DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE SHORE

[phantasmods]

The morning of the 9th, everyone will get a message sent to their communication devices -

Okay, guys! I think we have enough stabilizers to try and get the shoreline stable. If you want to help out, grab your supplies and come on up to the roof!

When characters arrive at the roof, they'll find Top - with a wheeling table full of many copies of the same odd-looking device - the two exploratory drones, and a ramp down off the roof to the ground. (The latter looks a little hastily constructed.)

"Okay," Top says, picking up one of the devices. "Here's the stabilizers. Stick them to walls and stuff - mostly out of the way places where they're not going to get knocked off - and then press the buttons along the side."

They demonstrate, unfolding the set of legs at one end of the device before showing the buttons to anyone who's close enough. "Go ahead and take a couple, especially if you've got one of those space-saving inventories going on, I know there's like four of you with those? Strange got some first aid kits together, too, if you want."

Sure enough, another table nearby has the med kits... As well as traditional paper bag lunches, courtesy of Bottom. Don't question it too much.

"We'll be staying back here to keep track of the stabilization progress and work the drones," Top says, "but don't hesitate to call if you get in trouble! We'll send one of these guys down to get you an evac if you need it."

And with that, you're free to go down the ramp... Or to make for the beach however else you might choose to go.

Comments

[photoshooter]

Oh man, for sure, dude. We gotta be careful, though. Did you run into any of those... weird light things out here? Those guys are nasty if you get too close.

[photoshooter]

Ugh, don't ask the impossible of us mere mortals, dude! I'm only human.

[He elbows Astolfo right back, friendly as anything.]

[riderofcharlemagne]

You don't need to restrain yourself, I'd be happy to listen to far more elaborate ramblings.

[He curiously touches some of the crystals on the walls as he passes by.]

How about this, instead: what did you like most about it?

[riderofcharlemagne]

Ten feet long?

[He adopts a devilish, scheming, grin.]

Hey, Pi, how do you feel about going noodle hunting?

[riderofcharlemagne]

Ouch. [He winces slightly.] I had no idea you were in pain when we met.

[riderofcharlemagne]

Why did you try doing it if there's nothing you like about it?

[photoshooter]

So I can bring food back to the station! ...I don't want people eating the chickens.

[scarsolderthanyou]

I promise I won't eat you.

[Might as well repeat the important part. He starts coming down to meet her, and adds,]

I'm a shapeshifter. I have this form, and the other one.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Like how I was introduced to humans for six months or so before I got kidnapped here, too? Some other world dragged you in for a while?

[That's curious, someone else who's (maybe?) experienced the same thing he has.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

He flicks a few spines at her, glancing up to incline his head and pull a quick smile-- trying not to display too many teeth, which are much bigger and sharper in this form-- at the "compliment" of his form being dramatic. Or the change. Either way.

It doesn't take long, indeed, before he beckons her over with a couple claws to deposit the stabilizer.

[scarsolderthanyou]

No complaints at potential teamwork, but that will make shifting a little harder, and Stone tends to be hard-wired into protecting others as much as fighting with them. He growls, rumble felt in the chest and through the feet almost more than heard, and flicks his tongue out to try and catch any unfamiliar scents. "There are birds on the beach, but I think it was bigger. It's too fast to be one of those fish things."

[scarsolderthanyou]

[There we go. Stone rolls out from under him and gets up, brushing sand from his clothes. When he speaks, his voice is dry:]

I'd ask if you were digesting, too, but I'm pretty sure you weren't eating the sand-fish.

[Izunia's mouth is too small to even properly take a bite of one.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone picks himself up, looking irritable. "I'm fine. What happened? There's nothing here that could hit me." The idea of electricity stored in rocks hasn't quite occurred to him yet. It did feel a little like a lightning strike-- he's been hit by that before-- but nowhere near as powerful.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"He spend many years trying to live with groundlings-- people like you, like humans, but more varied, some of them are blue or green or gray, not just brown and pink like humans. They could tell he wan't like them, though, no matter how good he got at lying, and kept being chased away or having to leave when he was found out," Stone continues. "He didn't even know what he was, except that he had two forms, and he wasn't like them. He found one village, finally, when he was a little older than you, that he thought he could stay in. But they found him out, too, and betrayed him-- they caught him and poisoned him and tied him out in the plains, where the predators could catch him. One of them almost did."

[have_hat_will_travel]

... I'm so very not sure this is a good idea... My best damage tricks are electricity, which in water...

[have_hat_will_travel]

Not a bad plan. I rather like the idea of a corrupt system being torn up properly.

Mind, the 'build a better one' part, that'd be harder for me.

[photoshooter]

"Maybe a really big bird? Aw man, I wish I had something with more kick to it than a handgun."

His hands are steady on it, anyway, as he looks around. There's no real cover for something big out on the water, besides the haze out beyond their reach, so...

"You think it headed back toward the cliffs?"

[foolishjustice]

I didn't want to bother people by bringing it up when there was likely nothing anyone could do. It's fine now, though. My past couple excursions into the Fissure have been to help perfect something that keeps the damage from reaching my senses.

[foolishjustice]

The denizens rather than the world itself, but yes. Fifteen people, including myself, were brought from our own worlds to participate in a...'game' for training new death gods. That's why I'm no longer human.

[He picks his hot chocolate back up and drinks from it, as though the subject of his ascension is perfectly normal.]

[foolishjustice]

I can't say the idea of taking an active role in politics, aside from tearing apart the current system, particularly appeals to me, either. Not that it's my responsibility anyway, unless the age of adulthood somehow gets lowered, it'll be another two years before I'm even old enough to be able to participate in any legal way.

If the adults mess it up again, though, I'm sure I'll be able to think of some way to make them try again.

[foolishjustice]

[Oh, now you're just reminding him of someone...another blonde guy he knows who always grumbles at the idea of study.]

Reading is good for you, you know. You can find out some very interesting things that way.

[foolishjustice]

At least I don't usually have to worry about that with Akira. His moments of poor planning are more reactionary than this.

[Guess who's never living down the time he broke his finger because he decided punching a wall with all his strength was a good way to vent his anger?

But teasing his boyfriend aside, mmm vegetables. He didn't really bring a lot of veggies, since you have to cook most of those to be palatable.]

I'm more concerned about his dietary choices than his stock of supplies.

[founderinglight]

[Things that set Izunia apart from his brother: One of them actually eats veggies without complaint, and even enjoys them.]

Oh, I do know that feeling. There's always that one person in the group completely hopeless in that regard.

March 10, Lighthouse

[fantasykiller]

I've been managing somehow.

[Unlike some people, Touma doesn't have an extradimensional space to stuff items inside. He had to settle for using a fairly mundane bag to carry all of his essentials.]

What about you? Do you need a party member? The monsters out here can be pretty troublesome to deal with. They might even be more powerful than that blood-lusted robot of yours.

[founderinglight]

...To say 'the people' is a bit of a cliche, isn't it? Hmmm.

[He thinks for a minute.]

Probably the view from Ravatogh. It's a single, massive volcano jutting up without any other mountains really nearby, so from anywhere near the summit you can see for miles and miles. Quite a trek even discounting the monsters that populate the mountain, but certainly worth doing at least once in your life.