unknownseas | there's always a lighthouse. there's always a beach party.

[ Welcome to... a very nice beach, actually! It's very pleasant here. Carmen has set up a couple bonfires, there's some barbecues with meat to cook... and a lot of beach to hang out on! ]

Welcome to California's Pigeon Point Light Station State Park! Between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, just south of Pescadero, this lighthouse gets it's name from the Carrier Pigeon, a ship that wrecked here in 1853! ... Sorry, old habit. Go party. We have the whole place to ourselves. Most everyone here's been through something like this, or knows someone who has. And... the vending machine's bringing in some friends of yours, too.

[ It's a warm late summer night - not too hot for bonfires, but not too chilly that you need to stick by them to survive.

You've made it to the end. There are fellow survivors to meet and commiserate with, friends to meet or catch up with, and... it's over. For those of you returning, it's been about a year since the end of Round 2, and Carmen's gotten the word out to as many people as she can between trying to help this round and tracking down Round 0. If you'd like to play a hostage from the first motive, just know that they will remember it, but it's up to the player in the main round if time has passed since then or not so... it may have been a day or two ago or it may have been months! And hell with it, if you want to play a Round 0 character you suggested back in r1, come talk to us. Why not?

EDIT: Asher has gone to the trouble of making a toplevel directory for anyone intimidated by the number of pages!

Enjoy the last log of Unknown Seas! You've earned it. Love meme will come later tonight in the ooc comm. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Brett, oh my god!

[It's not easy running across soft sand in hiking boots but that's not going to stop Luca from reaching Brett. At this point nothing short of a second kidnapping to the bottom of the ocean even had the potential to.

He can't even wait for Brett to fully climb to his feet before he's throwing his arms around him and pressing his face into his neck with a shaky exhale. A million questions are rushing through his mind and have been from the first unanswered phone call to the moment before spotting his missing husband on a lighthouse beach...but all of them can wait, just a minute.]

You're safe, holy shit, you're safe.

[Brett, especially when being held close like this, has fairly obviously lost some weight. He's also trembling almost immediately; he clings to Luca, fingers curling into the back of his coat to keep his hands steady.]

Oh - oh my god, you're actually here.

[He's safe.

Brett sucks in one shaky breath, and another too quickly on its heels - and fuck, shit, now he's crying in front of everyone, he made it two months without doing this shit - he presses his face down into Luca's hair and squeezes him tighter.]

[The knot of fear and anxiety that had already been sitting in the pit of Luca's stomach for weeks tightens another notch as soon as he feels even the slightest difference in how his husband feels in his arms. He wants to know what happened, where he's been, who hurt him-

But Brett doesn't need to get worked up over all that right now and neither does Luca. Answers will come when they come but in the moment all Luca wants to do is make the man he loves know he's safe.]

Oh, baby- [He pulls back just enough to cup Brett's face in his hands and look at him, the purple shadows under his eyes clear as day behind his glasses even in the dim lighting.] We didn't stop looking for you. [He presses an urgent kiss to his forehead, to his brow, his cheek- like if he stops touching him for even a second he's going to disappear all over again.]

Not for a second.

[Brett's face hardly looks any better. He seems to be that particular brand of exhaustion that comes when you depression-nap for far too long, and don't feel any better for it. Also, he is not a pretty crier.]

Oh - have you not been sleeping?

[He catches Luca's face between kisses, hands on his cheeks, one thumb rubbing over his cheekbone near the rim of his glasses. It was something he'd worried about, more as he became convinced over the weeks that he was going to die down there. That they'd just go on looking for him, far longer than they should.]

Babe, it's been two months! You have to take care of yourself...

[bRETT!]

[What a sight they must be- an over-exhausted ugly-crying podcaster and his sleep-deprived, barely-holding-it-together husband clutching each other for dear life on a dark California beach.

Luca leans into the touch without a thought, turning his head to drop yet another kiss to the palm of his hand, losing himself in the moment to the point that it takes him a beat to fully process the words coming from Brett's mouth.]

Seriously? [Maybe it's the adrenaline or just the exhaustive familiarity Brett is still more concerned with making sure everyone else is taken care of rather than being taken care of himself but he lets out a breathy, exasperated laugh.] You were missing, Brett! Catching cat naps on Kathy's couch for a few weeks isn't even close to some of the things I put myself through surviving college.

Oh, god, Kathy.

[Constantly at the center of search efforts, isn't she? Poor woman. Brett had been so looking forward to Luca meeting everyone from Whitetail. They've shared so much of their lives with him; he'd wanted to finally share something in return. Let them meet his family - like they were all real friends, and not just an interviewer and his subjects. He'd just never wanted it to happen like that.

He leans in to kiss Luca on the mouth. It's salty with tears. He kisses hi again, then presses their foreheads together. One hand drops to twine his fingers with Luca's.]

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I - I meant to be there.

[What future was that, where he'd have gone off to work with Fontaine willingly? How was that even possible?]

[Kathy, who in Luca's eyes was now akin to Wonder Woman, had been a godsend from day one. From the minute he'd arrived in Whitetail after two days of no contact with Brett she'd been there to provide much needed company and at least one homecooked meal a day.

Luca had made it roughly a week alone in the cabin before Kathy and Irene had shown up with groceries and maps to keep better track of the searched areas...along with a hushed offer from Kathy to come by anytime while Irene organized the entire pantry like a ginger whirlwind. She understood how lonely the quiet of an empty house can be, especially with the weight of uncertainty and fear on your shoulders.]

Babe- [Resolve cracking more and more, he leans into each kiss like it might be the last. That last time he kissed him goodbye, when Luca had just needed an extra day or two to edit a work assignment and then he'd be in Whitetail to meet the town and people Brett cared so much about...for weeks he'd been terrified that would be the last one.]

Babe, I know you did, I know. Don't apologize. [He flexes his hand to grip Brett's, their matching wedding bands gently clinking together.] I'm just- [His voice is suddenly thick, tears finally starting to flow down his face.] I'm just happy I get to bring you home.

[Home.

Brett chokes on a sob, folding in on himself to bury his face in Luca's neck. Being held, comforted - it's a luxury he hasn't really allowed himself since being here, except with Zinda that one awful Friday. He's always had trouble being vulnerable like that. It's easiest with Luca.]

I thought I'd never see you again...

[What can he say? That he'd laid awake almost every night until exhaustion finally took him just before sunrise thinking that exact same thing? He doesn't need that on his shoulders right now but...]

I've never been so glad we were both wrong.

[[Luca turns his head to lay one more kiss to his husband's temple, tightens his free arm around him as tight as he can, all while struggling to steady his voice.]

I hope you're prepared to jump from one reunion party to the next because I'm pretty sure Irene is already on the Whitetail phone tree with everyone in town.

Oh, no, I'm not.

[Brett takes a deep breath, still congested and sniffly, and then starts the frankly rather disturbing to witness process of folding all his feelings back up and stuffing them way deep down!]

Oh - man. We need a cover story. I can't tell everyone about...this.

[He doesn't even really gesture around but like. There's Transformers here and you came through some kind of portal, Luca, so. Obviously shit is weird.]

there's always a lighthouse. there's always a beach party.

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