Legends of the Sunken City: An Atlantean Adventure

I shook Mike's hand, nodding, then turned to listen to Fienna's story. Went up on her sister's behest, met Dr. Harper...how pedestrian. But there was one detail that bothered me about the anecdote...

As I gathered my things to follow Jon and Jonah into the water and back into the depths where the city lay, I began to ask, "Wait, so if everyone who leaves your city disappears..."

I jumped into the water, forcing the amulet around my neck the moment I felt moisture against skin. "...Why were you the first to not?"

Fienna laughed when Jon leapt into the water, smiling at him for a moment, before seemingly remembering something and looking away from him again. She looked up at Ally, watching as she jumped into the water, and frowned, her question striking her as odd. She swam there silently for a moment, thinking. "I... I don't know," she muttered. "I guess I just got lucky... I am really not sure. Perhaps this is fate. In Atlantis there is a saying that Cronus, lord of fate, works in strange patterns..."

Dr. Harper nodded at Mike. "Of course," she stated, walking towards her tent, sitting down at her laptop and glancing over at Mike, gesturing for him to follow. If he did follow, she would shut the flap to give the two some more privacy. "What's on your mind?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

Jon

"You smiled! You smiled to me, didn't you?" Jon exclaimed to Fienna, smiling smugly. "... It's either that, or my head's still not working right since last night and I've just made a fool out of myself again. Hey Fienna, am I hallucinating?"

Then, Ally asked her a question, to which Jon thought that it's a very fair point to bring up. His gaze shift focus between both the mermaid and the reporter.

"... You think there's a reason whoever is behind all the disappearances didn't chase after her?" he asked, then, after wondering what the implications might be, grew tense for just a moment. "Okay, look, before anyone has any bright ideas, I can vouch that she's not a potential suspect. She's the one who requested us for help, after all, and also the one who got targeted and attacked yesterday,"

"... Plus, we've seen how close she is with her sister who I'm pretty convinced is a mind-reading Oracle. That alone should clear her of all suspicion,"

So maybe it was simply a stroke of luck that she's didn't end up as one of the disappearing victims. Or maybe whoever is behind this wanted the 'surface dwellers' to interfere for whatever reason. Or maybe...

Dr. Ravi

Dialogue translated from Hindi

"Ok, that's good, now where's my...ah, there it is"

End translation

Dr. Ravi walked out of the tent, with his camera around his neck. It was an expensive rental, but it was definitely worth it.

He walked onto the shore, and stepped into the wave. He didn't exactly like the beach, and was instantly reminded when sand had already gotten into his trunks. Before fully submersing, however, he grabbed something out of his pocket. He almost forgot to put on his over-glasses diving goggles. There isn't much good in going under when you can't see 5 feet in front of you.

He walked out into the ocean until he was about neck deep, put the medallion on, and dove under.

Mike, Koryfi Island camp

Mike followed Dr. Harper into the tent and tried to sit down comfortably. She closed the flap behind him and asked what he had on his mind. “Well, I’m sure you have already done everything you can, but…” He paused, looking around for something to look a before continuing. “...exactly how prepared are we?” He cleared his throat and looked straight into Dr. Harper’s eyes. “I mean, what will happen if or when the world finds out about this?”

Mike drank from his canteen. He tried to speak slowly in the beginning but ended up getting increasingly fast as he rambled on and on. “Are they going to recognize Atlantis as a sovereign nation? What about human rights? I’ll bet fifty euros people will be fighting over that. What if some racist fuck of a madman comes along and takes Fienna to his lab and makes experiments on her?"

"Unless Atlantis can hide itself with magic or something…” sighed Mike, suddenly losing all energy in his voice. He left the sentence unfinished, trying to think about something of a more positive nature. He noticed he was hungry - he hadn’t had breakfast yet - and suddenly straightened his back as if he just woke up. “I’m sorry I took up so much of you time, Professor."

edited 25th Feb '17 1:54:55 AM by IsaacTheRed

Fienna kept looking away, cheeks burning slightly and trying not to smile. "You might be," she simply stated. Then he continued. When Ally possibly accused her of being a suspect, Jon was immediate in defending him. She finally looked back at him, with a slight smile. "Thank you for coming to my defense, Jon," she told him. "Thank you for believing in me. And thank you for trusting me." Her cold demeanor seemed to melt, and she smiled wider, diving under the water again.

"Will Mike not be joining us?" she asked, looking up at the tent where Mike had went to speak with Dr. Harper. Meanwhile, Dr. Harper crossed her arms as she spoke to Mike.

'I'm honestly not sure," Dr. Harper admitted. "Stuff like this is gonna open up a massive can of worms at the UN, I can guarantee that," she muttered. "It's why I didn't go straight to the UN when I found this stuff, the governments of the world are gonna try and claim dibs on this place and do what they want to the inhabitants. They don't deserve that kind of treatment. I'll try and talk with Fienna after this is all over and see if we can arrange for someone to act as ambassador from Atlantis to the UN. In the meantime you should probably get outside, Fienna's probably waiting for you to follow her to the city. Good luck. And stay safe," she continued, sounding concerned for Mike's well-being.

Mike, The Koryfi Sea

”I Understand.” Mike replied as he stood up and started to make his way out of the tent. When he was almost at the exit, he turned around to face Dr. Harper. ”Thanks! I will, and you too.” said Mike reassuringly. He felt more eager to explore Atlantis now that he didn’t have to worry about any outside interference.

Mike stopped by a tent to leave his backpack and changed into his wetsuit. He fastened the speargun and the quiver to a contraption on his wetsuit, at level with his hip and took off toward the dock; he really enjoyed the feeling of running on a rocky surface. Dr. Ravi, Ally, Jonah and Jon were already in the water, seemingly having a good time, but because he didn’t want to keep them waiting any longer, he didn’t wait a second before jumping into the water with the elegance of a rhino and shouting ”Sorry I kept you guys waiting!” What followed could only be described as a giant splash.

He dove and put the ornate medallion on as instructed. It felt almost like he imagined it would be if his physical body disappeared and all that remained was his spirit. Mike had never felt so in tune with the world around him before - especially not underwater. His body felt lighter and more responsive than usual. Was this some kind of dope? He swam up to the surface like a rocket and made a somersault in the air. ”You know what, this is awesome! I think I’ve got a major crush on the ocean!” Shouted Mike with the widest smile on his face. This must be destiny, he thought, as he looked out over the others. Jon, Jonah, Ally, Professor Ravi and Fienna; these were the people he would his first grand adventure with. It more than made up for the fact that he wasn’t accepted into the military.

”I’m ready.” he said, knowing that his determination was stronger than ever before.

edited 26th Feb '17 8:46:00 PM by IsaacTheRed

Fienna's smile grew wider as she watched Mike flip happily in the water. She giggled slightly and she swam slightly deeper, then she swam up towards the surface and leapt out, laughing and flipping much like he did. "Well, the sea is betrothed but she likes you too," she responded. "So, shall we go?" she asked, diving down and swimming down. As they swam, Fienna made a point to swim in between Jon and Mike, her smile growing wider and looking between them.

"I'm so glad that you all decided to return. And I'm glad that we have some new faces coming to see Atlantis. It will take a bit to reach the City, so any questions, feel free to ask while we swim. So..." Her smile grew and she bit her lip. "...which of you young men is going to be a gentleman and swim with me?" Fienna teased, offering her arms to Jon and Mike as she swam down. "It's only polite that a gentleman swim with a lady..."

Dr. Ravi had a hard time containing his excitement. Luckily, he was pretty skilled at maintaining composure.

"So, Fienna, was it? I have a question."

This wasn't entirely true, he actually had lots of questions. But since he didn't want to be a bother, he'd start small.

"The only true references to Atlantis humanity has are in the works of a Greek philosopher named Plato, who died almost 2500 years ago. He mentioned that Atlantis had sunk about 9000 years before his time, due to divine intervention. Because we have no real knowledge on what really happened, I must ask, how did Atlantis actually sink?"

edited 27th Feb '17 9:53:49 AM by ctrl_alt_deliiiight

Mike, The Koryfi Island Sea

When Mike heard Fienna’s question, he blushed a little. “Thank you.” he said, trying to sound courteous. He wasn’t used to being asked that kind of question; he was usually the one asking. He looked at Jon, then at Fienna, then back to Jon again. He had to admit, Fienna was rather cute, and why pass up on an opportunity to be a gentleman? “I’d like to, if you don’t mind.” said Mike and offered his arm as well.

Finding questions to ask was a bit daunting, especially since Dr. Ravi actually asked an interesting one - one he never would have thought to ask. Finally he decided to be a bit more personal. “Maybe you could tell something about yourself…” He stopped a split second to think. “…like, what kind of food do you like? There must be a load of things I haven't even heard of.”

edited 27th Feb '17 10:08:18 AM by IsaacTheRed

And it was now time to go. Jonah was unpleasantly reminded of his biggest issue with the amulets. Every voice he heard was so... wrong. Yet another reason to be frugal with his words, he supposed. The group was bigger this time. It was starting to approach being unpleasant. Just keep swimming.

And now Fienna was flirting with Mike and Jon. Annoying. He had thought Jon was just a fluke, but now Mike? Had no one taught her about showing some level of caution with people she had just met? It was really off-putting to Jonah. The world would be so much simpler if everyone put an amount of thought into things. And would you look at that, not 2 minutes in and his temper was already starting to build again.

Luckily for him, Jonah had a lot of practice with pushing past things that made him uneasy by refusing to acknowledge them. Just focus on the asking questions thing and he should be fine. The professor had asked a very important question, fitting for his profession. What type of question should he ask... oh this was an important one. In a tone far less emotional and far more rushed than before, Jonah asked "About how many people would you say live in Atlantis?"

Jon

Well, crap. She just had to go and do that. And he thought he had the upper hand, until Fienna thanked him for trusting her with a sincere smile. How was he supposed to respond to that?!? As though out of reflex, he was just about to make his stuttered reply, trying really hard to sound cool(and most likely would have failed)...

It was at that fortunate time that a certain well-built man had made a grand splash into the sea that distracted both him and the mermaid. Which was good, because Jon was now out of that situation.

Silently, Jon thanked Mike for his timely distraction.

He takes that back. Not a minute had passed and already, Mike had been the one to quickly accept Fienna's offer to escort her. He chalks it up to Fienna being curious of the surface dwellers, but, well...

So what if he seems like a nice enough guy? And ripped? And a gentleman? And has yet to depress the mermaid even once and oh fuck, Jon is totally outmatched here, is he?

With a dejected sigh, he has to leave this victory to the newcomer. But he certainly won't just completely leave it at that.

"Sorry, second escort, coming through!" Jon quickly said as he swam on her other side.

"Hope you don't mind having a newbie swordsman watching over your other side. I do think I'm getting the hang of it though, heh," Jon spoke, chuckling a bit. "... Well, unless you're still mad at me from yesterday,"

He then quietly listens to the questions being asked of her. His not!affection with Fienna aside, he too was rather curious about the answers as well.

Whether because he really wanted to defend Fienna’s honor as penance for yesterday or simply because he was afraid what’d happen if we jumped to conclusions (or both), Jon jumped to Fienna’s defense like a frog to...uh, I had a good metaphor but I lost it. I wasn’t suspicious of her just yet, but surely it may be an important detail that was best considered now instead of later, with caution exercised accordingly.

I shrugged and followed him and the others into the depths. I had a meeting with Taera after all.

Wow. Slow clap for Fienna. Surely nothing troublesome could come from her flirting openly with every other new human she meets.

I glanced at Jonah to see if his blood sugar was as dangerously high as mine, noting he had raised a good question that I would best note down the answer to, but otherwise didn't comment.

Fienna smiled and linked her arm around Mike's, smiling at him. "I don't mind at all," she told him, sounding satisfied. She giggled when Jon swam up to her other arm to try and be her second escort. "Well, you believe in me now, don't you?" she responded, moving her arm to run a hand through his hair gently. "That's all I could really ask for. The fact that you're still willing to help me, and my sister, and all of Atlantis... you are very noble, Jon. You also saved my life and for that I am still grateful." With that she leaned in and pecked his cheek gently, then took his arm linked in hers and continued to swim down.

She looked back towards Dr. Ravi as she swam. "Plato of Greece... he was an Athenian, was he not? Then his story will be grossly biased. Atlantis stood at the forefront of the world once. The people of Athens were jealous of the magical wonders of Atlantis and so tried to raze our city. Lord Ocean and Lady Tethys gave us their blessing, by sheltering us under the waves and giving us the form of fish so we could survive. If the sea had not given us protection, we would have surely been snuffed out then and there by the Athenians," she explained.

Dr. Ravi honestly didn't know what to say. If this was true...Then there may have been more to the works of the Greek philosophers than people thought. Atlantis was still very much fictional in the eyes of most of the science community, and both its discovery and the mermaid's answer were potentially earth-shattering revelations.

Dr. Ravi kept swimming, thinking to himself

edited 1st Mar '17 6:17:03 AM by ctrl_alt_deliiiight

Conversing was still really annoying down here, what with the odd sound that voices took on with the amulets. Therefore he was silent for a few minutes as he digested the answer Fienna gave about the writings of Plato. Apparently, the leading civilization of the world was almost destroyed by Athens. To delve into this topic might be fruitful.

Hmm... what to ask? After another few minutes, Jonah finally asked "Who are Lord Ocean and Lady Tethys? I never got to ask when you mentioned them last night."

Mike, Koryfi Sea

It didn’t take long until Mike realized what a precarious situation he had plunged into - that something was amiss. Before Fienna invited him to swim with her as well, Jon looked like he had resigned himself to losing a battle; apparently they had been fighting over something. Jonah asked about the population of Atlantis in an uncharacteristically hot-headed manner. It seemed to Mike like a warning-sign, informing him to tread carefully. He almost began to regret having accepted Fienna’s offer, fearing that it would cause trouble down the line.

“I’m still a bit unsure, is Atlantis one country or is it made up of several independent states, and what’s your form of government?” asked Mike, trying to play it safe. That same moment Jonah asked about some guy named Lord Ocean. Mike burst into laughter, and struggled to not let go of Fienn's arm. The bad feeling he had earlier was probably all in his head.

edited 10th Mar '17 3:56:21 PM by IsaacTheRed