Other dungeons don't bother with subtlety, though. They have bigger plans. And, in a confluence, some new tricks to show off.

On October 20th, 2036, lucky late-risers across Toronto are merely awoken by the rumbling of the earth, as seven enormous worms breach through concrete and asphalt and in some places solid steel like it's wet tissue paper.

As one, they open their maws and scream.

Some unlucky souls fall in, and are pulled into the dungeon. The very unlucky ones are crushed in the debris, not dead instantly but hurt too badly to survive until help arrives, or aren't yet hurt but are either inside or in the demolition path of the first handful of buildings to fall.

Arrakis doesn't hide its entrance. It would be rather pointless, really, what with the quaking earth and the collapsing buildings and the giant worms. That scream.

Arrakis is an older dungeon, and it's not the obvious source of inspiration that makes it a well-known one. Historically, it has parked somewhere and then released the worms, one at a time. Containment was possible, with the right powers and a rapid response, and crucial to limiting the harm done - in a heavily-developed city, every loose worm can cause millions of dollars of property damage. But the worms burrow deep, and on their way back in, they're full of hostages.

But today, with its newfound ability to disperse its signature helpers more efficiently, Arrakis simply opens its portal near one of the first buildings slated to fall, somewhere where it'll be hard to locate immediately amidst the dust and the rubble and the screams, and then opens up its secondary portals for its worms to emerge from.

Arrakis containment breach. In Toronto...

Causal Web puts herself on their available psychic consultant list at a substantial markdown, and keeps herself busy to avoid fretting too much. If they need her, they'll call her. 

[x] Strongly Disapprove

"I think I know where you're being deployed next."

"Where?"

He turns the commscreen towards Tae-hwan.

"Uh. Sandworms?"

"Oh my God. You're a baby. You don't know about Arrakis?"

"I don't."

"Well, you hard counter it, so it'll be fine."

Bill’s had a secretary on shift, twenty-four hours a day for the last nine weeks.  And when he gets a call from a select few telephone numbers, he WILL wake up.  His phone has a 110-decibel alarm.  It’s surprisingly not custom, a fair number of espers and their handlers use them.

He only needs to hear two words before he’s fully awake.

”It’s happening.”

And then the thrill of adrenaline courses through his veins.  Triage, skillset matching.  The fact that he can do his part to fight a war against these fucking dungeons with just his brains and his organizational skills has always been an illicit thrill.

Let’s beat these sonsabitches.  Dunegeon?  I have one who’s a good match.  Maybe we can kill it this time.

"Ah, fuck, that lungblasting sandworm dungeon is doing shit near my easily-pierced quadrilateral. Damn it, that's going to suck. Okay, schedule rearranging time - somebody grab babyface to come with me and sit on the fucking thing, I gotta patch this shit sooner rather than later for the hopes of her lasting the rest of the confluence -"

One of her partners looks up from the summary she's reading. "Do you need us to -?"

"Nah, they've got a local pain-zapper. And you two are going to be deployed as a unit anyway, more useful if you're closer to where Quasar knows how to deploy you."

... This absolutely means that Ji-woo will be handling her backlash with both of her primary partners on the other side of the world, but. Well. Ji-woo is in the area fairly regularly on Rhombus's account anyway, so. She'd know the backup guiding options. And Quasar has a lot of saved up teleports, and are hardly going to leave their star healer in the lurch. It's not precisely stranding her on the other side of the world, it just. Feels a bit like that.

Minseo winces anyway. "I'll be a teleport away if you need me, unnie," she says, very softly. (Between her and Da-eun, she's better at guiding away Ji-woo's backlash.)

"I know." They were already snuggling, but Ji-woo can give her a squeeze in the three woman cuddlepile anyway. "I'll be okay. Back before you know it."

"Please be kind to yourself," sighs Da-eun.

"I am being very kind to myself by being the most badass healer in the entire fucking world, thank you!"

Ughhhhhhhhh that was not what she meant and you know it, Ji-woo!

But, fine. Fine.

Minseo just nestles closer to her, and attempts to maximize skin contact.

They need to make the most of the time they have available before she goes.

...nope.gif

Sorry Toronto but she has a weird vague hero complex, she's not stupid.

Maybe some lesser dungeon somewhere will need her, with the big guns dealing with this. She'll have to finally decide how much of her time and herself to commit. Fucking confluence...

Well, she can snuggle Tim and whoever else turns out to be compatible. That's... Reasonably safe, probably...

Conrad's power would allow him to resist the sandstorms and bestow protection to others. Still, he declines to go to Toronto. He's already attached to his squad, and for every A-rank dungeon that appears, there are dozens of B- and C- rank dungeons that kidnap people and still need to be dealt with. He will stick to his squad.

Lawrence is wanted for the Toronto sandworm dungeon. They want him there because having the capacity to control the worms would be very useful. They haven't worked enough with his power to have developed good tactics for it — neither has he — but given that the worms both kidnap people and cause massive property damage, preemptively finding people who can deal with them is necessary. And he can be very flexible with how he deals with them, even if he can only do a few at a time.

Regrettably, his current partner situation is still uncertain and he hasn't established any permanent partnership arrangements yet. So he declines.

Lachlan has no combat ability whatsoever. But he's developed a niche for himself as an esper who can get people out of dungeons with dangerous conditions — dungeons typically want their victims to survive, but it gets fraught when you try to get them out. His power can still the sandstorm and prevent the sand from collapsing underneath.

Still, there's too much to do at home. There's dungeons with bubbles filled with poisonous air, dungeons with poisonous swamps, dungeons that are too hot, dungeons that are too cold. He's doing a dungeon a day, on average. It's a lot. He's being teleported this way and that in Asia, but going to North America would be a bigger teleport cost. Not that he has to pay it, but — teleporters have limited capacity. He does not go to Arrakis.

She barely needs the call to know she's up for this one. It's going to be a long and exhausting week.

She confirms that one of the professional partners is on site to guide her, hugs her family, and heads for the staging area.

Sara wakes first when Tim's emergency ringtone goes off. It is then shortly followed by hers, at which point she fully lunges across her partner to reach for it. 

"What is it? Emergency?" 

“Uh, this is Bill.  Bill Moore, calling for Tim?  Do I have the wrong number?”

-she switches to English, "No, I'm sorry, I just woke up-" she checks the phone she's holding, "This is Tim's phone. Tim?" 

She looks down at his face, a little to the right and below her given she is stretched across his chest. Is he awake? 

Partly?  “Whazzat?”  Why is there a person lying across his stomach?

"Tim, we have emergency calls," she sets his phone on his chest and picks up her own, which is still ringing. 

"Evelyn?" 

A hurried conversation ensues.  It’s Infested Wasteland, and it’s bad.  A really bad dungeon break.  But sand is not, actually, a problem for Tim’s power.  And Sara is a geotype sensor.  Can they make it?

Tim raises an eyebrow at Sara and cocks his head at her.  Presumably she’s having the same conversation?

She is, yes. They want whatever sensors they can get to find the core before the damn thing destroys the city further. Sara could sense it under the ground, if that's where it is. 

She nods to him. 

Yeah.  Let’s get a jet over so we can actually sleep on the way, Bill.  Can you make sure you get the extended-stay bag loaded?  Great, thanks.  If you think of anything we might need, just pack it, don’t worry about cost.  You’re great as always.

Anika is answering questions about the damage from the stupid magic sonic waves when Ada gets her attention. She holds up a hand. "Yes?"

"Arrakis breach in Toronto," Ada informs her succinctly.

...Anika takes a deep breath. "...standard procedure," she says. It's not the first time she's been wanted for Arrakis, but an Amsterdam-Toronto teleport will be expensive, especially if no one on response wants to help pay for it.. But it's a confluence, so -- not as bad, and it's Arrakis, so they probably do want her today. "And find Lan."

Ada doesn't waste time (it's part of why Anika appreciates her so much as an assistant, although the EMT training definitely doesn't hurt), she just goes to do that. Anika turns back to her interlocutors. "...I may be called soon for a dungeon known for destroying city blocks, so I will be brief. It sounds like magic because it is; dungeon monsters frequently have effects that don't obey normal physics. If you want to confirm my assessment, my team can find you the best place to do it."

...Okay, she could have handled that better, but it's a confluence and they should know better and --

Arrakis isn't Hellscape, but it's bad.

She really, really hates this whole category of dungeons. At least regular breaches only bother a few people. These kill far more people than even Nightmare each appearance.

(Arrakis only when the worms get out, sure, but -- it sounds like they maybe did.)

Well. Time to hold buildings up for evacuation again, probably. She knew this was coming.

Damian is requested for Toronto! Not to sense Arrakis itself, but to do search and rescue. His power has enough range and discernment to be able to point out which areas have people in them and direct DRT and espers with control powers to where their efforts are best spent. He and Simon arrange to teleport.