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[Pokémon] A Smell of Petroleum Pervades Throughout

301
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2018
Check the storage locker, and Eel? See if it has an egg pouch for Spatchery Ammo later and see what the Gym Floor Looks like
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
> Go to the gym. But keep quiet. Keep absolutely still and put your ear to the gym door. You don't want an Elryich Steelix to attack you.

You attempt to go to the Gym while remaining absolutely still, but this doesn't get you very far. In fact, it doesn't get you anywhere at all.

LOL xD

---

Ahem, anyway, before you do decide to cook the eel, see if it's still okay to eat. Its texture, its smell. Yeah... I never had an eel before, so uh, never mind~
 
77
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 12, 2021
Examine the eel, check the storage closets, carefully, and proceed further in to the gym while remaining really light on your toes. No sense trying to wake an Eldritch Steelix or making it aware of your presence.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Use Vesta to cook Eel. No use letting good food go to waste!
> Ahem, anyway, before you do decide to cook the eel, see if it's still okay to eat. Its texture, its smell. Yeah... I never had an eel before, so uh, never mind~
> Check the storage locker, and Eel? See if it has an egg pouch for Spatchery Ammo later and see what the Gym Floor Looks like


It's a perfectly normal European eel (Anguilla anguilla), if a little large – this one is about a metre long, and that's a pretty impressive size for one of those. It should be edible, although simply charring it with Vesta probably wouldn't be the most delicious method of cooking it. You have no idea if it's male or female; recalling that Sigmund Freud dissected hundreds of the damn things and never found their gonads, you admit to yourself that you probably stand very little chance of actually finding any eggs in it, even if there are some inside it somewhere.

You are beginning to realise that you know rather more about fish than you previously thought.

Eggs aren't necessary for the Spratchery, anyway; if you chopped up the eel and stuffed it into one of the cylinders in the drum, you could use that to create a large number of sprats. Although why you'd want to eat sprats when you have an eel is beyond you. Perhaps converting it into sprats would make you feel less guilty. The European eel is critically endangered, after all.

You shrug. It wasn't you who killed the eel, so you might as well make the most of it by eating it; you wrap the eel around Vesta's jar and hear it begin to sizzle almost immediately.

That done, you investigate the floor for signs of Steelix activity – but it looks the same as ever. If the Steelix has come in here, then it brought a team of builders with it to fix the damage.

> Investigate the eel, then proceed with ordinary looting procedures.
> Check the storage lockers and then try to cook the eel.


LOOTING PROTOCOLS ENGAGED GO GO GO

Leaving the jar and the eel, you move off to investigate the lockers, and find them pleasantly well-stocked with trash.

Othodox found one Olivine Gym Key! Othodox put the Olivine Gym Key in the Key Pocket.

Othodox found one Bottle of Dr. Pepper! Othodox put the Bottle of Dr. Pepper in the Things That Barely Count as Potable Pocket.

Othodox found one Towel! Othodox put the Towel in the Hitchhiking Essentials Pocket.

Othodox found one Togepi Egg Shard! Othodox put the Togepi Egg Shard in the Bits o' Egg Pocket.


The eel is beginning to give off a delicious smell.

> Examine the eel, check the storage closets, carefully, and proceed further in to the gym while remaining really light on your toes. No sense trying to wake an Eldritch Steelix or making it aware of your presence.

You tiptoe further into the Gym, wary of the Steelix perhaps sensing the vibrations of your footsteps. Although, thinking about it, you're not sure you're big enough to register as a meal for a Steelix, anyway. It must be mostly eating Eldritch Miltank and other enormous creatures.

Hang on. Don't Steelix eat stone?

You're no longer certain. But it would be wise, you decide, not to put it to the test. Thus, you continue to tiptoe forth.

If the worst comes to the worst and the Steelix tries to eat you, you console yourself, at least you know where your Towel is.

You are distracted from the latest in the string of pointless references you've been making over the last few days by a cardboard box behind the Leader's podium. On investigation, it turns out to be full of TMs. You help yourself to a few of them, on the off chance that you ever actually get yourself a Pokémon.

Othodox found some TM23 Iron Tails! Othodox put the TM23 Iron Tails in the TMs and HMs Pocket.

You look around a little more, but see nothing else of interest.

Your eel smells very good indeed.
 
301
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2018
Go make sure your eel doesn't burn than look through the receptionist desk for any evidence of what happened before during and after the dreaming, where everyone went, and why there's a giant eel in the middle of the lobby , and keep your towel close
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Go make sure your eel doesn't burn than look through the receptionist desk for any evidence of what happened before during and after the dreaming, where everyone went, and why there's a giant eel in the middle of the lobby , and keep your towel close

These are weighty questions indeed. You're not entirely sure why you think you might find answers here in Jasmine's Gym, but hey! You've not questioned the voices so far, and they've kept you pretty much on the right path so far. Without them, for instance, you wouldn't have got any information out of the Gengar. Nor would you be wearing this beautiful dress or this giraffe shoe.

Keeping this in mind, you return to the front desk, stopping at your eel to uncoil it from the jar and curl it round the other way to cook the other side. That done, you have a good rummage around in the desk. You uncover the drawer where they keep the Mineral Badges, and many other drawers full of paperwork. It looks like there's actually rather more admin involved in running a Gym than you'd thought. Every challenger has to be logged, and then there's the staff to consider – their salaries, the health plan, negotiations with the unions...

Fascinating as all this is, it doesn't tell you what happened at any point around the time of the Dreaming. Nor does it explain where everyone went, although you suspect you already know – the Eldritch Pokémon got them, as they did everyone else.

Nor does it explain the eel. (Which, by the by, is not gigantic; while the European eel does not commonly exceed 80cm in length, specimens have been recorded at lengths of up to 1.5m. Thus, while certainly large, yours is not a giant in any meaningful sense of the word.) Thus, the desk does not appear to be of much help.

While you're considering this, you become aware that the eel is starting to burn; Vesta's jar is very hot, and has cooked it swiftly. You remove it from the glass and drop it hurriedly on the desk, atop a makeshift plate made from pages three through seventeen of last quarter's accounts ledger. It is hot, greasy and slightly burned on one side – but it smells absolutely delicious. You devour half of it eagerly, and wrap the other half up in the accounts for later.

Othodox found one Paper-Wrapped Eel Half! Othodox put the Paper-Wrapped Eel Half in the Fish & Seafood Pocket.

You dump the eel's head in Vesta's jar, along with a couple of the papers from the desk, and she burns through them eagerly.

Mm-mm. Breakfast has been served.
 
301
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2018
Alright, I guess your right it was a long shot but I always though the Gym Leader was like the most important person in town and would be plugged in, but anyway let's head down to the docks see if there's anything there
 
77
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 12, 2021
Make your way to the docks, checking each house along the way for loot. After the docks, go check the Lighthouse. If Jasmine is still in existence, she is bound to be on the top floor along with whatever the Lighthouse Ampharos has become.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> Alright, I guess your right it was a long shot but I always though the Gym Leader was like the most important person in town and would be plugged in, but anyway let's head down to the docks see if there's anything there
> Make your way to the docks, checking each house along the way for loot. After the docks, go check the Lighthouse. If Jasmine is still in existence, she is bound to be on the top floor along with whatever the Lighthouse Ampharos has become.


There aren't any houses between you and the dock; there is, however, the Pokémon Centre and Mart, and the Olivine Café. Each of them, inexplicably, contains another eel – or, in the case of the Mart, another two.

Othodox found some Large European Eels! Othodox put the Large European Eels in the Fish & Seafood Pocket.

Huh. You didn't think that pocket would be getting so much use when it first appeared. Shows how much you know.

You also find a few bits and pieces in the buildings.

Othodox found one Boxed Wine! Othodox put the Boxed Wine in the Booze Pocket.

Othodox found some Super Potions! Othodox put the Super Potions in the Medicine Pocket.

Othodox found one Revive! Othodox put the Revive in the Medicine Pocket.


That done, you reach the docks – and stare.

You have by now worked out that several years have passed since the Dreaming started – time enough for Falkner to age significantly, and for the remains of most of the population to be entirely consumed by weathering and monsters. However, with the exception of the Cherrygrove Pokémon Mart, all the buildings look as if people have only just walked out of them – as if no time has passed at all.

The dock does not.

In fact, it's very clear that no one has been performing the regular maintenance that it requires for quite some time now. The part of it closest to shore has collapsed, and the rest is black and slimy with crawling weed; much of the wood is rotten, and several of the jetty supports have splintered within the iron rings that are meant to hold them together. The building at the far end, where the ticket desk used to be, is half-submerged in the ocean, tilted at a dangerous angle. Beyond it all, the distant, mist-shrouded Whirl Islands rear like the teeth of a cosmic gullet, ready to swallow down the dying dock.

Hm. Unless you can fly, there's no way to get over to the office. You could swim, I suppose, but you'd stand a high chance of being pounded to bits against the concrete foundation of the jetty supports; the current is strong here.

Shrugging, you turn your attention to the Glitter Lighthouse. It stands as tall and proud as ever, resplendent in the morning sun – and, much to your surprise, a lancing beam of light flashes briefly from the top, as if in answer to your gaze.

Someone is up there. And they know you're here.

You head over to the lighthouse entrance, and listen at the door; no noise comes from within. This means one of two things: there is nothing inside, or there is something that lies in wait for its prey very, very stealthily inside.

You fervently hope it's the former.

You push open the door just a crack, and peek inside – nothing out of the ordinary that you can see. The lobby is the same as ever; same rich, thick carpet, same wallpaper, same pot plants. (Pot plants are oddly popular in Johto. Not only that, but everyone has the same type – a kind of tall, thin one resembling a palm tree. This has never bothered you before, but now strikes you as somewhat odd.)

Cautiously, you open the door fully and step inside—

—only for a tonne of blood-red carapace to lunge wildly at you from your left.

You fling yourself to the right, crying out in surprise and hitting the floor hard; too late, you see the hole in the floor, surrounded by torn carpet and splintered floorboards, carefully concealed behind the door – the same door that the armoured beast now facing you is scuttling in front of, the better to cut off your escape.

It looks like a crab, but not any sort of crab you know; it stands as tall as a man atop a writhing, clicking tangle of articulated legs, and colossal pincers swing low on either side of its domed shell. If it has eyes, you don't see them – just two deep pits in its crimson armour.

You get to your feet, Vesta in one hand and the Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing in the other, and back off warily, towards the wall. The monster makes no move to follow; it seems to be a little more cautious now that it's lost the element of surprise.

bad earth bug, mumbles Vesta, and too late you realise that Jasmine's Steelix isn't the only burrowing animal Olivine houses: it also has a sizeable population of Krabby.

Which are Water-types.

Crap.

Can't the Narrator ever just cut you a break?
 
20
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Sep 16, 2017
First things first, asses the level of the threat. Is it a Krabby or a Kingler? Try to maneuver yourself over to the door, then flee and try to lose it. If that is not possible try to recall how they see the world around them. Do they primarily use their sight, smell, hearing, or something else? Then you could try going for the eyes if it seems possible to do without getting hurt.
 
301
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2018
Which is closer the stairs or the door if it's the door do as the one above said if it's the stairs run upstairs, sure it's great for tunneling but how good is it going up? If you can make it upstairs to just go the full lighthouse gauntlet there's things like jumping out the window to the lower landing to climb up higher that you could use to lose it
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
*grabs popcorn*
oooh~ this is getting intense~!

uh... oh! a command!
well uh...

A Krabby or a Kingler, it doesn't matter. It's weak to grass-type moves, so...
Quickly attach the leaves of the potted plant to your Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing to add the grass-type effect on it.

...it works like that, right?
 
40
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Nov 9, 2013
So here's this giant enemy crab...

- Real-time weapon change
- Flip over this crab on its back
- And you attack its weak point for massive damage
- ???
- $599 USD

---------------\
Hi Cutlerine,

I like your other story better but it's so good I got nothing to say other than "it's good." Which would probably get me in trouble if i did it too often.

But anyway yay for interactivity!

---\
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> First things first, asses the level of the threat. Is it a Krabby or a Kingler? Try to maneuver yourself over to the door, then flee and try to lose it. If that is not possible try to recall how they see the world around them. Do they primarily use their sight, smell, hearing, or something else? Then you could try going for the eyes if it seems possible to do without getting hurt.

You could tell whether or not it was a Krabby or Kingler if you checked your Pokédex – it's so far altered that you can't work out which it's meant to be – but you can't really do that, since you have your hands full and the Pokédex is in your Bag. Either way, you're assuming it's probably pretty capable of hearing you.

You do know (because you are, despite appearances, a reasonably competent Trainer) that both Krabby and Kingler have tough carapaces punctuated by enormous, fragile eyes, which they usually close in battle in order to prevent them being horribly damaged. This is probably why you can't see its eyes right now: it's closed its armoured eyelids to protect them from your Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing. As a crab, it has an excellent sense of smell, although this works best underwater. It also has a highly efficient ability to sense vibrations that kind of approximates to human hearing; it's this that lets it know when prey is passing its little pit – and lets it know exactly where you're standing and how you're moving at any moment in time.

Despite the closed eyes, the crab knows where you are better than you know where it is. It's also standing in front of the door, so escape that way isn't possible.

So that's all pretty encouraging, isn't it?

> A Krabby or a Kingler, it doesn't matter. It's weak to grass-type moves, so...
Quickly attach the leaves of the potted plant to your Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing to add the grass-type effect on it.
...it works like that, right?


You wish it did. You really, really wish it did.

> So here's this giant enemy crab...
Real-time weapon change
Flip over this crab on its back
And you attack its weak point for massive damage
???
$599 USD


You attempt to work out how to follow this command – how can you change your weapon when you don't have any others? How do you plan to flip a crab the size of a pickup truck on its back? How will you spend US dollars in Johto? – and then realise with some relief that it doesn't apply to you, since you don't live in feudal Japan.

Whew. That's a relief.

> Which is closer the stairs or the door if it's the door do as the one above said if it's the stairs run upstairs, sure it's great for tunneling but how good is it going up? If you can make it upstairs to just go the full lighthouse gauntlet there's things like jumping out the window to the lower landing to climb up higher that you could use to lose it

You know, some crabs live in trees – they can climb straight up the bark. Don't knock a crab's climbing abilities. In fact, don't underestimate crabs in general. They can do a hell of a lot more than most people think.

Hum. More sea creature knowledge. Where is all this stuff coming from?

The stairs are tight, though. Say what you like about crabs, they're not known for being able to turn tight corners in spaces smaller than their legspan. You could lose it there.

The beast clicks its mouthparts and lunges with a pincer; you step swiftly out of its path, only to be hit in the belly with the side of the other claw. Winded, you stagger back and almost fall; the thing can feint? Christ. These Eldritch Pokémon really are smart.

Emboldened by this success and your lack of retaliation, the crab edges forwards, clicking and popping like a demonic typewriter; feeling that you really need to do something to discourage it before it slices you in half, you jab at it with the Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing – which skitters harmlessly across its carapace. There isn't even a scratch to show for your effort – though it does strike an attractive line of sparks.

The crab pauses and taps its face carefully where you hit it, perhaps to confirm that you really did attack it.

You take this opportunity to run.

Down the hall, towards the stairs, the muted clatter of pointed feet on the carpeted floor in your ears and the wind of heavy limbs swishing through air blowing against your back—

The elevator doors slide open with a ding.

You don't stop to consider how, why, or whether or not more evil awaits within: you fling yourself inside just as the crab makes its last leap forwards. One thrashing pincer makes it through the gap between the closing doors, snapping wildly; you press yourself into the far corner to avoid its scything sweep. Its bladed tip lightly brushes your arm, and a red line opens up where it passes.

Then the lift is rising, and the claw abruptly sinks towards the floor, caught inextricably between the doors; the crab lets out an almighty chattering squeal – and with a sound like an oak tree snapping in half, the ceiling, doors and gravity all combine to wrench the claw clean off its arm.

You have no chance to marvel, though: the claw, no longer rooted to the spot, is bouncing wildly around the lift, propelled by massive muscular spasms. Bluish ichor sprays everywhere; the back of the upper pincer smashes you across the face and knocks you back. Without thinking, you fall flat on the great claw, pinning it down; it bucks and kicks beneath you, snapping like a crocodile, soaking your dress in gore and gushing blood down your legs – and, little by little, it dies. Its spasms slow, its snapping weakens; gradually, the life ebbs from the thing, and that would be an end to it if your elbow wasn't slipping on the slick carapace, and sliding between the two weighty claws—

For a long moment, the lift is full of the sound of hideous screaming.

Then the claw relaxes and lies still beneath you, and you flop back against the far wall, clutching your arm and breathing raggedly. Vesta's jar rolls away from your limp, useless hand and bumps against the claw on the carpet.

Othodox is Pretty Seriously Wounded!

You are aware that you ought to do something. Are you bleeding? You're not sure. Does it hurt? Again, difficult to tell... the world is kinda dark around the edges. Fuzzy.

The smell of cooking eel drifts incomprehensibly to your nostrils as your eyes slip shut.

---

When you regain your senses, the lift has stopped moving.

You sit up slightly, wincing in pain. You hurt all over: aches in every part of your crab-blood-soaked body, from face to hips to legs. It feels like you got run over by a lorry – which then reversed. Slowly. After most of its load fell out of the back onto your head.

However, you are alive, and that, after the beating the pincer administered in its death throes, is more than you feel you deserve.

moving! cries Vesta happily, from somewhere near your feet. alive!

"Yeah," you reply. Your voice sounds like you borrowed it from someone with a punctured lung, which worries you for a moment until you realise that you can breathe fine, and therefore do not have a punctured lung. "Yeah, just about."

You feel your face with your right hand – not your left. You don't want to try to move your left arm. Not yet. You don't want to confirm what you suspect.

You finger your nose, and wince as part of it that definitely should not move shifts perceptibly. Yep. That's broken.

Your hand moves down to your chest, which is bruised, scratched and bloodstained but not, thankfully, badly injured; your legs likewise.

You close your eyes and swallow loudly.

The first touch of your fingers causes such an eruption of agony that you have to withdraw immediately. The memory of how they felt, brushing the puffy flesh of your forearm, lingers in your mind with the pain.

A little while later, you try again.

This time, you force yourself to hold your hand there, and to look.

There are two deep notches in your left arm, just above the elbow; they don't break the skin save for a few tiny pinprick holes, but they have crushed your muscles to the bone. Beneath them, the skin is stretched taut over swollen flesh; in places it has split, and leaks a strange whitish fluid – presumably some kind of venom. Your hand lies at the end of it all, bloated, pale and utterly motionless.

You try to wiggle your fingers.

Nothing.

Othodox is Crippled!

The noise that escapes your lips is not a noise that you knew humans could produce.

--

You wish the claw hadn't weakened. Losing the limb would have been kinder.

---

After a while, you struggle to your feet. You retrieve Vesta with your good hand, and stuff her into your Bag. You pick up your Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing with the other, and look over the dead claw. The lift doors have opened, revealing darkness beyond; you do not know how long you have been unconscious, but the lift has definitely been here a while.

To the south is the topmost floor of the lighthouse.

There is a Giant Crab Claw here.
 
20
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Sep 16, 2017
Do you still have any moo moo milk? If you do I suggest drinking it all and hoping it has the same effect as last time. Also stuff the claw in your backpack you never know when it might come in handy. Then move further up the light house. But try to be quiet and not attract any attention.
 
77
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 12, 2021
Take some more MooMooMilk but dont drink the whole thing unless its the only way to heal again. If it is, tie yourself down with whatever you can before you drink it so you dont run off and do stupid stuff on a Milk high. Once that wears off, take a minute to think about why you have so much random knowledge.
 
301
Posts
14
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2018
Drink Moo moo milk but first put your stuff your bag than hide it and vesta outside the elevator try to get the crab claw out too, than press the close door button and chug a bottle use the elevator as a detox room, and tell Vesta what's going on so she doesn't freak out and feed her a lot before just in case this takes a while, if that all works than keep exploring, And sorry for crippling you with my command :(
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
> to distract yourself from your crippling injury, continue with vesta's grammer lessons.

You spend fifteen minutes explaining the use prepositions and articles. Vesta does not get it. It may be that she's not smart enough to get it yet, or it may be that you're a little too preoccupied with your crippled arm to be much of a teacher.

It's a nice gesture, though. Knowledge is night!

Othodox's Devotion has improved!

Othodox is now a Keeper of the Flame!


> Take some more MooMooMilk but dont drink the whole thing unless its the only way to heal again. If it is, tie yourself down with whatever you can before you drink it so you dont run off and do stupid stuff on a Milk high. Once that wears off, take a minute to think about why you have so much random knowledge.
> Drink Moo moo milk but first put your stuff your bag than hide it and vesta outside the elevator try to get the crab claw out too, than press the close door button and chug a bottle use the elevator as a detox room, and tell Vesta what's going on so she doesn't freak out and feed her a lot before just in case this takes a while, if that all works than keep exploring, And sorry for crippling you with my command


The milk. Oh God, the milk!

A whoop and a little victory dance seem appropriate, but you really aren't up to anything more than a wheezy exhalation and a slow shuffle. This done, you move on to setting up your detox chamber, moving Vesta outside and putting a bit of wood in her jar.

what? she asks. we going?

"Not yet," you say, voice dry and cracked. "Give me a minute. I... I need some medicine."

That seems to satisfy her, and you press the close door button.

You attempt to tie yourself down, but given that you have one working hand, nothing to tie yourself to and nothing to tie yourself with, it doesn't work. Your attempt to shift the two-hundred-kilo crab claw meets with similar success.

All right. Nothing you can do about that. You're just going to have to get on with it.

You sit down, back to the wall, and laboriously unscrew the lid of one of your remaining bottles of milk one-handed. That done, you consider what might be a safe dosage, and settle on half a bottle.

Othodox is Fairly Majorly Wounded!

With a loud crack, your nose slots back into place; bruises disappear like fading inkstains.

Othodox is Quite Badly Wounded!

Your arm deflates abruptly, down to the bone, and then begins to swell back to normal size.

Othodox is Badly Wounded!

Large quantities of white venom force their way out of the pores of your left hand.

Othodox is Wounded!

Something deep within your arm, something crunches ominously.

Othodox is Wounded!

Wait, shouldn't that have changed?

Othodox is Wounded!

Something's not right. Even through the pleasant buzz of the milk, you can see that.

Othodox is Wounded!

Your left hand looks normal – but, you realise as your panic begins to outweigh the effects of the milk, you still can't move it.

Another gulp of milk – nothing. Another – still no change. Another...

Yes! A twitch! The faintest of faint movements, but still!

You drain the bottle and toss it aside. Slack tendons tighten inside your hand with a feeling that would be horrifying if you weren't so high, and abruptly your fingers curl into a fist.

Othodox is A Little Wounded!

Oh yes. You feel so much better now. Really good, actually. It's the milk, no doubt – peps you up. You knew that already, though. Everyone knows that. Milk. Good stuff. Not even that venom from the crab seems to be able to cancel it out.

Man, that crab blood is such a pretty shade of blue.

You run your hands over the crab claw and stare at the blue patterns that form on your palms. Gorgeous. Hey, could you drink this? Maybe not. It looks like antifreeze. Actually, it doesn't, but it looks like what you imagine antifreeze looks like.

Not like milk. There's a substance you can trust. Opaque. White. Creamy. Peps you up, puts a zip in your step.

Mm-mm. Milk.

The idea of eating the crab claw now occurs to you, but thankfully your body realises at this moment the biological impossibility of the damage and healing you just underwent and deals with it by passing out into a deep and dreamless sleep.

You wake with your face on the claw, crab blood dripping off your chin, and the remnants of the milk high humming in your head.

Whoa.

That was pretty intense.

You climb stiffly to your feet and test out your hand. It's much weaker than the other – the muscle tone has significantly deteriorated – and stiffer with it, but it still works, which after the punishment it just received is more than you could have hope for.

For a long moment, you stand there, leaning against the wall and flexing your hand in front of your face. Then you sigh.

OK. Not thinking about that any more. Not thinking about it. You think of something, anything else to put the events of the last few hours from your mind – and hit upon your unusual knowledge of sea creatures. Where is it coming from? Who knows. Why do you have it? Likewise.

This is an excellent distraction, as it makes you too frustrated to worry about the state of your hand.

> Do you still have any moo moo milk? If you do I suggest drinking it all and hoping it has the same effect as last time. Also stuff the claw in your backpack you never know when it might come in handy. Then move further up the light house. But try to be quiet and not attract any attention.

There's no need to move further up. As you step out of the lift, it becomes abundantly clear that you're at the top: to your left and right, you can see the great curved windows of the lantern room. They're obscured by hanging shrouds of cloth and plastic, reducing the light level to that of a late November evening, and the other end of the room is entirely invisible – but you can see the ring of lenses in front of you.

Slowly, cautiously, with your mind full of the possibility of an Eldritch Ampharos, you make your way out towards the lenses.

There! A movement in the shadows, at the far end of the room. You step between the lenses, move carefully out into the centre of the ring. Something gleams in the dark, and you raise the Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing warily.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" says a voice – though patently not a human one; it grinds and shrieks like tortured metal. "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER."

You stop. The Hideously Dangerous Stabby Thing wavers.

In the shadows, something shifts – something that might be man-sized.

Looks like you've found your contact.
 
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