DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE REEF

[phantasmods]

Expedition day dawns, as usual, with an android mass text -

Okay, so, this time we're aiming to go out and stabilize the Fissure in the reef you can see up a little to the north of here. The waters are usually pretty calm this time of year, so if you can swim instead of needing to take a boat, that'd be a great help. We only have a few of them.

Also, I know that last time was a mess, so I'm just gonna say this: If you need to get out for any reason, just send us a message and a picture of your location. We'll get a drone out to you as soon as we can and bring you home. No questions asked.

( ﾟ▽ﾟ)/ Stay safe out there! When you're ready to go, meet us down at the beach. The rocky, sparkly one, not the sandy one.

Unlike previous expeditions, this time there's no rooftop sendoff - instead, as Charm noted, the tables are set up on Glitterstone beach, along with a series of boats pulled up on the sand. Two rowboats that could maybe sit six people but probably better suited for four, a trio of inflatable rafts (with motors attached to the back, all mismatched) of about the same size, a two-person dinghy and a long canoe that could hold two or three.

Besides the little fleet, there's also the usual bagged lunches (in gallon ziplocs this time, and other such watertight containers), and every boat is equipped with a large number of those chepa dollar-store water bottles, all with their airtight store seals. There's also a selection of life vests and other floatation thingies in a box next to the table. Strange hovers over the setup, checking watertightness of a handful of first aid kits with a spritzer and a bucket to submerge things in. They give a little wave to anyone passing by headed to the boats.

For those who opt instead to swim, everything seems perfectly normal until you reach the border of the Fissure... When, very suddenly, it isn't.

Comments

[foolishjustice]

It's much easier to learn than normal winged flight, too. I've only had these since a little under a week before I got here. I'm...not sure I'd be able to fly at all yet if I was relying on just the wings.

[meowna]

[Morgana tucks his bento away in his inventory, looking back up to find Akira..... oddly quiet, staring down at the bento in his own hands. What's going on? Didn't he take one of those to school every day? It really shouldn't be anything to have such a serious expression over.....

Morgana pads over, tentatively nuzzling against Akira's arm.]

Hey..... are you okay? What's the matter?

[makejapangreat]

[His eyebrows raise.]

You could turn into a bus? What on Earth?

[wh... why????]

[meowna]

Yep! Apparently cats turning into buses is a deeply rooted cognition in the general public? I'm not really sure why, though.

[He's never actually seen whatever the My Neighbor Totoro expy is for their universe. Has Shido?]

[makejapangreat]

[He glances back at said tail, then takes a breath and tries to slither his way up. It works a little... but a little ways up he ends up sliding back into the water.

Gdit... he is eyeing his son with displeasure. Showoff.]

[foolishjustice]

[He's just going to float there, looking amused.]

I thought you were curious too, you haven't changed your mind, have you?

[makejapangreat]

[oh my god]

Exactly how many times were you bitten?

[makejapangreat]

[...... HUFF

He really puts effort into it this time, and though it's obvious it is taking some effort (and he has to grab onto a handhold along the way) he eventually does make it to the stairs.

He is panting a bit from the exertion.]

Of course not.

[He turns his head and looks downwards at his next adversary: the stairs.]

[beguiledcard]

[ Yes, good. A good response. He's snickering at the lack of amusement. ]

Somewhere between five and fifteen times? I didn't bother counting.

[ AKIRA... ]

[beguiledcard]

[ Oh...

Unfortunately, for Akira, he can't scramble to hide the surprise... nor the way those words strike something in him. Not in time, anyway. Shido has more than enough time to straighten back up and catch the raw expression on his face. Congrats?

Akira averts his gaze, going characteristically quiet, conflict now resting on his face... ]

[foolishjustice]

Maybe you should go down first, so you don't crash into me if you lose your balance while I'm in front of you.

[makejapangreat]

... I think I've seen some merchandise of that in stores, actually. Something Tokoro or other.

The Cognitive World really is something else, to allow you to do that.

[beguiledcard]

[ He blinks out of thought, one hand lifting so he can scratch Morgana behind one ear. ]

Now isn't really the time to go into it, but...

[ After glancing to the side for a moment. He's determined not to linger on it, but he's also determined to be more open with his friends. Heh, talk about a conflict... ]

A girl in the last place I was in used to make one of these for us before every... trial. She picked all of our favorite things... and...

[ It's as he gives a slightly wry smile, he shakes his head. ]

So, now... I-

[ ... just say it... ]

Whenever I look at a bento, I remember death.

[makejapangreat]

[....... he doesn't like the way Akechi gives that suggestion, and it's not because of the insult within it. He looks at the teenager for a moment... then returns his attention to the stairs. With a bit of careful maneuvering, he begins his slow descent down the stairs.]

[foolishjustice]

[He waits until Shido's about halfway down, silently forming the black mask on his face, scales shifting to black. Then he raises his voice.]

Loki!

[The Persona appears in a burst of red flames and mocking laughter...to create a clear bubble around Goro that quickly fades to invisibility. Then it vanishes, back into mask form.]

[makejapangreat]

[how did shido get stuck babysitting high akira, what the fuck is his life anymore...

even though he has crazy powers and changed shido's heart... he's still so painfully a teenager.

He gives a sigh.]

And what do these fish look like?

[Well, they look an awful lot like the one that's swimming towards Shido from behind him right now...]

cw: impaling, blood

[makejapangreat]

[His already cold blood turns icy at the words. He doesn't even think; his body spins around, his primal subconscious frantic to pinpoint the source of his fear. His dilated pupils lock onto the summon, red flames licking around it and laughter shaking him to his core as he falls backwards.

It's fortunate for him that his tail moved in such a way that it partially cushioned his back as he fell. But the metal is already old and rusted in some places, and underneath his weight, it breaks. Instead of falling the rest of the way down the stairs, he falls through, and so much is happening he can't hope to keep up with it all.

But he does feel a blinding hot white pain shoot through his tail and up his torso.

His descent ends with a splash, and for a moment he simply lies there, stunned from the fall. His body is battered, bruised and cut up in various places around his body, but the most noticeable injury is his tail, which is slowly filling the murky water around it with blood, a piece of rusted metal impaled right through flesh and muscle.]

[foolishjustice]

[...The stairs breaking wasn't expected. He drifts through the hole, mask changing to the red beak of his other Personas as he equips Kushinada-Hime. The sight of the hole in Shido's tail...normally an injury that grotesque would make him sick to his stomach, but he has so much else on his mind that he doesn't even cringe.]

...I was just casting a defensive shield on myself.

[This is...so much worse than he'd planned to cause. He sighs and floats over to where the rusted metal is sticking out of Shido's tail, then glances over at his face.]

Hold still, I'll break this off so you can get loose without maiming yourself more.

[fistsofchange]

[Lin got a good grip, though she made sure she wasn't choking her or anything. She also took advantage of the moment of close physical contact to figure out if Undyne was warm or cold blooded.]

...Okay.

[makejapangreat]

[In, two, three. Out, two, three. It takes a moment for Shido to come to. When he does, he slowly lifts himself by his forearms, and looks back at his tail. He immediately cringes at the sight and turns his head away, breaths starting to come faster.

The sound of Akechi's voice causes him to flinch a little, anxious eyes going over to the teen. They search him for a moment, before he finally draws his gaze away and nods, a bit jerkily.]

[foolishjustice]

[Perhaps surprisingly, the mocking glee is gone from Goro's face as he waits for Shido's response. Then he nods back, draws what, by all appearances, is a genuine laser sword, and slices the top of the piece of metal off a few inches above Shido's tail. Then he reaches down to slide his hands between tail and floor and carefully lifts up, managing a pretty good job of removing Shido from the metal spike without doing more damage.]

...There. Now, Kushinada-Hime!

[This Persona appears in a burst of blue flame, causing light to coil around them both. Shido's injuries close in a matter of seconds, and the pain drastically reduces...enough that he can move his tail again, but not enough to slither or swim without pain.]

[honededge]

Careful on those islands, some of them have those invisible 'gulls on them. Same with that big ass wreck out there.

[He nods towards the silhouette of a hull, sticking up all jagged and ominous from the water in the distance. He can see the little blips of motion, but not the birds themselves. It's possible they're only invisible to cameras, but that thought hasn't crossed his mind yet.]

[honededge]

Tell me about it. At least most of you guys got to keep your damn torso and head shapes.

[He sighs.]

Gotta be honest, I'm worried this won't reverse for me. It's so much worse than anyone else's that I've seen so far.

BOSS FIGHT: SIREN'S PUSH

[phantasmods]

At the far end of the reef, distant enough that the cliffs are only a bit of a vague haze in the distance, stands a rocky island with another lighthouse perched upon it. Unlike the one at Keystone, the tower of the Siren's Push lighthouse is intact... At least on the outside. No light shines from the top, but that's only to be expected when the place is abandoned, right? Even the little dock that must have once allowed the lighthouse keeper to come and go is worn away by time.

Actually entering the tower, however, will reveal that it's been gutted, quite literally and thoroughly - there's only a thin walkway around the edges of what was once the floor of the lighthouse, and the pit below opens to water that flows in from hidden caves around the base of the island. Indeed, those on the water side will find that some of those caves are easily wide enough to swim through, allowing access to the inside of the lighthouse from beneath the waves.

----

ABOVE WATER

Those who enter the lighthouse above the waterline will find that the narrow ledges around the pool are already occupied. Though they don't look like much at first, these jellies - incredibly similar looking to the ones inside the Trivesta, though significantly larger and shaded in black and greys with the occasional splatter of glowing yellow - are not near as friendly as they counterparts. They're solid and have the ability to "sting" from their tendrils - not a literal sting, but a sort of mental paralytic that freezes the ability to think of their victims.

Did I mention that they're quite solid? Solid enough to, say, push some frozen or unwary person off the ledge? They're also a good bit more organized than the jellies of the Trivesta, almost as though someone - or something - were controlling them...

Luckily for all involved, Siren's Jellies can be dispersed with physical attacks, though attacks of pure magic tend to either go right through them or bounce back towards the caster. Eventually, however, the dispersed jellies will reform...

And below is the pool, where something else lingers, putting a faint pressure upon your minds and the smell of something rotting in the air...

BELOW WATER

Something here is rotting. That's the first impression you get, the taste of it thick on the water flowing through the caves. The second impression is a mounting pressure, pressure, pressure inside your head... A drone into your skull, almost like a song...

Whether you find yourself in the water via the caverns or a sudden fall, you are now face to face with the "siren" of Siren's Push. At first glance, it appears to be just a massive tangle of seaweed, but then something underneath shifts, revealing a stretch of black skin that somehow manages to look slick even beneath the water. (It's probably for the best to not question exactly what the "siren's" body shape is.)

The smell of rot and the shininess come from the same place - the siren's kin emits a layer of mucus that, over time, has dissipated into the water. Those who bring their skin into direct contact with the mucus (and boy, a lot of you are underdressed now, aren't you) will find themselves engaged in a battle of wills with the creature in order to regain control over their own bodies.

Fortunately, with so many potential victims, it's harder for the siren to keep control of all its new acquisitions, making it possible to break free.

HOW THIS IS GOING TO WORK

As in the previous boss fight, characters are free to attempt actions against the siren or its minions in threads with each other. Every twelve hours or so, mods will make a round call and post a summary of what's happened since the previous round. These round-ups, unlike the previous boss fight, will likely not involve strict one-to-one responses to each comment; instead, character names will be bolded in the round summary in order for you to find them easily.

Additionally, if participants in the boss fight would indicate in their first comment the level of injury or other harm they're looking for or willing to undergo with their characters, that would be extremely helpful to the mods!

Newly accepted characters are welcome to jump in once they've been through their admissions hoops!

[beguiledcard]

[ And we find ourselves at a crossroad...

>Point?
>Give a description?
>Give a description and then point?




> Begin snickering at the universe's perfect timing. ]