logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: BEYOND THE SEA

Entry tags:

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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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."

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

"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?"

Edited 2020-07-15 20:38 (UTC)

"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.)

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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."

Less friendly is basically Law's default setting... and if anything, he's rather amused by the whole conversation. He's not too concerned by her withholding information — he's sure either Pudding or Katakuri can answer the question of her identity, once they get back to the surface. And even if she'd get one of them to agree to hide it, the chances of both being willing to lie for her are slim.

And besides... there's that eyebrow. It's really an answer in and of itself.

Watching her try and turn the tables is equally amusing... mostly because he's never been one to care about rumors, or what people say of him — and even less so when it's about this.

"Oh? I wasn't aware people have such a poor understanding of the word alliance," he answers her, perfectly calm. He made a statement in Dressrosa, the one that cost him his position as a Warlord... exactly because their alliance was an equal one.

(He's carefully not saying anything about the fact that anyone trying to tell Strawhat-ya what to do was doomed to failure.)

That's where he leaves it, though, not joining in on the thanks... because he thinks it's frankly a stupid thing, to thank her for doing literally what she signed up to do, coming down here. But if Cora is determined to be nice... then it's just better he doesn't say anything at all.

Rosinante tries to back off the intensity, and the truth is, she's glad for it. She's exhausted, tense, still soaked, and she really wants nothing more than a little privacy so she can put her head down and try to regroup.

"That's what we're all here for," she says in answer to Rosinante's thanks, deciding to let Law's comment lie where it is. The point was to push him off a little, and it seems to have worked. "I'll admit I was hoping for more of a proper fight and less of that... whatever they did." A little wave of her hand. How are you supposed to fight off hypnotism? "I don't suppose either of you have powers that could help with that." She has a very vague sense of what Law can do -- the teleportation was a fascinating experience to go through -- but nothing at all for Rosinante.

"Afraid not," he responds. "And after a year here, I've never met anyone who could. Better to be prepared and know it's something they can do. Stick with other people as much as possible."

Which is no guarantee either, given how their abilities make it relatively easy for them to single people out, lure them away, even think they're truly separated like they had in that hallway. But at least it makes them have to do some extra work to get whatever it is they want.

"How about you, what have you got? Your fruit," he asks, then clarifies while trying to think back. Had she done anything unusual at all that whole time? Not that he can remember seeing.

"Clearly not," is Law's response to that — if they could have done something... wouldn't they have? It's not like any of them were having a particularly fun time hallucinating and nearly drowning, after all.

(He sounds rather pissed about this fact, though... any powers that affect the mind are, in his eyes, the worst. He'd rather lose his arm again than have his mind be messed with.)

The question Cora asks is one he himself would like the answer to, too, which is why he stays quiet... but he's not going to hold his breath waiting for an answer.

They're suspicious of her, and she wants to leave the past behind. Lightning-quick calculations flash in her mind; lying would only set her up for greater problems, evading entirely would only make them more suspicious, but the last thing she wants is to say anything about poison. Too easy to put that together with the color of her hair and come up with Poison Pink.

So, as she has done so far, she gives the truth -- but only in part. "It's stupid," she says, half a sigh. "I can't get drunk. Something about perfectly metabolizing alcohol -- I don't know, I'm not a doctor." It's true, so far as it goes -- she's never been drunk in her life, her body prepared to cope with far more toxic substances than simple ethanol. And that's far from the most pointless sort of devil fruit power out there. "And what about you, hm?" With a nod to Rosinante. If she's told, he should too.

"I don't do much myself," he admits. "I can make things quiet. It's also pretty stupid."

Of course, downplaying his devil fruit is pretty much a regular pastime of his. No, it's nothing like the ope-ope fruit, but it has its uses. He's been reading up on how sound works, too, with books on physics from Dr. Solis' lab to try and see if he can come up with some new ideas, but it's slow going so far. Hard to merge the abstract nature of the science with what he intuitively feels in practice.

At least five uses for the ability to silence things spring immediately into her mind -- but that's not her business, is it? He's either unimaginative (she's not betting on that one) or he's downplaying his abilities just as she's downplaying hers. It's all a reflection of the distrust that suffuses the entire conversation.

"Well," she says lightly, "I suppose we can't all be the Surgeon of Death." Not quite a calculated provocation at Law, just a little verbal poke.

Funny how her words mirrored his thoughts - especially in that it's a bit of teasing, really. He smiles at that and shrugs. "Good thing, too. An epithet like that's a lot of pressure."

It's obvious enough that she's from Law's time and that makes it even easier for him to just be a nobody. He's just Rosinante here, a Marine who died in battle. Simple enough.

As for Law, he's been following their exchange with some amusement — not enough to show it, as he's not about to confirm the fact that Cora has been downplaying his ability here, but it is rather funny to see both of them omitting information in a similar manner.

(Oh, Reiju must be doing it too... and he's already wondering what kind of a fruit might give the ability to not get drunk, and what else it might do. He is a doctor, so extrapolating from that isn't really all that difficult.)

The comments that follow he takes in stride — it's exactly the kind of epithet he'd expect the Marines to come up with, really. But —

"It has its uses." Because people being afraid of him from the start has its advantages.

"I'm sure it does. There's power in a reputation, after all." Something Germa knows all too well -- and something that, right now, she's rather regretting. Wouldn't it be easier to have no reputation at all, so that this whole irritating little interview wouldn't need to happen? But on the battlefield, she's found equal utility in cloaking herself in the name.

"In any case, gentlemen, have we settled the matter?" She'd like this to be over. She's exhausted and cruising the edge of her energy and just wants to be finished until the time comes to deal with the World Eater.

"Yeah. Sorry. Just had to know."

He's not particularly sorry and he's certainly not done - but he'll allow her the reprieve. More can be gained by watching for a while, and learning through conversation. And all of that they'll have time to do later once their existence isn't quite under such threat. She's proven helpful enough, and while he'll sure keep an eye on her, there is no reason to suspect she's any more trouble than most of the people here - and they all have one very terrifying enemy to face together.

"I suppose... for now."

Law smirks at her, as if to say, we'll find out eventually, before he turns away, Kikoku slung over his shoulder.

(He means it, too — he's sure it won't take much to find out at least some of her secrets. For now, they managed to unsettle her some, and he counts that as a success.)

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EVENT LOG: BEYOND THE SEA

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