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player plot | castaways!
WHO: Bastien, Benedict Artemaeus, Eli Ever, Jayce Talis, Lalla Vesperus, Laurent Vesperus, Peter Parker, Victor Vale
WHAT: Carnivale cruise vacation.
WHEN: Justinian 9:49
WHERE: A Sea
NOTES: This is a make-your-own-adventure log. General outline and prompts are below. Everyone is invited to the crystal post here and also free to make their own for other things too.
WHAT: Carnivale cruise vacation.
WHEN: Justinian 9:49
WHERE: A Sea
NOTES: This is a make-your-own-adventure log. General outline and prompts are below. Everyone is invited to the crystal post here and also free to make their own for other things too.
I. PROLOGUE
So what happens is: the Crossroads collapse.
Before that, the mission goes well. Lord Cardin Popelin and his expatriate Tevinter cousin Novia Traiana and their respective spouses are very charmed by, you know, the charm, and intrigued by the harmless hints of innovative magic-science, and some combination of money and collaboration is likely forthcoming once they've had some time to stew in their charmedness and intriguedness for a few days. And the shortcut that Riftwatch's envoy takes back through the Crossroads to avoid days in wagons or at sea goes as well as it possibly could, too, until the part where the path collapses.
(The cause of this collapse could be anything. A statue knocked in passing. The wrong stone tile stepped on at the wrong time. The last syllable of one Trade word and the first of the next forming a forgotten elven word that triggers a forgotten elven safeguard. There's room for no fewer than four people to be sure it's their fault.)
The pathway collapses, is the bottom line, and it drops them not into the endless twists of the Crossroads' mix-and-match gravity fields, but into one of the Crossroads' rivers. Sometimes these rivers end in waterfalls (or water-rises, depending on where you are). But this one, running through an ancient aqueduct tunnel that forces everyone entirely underwater, ends in an eluvian, forgotten and unlocked, blocked by debris but not so blocked that the sudden pressure of eight human bodies doesn't make the dam burst and deliver them through the mirror and into elsewhere.
II. ASEA
All of that happens quickly. The time they are underwater is brief. Thirty seconds, maybe, give or take the time it takes anyone particularly disoriented by suddenly being in deep open water to make their way (or be dragged) to the surface of the sea.
A sea. A warm one, fortunately, on a relatively calm and sunny day, as bright and cheerful a blue as a sea has ever been. Also fortunate: various pieces of debris, mostly ancient and apparently rot-proof wood, have emerged with them and floated to the surface. Several of these pieces of wood are large and flat enough to support a person or two on their own. Others are portions of logs, or scraps of ancient bookshelves and chairs, and one fully intact still-alive shrub.
That is about it for the good news. The bad news is that the eluvian is now unreachable, the current of water rushing out of it from the Crossroads making it impossible for even the strongest swimmer to go back the way they came. Additional bad news is that they are, again, in the middle of an unknown sea, and judging by the height of the sun, they have a good ten hours before they can attempt to use the stars to do anything. Also, someone might have lungs full of water, and someone else might have been struck by a log somewhere in this process, and—
It'll be fine.
III. ARAFT
At some point, somehow, using some people's genius engineering skills and long strips of some people's clothing, they have managed a raft. It is inarguably better than being in the water. (Is that a shark fin? It is a shark fin. But sharks are mostly harmless.) But it is not better than a lot of other things, such as, for example, being back in the Gallows. Especially considering it goes on for two days—two days during which they have to try to figure out water, something to eat, shelter from the skin-crisping sun, and what to do about the squall that suddenly swells up around them in the evening.
IV. ASHORE
The storm likely gets most of the credit for the fact that they do not have to stay on the raft. When the sky clears and the rain lifts enough for the island to be visible, it is already very close. The waves are rocking them steadily closer, but working out a way to row—or hopping into the water to propel the raft along with kicks, or swimming and leaving Laurent behind to die, whichever—will make it quicker.
The island is an uninhabited speck, easy to walk all the way around in an hour at most. No other islands, specks or otherwise, are visible in the distance from any side of its shore. It's too small to support any large animals, its foliage short and scrubby and grassy rather than tall or tropical. But there's fresh water! There is a cave, hidden in a hillside and awaiting discovery by whomever would like to save everyone else from having to built huts or tents. And there are rabbits who, in the absence of many natural predators (aside from a pair of eagles spotted overhead) and with an abundance of grass to eat, have done what rabbits do and become so numerous it would be hard not to catch one. Everything's coming up Team Castaways, unless/until someone tries some of the berries growing on the island (the rabbits are eating them too!) and discovers they're hallucinogenic.
Other than that, though. Huge improvement over the open water, not least because—
V. EPILOGUE
—being one static location for several days and nights makes it much simpler for them and their friends back in Kirkwall to pinpoint their location. In the end it is a combination of the constellations and the fact that the rabbits are of a particular Antivan domesticated breed, a beloved pair of which was famously set adrift in a lifeboat by their owner to save their lives when his ship was taken by pirates in the Northern Passage about five years ago, that allows Riftwatch to narrow the search radius enough for griffons to spot their campfire on a tiny island east of Par Vollen and get them out of there.
Peter Parker | OTA
So Peter’s now gotten to sea the Crossroads for himself after hearing about it, so he’ll count that as a win. Of course, to balance out that win, life throws him a curveball. Or several, really, in the fact that their path back collapses suddenly, sending them all down an underwater tunnel and into…the ocean? What Peter assumes is a ocean, at least.
He manages to surface from underwater relatively quickly, though he struggles with some of the clothes he wore for the mission; he’s not used to so much loose fabric, and it drags as he pushes his way above water. He manages to start to tread in place, glancing around to see if anyone else is nearby or if anyone else needs help.
Of course, Peter is preoccupied with trying to find others in the water, he doesn’t notice when a floating piece of log heads his way at a speed that’s impressively fast for its size, and his Peter Tingle seems to short out just as said log hits him square in the face.
He exclaims a mixture of curse words and utter nonsense as he finds himself back underwater, which is, of course, a mistake; he swallows water as he struggles back to the surface. He eventually manages to grab onto the log, which is fortunate, as he’s now dizzy and he thinks his nose might possibly be broken. He’s fairly certain he’s bleeding. Maybe he has a concussion? He’s conscious, at least.
II. Araft
In spite of his injuries, Peter works hard and volunteers part of his clothing to help create a makeshift raft. Keeping busy, he thinks, means he doesn’t have time to dwell on all the anxious thoughts popping up in his head like sea foam. Keeping busy means he can’t think too much about potential Wilsons when volleyballs don’t exist in Thedas. (He’s fairly sure.)
“Is that a shark fin out in the water or am I hallucinating?” He asks out loud at one point. Probably before a good chunk of the way into their second day at sea, in which Peter is burned like a lobster, definitely dehydrated, and possibly seeing things.
III. Ashore
The storm that catches them turns out to actually be kind of a blessing, considering it leads them to an island. A small island, yes, but an island nonetheless. Peter thinks he actually cries when they make it on land; he definitely flops down to hug that sweet, sweet solid ground.
He stays down on the ground for an amount of time that is probably concerning, but considering all they’ve endured so far at sea, he doesn’t give a damn at the moment.
As soon as he spots the berries, he does not hesitate; his growling stomach demands that he stuffs as many into his mouth as will fit.
Which is how Peter ends up “swinging” through the city of the island, scaring the rabbits and potentially injuring himself further in the process. He does the hand motions for his web shooters and everything.
ii
Face scrunching, he says, "It's probably the dehydra--"
An unintelligible, gargled noise of shock, horror and dismay from Jayce's own parched throat kills his sentence. He leans back slowly, warring with his lizard brain urging him to hurry and back the fuck up.
"It's not the dehydration." But yes, his voice is a little higher.
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"I didn't realize they had sharks here," Peter says, his own voice cracked and varying in pitch. He glances back at the shark fin, and glances back in the opposite direction.
"Think we'll be lucky enough to find like, an actual boat or an island, or should we start praying?"
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Luck or the favor of whatever deity Peter has in mind, he means.
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Unable to find anything in the near distance, Peter curses under his breath. Then he turns back to his companion.
"Did you get hurt when we all got dumped here? Can I help?"
If he keeps busy and keeps helping to the best of his abilities, Peter won't have time to give into the panic slowly rising up his chest like bad indigestion. A flawless plan, he thinks.
no subject
--and suddenly quiets, staring with a newfound intensity at Peter, like he might just be the goddamn godsend after all.
"Are you a healer? Like, a magic one?"
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"I'm not a healer and I don't have magic, but I can do some basics," Peter says, trying not to wince at how much of a downgrade his offer sounds like.
"And I can try and find a healer," he adds, glancing around and trying to get a view of the others stuck in the ocean.
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"Wasn't asking for me, but I guess that could change at any moment." This wry statement is accompanied by a cant of his head toward the ocean -- specifically, toward the possibility of interaction with a shark.
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As he gestures with his head towards the ocean, Peter suddenly has a new fear. "So like, are the sharks here, uh. Are they different? Or are they just sharks?"
He's thinking of sharks with bigger teeth, and maybe sharks that now also shoot out venom.
no subject
This reasoning is not entirely logical, but he is also dehydrated, hungry, sunburnt and tired -- a very different sort of exhaustion than sleep deprivation secondary to enthusiastic nerding.
no subject
Of course, Peter's only really browsed through the library in the Gallows; his focus of study has primarily been the history of Thedas to help establish himself here.
Peter thinks for a moment before an idea takes shape in his thoughts. "Hey, you know, if we find enough debris floating around, we might be able to make some kind of raft or boat."