crystal; brandel's reach liveblog (jaws theme)

[foxsays]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Araceli Bonaventura, Val de Foncé, Korrin Ataash, Helena
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Translating some markings, mysterious seabeasts, setting the hearts and minds of the Chantry at ease (with this squad??? It's more likely than you think)
WHEN: Waves hand at Solace
WHERE: Brandel's Reach
NOTES: Araceli is blue, Val is green, Helena is red and Korrin is purple.  Will update with anything else!

How is it coming señor de Foncé? Are we done? [Oh does Araceli sound hopeful? Does she sound tired? Is it just a trick of the cave bouncing her voice back at her or is it that she's probably aged ten years here with the dripping of the water all about her while she waits for whatever it is to be done.

Not even somewhere comfy to lounge.] I should've brought Fernando, he would've loved it out here. And how is it [and this is why the sending crystal is on, or maybe she just wanted everyone to hear her complaints re: Val's painstaking work to be heard by all] that waterproof ink doesn't exist here? It'd save many headaches, no?

If you were wanting to be inventing this waterpoof ink, and to give it to me-- [Val shouts, from somewhere across an echoing cave--where he is, by the way, hard at work, just because he isn’t doing anything demonstrably heroic does not mean his work lacks value--] --right now, in this moment, if you were wanting to invent this thing--then by all means! Invent away! But I can go no faster than I am.

I am personally more interested in these markings--astonishing! Do you know, they do not resemble anything that I have seen? No written language, they are all their own. Do you have any idea, the sort of discovery this-- Look, just here, you can see that the sea has been eradicating this part--but the markings here are stronger, and clearer, and they go all along here, see--down below the water, even--

Eradicates? [What slander is this?] The sea reclaims. Do you think maybe the people who went sailing off beyond the Amaranthine and never returned? [The cool kids who clearly found something so baller that the rest of Thedas got left behind, no forwarding address. Inquisition you may chime in whenever this is riveting stuff all this cool shit no one can see.]

( Helena is listening to these shouting people, unbothered by their sea bickering.
The giant devil woman she has met before is here, and the small one who sounds Spanish but is funny, and now the fancy French whose hair she sort of wants to ruffle. When she speaks, she sounds far off, and that’s probably because she’s scaling rocks in the cave to look for different angles, finding tiny crevices for hand and footholds on the seemingly slick surface and climbing towards a ledge and pile of boulders. Not that anyone can see that over the crystals, of course, but that’s why she sounds a little more distant, a little more echo-y. )

Pretty man. There are more markings up here. Cave-in, I think, blocking off higher tunnel.

( And then the irregular tap-tap-tap-tap of something - a rock, presumably - being pulled away and tossed down into the lower part of the tunnel. )

Fernando, here? That would be entertaining while we wait, at least. Though I don’t even want to imaging trying to wrangle him for the return trip. [Ignoring the sea bickering -because Araceli can hold her own, and there are other issues to address- Korrin glances over and up to the climbing Helena, admiring her skill. She frowns at mention of a cave-in, though.]

Let me help with that, it’s better than standing around waiting for him to finish. [She’ll climb enough to see what Helena’s talking about, then attempt to energize some of the rubble...carefully, not wanting to trigger an incident.]

[In the midst of the chatter, there's a noise. Easily overlooked but coming from the water, not the lapping of the tide but a disturbance. How do you do fellow kids.]

Comments

[degenere]

[Scholarly interest is not the same as underestimating; appreciation for natural wonder is not the same as befriending sea-beasts.

And Val would say all of this, except he has been seized about the waist and is being dragged toward the water.

The force pulls Val off of his feet. He drops his sketchbook and his pencil; his satchel drags and catches, looped around a rocky outcropping by the strap. The cetus wins that battle of strength easily, and the satchel is yanked over Val's head and left behind, sad and abandoned. He tries to grab for that same outcropping as he's pulled away from it, but it slips past his fingers as he's dragged over stone and sharp pebble, with the force of the cetus' tail tight around his waist.

The whole affair is dizzying, but even in the moment he thinks of what strength the cetus has, for what seems to be an adolescent. And then the cetus squeezes a little harder, as it muscles him over a swathe of pebbles that are particularly sharp, and a little brackish water, and Val thinks, Shit.

It's not until he has been pulled to the edge of the water and is struggling gamely to breathe that the Qunari woman rushes forward with a bloody glowing sword. Timely.]

[foxsays]

What are you do--

[Is she addressing Korrin or the cetus or both of them, there's no time to think about that when her aborted grab for Val falls short, hands grabbing empty air instead of a handful of shirtsleeve. Her eyes lock with the cetus again, as if she might just will it to let go (the sea considers all things its due, and hadn't she not so long ago spoken of it reclaiming?) and already there is Silkdart in her hand.]

Let him go now. [As stern and flat as she might manage, the same tone used for Lux and Fernando when they're being difficult.

Not that it matters because the cloak is made of something firmer than leather, something with a certain slickness to it that does have the feel of some sea creature even if it's not seaskin, not something Araceli can name as she grits her teeth, cloak now up and over her mouth.

A few steps back to take a run before she can make a dive for it, trying to keep out of its line of sight, and she won't need to breathe, can stay under the surface of the water to get to Val as she starts swimming along, a smooth sleek line with her heart in her mouth.]

SORRY FOR THE SLOW doing NPCing for the cetus in this tag as well for ease

[strangel]

( Helena's mouth is curled back in a snarl, and Tezpadam's Bane looses two arrows. The first misses as the creature thrashes suddenly, its small size and place in what it has come to consider its home lair giving some advantage. Her second arrow strikes, sinking into its neck, but its gaze stays focused on Araceli, as the fines around its face flare and something in its eyes burns brighter.

Unfortunately for Korrin (and Val), the strike with her blade is not enough, to free Val. Instead the cetus snaps Val back through the air and uses him to essentially bludgeon her, with the footing in the cavern slippery and hard keep balance on as is.

Electricity crackles over it, lightning arcs through the cavern, amplified by the water, striking each member of the party. )