Chapter One-Hundred Neen


    This is feeling like the longest week of my life, and its only just started. Sure, I havent had all <em>that</em> many weeks since bing a dungeon, but the point still stands. Everyone has been brought up to speed on the n, too, but nobody has been able toe up with anything better.


    Larx and the ratkin are taking a philosophical approach to what to do, and Im just d theyre not being yes men about it. They love a good debate, and while I usually like to hear philosophy discussed I just cant get into it right now. It also doesnt help that theyve been diving pretty hard into hypotheticals and have wandered pretty hard from the original topic. Its good to know they mostly agree with the n, and couldnte up with anything else.


    The spiderkin are taking a more pragmatic approach with their own discussions. Norloke hates the idea of letting anyone starve, and Vernew seems offended at the very concept that dwellers wouldnt be able to go out and explore and hunt on their own. Frn was actually able to look at a diagram of the beachhead, and pointed out a few potential weaknesses. I think shes just more used to thinking of assaulting in three dimensions than Leo is.


    Leo, meanwhile, is shoring up the defenses as best he can without revealing himself. The skeletons are doing their best to keep any fish from getting inside the protected area, trying to keep Hullbreak from getting any other information. Theyre also trying to figure out how to make something to help protect the merman, Yendo, just in case. I havent been able to think of anything that wouldnt just look like a cell. I think our best bet is to let him wander around, if we can actually get him toe along, that is.


    Elf Guy stops by for a more casual delve, and I cant resist asking Teemo to get his advice. My Voice pops out of a shortcut near the gauntlet, where Tarl is waiting in line, and squeaks to get his attention.


    Oh, hey Teemo. Howre you doing? he asks, and Teemo sighs. That good, huh?


    Heh, yeah. Just trying to get somest minute stuff together for Hullbreak, and wondering if you had any advice.


    Tarl grimaces at that, and takes a few seconds to formte his reply. Dungeon fights are delicate at the best of times. The Guild mostly sits back and tries to minimize coteral to delvers, so theres not a lot of help I can give. Your stunt with Neverrest was, if not <em>totally </em>unprecedented, very rare. If it makes you feel any better, even if you subsume Hullbreak, the dwellers should be unharmed.


    Yeah it doesnt really make me feel any better, but Teemo thanks him and lets him do his thing.


    Watching Thing and Queen finish the Axe keeps me distracted for the next couple days, at least. They even manage to get a basic air bubble enchantment on it and the hat. They do a few tests, and everything seems fine, so I call sh toe collect his new stuff.


    Thing and Queen seem a little disappointed that the pair of items dont count as an artifact or something. We can all tell its more than a normal crafted thing, but dont really have the time to try to figure out too much more. My earth elemental reverently dons the silk tophat and takes the guitar in hand. He gives it a strum, and I can feel him just basking in the sound, the juxtaposition of sweet harmony with the harsher sounds of an electric guitar.


    I can actually hear music drifting back from him in the bond, as he just lets himself relish in finally having the instrument meant for him from the start. Youve got a lot to live up to for your namesake, sh, but I believe in you. Eventually, he gathers himself and heads to the tunnels to have some privacy to practice. I keep an ear on him, as the little snippets of songs help keep me from worrying myself in circles, at least for a bit.


    Its only a day away from the n, now, and the scythemaws are almost all back where theyre supposed to be. I wonder if shs practicing helped encourage them to go, or if theyre all just done with what they needed to do. Either way I dont even have scythemaws to try to distract my thoughts.


    My decisions rey as night falls, time seeming somehow to stand still and yet also sprint ahead. Should I have tried just talking? Could it have worked? Maybe but I didnt have any way to actually talk when this started. I had Teemo, sure, but no water breathing potion. And no guarantee theyd listen to the Voice of a dungeon they dont know much about. A new dungeon that subsumed Neverrest, even. While I doubt there was any love lost between the two, the cemetery wasnt exactly a pushover. A new and powerful neighbor, a total unknown, wouldnt exactly fill an apparent paranoid with trust.


    Should I have pretended to be the devil Hullbreak knew, hoping itd be taken better? Its probably not the best way to build trust. But I couldnt think of any other way to get Hullbreak some mana so it wouldnt starve. An actual gift would probably be even more suspicious than a raid, weird as that seems. Someone paranoid expects an attack, and its almost a relief for them when it happens. A gift throws them off bnce, disturbs the delicate house of cards that is their thought process.


    At least, I think it does. Im hardly a psychologist, or psychiatrist, or whatever. Maybe Im just doing the whole thing wrong, and I should have just let Hullbreak starve and pick up the pieces after, somehow.


    You get a lot of crazy ideas, Boss, but thats definitely one you wouldnt follow through with, speaks up my Voice, shaking me from my thoughts as he looks at my core.


    What?


    Leaving Hullbreak to starve. You wouldnt go through with that.


    But what if-


    What if what? If you did nothing, itd slowly starve, and the dwellers would have to watch the whole time. Teemo smirks. Youre too much of a busy body to just watch something like that, Boss. Youre always poking your nose in and trying to help.


    I start to protest, but Teemo just talks over me.


    Like with the kids. If you were any other dungeon, they wouldnt have been able to escape the basement, not with a Guardian there. Or like with Aranya and that scythemaw. Or with Neverrest and Yvonne. Or Leo. Or Violet. Or the scythemaws in general! Some have been messier than others, but I think youve done a good job.


    Maybe but this one is shaping up to be even messier. Most of those were pretty simple.


    Teemo snorts at that. If you call those simple, I dont want to know what you callplicated. Wait I <em>do</em> know what you callplicated. Its the kind of stuff that literally hurts my brain, he says with a smirk, and I have to give him a chuckle. There you go, Boss. The situation is serious, sure, but if you let your nerves get the better of you, it could <em>actually</em> get messy andplicated.


    do you think the n will work?


    Teemo shrugs. I dunno. I havent thought many of your ns would work, Boss, but Ive been wrong plenty of times. As far as the fighting goes, Im pretty confident in you, at least. Ragnar, Leo, and Frn havent been able to find anything ringly wrong with it.


    You think you can convince the merman to listen, toe with you?


    My voice nods. Yeah. From those reports, it sounded like hes kinda desperate for anything to help Hullbreak. Itll still be a risk, maybe hell scream and call that shark immediately, who knows? Maybe hell be able to talk Hullbreak down, or maybe itll finally fully snap. Theres a lot of stuff that could go wrong, but weve nned for that as much as we can. Now all we can do is hope it goes right.


    And if it doesnt? Can we stop Hullbreak from hurting itself and its dwellers?


    Teemos face softens as he smiles at me. Do you think anyone <em>else</em> could?


    I stop in my mental tracks at the question, my worries derailing from the simple directness. After mulling it over, Im still not <em>happy</em> with the situation, but thats just life sometimes. Sometimes youre the only one who can do it. You either do your best, or do nothing, and have to live with that. Sometimes you choose correctly, sometimes not, but you just have to try your best. I focus my attention back on Teemo and chuckle. I think youre hanging out with Larx too much.


    Teemo smirks at that. Who else is going to help me get some mystique? Tiny? Hes got tons to spare, but I cant go stealing his style!