phantasmalrift | DUNGEON LOG: KEYSTONE SHORE

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.

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...Probably not.

[He finally wanders back out of the waves at a diagonal to Izunia to crouch in the sand once more, away from him and his light, clinging to the chocolate for warmth and feeling alone.]

I think Noct tries, though. To understand. Or to take it all, somehow. Stupid.

[Stupid like Ardyn was stupid, taking the Scourge into himself.]

None of this is fair, but we can still save him.

Edited 2018-03-12 21:03 (UTC)

[They do resemble each other very much, Prompto, and not just in the literal, physical way. It is one of the things that Izunia finds most heart-rending about him.]

He does at that. Better suited for the crown than I, if you ask me.

[The smile isn't quite a smile, but it's trying to be.]

...One of the last things I told him before I got here was that he sounded like a real king.

[Well, maybe Izunia knows that. Noct was finally wearing the ring. Was carrying his father's sword.

Prompto holds the mug of hot chocolate against his heart, voice dwindling down to nothing.]

I wish I could take it back.

...Don't regret words spoken from the heart.

[If Prompto looks, he'll see that Izunia's hands have found their way to his scarf again, clutching at the fabric. A tell, and an obvious one, for when he's thinking about Ardyn.]

It is those words that give us the confidence to push forward.

But I don't really want him to.

[He doesn't care about destiny.]

I just want him to come back.

...I know. If only the world worked that way.

[They're not so different in that regard at all, after all.]

[It's just them, the stars, and the lights in the sea.]

...Aw man, I-I let the chocolate get cold.

[He drinks it down as if to drown out the loneliness inside him, to cover up the last five minutes like black lines on skin.]

[And possibly a scale tick or two but let's not go there.]

...I have more, if you want it. And some tea and coffee. And soup.

[What's the point of being overprepared if you aren't seriously overprepared.]

I'm a little hungry.

[It's kind of a peace offering. Kind of a Band-Aid for both of them.]

Soup, sandwich, any preference at all?

[Weird grandpas come prepared.]

Haha, are you a one-man restaurant? Soup's good, though.

[He goes back to inspect his blanket.]

Oh. Careful where you sleep, by the way. They've got ticks on this beach.

I can do a decent impression of a diner, at the very least.

[And he's got a bowl of soup for you when you're ready, Prompto, complete with a spoon sticking out.]

Fortunately, I'd been planning to sleep in my chair anyway. Unless they can crawl through my boots, I don't think I have to worry.

They can probably crawl up your boots. Aha! Gotcha.

[Prompto removes a tick from his blanket and wraps it back around himself, trotting back over for warm food.]

Don't say I didn't tell you so when you wake up covered in alien bloodsuckers.

I'll still take a handful of ticks over daemons.

[Here's your soup! And Izunia pulls a hot chocolate for himself out afterwards, just holding the steaming mug for now.]

Daemon ticks. Uugghh.

[There's a shudder-worthy thought if Prompto's ever had one.]

The daemon spiders were bad enough. And the daemon snakes, and...

[He trails off, thinking of all the daemon people they've killed since leaving Insomnia. Not just MTs, but people they'd known. Ravus. Besithia. Emperor Iedolas himself.]

...Anyway, yeah, they're the worst.

I always found the bloody sword-wielding skeltons the worst, personally. The more human they look, the less I like them.

Well, I don't like creepy crawly things to start with. But the people-looking ones are. Pretty bad, yeah.

There was a naga who talked one time. She thought I was her baby or something.

...Probably some holdover from whoever she was prior to getting the Scourge. That does happen, sometimes.

[A little too quickly, maybe:] I know.

[...

He ducks his head and eats his soup.]

...I think we would both rather talk about anything but daemons at the moment.

So did you see anything cool today? This beach is totally unbelievable when it's light out. The sun catches all these colored scales on the ground...

Isn't it stunning?

[Gleefully jumping into the subject, followed by a sip of his hot chocolate.]

I hope you got some good photos of it. There's a particular spot where the cavern frames the view of the beach just so, remind me to show you tomorrow.

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.

No, I spent most of the day exploring the caves. Only bothered to find my way out around sunset.

[Which, well, Prompto is probably aware enough of that habit by now.]

That's when they swarm.

[Shudder.]

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