna to introduce herself to the others.
"O-oh!" the bovine stumbled over her words a second, "My name is An-" she paused a second, "Um, SR-1... Anna..." Francis seemed to give a slightly dismayed look, but gave no comment. Still 'SR-1' seemed an odd addition to anyone's name.
"As for joining the 'scouting party'... Well, I've no objection to you guys exploring the island, or doing it in the same direction as us..." he scratched his neck, seeming to mull things over, "I mean, we are here on military business. Of course there'll be boundaries that shouldn't be overstepped here and there. But well, if you want to be around 'we' can't stop you - at least not with the operation at it's current state." The emphasis on 'we' seemed to suggest more than anything that perhaps there was only one member of said 'we' who would actually try to at this current point.

The rabbit seemed to be rather trying to get ahead of the pack. As the jackal returned from his tent - a heavy-looking reel of rope over one shoulder - Whip approached with his proposition. The large man's sour expressions seemed to... well, not alter at all. Like some sort of aggressive deadpan.
"I am sure you are more than capable. Therefore, I won't ask you to demonstrate, and will continue with my work."
Aaand then he walked straight on past the bunny, preparing to set that rope up to clamber down the tower. Well, that had gone well.

Wolf really wasn't aware of the nature of the island he was on or how it had appeared. The people who had sent him out there weren't exactly the most professional collection... probably why they had been so agreeable to him making this trip despite his own inexperience, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that they didn't actually know these details themselves.

He just stares back at the hawk for a few moments as he considers the idea of a sinking island.

"But... that doesn't make sense..." Wolf says, "Rocks don't float. Something that naturally sinks doesn't naturally float too... Nothing can do both."

He stops speaking for a few moments considering what he'd just said.

"Well... 'we' do I guess. But that's because people... and even animals can make themselves sink or float when they want to." he says, to correct himself.

He looks back towards the hawk.

"So... if this whole place was underwater... how could it make itself float?" he asks.

'Well, it is a pleasure to meet you all.' Andile chirps, now that the introductions are over with! Although a keen observer would notice his eyes lingering on Anna for a moment, the gears in his head practically audible as they try to work out the mystery behind the whole SR-1 thing. Considering his line of work, and his own family, he had a few theories... buuuuut he was not the kind of person to voice such thoughts outloud.
Especially if he was wrong, because what he's thinking could be shockingly rude to claim if it wasn't true. Besides, it made no difference to him - he'd be quite the hypocrit for judging someone if this mysterious idea was right.

After a moment longer, he returns his attention to their little assembled group. He gave a small, solid clap and nodded his head thoughtfully, and then repeated the nod as if to reassure himself. Suffice to say, it was... a little odd, but what could you do?
'So, tower. I'm going to go check that out, and you're all welcome to join me if you want. Naturally, that means we're probably going to be overstepping a few boundries' he pauses, casting a small apologetic smile in Ethans direction 'because I'll be the first to admit I've never done well under military protocals. If I do so, please let me know before our... friend' he guestures in the direction Mr AngryMcanger pants stalked off in 'finds out.'

He paused again, before reachng up and scratching his chin.
'But firstly, I have to ask you, Ethan - if I may call you Ethan? I know you said doctor Francis was impersonal, but... anyway, I need to ask if that is the only suspected building, and if theres anything we should know about it before entering. For example, have any of the other buildings been trapped?'
...Well, at least he had a point in all that rambling, right?