[h2][center]Geralt of Rivia[/center][/h2]
[center]The Maw- The Depths[/center]
[center]Lvl 7 (65/70) -> Lvl 7 (67/70) [/center]
[center]Word Count: 1,112 words[/center]

Geralt came to a stop at the top of the ladder for a moment, catching his breath. This whole 'child body, extreme hunger, lots of physical exertion' thing was getting pretty tiring, literally speaking. As the others filed past, Geralt forced himself upright and squeezed past the half-open door, only to be faced with a hallway, two doors, and...a thing. It was certainly a thing. A...rectangular box-shaped head with what appeared to be one mechanical eye, a strange arm-like device ending in two opposed 'fingers', and...lots of fluid underneath it. Was that what passed for blood for this type of creature? Or did it serve some other purpose?

What was stranger, however, was the [i]obviously[/i] organic structure to which the mechanical creature was connected. As little as he knew about this type of machine, he knew that that was not normal. No, that was most certainly not normal, and Geralt found himself a bit off-out by the whole thing. 

And then he started paying attention to what it was saying, and Geralt's hair was standing on end. It kept insisting it was human, calling itself Carl and even insulting Nadia for having the gall to ask the clearly nonliving thing if it was supposed to be a person. He scowled at that, but didn't comment, not wanting to get involved with something he simply didn't understand. Turning away and looking around, he went towards the open door and tried to see what he could figure out. 

Turns out, not much. Hardly surprising, but being surrounded by this much technology he had no clue how to work was bothersome. Still, he tried to put how some of these things were laid out to memory, hoping that one day he might be able to understand it all. 

When he heard the banging of the Koopa Troop trying to force down the door, he sighed and turned back to them, only to notice 'Carl' was now fully intact and...not speaking. Furrowing his brow, Geralt quickly walked out, noticing that the machine wasn't moving at all. He'd vaguely heard Sakura speaking, which lead him to surmise that she'd given the thing a Friend Heart, and it had...returned it to normal? Was normal not talking and insisting it was a human? 

Geralt shook his head, way out of his depth on this. "What...no. No, I...really don't think I want to know." Geralt decided. As much time as he spent philosophizing, he wasn't in the mood to try and jam this entire new category of potentially-living creatures into his understanding of sentience and life. Still, the part of him that felt for those monsters who could be reasoned with was quite displeased that whatever Carl was, it was gone now. He'd spared enough monsters to know that just because one was difficult to talk to, didn't make it really an enemy or something that needed killing. 

Sparing a weary sigh for the potentially-living creature that Sakura may have just accidentally killed, he walked back towards the Workshop door, only for it to slam shut just feet away from him. "Of course." He bluntly stated. At least he wasn't in the middle of the door as it closed. He quite liked having his limbs attached. That avenue blocked off to him, he quickly shuffled back and helped reconnect some of the cables that Peach was working on, not exactly understanding what the significance of the individual cables was, but understanding that this would help things around here work...probably. 

When the lights started coming on and the door to the Command Center opened, Geralt figured that either they'd done something right, or Mirage and the others had. Either way, their path was now clear, and Geralt moved onwards with the rest of the crew. 

The Command Center was a large, square-shaped room with some kind of metallic sphere hanging from the ceiling protected from the little intruders by a metal fence. There were also some kind of full-body clothing along the wall, and an [i]extremely[/i] disconcerting chair in the middle of them. 

As the group snuck around, Geralt got a good look at the mutated human waiting in the alcove, seemingly talking to himself about a "Missus Lady." He had to assume that meant the woman who had sicced those strange monsters on them before they passed out. Well, if he was working for her, he had a rough day ahead of him. Geralt felt for the man, as another mutated human (though much less...grotesquely) himself, but now wasn't the time for sympathy. Peach and Nadia accosted the man, who begged them not to leave lest he fail his 'Lady' before vomitting and stumbling into the pool and vanishing from sight. 

"There's no way it's that easy." Was all Geralt could say. Call him a downer or a cynic, but this guy wouldn't be put in charge of a whole area of this place if he couldn't back it up. If anything, the nature of his mutations made it all the more likely that he'd do better in the water than they would. "He had webbed fingers and toes. Whatever we do, we had best be careful around that water." He wasn't sure how it felt that he was on the exact same wavelength as Bowser, but the guy seemed to have some sort of experience with almost everything under the sun (and other things under the ocean), so he just rolled with it.

His piece said, Geralt immediately noticed Mirage strapping himself into the terrifying chair of doom, and sighed. "Really, Mirage? Just going right for it, huh?" Shaking his head, he just motioned for the man to continue. 

When Junior mentioned using his scissors, Geralt grimaced. While the pair he'd gotten were of much higher quality than he'd expect from something on the Continent, he'd seen a few pairs of scissors before, and recognized the tools as a decent improvised stabbing instrument. Sadly, they were gone, and the Witcher mentioned as much to the troop. "Stuck em in that thing's eye to keep it off our backs while we turned tail and ran." He reported with no shame. Sometimes running was smart. "Cadet stabbed it with some kind of pole, too. Not sure if it died or not. Just glad it didn't follow." He wasn't sure it could, but the sentiment was still there. 

Unfortunately, he had no ideas for bringing the submarine down for them to use, but he did point to Mirage. "If that thing doesn't kill him, it might serve as a sort of control device?" 

That was the hope at least. A not dead Mirage and a submarine ready for their use.