11-18-2017, 02:03 PM
As was to be expected, the crewman’s passageway was oppressive and dark.
The skeletal railing of the stairwell and the slate gray walls made Jade feel uncomfortably boxed-in, the rectangular shaft seeming to descend into nothing but chilling black space. It was almost as if she might find herself drifting around at the bottom of the ocean once she reached the last step, surrounded by stygian shadows and all sorts of strange, ghastly creatures, their tooth-mangled and carnivorous maws cleverly hidden by the darkness.
There were no windows. If there had been windows, Jade might have been able to catch a glimpse of the roiling, churning surf outside, the shatter-glass reflections from the fireworks sending ripples of reds, blues, and greens across it. If there had been windows, which there definitely were not, Jade would have seen rather than felt the presence of the verse’s massive sea pressing against the glass with punches of seawater, roaring like a very determined burglar or a man locked out in a blizzard, ‘Let me in! Damn you, let me in!’ Yet, because there weren’t any windows— not even a tiny round porthole to peer through, strangely enough— all that could be felt of the crashing waves outside was the subtle shifts in the air, cloying and damp like wet tissue paper.
Her steps echoed, trickling down the sleek metal steps until the sound finally rejoined the pool of dark liquid silence at the bottom. With her eyes all narrow-eyed and squinty, her shoulders hunched like a wolf stalking through a sheer tree-line, Jade shuffled doggedly forward. Her feet only moved forward a few inches at a time, lest she slip and fall to her death. It wasn’t dying that bothered her, but the idea of falling. She imagined it would be a long way to the bottom. She imagined that she wouldn’t even be able to choke out enough breath for a good, long scream on the way down. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, for sure, and so Jade monitored her steps closely and did her best not to make any such fatal mistakes.
She glared at the shadows, the icy metal railing that felt smoother than water whenever she grasped it, the stink of rust and grime marinating in the air— daring any and all of it to test her, to try and stop her from reaching her inevitable goal. The goal, as it so happened, was a sort of docking bay at the lowest point of the ship, settling in like a pile of entrails in the cruise-liner’s big metal belly. Kelvin had told her how to get there. Not only was this boat a passenger vessel, Kelvin had said, his eyes shining with an uncannily cheerful kind of delight, but it was also privy to a collection of military-type subs. When Jade had asked why the hell a simple dandy cruise-liner would have such things, it had been explained to her that pirates and rogue Pokémon were just everywhere in the Vasty Deep, and really it was all for the best that she didn’t question things like this too much.
She had, of course, expressed certain doubts about her ability to pilot any underwater vehicles the liner might or might not have been in possession of. Like any reasonable person, she’d been especially adamant about this point. They were surely temperamental things, Jade argued, as most great big hunks of machinery are, and while Jade would be delighted at having the opportunity to steer one down into the murky black, spotlights illuminating the deepest, darkest secrets of the verse that the roiling surface-waters usually hid, she wasn’t all that crazy about dying horribly and in pain.
Kelvin had laughed, his big shoulders heaving and his hair flopping like the ears of a human-sized labrador retriever, and informed her that scuba gear designed for a multitude of temperatures and underwater environments could be found in the docking bay, and that she was certainly welcome to them. So, with all her worries thus exhausted, Jade had relented and quit the sundeck after saying her last goodbyes to Rebecca and Bec.
A loud sneeze wracked her, the sound exploding like a dropped firecracker in the deserted stairwell. Sniffling, Jade grumbled to herself that the ocean air was definitely not doing her any favors. Come to think of it, it was pretty stupid how the frigid, snow-covered landscape of the Frozen Fields hadn’t given her a lick of trouble, but add some salt to the mix and suddenly she looked like Father Christmas judging by the vermilion red of her nose!
But, Jade thought brightly as she hopped over one step covered in a silvery, light-catching smear of condensation, she would soon return to the festivities up above when this was all over, and then the warm, albeit small cot in her cabin. It was this cheery thought that bolstered her waning spirits, the girl’s lips curving into a grin despite her dreary surroundings.
Yes-sir-ee! Just thinking of being in her room, finally alone with just Bec and Rebecca for company, improved her mood substantially. While being surrounded by so many new people was exciting, free to observe all the little quirks and oddities particular to them, it was also super exhausting. A couple moments of quiet in the company of good friends would do a body good, her Grandpa would say, and that was a token of wisdom which Jade gladly took to heart.
The dog-eared girl also wondered how Rebecca would act towards her upon her return. Surely, she wouldn’t still be very mad, or at least have realized by the time Jade got back that maybe what Jade had decided to do was for the best! The mere thought of not being forgiven at once pained Jade, especially since she was doing this only with Rebecca’s best interests in mind. It bothered her. It bothered her a lot. Still, maybe one day she would—!
There was a deafening note of finality as her feet hit the bottom of the stairwell; Jade’s toes unconsciously curled inside her slippers, a shiver tickling along the nape of her neck. The air felt cold and clean as country air, less steamy than it had been just a few staircases ago. An unseen draft whistled high over her head, likely through an open vent. She had descended at least five separate series of stairs, and now all that lay between her and the docking bay was a single door.
Thin slants of light emanated from around the door-frame, the rectangular sheet of metal fitted just a liiiiittle too small for its frame. The well-lit area seemed no more welcoming than the dankest, darkest cavern beneath the crusted ground of the Frozen Fields— in fact, it felt to Jade almost as if she was underground again, scared and groping around blindly in the dark as her body quavered in fear. But, Jade reminded herself, she wasn’t trapped inside those caverns anymore. She was on a boat sailing over the ocean, there certainly weren’t any eldritch entities out for her blood, and besides all that, it’d been her own damn fault that she’d gone down there in the first place, so suck it up, buttercup.
Squaring her shoulders and with a deep breath, Jade gently nudged the door open, a soft, drawn-out whine following the undue stressing of the hinges. Trembling, Jade laughed a little under her breath and smoothed her palms over her dress to rid them of sweat, loose twinkles of stars glittering in the folds her skirt.
“Goddamn sea air,” she muttered, frowning at the orangish rust covering the door and every scrap of metal in this place. Blinking hard a few times to become accustomed to the light, the dog-eared girl leaned her head inside to take a quick look around.
The ceiling was low, the walls curving faintly inward in perfect symmetry with the ship’s hull. Tall stacks of crates and barrels were everywhere, the warehouse-like setup casting large shadows over the room, but the lights overhead were utterly dull and dead. Instead, the main source of light in the room was a wide rectangular pool at the center of the spacious chamber, a thin pane of glass placed over it and tiny bulbs lining the edges, each one emitting a singularly powerful, bluish-white glow. Additionally, the black hulk of a submarine could be seen behind it, its substantial girth propped up on several loading mechanisms that Jade couldn’t have named. The entire place was silent as a tomb, not another living soul in sight.
“They must all be at the party,” said Jade, and then immediately clamped her mouth shut. She had been startled by the tinny, shrill sound of her voice attempting to fill up the wide expanse of the room. Even though she’d hardly been trying to keep her voice down the words still sounded like a whisper. It was creepy as all get-out. Gradually and with no small amount of foot-dragging hesitance, Jade crept into the room.
No lights activated to acknowledge her entry, no sirens began to blare. Her red-slippered feet papped silently over the floor as she made her way toward a rack of diving equipment she’d spotted shortly after entering. Diving suits and miscellaneous things like harpoons, spears, and nets littered the area, though Jade wasn’t sure why so many weapon-like instruments were included in the mix. Her eyes roved over everything, not missing that one suit looked bulky, made of metal, and altogether too much like a suit of armor from the Middle Ages. Surely the water wasn’t that dangerous?
She poked around at the gear for a few minutes, one ear cocked towards the door to listen for anyone entering through the squeaky door. It wasn’t that Jade was afraid of getting caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing, she just wasn’t a huge fan of people sneaking up on her. Eventually in her rummaging she stumbled across a dive light, the device sending out a wide beam of light when she clicked it on. She turned it over in her hands, shining the beam over the still forms of shipping containers and the dauntingly large dimensions of the sub.
Deciding in an instant that it would suit her purposes, Jade clicked off the light, once again finding herself swamped in near-total blackness save for the sheer, silvery-pale light cast from the glass-covered pool.
Still, there was no way of telling which of the many hanging suits would match her measurements, not to mention which one would keep her warm in the chilly water, compensate for her body’s natural buoyancy, have a nice range of movement, and just a bucket load of other things that Jade had no way of knowing how to account for. She could probably spend all freaking night and much of the next day trying on different suits to see which one fit best, but there just wasn’t enough time for her to do that. She needed to find one immediately, and Kelvin hadn’t been very helpful about the equipment she would undoubtedly need!
That thought alone niggled at her. Why hadn’t he been more helpful? The man wasn’t a dunce; surely it might have occurred to him that she wouldn’t know what to do once she got down here? She couldn’t do all the work, here!
Pouting and tucking the dive light into her pockets, Jade again scowled at the rack of clothing, hoping that something she could put on before slipping into the frigid water might magically spring from the stand. No way was she standing here and trying all this junk on. That would just be stupid. So stupid even Karkat likely couldn’t find the precise words to voice just how freaking stupid it was—
Jade was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn’t notice the funky little octagonal device implanted into the wall. It was about the size of a dinnerplate, the material it was made from being reflective, dark, and almost certainly some type of glass, art deco patterns flaring around it like a black sun. The octagon’s center was shaped vaguely like a palm-print, the hand-sized impression gleaming and just itching to be pressed.
So, without thinking much of it, Jade smacked her palm against the smooth crystal, wondering vaguely at how inordinately warm it felt under her skin, like someone else had only recently come along and done the exact same thing.
The response was immediate— the device hummed softly, starting at a low, rumbling purr before building into a steady drone. Just as Jade was about the draw her hand away, sensing that Bad Things ™ were about to happen, the octagon spewed out a torrent of dark material, the stuff spilling like liquid over her hand and webbing between her fingers, fleshy and soft and weird as it crawled up towards her elbow. It ate up over her skin, settling into the crook of her elbow and over her shoulders even as she shrieked and tried to claw it off, the ample wetware becoming like a new layer of skin under her clothes.
In a little under two minutes Jade was once again in possession of her hand. She yanked it towards her heaving chest and stared with wide, moonstruck eyes at her brand-spankin’-new wetsuit.
Gently glowing dorsal stripes curved down her sides and reached all the way down to her calves, shining a brilliant blue through the fabric of her dress; a scoop neckline and neoprene cowl was now fitted under her hood, keeping her hair cropped close to her scalp around her white-furred ears. There were even some extra-thick pads layered over her knees to protect her from scrapes! While the process had been awkward, invasive, and definitely weird as shit, the suit was fitted perfectly to her body and comfortably warm.
After a moment of not being brutally strangled by her clothes, Jade allowed herself to relax and looked at the rack of diving gear with a newfound appreciation, wondering what other surprising gadgets might be hidden in plain sight. Wriggling her toes a bit inside her shoes, she discovered that the helpful octagon had even reached far enough to cover her feet in a spongy, rubber-like material. Cool!
Giving her head a rough shake, Jade could have smacked herself in the forehead with how goofy she was being. This was all wasting time— she REALLY needed to get going! She turned, now fully prepared to enter the water, and nearly leapt out of her skin when she came face-to-face with a dark humanoid shape looming just a foot away.
The skeletal railing of the stairwell and the slate gray walls made Jade feel uncomfortably boxed-in, the rectangular shaft seeming to descend into nothing but chilling black space. It was almost as if she might find herself drifting around at the bottom of the ocean once she reached the last step, surrounded by stygian shadows and all sorts of strange, ghastly creatures, their tooth-mangled and carnivorous maws cleverly hidden by the darkness.
There were no windows. If there had been windows, Jade might have been able to catch a glimpse of the roiling, churning surf outside, the shatter-glass reflections from the fireworks sending ripples of reds, blues, and greens across it. If there had been windows, which there definitely were not, Jade would have seen rather than felt the presence of the verse’s massive sea pressing against the glass with punches of seawater, roaring like a very determined burglar or a man locked out in a blizzard, ‘Let me in! Damn you, let me in!’ Yet, because there weren’t any windows— not even a tiny round porthole to peer through, strangely enough— all that could be felt of the crashing waves outside was the subtle shifts in the air, cloying and damp like wet tissue paper.
Her steps echoed, trickling down the sleek metal steps until the sound finally rejoined the pool of dark liquid silence at the bottom. With her eyes all narrow-eyed and squinty, her shoulders hunched like a wolf stalking through a sheer tree-line, Jade shuffled doggedly forward. Her feet only moved forward a few inches at a time, lest she slip and fall to her death. It wasn’t dying that bothered her, but the idea of falling. She imagined it would be a long way to the bottom. She imagined that she wouldn’t even be able to choke out enough breath for a good, long scream on the way down. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, for sure, and so Jade monitored her steps closely and did her best not to make any such fatal mistakes.
She glared at the shadows, the icy metal railing that felt smoother than water whenever she grasped it, the stink of rust and grime marinating in the air— daring any and all of it to test her, to try and stop her from reaching her inevitable goal. The goal, as it so happened, was a sort of docking bay at the lowest point of the ship, settling in like a pile of entrails in the cruise-liner’s big metal belly. Kelvin had told her how to get there. Not only was this boat a passenger vessel, Kelvin had said, his eyes shining with an uncannily cheerful kind of delight, but it was also privy to a collection of military-type subs. When Jade had asked why the hell a simple dandy cruise-liner would have such things, it had been explained to her that pirates and rogue Pokémon were just everywhere in the Vasty Deep, and really it was all for the best that she didn’t question things like this too much.
She had, of course, expressed certain doubts about her ability to pilot any underwater vehicles the liner might or might not have been in possession of. Like any reasonable person, she’d been especially adamant about this point. They were surely temperamental things, Jade argued, as most great big hunks of machinery are, and while Jade would be delighted at having the opportunity to steer one down into the murky black, spotlights illuminating the deepest, darkest secrets of the verse that the roiling surface-waters usually hid, she wasn’t all that crazy about dying horribly and in pain.
Kelvin had laughed, his big shoulders heaving and his hair flopping like the ears of a human-sized labrador retriever, and informed her that scuba gear designed for a multitude of temperatures and underwater environments could be found in the docking bay, and that she was certainly welcome to them. So, with all her worries thus exhausted, Jade had relented and quit the sundeck after saying her last goodbyes to Rebecca and Bec.
A loud sneeze wracked her, the sound exploding like a dropped firecracker in the deserted stairwell. Sniffling, Jade grumbled to herself that the ocean air was definitely not doing her any favors. Come to think of it, it was pretty stupid how the frigid, snow-covered landscape of the Frozen Fields hadn’t given her a lick of trouble, but add some salt to the mix and suddenly she looked like Father Christmas judging by the vermilion red of her nose!
But, Jade thought brightly as she hopped over one step covered in a silvery, light-catching smear of condensation, she would soon return to the festivities up above when this was all over, and then the warm, albeit small cot in her cabin. It was this cheery thought that bolstered her waning spirits, the girl’s lips curving into a grin despite her dreary surroundings.
Yes-sir-ee! Just thinking of being in her room, finally alone with just Bec and Rebecca for company, improved her mood substantially. While being surrounded by so many new people was exciting, free to observe all the little quirks and oddities particular to them, it was also super exhausting. A couple moments of quiet in the company of good friends would do a body good, her Grandpa would say, and that was a token of wisdom which Jade gladly took to heart.
The dog-eared girl also wondered how Rebecca would act towards her upon her return. Surely, she wouldn’t still be very mad, or at least have realized by the time Jade got back that maybe what Jade had decided to do was for the best! The mere thought of not being forgiven at once pained Jade, especially since she was doing this only with Rebecca’s best interests in mind. It bothered her. It bothered her a lot. Still, maybe one day she would—!
There was a deafening note of finality as her feet hit the bottom of the stairwell; Jade’s toes unconsciously curled inside her slippers, a shiver tickling along the nape of her neck. The air felt cold and clean as country air, less steamy than it had been just a few staircases ago. An unseen draft whistled high over her head, likely through an open vent. She had descended at least five separate series of stairs, and now all that lay between her and the docking bay was a single door.
Thin slants of light emanated from around the door-frame, the rectangular sheet of metal fitted just a liiiiittle too small for its frame. The well-lit area seemed no more welcoming than the dankest, darkest cavern beneath the crusted ground of the Frozen Fields— in fact, it felt to Jade almost as if she was underground again, scared and groping around blindly in the dark as her body quavered in fear. But, Jade reminded herself, she wasn’t trapped inside those caverns anymore. She was on a boat sailing over the ocean, there certainly weren’t any eldritch entities out for her blood, and besides all that, it’d been her own damn fault that she’d gone down there in the first place, so suck it up, buttercup.
Squaring her shoulders and with a deep breath, Jade gently nudged the door open, a soft, drawn-out whine following the undue stressing of the hinges. Trembling, Jade laughed a little under her breath and smoothed her palms over her dress to rid them of sweat, loose twinkles of stars glittering in the folds her skirt.
“Goddamn sea air,” she muttered, frowning at the orangish rust covering the door and every scrap of metal in this place. Blinking hard a few times to become accustomed to the light, the dog-eared girl leaned her head inside to take a quick look around.
The ceiling was low, the walls curving faintly inward in perfect symmetry with the ship’s hull. Tall stacks of crates and barrels were everywhere, the warehouse-like setup casting large shadows over the room, but the lights overhead were utterly dull and dead. Instead, the main source of light in the room was a wide rectangular pool at the center of the spacious chamber, a thin pane of glass placed over it and tiny bulbs lining the edges, each one emitting a singularly powerful, bluish-white glow. Additionally, the black hulk of a submarine could be seen behind it, its substantial girth propped up on several loading mechanisms that Jade couldn’t have named. The entire place was silent as a tomb, not another living soul in sight.
“They must all be at the party,” said Jade, and then immediately clamped her mouth shut. She had been startled by the tinny, shrill sound of her voice attempting to fill up the wide expanse of the room. Even though she’d hardly been trying to keep her voice down the words still sounded like a whisper. It was creepy as all get-out. Gradually and with no small amount of foot-dragging hesitance, Jade crept into the room.
No lights activated to acknowledge her entry, no sirens began to blare. Her red-slippered feet papped silently over the floor as she made her way toward a rack of diving equipment she’d spotted shortly after entering. Diving suits and miscellaneous things like harpoons, spears, and nets littered the area, though Jade wasn’t sure why so many weapon-like instruments were included in the mix. Her eyes roved over everything, not missing that one suit looked bulky, made of metal, and altogether too much like a suit of armor from the Middle Ages. Surely the water wasn’t that dangerous?
She poked around at the gear for a few minutes, one ear cocked towards the door to listen for anyone entering through the squeaky door. It wasn’t that Jade was afraid of getting caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing, she just wasn’t a huge fan of people sneaking up on her. Eventually in her rummaging she stumbled across a dive light, the device sending out a wide beam of light when she clicked it on. She turned it over in her hands, shining the beam over the still forms of shipping containers and the dauntingly large dimensions of the sub.
Deciding in an instant that it would suit her purposes, Jade clicked off the light, once again finding herself swamped in near-total blackness save for the sheer, silvery-pale light cast from the glass-covered pool.
Still, there was no way of telling which of the many hanging suits would match her measurements, not to mention which one would keep her warm in the chilly water, compensate for her body’s natural buoyancy, have a nice range of movement, and just a bucket load of other things that Jade had no way of knowing how to account for. She could probably spend all freaking night and much of the next day trying on different suits to see which one fit best, but there just wasn’t enough time for her to do that. She needed to find one immediately, and Kelvin hadn’t been very helpful about the equipment she would undoubtedly need!
That thought alone niggled at her. Why hadn’t he been more helpful? The man wasn’t a dunce; surely it might have occurred to him that she wouldn’t know what to do once she got down here? She couldn’t do all the work, here!
Pouting and tucking the dive light into her pockets, Jade again scowled at the rack of clothing, hoping that something she could put on before slipping into the frigid water might magically spring from the stand. No way was she standing here and trying all this junk on. That would just be stupid. So stupid even Karkat likely couldn’t find the precise words to voice just how freaking stupid it was—
Jade was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn’t notice the funky little octagonal device implanted into the wall. It was about the size of a dinnerplate, the material it was made from being reflective, dark, and almost certainly some type of glass, art deco patterns flaring around it like a black sun. The octagon’s center was shaped vaguely like a palm-print, the hand-sized impression gleaming and just itching to be pressed.
So, without thinking much of it, Jade smacked her palm against the smooth crystal, wondering vaguely at how inordinately warm it felt under her skin, like someone else had only recently come along and done the exact same thing.
The response was immediate— the device hummed softly, starting at a low, rumbling purr before building into a steady drone. Just as Jade was about the draw her hand away, sensing that Bad Things ™ were about to happen, the octagon spewed out a torrent of dark material, the stuff spilling like liquid over her hand and webbing between her fingers, fleshy and soft and weird as it crawled up towards her elbow. It ate up over her skin, settling into the crook of her elbow and over her shoulders even as she shrieked and tried to claw it off, the ample wetware becoming like a new layer of skin under her clothes.
In a little under two minutes Jade was once again in possession of her hand. She yanked it towards her heaving chest and stared with wide, moonstruck eyes at her brand-spankin’-new wetsuit.
Gently glowing dorsal stripes curved down her sides and reached all the way down to her calves, shining a brilliant blue through the fabric of her dress; a scoop neckline and neoprene cowl was now fitted under her hood, keeping her hair cropped close to her scalp around her white-furred ears. There were even some extra-thick pads layered over her knees to protect her from scrapes! While the process had been awkward, invasive, and definitely weird as shit, the suit was fitted perfectly to her body and comfortably warm.
After a moment of not being brutally strangled by her clothes, Jade allowed herself to relax and looked at the rack of diving gear with a newfound appreciation, wondering what other surprising gadgets might be hidden in plain sight. Wriggling her toes a bit inside her shoes, she discovered that the helpful octagon had even reached far enough to cover her feet in a spongy, rubber-like material. Cool!
Giving her head a rough shake, Jade could have smacked herself in the forehead with how goofy she was being. This was all wasting time— she REALLY needed to get going! She turned, now fully prepared to enter the water, and nearly leapt out of her skin when she came face-to-face with a dark humanoid shape looming just a foot away.
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Gamzee Makara Wrote:S’aight. After all, dogs have a tendency to motherfuckin’ bite.