songerein | [open] under the sea darling it's better down where it's wetter

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[open] under the sea darling it's better down where it's wetter

Who: Anyone!
Which: Interactive Dream
Where: Sora's dream of Disney's Atlantica
What: It's May and Sora is dreaming of an under the sea oasis. Turn into mer-creature and explore the Kingdom of Atlantica!
Warnings: Finny Fun

Dreaming of underwater oceans and deep dark depths of the sea could be anyone's dream. But the dream that opens here is one that is uniquely vibrant and full of magnificent colours and glowing corals. Playful schools of fish and seahorses that swirl around while singing songs. Crabs and lobsters clack away to a beat of a song and whales fill the waters with long sweet notes. Dolphins kick and play and push for others to join in. Jellyfish gloop about and nest in hair and whisper secrets. And devoted sharks prowl and patrol around a large standing castle in the distance.

You might find yourself in this dream surrounded by a school of baby guppies that poke and prod at your new form. Half of your body seems to have changed to help you with your new underwater situation. Perhaps you have a powerful dolphin's tail or several long octopus-like tentacles in lieu of where your legs were. Or perhaps you've gained gills and water-cutting fins on your forearms or flippers for feet. Maybe your hair has been littered with starfish and your eyes glow with the ability to see through the darkness in the water. No matter what happens to your body here it seems you're now referred to as Merfolk.

A. Forest of Seaweed. Upon arrival you may find yourself lost in a forest of long strips of green and blue seaweed. The green is almost dizzying as you try to navigate through the wispy plants with your new body. The seaweed seems to easily attach to you or wrap around a limb if you're not careful. Perhaps you need to find a weapon or sharp piece of broken coral to get yourself through it? Or can you adapt quickly to your new fins and are able to dodge your way through the forest?

B. Singing Seahorses. Once free of the slippery pieces of seaweed the ocean opens to a deep and beautiful chasm of glowing rocks, crystals and plants. Schools of fish swim by and all of them seem to be heading towards that beautifully lit castle in the distance. But before you can proceed several dragon seahorses swarm up to you and demand to know your name. They kiss at your cheeks and forehead as if trying to coax information out of you. Asking you all sorts of personal questions like what is your favourite food or asking you to sing them a song or tell them what the real use of a Dinglehopper is. They won't leave you alone until you indulge them!

C. Emotional Seashells. Along the seabed there are several glowing seashells that can catch your eye. If they are picked up they tend to glow a certain colour to reflect your mood or personality. They will look very nice in your water-swept hair! But be careful because if a broken or chipped seashell is picked up and worn it might induce the wrong or opposite emotion into you.

D. Sharky Noctaere. A dream isn't complete without the presence of noctaere. Make a wrong turn and you might find yourself face to face with a noctaere in the shape of a very strange looking shark. These huge beefy sharkmen are not happy to see you and look like they might make a snack out of you if they can get their hands on you. Swim or fight!

E. Atlantica Castle. Upon swimming into the castle grounds you will be greeted by a plethora of merfolk happy to bring you into the castle. They will make sure you are fed with all sorts of underwater treats like fresh scallops, crab bits or kelp cookies. They will shower you with bits of gold jewellery and pearl bracelets as welcoming gifts. There seems to be an entire festival of some sort going on to welcome in all the dreamers. There is a big hustle and bustle about a music performance coming up and they are missing some key players to sing, dance or play instruments. And they want you to do it. A pretty mermaid might try to pull you to her as a dancer or a merman may hand you a set of handheld drums or a coral horn.

"Swim this way, we'll dance and we'll play now it's very easy, come on in! Just take a chance and shake a fin!"

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[Tifa doesn't think she'll find Eustace in here, but she nods anyway before quietly opening the door a little more and flitting inside, freeing Sakura from her clutches so that the two of them can take a look around.]

Well, there's your answer. Looks like they can have books down here.

[And carefully, she tugs one off the shelf to flip open. This one is a picture book—from the looks of it, a fairy tale about humans.]

It's like we aren't even underwater at all...!

I just hope the water hadn't ruined the books? Unless they're made of something else other than paper down here?

[She asks, glancing down as Tifa gets one from the shelf and opens it. Sakura tilts her head, wondering on what to make of it. Fairytales, even down here. Not with merfolk? Were these perhaps from ships that had sunk or something? She isn't sure on what to make of this.]

[Judging by the way nothing in the room seems to match besides the undersea things like the corals, it's likely that a lot of this came from sunken ships or stolen from the humans. Things that maybe dropped into the sea as they were sailing through...]

I'm gonna chalk it up to magic.

[Maybe there are little bubbles around the books that they can't see?

With the book in hand, Tifa flits over to the "desk" in the center of the room and sits in the giant "chair" that is actually an open clam, and she wiggles comfortably in the spot.]

I feel so important sitting here. You think this is meant for the king?

You think so? I guess my experience, what I know of magic might be different to what is possible here.

[Not outright admitting that she herself has magic. That she is the most powerful back home. But that she at least knows of it. Most everyone does? Through stories or films or games or the like. Most don't know magic is real though. Sakura follows Tifa to the chair, hovering nearby when the other sits.]

I don't know. There's probably some sort of equivalent to an office or um. Throne? Room? If they have a ruler or something. I suppose.

There's gotta be, with a castle like this?

[This is definitely fit for a king. And Tifa, amused, sits up as straight as she can and puts on a commanding demeanor and voice. Or... as commanding as she can manage. It's still very timid in comparison to what she imagines a real king would be like if he owned a room like this.]

And thus, I decree that you shall be dubbed Knight. Ser Sakura!

...

What do you think? Not a bad impression, huh?

[Actually, it was probably terrible. Is that even what they say? She has no idea.]

I guess. It's probably for royalty or at least someone important? To have a place this huge.

[Still, she shifts as Tifa sits up, glancing from the books to her, giggling when she says about knighting her. Remembering her time as a prince in one of the school plays. It feels like another lifetime ago almost, so long ago. Years ago.]

I did play a prince in a school play once? I'm not sure if that counts. But probably something like that. We don't have kings or anything in Japan though. Um, monarchs. I think that's mostly over in Europe. Maybe they have those here though. I'm not sure. Maybe there's records with all these books somewhere? But, if your friend isn't in here, should we keep looking somewhere else?

[Tifa only smiles at her for a moment, that glint in her eye flickering briefly again. To be honest, she wasn't really looking for Eustace. It would be nice to find him, but it was just an excuse to get them out of that room and into the corridors of the castle. Not that she thinks she needs a reason, but if anyone were to ask them why they were in there—where they probably shouldn't be—then they'd be able to say they were simply looking for someone.

Tifa closes the book on the desk.]

Yeah, we can keep looking.

[She floats up from the coral "chair" and swims to the door, peeking out to make sure the coast is clear before she moves.]

Which way should we go now? Keep going the way we were headed?

Alright. Um. We came from that way, right? So. I guess we keep going the other direction. See what else there is.

[If they can find Eustace. Because she isn't reading into this as an excuse. Just wanting to help. Getting away from the pushy merfolk is a bonus. At least as far as Sakura is concerned. She isn't sure they are really sneaking around anywhere they shouldn't be. Else things would be locked or obviously off limits, she assumes. But she does wait while Tifa checks if anyone else might be coming, as she gestures which direction to head.]

That way it is!

[Tifa—once again—carefully flicks her tail, but it still sends her blitzing forward through the water, putting her already partway to the next set of doors before she's having to turn around and wait for Sakura to catch up with her. While she does that, she peers into the next room, but it's mostly empty, with a few paintings stacked around the walls that look like they would collect dust if they weren't being kept underwater...

She shuts that one and moves along.]

So, do mermaids exist in your world? I've only ever seen them in stories before.

In stories or movies or that sort of thing. Fairytales. I've never seen a real one.

[And hasn't heard of them being real outside of them being mentioned in stories and fairytales or the like. So Sakura isn't sure. But she would probably still prefer merfolk over the likes of ghosts being around. At least. That she could see. That was still a fear of hers.]

The only thing I can think of is probably. My brother. He could see spirits. Ghosts. I've never liked it when he would tell me about them.

[Tifa offers her a crooked smile.]

I don't blame you. Not a fan of ghosts or ghost stories myself.

[She prides herself on being pretty brave most times, but when it comes to ghosts, she hates... them...]

Can't even imagine being able to see them, though... Your brother sounds really brave.

You too? My friend Naoko-chan loves that stuff. The others don't seem to mind those sort of stories but I've never. I guess because I'd get creeped out when onii-chan would tell me about the ghosts he could see. What they looked like, what seemed to have happened to them.

[Of course. Sakura doesn't get that there was more to her fear of ghosts, her suppression of her powers even subconsciously in trying to protect herself. She simply figures her fear is due to her experiences with Touya telling her about the ghosts and her getting freaked out.]

I guess it was just normal for him. He grew up being able to see them and all, so. He didn't know differently.

[Her too, yes! Her run-ins with ghosts were mildly unpleasant. Most were only looking to play, but others were more malicious about it, so just a bad experience all around.]

Were the ones he could see at least nice to him?

I don't think they were mean or hurt him. Just wasn't too common. For people to be able to see them.

[At least. Beyond just stories or tricks of light or something. People with actual ability, magic, that particular sense. That is rarer. Sakura herself doesn't have that ability, for all that she does have her own brand of magic. How powerful she is. That doesn't matter if she is suppressing that particular aspect of magic.]

Well, that's good. I've met some not-so-friendly ghosts that weren't fun to deal with.

[Honestly? It kind of helps talking about it out loud in a non-scary setting. It makes them seem less frightening, in an odd sort of way, and knowing that she isn't silly in her fears makes her feel better about it, too.]

There aren't too many here, thankfully. Noctaere I can handle. I can at least see them for the most part.

Not friendly ones? That.....tried to hurt you? Looked scary?

[At least. She assumes. Asking from what Tifa says from what little context Sakura has. She isn't sure that sounds so great either. Especially if Tifa could see them to know they were even there in the first place. Sakura is fine with being oblivious and subconsciously pushing that ability down.]

Noctaere?

Mm. The nightmare creatures around here.

[She doesn't like to talk about them much, mainly because she's had one terrible experience with them, but at least she knows how. With ghosts, they're still so… unknown to her that it's disconcerting.]

The ghosts I had weren't too scary, I guess. Once we got to know them, it turned out all they wanted was for someone to play.

[As Aerith had said.]

It was in a train graveyard just outside of where I lived. They said it was haunted.

Oh? Is that it? That doesn't sound so scary. So bad.....

[Just wanting to play sounds like maybe they were children? Sakura isn't sure on thinking too much on that. That seems like a bad idea to dwell on it and question too much. But she can definitely relate to that. At least she knows what the Clow cards are and can sense those. She can't say the same for ghosts. She just grew up with that being normal with her brother pointing them out to her.]

A haunted train graveyard? For old trains? That aren't used anymore? Or.....was there an accident there or something?

Old trains that aren't used anymore.

[Calling it the train graveyard is a bit strange, she thinks, but it is what it is. She doesn't pick the names around Midgar.

And, as if knowing exactly what Sakura is thinking, because she would wonder the same if it were her, Tifa goes on to explain as they swim along.]

They say that it's where the lost children go. So, I guess it wasn't so bad, no. It could've been worse.

I guess that makes sense. I'm not sure if I've heard those called a graveyard though. Not in the same sense as like a cemetery exactly. But....I wonder why the children go there? Maybe because they were little and liked trains.

[That's kind of sad. But Sakura tries to focus, as ever, on the positives. It could definitely have been worse. More dangerous and scary if the ghosts didn't just want to play with Tifa.]

Could be.

[Though she suspects that there is a more supernatural reason for that. But—!]

We did free them in the end. The ones that were stuck there. After we defeated the guardian, or whatever it was, I think all their spirits returned home.

[So it was a happier ending!]

Oh? That's good then! If they were....hm. Able to move on? Find peace?

[She is at least grateful for that much. Even if the idea of ghosts scares her. Sakura follows, swimming along with Tifa, keeping an eye out for anyone as they move along. Wondering where Tifa's friend got to. Hoping they find them. Figure this out.]

Where do you think your friend has got to? I hope they're alright. If they are here.

He's probably around here somewhere, but... it's kind of nice just exploring, don't you think? Not every day we see a castle like this one, and underwater, too.

[Camelot had plenty of castles that she got to see for herself, but so far, she's found none in Reverein.]

Not sure if we'll find a library anytime soon, but we could check outside.

That's true. There's towers, back home, and shrines but. Not so much castles.

[She admits, but she is still curious and willing enough to follow along still. She stays close to Tifa, agreeing to check for the library. Hopefully they would find it easily enough. Or as she says, they could check outside as well. As long as they stay close to the castle and all. It should be safe enough.]

[Of course, they don't find Eustace anywhere inside the castle like she hoped. Little does she know, he has been harassed by mermaids this whole time, surrounded by the more persistent ones that are trying to hand off their weapons to him to get him to play. All the while, Tifa and Sakura have set off to explore the castle some more, leaving him all on his own to deal with it.

He'll be fine, probably.

The two of them do eventually find the library as well, and it's so much bigger than she thought or imagined it would be with its shelves towering higher than anything she's ever seen with hundreds—no, likely thousands—of books just waiting to be read. She won't stay too long, but she does check out a few, before she and Sakura eventually swim their way back to the main hall of the castle to join in the festivities once more.]

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[open] under the sea darling it's better down where it's wetter

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we can probably start wrapping and handwave the rest! 💞

Sure! There are newer events and such to go for now!

yesss agreed! going to wrap here! 🎀💗