floatingplot | [Team Dragons, Part 2]

[As you burst from the catacombs, 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.]

[ Flaps, straightening out... thankfully, winchesters were made to fly long and fast, and she evens out enough that she only has to flap a few times every so often to keep herself up.

She stares at the buildings below her, and at the bubble above. ]

...Rider? This is not Atuin.

...No. It's not East Blue, either...[He eyes the cracks in the bubble.]

This is a tomb.

But we just came out of a tomb. Would you not call this a "ruins"?

[ Swoops low, hovering over the buildings and surveying the level of decay to see if they're safe to land on.

She does pause when a water droplet hits her head, blinking up. ]

Ah... rain?

[Where the droplet lands- it feels like water, for a moment.

Then it feels like burning acid, it is pain and magic, and in the very distance of your mind you feel a whisper like static and madness.]

No. We're...under the ocean, I think?

[Keeping an eye out for...any signs of movement, really.] I mean, this place feels dead.

[ She starts to respond-- until the burning starts, and she screeches with pain, thrashing about. She tries to rub her head as she flies, resulting in a rather magical tumble and oh god she's falling

Hold on tight, Rider. ]

[safjdsna;fkdsnaf

oh he's holding on all right. he may throw up on you when this is over, but.]

[ Despite the pain she manages to snap out her wings, slowing her descent enough to only just kind of painfully crash onto the roof of one of the taller buildings. She immediately crumples forward onto her chest, keening and rubbing her face on the ground to try to rid herself of the burning and whispering and noise-- ]

[Rider rolls right off in a tumble, having used up his allocation of holding onto things like a badass, but manages to pick himself up after a moment. ]

Aleda? Aleda, what's wrong?

It hurts it hurts it hurts--

[ She slows, scales burned away where the rain hit her(and scraped where she rubbed her face), panting against the floor under her. ]

...Did you... say something?

...What happened? [He eyes her face, but there's no fresh water here for him to use to try and heal that...]

The water started burning...

[ But she pushes herself up, shaking her wings out. ]

...You should probably get on again.

...We can't just break out of the bubble, then, even if we could take the water pressure. [Pulling a handkerchief out of a pocket, and holding it out.]

We should try to dry that off, at least. I can't heal it here, unfortunately.

It doesn't burn anymore, just... Get on, so we can go.

...[He's kind of giving her a Disapproving Dad look, but. Getting on, then.]

[ Shakes her head, trying to rid herself of the odd white noise, but takes off, looking for anything of interest. ]

[Keeping an eye out for anything that looks promising...]

...If we were brought here, there must be some way to get back.

[A fractured news screen springs to life as you fly past.

Current events feed missing, repeating most recent entry...
With the current state of the city, all is not lost. Under the wise guidance of the king, the space program is being refitted into crafts able to reach the surface and the cities beyond.]

[ She circles back around to watch it, slowly turning. ]

...A space program...[His riding skill will apply to that!]

If it still works, that's our best bet. Look for tall towers with rockets attached, hopefully a command center'll be close so we can get in.

[And it'll be big enough.]

What is a "space program"?

...Um.

[Oh, gosh.] Basically, a couple decades ago--at least in my world--people tried to reach the stars. So governments put a lot of money on ways to get up there. They also do a lot of research on space and stars and the nature of the universe in general.

[Thank you, Grail, thank you.]

It looks like the vehicles they were trying to get to space ended up being their last hope at being able to get out of this place. Down at the bottom of the ocean like this, they'd never get any help...eventually, supplies would run out, too.

They either escaped, or they all died here.

Oh. That is very sad.

[ She does attempt to sound sincere, but. Pain. Also dragon. She circles away from the screen and turns to look for something else. ]

But I do not think we should try to reach the stars from here, no. Everything is too broken down and I am not a mechanic.

If I can get in the seat of any machine, I can figure out how to use it. If any of them are still working, it's our best shot to get out.

They said they were modifying them to just break through the ocean. Even if the water wasn't terrible magic burny water, the pressure down here would definitely crush me flat before we ever got anywhere, never mind me drowning. I can't speak for what it'd do to you, but I don't think it'd be pleasant.

It's worth trying, anyway.

Team: Riding the dragon

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