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

[The thing about turning the rocks into tombstones is that it kicks someone who was taking a nap out of the cranny in one. Understandably, Izunia is very confused to find himself suddenly in mostly-open water, and wakes up blinking. His bangs are pinned back with a variety of bobby pins.

Also, you know, he's still part octopus, making Zel not the only eight-legged thing around here.]

Mmm?

[He blinks and peels out from under the tilted tombstone his rock has become. He hums, pausing to run his fingers over the engraving, before shuffling along the bottom among a couple of confused fish.]

Is this your doing?

[ That voice... Black Witch pauses. Is that Izunia? Or... Ardyn?

....Well. "Black Witch" doesn't know him. Neither does her spider companion. So they simply kind of vaguely glance in the direction of the voice. ]

That's right, it is. This is my Zone.

Who are you? [ The sounds of this person swimming sounds off. Not fin-like, or leg-like. Hmm. ]

[Well, perhaps a bit leg-like. Too-many-leg-like.

The question is enough to make Izunia pause, and -

Well, even just awakened, it's not hard to put together. She'll be able to hear the exact moment, actually.]

Ah, my apologies, I - Madeline?

[ Oh... Oh no. Ohhh no.

Well, at least now she knows it's Izunia. ]

I'm sorry. You must have my mistaken for somebody else. [ A normal girl with a cat. Black Witch is obviously not normal, nor does she have a cat. Just a spider... thing. ]

I'm known as Black Witch.

[That is about as convincing as... Well, it's less convincing than Zel's cat impression and Izunia already thought there was something up with that.]

I'm sure. But there are only so many of us redheads around, you know.

[This is accompanied by the sound of eight tentacles settling onto a sandy section of the bottom, along with the vocal equivalent of a shit-eating grin.]

[ . . . . . ]

Really? There aren't?

Maddie has a cat, you know. [ STRAWS, GRASPED. ]

[Terribly grasping. Izunia just chuckles.]

A cat who, in my honest opinion, has never been a terribly convincing actor. Better than my brother, but not by much - both rely too much on looking like the thing they're intending to be, rather than taking the time to act like it.

[The words are as much directed at whatever the hell that thing is as Maddie.]

[ It's the creature that speaks up now. His voice - definitely sounds male, at least - is a deep baritone. ] I'll take that criticism into consideration.

Zel! [ Maddie - Black Witch - sounds shocked by this betrayal. ]

The cat was already out of the bag, Black Witch.

I grew up with a brother who used illusion magic to do impressions of people, I've got a bit of an eye for when behaviour and face don't match.

[He gives Zel a faint smile and a bit of a hand wave.]

You look at people too intelligently when they're talking about you. Most animals only respond to their names.

[Constructive criticism! That's how we roll here, apparently.]

I don't know how many of the others you'll fool, but I won't reveal you myself. So you need not worry about that.

[ A deep sigh. The cat's out of the bag, all right. Which means she needs to explain a thing or two. ]

Good. I don't know if anybody else from my world will show up, or did show up and is keeping quiet, but if they do, they'll want to kill me and Zel if they find out about him.

A task that I imagine they'll find quite difficult, if only because no one has any desire to have the murder counter reset.

[He doesn't point out that secret identity is rather pointless when the group around you is so few. She's trying and he's not gonna crush a kid's dreams.]

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not very murder-proof... normally. And the people from back home I deal with aren't known for playing fair.

They would still need to get past me. [ Zel sounds almost offended she thinks somebody would slip past him. ]

Thanks Zel.

No one here is especially murder-proof that I'm aware of. Immortality is a remarkably unhappy state of being, anyway; only fools desire it.

But if you'll forgive the turn of phrase, we can still look out for each other.

Unfortunately, most of the people who would kill me would disagree about immortality.

You're supposed to thank him, Maddie. And say you'll be more than happy to help him out if the opportunity arises.

[ Maddie blushes, mostly because she's being corrected and lectured in front of somebody. ] I was getting to that!

Yes, well, many people desire things when they don't understand the reality of them.

[Implying that he... does... Sorry, Maddie, you were on some levels right to be a little paranoid?]

Don't worry about it, she's still young.

If you're suggesting they're stupid, I completely agree.

[ The giant monstrous spidery form of Zel snorts in amusement at that one. ]

Anyway, yeah, everything Zel just said. Thanks.

Irreparably so. But then, I get the impression they're also not much the sort to care about how immortality means outliving everything you love.

[Just from what she's said, they don't seem like people who loved much at all.]

They're the kind of people who will literally doom the entire world so they can hold onto power for as long as possible. For people obsessed with immortality, they're remarkably short-sighted. [ Does it sound like she hates them? SHE TOTALLY HATES THEM. ]

Being willing to destroy the world hardly rules out love, but I see your point.

[He hums a moment, then shakes his head.]

Well, I'm perfectly content with the slice of history I've seen, at any rate.

DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE REEF

Graveyard

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject