Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain

Okay. You remember that sensation from before, that, how did you put it, sign language with two telescopes sensation, with Doctor Heller. Should be easy enough to re-create. You get Jack and Jill with you while Nattie is in negotiations-slash-instruction with the leader of the spiders, and the three of you stand together near the edge of the dock. You reach for that warmth in your chest, and concentrate, and concentrate. Something is eluding you, and you focus even harder. The world starts to blacken at the edges, and tilts -

Jack catches you with a yelp, hands on your shoulder and ribs, and Jill pops a light slap upside the back of your head. "Flower, stop holding your breath!"

Oh. You suck in air, and the world goes back to normal. You just breathe like that for a bit, resting easily against Jack (well, easily for you, he's kinda straining), and then accept his help getting upright again. You frown. "...I'm missing something," you decide, feeling your way through it. "I need..." you snap your fingers. "I need mirrors. C'mon."

The three of you scavenge the immediate area and eventually come up with some reasonable metal objects ("Why does the fishing pole place just have a fucking hubcap?" Jack mutters) and, most importantly, a bit of metal polish. You sit cross-legged near the edge of the docks and polish furiously, arm almost a blur.

"...Gods damn it," Jack mutters. "I can hear Sasha saying it's gonna make someone real happy."

"Jack," Jill reproaches, but she's trying not to laugh.

Once the metal is to a mirror sheen, you prop up the hubcap, and hold up a smaller hand mirror which miraculously survived Impact. With no reflection of your own, all you see is the two mirrors infinitely reflecting one another, and there you experience something your mind insists is the 'taste' of the correct thing to do, and your body insists is you being batshit insane, it's not reporting any sensations, what are you on? You reach out, and touch something that is not touchable.

* * * *

Yes you idiots, it's dot code, keep translating - oh hey Orchid. Wait. Orchid! Where the fuck have you been?

There were some things to take care of, and also a really, really big storm. We need your coordinates, Doctor Heller. We're at the docks.

Hhhhuh - I'll do you one better, I'll go bother Clara. She's easy to piss off. Don't be weird about her being naked.

I think I might be weird about everything, but I'll let Jack know to maintain eye contact.

Good move.

* * * *

You snap back into your own mind and tell Jack: "They're sending a naked woman up to guide us, Doctor Heller said not to be weird."

"I'm not!" Jack insists, and you and Jill both just stare at him. "...Okay I have some hangups. Are you happy?"

"Yes," Jill says.

"No," you say, but you stand up and brush yourself off anyway.

Eventually someone's head pops out of the water, and she(?) calls out, "Holy shit, survivors! C'mere, c'mere, fucking help me out of the water -" The three of you scramble to obey, reaching hands out. She's heavier than she looks, and you see why when you haul her up; the naked woman can only be Clara, as she has a long tail scaled in stained glass that means she'll never walk on land again. When she sees that you're smoking she demands a cigarette from you, and puffs on it like a dying man pulls from a water bottle, chest heaving with every inhalation. Jack, for his part, seems determined to prove he can make this not weird, which might have been a mistake on your part because this is weirder than if he was just looking.

"...You okay dude?" Clara asks him at last. "A mermaid kill your family or something?"

"Are you single?" Oh. Right. He's Sasha's brother. Yep. Okay.

Clara laughs, points at him with her cigarette, and says: "One, yes, two, get my friends out of that box and you'll learn just how single. I haven't been laid since before the world ended, I am ready to make bad choices."

"Motherfucker had one job," Jill mutters.

* * * *

The design of the extraction device ends up being grueling. It feels a lot like trying to paint does; you look at blueprints and the mass of webbing before you, and you know you used to be able to do something like this. You did. You did. But not any more. After the first two hours you stalk off in a rage, fumbling cigarettes from your pack and chain smoking while you mutter to yourself. Jill tries to go to you, concern on her face, but you shake your head at her. You need space right now. And thankfully she seems to understand, because she goes to talk to the engineers instead. Stupid engineers with their big words. Stupid Clara.

...Wait what does Clara have to do with anything...

You come back, eventually, having calmed down. Barkley is helping, hugged tight to your chest. The professor leading the engineering students asks some questions about your ability to manipulate glass, listening thoughtfully, clarifying his own understanding and also your thoughts. And then he leads you through it, one step at a time, showing you comparisons between the real object before you and the blueprints, walks you through how the lines on the papers can become. It's still laborious, and frustrating, but with guidance you shape a spherical mass of glass webbing into something a lot like a diving bell, complete with a hinged and watertight door.

The Project Throwback soldiers draw straws to figure out who has to haul it out to where it can sink to Station 104, where Clara - bitching about this the entire time - will need to push it into the submersible port. But it is what it is.

As they leave with your creation, swearing and rowing and rowing and swearing (Clara swims alongside them, yelling insults that are also somehow encouragement? Your dipshit mind keeps saying gym rat behavior), Nattie limps up to where you're watching, and says, "Hey. Wanna talk for a moment."

"About? I'm kinda tired..."

"Nothin' you gotta commit to now," Nattie says. She sighs when you get out a cigarette, but doesn't stop you. "...I'd like you and yours to move in with us. With Project Throwback. It'd be a big help in balancing the grid if we could cut off that section of the city after the Captain and her boys sweep through it for any other survivors. Put down what Corporate we can find, distribute the survivors between the various projects and HQ, and shut it off, keep the load even. We can help transplant your gardens, move your stuff, and...not only would the extra hands be a big help, but, I dunno. I think I like your community. And you." She nudges you with an elbow. "So it'd be nice to have you around."

Your mind goes back to a blank keycard whose only useful information was THRESHOLD INNOVATIONS, LTD.

"...If," you begin slowly. "If I said yes, and I'm not saying yes right now, but if I said yes, I want a seat at the table. They're not soldiers. They're my people. I gotta take care of them."

"Captain won't like it," Nattie admits. "But to be frank I am this close to telling her I like you better just to piss her off, even if it's not true. So. I'd back that."

You close your eyes, and trickle smoke from your nose. The only thing to do now is wait. You open your eyes again, and gaze out at the bay. There's something off in the distance, not moving, but the silhouette isn't familiar to you. You point at it with your cigarette between your fingers. "Hey, sudden topic change, what's that?"

Nattie squints, pulls a map out of her pocket, checks that, looks up, squints again, and looks at the map. "That's Durance-On-Bay," she says quietly. "That's the prison."

...

......

"Nattie," you murmur. "When the pigs take you..."

"...They lock you up," Nattie finishes, her tone grim. "That's where the fucking cops are coming from, isn't it? Gods. DAMN IT."

Choose 1 and I swear to god if there's another 3 way tie I am walking into the fucking ocean
[ ] Begin Arc 3: Concrete Jungle (You will evolve the Everlasting Wings and lose your seat at the table temporarily as you focus on making contact with the invisible people over early community politics)
[ ] Begin Arc 3: Where Joy Is Sold (You will evolve Glazier's Dominion and lose your chance to rest and process as you join the battle to claim the amusement park)
[ ] Begin Arc 3: The Law of the Long Arm (You will evolve Mime's Knack and lose your last shreds of respect for the old world as you wage war against one of its greatest horrors)

And

Choose 1
[ ] Resolve to take Nattie's offer
[ ] Decline Nattie's offer
[ ] Push the choice onto your officers (Jill, Jack, Sasha, Chef Nettleson, Doctor Wheelwright, and Andrea)