Curse of the High Tide

[Isabelle]

“Hmm, it drives whoever possesses it to want to swim. That’s oddly specific.”

Toriel was holding the coin inches away from her face using a pair of cooking tongs, with Frisk standing attentively beside her. Apparently, Vision didn’t tell them where the lab was before this meeting, so the kitchen area would do. The robotic superhero went straight to the details.

“Your statement is correct. Every time I scan the object, my computer just says it’s a normal coin.”

“Well of course!” Stated the goat woman. “Magic is not like technology. Magic likes to stay with its kind, and this coins kind...”

She dropped the coin in a bowl which she just filled to the brim in the sink.

“...is water.”

Engraved text started to appear on the coin, as well as the depiction of some tentacle monster. She looked closer, putting on her reading glasses to get more detail.

“Ancient monster text. Looks like the language of Dagon.” She chuckled at the thought. “Before monster kind got banished to the underground, we used to have a pantheon of gods. It was kind of silly, I never bought into it myself. Well, anyways, Dagon was the god of the sea.”

Vision did a search on Dagon. Many tales surfaced of fish men who reside in the omniverse, building large statues of the creature and being an overwhelming disturbance in the vasty. One tale involved local vigilante Doom Guy who managed to take on an entire cult of them and even blew up their pet Kraken.

“The text doesn’t say anything we don’t know.” She continued. “Just riddle mumbo jumbo that basically boils down to the curse you described. Seriously, what’s the point of a riddle if you need to dip it in water and translate it to see it?”

“Is there anyway to break the curse?” Frisk asked, finally breaking her silence.

“There’s no obvious way. Sadly, most magicians don’t add a clear and obvious weakness to their magic.”

Suddenly, the pair went silent, as it became apparent that only the two of them were still in the room.

“Frisk, did you see where the Vision go?”

Both of them eyed the bowl of water in the sink. It was no longer holding a coin.

Concerned, Frisk ran to the window and saw Vision outside, walking towards the water’s edge.

“Frisk, grab the bowl, fill it with seawater and bring it to Vision, hurry!”

The little one nodded, grabbing the bowl and dumping it’s contents in the sink. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her out the front door and down towards the beach.

As she made it to the water, she peered over her shoulder to see the superhero inching his way to the shore. Quickly, she scooped up a bowl full of sea water and ran towards him. As soon as she was a few feet away, she held it up to him.

“Here!” She said, presenting the water to him.

However, he continues forward, ignoring her.

“I’ve got to swim.”

Desperate, she grabbed his wrist and dunked his hand in the water. He stopped in his tracks and looked towards the bowl. She moved his wrist so it would make swirling motions in the water, something sort of feels like swimming. Eventually, he picks up the bowl and starts spinning his hand around it himself.

Toriel finally caught up with the pair.

“It’s a temporary fix for now.” Said Tutorial politely.“Admittedly, it was kind of a hunch, but we were kind of down to the wire there.”

The two girls guided the android back to base to plan their next move.