The Chained Watcher

Bunker Basing

I live!

Got myself an AO3 account and, surprise surprise, got completely and utterly distracted reading all the fanfics there. That resulted in me not writing a word in this for over a month, and I'm only now settling back into writing instead of binge reading thousands of words of Watcher Grian fanfic whenever I found free time.

~~~

Stepping through the portal, Grian breathes deeply, frowning at the slightly stale musty scent of the other side. His eyes roam the room.

Portal spawn this time seems to have been quite unlucky.

Several bat hybrids scoot through into the fairly cramped room as well, their big ears swiveling around as they let out quiet clicks to get a feel for the state of the structure they've found themselves in. The shield-bearers wait tensely.

"All clear," one of the hybrids announces quietly. "We seem to have spawned in the basement of some kind of underground structure. Nothing's alive in here except the plants and small animals."

Can confirm, this place seems to be abandoned. There's dust on the cracked concrete floor, some kind of mold he'll have to check for airborne toxins overtaking a couple of crates, and when he tries the light switch on the wall, nothing happens.

Abandoned or not though, this will still complicate things. This is a structure. Unlike Minecraft, where structures will just spawn wherever they feel like, for something to exist here, it had to have been created deliberately. They're starting out in the middle of civilization this time. And that means their usual approach is going to have to undergo some drastic changes.

It takes a total of one person on the Builder team looking at the state of the room for some upgrades to be put up on top of the priority list. They stare up at the ceiling, and immediately declare, "Yeah, no, that's not safe." They glance at the gathered players. "Anyone got some kind of blocks to cover that mess of a ceiling? The last thing we need is for it to collapse and kill someone."

With lessons having been learned about making sure Plane-sourced tools are kept, half a dozen players immediately start tearing up the floor and presenting the gathered blocks to the builder. Grian himself doesn't bother though. Too many chefs and all that, plus, he wants to get a feel for what kind of magic nonsense this world will expose them to.

Closing his eyes, Grian unleashes his senses, letting this world's magic swirl around him and bare its secrets to him.

His first observation is that the magic seems to really like physical manifestation in its hosts. Wielding an element will likely cause an alteration to hair color and eye color, with more powerful abilities manifesting more drastic changes. Plus, it feels like an awakening-type magic, not a birth-talent. Not all that surprising considering his second observation.

It's faint, as if the magic itself has begun to forget its origin, but there's a bit of a Watcher-y feel to the magic flowing through the leylines beneath his feet. Grian's a bit wary of what he might find out there, but he's not too concerned. The taint is faint. It doesn't feel directed or actively manipulated, not like a Watcher's pet planet would feel.

Grian comes to a conclusion, nodding to himself. Whatever happened to align this planet's magic so thoroughly with Watcher magic is clearly something long in the past by now. If it was a pet planet, it's been abandoned. If there was a big fight and a high Tier Watcher died on a leyline, the victor didn't stick around. It should be safe enough as long as everyone's bracelets are kept on.

As a member of the Exploration team, it's his job to get a feel for the surrounding area and report back once done. He climbs up to the surface, remarking to one of his fellow scouts, "Pretty sure it's a doomsday bunker. Abandoned, sure, but I'm pretty sure that weird mushroom-infested room two floors down used to be an indoor garden. One of the rusty tools was a set of pruning shears, I think."