[text] there is water at the bottom of the ocean

[nonscriptum]

[Originally, it started out as a well-meaning adventurous foray for personal edification, yadda, yadda, yadda. Time moves so slowly in Hadriel that Nate has been clawing at ways to occupy it, and since he's exhausted the library of any texts that aren't in gibberish it stands to reason he might seek personal fulfillment elsewhere. After waking up with the usual restlessness he considered the wide expanse of lakeside real estate out his window and thought, yeah, a swim sounds nice.

The swim was less than nice.

Several minor explosions and some (honestly) impressive spell-work later sees him soaked to the skin but otherwise unscathed outside of minor lacerations on one arm - there's really only so much you can do when trying to evade a shark with two fucking heads - scribbling quickly in a notebook with the sort of fervor reserved for the truly mad. Lake-adjacent, blessedly on the shore with a towel slung around bare shoulders, he quickly snaps a photograph of his work with his phone and hits SEND TO ALL.

The message is as follows:]

does anyone know what the hell this is
i found it at the bottom of the lake

Attachment: [monster.jpg]

p.s. don't go swimming in the lake

Comments

text;

[lingeringhope]

Don't question my caring for them. How dare you? I would trade all of you to have avoided their deaths - I would trade all of you to have safety enough to bring them back.

They died for us because they loved us, because they trusted us, and because the Null wanted to destroy them. I regret that every day.

text;

[nonscriptum]

[Well, slap his ass and call him Sally. Hope is a dick.

Nate has too many questions and some sanctimonious deity with a love for shellfish and very little grasp on what qualifies as "trust" - and this is serious, coming from a thief - isn't about to set him off a goal.]

why is it not safe enough to bring them back now? what the hell are you waiting for?!

when were the null here before? WHY?

text;

[lingeringhope]

Are you an idiot? Do none of you talk to each other? This is not a secret. The Null destroyed almost the entirety of our species and all of the species whose remains you found. It isn't safe to bring them back because the Null are intent on finishing the job. I need all the power I have simply to keep us alive.

It is not my fault that your companions here have told you none of this.

oh my god i'm so sorry

[nonscriptum]

listen chucklefuck, i'm new here, and most of the books in your city are in a language that literally NO ONE understands, so brushing up on the last millennia of hadriel history is next to impossible

[Not that he'd entirely trust the authors of those books, anyway. History texts are a little biased.]

i'm no scipio africanus but even i know you're scrambling for reinforcements and it's starting to show, so maybe if you dislodged your celestial head from your equally celestial ass us peons would help out

[lingeringhope]

Perhaps if you did not gloat about desecrating the remains of creatures I loved, I would begin to care about how you felt.

[nonscriptum]

i didn't intend to find your friends down there, i just wanted to go for a dive.

no bodies or bones were salvaged, and i sure as hell didn't move them from their final resting places. i was a little preoccupied with not getting eaten by sharks.

[He neglects to mention the three shell fragments he brought up to look at a little more closely, but like...c'mon. Those aren't bones. And you can't leave something shiny in front of him.

Anyway, asking the public for information isn't a crime. Isn't that what Hope just criticized him for not doing? Jesus.]

maybe slap a memorial plaque next to the lake next time you want to get your pants in a bunch, usually if things are marked 'sacred burial ground' people don't go digging it up

[UNLESS YOUR NAME IS NATHAN DRAKE]

[lingeringhope]

Your justifications are meaningless to me, though I imagine they make you feel better.

Just leave them alone.

[nonscriptum]

[His justifications do make him feel better, but then, Nate has spent the better part of his life functioning in a narrative of his own making, based upon a lie, so.

You know.]

tell you what

i'll leave it alone when you stop acting like a sanctimonious dick

[lingeringhope]

You believe that disturbing the remains of a creature who has passed away is justified because I have not stroked your ego in the way you wish?

In that case, we have nothing to talk about.

[nonscriptum]

[That's...not what he was saying at all, but Nate can tell this conversation is going nowhere. Still, if anyone ever thought he wouldn't absolutely try to have the last word, they'd be dead wrong.]

fine by me