EVENT LOG: BEYOND THE SEA

[nextnightmods]

EVENT LOG:
BEYOND THE SEA

characters: the key extraction team, the power restoration team, and the resource extraction team.
location: in the helix station under the lake!
date/time: july 8 - 15th.
content: three teams have been organized to explore the helix station, and hopefully come up with a solution for the adolescent world eater.
warnings: injury, water horror, monster horror, body horror, drowning. more details on potential warnings can be found on the event writeup! each thread will be tagged accordingly, please do the same for any threading in the open prompts.

arrival.

At the behest of the warning shared by Cao Pi, Kuai Lang, and Rosinante, some members of the lab team managed to dig through the files on one of the old terminals to recall a few submarines. Three of them arrive quietly in the night, lining up along the docks just as they used to when the Night Market would pull up to the harbor to share their wares. Only change is this time, each submarine is absolutely empty.

The inside of each submarine is limited in size. There's seating for six, though if there are more than that intending to make the journey, they'll have to stand or get pretty cozy. There's a pair of chairs at a console with all sorts of implements, dials, and radars. However, each submarine readout already indicates that the trajectory is planned and they are still functioning on autopilot.

As character settle in, the ride takes about an hour. A cold robotic voice indicates projected arrival time every ten minutes. Well, at least for the first half of the journey. About halfway, the lights in the submarine begin to dim. Safety locks will trigger automatically, trapping a few characters in their seat. Looking over controls and attempting to override the system results in no response.

The robotic voice kicks in to warn, Power at unsafe levels. Emergency protocol in effect. From then on, the ride will be in more or less complete darkness, with an occasional update from the robotic voice that grows more and more distorted the closer characters get. In addition, as the submarines sink farther into the water, some characters might experience seasickness, ear popping, or dizziness as their bodies react to the changes in pressure.

However, about an hour into their dark voyage, the submarines will slow and eventually jolt suddenly. Emergency locks will open, dim red lights will flicker on, and the submarine will slowly begin decompression, allowing characters to exit out the hatch and up a short ladder into the hangar of the Helix Station.

Stepping out into the hangar, the dire reality of the Night Market's emergency becomes clear. The air is stale and thick with the stench of blood. The large room features three moon pools which hold the submarines, as well as a broad platform with wheeled carts and boxes for transporting materials. On one wall, three spare dive suits are hung, and a shelf holds oxygen tanks and other diving equipment, but the tanks look to have been punctured by something with crushing, piercing claws. A streak of blood paints the floor in front of them, and scattered broken remnants of a couple of lanterns have been kicked to the wall. A body, headless and disemboweled, has come to rest by a door labeled Research and Development. A small room adjacent to this one has had its door smashed and broken completely as if forced open by something with immense strength. The room itself is plain, containing a list of schedules and deliveries on the wall intended for June, but stacked labels over a door leading further into the station read Crew Quarters and Power and Maintenance.

The three submarines are at critically low power levels, though it's immediately apparent that there is limited power available at the Helix Station. It will be impossible to charge and make a voyage back until power is restored. There's nothing for it; groups will have to splinter off to explore the Helix Station completely.

downtime.

While there's a lot of the station to explore and plenty of work to be done, it's not possible for characters to shove ahead and search the entire time. Every once and awhile, they will need to pull back and rest up.

The best place for this is back in the submarine hangar. The subs themselves have seating and a few bunks for resting. It might be a good place to rest up, or try to patch each other up from a few wrong turns during explorations.

Lastly, the team above ground has prepared a small parcel of rations. Characters might want to catch up with each other over something to eat, to keep up their strength and their mood.

ooc.

For refreshers on the basic mechanics of this event, please see the event writeup! for infosharing as explore threads wrap up, please see the header here. Voting on resolution of the event will be found here after the threads begin to wrap up.

Some last reminders: try to plan on connecting with your team partners and responding at least once a day. Provide overall input for your characters responses just in case you can't check in. Communicate with the partners in your team to help build explore-like responses!

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Comments

Reiju | OTA will match formatting

[p0isonpink]

On the way down

Submarines are not her idea of a good time, thank you very much, and nearly getting flattened upon boarding doesn't improve her mood much. Reiju spends most of the trip down firmly in her seat, hands folded in her lap, making such a point of remaining absolutely still and externally impassive that it's probably not hard to tell that she'd rather be almost anywhere else.

Still, she's here, and if she's tense and unhappy, she's also stubbornly determined that she's going to accomplish something by her presence. Even if it's only serving as muscle against whatever danger they face.

Downtime

01. Devil Fruits (for Law and Rosinante)

Taking the time and attention to argue about who had the power and weakness of a devil's-fruit user when they were in hostile territory wasn't a great idea, and there'd been no more than a couple sharp comments at the time. But when they're back in the submarine hangar, that deferred conversation is inevitable; Reiju finds a place to settle herself, beating down the distress that's been trying to rise up and choke her ever since the base door opened to a flood of water. She doesn't sit, no matter how much she would like to -- it's been a long day and a half, but there's power in staying on her feet and she intends to hold onto every bit she's got.

She catches Rosinante's eye and tips her head in a clear signal. If you want to have that talk, now's the time.

02. Wakefulness (OTA)

This place is not good for her, not at all. After the discussion with Rosinante and Law, she tries to find a spot to settle herself and hopefully get a little rest. Real rest, not whatever those spirits inflicted. But every time she tries to lie down, whether in an out of the way corner of the hangar or in one of the submarine bunks, nightmares about waking up paralyzed in the water drive her back to her feet.

She's an enhanced human, with far less need for rest than a normal person, but even she can't be healthy if she substitutes sleep with pacing the confines of the hangar to stave off nightmares. As time passes, dark circles begin to grow under her eyes, and she startles easily.

02

[worthallthis]

Oh boy, does this guy understand the wakefulness problem. Soldat tracks her down to hold out a bowl of soup, made from supplies right here on the station. "Eat," they say firmly, but not without sympathy. After all, Soldat, too, looks very much like they could use some sleep but aren't getting it. "It helps. Need less sleep if you eat and drink enough."

[p0isonpink]

The attention startles her, and for a moment, she simply blinks at them, trying to process the offer.

Food. For her. So that she'll feel better.

She accepts the bowl; its warmth feels like a revelation, and she abruptly realizes she's ravenous.

"Thank you," she says, and means for more than the food. They aren't simply telling her to sleep despite everything.

[worthallthis]

They catch her meaning, and hitch the metal shoulder in a twitchy little shrug. "I understand. I can't sleep well here, either. The artificial pressure. Bad memories." They don't know if that's her problem or not, it's apparently plenty creepy on its own around here even with most of the threats taken care of and power restored, but they're honest themselves, anyway. Sharing helps others understand, too.

[p0isonpink]

"Mm." Bad memories of artificial pressure? She's enormously curious -- but not about to dig. Bad memories at a bad time. But she can offer, instead. "... The water. Those... things had us down in it." And she'd been helpless, an inch from drowning.

It was over now; they'd gotten free and gotten to safety. She was alive -- or at least, as alive as she'd been when she boarded the submarine to come here -- and uninjured. But she could not convince her muscles to unknot themselves.

[worthallthis]

"The green-eyes." Soldat sounds grim, and they nod. "They're good at finding the thing that scares you most. They found my off-switch." Soldat has managed to shake a lot of their machine-terminology, but that one's pretty apt still. "You made it out, though. You helped stop them."

[p0isonpink]

"So they are," she agrees. The off-switch wording certainly encourages her curiosity; she doesn't want to launch a full interrogation, but... "Are they a... regular danger?" The possibility of waking up at any time to that same horror chills her.

[worthallthis]

Honestly, she can ask whatever she likes... Soldat is very good at answering questions. Even ones that they probably shouldn't answer.

"Not if you keep to Beacon proper," Soldat answers. "They don't come into town much. Only three times in almost a year. And one of those times we didn't see them, they just flooded the town with hallucinations. The other times were. Violent."

[p0isonpink]

"Violent." She echoes the word dryly. "Yes, I can see how that would be the natural result." All sorts of thoughts roll through her mind -- half-formed, hazy with exhaustion and stress. To experiment on the things, or on people they control, to find some way to combating them...

But... no. That's mad.

"The waking up was the worst part," she admits quietly. "They had me down in the water."

01

[callada]

Now is indeed the time, and he absolutely wants to talk to her. How many goddamned people from their world are here? And a devil fruit user, at that? He fixes her with a look to acknowledge that yes, message received, loud and clear - then waves for Law to come along with him.

He walks over, hands on his hips, and - well, he's not frowning. He might have been, but he already figures Law is going to play bad cop here even though this is no interrogation. So he keeps his expression carefully neutral instead.

"Devil fruit user, then," he states. "That's a rare surprise."

[countershocks]

Frankly, Law would have followed along even without the indication that he should; while he's done with patching up Cora's stab wound, it's not like he's going to let him out of his sight.

Besides... he'd like to have some select words with Reiju, too. Which is why, when Cora opens the discussion on devil fruits, he's quick to add,

"It would have been better for it to not be a surprise. Reiju-ya, I thought you actually knew something about tactics." Somehow, he manages to make that sound incredibly accusatory — hiding your weaknesses is a good move, except when it can get you and others killed. In that case, it's just stupid. He didn't think she was stupid.

[p0isonpink]

The accusation doesn't fluster her. Even in her current state -- far from her best, after everything, half-drowned and exhausted and staving off a panic attack through sheer force of will -- she is made of sterner stuff than to quail.

"Oh? I must have missed something." Her voice is cool. "When did we all sit around in a nice little circle and share our strengths and weaknesses, save for me? I was no more aware that you," with a nod to Rosinante, "were a devil fruit user than you were about me."

She knew about Trafalgar, of course; he'd used his power in front of her before. She had not returned the favor -- not that he would likely want such a favor, given her power.

[callada]

Law is perhaps being a little unfair, since she's exactly right - if he wants to consider it a matter of tactics, they should have disclosed it to everyone from the get-go. But of course, it just didn't occur to him. After having been here a year, the weakness brought by the fruit is something that has rarely ever come up, and he never expects anyone from his own world to arrive after so much time here as the only one.

"Well, now you know," he sighs. Can't go back and change things and he's still not sure he would have done any different. "Guess the portal brought through more from our world than I realized. Almost always been Earth before. Where are you from?"

And when. That's just as important, apparently. She's not wearing any sort of obvious insignia, and her lantern doesn't strike him as very telling, which is unfortunate. Not like his, straight off a Marine battleship.

[countershocks]

"Yes, but I was prepared to keep him out of trouble," Law says back with a half-hearted glare at Cora, as if to say, and then you got into trouble anyway. And really, that's what it comes down to — his irritation at not having a perfect plan for everything, or being prepared for everything... as if they'd have put Reiju first to open the door, when there was the sound of water from the other side, if they'd known she's a devil fruit user.

He sighs and stands back, though, letting Cora ask the questions... he's interested in seeing what she answers, too. He knows something, and has more suspicions, but that's all.

[p0isonpink]

Rosinante's question strikes at her unease. She hasn't mentioned Vinsmoke or Germa since she arrived -- and she's not eager to start now, with people who are likeliest to know just what it means. She can finally be free of that influence -- of that yoke around her neck.

The two Charlottes know, of course, but they aren't here at this moment. And perhaps Pudding, at least, will understand.

"I don't recall you being made the leader of the group," she points out to Law, choosing to engage with the easier path. She keeps her tone smooth, not aggressive -- but she knows he could well take it as provocation regardless.

[callada]

"He's with me," Rosinante says gently, and while he's not the leader of any group either, he's comfortable acting like the statement carries some weight. Hell, for many, it probably does - he's been here among the longest, aside from people like Robin and Dr. Ingram; he's generally well-liked and respected, and plenty here seek out his assistance and expertise in dealing with Beacon and its quirks.

And he'd like people to treat Law with respect.

He'd also like for his question to be answered, and her evasion of it is obvious. She could have ignored Law and made up an answer. Instead, she's chosen a harder route for herself for some reason.

"We're from North Blue," he offers, trying to ease her back onto the topic. "Used to travel around a lot out there. How about you?"

[countershocks]

"That's not what I meant," he mutters, grimacing — but he doesn't press the point, clearly deeming this road of conversation a dead-end.

Instead, he lets Cora talk, and watches Reiju's reactions instead; he, too, has noticed her avoidance of the question, and he wonders if his suspicions are correct. But he watches her for another reason, too: back home, he wasn't exactly known to be someone to associate with... well, much anyone outside his crew, at least before the Straw Hat alliance that escalated into Minks and Samurai and so on —

And yet, here, aside from their arrival, Reiju likely hasn't seen him without Cora somewhere nearby.

(He doesn't really care what she thinks of him — but whether she makes any connections about Cora, who clearly hasn't been as smart about what name shows on the tablet network like Pudding has been, that's his focus.)

[p0isonpink]

North Blue. Damn it! If they'd been from anywhere else, she might have taken the gamble. There's not much in the way of cultural interchange between the Blues, separated as they are, and if they'd been from South or East, or even from West, they might well have never heard of Germa Kingdom. But North Blue?

North Blue remembers.

She doesn't let her reaction to the name show -- holds back, holds herself to the emotionless smoothness she has shown she world her whole life. So much for this afterlife being a chance to start over! Two members of the family that just tried to kill her, and now two natives of North Blue, one a Marine and the other a Warlord. There really is no escape from Vinsmoke, is there?

"I've been traveling nearly my whole life," she says, "but... most recently, I was in the New World." It isn't a lie. Germa Kingdom is not an island, has no fixed location. She does not want her family name or ties to follow her to this place, but she will also not lie to the only people from her own world. That would be too easily shattered once they return to the surface. Even so, she can hope to avoid the unpleasant truth for a little while longer.

[callada]

The evasion only gets more interesting - and he'd feign surprise here if that wasn't genuinely a bit remarkable. "The New World? That's a pretty tough place to get to from anywhere else. Are you with the Marines?"

She might be, and is just trying to hide it because of Law. Or she could have been there for other government-related reasons, sure. Otherwise, it takes some pretty special tricks to get across the calm belts, but he easily manages to look interested, rather than suspicious. Again, it's not really even acting, exactly. Despite all the time he spent reading up on Dressrosa and his brother's plans for the place, traveling the New World isn't something he has much actual experience with.

[countershocks]

"What a coincidence," Law adds with a smirk, "so was I."

And from what he saw of her upon arrival, she certainly holds herself like a soldier... but unlike a Marine.

It's also clear that she's trying her hardest to avoid saying anything concrete about where she's from or what she does... something that only feeds his suspicions. Neither of them know her — she could tell them anything and they wouldn't be able to accuse her of lying.

Which means there must be someone here who can, who knows who she is and could blow any cover she makes for herself. And that narrows it down to the two Charlottes. Which makes things... interesting.

[p0isonpink]

Blood in the water, and Law at least certainly fancies himself a shark. She looks between them, slow and thoughtful. Rosinante at least seems more curious than actively suspicious of her, but he seems to be a paired unit with Law, who's being much less friendly.

Perhaps she can turn things into less of a pointed interrogation of her. She raises an eyebrow at Law. "Yes, I heard," she replies to him. "The rumors swirling around can't quite agree whether you're calling the shots in your little 'alliance' and controlling that Straw-hat boy, or whether he's holding your leash."

She speaks carelessly of Luffy, as though she hadn't died to safeguard his escape along with Sanji's -- just as she would have spoken of him before the entire mess of an alliance, when he was nothing more than an interesting figure that Germa cared nothing about. Pirates were not their primary interest.

To Rosinante, she says, "No, not the Marines. If you absolutely have to keep digging this deep," her tone says outright that she's not enjoying it, "I'm with a mercenary outfit. Or I was." A little bitterness is legitimate there, and truly felt. "We can charge quite a lot for a job that calls for a Calm Belt crossing. Expenses, you know. And extra profit."

That, hopefully, should explain quite a bit of her reluctance. After all, the Marines tend to regard most mercenary groups as little better than pirates. And Germa 66 does not bill itself as mercenary. To tell a Marine to his face that she's a sellsword could be expected to invite his contempt.

[callada]

It's true - she says mercenary, he hears pirate. Not Marine-sanctioned or she'd likely be more forthcoming, but also he's pretty sure he could have learned more from her more easily if Law could just tone down his venom. They'll have to work on their double act as both of them are used to working alone. People tend to walk away from his "interrogations" thinking they've just had a pleasant, friendly conversation if they haven't given him any reason to be harsh but instead she's on edge and that's sort of regrettable.

He'll ignore her digs at Law and his alliance for now. He doesn't know much about it, and he's quite sure Law doesn't let people control him so easily anyway.

"Hey, it's all right," he sighs. Time to dial back on the questions for a bit. "I didn't mean to come over here and put you on the spot. You helped us all out back there. I appreciate that."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWwdh6FGL4M

[catholicisms]

Reiju is not the only one that is really not enjoying this journey.

Matt is big on control. He likes to know what is around him, and Beacon in and of itself has already been a hit to his ability to sense his surroundings. Somehow, the submarine is worse, because all his understanding is limited squarely to the entirely too small space.

He thought that maybe, pacing would help. As they climbed lower into the lake and the pressure starts to make his ears pop, he decides maybe it's not. He takes the seat next to Reiju suddenly, and perhaps the fact he's not wearing his mirrored sunglasses or wandering around with his cane, she might not realize she's ended up with Beacon's resident blind guy. She'll figure it out sooner or later, though.

"Do you... do you hear that?" Truly, the stupidest thing he's said in a long time. Unless Reiju also has super hearing, she probably can't tell that the submarine sounds slightly different than it did at the start.

[p0isonpink]

She glances sidelong at him, assessing -- grateful, in a way she can't quite bring herself to acknowledge, for the distraction. At least until he speaks.

"Hear what?" She can hear the sounds of the submarines adjusting to the pressure as they descend -- the small pops and groans that she knows are normal, but which fill her with a low dread nonetheless. They have been going on since the start, and should be classed as torture as far as she's concerned. But is that what he means? She's not certain. And she'd like to pretend she's calm enough to not care -- maybe not even notice -- the sounds. But despite her best efforts, there is a bare, thin edge of nerves in her voice, little enough that it would take someone who knows her very well -- or someone with super hearing -- to tell.

[catholicisms]

Yes, he hears all that too. It's not what he means, though explain exactly what he means is no easy feat, either. His eyes narrow as he tries to focus on what sounds different, what is different enough that he feels a creeping sensation of dread, even if nobody else seems to have noticed it yet.

"Something... the fan? The power? The engine? I'm not sure what it is, but I think it sounds different." While Matt doesn't know her at all, super hearing is very invasive and he doesn't need to be able to detect the nerves in her tone, when he can feel that her heart is racing a little faster at the inquiry.

"The consoles, what do you see? Any lights? Red or orange? Anything flashing?" He turns in that direction, like he's looking himself... but ah, Reiju is bound to notice that despite his attention facing that way, he's not really looking at anything.