It's Turbin' Time (Library of Ruina Modded/Arknights)

Sieg upon finding out his Office is actually alive but they're all scatter across the land like pollen; two of them ate something that's is/trying to assimilate them; and he doesn't know where the rest of them are. (I have headcanon that his hat is like Roland's mask but stupid)

2.2 - The Organ Trail

Well, you suppose you might get some answers out of the guy. If you went through the trouble of bailing him out of the shit he got himself in, might as well get some sort of reward out of it, no? You're not exactly running a charity, here.

"I'll patch him up for now." you say. "Capone, what's your maximum sensory range? You said you've been training recently."

The Lupo- that's apparently the name of his species, narrows his eyes.

"I've gotten 'round one kilometer of perception. But after we get out of the first kilometer, it ain't much use- I can't detect anything beyond, you know, general shapes. If I stretch out some tendrils into independence I can get to two, maybe three, but I'm pretty sure these seamonsters will just eat them up before they can give me any reports."

Okay, then.

"Hm. Stay alert while I clean up his wound, then."

Now, to see what happened to this guy… in what bag did you put the bandages, again?

---

…what the hell happened?

You feel like your stomach turned itself inside out. Your head hurts like hell, and your legs…

Uh. They're not actually hurting that bad. Something just shook you. What the- wait, they shook you again. You decide to open your eyes. See what that's all about.

…You're sitting in the car's left passenger seat. A car- wait, a car. The car. The car that saved you from the seamonsters.

You take a look at your leg. Someone… someone removed the acid-splattered plating in your shin- by cutting around it- cleaned the wound up, and then went through the trouble of covering it up with bandages. The pain isn't agonizing anymore. You slowly take control of your haggard breathing. Your vision becomes clearer and clearer. You can see someone. Someone you recognize.

That purple conical conical hat comes into your sight. It's… it's that guy. The guy who yanked you into the car last night… wait, it wasn't last night. It was today.

Who is this guy!?

---

The knight gasps at your sight.

"Who- who are you?!"

Well, this is the exact sort of situation that you thrive in. He is utterly confused and has no ground to stand on- it's time for some negotiation.

"Well, my name is Sieghart. Would you like some food?" you say, offering him a protein bar. He gasps, and takes the food with a shaking hand.

Another successful negotiation. Truly, you are a master of social combat, unrivaled across the City and the new world of Terra. The Blue Reverberation and his little gang of dweebs can go suck it.

In a more serious context, the conclusions you gather from this man is that he's not that different from the standard mercenary. He sees you as a threat to his life. When you saw him earlier, alone in a field filled with monsters, he was bordering a state of panic after realizing the deaths of his allies- but not because he cared about them. When you look at this knight, you see someone whose chief concerns are the quintessential low-grade Fixer concerns: finding some sort of big score and living another day. You've seen so many of his sort it's something that barely even registers. Oh well- you'll see if you can appeal to the second one. Failing that, you'll promise the first. You have zero intention of actually searching for some sort of big score- but it's a nice illusion.

"Well, I told you my name. What's yours?" you ask.

"Adrien Klimek." he says, mouth still filled with protein gruel. Ugh.

You chuckle. "You see, Adrien. What do you think I came here for?"

"Dunno. Probably the same thing my dipshit friends went here to do. Money, revenge on that damn bounty hunter, the "lost treasures of Iberia."" he spits on the floor. "If you came here for that, you're wasting your time. There ain't no money to be found anywhere in this shithole. Just monsters."

Revenge, huh? Interesting.

"What revenge are you talking about?" you ask him. "I came here to rescue some friends. Don't care much for anything else."

"Revenge against the damn bounty hunter girl. Skadi. She and her friends screwed ua out of some treasure. The bitch almost killed me. Probably thinks she did, even. But rescue some- if your friends got lost here, they're probably not-" he freezes, and you can see fear through the blinds of his helmet.

Probably realized what he was saying. You don't like people talking shit about your friends.

"Okay, okay! Fuck, you're scary. I don't know shit about any friends of yours, but we had a map of the city! I don't have it with me, but I remember. Just- just don't leave me here to die."

You were planning to offer him a choice between coming as a guide or going on his own way, but it seems he's more spineless then you think. Grade 7 material at best.

You sigh. There's a kind of Fixer that is doomed to stay low-grade forever. The kind of guy who goes off in the search of the first big haul he can find, but can't actually muster the strength to brave the unknown. You never last long as a Fixer if you're like that. Adrien Klimek gives you the vibes of one of these guys. Ugh.

Unless he gets over his weakness and actually gets off his ass to improve, instead of chasing the next job like some sort of adrenaline junkie, he's going to die or stay low-grade trash forever. You don't think that's going to happen, it's not like he'll be much use except as a guide. But hey, it's another body between the barbs of these seamonsters and you.

"Okay, then. Grab a sword from the trunk and let's get going. What do you know about the city's coast?"

Arabella and Wympe don't know- but you're coming from them. With a backpack full of some actual fucking food.

---

You've been trekking through Sal Viento's wrecked coast for a while now.

You try to remember your vision.

Arabella and Wympe were presumably camping at a cave, hunting these seamonsters to eat. If you can find some sort of remnant of their presence- like the residue of their fire, or footprints… it's not likely- they both know how to cover their tracks.

Hm. You kneel down, looking at the rubble in the ground. Those markings… something cut through the rocky ground in this area. It's faint, but it's there.

"You find anything, Capone?" you ask.

He looks at you, for a while. Then, his tentacles stretch out. Dozens of them. They hover in the air, feeling the currents. Feeling, seeing, hearing and smelling everything they can. Adrien screams in fright, like he did in the last three times Capone released his Psychoment.

"Tryin' to search for bodies ain't going to work here. These monsters pick off anything that stays in the coast, and that includes their own corpses. But…"

His eyebrows rise- his teeth chatter.

"I'm. I'm pickin' up somethin'. It's… it's a really, really strong smell. What the- it's really strong. It smells kinda like. Like a Sarkaz? Yeah, that's what it reminds me of."

You blink.

"Aren't the Sarkaz the ones with horns? When did you smell any?"

"There's all kinds of people in Lungmen, okay!? I was doing testing with these damn powers!"

Adrien mutters something behind his breath. You think he's saying "fucking freaks." You honestly don't care, it's normal for you. But a Sarkaz… wait. Sarkaz. What did you know about that name?

Hm. You try to remember the few crumbs of information you've read in the past week. Sarkaz.

First of all, Sarkaz are humanoids. The variance between their species and a human is small enough that they can be mistaken for a human with modifications. Sarkaz have a pair of horns of different shapes and sizes above their head, or on the sides. Some of them have longer than normal pointed ears, or a slim tail with a pointy end. Sarkaz are divided into many subtypes, one of which being…

Vampire Sarkaz.

You are an idiot. You were literally thinking about them less then a hour ago.

Arabella!

You don't have time to think about how Arabella smells kind of like a Sarkaz for Capone's senses.

"Where did you catch that smell?" you say.

"In that cave in the distance. I'm also catching… a smell kinda like yours? Yeah. It reminds me of you."

"Well then. It's likely Wympe. If you think they're there, then let's go. Did you notice anything else?"

You're tempted to run full charge towards the cave- which might be the one they're inside. But no, no. Running off without any knowledge of the situation will only make things worse-

"Seamonsters. Dozens of them. I can sense their smell cave."

…you have made a decision.

You have decided that the ocean sucks. It really does.

"Can you fight?" you ask Adrien. He doesn't answer for a second, and then nods.

You really could not care any less right now, but it's polite to ask.

All three of you dash through the rubble-covered beach, in the direction that Capone points towards. The knight is slower then the rest of you, but he does handle that wound admirably. Perhaps he's slightly less pathetic then you thought he would be.

---

You are Capone, and you hate the ocean so much it's unreal.

According to your enhanced senses, Sieghart's friends have been dwelling around this one particular cave. Alongside a ton of water monsters.

Seriously, what the fuck is up with Iberia, and why the hell did they not tell anyone that there is a giant invasion of creatures that kill anything they see, just on the edge of the ocean? You sigh. Yeah, it's fair. It's not like Siracusa would tell anyone, either, if the positions were reversed.

One of these enormous reaper-flowers lets out a horrible noise. It shambles towards the three of you-

Click.

Sieghart unsheathes his sword. A spray of blood gushes from the creature's head- and from the heads of all others around your group.

You don't think you'll ever get used to what this guy does. This isn't even him at his fucking peak- he's still shot to shit by that "Arbiter" he was talking about. This is just him with some actual sleep.

He fought you- the strongest version possible of you- in the shittiest state you can think of. Fresh out of a defeat, bleeding, without sleep and recently dead. He's in a level that, before that night, you wouldn't even imagine. You'd think that the Eternal Persistence was unstoppable, if you had faced it when you were living in Siracusa. But now you know better. You wonder…

How strong was Signora Sicilia? You never got to properly understand.

As the monsters collapse to the ground in useless piles of meat, you start to stretch out your own tendrils. This power… it fascinates you. You understand it so completely, and yet you feel that there is still more to learn. It's incomplete.

But that said, it's still damn useful.

You create grooves and sensory arrays in the internal cavities of your tendrils. You catch that smell of blood- seamonster blood, mixed with the blood of Sieghart's friends.

You've found the cave you were looking for.

There are corpses all over, and they're- dried? Some- most of them are completely dried. What the hell. They look like raisins. These monsters are splattered over the walls, but there's barely any blood in their actual bodies… all of it was… drained? Did this Arabella girl drink their blood? You. You don't think the Vampire Sarkaz comparison is really that accurate anymore. You have never met a Vampire Sarkaz that could do this.

The rest of the scene is equally as ugly. Some monsters have been sliced in half, others cut to chunks by a particularly sharp blade. One of them seemingly exploded. It was turned inside out, its blood bursting out of the body like a popped water balloon. You turn towards your… boss.

"Are we going in?"

He nods.

You… okay, you're kind of nervous about this. You take a deep breath. Your tendrils sharpen and elongate, edges of bone forming in the place of the sensory arrays you had placed there previously. Your left arm dissolves completely, morphing into a brand-new mass of tendrils. One of them adjusts itself to hold your crossbow, while the others take position, covering the entire radius around yourself.

"Okay. I'm ready." you tell Sieghart. Behind you, the knight readies his sword. His hands are shaking, very slightly.

He nods.

You walk inside.

---

The interior of this place is a stage of carnage- so characteristic of Arabella.

She drained many, many of these monsters utterly dry. You noticed the clear marks of her haemokinesis. Even if she isn't here, you can be absolutely sure that she was. You did not follow the wrong trail.

You stare at a misshapen corpse. One of the seamonsters with the harpoons in their heads. Arabella very clearly grabbed the harpoon and yanked it out with her Bloodfiendish strength, and took out an enormous chunk of the creature's flesh alongside it. Then, she sunk her fangs into its soft underbelly- you can see the teeth marks- and drank deep, until the monster was nothing but skin and bone.

Very characteristic of her. But there are no corpses bisected by Wympe's halberd, or signs of her precise slashes. None of the burn marks or traces of any explosions that would be produced by her combustible contracts. Nothing at all indicates she was here- but you know she was. Your vision would not lie to you, or would it? Did Abel lie to you?

"I promise you that I did not lie." speaks the Manager of L-Corp. "They were here. Search deeper- we will find their traces if we continue to search- such as the fire they could have left here."

It's been a week. It's unlikely it's still here.

"The carnage in this area is very recent, no? Which means they were here today, or yesterday at worst."

Fair point. Now, to search.

As you walk through the cave, you see something. Exactly what you were looking for. A huge pile of monster bodies, and a few meters next to it, a small pile of burned ones- likely used as fuel for their fire. You kneel down and poke around it.

It was likely put down this morning. Possibly right as Wympe woke up. Arabella does not actually need to sleep, and with the urgent situation and struggle for survival, you doubt she would sleep and leave them both vulnerable. But Wympe would try to push her towards sleeping, and try to leave herself in position of night watch. So… hm.

They aren't here right now. They were here yesterday and today until morning, but were attacked by seamonsters and left. Why would they? They seem to have handled them well, and there aren't any signs of them taking any damage, such as…

Oh. The blood…

"Capone, did you-"

He points silently towards the corner of the cave. There is something there. A small object, colored like…

Like… skin.

A human arm, still dressed in a coat.

Wympe's coat.

Wympe's arm.

Oh no.

You hear something moving.

You spin towards it and point your sword in its direction. Something is emerging from the ground, right next to the huge pile of corpses.

It's a shelled thing- its shell seems to shift color to give it camouflage. It kept itself hidden. Below its shell, you can see a bed of many, many tentacles, and dozens- maybe hundreds of eyeballs. All focused on you. And it's enormous. Maybe the size of the wall…

The knight screams and readies his sword, pointing it at the shelled creature. The monster does not even budge. It's only watching. For now.

Capone's combat tentacles flare into action, forming a defensive perimeter around the three of you. Anything that enters that radius will be stabbed repeatedly by very sharp and very pointy bone formations. He looks at you.

For now, the huge creature is only watching. It does not move. You pick up Wympe's arm and hold it in your other hand. You need to put it in cold storage. You take a deeper look at it. Its "face" is a big blob of meat lodged inside the shell, covered with eyeballs. One of them, however, is not an eyeball at all, but a huge hole. A spear wound, it seems- someone scooped it out with a polearm. Like... Wympe's halberd?

You've seeing the situation. Did this creature attack them, and that's why they were forced to flee? But it's slow, or so it seems. It's very slow. It's actually dragging itself towards you as you think, but in slug-like speeds. You could flee, you could go for a punishing strike- it has a very large blindspot in the angle that only the big eye covered.

What do you do now?

[ ] Write-in.

---

Status of Self and Allies:
Sieghart: Unharmed. As he is considerably more well-rested, the threshold for Fairy has increased. More power can be unleashed safely. Holding Wympe's arm with the non-sword hand.
Capone: Unharmed and ready to go.
Adrien: Scared. Wounded shin.

Enemy Status:
The One Who Watches, Mysterious Seaborn.
- Grade: ???
- Condition: Someone carved out its biggest eye. A spear wound... Wympe's halberd?
Sieghart's Note: It's protected by a shell, and these tentacles look strong. But its eyes are all in the same place- could Capone blind it with a sudden attack? Its missing eye also leaves an obvious blindspot that no other eye seems to cover. It's possibly taking defensive measures as we speak. We could simply walk away- it is apparently very slow. it could have attacked already if it was faster, but it's not even close to you.

---

A/N: accidentally posted it with no threadmark lol