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.

[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.