Log:The Lights Are On and Everybody's Home

2020/02/23 Arthur Aevus 1

Arthur runs outside of Starguard, checking directions and figuring out which way is East. He pulls out the fog watch on chain from his vest pocket and checks the timing. It's set to a half hour before Baker was possessed, which should give him a good window to timeloop his search. There's a lot to cover, though. He depresses the stem to start it up again, and vanishes with a FLASHffzzzt!

East isn't too difficult. That's baywards. Post-FLASHffzzzzt doesn't reveal much change. It's earlier in the day, but the net change is only a handful of hours past. Starting to head east proves its actually very quickly baywards. It's not even two miles to the port, and perhaps three to Sandy Bottoms. If 'several' is more than that, then she wasn't in the city proper.

Arthur materializes just past Sandy Bottoms. About a mile past. Out over open waters by about two meters. Then Porter's rival gravity recognizes one of Arthur's composite parts and gleefully drunks him into the frigid waters as Arthur gives out a yelp.

Yep. It's water. Ocean water. Cold ocean water.

Arthur BREACHES the surface with a gasp and a yell. "Gah! Cold!" Or...not. He blinks and looks around as he treads water, realizing it's not actually cold like he anticipated. He forgot he doesn't need to breathe, too. Still something to get used to. "Well. This isn't so bad."

"I said a -few- miles east," Arthur grumbles to the Torus as he wipes his hair back and out of his eyes. "Why is it you rarely take me where I want to ...go." He trails off and looks around, then down at the dark waters. "But you usually take me where I need to be..."

This could still fall under that purview. The island, and the city beyond, are still readily visible. Assuming that Agent Baker's somewhat vague description of distance isn't overestimated, this adds a potential complication to matters.

Arthur wipes his face with his gloved hand. "This could take much longer than anticipated. Though it brings up a brand new complication." He pauses. "I miss when you'd talk back, Torus. You've made me develop a habit." He looks down and takes a breath out of habit, then dives down under the water to see what he can see. He forgot he didn't need to take a breath.

He isn't a yellow submarine, but rather a quirkily dress submariner. The waters of the bay are not excessively deep, as they are not the open ocean, but even at a few hundred feet, the relatively subdued light above becomes quite dim. There are no immediate sources of energy, though Sandy Bottoms near to the west and the undersea project dubbed Agridome may register. The latter is another few miles east, outside the mouth of the bay.

There'd been no reports that he knows of from Agridome, and they would've mentioned something if there were underwater bugs plaguing the waters. Of course, they could be burrowed beneath the sea bed. More places to check. He decides to make a sweep, heading towards the Agridome, then figuring he can comb his way back towards the island.

En route to the Agridome, there are a few undersea features that are noted: a number of furrows in the seabed that parallel Arthur's course. A course that is perpendicular to the flow of tides in and out of the bay. There are a few in close proximity, but as he looks further left and right, many more are notable. All are roughly parallel to one another.

Those look...weird. And not really natural as far as he can tell. He propels himself down to get a closer look.

They don't look man-made, if that's the only criteria for unnaturality. They could be drag marks or some kind of track, though they are too irregular to be caused by machines. Likely too deep for even most dedicated divers, and certainly too numerous. All run in the same direction: east to west (or vice versa).

Arthur looks at the grooves with some concern, looking back towards the coast. He decides to follow the grooves away from the coast, dipping down to the ocean floor by the grooves. . o O (What the heck are these? Tracks? Dredging marks?)

The furrows are slightly more than a meter wide and are not especially deep. They are more gentle valleys or scallops than narrow trenches nor ravines. A very close look, or disturbing one physically, shows that it only disturbs the top level of silty sediment.

Arthur climbs up a bit in the water again and speeds up to find how far these trenches go out to sea.

The furrows continue out to sea for another mile, perhaps mile and a half, and then rapidly begin to end. Each individual furrow doesn't fade and simply ends abruptly, though all furrows do not end simultanously. One here, a couple further on, and so forth. They do all end within the span of a few dozen meters.

Arthur frowns and looks around. They either end or start here. But he's seen no creatures in the water. He recalls Fauna's warning. In a flash of light, Arthur is replaced by a humanoid body of pure energy, quite similar to Spirit in fact. Becoming an immaterial body of pure energy, he attempts to dive under the seat bed where the furrows disappear to see if there's anything beneath.

Sinking 20,000 inches beneath the sea, Arthur the friendly spirit discovers that the ocean floor is, indeed, disturbed. The heavier silt, earth, even stone are disrupted in-line and in-kind with the furrows above. While there are no open tunnels, there is obviously sign that something, or rather multiple somethings, this way came.

Arthur dives into the earth deeper, wondering if there's some sort of underground pocket or chamber.

Moving further east (at least Arthur thinks its east) following the disturbances is not too difficult. The major drawback is that solid ground is rather opaque, and so he views shallow cross-sections in the immediate front. This makes finding any cavern or other subterranean pocket less as search and more an attempt to blindly stumble into-

Found one!

Some form of void that isn't earth. It doesn't seem filled with water, either, as its easier enough move.

Unfortunately, it is utterly, completely, PITCH BLACK. Arthur cannot even see nose, much less hand in front of face.

Arthur stops flying forward once discovering the pitch black void. He halts a moment, focusing on the energy within and begins to glow brightly to illuminate the void.

Let there be LIGHT!

The bright beacon reveals that Arthur is, indeed, in a sizable cavern. Whether it is a natural occurance or an inentional excavation of some kind isn't immediately determinable.

The main reason for this? He can't really see the walls, themselves, per se. Because the walls are moving. And the floor. Ceiling. Even the mass under his feet begins to move. Reflecting the bright light are a number of amber pinpoints. They seem to be in pairs. One, two, four, twelve, twenty-some... he may need a Cosmic Calculator.

Regardless of exact count, Arthur gets the distinct impression that all eyes are upon him.

Arthur gulps. o O (Oh ssshhhh...shoot. Torus, send a quick message to Starguard Commander: Bug nest found under sea bed floor miles off shore from Sandy Bottom Islands. Follow the furrows and search under the ocean floor for an open chamber. Bugs everywhere. Bring backup.).