Jaunt Week 2 | Day 1

[cameracoded]

Hey, guys! It’s Prompto! Totally made it down, safe and sound.

-=he’s sharing his vision, which is currently and underwater scene, which so far seems fairly normal for the sort of place they’re in=-

For anybody that didn’t get the memo, I’m using my robobody to sneak underwater back to God’s Isle to get a better look at things since…. I didn’t get a really good chance while we were there.

Gonna keep the connection up since I figure it’s the easiest way to share the info. Underwater Livestream, yo! Haha!

((This network post is essentially going to be running for hours while Prompto makes his way underwater back to the Isle, feel free to poke him at any point in the journey!))

[i: the bay]
-=prompto has rigged a personal underwater propulsion device so he’s not going a slowly as he could be, but not so fast as he would miss things. At first it seems like the bottom of a normal bay, rocks and plants and colorful fish that he’s delighted about. glimpses of himself here and there reveal a four armed, metal body.

he does babble randomly as he goes, interrupted by a shriek! when some needlefish start getting aggressive. It’s lasts a few moments until he remembers that he is made of metal and therefore difficult to injure. And also not food, so they lose interest soon enough=-

Yeah! You better run! Jerks!

-=he shakes a mechanical fist at the offending fishes=-

[ii: mirpur sakro]
Woah…

-=soon, prompto pauses as he comes across what looks like an old highway sign written in alphabets he doesn’t recognise (Sindhi, Urdu).

there appears to be a whole city at the bottom of the bay. it’s hard to tell how big it had once been since most of it is rubble and eroded away. colorful schools of fish make their way through the rotting buildings and futuristic cars that can been abandoned.

eventually he passes by a large billboard, pausing to get a good look at it. RESIDENTS MUST EVACUATE TO THE KARACHI CITY DOME BY- It’s old and incredibly warn, but only the date is too faded to properly read.=-

That’s not ominous or anything.


[iii: god’s isle]
Damn…

-=prompto is still some distance away, but even through the water he can see the outer towers up on God’s Isle continue down into the bottom of the bay, securing it in place. the central tower doesn’t appear to continue under the water, though the entire underside of the island itself is made or pristine metal plating.

as an oracle, he could tell from the start that the whole thing was a machine. it’s how he could head directly here and not go off course underwater. he needs to actually touch the machinery itself to get an actual infodump on what it is.

he’s quieter now as he makes his way closer. luckily there doesn’t seem to be any fish versions of the midge spy cameras, so he’s able to make it right up to one of the towers=-

Here’s goes…

-=he reaches out to touch the tower, and his connection to the network fickers and statics out a bit as he draws the information into his mind so it can download right into his data disk. the connection doesn’t break, but his vision blanks out for a few long moments before he’s blinking back to himself again=-

Woah! Okay. So, uh… it’s doing a lot of things. Monitoring the whole area, kinda like an outpost? It’s not the main control center. There’s a toxic atmosphere it’s keeping out, and making sure the air in here is clean. It’s controlling the camera bugs, and there’s even a transport dock.

Should.. I go inside?

-=he hesitates a moment as he deals with some spikes of anxiety=-

I should probably go inside.


[iv. espionage]
-=after circling around to where the underwater dock is, prompto susses out a maintenance hatch and twists it open, then slowly pushing it open so he can swim through and slowly close it behind him. He keeps close to wall of the pool, peeking up out of the water and switching his vision to infrared to see if there are any people moving around before moving to the ladder to get up out of the water.
he looks down at himself as water spills from his metal body=-

Haha, whoops. Should have brought a towel! Or twelve.

-=switching to green night vision he starts poking around in the storage are he finds himself in=-

There’s rations here! And medical stuff!

-=he starts taking some of the medicine, looking at the labels for anyone who’d know better=-

Not sure what this, but if it’s helpful maybe we can portal back and get more? I don’t have all that much space so I can’t take it all.

-=he does vanish some of it into his hammerspace/armiger anyway. Then he heads over to a large set of doors and touches the control panel=-

It’s an elevator that goes up to that main tower. I can probably get around the security system. There might be some clue up there about what's really going on!

Comments

0. because Ignis says so

[keepcalmcookon]

Be careful.

[He's already said this. He also knows that Prompto knows to be careful. It's worth repeating anyways.]

So far, no one knows anything is amiss up here.

[cameracoded]

If anyone asks, just say that someone made fun of my wingarms and I got upset and hid somewhere.

-=which may or may not have been something he spent a good chunk of his childhood doing=-

[keepcalmcookon]

Roger. [Ignis will go silent until he gets to i. the bay] Ha! They do not like you much.

[cameracoded]

Hey! Not my fault they can't handle my amazing metal bod.

[keepcalmcookon]

Needlefish aren't so much of a threat. Let me know if you run into any Hammerfish.

III

[tobodlygo]

You've just described a terraforming monitoring outpost to me... meaning that either this planet started out uninhabited or became that way. It means we're dealing with Space-capable beings at the least.

Are you able to get like... a ping? Of universal location at all?

[cameracoded]

Terraforming makes sense, only it seems like it's just maintaining what's here than actually doing anything right now.

Not really, I can only sense things in the area. If I get inside, maybe I can find something in the computers.

[leftbehindagain]

I can't remember if Karachi is India or Pakistan, and who knows if the boundaries had changed again by whatever time this happened. Either way, that does give us a rough location.

I can take a closer look at the medicine and figure out how useful it might be.

[cameracoded]

This is a world we've been to before?

And sweet! My drug knowledge is mad limited. I hope it's still good.

[leftbehindagain]

...I wish I could rule out this being the same world as Moebius with confidence, but the rate things are going? I really can't.

Whether it is or not, it's some variation of Earth. If Gods' Isle is actually a tearraforming outpost, it's a safe bet that humanity's screwed up the planet either beyond repair, or so badly they can only just begin repairs.

[cameracoded]

It seems more like it's maintaining the area more than actually trying to fix things, at least at the moment. And it's not even doing that great a job something got messed up somewhere. Once I've worked through security, I wanna try and see if there's anything more concrete up in the tower. Like there may be files or something laying around.

[itsananimalthing]

I'm pretty sure we killed everybody in the Moebius situation. Thought we got it confirmed from somebody that it shut that whole project down, that's why we went there.

That and the punishment shit.

Wouldn't be surprised if there's multiple worlds, Earth or not, where this shit happens. Belljar, Moebius, this one. Probably more out there.

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

...do you think you could get a blueprint of the entire place?

If we can destroy it and build a new one, identical hardware but god-free software, maybe it'll give the locals a bit of a hand. Keep them from being completely under the space bastards' thumbs.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

[Okay wait, what?]

You think we can build an entire new super science bunker?

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

Sure, why not? Might need to kill me for it, I can't work underwater with hooves, but if there's already some framework for us to start with...

[unapologeticallyaffected]

[Ah. So this is some giant superpower thing, and not just a ridiculous overestimation of the average person's abilities here.]

Well, for one, giving bronze age people highly advanced technology is a recipe for disaster. But even if you did want to go that route, why bother using the same design as the hidden space overlords? Or hidden center of the earth overlords, or underwater overlords, or whatever. If that's something you can just do, build technobunkers that look like islands in the space of a few weeks with very few supplies, then why use their plans?

[Unfortunately, Eliot has a natural tendency to sound incredibly snide, but in this case he really is trying to figure out what the reasoning is behind the suggestion. Does this person know something they don't about the island?]

[cameracoded]

Already got one!

And no. No no. Don't do that! If this thing gets destroyed, we'll all be dead in like.. hours.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

[This whole thing is driving Eliot more than a little crazy. He wants to be with Prompto, his magic could be very useful, at least on the trip over - tehcnomancy is a very specific kind of magic that Eliot never learned, despite his knowledge of software and computer programming, so his actual use at the island might be minimal. But his stupid giant horse body makes underwater navigation time consuming and frustrating, and he has to concede that it makes more sense for his super competent fiance to go alone. But sense or not, that doesn't do much to dampen his feelings of uselessness and frustration. They were supposed to grow and become bad-asses together, not this bullshit.]

Can you use that computer interface crap to tap into the cameras? Getting a view on where you're going before just hopping in the elevator might be smart.

[cameracoded]

-=prompto had loved the idea of eliot coming with him, and doing badass espionage things together. at least he did after the initial panic over what if he gets hurt it'll be all my fault worries. not that those worries ever would have gone away entirely, but still. he'd wracked his mind, trying to come up with a way to propel a horse body underwater at speed, but nothing he came up with was less than 'massively conspicuous'. not to mention centaurs aren't particularly hydrodynamic. moving too fast could have actually hurt him=-

Gonna try! Just gotta be careful, the security system is wound up in everything.

[unapologeticallyaffected]

Are you able to take that over at all? [After all, a place like this probably wouldn't be set up to repel magic techno powers, right?]

[cameracoded]

Not exactly. I think the most I can do is hide from it. This isn't even just alarms either. This shit's deadly. If I wasn't a robot right now, I wouldn't even try!

ii to iii ish

[prince_of_pain]

have you found any good fishing?

[Noct is absolutely not worried at all and not questioning the fact HIS FRIEND could turn into a ROBOT, and all the other fun stuff. He also wanted to dive into the ocean and help even if he knew he couldn't.]

Can you still like do your weapon stuff underwater?

[cameracoded]

There's tons of fish everywhere dude.

-=he's sorry he never said anything about the robot body. it made him really uncomfortable considering he was meant to be a magitek battery, not to mention how many of them they'd destroyed along the way=-

Guns don't really work underwater. Sherwins bow can. Sorta. If whatever I'm shooting as isn't like.. moving.

[prince_of_pain]

[Noct didn't know about all the fun details of the magitek yet, but he thought the robot stuff might have something to do with Prompto being so good with machines. He hoped.]

I'm mad I can't breathe underwater, I want to explore a sunken city.

[Also then he could be helpful.]

[cameracoded]

Maybe Eliot can give you gills? He made us wings once! Can bring you down later?

-=they can just portal in at that point=-