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blametheeditor · 2 months

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Day 28 | Distortion

Gt July Prompt List

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When stranded on an uncharted underwater planet, alone and surrounded by hostile lifeforms, there are only two possible outcomes: adapt and survive, or die trying.

Spoilers: For the game Subnautica

Content Warnings: Cursing. Mentions of death and violence. Mentions of drowning and suffocation. Mentions of dehumanization, experimenting on people. Being held against someone's will. Mentions of diseases and infections. Darker themes.

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Scott stares up at the towering structure as it blocks out the sun from where he stands. Shivers as a chill runs up his spine at the thought of what waits inside.

Realizes Fritz and Jeremy still haven’t joined him on the beach.

He turns to Vincent playing the delicate balance of keeping his head above water to talk while ensuring his gills stay submerged. “What happened to the others?”

“David’s refusing to let Fritz go,” the ghost replies, failing to hide just how nervous he is, unable to keep a frown off his face. “Jeremy’s asking Mike questions to make sure there’s no possible way he’ll accidentally become an experiment.”

Scott sends a look toward the leviathan. “William isn’t here, is he?”

“No, he was long gone before the tanks opened,” Vincent reassures. “There shouldn’t be any of his equipment left, just everything the original creators made. I get his hesitance, though.”

And he doesn’t blame Jeremy for his terror either. The kid has been exceptionally brave and handled the revelation just what exactly Mike is incredibly well. So has Fritz even after they found out he’s the most infected out of all of them. But maybe that’s because everything hasn’t fully processed yet. Hasn’t for most of them.

Scott’s not going to lie, he’s afraid of what he might find. Knows there could be something not only disturbing in principle but physical evidence of everything Vincent’s told him about as well. There’s also the possibility there might be security measures in place meant to protect what’s inside. Measures that were made to trap any intrudors somewhere impossible to escape from, or be killed.

And here he is, more than willing to take two teenagers into such a dangerous situation.

“I think I should go alone.”

“No,” Vincent borderline growls, making Scott hesitate at the unexpected the hostility. He quickly meets the ghost’s gaze, surprised when instead of anger and distrust for letting him go without supervision, the massive form watches him protectively. ”William might not be there, but anything can still happen. You’ll keep them safe and they’ll drag you back to us if needed.”

It’s a bit of a twisted sentiment. There’s no denying the fact the leviathan cares for them, though.

“I don’t want any of this ‘claiming’ business that David pulls.”

Vincent gives a smile. “No promises.”

“Help!” announces Fritz trying to swim as fast as possible toward the beach. It doesn’t take too much thought to realize what exactly the kid’s needing help with. “Get me up before he grabs me again! Hurry!”

A giant hand lifts Fritz up and out of the water, Scott quickly catching the teenager as he’s gently slid onto the sand beside him. Not even a second later, David appears, looking livid. “Fritz!”

“You said, that I, could go!” the kid exclaims between breaths.

“’I changed my mind!’”

“You can’t ‘do that’, that’s not ‘fair’!”

“David,” Scott cuts in, well aware this is going to go in circles. Which he doesn’t know if it’s a good or bad thing he knows the reaper well despite them never having a one to one conversation before. “I will keep him safe and won’t let him out of my sight.”

Pure black eyes bore into him. He can perfectly imagine what fate waits for him if he so much as allows Fritz to earn so much as a bruise from tripping over his own two feet. “’Swear it.’”

“He wants a promise,” Vincent translates.

Scott nods. “I swear.”

David doesn’t look any happier, but there’s no attempt to snatch Fritz away. Another hand does reach out for them only for Jeremy to be carefully deposited as Mike sends them a smirk. “I told Jer there’s nothing you can fuck up in there. We’ll even meet your asses inside.”

“There’s a g-g-giant moonpool,” Jeremy explains as he brushes sand off of him. Takes a moment to bat away fingers doing more harm than good as they attempt to help. “He said once we take down the barrier, the underwater entrance will unlock too.”

“Hear that, David?”

The reaper’s already disappeared under the waves once everything connected. That tells Scott they have about five minutes to get it opened until they’re in trouble for being too slow. Meaning he slowly begins to walk toward the foreboding structure.

Fritz and Jeremy quickly follow behind. He hears the sound of the other two leviathans diving down once they’re a fair distance away.

That’s when Jeremy stops. “I-It’s unlocked.”

Scott’s blood runs cold. “What do you mean?”

“Th-the barrier,” the taller begins as he moves forward, gesturing to the open archway. “It’s gone. I remember there being one, and that’s why I never went inside. But it’s gone.”

“Could it be timing?” Fritz asks. “Like it’s up during certain times in the day? Or maybe it comes down when there’s a leviathan nearby?”

Scott takes a moment to calm his racing heart. Because Fritz is right, there are numerous ways for something to get unlocked. It doesn’t mean someone did it knowing they were coming. Vincent said William isn’t here.

“Stay close to me,” the man instructs. Waits until they both nod before slowly walking to the entrance into the unknown structure.

The sound of metal being walked over echos through the glowing hallways. No voice calls out to them, no robotic system declaring they’re trespassing and must leave immediately. It’s completely silent.

Scott carefully makes his way under tall ceilings, constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure Fritz and Jeremy are right behind them. If he wasn’t so tense, he’d smile at the opposite reactions the two have for being able to investigate such a place. The awed curiosity and fearful watching are certainly mirror exactly what he’s feeling himself.

“Scott,” Fritz whispers, pointing at something to their right. “Something’s glowing.”

He turns. Stares at a cube of all things. Walks toward it before slowly reaching his hand toward it.

Nothing happens. No discharge of energy, no sirens as a barrier rises up around it, no rock falling from the ceiling meant to crush them.

“May I have the scanner, Fritz?”

It’s silently handed over. He quickly scans it, pulling up the information on his PDA. Nothing says it’s dangerous, and there’s no warnings about the structure they’re inside not being safe to explore.

Taking a deep breath, he carefully collects the cube. Waits for a breathless moment.

“Can I see it?” Fritz asks when nothing happens.

Scott is happy to hand it over to the teenager, watching as green eyes almost identical to the cube’s color widen. Jeremy then gets closer to see once it becomes clear it won’t hurt them. “W-What is it?”

“An ion cube. It’s a mineral, but there’s nothing in the database for it. Just guesses from the PDA.”

Fritz straightens up. “Maybe we can use it for energy!”

“We’ll try and fabricate with it if there’s a guarantee nothing bad will happen,” Scott smiles. Tries to hide his amusement at Fritz looking slightly disappointed at the same time Jeremy sighs in relief. “Let’s keep going.”

With his confidence boosted at the fact there wasn’t a trap waiting for picking up the cube, his fear slowly subsides. Only hesitates for a moment before tapping his PDA against what looks like a futuristic terminal. Frowns when he’s given a message of the information needing to be translated. One step forward and two steps backward.

They don’t linger in one spot for too long. Every time they pass a terminal he downloads the information without stopping to look at it. Hands every ion cube they find over to Fritz.

Then they reach something that can only be described as a hole. Carefully moving forward, he sees there’s a platform at the very bottom. He feels what he can only describe to be air rushing up, the word ‘elevator’ coming to mind as he steps back to survey the entire thing.

Scott glance behind him. Sees Fritz’s pale face and Jeremy’s shaking.

The man raises his hands. “Here me out.”

That earns a snort from Fritz. “I-I’m up for it.”

“Do we know where it goes?” Jeremy asks. “W-Will we drop or is it s-s-safe?”

“I have no reason to believe it isn’t safe,” Scott begins, trying his hardest to not let his voice betray his nervous. He does believe it’s safe, but he’s not infallible. “It can be argued those ion cubes are priceless, and nothing happened when he took them. And this entire place has yet to seem like it’s running out of power.”

There’s no response, but Jeremy doesn’t run back the way they came. Instead he gives a single nod.

Scott offers a hand to Fritz, the teenager immediately taking it and squeezing it tightly. “R-Ready when you are.”

They step into open air as something keeps them there. Float for a frightening second above a stomach dropping height. And then Scott’s breath is stolen as something yanks them down, unable to even yell at the feeling of weightlessness.

It’s over within seconds as they’re dropped unceremoniously onto the floor. Scott feels everything lurch as he tries to reorient himself. Has to hold his head against his knees for a moment to let the nausea pass.

Curses when he hears stuttering breaths, forcing himself from his ball to comfort the trembling form beside him.

“Breathe, Fritz, it’s okay,” he murmurs. Gently rubs the teenager’s back as he checks on Jeremy, glad at least one of them doesn’t seem to be badly effected by the sickening drop, the taller already on his feet. “You’re okay, it’s over.”

“What’s w-w-wrong?” Jeremy whispers. “Is he okay? Did something h-happen?”

“He has a thing for heights,” Scott responds. “And truth be told, that made my stomach flip. You feel nauseous at all?”

Jeremy shakes his head. Watches Fritz hopefully as the tight ball painfully uncurls. “Sorry.”

The man helps the poor kid sit up. “No, you did fantastic. That was one hell of a drop, I’m proud off you.”

Fritz’s lips tremble until they manage to form a smile. “Thanks-s-s.”

“You assholes okay?”

Scott looks up to finally see where they are. Slumps in relief at the sight of Mike only an arm’s length away. Able to reach them where they are from the next room.

“W-We’re okay,” Jeremy says. “There was an e-e-elevator.”

The leviathan’s eyes widen. “Shit, I forgot to mention that.”

“Had you even remembered until now?” Vincent’s voice echos.

“’What’s an’ elvater?” David chimes in.

At the sound of the reaper, Fritz weakly pushes himself up as Scott helps him onto his shaking legs. Continues to slowly breathe as they make their way to where the leviathans wait. He realizes much too late how it’ll look to David, everyone freezing as a threatening growl turns into some distorted horrific noise due to the way everything echos.

Before Scott can try and explain himself, Vincent gives David a solid whack on the back of the reaper’s head. “He’s fine. He looks like you when you eat a bad fish.” David sputters. Stares at the ghost for a few moments. Wordlessly opens and closes his mouth a few times.

Suddenly, Vincent’s lunged at as the reaper roars. Water rises up in a wave before falling onto the floor as the two vanish from sight. Instead of seeing the scuffle, they feel it as massive beings wrestle, the floors and walls shaking until it finally calms.

They all look at Mike, who only shrugs. “He deserved it.”

“Wh-Which one?” Jeremy pries.

“Both.”

With Fritz no longer shaking and more amused than anything, Scott cautiously walks closer to the moonpool they had been told about. Looks across the water to see a fairly large pool. But with Mike taking up a good portion, it’s clearly not big enough for three full grown leviathans to be in at once. No wonder the entire place shook. He’s surprised they even lasted as long as they did without a fight breaking out sooner.

“Why was I expecting anything else?” Scott asks no one in particular.

“You should definitely lower your expectations,” Mike smirks. “Have you fuckers seen the portal yet?”

“Portal?” Fritz inquires.

“Portal?” Jeremy squeaks.

“Through there,” the leviathan points toward the other side of the room. “It’s in the back, ignore the stairs and you can’t miss it.”

Despite Fritz’s excitement and Jeremy’s dread, they obediently follow Scott. He eyes the apparent stairs Mike was referencing, though they’re more like ramps. One’s without any sort of handrail. They are more than happy to ignore them to approach the last room.

Scott jerks to a halt when he sees an arch standing before them. A familiar arch. One that looks exactly like the one on the other island. His island.

This one isn’t dark, though. It’s glowing with a large distorted green swirl in the center. It’s been activated.

“Are you okay, Scott?”

He doesn’t answer. Can only numbly walk forward until he’s standing before the portal. A phasegate to be exact. Not like the ones Alterra builds, but there’s no denying it.

Who turned it on?

“Scott,” Jeremy pleads. Stops the man from stepping into the archway. “What are you d-d-doing?”

“It’s a phasegate,” he explains. It takes a great effort to turn away and address the two watching him with worry. Plasters a smile on his face. “It’s safe to travel through. I think I know where it goes, actually.”

They don’t connect the dots. Realize it shouldn’t be possible for it to be one. Not if they’re the only humans on this planet. And maybe it’s better they don’t know someone’s been here. Has walked through these halls. Could be waiting for them just on the other side.

But right now, Scott doesn’t have any proof. There’s a possibility this is the only phasegate that stayed on over however many centuries it’s been. A slim one but it’s possible. He needs to go through it to know.

“I’m going to see what’s on the other side.”

Jeremy stares at him for a moment, unsure what to say. Fritz hesitates, looking like he wants to protest before he nods. “You promise to be safe?”

“I swear,” Scott agrees. “Wait here. If I don’t return in five minutes, tell Mike to bring you to the other island.”

They nod, and he steps through. Stumbles out the other side as he catches himself on the arch, catching his breath as his insides writhe. The feeling of vertigo slowly but surely passes until he’s able to look up. Sees the familiar pillers and rock stretching high above his head.

His assumption was right, this went to the island he found after his lifepod landed. Something that feels like it was lifetime ago.

The only problem is the phasegate on his island hadn’t been active when he was last here. It was off, with no way to power it. Meaning the side where Fritz and Jeremy wait was off as well. But now it’s on, before they ever had the chance of flipping the switch themselves.

So who turned on the phasegate?

#G/t July 2024 #Day 28 | Distortion #FNAF bois #g/t #giant #tiny #BTE writing #Subnautica AU #cw #content warning

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