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

[foolishjustice]

[Fruit is good. And not stuffed full of preservatives.]

Not always, no. I learned how after I gained access to a cognitive world, where the laws of reality lean heavily on common perceptions and ideas. Since a nearly infinite carrying capacity is such a common trope in video games, I was able to use that to store objects without worrying about physical space.

I'm just glad that this world's magic works on compatible principals, I ordinarily lose access to my cognitive abilities when I'm in the real world.

[photoshooter]

Cognitive... world? I understand the video game part, but what does that have to do with real life?

[foolishjustice]

A lot of my powers are from a world that exists overlapped with reality, based on the minds of the public. Certain people have the ability to enter that world, where perception and cognition are more important than actual physics. If it's a common idea in the public consciousness, it's possible in that world.

Normally abilities of that nature don't work in the real world, but this world has magic of its own that works on similar ideas. Everything I learned to do there works here, as well.

[He tilts his head with a grin, and somehow the air around him seems to sparkle despite the lack of any real light source.]

[photoshooter]

[Prompto listens as well as he can, but it's clear some of that goes right over his head.]

So the magic here... makes things real, even if they're just ideas? As long as everyone knows about it? ...Like memes?

[foolishjustice]

That's how things work in the cognitive world, anyway. From what I've been reading, magic here works based on will. It does take a little more effort for me to create the same effects, but I've become accustomed to thinking in the right ways to cause them.

[photoshooter]

Will, huh?

I guess then, because I know I'm not supposed to have magic, that's why I can't get any of my old abilities to work. Because my brain thinks I need Noct around to use them. Or something like that?

[foolishjustice]

That seems quite possible. You might be able to learn to replicate those abilities as you get more used to how magic works here, and the idea that the world you're in matters more than who you're with, at least in this situation.

[photoshooter]

Huh. I don't know, that seems tough. I'm really not magical at all on my own, so without the Crownsguard thing making it happen, I might just be stuck as a normie again.

[foolishjustice]

Maybe it would help to read some of the books in Charm-san's lab. If nothing else, that's how I figured out why my abilities still work here, despite the majority of them not working on the fully physical plane where I'm from.

[photoshooter]

[Prompto's voice takes a turn for the whiny.] Boooooooks...

[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.

[photoshooter]

Yeah, but I always lose my place or fall asleep.