(no subject)

[cspd]

[ Hello, gang. For those who've yet to meet him, Lloyd is a twentyish guy, wearing a jacket that has "Crossbell State Police Department" logos on it, and today he is looking businesslike.

...really, "businesslike" and "sheepish" are his two default settings, so you're gonna get used to those pretty quick. ]

Okay, so. As I mentioned somewhere in the sea of introductions: I've picked up a few new tricks here. First and foremost, I can detect magic, so naturally, I've been sniffing around here.

Aside from the Heartstone itself, and what we've brought in ourselves, there's very little here. If it had much to it, it left with the people...except there's...well, something down below, and something is about as much as I can make out from here. There's a lot in the way.

[ Pause to scratch the back of his neck for a moment before the sales pitch. ]

I want to try and get far enough down below to get a better idea of what's there and whether we should be paying attention to it. I've found a few places where the basements are busted up enough to have some potential as entry points.

I also don't particularly want to do this without some backup in case something happens.

Anybody up for exploring?

Comments

[wheyoftheadept]

Goin' in knowin jack-shit's my specialty.

[she cracks her knuckles.]

I go by Saturday. What can I call you?

[millenyal_pink]

Can I get in on this? Because I would love to figure out what's going on here.

[Elle will gladly go snooping about. She loves snooping. Oner of her top 5 favorite types of sneaking around for sure.]

[wheyoftheadept]

Ain't it obvious? We're Chosen Heroes pulled across space an' time to save this world from a dire threat. Happens t'me all the time.

[millenyal_pink]

I meant with the Trolls and the Heartstone, but I suppose more a more general direction would be helpful as well.

A 'dire threat' could mean anything. I need information before I put on my super suit.

[wheyoftheadept]

Based on th'general tenor of things I'd say assume it's magical. You got magic where you're from?

[millenyal_pink]

A shit ton. You?

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday grins one of those grins where it's just an excuse to bare your teeth]

Oh, we're swimmin' in it. Cause of and solution to all our problems, kinda deal. So: unknown magical Something buried under a place that used to be where people lived, an' know has some kinda magical ward and border around it that protects an' traps us.

Best case scenario, it's the off button for the ward effect. Worst case, it's whatever did this to these people.

[millenyal_pink]

I mean, the sunlit is what did this to these people, right? So maybe the Heartstone was keeping their cavern safe and stable, as well as warding off potential attackers.

[Elle still isn't convinced that the Heartstone is the source of whatever teleportation magic has been affecting everyone.]

[wheyoftheadept]

[she makes a so-so gesture]

Eh, been hearing that around, not totally sure where it came from so I'm callin' it information received for now. But what I mean is - if that story's the full one, then the heartstone probably was what protected them, cause, the name an' all. So if something subverted it, or drained it, could be the fucker's still down there.

[millenyal_pink]

I didn't hear it from anyone-- you can tell by the way the sun lights up the cavern. The statues are all in spots that get direct sunlight at the same time of day. I think the ceiling cracked open and some of their people didn't make it.

But yeah, the Heartstone definitely has some sort of magical power that got fucked up.

[cspd]

That was my conclusion, too. Whether the Heartstone losing power caused the ceiling to crack, or whether there was a disturbance big enough to open the ceiling and also mess up the Heartstone - that's still up for debate, but the sunlight theory is well founded.

[ Detective Certified™. ]

Maybe whatever we find down there can tell us more.

[millenyal_pink]

[Now that she takes a closer look, she realizes this guy's one of the fucking cops. Oh boy, this should be interesting.]

If shit goes sideways, I can tank and DPS.

[Not as well as the Garou, other than maybe Stacia, but certainly better than these squishy humans. Or humanoid, in Saturday's case. Elle doesn't want to assume.]

[wheyoftheadept]

[Squishy!? You are talking to a twice-initiated adept, lady!]

I'm DPS myself. That's the one where you move fast and beat the shit out of people before they can touch you, right?

Anyway, only way to find out what's down there is by lookin'

[cspd]

Absolutely. Three's a good number, anyway - more punch, but still small enough not to get bogged down too badly if we have to make a hasty exit.

[cspd]

I'm Lloyd. Glad to have you along, Saturday.

[wheyoftheadept]

Nice t'meetcha, Lloyd. Whereabouts you from?

[cspd]

Crossbell State, on the continent of Zemuria. Which...I've yet to meet anyone recognizing here, so I'm not expecting that to mean much.

[wheyoftheadept]

Nope, don't mean a thing.

I'm from Seattle, out Redmond way, an' I bet that means about the same to you.

[cspd]

That it does. [ Awkward laugh. ]

[wheyoftheadept]

[She grins warmly and laughs with him]

Don't worry about it. I've done this before - y'do get used to a new kind of small talk, eventually.

[cspd]

I hope so! I've had a lot of awkward conversations in my life, but finding a shared acquaintance with someone from a completely different reality, who they met in a third one...that was pretty weird, even after the weirdness I have lived through.

[wheyoftheadept]

Oh, that's a good one. Just here I met a guy who I'd met before, but he hadn't met me before. He wasn't from his past, an' I wasn't from his future. He was just a version of the guy who'd never met me.

[she mimes her head exploding]

[cspd]

.... [ The noise Lloyd makes at that is difficult to describe, but mostly seems to convey some level of "what even." ]

I won't say I want to go back to my life before multiple realities starting being a thing I have to worry about...but sometimes the simplicity would be welcome.

[wheyoftheadept]

Yeah, right? You think shit's complicated back home, then it turns out there's a whole multiverse out there ready t'fuck you up.

[cspd]

I thought I was getting pretty hard to surprise, after I accidentally adopted a homunculus who could rewrite the timeline!

[ AND THEN....he was not. ]