floatingplot | Team Idiots / Part 2

[As you burst from the jail, bleeding and bleeding and also bleeding, there is no sky, no horizon. This fragment of a fallen city is surrounded only by black water, held at bay by a thin glass bubble. There is nothing to be seen beyond the bubble but the dark, for you are in a city of glittering and crumbling buildings deep within the abyss of the ocean.

The buildings themselves are old and decayed, but once they were shining futuristic metal, high rises towering to the sky far beyond the technology of Atuin and East Blue.

This is not a true city, a whole city, because you can see in the distance where it unnaturally ends, where the buildings and paths are sliced in two by the bubble’s wall. It is still the size of a small island.

If you stare at that bubble hard enough, you will notice the cracks on its surface, the occasional droplet of water beading and falling slowly to the decayed ground.

Of course, Battler might have issues focusing. He can hear almost these-- These whispers, the words unintelligible. Also did I mention the bleeding gaping wounds? ]

...we're in the ocean. Okay. Full power is out. [Hey let's start off by healing everybody up with some magic. Should be good, right?]

There's gotta be something around here somewhere. Any ideas?

...Urrgh. [He sort of holds a hand to his head. He's had worse than this, like, say, being eaten alive and repeatedly killed by the Stakes but at least they were cute. He does perk up a bit at the healing, though.]

Ah, thanks. I've...got no idea. Maybe there's a submarine station around here somewhere? [He looks around.] This place is like a ghost town.

...Well then. Let's go exploring! [Feeling much more confident now that he can hear a voice in his head (The Seal, not the whatever Battler has), he takes a quick look around for the least damaged-seeming road.]

[There's a damaged main road right ahead. Everything's quiet, save for the buzzing of flies (And that buzzing in Battler's head, the wordless static still present.)]

...Do you hear something?

{Goddammit this is fucking creepyyy.]

...nothing unusual. The Librarian's asking me what just happened and I'm explaining it to her, but...

...I never said anything about that. Anyways! Are you hearing something weird? [Ed starts walking down the main road cautiously.]

[As you walk, you find graffiti scrawled along the walls. Some is in paint, but where that ran out, the artist appears to have substituted... something more vital.

“THE END IS HERE
OUR GOD HAS ABANDONED US
WE ARE ALL FORSAKEN”]

Just this weird static--[S C R E A M OH MY GOD>

Needless to say, Battler looks a little ill.] W...wha...

...why would you change paint colors midway through? Think he ran out?

[In the meanwhile, Ed is using some magic to grab and captchalogue a bit of the earth from here, too.]

...for that matter, which god?

[Battler sort of leans forward to eye the wall--and shudders.]

That's not paint! They used their own blood.

[It's probably rude to redtext all over someone else's game board but dude. He was also kind of hoping he'd be unable to redtext it.]

...do you have a captchalogue too? The lady who gave me mine spoke green.

[Click.]

...wait he used BLOOD?!

A captchalogue? No, I don't--[....Facepalm.]

You mean those weird aliens who speak in color? It's not the same as the red truth. You can't speak something that's false in red truth.

Oh! Is that a kind of magic?

[There's a slight increase in magical pressure.]

Can you demonstrate it again right quick? My... I want to see it in action.

It's not really the same as magic. It's just the truth. Even a human can uses, although they're not allowed to. They get the Blue Truth instead, to create theories that can only be disproved by Red Truth--This isn't the time for this!

[WE'RE IN AN ABANDONED DEAD CITY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.]

[Many things, let's discuss it over tea sometime.]

Oh, right. We have to keep going and figure out what that god is...

Remind me to try a blue truth sometime. It seems interesting.

We can discuss it later, I'm sure I can come up with a game for us to play...

[Sure hope you like mysteries, Ed. No, you don't get any scooby snacks. Anyway, Battler's turning to look over the horizon for...anything that looks like a sign where to go.] But we really need to get out of here.

Can you fly? [He hovers on his own.] If not, I can cast something... we can look faster that way.

[The horizon doesn't seem to grant you clues, beyond Water and also Water, but it's hard to see through all the high rises from ground level.]

...I-it's not how I'd like to travel. [Battler...looks a little queasy at the mention of 'flying'. He could, in theory, but he'd fall for sure!

So, he takes a middle road, bursting into a swarm of gold butterflies that proceed to nest in Ed's hair. God help them both.]

[Ed goes flying up into the sky, looking for some kind of important hub.

And because he knows better, he will be making sure to avoid any errant dripping water on the way. Butterflies and water don't mix, bro.]

[As you fly past a rotted high rise, a screen crackles to life.

Current events feed missing, beginning playback...
Rioters are once again out in force as social order breaks down. With no word from the royal family about contact with our God, it seems hopeless for us. Burning effigies of the Servants in the street is a common sight now, as w&*(error, playback corrupted.

All roads seem to lead to the centre of the city, although the centre itself is still obscured by the skyline.]

[While this all sounds very creepy, Battler's kind of concerned Ed will run out of energy and they'll fall and die and it'll be awful.]

So they destroyed themselves...

Hahah. That's... not good.

That's really... not good. These poor people...

[He continues flying on, somber. If you can sense magic, Battler, this kid's got way too much of it.]

[You find graffiti scrawled along the walls you swing past- Jesus, how did they graffiti up here?

Oh, wait. Wings.

“OUR HOPE HAS CRASHED AND BURNED
THE SERVANTS SENT US HERE AS A WARNING
THE REST OF US WILL NOT FALL TO SUCH THREATS”

Beside it is scrawled a symbol of ocean waves inside a circle.

You're closing in on the centre now.]

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