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

[wheremst]

[ 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. ]

Comments

[consfound]

[Three guesses who this giant robot is here for.

There was a bit of a scuffle in deciding which of the Scavengers to send to pick up Misfire, but ultimately they went with the one constantly responsible Decepticon in the group. After all, he was their leader and the one with enough authority to drag Misfire away from the fun distracting him.

Upon arrival, Krok keeps his distance from the unimportant organic aliens and scans the crowd for the pink robot, which is a task that's harder that it sounds. He changes his vantage point every few minutes, holding something small in his right hand that kliks as he presses down on a button repeatedly. It does keep him from sneaking up on smaller people when his arrival is accompanied by the constant clicking.

Afterwards, once Misfire is confirmed to be safe and pleasantries are exchanged, he moves onto scavenging around the beach. As expected. There's not much of any worth to a robot, but the vending machine has caught his eye...]

arrival

[howveryglib]

[...HOLY SHIT ANOTHER COOL ROBOT??

WOW... COOL ROBOT... he's just going to kind of stare in awe giving off excited dog vibes while trying to look cool and stoic.]

[consfound]

[One of the organics is giving him a funny look. Thankfully, Krok is not one of the ones whose immediate reaction is to shoot the guy.

His optics narrow. What do you want?]

[howveryglib]

[...aw, hell, he shouldn't stare, even if the robot is cool...

he'll just clear his throat awkwardly...]

Ah. You are one of Misfire's comrades, are you not?

[consfound]

[The hand holding onto the communicator relaxes.]

So he is here. [He was starting to worry that this odd portal was a dead end.] Yes. Tell him Krok's waiting for him to get back to the WAP, and Grimlock doesn't appreciate him being gone for so long.

[howveryglib]

I am sure he will be around sooner or later. It was not his fault he was gone, at the very least.

[consfound]

This time, it might not be. [Because he has run off to chase a cryptid or to find snacks and ended up forgetting to come home.]

Are you sure he hasn't mentioned avoiding an argument or being upset at his crew...? [A month after this disappearance, Krok starting feeling guilty and wondered if it was his harsh words that drove Misfire to run off on them. Granted, it would be a dick move to abandon Grimlock after defending him, but Krok won't disregard the possibility of Misfire leaping into the nearest portal where he can't be radioed.]

[howveryglib]

Not that I can remember, but I do remember him being somewhat distressed about the idea of his companion Grimlock going into some sort of rage. I believe this was certainly more of an inconvenience to him than an escape, even barring the fact that we were in some sort of deranged killing game.

[consfound]

Grimlock? In a rage? The most he's ever done was break furniture and throw me into a wall, and Misfire didn't seem all that bothered about that. [Said with only traces of bitterness that exist after two months of worrying...]

Apart from being killed by a human, it's not all too dissimilar to the nonsense we've been pulled into, but with less fighting off alien invasions with trivia questions.

[howveryglib]

Perhaps I misunderstood him. Regardless, he was reasonably concerned, at least.

…

I am uncertain as to whether I wish to ask for more details or not…

[consfound]

Maybe. I don't know why that would be on his mind, either. [Surely it can't be an idea that was presented to him by Cipher. And surely it's an unfounded fear in the future.]

If you asked me about every bit of nonsense we had to deal with, we'd be here for weeks.

[howveryglib]

I think he may have just been concerned about the time he was placed in a containment chamber with several... less resilient individuals as part of some sort of hostage motive.

...It sounds as though you have an exciting life, at the very least.

[dullshooter]

[Don’t worry buddy, it won’t take Krok too long for Misfire to spot him at least.]

Krok!

[He waves him down on the approach and then covers the remaining distance in his alt mode. He’s missed doing that.]

I was wondering when you’d show up. We don’t have to go back right now do we? I’ve got to introduce you to everyone.

[There’s still time to turn and leave, Krok.]

[consfound]

[Misfire there are like 100 people here.]

Yes, we do. What the hell were you thinking, running away like that?

[You just abandoned everyone right after the fight??]

[dullshooter]

[Yes and??? He’ll deliver 100 variations of ‘this is Krok and he’s our dad’. Don’t test him.]

I didn’t run away, I was the victim of interdimensional kidnapping for the worst job interview ever. Big difference.

[That’s at least his understanding of the situation and he’s sticking to it.]

Speaking of - is Grimsy okay? You don’t look like you’re about to break some bad news, but he made a cameo appearance back there. I doubt he even had an idea of what was going on, but still.

[consfound]

Don't tell Spinister you were kidnapped. He'll be upset that he didn't get to go on an adventure. [Because in the end, Misfire has a cool story and the others and Spin does not.] Who was behind it this time?

He broke another wall, for your information. And threw me into another. And was with us the entire time.

[dullshooter]

Huh. Must’ve been another weird multiverse thing.

[And that’s about as much as he says on that, with little concern for the wall or Krok for that matter. They’re both fine, so it’s fine.]

This time it was some human with a bad haircut called Cipher. Spinister should count himself lucky he didn’t get roped into this - he’d have killed someone for looking at him a bit too loudly on the first day and executed five minutes into the trial for openly confessing to it.

[It’s not very fair but …is he wrong?]

That’s what she had us doing, by the way. Regularly scheduled murder.

[consfound]

[Crankase needs so much money to undo the damage. Good thing Krok has an upcoming job that will help with that.]

She'd murder you or you'd murder each other? [Why would a criminal put one of her prisoners on trial? For ruining an opportunity for ransom?]

Why? Was her plan to take a hundred random people and turn you into a personal army?

[dullshooter]

Each other. It was to - and I kid you not - build character.

[If it sounds stupid, that’s because it is.]

Turns out this is a thing humans just do? Kidnap a bunch of people and tempt them to kill off one of their own each week, with a trial to give the rest of ‘em a chance to catch them. Though, if you did get caught - which, congrats to us, all of them did - then she’d kill you. In ways that make the DJD look uninspired, I might add. One of ours had even done this before. Guy with the big hair, can’t miss him.

[consfound]

I've heard of such methods. Imprison recruits, turn it into a gladiator pit, and reward the victors with high ranks. Overlord then took that to the extreme.

[There's so many people here with weird hair, but Krok will find him eventually.]

Seems unfair to bring a Cybertronian with a group of fleshings.

[dullshooter]

You’d think so, but one of them still managed to get me.

[consfound]

You what?

[Staring at Misfire to make sure he's not a ghost.]

Then how-

[Killing in reverse or whatever nonsense? Is this a close of Misfire with his brain module information transferred over? A human did this? Was it all part of Cipher's plan?

Krok is clicking furiously.] Who?

[dullshooter]

This guy called Drakkon, some kind of supervillain-slash-suburban dad? A friend of mine said he’d take care of it.

[He shrugs, apparently not too invested in whether revenge is taken out in his name or not.

He does notice the sudden clicking, though. Maybe another Misfire would’ve just gone ‘this again?’, and whilst the response is there, he’s…just a little bit more open to patience, after all that.]

Don’t worry - I’m fine now. There was a whole thing with these vita-chambers, and I might be the first Cybertronian-sea slug hybrid, but otherwise? All better.

scavenging

[buriedstar]

[ Seo Dawon is doing last sweep of the beach before he heads out when he spots Krok. He hasn't had a reason to interact with those he doesn't recognize but it's pretty obvious Kros is with Misfire. ]

Looking for something?

[consfound]

[Krok stands up and takes a slight step to the side. The salty ocean lapping at his foot is going to sting hours later, but at least he's avoiding stepping on the fleshling and starting a riot.]

It's a beach. There's bound to be something of worth washed up on the shores. [Unfortunately, the people around here tend to clean up litter regularly.] But all I found was wood and glass. The real hauls must be deeper in the water.