The Creature in the Well (3) : While Destiny City has a modern water system, it’s not uncommon to see decorative wells around the city. Often in parks or around gardens, they grant a peaceful, countryside flair to the otherwise busy metropolis. Most days, they blend into the background. Not today. Maybe you heard a powerful, fierce splash, like something smacking violently against the water, or maybe it was the unnerving croak that echoed from deep below, but something has clearly gotten trapped in the well. Sometimes, there’s the distinct sound of something clawing, scratching, climbing–desperate to get out. The noise its making is deep enough to vibrate through the ground. If you go to investigate, you’ll see nothing but a pair of golden, snakelike eyes staring back up at you. Whatever it is, its body is completely submerged under the water, but just looking into its eyes is enough to petrify someone. There’s something hypnotic about it, something that seems like it’s drawing you into the well. And why shouldn’t you climb in? What’s stopping you? Danger is forgotten; the creature in the well has made a target of you. Hopefully you have someone to pull you out of the trance–or, maybe if you’re strong enough, you can do it yourself. If you lose the battle with the creature, you will fall unconscious just as you hit the water in the well; you will feel the sensation of something coiling around you, crushing you, and then–blackness. You will wake up in a hospital with a day lost and no memory of what happened in the well, or how you were pulled out. You only have bumps and bruises, and when you close your eyes you’re haunted by the chilling golden eyes in the well. If you return to it, you’ll find nothing but a strange, croaking echo.
The voice in the wells was back.
Industria had heard about them last year--but she'd still just been Lucette, then, not yet fully initiated into the magical mysteries that seemed to lurk in every corner of Destiny City. She knew about them, of course. She enjoyed keeping up on that type of thing. But she did not know so intimately. Had not experienced a hand in her chest and Chaos surging through her. Had not known the power of casting her magic and watching ti make her beloved strong enough to fight a monster that wished to consume their entire planet.
And so, this year, when she found herself pulled towards a well in a park, she had made herself into Industria and gotten closer. She had even pulled out her tablet to record notes. She sat on the edge, trying to ignore the desire to simply let herself fall in--instead, she replaced it with the desire to record, to present her findings to Cryptomelane and Amazonite and see what they thought.
"Something in the well appears to wish to get out," she said, and she briefly held the tablet over the opening to see if it could record the sounds within--playing this back would be fascinating!--and the golden eyes she'd seen when she leaned over briefly, "and yet I feel as if I wish to go in. Very strange and contradictory."
GastlyTaipan
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2025 7:55 pm
"What are you doing?" came a voice from behind Industria. There was a strange softness about the voice, like someone trying not to be heard.
Cam had seen the woman approach the well with intent and became curious why she was so interested in it. Had she heard the same sounds he'd heard? The well had grown quiet when Cam had started sharing what scraps of food he had, lowering them into the well with a measure of string he'd found. But most people that passed looked as if they'd never noticed the peculiar noises that emitted from the well.
"Hoping your wish will come true if you whisper it instead?" His tone had taken on a bite of sarcasm. "I'm pretty sure whatever was supposed to grant them stopped listening long ago."
Cam shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, trying to keep himself as contained as possible. He wasn't the tallest, but still he slouched as if to make himself smaller. His hood was pulled up and hid all but a few stray blonde strands the length of Cam's head. Dark hazel eyes peered out from beneath the hood, watching her with a careful curiosity.
"Oh," Industria said, idly, and she closed her tablet, tucking it away into subspace, "did you hear the thing in the well, too?"
It wanted her to join it. It wanted to escape. Focusing on the contradiction, Industria suspected, was the only thing keeping her from tipping over the edge and into its embrace.
She sat up and turned to look at him, taking him in. Ordinary. Human. Perhaps worth taking a little energy from, but that would require her to get closer, so no, that didn't sound like something she wanted to do.
In any case, she couldn't think of any reason to approach her except for being familiar with what was down there.
"I'm trying to see if I can capture any information about this," she said, "but it's not very forthcoming to scientific inquiry, and I don't think diving in to get a closer look is advisable."
GastlyTaipan
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2025 8:05 pm
Cam chided himself silently for cluing her in on his connection to the thing in the well. A scowl took form on his face. "I generally find most people and things don't like getting interrogated. I haven't heard it speak words, but it seems to appreciate day-old breads." Cam averted his gaze, as if ashamed to be admitting he'd been feeding whatever was inside the well. She seemed to have some air of authority and he assumed she'd reprimand him for feeding the wildlife.
"I used to hear it. It got quiet after I started feeding it. I don't know if that means anything, but with most animals it is a sign of building trust." He shifted his weight from one leg to the other, looking as awkward as he felt for answering her.
Industria hummed, thoughtfully. "I didn't mean to interrogate. I just find its nature fascinating. There are known and understood magics, of course, but this is not any of those." There was no youma aura, and frankly, if one got itself stuck down a well, that would be a little embarrassing for it, in Industria's opinion. Nothing she'd read in the handbook suggested the other side could create such a thing. So, thus, some other answer.
"It accepts gifts?" She perked up, instantly and clearly fascinated. "I wouldn't have thought! Would you be interested in sharing anything else about your experiences? In the interest of advancing our understanding of such things?"
Yes, he was just a civilian for the moment. And she could be fairly certain of that--someone on the other side would have had more care in approaching her; someone on her own would probably have introduced themself as such, at least by her assumption. Which made his potential encounters all the more fascinating to her. What did all of this look like to someone as yet uninitiated into the very real magical circumstances that existed in Destiny City?
GastlyTaipan
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2025 5:45 pm
Cam chewed his lip, mentally cursing himself for inciting her questions. Well... what did it hurt? "I haven't offered it much more than food scraps, so I don't know if it accepts other gifts. But it seemed, at the very least, placated. The noises mostly stopped." He shifted his weight, exhibiting nervous energy under her scrutinous gaze.
"I don't know if I have many answers, but I can try. Before you ask, I don't know where it came from. I was just walking by and heard the noises. I couldn't see what it was, I still don't know what it is. I have not been successful in luring it out." Hazel eyes that were more green than brown glanced at the well, as if he could see into it from where he stood. "It also has never answered any of my questions. I don't know if that means it can't speak, doesn't understand me, or won't speak."
A nonchalant roll of his shoulders in a lazy shrug and Cam looked away from the well and Industria. Something about her rankled him, so he was putting up what walls he could. He didn't want her reading too much into him and was trying to keep his words centered around the creature in the well. "If you have any other questions, I'll try to answer them as best I can."
Industria nodded along, and briefly considered pulling out her tablet to make more notes--but showing off the Negaverse's advanced technology seemed a risky endeavor. She would just have to remember, and make her notes later. Not an ideal process, but it would do.
"Oh, I don't expect anyone knows where it came form. I'm not even certain it's a singular entity, since to my understanding it's been reported in wells quite far apart from each other, and I doubt the same thing is falling down every well in the city." She waved a hand. "Vanishingly unlikely, at least."
She hopped down from her seat on the edge of the well, and as she moved, her bangs swished just so, perhaps drawing attention to the hole in the center of her forehead.
"You're very thorough. Have you been observing on purpose?" She asked. "And what do you make of the pull that seems to come when you get closer, a desire to jump in and join it? Or have you not experienced that?" Either answer would be thoroughly interesting.
GastlyTaipan
Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2025 6:10 am
A sheepish look overtook Cam's features before shock and mild curiosity flickered, then all was lost behind the mask of indifference when he took in her features. Yet another strange person Cam had met. The happening seemed to be becoming more frequent a thing.
"I can't speak for other locations. This is the only one I've found. As for observing, yes. My survival is only manageable because of my observations. If I didn't, I'd be easy pickin's."
He shifted his weight in discomfort, not really wanting to talk about his current situation. So he redirected with her follow-up question.
"I have felt the pull, but it is by no means the strongest I've ever desired. My desire to eat is stronger than my desire to jump in that well. I think it learned that pretty quickly, because I haven't felt it try to draw me in since the third day. I don't know if it has the capability of such thought, though, or if it is just that one gains a tolerance when exposed more often. Or maybe it only has a set amount of mental juice."
He had clearly put a lot of thought into some of the creature's workings, even if he still hadn't cracked what it was yet. He finally pulled one hand from a pocket and reached up to rub at his neck beneath the hood.
"It does seem to have the ability to recognize someone, otherwise it probably would still be making noises at me or trying to draw me in. Hmm... maybe it stopped because I feed it? Something like not needing thebprey because it has developed an almost domesticated manner in being fed?"
Even as he was speaking to Industria, he was observing the creature and trying to figure it out. He caught himself rubbing at his neck and forced his hand back down into a pocket.
"But, this is all speculation, of course. I don't actually know much about it. It was just making weird noises, I thought an animal was stuck, I tried to get it out and have now developed some strange food-motivated relationship with it. Like a cat in a water drain."
