[Reboot] Tales from Driftmoore

[Tirin]

Between his own effort and Matthew's soothing presence, Victor quickly managed to relax himself, particularly as it was made clear that the girl only had the best of intentions. He was right; if this was a dream, and all signs suggested that it was, they had to plan for after the fact, especially given that Johnathan was in danger. His pupils slowly shrank and his breathing became more regular as he focused, weighing what the barista and new girl - wasn't she a journalist or something? He was certain he had seen her before at some kind of event - said as she approached. Though he already towered over his company, Victor squared his shoulders and stood a little straighter before speaking; first to Matthew, and then all of them.

"Yes, he's a friend of mine, and everything written in there - at least, everything I know about - is the truth. I have a meeting with him tomorrow, in fact; perhaps I could convince him to come out for a drink afterwards and speak with us, or at least with me." He suggested - then took a few steps away from the blonde as she reached for the book, seeing little purpose in inducing more anxiety and paranoia in himself. "I can't speak much for Driftmoore being strange, but my life has certainly been a lot stranger since coming here - and if that book has anything to say about it, so has Johnathan's. He'll want help if it's been anything like my experience."

He paused for a moment as his mind processed the claim that the photographer claimed an injury of hers had healed - and he vaguely remembered that a woman with a cane had walked into the coffee shop. A strange coincidence, to be sure, but he was more interested in the odd occurrence, and tested it by (very discreetly) clasping his hands together and firmly rubbing one thumb along the scar that he knew should be on his right hand to try and smear the makeup. Nothing came off; in an odd sense, it was comforting that he didn't have to face the results of that mistake in this dream.

Though she left the room to after suggesting that she would get a knife, he found himself unable to resist thinking of the camera around her neck; if their personal effects and other items were brought into the dream according to some twisted logic, surely its gallery could help them in understanding their plight. He looked up - rather, down - to her as she emerged with the bloodstained knife, and shot the pretty girl a good-natured smile despite it. "I assume you mean match the blood - because I absolutely can't get behind stabbing it. I'm more interested in the contents of that camera, though. It has to be here with you for a reason! I think that we should look through the gallery; it might even be worth taking a few shots, so long as the flash is off." He looked around at the three young women, and chuckled a little to himself. "Oh - and introductions might be worth our while. I'm Victor and this is Matthew," he gestured to the smaller man, "in case you didn't hear."

 

[Elliot]

As Victor relaxes, Matthew removes his hand from his arm again, holding the book in both hands until the blonde girl (yes, he does recognize her from somewhere) asks for it, at which point he relinquishes his hold on it easily. It's an unsettling thing to keep in his possession, to be sure, but it had felt too important to risk leaving behind. "That seems like a good plan," he says, nodding earnestly to the barista as she suggests her cafe for a meeting space. It would be more convenient to arrange meeting there than in the print shop, in any case. "It would make sense to meet in the Bean's Knees after you see him-- unless we think this space, the Cove, is important in its own right? Maybe we should be arranging to meet there instead."

When the familiar blonde returns, he lets his gaze follow the knife and the book. "I agree with Victor," he says. "The idea of 'matching up' the injuries, if a book can have injuries at all, by stabbing it feels... wrong. Especially if it's alive, as you say, but even if it isn't and it somehow contains the essence or the soul of a living person." Does he believe in souls, or visions? Matthew isn't sure, but this feels too real to confidently assert that they don't exist. Looking through the camera would also undoubtedly prove intriguing. "I still want to know what's happened to the rest of Driftmoore, too, or if there are other people out there. But yes. It can't hurt to know who everyone is first, and to see that camera."

 

[coolpool2]

Although still a bit tense, Yu begins to relax a bit, looking thoughtful as she starts to pace around a bit in a small circle. "I'm not quite sure if we can really find out anything from a knife that looks bloody, but I suppose it's a start. Although... if there could be clues in the kitchen, there might be other things around the building as well. Well, in any case as strange as all this is, from the cove to us somehow appearing here with objects and bodies we didn't have the night before, it wouldn't hurt to follow up on it more. It'd be pretty horrible to turn our backs on someone after knowing they may be in danger. If we can help someone then I'll do my best to contribute, even if I don't know how useful I'll be. Oh! I almost forgot, I'm Yu!" A nervous smile grows on Yu's lips as her eyes dart between the people in the room and her surroundings.

 

[BlookyHannah]

"I wonder if this guy knows he's slated for death already," Lucy muses, watching the exchanges. Then he may be spooked and not want to talk at all. The strangers all seem strangely comfortable with each other. Even Noodles... Yu, it seems, is warming up from her anxious state. She's strangely comfortable with them, too. They're all pretty nice to look at it and they're not slamming into walls trying to wake themselves. Rational and surprisingly chill - two things Lucy can work with. She's confident she could review a corpse in their presence and they wouldn't all run.

"I'm Lucy," she says. "Matthew, Victor, Yu, and yo-ou," she finishes with a little flick of her chin toward the blonde. "I'm only going to apologize - to everyone, in advance - for how blunt I am once, but...you had a cane this morning. Psychosomatic? Or is it because we're in here?"

She leans in expectantly, eager to watch the book-slice matching and gallery reel.

 

[Jeroth]

Dining Area - The Witching Hour



The camera appeared to have multiple photos before hand. A pale, white tree oozing a purple blood red sap. The second photo shows an odd, discolored hand. The final photo is a man's face twisted in terror as he appears to be flung into a large shredder. The data on the photo is all written in an unfamiliar language.

The ground beneath them trembled as a light quake shook the building. Through the fogged windows of the Cove, soft lambent lights of pink and yellow illuminated the massive tendrils underneath and small promenade that followed it. The lights seemed to bounce in place as the figures stopped, turning towards the Cove. One of them standing at the doors as the mechanical sounds of locks echoed in the Cove.

"Better run like you always do...~" A husky voice carried itself on a chilling breath, teasingly brushing against Victor's ear with a familiarity.

 

[Requiem]

"Take a look." Page set the camera on the table, gesturing towards Victor specifically. "That guy in the last picture. Does he look like your friend?" The first two photos were disturbing in and of themselves. Page recognized the tree or at least the shape of it. It was an ordinary tree she had shot the day before, but it certainly hadn't been bleeding bloody sap then. "The tree seems familiar, but I couldn't tell you anything about the hand in the second picture."

While the group looked at her pictures, Page opened the book of flesh to its first page. The cuts were still fresh, oozing like before. The blood was red same as the blood on the knife. Placing the sharp edge of the knife close to the cuts, it seemed almost too much of a coincidence to find such closely related clues in the same weird dreamscape. The cuts could have come from any knife and it wasn't all that clear that the knife she held was really related. She pressed the knife into one of the wounds. For a second, Page thought she saw the book react, perhaps move? Pulsate? She couldn't be sure what reaction it had.

Then the ground shook. Through the windows of the Cove, Page saw what could only be described as tendrils or tentacles, massive, writhing. On the street beneath the tendrils, vague, human-like figures dipped in and out of view as pink and yellow lights bounced all around them. She couldn't get a clear idea of what they looked like, but Page knew she didn't want to... at least not with her own eyes.

She grabbed the camera out of someone's hands, zoomed as close to the door as she could from where she was standing, allowed the camera to focus and then snapped a shot at one of the figures, awash with light.

"I don't know how long we're gonna have in this place, but I get the feeling we're not gonna wanna stick around." Page picked the knife back up and gripped it tightly. "I don't know about you, but I don't think that sound was the front door locking. We should get moving."

Without the pain in her knee, Page felt more like her old self with each passing moment. A dark streak was running through her mind. The knife felt good in her hands and the shadowy figures on the street felt threatening. Page didn't know whether or not she was capable of killing, but she knew she was willing... perhaps more than willing. Eager, even.

 

[Tirin]

Victor picked the camera off of the table and turned, his back to the Cove's windows, as soon as Page put it down, eager to look into it more and hopefully put the puzzle together a bit more fully. Holding it out and with the display up so that Yu, Matthew, and Lucy could see them clearly, he began to run through the pictures; the first alone had his cerulean eyes wide with shock as the words from the book warning of Jonathan's "mistake" burned themselves into his mind. After a few moments he flipped through the next two, examining both closely. That... that was Jonathan without a doubt, though bearing an expression of horror which Victor could hardly have imagined him with prior. "It's him. Without a doubt."

The tremors and clicking of locks caught Victor offguard, but he quickly steadied himself and glanced about in confusion moreso than anything. When that voice - her voice - met his ear, however, he whirled about with such violence that he nearly dropped the camera. "I didn't-!" He cried out instinctively, silencing himself before he went any further and risked revealing very deep and personal secrets to strangers (near-strangers, at least). Now facing the window, the well-kept man found himself stunned by the unusual sight of several figures led by flickering, hopping lights, the dim area around them narrowly revealing truly enormous, squirming appendages.

That, he faintly realized, was probably what had caused the "earthquake"; when the silhouettes stopped and turned towards the Cove, he sprang into action, though in truth he wasn't sure whether he was more terrified of the unknown things outside or the possibility that she was among them. He hopped the counter of the Cove with ease and took a few moments to search for weapons, finding himself furiously praying that there would be a shotgun, pistol - hell, even a bat - that he would be able to use to defend them. He had never thought of himself as a godly or pious man, but he'd probably take a handout from Satan himself at the moment; he certainly wasn't going to discard an option that suddenly seemed a lot more plausible. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here!" He called out, some odd cross between a whisper and a shout in the hopes that the creatures wouldn't hear (or at least wouldn't understand) him. Victor saw the camera in the reporter's hands before he noticed he didn't have it himself; had he really been so out of it? "Quick search for weapons and then through the kitchen, unless you're going to take your chances with those things!"

 

[BlookyHannah]

Seeing this was a mistake, Lucy recalls, drawing her eyes away from the bleeding tree in the photo gallery and waiting for the flip.

At the tremors, Lucy squeezes tight to the booth and looks toward the windows. The theme had been consistently dark and mysterious over the past several minutes, but their visitors gave things another shake. The flying spaghetti monster and his entourage. Lucy was still functioning under the assumption that she was dreaming and didn't have much to fear, lest she wake up and see the same blood and fog - but this added another layer. Victor, spookable as he seemed, also seemed somehow versed in whatever was happening. If he thought they were in danger, Lucy was going to take his word for it. He was the one with the book. He was the one who seemed to have a history with the goings on outside, too.

Lucy gets up and hauls to the kitchen. She all but rips a frying pan off a neat little display rack and tests the weight. Even it was more than she wanted to carry, but it would do damage if she was angry enough. It would take a lot to kill her with it if someone took it from her. Better than a gun or knife in her hands. "Dibs," she adds. Her voice is calm and sharp as per usual, but it doesn't match her tense muscles and hurried manner. She looks over her shoulder, wanting to make sure she's not the only one ducking for the exit.

 

[coolpool2]

The moment Yu feels the tremors her body goes into full alert. At the sound of the lock buckling and the sight of the shadowy figures her body scrambles over to the kitchen not wanting to wait around, looking for a weapon and an escape route. "Le-let's go!" Yu stutters out as she moves. Cleaver... cleaver... cleaver... there has to be one around here somewhere. Her eyes dart around the kitchen looking for a familiar tool. Her hand tightly grips a cleaver in her right hand, shaking and turning white as she does her best to keep her legs from collapsing. She slowly start backing towards another exit while she waits for the rest to join them.

 

[Elliot]

As the four of them crowded in to look at the photos, Matthew kept his eyes on Victor's reaction as much as on the film. The photos on the camera were undoubtedly disturbing, but they didn't mean anything specifically to Matthew the way they seemed to mean something to Victor. If this was his nightmare specifically, how did it come to be that the rest of them were drawn into it?

He didn't have much time to think about it before he felt the ground shake beneath his feet. "Oh-kay," he said, looking about for some explanation and catching the pale illumination outside the window. Were those people? Or something else entirely? At least, there was something else out there with them, whoever or whatever they were. If they were people after all, Matthew had no reason to fear them, but Victor's reaction seemed to suggest that there was real danger here. And, well, it was his nightmare after all.

The blonde whose name he still hadn't caught had a knife in her hands, as well as the camera. Matthew took up the book again, clutching it to himself in lieu of searching for a weapon, and used his other arm to steady Yu, who seemed nearly panicked as well as being clearly younger than the others. If he needed to look out for any of them, it was her. "Hey. We're going to be fine, just relax, stay calm, and stick together with me," he said to her, casting a last glance back in the direction of the blonde woman and Victor, as he followed Lucy towards the exit. Even if it didn't seem likely they'd be any safer out there, he didn't have confidence that they can successfully barricade this restaurant against whatever that tentacled creature was, and it seemed the longer they held out the worse the situation would become for them in here.

 

[Requiem]

Page watched as the other four made their way into the kitchen. The sound of pots, pans, and other kitchen implements could be heard as they armed themselves against what seemed like a clear threat. She nodded. That's a good idea.

Squeezing the knife, Page sighed in an almost contented way. She was starting to really feel what it meant to be whole again, enjoying that sensation of having a body that didn't want to fall apart or that needed a cane to walk. Sure, that was just on the bad days, but getting a taste of that other side of her, the one she thought she'd lost, made the threat of another bad day, just one, almost unbearable. She'd been in this random dreamscape for all of ten minutes, if even that, and already she was afraid of losing this feeling again.

The knife felt safe, protective, like her cane... her cane... Page hadn't really considered that she didn't have it on her here. She acknowledged it, she knew it was gone, but that sense of safety, protection, and an almost emotional invulnerability that came with having it was gone too. Instead, she felt how she did in the field all those years ago, moving in for the shot, blinded to what was around her. Instead of feeling safe, Page felt dangerous. Her healed knee, the knife, no cane... what was this place doing to her?

If she had to be that girl on the field again, she would be, but it would be on her own terms. "Fine, we're moving out, but let's be smart about it." Page pushed the door to the kitchen open and scrambled around the wall she had been pinned to by the red moss. It took a moment, but she found it. "Circuit breaker. Doubt this dream works like the real world, but there's no use in not giving it a shot." She flipped each of the buttons labeled LIGHTS and hoped it killed the lights in the main dining area and throughout the restaurant.

"Those things have light to see by, that's gotta be what those bouncing lights are for. Let's make it harder for them. We'll see them coming before they see us."

Page gripped the knife even tighter now, her knuckles going white in response. "Who knows if they're hostile, but I'm not about to stand in the open and get blindsided to find out. I'm Page, by the way, in case we need to yell at each other. Yu. Matt. Victor. Lucy." She nodded as she said their names, hoping to show she'd paid attention earlier.

 

[Jeroth]

Dining Area - The Witching Hour

Behind the counter, there appears to just be red moss that bulged out. Brushing it aside, Victor manages to find a single shotgun. A box of ammo is scarce, only managing to find three shells before the lights dimmed. The lights snapped off as the room was glowed with fluorescent red from the moss that clung to the area. The creatures at the front of the door began to bang and a muffled, unfamiliar language could be heard.

The party stumbled through the kitchen as the red moss appeared to illuminate strange symbols and text with an arrow pointing down in the corner, underneath the racks. The foreign language that seemed to probe at their minds grew louder as they stormed the room. There was not enough time for now. The doors to the outside were difficult to open as they stumbled outside.

Driftmoore - The Witching Hour
The acrid air reminiscent of rotting fish filled their nostrils. The stagnant air of the Cove was a pleasant smell in comparison. Water rushed past their knees into the cove. The pale green sky was an eldritch omen with two broken moons in the sky. Looking over the Cove, a glimpse of the tentacled being could be seen. Multiple maws adorning its fleshy, tumorous body with sharp eyes darting around.

Strange chanting filled the air, a heavy pressure that seemed to damper their spirits as they trudged through the water. For now, there were no other pursuers aside the from the ones behind them. Opposite of the lake, there appeared to be land that led up to a sightseeing deck that glowed a sinister red from the moss.

 

[Tirin]

The instant that he saw it, Victor grabbed the shotgun and stuffed the shells into his pockets, struggling not to curse as the lights went out all too quickly. He checked that the safety was on and then dashed through the kitchen's doors, the last out of the back but also arguably the best-armed to cover their retreat. He looked down as he felt his lower legs soaked with chilly water, and gave a sigh - then wrinkled his nose as the stench hit him. It was far from their worst problem right now, but Driftmoore being a foot deep in foul-smelling fluid hardly gave him any comfort. He took a brief moment to survey the sky and their surroundings - and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw the abomination towering over the Cove.

"This... this is like Lovecraft's wet dream. Literally, heh." He said, barely audible between his own terror and the thickness of the air. He averted his eyes from the beast to look down at the shotgun; double-barrelled, a Mossberg, and expensive by the look of the engraving near the action. Why would something this upscale be in the Cove? He supposed that, realistically, it wasn't - he had seen one almost exactly like this before. He unlatched and opened it, then, figuring this quiet moment was the best chance that he would have to load a pair of shells - and his mind drifted to a distant memory.

He was fourteen, and the old man - not his workaholic father, but his father - took him to the shooting range for the first time. Alexander Primus looked damn healthy for his seventies, with steel-grey hair and a broad smile, and started by handing the teenager a handgun, pointing him towards the target, and gently explaining three things: the importance of trigger discipline, never to point it at anything he didn't want to shoot, and how to engage and disengage the safety. More detailed lessons, like how to reload, improving his marksmanship, and the like were given to Victor over the span of several months, before his grandfather's health started to decline.

In the dreamlike present, he blinked. It was already loaded - given that it was under the counter, he supposed that that made sense, and he wasn't going to complain for saving on his limited ammunition. Satisfied with that, Victor resealed it and glanced around at the others. "I'll be honest... I have no idea where to go from here, but that deck," he pointed to the one on a mountain, covered in moss, "looks like as good a place as any, and should give us a little bit more time to get our bearings if we stay quiet and don't attract any more attention. Dream or no, we certainly want to avoid deep water. I don't want something slimy to wrap around any of our ankles and pull us under, so high ground seems like our best bet." And with that he was off, taking smaller but quicker steps to avoid splashing as much as possible, heading towards the deck unless convinced otherwise.

 

[Elliot]

"Clever thinking, Page," he answers, smiling a little despite himself at her over-familiarity in shortening his name. It doesn't bother him when the lights are switched off, not until the door opens and he suddenly feels the water rushing in. It reaches his ankles, then his calves, and there's a moment of near-panic as it sweeps past his knees and he can't see, can't tell if he's going to be submerged and swept away.

It doesn't happen, though; the water levels out just below his knees, and Matthew forces himself to start breathing again. He loosens his grip on Yu, too, which he hadn't realized he'd tightened. It's the first time since "waking up" here that there is real fear in his eyes, and his body begins to shake slightly even as he runs calming refrains through his mind. It's not real. It can't hurt him. He's not submerged.

Victor's coming up behind to bring up the rear provides him something to focus on, and gets him moving again. He's inclined to agree with any plan that will get them out of the water, but this one sounds perfectly sensible in any case. Yet the instant he starts talking about something grabbing them and pulling them under, an idea which seems perfectly plausible under the current circumstances, Matthew fights back another wave of fear. "Victor," he calls immediately after he finishes speaking, nearly interrupting him as he grabs almost frantically for him with his free arm. "I need you to help me." His other arm keeps the book pressed against his body awkwardly as the same hand holds onto Yu.

Holding onto other people would certainly keep all of them steadier, arguably safer, and they are going in the same direction in any case, but it's clear from the look in his eyes -- not just the fear, either, but the deadly seriousness -- that this is more than a practical request.

 

[coolpool2]

Yu eyes go wide as she exits the building, taking in the scenery, shaking a bit part from fear and part from surprise. Well… I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. As creepy as it is and as bad as the air is and even if the water will soak my socks, it’s sort of pretty looking in an abstract sort of way. Not everyday you get to see two moons in the sky, so I guess it’s not all bad. I’m sure we’ll make it through this, just need to stay positive. Yu quickly gets her bearings as she trudges through the water, minding her every step. Her eyes turn to Matthew as she notices the difference in pressure on her hand, seeing the fear on his face. That’s right… I need to be strong for the sake of the others too. Yu turns towards Matthew and with her other hand she places it on the other side of the hand she’s holding after putting the cleaver aside for a moment. She gives him her best smile to reassure him as some determination finds its way onto her face. “Hey hey, it’s alright, I’ve got you. I’m not quite sure how we’ll do it, but we’ll make it through this. That I know. So keep your chin up mkay?” Although unable to shake off her own fear, she does her best to conquer it and keep moving forward.

 

[Requiem]

Page watched as the lights cut out and the red moss glowed in the darkness. Water flowed into the restaurant as the strange figures appeared near the front entrance. Following the arrow seemed a good idea. The group had already been heading that way.

For a moment, Page lingered. The other four were ahead of her, but she remained behind with the sound of a foreign voice probing her mind. She lifted her head up and breathed in deeply through her nose, almost satisfyingly. A part of her recoiled at the scent, the feeling of the voice sliding through her mind, chasing her along neural pathways, bolts of mental lightning firing around her. As she ran, her lips, the lips on her face, the face staring up into the ceiling of the Cove's kitchen, the kitchen caught between reality and hell... those lips curled into a smile. However, with the voice looming over her as she ran through her own mind, a sudden image of her cane appeared before her. She was trapped in her own mind, but she had a way out. She took it.

Within a single second, Page's grip on the knife loosened ever so slightly. Her lips moved back into a neutral, even anxious position. She blew the air in her lungs out, almost sputtering in the process. The taste at the back of her throat felt rancid.

But... but she was still there. Still herself, still very much the girl who had gone to sleep with a bum knee and a cane resting against her nightstand; the same girl who had woken up covered in red moss and reached for a camera. Her knee still felt strong, it didn't pain her like usual, but she knew that might only last as long as she was in that world. At least, that was her best guess.

Page reached under the counter for a moment, fumbling near the back of it. She wasn't sure what she'd find, but Victor found a shotgun, hell, why not a flashlight? The rest of the kitchen had decrepit kitchenware covered in red moss, but if she was lucky, she'd find something that could help them, especially if they were heading outside. Besides a few other odds and ends that wouldn't be much use to them, Page found a foglight and some batteries to match it.

With the camera around her neck, the knife loosely held in her left hand, and the flashlight in her right, Page shook her head and followed the group. She nervously gave an apology to them for taking a few extra seconds, but gestured to the foglight in her hand to make up for it.

"Don't know what we'll find out here, but if we need light, better to have this than nothing, right?"

 

[Tirin]

Victor paused, then slowly turned, after hearing Matthew's nervous request, his eyes narrowed slightly. Was he serious? They were getting ready to run - rather, sneak - for their lives, and he needed help just moving his legs? For a moment he felt a surge of anger, and no small amount of fear of his own, at not leaving them all and going to fend for himself; he was armed, after all, and extremely well. Then he thought of how earnestly the man had tried to help him relax just a few minutes before, and it began to fade, leaving him feeling a little bit ashamed at how... well, selfish he had just considered being. They were in this together.

He shot the smaller man a warm if slightly-forced smile, then, and walked back to be easily within arm's reach. "I can do that, but make sure to keep your hand on my shoulder. If I end up firing this, it'll be because we're in real trouble. I don't think we can afford a miss." He explained gently, giving Matthew ample time to do so. It was... strange for another person to be making so much physical contact with him, and though the situation called for it the businessman couldn't help but feel nervous and uneasy. It was even more odd to think that that was probably the most friendly anyone had been with him since he had left New York; it brought back a whole host more memories that made him itch to get out of the nightmare, and certainly away from what or whoever that voice had come from.

Page slipping out of the Cove's exit helped him focus, and he nodded firmly, more than accepting of her apology. "Agreed; lets keep it off for now, though. Whatever fucked-up monsters that thing has after us, I'd rather we not attract their attention. Let's go, I'll take the front." And, as before, the businessman began to head off towards the moss-lit deck, keeping his wits about him so as not to be taken by surprise - and making sure not to immediately round the corner of the Cove and so be back where they started, but with far worse shelter.

 

[Jeroth]

Driftmoore - The Witching Hour

The first few steps of the five disturbed the otherwise still water. The sounds of sloshing mixed with the far off sounds of an alien cry, reminiscent to that of a whale's song. The bone-chilling water, darker than the abyss, soaked into their clothes and skin. The Cove was behind them as they clung to the houses and buildings, attempting to avoid those pastel lights that acted as search lights. A glimmer of hope shined as the water grew shallow; the cliffside overlooking Driftmoore being just a few steps away. To your left, you hear a splashing noise. Something is in the water.

Page

As you trudge through the water, it feels as if your strength is waning. Your right knee growing heavier with each step. By the time the water begins to grow shallow, it has become unbearable. You are unable to walk without support.

 

[Elliot]

When Yu tried to reassure him, Matthew just shook his head slightly. It wasn't worth trying to explain this very specific thing, that he needed to feel physical support rather than encouragement, but he appreciated the gesture in any case. When Victor came closer and he was able to clasp his shoulder tightly, Matthew felt as though he could breathe again, and he shot both of them a grateful look. "Thank you. I understand," he said simply; he had no intention of interfering with Victor's ability to shoot. Mobile again, and moving through the water, he could still feel his heart beating quickly in his chest, but it was not unbearable. He had a sense of being grounded, rather than lost at sea, and he could get his bearings enough to focus on his surroundings. Whatever that massive creature was, and the pale lights. He didn't know what it was supposed to be that was out there, but it seemed like it wasn't something they wanted to be seen by. This dream had made more sense when it seemed to be just a warning about that Jaynes person. "Yes," he said lowly, in response to both Victor and Page. "Let's try to stay out of sight."

As they reached the shallow water, nearly to 'safety' in Matthew's eyes, he felt an immense swell of relief and confidence. The knowledge that something was in the water near them only urged him to move more quickly. He released some of his hold on Victor and held Yu's hand more tightly, wanting to get her out of danger and onto dry land. "We'll have a better chance out of the water, whatever that is," he said quickly-- but then he spotted Page and the way she seemed to be struggling to move. "Go," he said to Yu, and then he let go of both of them entirely, going instead towards Page to lend her an arm and help to get her (and himself) out of the water. He felt a strange sense of weightlessness after losing the hold he had on other people, but Victor was their best chance of defending the group if it became necessary, and Page clearly needed help.

 

[coolpool2]

Her head turns back towards Matthew and Page for a second, hesitating. She doesn’t want to leave them so that she can get ahead, but she knows that too many cooks can be detrimental. Tightening the grip on her cleaver, she picks up her pace towards dry land while trying not to be too loud with her movements. Yu shakes, knowing that soon something will likely attack them. But in a situation like this the only thing she can do is keep pushing forward and react.