[Drowned Trilogy] Waterlogged

[ಠ_ಠ]

climb the tree

[Lilium Mortem]

climb the tree

Climb the dome

[Winds]

You are overwhelmed by the urge to climb things.

You want to climb the tree, you want to climb the dome, the dome looks far less climbable than the tree due to the sheer wall that precedes it. You decide to compromise these desires by climbing the tree and then jumping to the dome.

You grab onto a lower branch, pull yourself up, and begin to climb. The process is surprisingly easy. Daisy’s paper skin is also surprisingly durable.

After a few good minutes of climbing, you are at the same height as the dome, from here you can see how it sits atop a square building, and the small walkway that encircles it.
 

You make a mental note of the landing zone.

You go for it.

You nail the landing, and feel pretty awesome in the process.

As you’re standing up something inside the building catches your eyes.
 

The figure moves down the hallway with purpose. But something about them feels strange, off even, as if you weren't looking at a normal person. The strange feeling isn't what stops you though. What gives you pause is another sense, far fainter than the person's general strangeness, but much more familiar. You remember this second sense from when Damien had broken into Daisy’s apartment, this is like the feeling of scrap magic but… different. And while you can't tell how, it's not different in a way you like, it makes your head hurt.

>...

[Lilium Mortem]

are they doing anything suspicious? if yes, break into the dome in a shower of glass. if no, climb the dome.

[ಠ_ಠ]

>donut break in, just watch and learn

[Winds]

For a few moments you consider dropping down and confronting the person in a shower of glass. You think it’d be pretty glorious. but also, that… might not also be the best idea, keeping track of all your thoughts is a bit difficult!

The figure just continues to walk down the hall, glancing over their shoulder as if to make sure they weren’t being followed.

That is enough to make you want to keep watching. You start to climb the dome, but feel the glass shift slightly under your weight and make a creaking noise as a crack appears in the pane. You pull back, the floor is a ways down from where you are, and you’re not sure if Daisy’s body is that durable.

Resolved to still jump down somewhere and follow the person you circle around the dome. Luckily, there’s an access hatch on the far side, almost invisible except for a faint outline of where the glass is separated.

Gently, you manage to separate the pieces and drop down on the balcony above the hallway. From there the floor is a much shorter drop away, one that you manage quite easily with a slight thud. Not as cool as falling down in a shower of glass… but on second thought maybe drawing attention wasn’t the best idea. 

You see the figure freeze, a long way down the hall at this point, near a branching path, they start to glance back over their shoulder again. Now with fewer obstacles between you and them, that uncomfortable scrap magic feeling is just worse, and they seem even more… off.
 

Show Content

alt text A figure with long straight hair in what looks like a brown space suit turns and looks ominously over their shoulder, they are surrounded by visual static/distortions.

>You should probably try and hide.

[Winds]

You pull yourself back and stay close to the wall, thankfully, Daisy’s body being made of paper means there isn’t actually much noise from your sudden steps. From around the corner you hear some shuffling, indistinct noises of movement.

You stay quiet, taking a moment to collect yourself. The outdoors were a lot less stressful than here. You can see outside to another grassy area through large arched windows just across the hallway.

After a few moments of silence you hear more noises of movement and although they didn’t come closer, they also didn’t seem to be getting any farther. An audible clicking noise rang out through the hallway, like a briefcase being opened.

After another few painfully slow seconds you hear a hiss that sounds like air escaping something.

And then a wave of nausea and dizziness hits you.
 

You close your eyes for a moment to try and steady yourself. When you open them, you can see the scene in front of you warping and shattering into multicolored light, the same sort of visual static that surrounded the figure seemed to be spreading, and growing in intensity.

Your head pounds with pain. Where have you seen this before?

[skinstealer]

cover your face if possible, it sounds like there might be some kind of gas or breathable substance judging from the hiss...best to get out of here before it gets worse, but move carefully

[Winds]

You quickly wrap Daisy’s cloak around your face, covering in some hope of protecting yourself from anything in the air. Unfortunately, the sudden shuffling makes a bit of noise.

???: Hm. 


You hear the click of a handheld transceiver of some kind. And then a voice from around the corner.

???: Slate Gamma Command this is Alpha-Seven, There’s someone nearby me, requesting clearance to investigate, Over. 

Their voice is harsh and scratchy.

???: Hey, I dunno who you are but it is way past curfew. So I’d suggest your sorry ass come out here with your best excuse before I find you.

The visual static and headache get worse and you start to feel a bit sick, it’s… so familiar.
 

???: And before all this gets to you. 

Now through the nausea and the headache you feel a growing anger and hunger. This isn’t good.

>What do you do? 

[ಠ_ಠ]

Jump through the window into the grassy area and keep running. If anyone asks you can say you were disoriented.

[Winds]

Fuck it, staying right here is a bad idea. You’ll make a break for it. Right through the window. 

Alright, Three…. Two…

???: What? Are you scared?

One…

You lunge forwards, angling your shoulder into the thick pane of glass.

???: Holy fuck.

At first, you start to panic, the glass didn’t break, you just gave away your position-

But then you feel the cold night air on your skin. Seems that the whole pane of glass got knocked out of the frame.

You hear the crackle of their radio transceiver behind you, but you don’t hear what’s said to them. But you do hear their response.

???: Ugh, fuck, fine. Never allowed to do anything fun. 

As you run through the grass, back through another doorway, you thankfully don’t hear footsteps behind you.
 

But now you have to decide where to go, you recognize signs for the labs and for where Daisy’s bedroom is… But you could also keep wandering...

[skinstealer]

go for daisy's bedroom, shouldn't risk getting in more trouble and you don't want to be caught outside of your room when these kind of shady shenanigans are going on

[Winds]

You decide to head back to Daisy’s room.

Thankfully the signs are easy enough to understand, and you remember her room being in a pretty unique spot in Verity’s castle. 

But still, you find it hard to calm down until you’ve actually made it there.

Once your feet hit the soft red carpet then you relax.
 

Everything feels bigger in here at night, and after that whole thing you mostly just want to lie down.

You flop onto Daisy’s bed, rolling onto your side, when something catches your eye that brings back a familiar memory.

 

Daisy’s pill bottles sit on the night-stand, the medication she takes for being a monster.

You remember a dream about a horror, and about a sick feeling and a horrible headache, and the effects of radiation.

[skinstealer]

don't linger too long on the dream unless you feel like you can process any significant information from it about daisy's life and/or situation, is my vote

[Winds]

You roll onto your back, and stretch out. You feel… tired.

Yeah, tired sounds about right, you’re still not sure how to feel about everything that just happened. Or if you should say anything. Or.

DAISY: Ugh… hey uh… sorry about that
DAISY: Woah you seem stressed


You can sense her worried expression in your head.
 

You’re not sure how she could tell that, but it wasn’t wrong.

But also there’s something different about her, just for a second.

YOU: Yeah… I think so?

But then the difference is gone

DAISY: What does that mean?
 

YOU: I think I am a bit stressed.
DAISY: Are you okay? It’s really late, what happened while I was out?

Ahhh fuck, what do you want to say to this.

[skinstealer]

uhhHHHHHH tell her about the Adventure™ you had, be honest because this could end up having serious consequences for you both

[victorianflorist]

Yes, be honest, and while we're on it, did we take both of the doses of medication we need?

[Winds]

You decide that you need to be honest with Daisy, hiding something that might have serious consequences for you both is bad. And lying is uncool anyway.

YOU: So uh… we might have fucked up a bit.
DAISY: What do you mean fucked up?

You take a big mental breath.

 

YOU: Well, so, we woke up after you fell asleep underneath a tree. We decided we wanted to climb the tree-
DAISY: Really?
YOU: Yeah. Uh, anyway.
YOU: So we climbed the tree, then got on the roof of one of the lower to the ground parts of the castle. And when we were up there we saw someone in this weird… large like… suit sort of thing?
DAISY: suit?
YOU: Yeah, it was big and large and it covered their entire body. And it looked durable
DAISY: What like a dangerous materials suit?
YOU: Maybe? Anyway, they, uh, seemed suspicious so we climbed down to follow them. But they almost saw us. And their behavior was making them seem even more suspicious.
DAISY: Suspicious how?
YOU: It was just their vibe, like. They felt off. They felt like.

You paused, not sure what to say.
 

DAISY: What did they feel like?

Daisy’s words were tense, not necessarily angry, but definitely tense.

YOU: When Damien was in your apartment, and he was using that Scrap, it felt sorta similar to that. At least at first.
DAISY: Okay I’ll… we can get back to that, but… what else happened?
YOU: Well, there was a weird sound. And then we got really sick and really dizzy and our vision started to go blurry

You could feel Daisy’s concern spike at that.

DAISY: Wait, blurry like all distorted with color and… and.
DAISY: That sounds like how I get with radiation exposure
DAISY: What the fuck was someone doign with something that could give off radiation in the castle
DAISY: Did they say anything?
 

You think back to what you heard.

YOU: Yeah, actually. They first uh. It sounded like the radioded a superior or something, then they threatened to attack us.
YOU: So we took our chance and ran, we kinda knocked a window out of its frame. But they weren’t following us, so we just came right back here.
YOU: Oh yeah, you said something about radiation, are we supposed to take any pills tonight?


You didn’t really realize how much had actually happened in that short time period until just now, now you’re feeling nervous too.


DAISY: Two from the biggest bottle and one from the smallest.
YOU: Okay.
DAISY: Can you try to let me see… or feel what happened? If you can't, that's fine. But I’d like to know.


You weren’t sure if that’d work, but you tried to anyway, whatever that meant.

DAISY: Okay well… I’m getting something. I…

Daisy’s voice trails off, and she stays silent for a while. She sounds nervous.
 

DAISY: What did that person say when they radioed someone else?
YOU: They said something about, “Slate Gamma Command” or whatever? They called in as “alpha seven”

Daisy’s nervousness spikes even more, her thoughts getting shaky.

DAISY: That’s not a unit of our military I’m familiar with. And what you’re describing is… There’s someone that’s carrying around something emitting horror radiation. And you feel scraps on them. This is really not good.
DAISY: ... Fuck, I don’t know what to do here.

[skinstealer]

ask daisy if she thinks you should do any digging on this, or if it's best to lay low for a bit

[Winds]

YOU: Well, do you think we should like, dig into this?
DAISY: That’s the thing, I just don’t know, if… if this IS someone breaking in here or… then it’d be really important to stop them. But I haven’t been involved in the military here for a long time.
DAISY: And if there is someone carrying around something that’s emitting horror radiation, I don’t know if...
DAISY: Maybe I would be the best to handle it of most of the people here
DAISY: But Still.
 

YOU: Well, like... what would happen either way.
DAISY: If it’s someone with Aspersion, Verity would probably get upset if I messed with them, though I’m sure she’d understand if I explained the situation.
DAISY: If it’s NOT someone with Aspersion, then… then they need to be stopped.
YOU: Then I’ll go look
DAISY: Where was the last place you saw them?
YOU: Uh… they were heading towards the labs I think.
DAISY: Then let's go there. Grab my stave on the way out

You get up, making sure to take the pills that Daisy had mentioned earlier before grabbing Daisy’s scrap staff. 
 

YOU: Alright, let’s do this I guess

You head out the door and turn down the hallway as you retrace the steps you took not too long ago. 

DAISY: Hey… some questions while you’re heading over there
DAISY: One, are you sure you’re up to handling this? I could try to
DAISY: Two...
 

She seems hesitant

DAISY Earlier, when we were talking, I got this… image of some… person shaped thing in my head. Sorta following along with your words
DAISY: Do you know what that’s about?