The Figure: Unwanted Recourse

Struggling for a moment to catch his breath and for the motes of light to stop flittering across his vision. “I need to find answers…and get out of this place…” he said, focusing on composing himself and finding what his assistants had managed to finish during his rest.

The Figure rose and headed for the door, if his subordinates hadn’t made any progress with the new sets of data he would have to enact the plan he’d avoided for so long. A clear and dangerous clutch play, best avoided due to the focus required.

“Four, what have you found?” one of the more squat individuals turned to greet their master. “We have only made more sense of what we already know.” it said nervously.

“Humour me.” he said, coming to stand by them as they flipped through pages and pages of info in a strange language.

“We believe, contrary to our observation ability and equipment there in the dark lies an ecosystem we can not perceive that avoids our lights at all costs, due to the inflicted madness on our latest subject. Two believes it to be similar to a ‘whale fall’.” Four said, showing The Figure an odd map with locations marked with an X where ‘creatures’ had been spotted by other subjects. That got more numerous as the farther from base they got.

The Figure stood silent a moment taking in what he’d heard, “What about the size of anomalies?” he asked.

“Wildly inconsistent, though each ‘type’ seems to be of the same size.” Four stated, “Not unlike the oceans of the world outside this one. Small and large creatures swim together, though it is unclear if the anomalies within the dark feed on each other or require food at all, considering the lack thereof, or at least within our exploration.

The Figure mulled over what he’d been told, thoughts half interrupted by the memories of the dream, the large anomalies moving in the black, far too large to be like anything in the ‘real world’ nothing to possibly even compare them too. From the subject's description of the things out there, they all had vague enough shapes to connect them to something familiar to the mind, which in hindsight is a blessing and a curse. Understanding what you are seeing and comprehending it are not always the same thing.

Seeing something that looks like a human, it not slightly too tall with limbs just a little too long doesn’t throw one off too much, however when they move several paces in the blink of an eye, moving like they are made of gelatin, the mind starts to replace understanding with fear, and not the fear of when someone startles you, or you see a spider or snake. A kind of fear that lives in the souls of everyone, something inherited down the generations, something deeper than primal. A sort of fear that strips away reason, and sanity leaving your brain like sea glass.

The Figure approached two more of his assistants One and Three. “Have you gathered any more information on the levels of anti-magic at the point our subject was forced to flee back to the safety of the lab?”

Three spoke first. “No sir, we only managed to indicate he was walking straight towards one of the pits.”

“Stripped of his facilities or not, he should count himself lucky he was attacked.” One said. “Had it not occurred he was liable to have fallen in.”

“A fate worse than death.” Three finished the thought.

“Interesting, they are becoming more numerous as we get farther out.” The Figure made a conclusion.

The Figure paced a moment. “Continue your work, and begin aggregating the data. I have plans to make for our next moves. Recall Two to the labs we will postpone live subject testing for the time being.” The Figure said, “Complete your work in two hours and meet me in the antichamber.”