phantasmalrift | DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE REEF

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jetshard probably noticed the head breaching the water a while ago, and even with the water slicking the usual volume of his hair back it's not hard to recognize Izunia at his usual evening ritual, watching the sun set off past the land in the distance.

After that, it's time to come part way up the beach and flop out on his stomach just within the range where the surf will keep his lower half damp. Drying out doesn't sound particularly fun right now, really. His tentacles, a reddish orange, spread out across the sand and through the shallow water behind him like a fan.

Eventually, he props his head up on folded arms and says - ]

I think you may have had the right idea by avoiding the water.

[Local king is tired and grumpy.]

I wish I could claim some sort of foresight, but honestly I just can't swim.

[She pokes at the fire with a stick, nudging one of the dry driftwood logs into a more stable position; her nominal attention on the way the fire occasionally pops in odd colors from the salt in the wood doesn't remotely hide the way she's watching his annoyed fidgeting with a bit of a smile.]

I suppose it makes sense that you'd end up with tentacles, though. Unless that association's just a troll thing.

I have no idea what you're talking about, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say "troll thing."

[Floooooop he doesn't want to move.]

Perhaps it's just my lack of experience, but I don't think they're entirely designed for long-term swimming.

We've got a fairly strong association between royalty and tentacles, but I suppose that's probably mostly to do with the entire imperial line sharing the same heavily betentacled lusus.

[She sets aside her fire pokin' stick, and turns her attention a little more fully on him; less amused now, and more of a kind of mild concern.] If nothing else, I can't imagine that an abrupt change in locomotion is doing anything productive for your fatigue issues. If you don't mind me saying so.

That'd be nonsensical to any human. We raise our own, remember?

[There's a single wet tentacle flop behind him, with a bit of a splash.]

It's exhausting. I have enough of a handle on "walking" with them, but it's not truly swimming and it's painfully slow in comparison. I have to warp to get anywhere with speed and that's...

[Vague hand gesture. It's very tiring to do for any length of time.]

Of course. [She still kind of feels like Gl'bgolyb is of a different order than most lusii, but she can't really elucidate the difference at the moment. Still, it strikes her as an appropriate transformation for him.

If, apparently, an inconvenient one.]

If you don't mind being out after dark, I'd be happy to let you hitch a ride when I take the raft out in a little while.

I think I'm just going to nap here.

[Local royal is very tired.]

Wish I had a waterproof pillow.

[She smiles, just a bit.] I'm afraid I can't help with that. Even if I'm fairly sure my nesting tendencies have convinced Down I'm completely insane.

Sand isn't very comfortable.

[He's still pillowing his head on his arms, anyway.]

And I like your pillows quite fine.

I'm just getting the impression that covering one's reclining platform in as deep a pile as possible is not really the done thing. [She doesn't seem particularly concerned, though.]

Most humans do tend to prefer flat surfaces with a little head support.

[Says the exception, who has already napped in a crevice at least once this expedition.]

Most trolls prefer a kind of medicinal slimebath, but a pile of something's good enough in a pinch.

...I don't think most humans would be open to a slimebath much at all, really.

[Whoops.]

That's probably just as well. I really don't know what sopor slime would do to humans anyway, given that one of the functions is to suppress psychic activity.

... Probably not much at all, at least on that front? I don't know how much they're parallel in general, but humans don't tend to have psychic powers as a general rule.

I'd still be cautious. It's possible that it'd have no real effect on a human, but it's also possible that it'd suppress some functionally similar aspect of brain activity, which could be very bad.

Or just any other form of supernatural ability they might have. Though there's a handful of cases where that might be useful...

[He trails off, frowning.]

[She shrugs.] There's more concentrated medical forms of sopor, which can be used internally - over any extended period of time it's a very bad idea, but it does have applications in the short term. Mostly in cases where the patient is aggressive or confused and has psychic abilities that make it impossible for the medic to work effectively.

Unfortunately, given how rare magic is in Eos, we don't have anything of the sort.

[He buries his face in his arms again. His tentacles have gotten rather grey.]

[Oh. Right.] I'm sorry.

I probably ought to let you rest rather than ramble on about uncomfortable subjects, anyway.

It's alright.

[He stretches out in the surf.]

I appreciate it.

DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE REEF

sandbar, evening just after sunset

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