Rising Tide

[TheBlackSoul]

The sun was rising over the edge of the Evergreen Glades. As its warmth spread throughout the area, the birds began to sing. Although many would have considered the songs beautiful, they were the last thing a certain half-vampire wanted to hear.

Sitting with his back against a tree, Lunagon tried to catch a couple Z's after a long and active night. When he first chose the spot, it was still fairly dark out and quiet, which was what he was looking for. He wouldn't have minded the sun, but unfortunately the birds were making it difficult for him to rest properly. It was if they were telling him to get up.

"I'm trying to sleep here, do you mind?" he muttered, still half-asleep. Wincing, he tried to zone out the noise, but it wasn't working too well.

Suddenly, something fell out of the tree he happened to be resting against and squarely bonked him on the head. That certainly woke him up all the way.

"Okay, okay! I'm up, I'm up! Jeez...."

As he moved around and stretched, he managed to find exactly what had hit him - a small nut. For that size, it certainly hurt. Lunagon rubbed the spot on his head where it had made contact.

Sploosh.

Lunagon grumbled as he pulled his foot out of what he assumed to had been a puddle. Examining the limb in question, he saw that it was indeed wet. Right up to the knee, he might add.

Does the world have something against me today, or what? He thought to himself as he pulled off his boot and turned it over to dispose of the water it had absorbed.

He looked ahead to try and find the puddle he had found - and got a surprise. Rather than the small pool of water he had expected, he was met with what looked like a large lake. It stretched as far as he could see, with the exception of the ground he was sitting on and the forest behind him.

That wasn't there when I first got here.... Was it?

He at first assumed it had rained enough last night to had created a flood, overflowing a nearby river to this proportion. But then he remembered that, being up most of the night, it didn't even get cloudy. And he certainly couldn't remember there ever being a river in the Glades.

Suddenly, he recalled something he forgot that definately ruled out a rain-caused flood - this was Blackstar, and at Blackstar it rained everything but water. And this was a lake full of normal water.

If this wasn't the result of the weather, Lunagon asked himself, then what the devil is going on here?

Well, to answer that, he was going to have to find it out himself. And that meant it was time to visit Psychotopia and see if anyone else was noticing the spontaneous rise in the water levels.

The lake in front of him blocked the most direct path to the Capital, and he didn't want to try fazing to the other side. And so, he turned and went into the forest behind him.

((To summarize that: Lunagon's realized that the water table's gone haywire and there's something causing a possibly Dojo-wide flood. He's currently at the border between the Central Plains and the Evergreen Glades.))

[Zerrer]

Ashael was running from her cabin. Lake Incantium suddenly started overflowing a few seconds ago, and she was trying to get to higher ground.

"Help?! Anybody?!"

She pulled out her cellphone and tried calling Markus or Angel. Her cellphone was wet, and so it made a rude raspberry noise and went dark.

[Kazumaru]

Markus hopped onto the rickety wood-and-metal bridge that went from his cabin to Kazumaru's lab. It hadn't been there when he went to sleep, but neither had the sandbag barricades around both buildings. Or the foot of water, for that matter.

"Que s'est produit?" Markus shouted to Kazumaru, who was on the other side of the bridge, rapidly piling up sandbags to combat the rising water level.. The bridge was about three feet high, with steps at each end. Currently, the sandbags were about two feet high on each side.

"Don't know. Sentinel woke me up when the water started lapping at the seal on the door."

"Un petit, aquatique mammifère est sur votre porte?" Markus asked, maneuvering around a hole in the bridge.

"The other kind of seal, bright one."

A burst of thoughtspeech hit Markus. However, it wasn't speech so much as feeling.

~Fear, sorrow, scared, water, bad~

He recognized the 'voice', and responded as clearly as he could manage. ~Calme. Sommeil. Repos.~ he thought, gesturing as he did so.

"Talking to Clover?" Kazumaru asked..

Markus nodded as he resumed walking, and finally descended the stairs inside the barricades around the Lab.

The spirit momentarily stopped putting up sandbags to look over the barricade. "Where'd this come from?"

"Ciel?" Markus responded, sitting on the steps.

"Couldn't've been the sky-- For one thing, the dopplar readings have been clean for the last few days... for another, it's actual water. Or at least, it looks like water."

The spirit dipped his hands into the water, cupping them and bringing a handful to his mouth.

He gulped it down quickly. "Nope, it's not vodka."

The victory tune from sone long-forgotten video game blared from Markus' pocket, and his hand shot down to it, withdrawing a blue and white cell phone. Before he could hit talk, the song cut out and the signal died, leaving only a name flashing on the screen.

"Ashael." Markus whispered.

"Really wish this was vodka. I mean, there's a lot of it here. Could be worse, though. Could be chocolate syrup. When that stuff dries, it dries hard, man... Or pancakes. Though, I guess, pancake floods aren't so bad. They're just kind of awkward looking." Kazumaru mused, looking over the flooded clearing.

"Je dois aller au lac Infinitium." Markus said, standing up and walking into the lab.

"Infinitium? Are you insane? Flooding's probably a lot worse out there."

Markus came back out wearing a pair of goggles, a loose cloak, and a piece of soft cloth over his mouth in addition to his regular clothing.

"Je dois aider Ashael." The Frenchman said, heading for his psuedospider, Clover, now rested.

((What/who Clover is will be explained in the Ampithater shortly, don't worry. ))

[KC11]

Sek awoke in a small, shabby hut. She opened the door, which was made of animal pelts, and stepped outside, ready to find those toadstools she had been looking for last night.

SPLOSH

Suddenly, Sek’s bare foot sank deep into soft mud. She looked around.

The swamp in front of the hut had…. well, it had grown.

And she was now standing on an island.

“MOM!” she yelled.

“Em Comin!” yelled a voice. This voice sounded as if it came from the mouth of the type of person who had no teeth and who’s lips had disappeared into their mouth ages ago.

Just that type of person came stumbling out of the house, witch’s hat askew.

“What goin on?” asked the woman.

Sek simply pointed to the water.

The woman looked out. “Eye see.” she said. “Not good. Not good.”

She mumbled ‘not good’ a few times as she looked around the area.

“Will you please shut up woman?” said Sek. The witch ignored her and continued to mumble.

Sek sighed and tossed back her hair. It was long, greasy, and black. Not a beautiful ebony, in the way some village girls described their hair. It was simple black.

She knew there was only one person who could help them out.

And she hated what she had to do next.

****
Dymio awoke to the blast of a horn. He looked on his table to see his Shell blaring loudly.

The Arkinda Order, which consisted of Sek, Dymio, KC11, and….. well, they all called him either idiot, annoyance, or Ghostie Boy, each had a Shell. If one wanted to call another within the order, they would simply have to think of that person and then breath into the Shell.

Currently, KC11 was out hunting down EC members with the Felbeasts, and…. ‘Ghosty’ was off on some buisness or another. Dymio immidiatly knew it was Sek. The Shells each had a different blare according to the caller.

Dymio got up. He had shoulder length brown hair, which fell softly around his ears. He was short, and looked rather young, but he was really about 13 or so. Same as Sek.

Despite his short stature, he always did his best to make as much of an impression as possible. He wasn’t hard working. Or strong. Pretty much the best thing he could do was make music.

Dymio picked up his cap and put it on. Then he marched outside.

Just across the pond, in the swampier area, sat the house of Sek’s mother. Sek had decided to visit her mother in Blackstar and almost everyone in the Order had come with her. The only exception was…. Annoyance who had decided to stay behind for some reason or another. KC had happily gone off fighting with the only other group she belonged to, the Felbeasts, and had left Dymio and Sek to tend to buisness.

As he looked over the water, he couldn’t help but feel a wet feeling on his feet. He looked down to see he was wading in the pond.

“YEAGH!” he yelled, the unexpected realization sending a shock wave to his brain. This was worsened by the fact that a mutant fish had mistaken his little toe for a shrimp. He smacked off the fish and stared out over the water.

Sek was outside her mother’s house while her mother wandered around the…. the island.

“Dymio!” she shouted. “GET THE FRICKIN PLANK YOU MORON!”

“She loves me.” said Dymio, smiling slightly as he went and grabbed the plank. “She thinks I’m a hot item. Moron is a term of endearment.”

[TheBlackSoul]

Lunagon waded through the several feet of water that seemed to be covering most of the Central Plains. Despite his best efforts, it turned out the patch of forest he had found was one of the few places in the Glades that wasn't effected by the water level. Most areas there had become swamped, and he wasn't willing to take the risk and try to judge for himself what was swamped land and what was a normal river or a lake.

And so, he took the easy, more direct path to Psychotopia rather than trying to go around the vast amounts of water. There was no way he was going to go around it, and going over or under it wasn't a liable option. So the only way was to go through it.

Thankfully, the water covering the plains was still, shallow (although it went almost up to his waist), and not rising very much if at all. In some places in the Glades, the water was moving very rapidly, and, especially around what he guessed were former bodies of water, rising somewhat rapidly.

But the water here was still water, and Lunagon was not in the best spirits as he travelled through it.

In fact, he was a bit grumpier than he was when he first started his trip. Despite the fact that he was only part vampire, and thus was not prone to dying as he stepped in it, he still had the dislike of it. Made him a bit like a cat, in some respects.

As he looked ahead to see if he was getting anywhere, he suddenly spied a ripple coming from his right. And this wasn't being made by him.

He whipped around to face that direction, but saw nothing. He shrugged it off and kept moving. Suddenly, they appeared again, and much more rapidly.

This time, he was certain something was there. With a swift motion, he drew his gunblade, the Moon Glinter, out of its sheath hanging on his left. Not moving an inch, he was prepared to shoot the minute his unseen companion showed itself.

But after a few seconds, nothing had moved. Although he kept the Moon Glinter out, he looked away and continued on his bleary trudge. Surely, if the entire Central Plains looked like this, someone in the captial would have noticed it?
------

As it would turn out though, Lunagon was not alone.

The first indication something was present was a shadow quickly moving beneath the water's surface.

Then, what looked like the head of a reptilian, fish-like creature rose out of the water, its cold, green eyes fixed on the retreating figure of Lunagon. Although its expression was not exactly displaying any paticular emotion, it almost certainly felt ill of this other creature that had bothered to invade its ever-increasing turf.

With a quick snarl, the beast dove under - well, to the best of its ability, anyway. Down here, it was easier to discern the rest of the creature's appearance.

It was shaped vaguely like a barrel, with the front area around the chest being larger than the back half, which taped towards a short tail with nothing at the end of it. It powered itself with up and down undulations, occasionally helped by its four, paddle-like limbs. A ridge of triangular, fin-like spines ran down its back. It's head was perfectly in line with the rest of the body, and its neck was not noticable. It may even had been non-existant. It had blunt jaws, and although no teeth showed, it would occasionally open its mouth, revealing a fearsome array of sharp, pointed fangs. The color of its scales was not exactly noticable, but was obviously dark.

Because Lunagon was in water that was deep enough to hinder his movement, the beast was easily able to pursue him with minimal effort. And yet, it kept its distance. Being such a large creature, it was not able to hide entirely. About the only reason it had escaped Lunagon's notice was by staying completely still.

It was obviously not wanting to kill and/or eat him, but if it wasn't hungry, what was its reasoning in following the half-vampire?

[Somefreakoverthere]

"Oh come on-"

SPLUSH.

Sfot sat up, spat out the water in her mouth and stood up. And glared at the water, which was nearing the top of her hips. And her pockets had gone, presumably due to the fact she didn't want water flooding her link to Over There.

So, she turned and started walknig to find somebody who had some idea what was going on.

After five minutes of wading and cursing, she spotted a sand-bag defence and a bloke.

"Why are we flooded with water, of all things? Why couldn't it of been something normal for this place, like starberry milkshake?" She shouted, quitely thankful the water had gone down a bit here.

((For clarification, she's yelling to Kaz.))

[Kazumaru]

Kazumaru spun at the voice... and faceplanted into the sandbags. After a moment he stood up again, cursing.

"Dunno!" he called back "I was hoping for vodka!"

Behind Kazumaru, Clover and her rider took off, leaping over the sandbags and bouncing through the foot-high water.

"At least this stuff won't stain!" Kazumaru yelled. "Where're you headed?"

[Somefreakoverthere]

"No idea! Decided to visit Blackstar, stepped out the portal and got dumped in water that was around my waist when I stood up."She answered before she stopped. She looked around, and sighed.

"Need any help with the wall?" Sfot asked as she start to wring out the end of her trenchcoat, which had gone a somewhat nice dark blue.

If only it didn't remind her of the damn water.

[Kazumaru]

"It'd be appreciated!" Kazumaru said, putting another sand bag down. "You need some dry clothing or somethin'?"

Markus sighed as another branch smacked him in the face. Clover had, somehow, managed to smack him in the face with every single tree they'd passed. And at least one they didn't.

Finally, the psuedospider and her rider managed to breach the forest and enter the Central Plains.

Which, of course, were flooded even deeper.

"Tabernac." Markus muttered. "Tabernac."

[Zerrer]

Ashael was sitting in the tree, singing to herself softly. The bike she'd been working on was toast, as was her computer systems. Her cabin probably had water damage.

"If only there was a plug somewhere to pull." She said to herself. "Wait! Maybe there is! I wouldn't be surprised if there was."

She took out her wet cellphone and started to take it apart and dry it. It probably wouldn't work, but she had to try.

[TheBlackSoul]

Well, this is just great.

Lunagon, still in the waist-deep water, gazed over the city of Psychotopia. He had hoped the water level there wasn't too great, but unfortunately that hope was dashed.

Due to the fact that it sat on lower ground than the rest of the Central Plains, the water around there was deeper, perhaps around neck deep. If he wanted to actually go into the city, he'd have to swim. And swimming was not his strong suit.

He cast a glance over his shoulder. Since after the incident earlier, he had seen nor heard any sign of his unseen companion. Maybe it had gone off in another direction, or just stayed where it was. Still, there was a slim chance that it was still around. In that case, if it was some sort of water beast, it would have no trouble taking him down if he tried to go through the city.

At least I'm aware someone here noticed the water level. he thought as he turned his attention back to the city. However, the water level probably meant that no one was out, and if there was anyone in the city at all they'd be crowded in the higher levels of the buildings.

Could there be anyone out, though? Lunagon decided to give it a shot.

"HELLO? ANYONE OUT THERE?" he called.

No response, except for the echo of his own voice. Psychotopia seemed to be very dead today.

Well, if there was nothing worth his time down there, he wasn't going to go and try to pass through the city. With another grumble, he began to go around the drowned metropolis.

((This is assuming I read the elevation of the map right. If Psychotopia isn't in a basin, and is rather up on a hill, I'll edit accordingly.))
------

As Lunagon had hoped, the water beast had indeed given up chasing him. Now, using its four, paddle-like limbs, it pushed itself back towards the Evergreen Glades. It seemed to be searching for something. Something that was not food.

Underwater, there wasn't so much as a fish. One would think, with all this water, they'd be everywhere. Maybe it was because the Dojo hadn't been flooded very long, or maybe it was just in the vincinity of the creature. After all, even the stupidest of piscines wouldn't have wanted to get close to this thing.

The top of the creature's head surfaced again to get a more decent look around. From here, it could somewhat see the trees that made up the Glades.

Submerging again, it continued onwards towards the Forest. If whatever it wanted wasn't here, perhaps there was some innocent creature run up a tree that it could tortue with its presence?

[Zerrer]

Ashael put her cellphone back together again, and tried calling Markus again. She laughed gleefully when her cellphone didn't explode.

"Hello? Hello? The lake is flooding, and I have an idea of how to fix it. Get to the tree next to my cabin."

[Somefreakoverthere]

"No thanks, I'll live. Or not, as the case may be." Sfot sighed as she reached the wall.

"Eh, I'm Sfot. The reason why I'm drenched is because I warped here, and came out the other side about a meter above the waterline."

As she said this, she managed to somehow climb over the sandbags and then fall down the other side.

[Kazumaru]

Clover finally reached the lake, with Markus still clinging to her back.

Markus hadn't got the call, as the ringtone was drowned out by the noise of Clover's travels. "Ashael?" Markus called, as Clover trotted towards her cabin.

Kazumaru watched Sfot with something between confusion and amusement. "You're very, uh... coordinated." he said, ignoring the laughter from Sentinel. "Any idea what's causing the water to rise?"

[Somefreakoverthere]

"Damned if I know why it's doing this." She commented as she pushed herself upright.

"So...Uh. Now what?" She commented as she checked her pockets or a load of sandwiches hadn't turned up.