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

[myocordial]

I threw a car at someone once.

[But no, the punch was very impressive too, sure.]

[founderinglight]

[Holy shit. Izunia just presses his hands over his mouth. Everywhere that has the patches of octopus skin, not just his tentacles, is now deeply crimson.]

...That's hot.

[myocordial]

What?




[What?]

[founderinglight]

[Shit he heard that.

Welp, time to own it.]

That is really, very, incredibly attractive.

1/2

[myocordial]

[ ]

2/2

[myocordial]

I--

I'm sorry?

[This does not compute.]

[founderinglight]

...You're a bit slow on the uptake at the moment, aren't you.

[myocordial]

...

[...]






Do you have a thing for cars?

[founderinglight]

Oh my god how are you this stupid, I literally just told you I have a thing for dangerous men.

[myocordial]

[Izunia, he is very very high right now, please give him a few moments. Don't be rude.]

...Wait, you mean a thing, like...

[founderinglight]

Yes, that kind of thing!

[He's still too high to be embarrassed about admitting it, so instead he just... rolls over in the water out of frustration.]

[myocordial]

And thus... when you say that you think I'm dangerous...

[...

It is genuinely impossible to tell if he's putting it together or losing his train of thought in the fish-kiss haze.]

[founderinglight]

You're also gorgeous, which helps.

[myocordial]

...

Huh.

[Huh? Heart, what kind of response is that.]

[founderinglight]

Yes, huh.

[myocordial]

...There aren't any walls here.

[He sounds genuinely troubled.]

But I kind of feel like throwing you through one. Except there aren't any.

[...Well, it's... a response?]

[founderinglight]

[I'm sorry, Heart, Izunia is too high to take any threats seriously right now so he just laughs.

Yes, that's his whole response.]

[myocordial]

Why are you like this. You're so annoying.

[founderinglight]

Why are you like this?

[It's Izunia's turn to be contrary and dumb apparently.]

[myocordial]

I asked first.

[founderinglight]

And you also already know a good portion of my traumatic history, and my brother, and the combination is roughly eighty percent of why I'm like this.

[myocordial]

I feel like you were probably obnoxious before all that. I feel like that's just who you are.

[founderinglight]

Maybe so. I can't say I remember it entirely clearly, anymore.

[myocordial]

Then I'm just going to assume that, yes, you've always been an obnoxious pain in the ass.

[...Sober Heart would've put this differently. High Heart gives zero fucks.]

[founderinglight]

If you can believe it, I used to be far more of a stick in the mud.