video; un: glow is me

[massrez]

[ It's the first time he's addressed the network since arriving. Well. Arriving again< apparently. But what happened in the bathing halls needs to be known. Should be known. Even if to recount it now still brings a small shiver of discomfort.

He's spoken through worse. And his face is a resolute one when he addresses the network at large. ]

The bathing halls should be avoided if at all possible, at present. There appear to be figures forming themselves out of the dark water, made to resemble us. And it isn't just our faces they appear to be taking...

[ There's a momentary pause as his gaze goes distant, before steeling himself once more. ]

They know us. Our fears, our doubts. Wrathion and I were able to dispatch one of the creatures, but many more began to appear from the water's depths. Most were misshapen, half-formed...but all spoke with one voice. One mind, one will if that is possible.

They reached out to us, spoke from memories and dreams, offering to keep us and ours safe. They would do whatever we wanted or asked, just to be born. To exist. To be given form. They wanted us to wish them into existing. Then they were gone again, all at once, and the water had gone still once more.

[ Is there a trace of sympathy in his eyes? Perhaps. Am I worthy of existence? That question still rings in his mind, even now. ]

I would expect their desire has not ended so readily. Be cautious, should you come near large bodies of that dark water. I would not recommend doing so alone.

Comments

video; un: KINGOFTHEPIRATES

[bigsmile]

( Here's Luffy, tapping his chin as he thinks something over. )

When you say large bodies of dark water, could that include the sea?

[massrez]

Light help us, I certainly hope not.

These are no ordinary bodies of water. Deep black, almost the color of tar.

[bigsmile]

Light?

( Luffy glances around before coming back to the conversation at hand. That's not a phrase he's heard before. )

Sooo, they take on forms, like us. But they also know us because they know how we tick. Can they change after they take on a form? They look like you but then decide they want to look like me?

[massrez]

Erm, yes?

[ There's a faintly bemused blink from the young monarch. ]

And of that, I'm not sure. They want a form, any form, but they were focused on a singular one at the time.

They wanted to 'exist'. Whatever that means to them.

text; un: rrrzrr

[serio]

( for the life of him, he can't figure out how to work the video function so this guy's getting a text: )

I saw something on one of those sinking ships. It was more like a dark shadowy thing though. But it did take on the form of one of the men before it attacked us. Don't like the idea of these creatures being able to look like any one of us. Shouldn't the place be locked down?

[massrez]

[ He'll switch to text to match, it seems the polite thing to do. ]

It was locked down, but I'm afraid the earthquake destroyed the locks keeping that part of the barracks closed off.

Re-sealing the area might not be a bad idea, but if there's another such tremor, the effort may be for nothing.

[serio]

What's the whole deal with the earthquake anyway? Is there some kind of a giant creature wrecking havoc underground or something?

[massrez]

Hard to say. I'm not sure if a true cause has been determined.

I have my suspicions, but at the moment they're nothing more than that.

@whitewolf

[northerndragon]

[Jon looks visibly unsettled, and not a little disgusted.]

Seven hells.

I don't know how much it will help to say this, but everyone should listen to you. Everyone who hasn't run into something like this before needs to know.

Something like that tore into me, many moons back.

[massrez]

You've seen something like this before?

Where? When?

[Video, un: howl in one]

[mustact]

The living, the undead, these shapes in the water ...

[ He heaves a very quiet sigh. ]

Are these more lives that want to be granted freedom, or is it a trick?

[massrez]

It could have been manipulation, or desperation. It just seemed focused on being granted a form.

As though it needed help to do so. It certainly tried to take mine, but subsequent efforts were...sloppy. Unfinished. And it seemed to give up or run out of whatever power compelled it soon after.

[mustact]

Yet it spoke. Did the words seem like its own?

un: absterge

[downswing]

Purify, after.

[massrez]

I'm not sure even my power could cleanse the halls entirely, but I could certainly try.

Better than leaving it for someone else to run across.

[downswing]

Anduin. Purify your person.

un: of corpse not / audio

[nothinglikefather]

Are you alright? Wrathion is made of strong stuff, and I know you're no push-over, but that sort of thing can get through the cracks in your armour.

I... I'm only saying if you need someone to talk to, or get a drink with, I'm here.

[massrez]

...I wouldn't mind, actually.

[nothinglikefather]

Alright. Is there a watering hole around here you like? I can meet you there, or take you to a spot I know.

voice; un: man's greatest treasure

[reparo]

That sounds terrifying - and vaguely fungal. [A very brief pause, then,] Are you both well? Injuries, anything that needs looking after?

[massrez]

[ That's actually not entirely inaccurate. Why hadn't he considered that? ]

It would explain some of their actions. A hivemind, or collective conscious of some sort...

I'm fine. Wrathion is as well, as far as I can tell. It was no skilled fighter, whatever it was.

[reparo]

That's what it sounds like - one voice? One intention, perhaps - needless to say, it sounds creepy. What did you do to get out?

voice; un: daughter-sea

[seaboard]

[ quietly, just the one timid little voice at the end. ]

Water... water is the core of all beings.

But it is no Sea that would seek the form of the land creatures.

[massrez]

No, I wouldn't think so either.

I've lived all my life by the sea, but I've known nothing like this.

[seaboard]

My nature is shared with the depths... and I cannot feel the pull of them to anything of the city beyond the more general sense.

Though perhaps that is a matter of time.