applesaucedream | Encampment Under the Sea [Open to All]

Encampment Under the Sea [Open to All]

photo encampmentunderthesea_zps98ceddce.jpg

Since the dreamers of Manhattan had such a lovely time at the last vaguely-nautical-themed party, the Rift has decided to step things up a notch. Tonight, the dreamers will find themselves in what appears to be a city very much like the one they inhabit in the waking world, full of towering skyscrapers, neon signs, and heavy traffic. But there is one rather crucial difference: this city is located deep underwater, and the aforementioned traffic is mostly whales and fish, with the occasional submersible thrown into the mix.

The walls and windows are heavily reinforced to withstand the pressure of the water outside, and the people who dwell in these buildings seem to be doing rather well for themselves, for the most part. Buildings are connected by enclosed walkways, so barring any horrible accidents, the dreamers should have no problem getting around without getting too wet.

Much like the city they inhabit in the waking world, some areas are more obviously affluent than others, and the dreamers are as likely to stumble upon an upscale club as an underwater pub. But while the chances of a full structural breakdown are slim, there are definitely some areas that are on the leaky side, and a general sense of claustrophobia pervades the city wherever you might find yourself.

Explore. Or, if you're feeling particularly ambitious, attempt to escape. Either way, take care - it's hard to say what might be lurking in the darkness just beyond the city lights.

[ooc: Y'all know the drill. All characters are welcome, whether they are in the game or not. Characters can remember or forget the events of the dreaming at the player's discretion. And the party never stops - backtag into infinity!]

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Seth leans his head back against the wall and closes his eyes, trying to take deep breaths. It is not particularly easy at the moment, but they are not currently in danger (though it is taking a little while to get his brain to realise that), and Daniel is here, and if he just doesn't move then it doesn't seem to hurt as badly.

"Got slammed into the wall," he answers slowly, opening his eyes and looking down at his shoulder. "I think it's dislocated." He can't be entirely sure it's not also fractured, but it's definitely dislocated, he can feel that now.

Then the 'why is Daniel here?' question resurfaces, and he looks up at him. "Are you okay?" he asks, because apart from looking pretty shaken, he doesn't look injured or anything, but Seth needs to make sure.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," and he says it dismissively, like it's the most obvious thing. "Dislocated? You sure? Right right right, stupid question."

He breathes out, controlling and low, and tries to regain some form of composure. "I might be able to help you set it. Though I should warn you, I'm only a doctor in the archaeological sense. I don't know where we are. Wherever it is, we should probably get out. Soon as we can. Think you can walk?"

"Yeah, just... Gimme a minute," he answers, closing his eyes again and trying to collect himself. He can still hear the water rumbling steadily on the other side of the wall, but so far the only water-related noises on their side is the dripping of their clothes. He's never had a dislocated shoulder, and he's never helped someone set one, but he's seen it done. Thank god for St. John's fucking ambulance.

"Alright," he says, opening his eyes again. "I know how to do it, and I'll move a lot quicker if we fix it first." Plus, it's generally bad to keep a shoulder dislocated for longer than is necessary. He carefully lets go of his arm and moves away from the wall a bit, turning to the side and then laying down on his back. Taking deep fucking breaths to try to ignore every stabbing twinge as he stretches his arm out to his side, gritting his teeth, and knowing it will hurt more soon.

"Sit down next to me," he says, gesturing with his head. "And then just.. take my hand, make sure you hold it properly, and then slowly just pull my arm away from my body and don't let go. You can put your foot against my side for leverage," he instructs, steeling himself.

Daniel obeys, a little nervously, because this is going to be all kinds of uncomfortable and painful for Seth, but he seems to know what he's talking about and Daniel trusts him. He grasps his hand, firm, hesitant, positions his foot against Seth's side, and -

"I'm sorry." The words escape him a heartbeat before he pulls, slowly, wishing he could go faster and get this over with like tearing off a band-aid, because that really sounds like it hurts, but he doesn't let go, and he keeps pulling, and his jaw aches from clenching it and forcing himself to keep going, and he really, really hopes he's doing this right.

Seth closes his eyes and tries to relax and, "Jesus fucking Christ. It's fine, keep - fuck, keep it there." That really fucking hurts, and it hurts for a lot longer time than he wants it to, and then finally his muscles stretch enough for him to feel the bone pop back into place and he exhales in relief. "Let go," he says, and takes a couple deep breaths as the ache in his muscles slowly subsides.

After a moments more, he carefully sits up and gently moves his arm around. It's stiff and sore, but it doesn't feel like something is actively poking at the brain centers of his brain, which is a pretty big upgrade. "That sucked," he comments wearily. "Thanks."

He didn't even realize he'd been holding his breath until he lets it out in a tight, relieved rush, releasing Seth's hand at the same time.

"For a minute I thought I'd done it wrong, I -" He shuts his eyes, shakes himself, and doesn't finish the thought. It's fine. Seth's fine. He's fine. They're fine.

"You all right besides?" Well, besides almost drowning not that long ago, but now that he's recovered from the initial surge of fear-panic-recovery, Daniel's already started to get agitated. The not-terribly-distant roar of water combined with the oppressive, flat uniformity of the gray walls are setting all his nerves on edge.

"Peachy," Seth answers sarcastically, because yeah, he still feels nauseous, and his shoulder is most definitely badly bruised, and his throat hurts, his muscles ache, and everything sort of sucks. But nothing that won't get better on its own. "It's fine, I sorta got some.. healing powers," he adds. And as long as he doesn't need to walk through any more walls, he can focus on using them.

He has no more desire to stay here than Daniel does though, and he pushes himself to his feet, taking just a moment to wring out his shirt a little, looking at the two possible directions, which look annoyingly similar. "Which way?" he asks, because he can barely remember getting to this point.

"No idea." Daniel simply looks at him, the crease in his brow growing ever more pronounced. Seth doesn't look to be in the mood to talk about it. Besides, getting out is Daniel's first priority. They can sort out personal feelings after. His heart is still going at it uncomfortably loudly in his ribcage.

So instead he turns his attention to their crossroads of a sort, suppressing a shiver at the way the place feels. Everything here looks the same.

"But if the option of splitting up is in any way on the table, I'd like to take it off," he adds hurriedly.

"Definitely not on the table," Seth agrees. He'd probably be dead if he were alone here, and, well, he can't possibly see why Daniel would want to be alone either. The atmosphere is oppressive enough with company.

He turns around sharply, feeling like something was watching him, sneaking up on them, and then mentally berates himself. That damn irrational paranoia he's not been able to shake ever since he took Johnny's power.

"Right," he says, then makes a snap decision and heads in the direction his brain wasn't telling him there was some kind of monster ready to claw open his back.

"Right," Daniel repeats, hastening to follow. "That sounds...right."

It also sounds like Seth's going off pure instinct rather than any informed decision-making which, to be fair, is understandable due to the until-recently dislocated shoulder and him nearly drowning and the horrible sameness of the whole area. At least their feet aren't splashing through rapidly rising water. He can take comfort in that. For however long it lasts.

"So you really don't know where we are?" he asks, anything to get rid of the creeping, pervasive silence. "Cause I don't recognize this place."

"When I woke up I thought maybe I was in the rebel base," he answers, gently massaging and rolling his shoulder as they walk, still making sure it's not badly hurt. "But it doesn't make sense for there to be this much water. And it's salt water, too. So... no." Besides, even without the water, it definitely feels different than the rebel base. He might've guessed Romac base, but, well, water.

"And, uh..." He looks awkwardly over at Daniel. "Thanks. For saving my life back there..." It sounds horribly cheesy and over-dramatic, and simultaneously doesn't even slightly capture how grateful he is for, well, for not being dead. The sort of thing you can't really express properly, but you still need to try.

"Tell you what, we both get out of this, you can buy me dinner." Distracted, he looks back over his shoulder and forward again, then shivers. "Place getting colder or is that just me?"

It feels like it. And unless he's mistaken, this whole section is starting to look more dilapidated as they progress ever more into it. Daniel has no idea what purpose this building could serve or what its directionless, homogenous layout could have been intended to achieve, but it feels to him like they've headed into a more damaged part of this building, significantly upping the chances of -

- of water.

Daniel tenses when the thunder of mass amounts of running water grows louder. And closer. He can't see the source. Again, he shoots an anxious look over one shoulder. Where it is coming from?

"Deal," Seth answers, looking back when Daniel does. Please say they don't both feel like something's following them. Except the water, of course. And hey, now that he mentions it, it is pretty chilly. Or that might just be the waterlogged clothing finally getting to them without the adrenaline.

At the louder sound of water, he's just going to remind himself that he has the power to walk through walls and ceilings and pull Daniel with him. Slightly less chance of drowning. Assuming, of course, not everything everywhere is water. And if another wave hits them like the one in the cell, he thinks he could probably phase through it to avoid getting knocked back this time. He's just going to keep very close to Daniel, ready to grab him if necessary.

There's nothing behind them; nothing Daniel can see, anyway, and he turns forward again and it's just as well that he did because he finds himself forced to stop abruptly because there is a gaping hole in front of them, a crumbled-away section of the floor that drops mercilessly into some ruined room beneath. It's in a state of horrendous disrepair, vaguely concrete-like material of the walls in midway state of tumbled collapse. Daniel's pretty sure he can see several jutting bits of welded iron, failed supports.

Architectural fascination aside, Daniel is quick to shuffle backwards, away from the hole, because yeah, no, that looks terrifying, thanks, except the sound of water is continuing to get louder and he still can't discern its source. Which is bad. Decidedly bad. He glances over his shoulder, again, and there it is there is the water it's coming right at them it's coming at them in waves.

He has a split second to yell, "Move!" before the current hits them, launches him backward, pitching him violently over and into the room below, and -

- and slamming him directly onto one of the jagged spikes of rebar protruding from the floor.

He doesn't have time to scream.

He just knows, briefly, with overwhelming, agonizing clarity, that it hurts.

And then he can't scream, the water's pouring in, he can't find Seth, there's corrugated metal punched through his abdomen, pain spiking viciously from its source, it's wrenching and distinct and burning, he can't breathe, he can't find Seth, he can't move, he's pinned by water and soldered metal, he's skewered to the ground, he can't move, he can't breathe, he can't find Seth, he can't find Seth, he can't find Seth he can't find Seth he can't find Seth -

The water's pouring in and he can't move.

Seth only has time to make himself intangible, trying to grab onto Daniel and do the same thing to him, but then he disappears from Seth's grasp, washed away in a split second, and Seth can barely keep himself standing. It's like he has to focus on getting every single water molecule that's bombarding him to pass through, and some of them still hit and push and shove at him.

"Daniel!" Where the hell did he go?! "Daniel!" And then he spots him in the room below.

Fuck.

No no no no, Seth doesn't know what's wrong, but it's bad, it looks very, very bad. And Daniel's not moving, and he's being swallowed up by the water so quickly, and shit, Seth has to do something.

Not giving himself time to think it through, he jumps down down the hole, his legs giving out as he lands and his knees slam painfully into the floor, but at least the water took some of the fall, he's fine, he'll be fine, where's Daniel?

Fighting against the currents with a combination of phasing and just trying his hardest to stand his ground, he manages to get over to Daniel, and - fuck. That's bad, that's--

That's not something he can focus on right now, Daniel's stuck and he's going to drown, and so is Seth if he doesn't do something, so he grabs Daniel and projects his own intangibility onto him, dragging him by the shoulders and getting him free of the metal and trying to keep his head above water, and...

He can't fight against the currents any longer, so he grabs tightly onto Daniel's chest as they're suddenly and brutally washed away by the flood, and he doesn't know where they're going but they're being carried away by the water. It's all he can do to try to keep their heads above surface as much as he can.

Someone pulls him, no god that fucking hurts, he has a chunk of rebar through his general thoracic area, it has probably impaled his kidneys or some equally necessary internal organ, and then he's sliding out and away from it laterally which doesn't make any sense but he can't think, he's bleeding and he's choking out water and he's choking out blood and he still has enough awareness of self to grope at the hole in his abdomen with sickening amounts of red leaking out, but he can't see it but he can feel it, the one thing that's still warm between the water and the coughing and the drowning and the cold is the red streaking his vision -

Distantly, he's aware that they're moving, both of them, Seth is here and he can't tell when he got here, he cannot focus, he cannot remember how this happened, any of this, oh god Seth is holding onto him with an arm that was recently dislocated and the water is still here, still churning, the current carrying them mindlessly, and Daniel doesn't know where.

"Se -"

But there's too much blood sticking in his throat and too much water pouring in, he can't vocalize, he can't visualize, he can't think, he can't breathe, he is helpless and completely at the mercy of the current that is amorphous, heavy, unceasing, and whatever synonyms for bad Daniel's oxygen-starved brain cannot conjure currently.

- shit, he's bleeding, he's really bleeding.

This would really be a lot fucking easier if he weren't completely panicking and if he could actually swim.

Daniel is badly injured, and Seth doesn't know how badly, but chances are they don't have time to float around forever before Seth can see to it. He needs to get somewhere dry, somewhere solid, and he tries to look ahead, see where they're going, but the lights are flickering and there's not all that much to see.

There! Up ahead, the corridor is turning a corner. The water is crashing into the wall, forced to change direction, and they'll probably ram into it, so if Seth can just...

Unlike the water, they go flying straight through wall, into a large and dry room. Unfortunately, as they were floating in a flooded room, they're several feet up from the floor, and they come crashing down heavily. Seth's other arm takes the worst hit, with the weight of Daniel landing on top of it, and he lets out a strangled cry.

He only gives himself about two seconds to gasp a proper lungful of air and make sure his arm's not broken, before he tugs himself free and sits up, leaning over Daniel.

"Daniel. Daniel, can you hear me?" he says desperately, looking down at his stomach, and shit that's really bad. Even with the water washing away most of it, his clothing is still stained deep red. Seth puts his hand on Daniel's, and a bright light shines out from the touch, lasting only for a few seconds, because Daniel really needs that healing power more than Seth just now. Maybe, hopefully, it will be enough to help stop the bleeding before it's too late.

Daniel is not cognizant of much right now, least of all his surroundings, especially not in their current state of turbid, ever-changing movement. His brain feels worse; his thoughts are equally slippery and untenable, and he cannot hold them. The one rock in this, the one detail that stands out with refreshing starkness and reality, is that he is in pain.

Also he is wet.

And moving.

Three things, then.

Then he strikes something, hard, and it yells and suddenly Daniel's entire vague worldview is altered, as now items two and three have fallen under suspect, because unless his perceptions of reality are deeply shaken (and he would not be surprised if this were the case, because item one remains horribly clear and present and painful and that would definitely be enough to remove any faith he has in his reality outlook), he is no longer moving and while he is still soaked he is no longer in the process of being soaked, an improvement, unless one took into consideration that he is still being continuously soaked in his own blood from the dark brown-red patch leaking out from his abdomen.

Less of an improvement.

Also, he can add a new item, item four, to his rapidly growing checklist of Things That Are Most Definitely Real And He Is Aware Of.

Seth.

Seth is here.

Seth is here and saying something indistinct, and Daniel is going to have to go with vocal recognition here because his glasses are gone and everything is shaky and the room is little more than smeared whorls of gray-black-cold, shot through with red, and brown, and pain, and Seth is yelling and holy shit is he glowing?

And Daniel gasps, and chokes, and spits out blood, because the pain in his abdomen, at one point mercifully dulled by the chaotic tumble of water, abruptly becomes sharper and more realized. Something is happening in that area that he can't see or understand but can most certainly feel because he's aware that he's screaming or groaning or making some loud noise to express the severe and flaring agony surging through him just now.

Oh god, this is terrible.

"It's okay, Daniel, it's okay, I've got you, I've got you," he tries to reassure over the horribly pained sounds Daniel is making, even though everything is horrible and he has absolutely no idea if it's going to be okay.

He's never been able to test his improved healing with anything worse than bruises and damaged muscles, and even then it hadn't properly healed after two days, but then Gabe had healed him properly before Seth could really figure out how much time it would take on its own. It seemed to do Johnny some good when he gave him the power in that dream, when his back had been clawed open, and it seemed to stop the bleeding, but they didn't really have time to examine it.

And Johnny hadn't reacted like this, but that had been mostly superficial and muscle damage, not internal organs. Perhaps it works faster when it's life-threatening? Who even fucking knows. And Daniel isn't present enough for Seth to tell him to focus on using the healing power he's just given him, but it should hopefully work well enough on its own, and maybe it's enough to save him.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts, but it's gonna be fine. We're safe now, I've got you, we're safe." Through his own panic he seems to get a clear path, and he keeps talking as he sits up and pulls off his shirt, ripping it in half, before reaching over and carefully pulling up Daniel's shirt to reveal the wound. It's not bleeding as bad, but it's still definitely a gaping wound, and he has no idea what the situation is inside of him.

"I'm gonna move you a bit Daniel, I'm sorry, I just need to take care of your injuries, I'm sorry," he says, constantly reminding Daniel of his presence and trying to anchor him to reality, as he carefully rolls Daniel onto his side and pulls up his shirt behind as well. Fuck, it looks terrible, and he balls up the shirt and puts it over the wound, before rolling Daniel back onto his back, and the weight of him should hold that in place, and Seth keeps apologising for how much it hurts.

He puts the other half of the shirt over the wound in front and holds it there with one hand, then finally looks properly at Daniel's face, putting his bloodied hand behind his neck, and shit, he's been coughing up blood too, that's bad. "Daniel. Can you you hear me, Daniel? It's Seth. You're gonna be okay."

It just keeps getting worse and it's all he can do to keep from passing out. It feels like he's about to, he almost wishes he would - it would be a welcome relief from this.

Seth keeps talking, which would be helpful except that Daniel is fading out sporadically, reducing whatever he's saying to something smudged and atonal and not at all distinct, something about apologies which is ridiculous, really, because Seth is here and, most importantly, he's all right so there's nothing for him to be apologizing for -

Then Seth rolls him over and he thinks he makes another noise as the movement ratchets a fresh round of that fucking hurts through him and he decides that, okay, that apology is somewhat vindicated after all.

Daniel's abdomen still feels like a skein of shredded interior decorating, blood and torn-up muscle, but now it's pulling, a series of fierce, involuntary contractions of muscle being rearranged in the most nauseatingly fucking painful way possible.

But! It means the bleeding is less and less, and he has enough strength to reach at the injury, dimly, and he can still feel some of it drooling out between his fingers but not in the horribly vast quantities like before and the aftershocks of whatever it is his internal organs are doing have left his ears ringing a little and he still feels numbed, drained, exhausted, but the pain is...less.

Or maybe he's just used to it.

Seth is still talking, the repetition of phrase and name, the hand at his...neck? Yes, neck, good, his grasp of bodily self-awareness is coming together nicely, which means he has the motor control to look up at him and try to signify yes, he hears him, he'll be okay.

Even if he's not sure he will be, really, but Seth shouldn't have to worry about that.

Talking takes more work. He has to hiss out through clenched teeth for a little while before the vocal chords agree to start working properly, and the first attempts feel clotted with blood and water but he finally manages two rasping, labored words:

"Your arm?"

Seth smiles in relief at Daniel looking at him, glad he's not quite gone yet, and helps support his head so Daniel doesn't have to strain himself. At the moment there's really not much else Seth can really do, he just needs to make sure the bleeding's stopping.

Jesus, here's Daniel having recently gotten a piece of metal driven through his stomach, and he's inquiring after Seth's well-being?

"I'm fine," he promises. "Just bruised." I mean, yeah, now that you mention it, it does kind of hurt like hell, he's certainly done some muscle damage there, but at the moment he has enough adrenaline to fuel him. Nothing deadly.

Finally he looks up and around them and - whoa. Holy shit. Either that's a fucking huge aquarium, or... "We're underwater."

Edited 2014-10-01 22:37 (UTC)

"Are we?" Daniel manages, and whatever else he has to say is abruptly subsumed by coughing. At least he isn't spitting up blood anymore - not to his knowledge, anyway.

"What -" He spasms, oddly, because he's not used to his body doing whatever the hell it's doing, knitting itself together or, or whatever that is. But it means he can breathe and think and actually be marginally aware of his surroundings, so Daniel's going to put that in his plus column. "God, that hurts. What'd you do?"

He remembers the glowing just before it started but his brain is still re-establishing an equilibrium so putting two and two together is a little outside the range of its skill set.

"And, uh." He has to squint to see Seth, who seems pleased to see him even if he still doesn't look so good himself. He misses his glasses. "How'm I still alive?"

Okay, well, that explains where all the water is coming from. Not so much where they are though.

But he doesn't have the mental capacity to focus on both that and making sure Daniel's alright, and the latter is definitely a priority at the moment.

"I gave you my healing power," he answers, adjusting his position a little and making sure he's still keeping pressure on the wound. His ripped shirt is stained through with blood, but there doesn't appear to be more coming, or at least not much.

"Sorry about the pain. You're gonna be okay, the bleeding's almost stopped," he adds, feeling a bit more sure of this now, not just empty reassurances.

Although now the sense of urgency is slowly draining away, it's replaced with an intense fatigue and muscle pain. His entire body aches. He shouldn't have used his powers this much, except if he hadn't, they'd probably both be dead.

"Has it?" Daniel tries to sit up to look but that action would expend more energy than he has, so he gives up and simply lets his head thud back onto the ground. The pain is miraculously dulling, the wound in the process of healing over, he supposes. Even so, he doesn't think he'll be able to stand for a while yet.

For a minute all he can do is lie there, breathing out the remaining discomfort from having recently been impaled, nearly drowned, made intangible, swept through a wall then landing heavily, and probably almost dying. Seth seems all right, physically, and his arm doesn't look dislocated again or broken or anything, and Daniel can take heart in that for a minute.

"Guess I owe you dinner." The attempt at levity is feeble and that's obvious enough but he needs it. "You didn't need to do any of that. So. You know. Thanks."

Seth sighs heavily, reaching up run his free hand through his hair, ignoring the fact he's getting blood on his own face in the process, and closing his eyes tiredly. He kind of just wants to pass out for a while, but he doesn't move away from Daniel, not till he's sure the bleeding's really stopped.

"Well, you know..." he answers slowly. "I was considering just leaving you there to die, but it seemed kind of rude after you saved my life," he answers, opening his eyes to smile weakly down at Daniel.

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tw: injury/impaling

This thread is the worst.

tw: blood, injury, impaling, all that fun stuff

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