> Wake up, again

[bathymetric]

[Whether you've met an unfortunately end on the SS Swift, or deep in the depths, wrapped in the crushing tentacles of the kraken... You're not there anymore. You also don't seem to be dead. Maybe. It's difficult to tell, seeing as you no longer have any of the injuries you sustained on the ship... But you're also no longer on the ship.

Your eyes awaken to a cloudless sky, and a dry, dry, desert. A weak breeze struggles to blow even the dust from the cracked earth. There isn't a drop of water for miles around.

But what is around... is a ship. About a dozen yards away from where you've awoken is a tall, two-mast galleon, beached on the wastes, listing to the right.

How did it get here? Who knows. How did YOU get here?

Might be questions for a later time, seeing as you're waking up with your murderer.

Welcome to the Locker.]


[Map courtesy of Carmen Sandiego]

Comments

[dokkalfheimr]

I hate you no more or less than I hate most mortals. So I would suggest that you not squander what little goodwill I have towards you.

[So there's that.]

If that much is true, however, you're behind a fair few of us. Did Lord Davy never speak of this place?

[heroantagonist]

Well hey, that's a good way of looking at it. Props to you.

[He can work with that.]

Ehh, he did speak a few times about a "locker" but ehhh, I didn't really... care. You know, I thought it was just some kind of big storage Jones kept in the ocean for, I don't know, crabs and weird fish porn? It didn't bother me.

...Looks like I was almost right after all.

[dokkalfheimr]

Did you recruit him, or did he come part and parcel with all of this? I seem to recall that this entire ordeal wasn't your own idea.

[heroantagonist]

I found him. With just a little help, you know.

...Actually, it's funny. Have you ever been in the right place at the right time for something? I mean, that's been me all my life, but when I found Jones, everything really just fit into place.

[dokkalfheimr]

With help...

[She's quiet for a moment; the last time a word had been found, it had been a name, but...]

...Jack? If you don't know then I suppose that's simply the way things are, but who is Angel? Does that name mean anything to you?

[heroantagonist]

[Jack snaps to attention.]

How the hell do you know that name? Who told you it?

[dokkalfheimr]

...Answer me first. Who is it, Jack.

[heroantagonist]

It's... [A great breath Jack didn't seem to be aware he was holding is exhaled.] It's my daughter's name.

Now where did you hear it?

[dokkalfheimr]

[...Ohhhhh. Oh. Oh no.

She kind of looks a little pale at that, because this likely isn't... If he doesn't already know why they know about it, he didn't put it there, presumably.]

Was she onboard the vessel at any time, to your knowledge? Her name was carved into the gazebo - do you have any idea why that might be?

[heroantagonist]

No, she wasn't. Actually... A long while back, she just sort of... vanished? [He laughs, hollowly.] I thought it was some kind of trick, and then I thought she was dead... But I never found the body.

[He shakes his head quietly.]

Whoever did put it there is gonna have to get a brand new heart once I'm through with them.

[dokkalfheimr]

...We'll see. I'm...

[God, she hates this? She hates finding anything about this man sympathetic.]

I'm sorry. To hear about that.

[heroantagonist]

Yeah, I'll bet.

[Isn't it just awful?]

Is there anything else? You losers gonna toss me off the ship now?

[dokkalfheimr]

I personally have no interest in doing so. Plumeria is well aware of what I would have done with you, but that would require my powers to be regained. If it were left up to me, however, that is what would be done.

It would be nothing fatal or permanently damaging, but it would be punishment regardless.

However, it isn't my place alone to decide.

[heroantagonist]

Well, that's awful kind of you.

Look at you all, working like a team or something.

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ She just laughs at that. ]

[dokkalfheimr]

[god it's like he doesn't understand the non-fatal punishments are worse]

[conceivesfrenzy]

[ was she laughing at that, or was she laughing at the team part? who knows!!!! ]

[dokkalfheimr]

[i mean now that we're done trying to murder each other we're passably cohesive to someone who has likely never been within sneezing distance of someone that actually likes him

she cannot be convinced that jack has enough social skills to tell the difference

look at him he's got a face over his face]

[thisaroma]

[ a cracked face! ]

[dokkalfheimr]

[decus she is so proud of you]

[dokkalfheimr]

If they will allow you to come with me, I'll do you the basic courtesy of scouring the worlds I know of for your daughter. If she exists still, there will be remnants of her in dreams.

My sympathy for you will not be enough to convince me to rescind your punishment. But I will offer you that much.

[heroantagonist]

You... will, huh?

[He seems to honestly... be considering that.]

Well, least I can do is accept that. What do I got to lose?

[dokkalfheimr]

I know how it is to lose loved ones. I can have sympathy for that much, if nothing else.

As it stands, you will be kept in the lowest levels of Dökkálfheimr, immersed in a perpetual nightmare from which there is no escape. Your minutes will seem like centuries; hours will be eternities. My daughters will feed on your misery as you have fed on ours.

You will wake when I decide you will wake. No sooner. And mortals can last a very, very long time down there.