[PQ+] fracture

CRASH

It's the final countdown leg into the safehouses, but Torchline won't let you go without a fight. Hadama is jostled - again - by drifting debris, as are the merfolk, and it's a comedy of errors that will earn more tragedies before the Torchers all make it into the Fingers. Whether picked off by predators or sucked down beneath the waves, not everyone will make it to the caves.

But those who do, as soon as the darkess and the final, stable rock surrounds them, all goes smoothly. Ray (and later, Hadama, when he makes it) will be able to lead the citizens into the safety of the caves prepared seasons before. And there they can stay, with food, water and medicine, until it's safe to creep out again.

---

Congratulations, you have completed the PQ+! Ray, Hadama (and Flora, because she was there for a fair bit) will all receive credit for MP and levelling purposes.

For sparing the Sea Kitten, Hadama will also gain advantage the next time he prays to Ludo at a shrine!

Sea Panth- er... Kitten: 6/232 (Ran away like a good kitty)

Your randomly chosen post order is:

1. Enzo 0/44
2. Flora 92/92
3. Ray 100/100
4. Hadama 42/120

Please feel free to post a final time with no post order. This thread will archive in 24 hours.

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

RAY

In ancient times
cats were worshipped as gods

Ray lets out a long sigh of relief once everyone who made it is inside the safehouses and the shaking feels more distant than beneath their feet. It's a relief to see Hadama and the other mers arrive as well. Thank you Hadama. Torchline will not forget what you and yours have done for us today. Lives have been lost but Torchline's people have survived. They can rebuild and adapt as they've always done. And it was largely due to their aquatic allies.

"Great job everyone! Get yourself some food, water, and a blanket. I think we all deserve a nap. I'll take first watch if anyone wishes to join me." As much as Ray wants to sleep now, she just needs to double check that it's truly over. And maybe just spend some time seeing her people still breathing. Enzo flashes before her eyes and the Attuned take a shaky breath before schooling her features and finding a good spot to guard her sleeping citizens. In the morning they can regroup and mourn.


~
Ray congratulates everyone for making it and tells them to eat/drink/sleep and that she'll take first watch.

They have not
forgotten this

It was a significantly battered and bruised King of the sea who accompanied the last of the humans into the safe house cave, and he nodded wearily to Ray's thanks. We will rebuild. Together, this time, he promised. Though the coastline is already... changed. Some of the islands have floated into the sky. Whether they would still be there when the quakes ceased and they emerged once more was anyone's guess.

Certainly the mermanta had no previous experience to measure it against, and he settled for seeing to his own people for now, moving among them with a quiet word of praise here, a squeezed shoulder of thanks there, and making sure the wounded were tended to.

Some were missing. Too many. From Flora and her twin to those among the mer who had volunteered to come with him, and Hadama took note of each one grimly.

"I will return to the Underwater City," he said, aloud for the benefit of the humans as well as through telepathy for those that could hear him. He might have preferred the quiet companionship of Ray, but they were the only leaders their people had here in the Fingers and duty came first. "And make sure my people there are still safe. Then I will return for the second watch."

He would seek out Ray later, when they had both had time to process, to mourn, and to come to terms with how the end of a world had changed them.

He owed her greatly, and he would not soon forget it.

---

Hadama will use his Aquaportation to return to the Underwater City and see how his people there have fared. Once he's seen to them, he'll use the same power to return to the safe house waters and will take the second watch.