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

[fistsofchange]

Oh, is this that star language you were talking about?

[theosophomoric]

A bit of it, yes. I read and write much more than I speak.

[fistsofchange]

I never would have guessed the stars would curse at each other. They look so peaceful from the ground.

[theosophomoric]

I'm not certain that my world has quite the same sort of stars as most people's. At least, if this world has the same as mine, the sun's a great deal more forgiving than mine.

[She sighs. Honestly, down here in the crevasse still feels a good deal safer than any of the portions of the station with visible sky. Not that Sonja usually prioritizes a feeling of safety, but there's still something reassuring about being in the depths, away from direct sunlight.]

We call them the Celestial Judgments for a reason. As I understand it most of them have a real mania for rules and regulations.

[fistsofchange]

[Clinging to the rock face, Lin felt significantly less reassured. She started to work on climbing back up.]

I was always taught the stars were giant balls of flaming gas, trillions of miles away in space.

[theosophomoric]

Mayhap they are. [Sonja shrugs.] I don't exactly have a great deal of first-hand experience of star-stuff. But on the other hand, I'm just shy of nine stone of meat and bones and viscera - or I am when I'm in my own shape - and it don't keep me from speaking and writing and listening.

[fistsofchange]

Your world sounds very strange.

[She stopped climbing to shine her flashlight up.]

Man, how far down ARE we?

[theosophomoric]

A few hundred feet, I think? Not more than a thousand. [She looks up as well, seeing the beam of the flashlight disappearing into the faint twilight of the water column.] The water's good and clear, but that only counts for so much.

[fistsofchange]

Ugh, I'm going to be climbing all day!

[Forehead thump against the rock wall.]

[theosophomoric]

[Sonja smiles - amused, but not unsympathetic.] I take it the transformation's not helping with your ability to swim?

[fistsofchange]

It might be able to. I've got webbed fingers now, but, like.

I tried waving my arms around like the other people were, and just ended up spinning myself around and getting disoriented.

[theosophomoric]

If you'd like, I can teach you.

[fistsofchange]

I should probably learn, since we live by the ocean now.

[theosophomoric]

[Sonja grins, although perhaps the darkness of the trench hides this. Still, it'd be hard to miss the approval in her voice.] Very sensible.

I'd offer to start now, but we really ought to at least have stable sea floor under us first. I have no idea how much deeper this goes.

[fistsofchange]

That's what I was thinking. At least I don't feel like I weigh as much down here, or this would be exhausting.