it seems we require a bookmark, dear Keeper

perfect

:3

\\oO/

o/

\o

We pick up as Darrion, Brune, and Alex are waiting in the car, as Jack is off picking up food. Jack has just had a couple things catch his ears, as the others wait for his return.

Darrion stares back down at his phone and doesn't respond.

Brune quietly squeezes Darrion's elbow again, seeming a bit embarrassed to have opened up and trying to resume his usual measured stoicness, and stares out at the sand with a faintly disdainful look. The last time he tried to go out on the beach in the chair, it ended with having to scrub sand out of every nook and cranny of it for hours.

Alex stares listlessly at the radio diagnostics menu, watching the clock tick up.

In the car, you also hear the faint sound of a foghorn, rolling in from over the water.

Jack asks someone at the restaurant what frequency the radio is turned to, while he mentally tries to place the foghorn and the scream

Brune looks down at the necklace he is still holding, idly fingering the links as if pondering something about it he can't place, and glances over at Alex. "You're quite certain you don't want the necklace?"

"It burned my finger..."

"The radio?" The waiter looks over at it. "It's off..."

"It provides protection. I feel as if I have been selfish with it." There's a note in Brune's voice that implies he is a bit ashamed of having used up so much of its power on himself.

"Then what did I just hear from it ...?" Tone more quizzical than interrogatory

"Bleh." Alex, very gingerly, pokes the pendant on the necklace again.

The waiter shrugs, just as baffled as you are. "Sorry... I just work here."

@Ginger What is your intent as you touch the necklace?

Jack refocuses to try and locate the other two noises

to check if it's still hot, I suppose

The necklace has cooled somewhat.

noted

@AncientSwordRage Do you at this point exit the restaurant?

Brune offers it hopefully. "I would feel better if you took it from me for a while, all things considered."

"Anyway, your food should be ready in about in five minutes, cap'n."

@Mithical not yet, not until Jack gets the food or he hears something else

@Mithical Jack instinctively nods back, then mouths to himself "Captain...?"

(can Jack make a mental note of the waiter... Any distinguishing features?)

Alex dutifully accepts the necklace, holding it lightly.

Brune lets it go with the faintest tremble in his fingers.

@AncientSwordRage The foghorn came from the water on what would be your starboard side, if you were headed out of the docks on a ship. Do you have an applicable sailing skill that would let you gather more information on that front?

@Mithical Jack has Pilot (Boat)

@AncientSwordRage Shortish, maybe 27-28 years old. Straight light brown hair, a fringe blowing in the sea breeze, while the back just touches his neck. The nails on his thumbs are painted black. Underneath the waitor's apron, he's wearing a shirt emblazoned with the Queen logo.

@Ginger Do you accept the necklace with the intent of using it?

@AncientSwordRage That works. You can make a check to see if you can get more information.

Alex doesn't really have an intent, they just took it because Brune said they should

"...I do hope Jack is all right." Brune seems determined to valiantly pretend that everything is fine, he doesn't need the necklace, and he didn't have a mental breakdown twenty minutes ago. "It seems better that I stay with you for the time being. How are you feeling?"

@Ginger It begins to grow warmer in your hands.

@Mithical 52 > 40 (fail)

uncomfortably so?

Yes.

(the main thing I wanted was to see if the scream came from the same or similar location)

@AncientSwordRage You can't quite get a grasp on what direction it's going or how fast based on the horn.

@Mithical (gotcha)

@AncientSwordRage The scream came from the opposite direction: On the boardwalk, from one of the other buildings.

Did we hear the scream, too?

They nearly drop it on the floor; catching themself, they set it back on the seat. "It got hot again"

@Sciborg Make a Listen check.

"...Oh." Brune stares at it longingly.

@Mithical 27 against 40.

"I don't think your necklace likes me very much"

Yes, a faint scream makes its way through the car. It's definitely not Jack, but it's coming from the direction of the boardwalk. It comes immediately after the sound of the foghorn.

Brune wavers, then picks it up again and decisively clasps it back around his neck, bracing himself and screwing his eyes shut in case anything strange happens or he passes out.

@Sciborg It feels normal.

Alex, how long do you have left on the Insanity?

Brune exhales, sweeping it back into its usual place under his collar in an almost unconscious motion. He seems much calmer. "...Well, in that case, I suppose I'll hold onto it."

@Mithical how long has it been?

Uuuhhh. I don't remember what time it had been when the Insanity started.

Brune sharply turns his head in the direction of the boardwalk, hearing the scream. "Did you hear that?"

well, that's a problem :p

it's for seven hours, but if nobody knows how much time's passed in-game...

@Mithical (It was this morning around 11:00 that they got it, right? So three-ish hours down?)

(It's around 2:00-3:00 now)

is it, though? :b

(we just left bardot around 2:00 but it was probably another hour or two later...? up to Keeper)

It was 2:00 during the Bardot meeting. It's been about an hour since then, yeah, checking the transcript.

(cool cool)

Brune begins to roll instinctively towards the source of the scream, then stops, regretfully thinking of how much sand he'll get in his wheels if he does. "That sounded like someone needs help..."

so three hours left

"Huh?" Alex leans out of the car and stares in the direction Brune moved

"I heard a scream, down there -" Brune cranes his neck, trying to see if Jack is within view. "You're not in any state to run down there, stay put."

"As you wish"

"Jack!" Brune bellows, thunderously. He's mild-mannered, but when he wants to shout or bark orders, he can do a pretty damn good job.

Jack, make another Listen check to see if you can hear Brune.

@Mithical 34 > 20 (fail)

@Sciborg Your voice fades into the sea air unheeded.

"...Oh, blazes, he can't hear us." Brune looks pained at the fact that he can't reach someone in danger and has a second patient in the car who also needs help. And the phones certainly won't work to call for help, either. He dejectedly looks over at Alex. "This has not been a good day, has it."

The radio begins making noise again, both in the car and in the restaurant.

"I've had better ones, doctor"

Alex, make an Electronics check.

Brune slumps down in his chair, massages his temples with his palms, and goes quiet, ruminating and praying that Jack will come back soon.

Jack goes to pick up the radio and inspect it

@Mithical 62 > 60 :(

@Ginger (can you use luck?)

how does that work again?

You can spend three Luck points to push that roll to a success.

sure

@AncientSwordRage This is a massive, old-fashioned device, taking up a corner of the restaurant. It's a bit large to just lift casually, but you can certainly inspect it.

Deep in thought, Brune's gaze travels towards the center of town, where the church bell tower stands. He stares at it silently as if willing several disparate pieces of information to connect together and failing. ...the bells...

@Mithical yes please

...Dr. Bardot... the bells... Brune rubs his forehead, trying to push back the wave of nonsensical connections that keep trying to elbow their way in. ...something about those bells...

@Ginger You lean forward to inspect the radio. It's off, which in theory means that it shouldn't be playing anything. What that must mean is that there's something external acting on it. Something else emitting a radio signal, overriding the normal function of the radio. There are devices that turn a bluetooth signal into radio - there must be some sort of similar device acting nearby, but a much more powerful device.

@AncientSwordRage It's off. You can make an Electronics check, or you can turn it on (or both).

interesting...

(Don't forget that your Luck score has now decreased by three points.)

@Mithical both

yeah, I decremented it already

it's just making white noise?

@Ginger Do you turn it on as well?

Brune stares out blankly at the waves past the beach, seeming to silently demand that it give him answers. In his mind, Antonelli's words float past again. ...guilt... remorse... sustaining, strengthening, and empowering those beyond the Rivaille... guilt... He instinctively brushes the necklace again.

@Mithical well, what's it doing :p

@Sciborg Make a Spot Hidden check.

@Mithical 41 > 21 (fail)

@Mithical 34 vs. 34, wow. I'll drop a luck point on that.

@Ginger It's making a spurt of static every now and then. With a regular Success on the Electronics check, you're not entirely sure why.

right

My useless talent for rolling just one or two points off the number continues.

Alex leans forwards and flips it on. What's it tuned to?

@Sciborg A strand of seaweed floats by, its color disturbingly unique... and familiar.

Alex and Jack both turn the radio on. From your respective places, you hear David Bowie crooning. "There's been many others so many times... Sixty new cities and what do I, what do I find?... I want love so badly, I want you most of all..."

Brune stares at the floating seaweed sharply, and goes a little pale. Without saying a word, he vigorously grabs the wheels and starts pushing himself towards the sand, determined to make it down there even if he has to use all the strength left in him. It's as if the sea itself has given him an answer he was looking for.

Alex twiddles the dial a bit.

With a burst of static, it cuts out, and Frank Sinatra takes over. "How little it matt-" kststsk, back to Bowie - "It's harder to fall, can you hear me call?"

Yes, a voice in Brune's head murmurs.

"Can you hear me?" continues David Bowie.

Alex, your Brune is escaping.

I understood that reference!

Alex mutters "Do I want to?" and twiddles the dial a bit more.

"Alex," Brune calls over his shoulder as he fights vigorously across the sand, seemingly remembering he has a patient. "Stay put. Wait for Jack."

Jack tries changing the station

"mkay"

"Well, can you hear me? Yeah... Can you feel- kkksssssstt"

@AncientSwordRage It's the same thing, until it suddenly cuts out and goes to static.

Brune proceeds to do whatever the equivalent of off-road driving is in a chair.

He seems determined to make it down to the water.

@Sciborg You bump over the sand, the slats of the boardwalk, and roll toward the water. The seaweed coils and unfurls in the waves, seemingly caught on something.

Brune stares it for a moment, fascinated and more than a little obsessed, and then looks around for anything long enough to fish it out.

Make a Luck check.

(I'm going heavy on the rolls today, I know.)

49 against 59, assuming that I spent a point on the Spot Hidden earlier.

You find a broken board, half-buried under the sand. It should be long enough to reach the seaweed, which is maybe five feet out from the shore.

@Mithical can I figure out what frequencies the static is on?

@AncientSwordRage Turning the dial, it's on all the frequencies in between 34.2 and 115.8.

"...Excellent," Brune says, and with some effort strains to grab it. He rolls back towards the water and proceeds to play a very high-stakes long-distance game of Operation.

Alex twiddles the dial some more. Do they know if the static is replacing stations that would normally be playing?

The wooden slat reaches the seaweed, but it doesn't seem to catch. The seaweed slides off the board like oil and water.

noted

"Damn you," Brune hisses, as if the seaweed can hear him.

He pulls the board back.

Alex turns the volume down and slides over to the window of the car facing the ocean.

@Ginger Brune is sitting in his wheelchair, waving a stick at the ocean.

a normal Brune thing to do

just Brune things

A gust of wind catches you, the sand blowing across your face.

Brune strains harder, even though all this exertion is starting to spark some twinges of neuropathy pain in his back, and tries one more valiant swipe.

Nope. The board doesn't seem to have what's needed for the seaweed to catch.

"Damn... it," Brune snarls, and winces as he pulls back; a tight, familiar, squeezing band of pain is starting to throb around his spine. He gives up the fight and shouts back up at the car, "Alex! Can you walk?"

Jack, your food is brought over to you.

"Maybe?" Alex opens the door and climbs out, squinting in the wind.

@Mithical Jack grabs it, says a curt "Thank you." And hobbles back towards the car

"There's - mmph - there's something in the water," Brune manages, through gritted teeth. "I can't reach it."

Do I see it?

@Ginger Yes. It's a pale green piece of long seaweed, with thin, electric-blue streaks running through it.

"It's seaweed, Doctor..."

Brune screws his eyes shut, looking in actual pain. Now is the worst time for his spine to be acting up. "We need a sample of that seaweed. It's the same seaweed that Jack found on that man on the beach. We need to know what it is."

Alex dutifully walks over, considering the various culinary uses of seaweed.

Brune hisses, flexing his fingers, and focuses inward to ignore the fact that his spine now feels like it's being crushed in a vise. It's always severe but brief. He definitely should not have done all the things he just did.

@Mithical how long until Jack is back at the car?

It's about a four-five minute walk, I think? You arrive to find only Darrion in the car, staring at his phone blankly.

"There's a board over there..." Brune shakily points.

@Mithical Jack lets out a bellow "DOC! .... ALEX...?"

You can hear Jack shouting for you.

Alex turns around at the shout. "He's back! Does he have food?"

Brune looks over at once, relief washing over his expression despite the flush in his face. "Oh, thank God." Then, raising his voice, "Over here!"

Jack puts the food in the car, and starts looking for them both

Jack lopes over to see where Brune has gotten to, "Stay where your at, and I'll come where your to" Jack calls out

(this is in my opinion, one of the most Bristolian phrases ever)

Brune heaves out a few slow, pained breaths and clutches the armrests, his face screwed up in pain. The crushing sensation is retreating, slowly, but he knows from experience it'll be back later tonight. He looks like he needs a doctor of his own. "Before it washes away, hurry."

@Sciborg "Afore what washes away?"

Brune gestures, with some effort, at the seaweed floating in the water.

"Did you get..." He wipes sweat off his face with his sleeve.

@Sciborg "Back at the car... Do you need the seaweed...?"

"Supposedly." Alex is distracted by the possible presence of seafood at the car.

"Yes," Brune says, emphatically, in a this is a missing piece in the puzzle and by God I need it voice. "Alex, you should go back up to the car..." He exhales as the pain finally recedes.

Jack takes the wood from Brune and uses it to try to fish out the seaweed

"There was screaming down here earlier." Brune goes to wipe his face with his tie, then remembers he gave it to Darrion and uses his sleeve again instead. "I don't suppose you saw anyone..."

The wood knocks against a rock where the seaweed is caught, but the seaweed refuses to wrap around or to be caught on the wood.

Alex doesn't need to be told twice; they start back up the hill with thoughts of seafood in their head.

@Mithical Jack looks around for something else to help grab the seaweed

@Ginger There's a steaming plate of seafood, salty and fishy, just waiting for you.

@AncientSwordRage Nothing else seems like it would be long enough to reach.

Brune eyes Jack nervously, seeming to have already made the conclusion that swimming will be required and waiting to see if he's willing.

@Mithical what options does Jack have besides wading in and grabbing it by hand?

Alex briefly turns around to yell "Probably a bad idea to get in the water, looks pretty chilly" before resuming their ascent with renewed vigor.

@AncientSwordRage Not many.

@Mithical what are the few he has?

"I wouldn't endanger yourself for it," Brune hedges. "We know what can happen when people emerge from that water."

Are there any utensils on hand :p

You could leave it alone, or you could in theory try to spear it with something and drag it back towards you, but that'd require finding the tools to do so.

@Ginger There's probably some plastic stuff in the to-go box.

@Mithical "If only I had my cane..."

Jack starts wading in

"Jack," Brune says, warningly. "Be careful..."

"Careful's my middle name" Jack says, almost by rote, not at all convincingly

The seaweed coils and waves, waiting.

As Jack gets closer he tries to get at it with the wood

Alex, now entirely oblivious, ravenously consumes the seafood.

Brune smiles bitterly, watching him slosh through the water. What are we but a ragtag bunch of strangers with memories, he muses. And yet already I am terrified of losing them.

It still stubbornly refuses to come with the wood.

@Ginger Make a Cthulhu Mythos check.

oh joy

@Mithical Jack gets closer clawing and scraping at it with the end of the wood

36 > 5

surely this is fine

You lift the end of the seaweed with the plank of wood. It slips off with a splash, and threatens to dislodge from whatever it's caught on.

"Jack..." Brune says, hesitantly. "You may need to..." He sounds very anxious at the prospect.

He distinctly remembers what Jack's hands looked like last time he made contact with the stuff.

@Mithical Jack takes off his Jacket, stowing his pocket watch and phone in his trousers and positions himself to scoop it into the jacket

@Ginger The fish is great. It's just, hmm, missing something. Salt, maybe? Some sort of spice? Lemon juice? Mglw'nafh? Parsley?

(o-o)

If only Alex had a shaker of mglw'nafh with them

@AncientSwordRage Make a Dex check.

@Mithical 66 > 50 (fail)

Alex mentally notes the discrepancy. They'll be sure to tell the cook about it later.

You can't quite grasp it with the jacket, unfortunately. You almost get it in, but at the last second it slips out again.

It dislodges from whatever it had been stuck on and begins to float out.

Brune silently looks down at his sand-covered wheels and idly brushes some sand off, thinking that it wasn't so long ago that his wife would be drying off his chair with a towel while chastising him about taking his son out in the rain to play in puddles and getting them both soaking wet, and now he has nobody to take care of himself but himself.

@Mithical Jack tries to combine both the wood and jacket before it gets dislodged

Jack starts to wade after it, banking on his height meaning her needn't swim

"Careful," Brune says again, anxiously, looking back up to see what's happening. "I don't need any more patients today."

is he trying your patients? :p

:p

The failure with the jacket causes it to become dislodged. You can try to get it with the wood and jacket one more time, but since both methods have proven to be ineffective, it's going to be a difficult check to make to succeed on that. It's floating faster than you can wade, so it's going to be out of reach soon.

(decisions, decisions)

Farther out, the prow of a large ship, cruise-ship size, comes into view through the haze.

@Mithical Jack ditches the jacket and the wood and dives after it

"Jack!" Brune says, sharply, terrified.

With a sharp pain, it wraps around your non-dominant hand, feeling as if a row of needles has just punctured your skin. You lose one hit point, and there's a slight trail of red as blood floats in the water. It's latched to your arm. As you pull your arm out of the water, from the other end dangles a fish, stuck fast to the seaweed.

ouch

Alex continues to be happily oblivious.

"Great Scott. Jack!" Brune rolls urgently closer, dropping everything immediately at the sight of blood. "Are you hurt? Where is it?"

wait, do they literally know that the food is missing... whatever that was, or were you just being funny :b

@Mithical Jack grimaces through the pain and tries to drag it back to land

@Ginger The phrase pops into your head as you're eating it, but you don't know what it means. It has some sort of association with the hunger you're feeling and being unable to fully satiate it.

noted

@AncientSwordRage It trails in the water, the fish bouncing in and out as you wade back to shore. Your jacket wraps around your leg in the water.

@Mithical Jack picks up the jacket and tries to get the seaweed into it and wrap it up

"Pressure on it and keep it level, quickly -" Brune makes a grab for Jack's arm as he emerges, then stops dead, seeing that the seaweed is wrapped around it. "What in the blazes -"

Pulling at the seaweed hurts. You're not going to be able to get it off by yourself while wading back.

@Mithical Face scrunched in pain, Jack just makes sure he recovers his jacket

Then makes his way over to Brune, "Doc, get it off.... Into the jacket..."

The sight of a patient in pain overrides any logical instincts. Brune grabs his arm, coaches, "Deep breaths - all right, one, two -" and then seizes a fistful of the seaweed and yanks in one swift motion, like he's pulling off a Band-Aid.

Ouch.

😬

Ouch.

Ouchies

Listen, it's better if it's off him

The seaweed, with resistance, comes off. As you pull, you can tell that it's covered in tons of small spikes, protruding from the lower side of the seaweed, digging in from several directions at once, like a burr. The puncture wounds begin to bleed, the blood running down Jack's arm. Brune, from where you grabbed, you get some spikes in your hand as well.

It looks sort of like a cat's tongue, but harder and somewhat barbed.

Jack, it hurts.

"Shit." Brune swears violently and shakes his hand, trying to get the burrs off, and grabs at the jacket. "We need to put pressure on that - I'm very sorry -"

Oh, it's not just a burr stuck, you've got a small section of the seaweed stuck to you now.

Oh, good!

@Mithical Jack turns the air blue with expletives

The salt water stings as the water runs down the seaweed, mixing with the blood, the salt irritating the open skin.

The commotion finally attracts Alex's attention; they blanch at the blood, clearly visible even from the car

"Alex!" Brune bellows. He fumbles to pull the jacket out of Jack's hand and wraps it tightly around Jack's arm, trying to soak up some of the blood and water. "Dear God, I am so sorry, it's better that than you end up like that poor sod in the water -"

Mentally, they're split between going to help and the overwhelming desire to keep eating

The pressure helps somewhat with the bleeding, but Jack's probably going to need some sort of painkiller.

@Mithical Jack's already on painkillers for his back...

Brune applies ferocious pressure to the wound to try and slow the bleeding, or at least as hard as he can given that his own hand is currently throbbing. "We need to get you back to the hotel. Or I have pills at the house - shit - come on, back to the car now -"

"Where... Where's the seaweed?" Jack says hobbling back

"Doesn't matter now," Brune says, sharply. "Come on - come on - we need to get this cleaned up properly -"

"I didn't wade out there for nothing... Where," he says through gritted teeth and watering eyes, "Where is it?!"

Brune swivels back, trying to see if it fell after he yanked it.

is Darrion in the front seat?

(the passenger seat, that is)

It's trailing after you, caught on your chair.

(can we call the session over?)

"...On my chair, don't touch it." For once Brune is grateful that his wheels are covered in sand. "Let's go, come on now..."

@AncientSwordRage (should probably wait until we're all in the car)

(okay to call it here so darrion can respond to the chaos :p)

@Ginger yes

@AncientSwordRage (thumbsup)

@Ginger (I need to go)

ty all :)

fine by me

ouchies

"good" session

birb I was expecting at least some sort of check before you just yanked it out :p

brune is a little unstable at the moment :p

"weird eldritch thing has just attached itself to patient -> patient is in pain from thing -> remove thing"

i'm very sorry, ferret

@Sciborg it was exciting!

@Ginger thanks

(I'm back, but also need to go make dinner)

poor jack

all circumstances conspired to make him grab it :p

isn't it strange how that happens

fun fact: "mglw'nafh" most likely translates to "dead/death" :D

:D