Our story resumes as Alex and Brune have begun to discuss the similarity - or lack thereof - of their respective problems, sitting in the Cleft Caves in a dream-state of the Unwaking.
"Likely not." Brune shifts uncomfortably on the cave floor again, looking at his damp chair as if silently impressed it has survived so much damage over the course of the past week. "But then again, I suspect we still haven't the slightest idea the extent of our current problems."
"I don't know what our plan is now, or why we're here." Brune takes off his spectacles and begins viciously scrubbing water off the lenses with his sleeve. "Frankly, I don't know much of anything anymore. I don't know what we're up against. I don't know how to stop whatever is happening to Alex. I don't know how to stop Krath, or Seapo, or any of them. The only thing I have accomplished today is to finally accept that perhaps I am not a hideous beast after all, which I suppose is something."
@bobble Jack wipes his still hands on his ruined jacket nonchalantly, "Didn't give a name. Kept trying to convince me how lenient it had been. Blasted thing thought we owed it a favour."
"Yes, I am," Brune says, firmly - without argument, for the first time. "I'm a damn good doctor." He puts his spectacles back on and massages his forehead with his palm. "But by God, if I only knew the cure for what ails us now."
"Well, if we're stuck here, maybe we can go over all our evidence again. Alex said something about-" Darri recalls how Alex seemed to just get a thing he looked for "-uh, well, I sometimes have a pen and notebook on me...?" Turning his hands to the sky, Darri stage-whispers, "only in my bag, but still." He now tries to find a notebook, so he's definitely too distracted to see ripples.
"Evidence." Brune massages his temples again, seeming fierce, composed and calm for the first time in a while. "All right. There's plenty to choose from. We know, at least, when the end is coming. We know some of the powers at play. We know some of the people involved - mmf." He shifts again as he starts to slide down a bit. "Could someone kindly move that a bit closer?"
"Thank you -" Brune grips the side of the chair for leverage and starts to pull himself slowly back up to a sitting position against the wall. "So, our powers. There were four names scrawled above a door in a dream. The Deep One, The Seer, The Crawler, and The Hunger. We have had, I suspect, extensive interactions with several of them. Those are the major powers we are dealing with. One of them has, if our perceptions are to be believed, spoken directly to Alex and Jack."
"We know that - hmf -" Brune huffs as he braces an arm against the cave wall, trying to find enough leverage to do a ground-to-chair maneuver. "- that Seapo was speaking of the Deep One, and how we would help it return to the world. Whereas it seems from our dream, at least, that the intent of those at the plant was to summon the Great Eye."
"I don't think coherent would be the term, necessarily." Brune gratefully clasps Jack's arm and heaves himself back into the chair, with immense relief. He sighs and relaxes at last, even though it's a bit soggy. "Oh, much better."
He feels around in the pockets to see if he still has the notepad he stole from the hotel earlier with all his scribbles on it - it's probably wet, but still.
Brune takes the pen and starts sketching. "So. We have determined that on the solstice, the power plant will be commandeered - if it has not been so already - by, at the very least, the Seers. We also know that Antonelli and Bardot have their own plan of action to, as Terrence puts it, destroy the Rivaille utterly."
@AncientSwordRage The waves are now significantly bigger, washing against the shore. The blue-green seaweed caught in the tides submerges and resurfaces.
"That was, I believe, the accident that inspired his machinations." Brune draws a tiny plant and begins sketching lines between different objects and people. "The plan of Bardot and Terrence, from what we have gathered, is to cause an explosion that Antonelli believes will annihilate the connection between whatever is beyond the Rivaille and our world. They are also developing some kind of substance made from the seaweed that will prevent dreaming, and have tested it on you already."
"It appears that the Hunger -" Brune's scrawling falters a bit at the mention of it, and he steels himself. "The Hunger dwells, if Krath is to be believed, somewhere on the island of Rivaille or nearby. Or at least, near enough that she was able to access it from... well, wherever we are is hard to say. Whereas we have not learned of the dwelling places of the Crawler, Deep One or the Seer, and so we must presume that they are beyond the Rivaille. That they want escape."
Brune looks down, contemplating what he has drawn, and idly taps a few of the data points, muttering to himself something about crawling and dreaming and seeing and oceans and music.
Some of the courage seems to drain out of Brune at the feeling of the voice vibrating in his mind and in his ears. He's never heard a voice like that before. My God...
"Haven't I been punished enough?" Brune murmurs under his breath, rolling as swiftly as he can manage alongside Darrion. The powers they are dealing with suddenly seem far less abstract.
YOU TRAVEL THROUGH MY HALLS. I HAVE FORGIVEN YOUR INSOLENCE. EVEN NOW YOU LIE DREAMING AS MY SERVANTS CARRY OUT MY WILL. BUT TIME RUNS SHORT. The waves crash one after the other, the water beginning to flood down the tunnel. MY PATIENCE RUNS SHORT AS WELL.
Brune looks askance at Darrion. He can't bring himself to admit that a few weeks ago, in the depths of guilt and shame, if the voice had spoken to him and offered him absolution - had offered him mercy, and freedom - he might have considered the offer.
I ALWAYS KEEP MY WORD. YOU OF ALL SHOULD KNOW MY SPAWN YEARN FOR FLESH. YOU HAVE BEEN MOST HELPFUL IN PROVIDING FOR THEM. WILL YOU NOW BECOME SUCH GIFTS YOURSELF?
The voice sounds cold, wet, and emotionless. WE ALL MUST FEED. YOU WERE A VEHICLE TO FEED MYSELF AND MY SPAWN. I NOW OFFER YOU THE CHOICE OF JOINING ME, EARNING FREEDOM. I SHALL NOT FEED ON YOUR MIND AND MY SPAWN WILL NOT PARTAKE OF YOUR FLESH. YOU SHALL HAVE POWERS BEYOND COMPREHENSION. OTHERWISE...
The voice takes on a darker tone, almost gleeful now. YOU SHALL FALL INTO THE DEPTHS OF INSANITY, MY PRESENCE DRIVING YOUR OWN HUNGER. YOU SHALL HUNGER ENDLESSLY, DRIVEN MAD, UNTIL FINALLY YOU JOIN MY RANKS IN A DIFFERENT FORM, TO BECOME THOSE OF MY SPAWN. YOU SHALL FEED AND TEAR EACH OTHER AS YOUR MIND IS DEVOURED, TRAPPED BEYOND THE RIVAILLE. THIS I PROMISE TO YOU.
Brune, you wake up in the hospital.
Jack, you wake up in the hospital as well.
Darrion, to your surprise, you also find yourself in the hospital, despite having gone to sleep by Kiko.
Alex, you find yourself alone and disoriented in your office.
Brune exhales a few times, fighting to push down the rage boiling in his chest. "Where is Dr. Krath." He yanks open a seam in the gown to look down at his chest, in search of the incision.
Brune lets his head fall back hard on the pillow, panting, the mindless rage subsiding. His mind is in shambles, struggling to comprehend the revelations he has just had. "Where is Mr. Rivers? And Mr. Jenny? And, for that matter, my bloody chair?"
@Mithical "Like I said, another weird dream. Can you come over?" Darri really wants to see Kiko right now, touch her hands and confirm they're here together.
@Sciborg "Mr. Rivers and Mr. Jenny are in different rooms, sir. Your chair is right here, but I don't think it would be the best idea to be out and about immediately upon waking from a coma, sir."
@Ginger "May I ask who is speaking? Are you a relative?"
Brune sags slowly into the pillows, eyes wide, processing the fact that they've lost a whole week of time and that "the Hunger" was not at all what he thought. It was you... it was always you... Now, at last, everything seems to make a sick kind of sense.
@Ginger "Dr. Abernathy has been in a coma for the past few days, he's currently in a room. When he's awake I'm sure someone will pass the message along."
Brune presses his hand over his eyes, struggling to make sense of it all. "If you would be so kind," he murmurs, shakily. "Could you please get me the phone."
