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

[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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

how the hell did the last residents eat? bio-luminescent photosynthesis??

[He's just spit-balling.]

so why bring humans down here instead of more of the same crab people?

The gods have said that they don't really have much of a choice in who comes through the Door. Not all of us are human, either.

[Y e p.]

[Oh. Right. Through the text it's easy to forget who he's talking to. Welp, he's an asshole.]

shit

i'm sorry, nick. wasn't thinking.

getting kind of worked up from all the people jumping up my ass about going for a swim

[If the comment bothered Nick, he makes no mention of it. That's just the kind of synth he is.]

If you're interested in taking a closer look at what's down there, you might try giving Glacius a call. Pretty sure he said he enjoys a swim every now and then.

Edited 2017-08-27 06:18 (UTC)

a swim on the surface water i can handle, but there's a layer about 20 or 30 feet down where the salinity changes and that's where the bad shit is

you think anyone would miss the mutant sharks if we cleared the lake?

I can't say anyone would. They'd probably miss you though, so don't go picking any fights down there, all right?

i'll do my best.

[Normally the fatherly tone would grate, but there are a lot of things about Nick that remind Nate of Sully, although he doubts the synth has philandering tendencies.]

also, non-sequitur, but we haven't really talked since that pleasantville stint and i remember you being a former cop there? is that what you actually are?

because you kind of give off "private eye" vibes

[That last event was overall a doozy, but it had it's moments of peace. Nick mostly hasn't brought it up not just because of the more painful memories he got from it, but also due to how awkward it can be knowing the details of a fake life from someone he doesn't know from Adam. Nate had seemed nice enough in the small-town life, though. Maybe not professor material, but someone with a good head on his shoulders. Hopefully, that part was true, and not just a feature of the fantasy they'd been thrown into.

If nothing else, he seems keen enough.]

I'm on the Guard here, but back home, I was a detective. What gave it away?

[Please say the outfit.]

[Nick's assumption that Nate is not "professor material" is absolutely correct, and Nate would not take offense to it. Some people are built for teaching, and others are built for telling you cool stories about dead guys while shooting a merc between the eyes.]

call it a hunch

[Nate replies, in a vain attempt to sound as cool as the guys you see on the covers of pulp novellas in the discount aisle of the bookstore.]

don't take this the wrong way, but you dress like someone who should be smoking in a dark office and helping people with their problems

[Nice that they're chatting over text and Nate can't hear the chuckle Nick lets out.]

Hard to take it the wrong way when that was the whole point from the get go. They say the clothes make the man, after all.

[Or the synth, in this case, but that's a little beyond Shakespeare's time.]

[Nate looks down at himself briefly, because he isn't a thematic dresser and his wardrobe has largely evolved to best suit his job. He's not sure a Henley, some worn pants, and a pair of boots convey "treasure hunter."]

i'll take your word for it.

where did you set up shop?

I had an agency in a place called Diamond City. If you're from the same world most folks seem to be from, I doubt you've heard of it, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[His world is garbage, Nate.]

that bad, huh?
never heard of it

don't know how familiar you are with everyone else's world, but i was born in a place called boston. moved around a lot.

to be fair, it wasn't so great either.

[A lot of big snowstorms when he was little. And there was that whole "left at an orphanage a mile from Bunker Hill by his dad when he was five years old" thing.]