Re: Behold Atlantis

[Fira]

Varina twitched, startled by the sudden appearance of the new girl. She turned around as best as she could to get a glimpse of the new arrival and found herself unable to prevent a little bit of staring. The girl may have spoken like she was from victorian times, but her clothes looked like something out of a weird fantasy circus. She sat there, mouth agape, trying to understand why she would dress like that. For once, she was rendered speechless, unable to happily greet her as she did normally.

Thankfully, Miles stepped in, stepping in front of Varina and adjusting the cuffs of his dress shirt, speaking in the same tone the girl had used. "Good afternoon, Miss. Is there anything we can help you with?" His speech was overly polite, but his proper tone was a little icy, and his expression was a wary one, betraying his true feelings. He didn't trust her one bit.

Her friend's intervention gave Varina some time to snap out of her stupor, and she addressed the colorful girl far more cheerily than Miles did. "Hello! I'm Varina." She smiled at her in an attempt to be friendly, and couldn't help but notice that the girl had the same shining markings as Varina did, except hers were simple lines on the knuckles. She blinked. It couldn't be a coincidence, could it? "Hey, you have glowy markings too. Were you on the cruise like us?" She looked at her questioningly, now extremely curious.

Miles blinked, hearing Varina's question, and studied the newcomer more thoroughly. There were indeed some glowing markings on the girl's fingers which were tightly clutching a bag of some sort. He frowned and turned to look at Varina again, his eyes widening when he noticed serpentine lines on her elbows. "...How had I not noticed that before...?" He mumbled to himself, brows knitted in confusion.

Varina had been studying Miles as well, but couldn't find any trace of a marking on him until he had turned to look back at her. She burst out laughing, finally spotting where his magical tattoo was. "Pfff...Oh my god, Miles, you have a fucking elf crown. It is a shiny blue circlet and it is right on your forehead. I just...I can't..." She succumbed to a giggling fit, laying her face in one hand.

Miles scowled, reddening. Of all things, he had managed to get a circlet? It was mortifying. He reached a hand cautiously up to his forehead and patted it, but couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary. He scratched at the spot where he thought the stupid elf crown might be, but couldn't seem to detach it, or even find it. "Christ, I can't even take it off? You sure it's there?"

Varina was still laughing, but she inhaled and let out a big sigh in an attempt to calm down. "Iiiiit's definitely there. It's okay, man. You look (pfff) positively regal...!" She couldn't control her emotions any longer, and soon started snickering again, unable to get over poor Miles and his silly glowing tiara.

Miles sighed, looking very uncomfortable and still quite red. "Right. Well..." He turned back to Babydoll, trying to maintain his composure. He realized he hadn't introduced himself yet. "My name is Miles Evereaux. And the question still stands. Did you come from the cruise like we did? And who are you, exactly?"

[Regina]

Babydoll was oblivious to Varina's shocked staring and Miles' cold disposition, taking his distrustful tone as simply being very proper. She was genuinely happy to be it the company of other people; she wasn't antisocial, it's just that no one seemed to want to talk to her (not that she cared, really). She curtsied politely, hardly needing to spread out her skirt in this environment.

"Clara, though I would much prefer it if you called me 'Babydoll'." She smiled at the two before glancing down at her fingers and realizing that she had glowing markings on the ones that we exposed by her gloves. In all honesty, they looked rather pretty, and she pursed her lips, interested.

"Oh. Well, that's certainly strange. And yes, I was on the cruise ship. Pretty peculiar how that turned out, yes? I'd like to know how we're all still alive..."

At the mention of Miles' ridiculous crown-like markings, the girl had to admit to herself that it was amusing, and she found Varina's laughter very contagious. She smiled and put her fingers over her mouth as though she was trying to conceal a laugh to appear less rude. Her shoulder shook, and while her body language and facial expression suggested that she was laughing, she made no sound.

Kindra had ceased her confused inner-monolog when she heard the sound of conversation and laughter. There were other people down here? She stood up for a second time, her nerves calmed by the knowledge that she wasn't in the situation alone. Out of habit, she pulled her shades down over her eyes, ignoring how much they hindered her eyesight. She sauntered over, her hands in her pockets, her hair and coat flowing out behind her.

She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the small gathering of people, at a loss as to what was so funny.

"I gotta say, I didn't think it was possible to find humor in this kinda situation. I'm impressed." She flashed an easy-going smile, giving a friendly impression.

[Captain]

"Is nobody going to talk about how we're UNDERWATER???" Esteban was shocked the others were so calm, simply introducing each other without a mind to the situation they'd GONE through, were IN, or what was potential to COME.

"Jesus fucking Christ on a goddamn hickory branch split in three, I swear to GOD I don't understand how none of you are so..." he trailed off and stomped the ground in frustration, looking away.

[Fira]

Varina, having finally calmed down (she had to keep her eyes averted from Miles), grinned and waved at the new girl, who, despite her rather wild hair, seemed nice enough. "Hello, welcome to our little undersea party! She chuckled at her little joke. "And I'm sorry, but when your best friend gets a magical glowy elf tiara, there is nothing that is NOT funny about that." She smirked, making Miles redden again.

"Th-the crown is not my fault!" He exclaimed, deeply embarrassed. Varina only grinned in response. He huffed, realizing that she had been messing with him. "Ugh..." At the other man's words, he frowned and gave him an exasperated look, crossing his arms. "There's no reason to pitch a fit. I was going to get around to it once we got the introductions out of the way. Speaking of which, can I assume that we are all from the same cruise? Ship number 364?"

Varina nodded, still sitting cross-legged on the sand. "I've been trying to puzzle out why this is going on this whole time." Her smile faded. "And...The only possible conclusion I have...is that we didn't survive. That this is the afterlife. It would explain why none of us need to breathe anymore, and why we're somehow miraculously okay at the bottom of the ocean after...whatever happened to us."

Miles gave her a look. "Jeez, Var. Way to be a downer."

The girl shrugged. "If you've got any better ideas, I'd love to hear them." Her smile returned, but it was a small, sad one. "At least if we're dead, we don't have to worry about our sudden location change. That's something, right?"

[Captain]

Esteban, suddenly remembering something, fumbles around his pockets. Pulling out a GPS, he hits a few buttons and grins when it sparks to life - clearly a bulky, obnoxiously colored waterproof version of it, the green light illuminates his face as he bangs around on it for a bit.

Then he nodded. "We were all on Cruise Lines 364." Holding the GPS up for the rest of the group to see, they notice that it's showing their current location as slightly in the lower right of the Bermuda Triangle, marked prettily with its own line and the words 'Data Site 34'. A few other markings on the edge of the screen point offscreen to Data Sites 4, 9, and 27.

[Fira]

Miles studied the GPS with a suspicious expression. Something about this guy seemed odd, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Data site 34...?" He frowned, muttering the place's name under his breath. The name and the fact that he had a GPS out of nowhere seemed more than a little fishy. Was this guy some sort of scientist?

Varina bit her lip, straining to see the device from where she was sitting. She frowned, realizing she'd have to call attention to her wound somehow if she wanted to see it. "Uh, hey, down here?" She waved to the group, deciding to talk about it now and save the trouble of doing it later one. "I can't see the GPS. My ankle got hurt in the crash and it's pretty hard to stand. Mind if you bring it down here so I can see?" She flashed a self-conscious smile.

[Captain]

Esteban shuffled his way over to Varina. "Here." He handed her the GPS. "I mean, it's only specifying that we're inside the Bermuda Triangle, but that says enough."

He stood. "After all, that particular cruise ship was going to be the only vehicle of any kind in any sort of direction towards the Bermuda Triangle on a full moon while Jupiter and Neptune were in sync. It was asking for something strange to happen, but I certainly didn't expect anything of that severe magnitude." He shrugged. "I mean, I've seen ghosts and shit b'fore, but def not INSIDE of me."

[Fira]

Varina blinked and took the device, noticing the points marked and their odd names. "So does this mean those old fairy tales about the Triangle are true, then?" She frowned, more than a little upset by the news. "That makes absolutely no sense..." She'd never put any stock into myths and the supernatural, and she was certainly not willing to do so now. "I don't know what exactly happened to send us down here but there has to be a rational explanation! Ghosts aren't real! The supernatural is just a bunch of hokey myths to make people scared and promote stupid shows." She crossed her arms.

Miles sighed. "Varina, can you really say that? After getting sucked into a portal to the bottom of the sea and gaining mystical ghost tattoos? Can there really be any sort of rational explanation for that?" She only gave him a dirty look in response. He shook his head, resigned. She'd just have to come to terms with the situation on her own. In the meantime, he had more important things to do. He addressed the scientist. "You seem to actually know the most out of all of us. Care to explain why exactly we're stuck at the bottom of the ocean? And, while we're at it..." He turned to the rest of the group. "Could we try and introduce ourselves after we get some answers, now that we're all together? I'd like to know everyone's names, if just for simplicity's sake."

[Captain]

"Esteban." The man of the name spoke to Miles before completely ignoring the rest of the group to address Varina's comments, which had clearly left him shocked and bruised, if a bit bristly.

"A bunch of hokey myths to make people scared and promote stupid shows???" He dropped one eyebrow in a half-angry, half-confused look. "You DO realize, of course, that myths of supernatural events have existed long before shows, or even the need to scare others for the sake of entertainment? In fact, some stories can be credited back as long as people have been known to EXIST. And before you discount it as nothing, keep in mind that, though such stories have faded to myth and legend in common society - children, animals, and those keenly aware of another realm seem incredibly aware of things happening that most cannot see."

This was clearly something he didn't tend to get the chance to get into. It could have been assumed that was because of his rather clearly less-than-enthusiastically social demeanor. "And of COURSE the most popular stories are true! Look around you! You're clearly in the Bermuda Triangle and located underwater where there's ENOUGH LIGHT TO SEE. Doesn't that strike you as fuckin' strange, just a little? The Bermuda Triangle is not located close enough to land for the bottom layer to be anywhere NEAR the surface, which means we should be blind, AND crushed harder than a goddamn car compactor possibly could."

Clearly past the point of allowing himself control and verging into just simply pissed, he turned his back. "And if all the strange happenings in the world could be explained by 'rational explanations', don't you rather think society would have outmoded such things as complete idiocies, rather than allowing them to hold enough sway for people to question their existence???"

[Fira]

Varina scoffed, trying to come up with a good retort. She knew he was wrong, was absolutely positive there was something she could say to win the argument...yet for some reason, couldn't think of it. "Yeah, well, people are stupid sometimes..." She grumbled, upset that she had no response to his explanations.

Miles stepped in hurriedly, not wanting any bad blood before he even knew everyone's name. "Okay then, uh, Esteban, that's a good name, yeah. I'm Miles Evereaux, and my friend over there is Varina Lusk. She's interested in sea life. Perhaps a chance to bond..?" He chuckled nervously, not quite sure how to handle this.

Varina huffed and crossed her arms. "Not interested." Her words were short, quick, and hostile, and she had a petulant expression.

Miles prodded her with his foot, murmuring to her out of the corner of his mouth. "You're not helping, you know..." He cleared his throat, attempting to regain control of the situation. "So, uh, more introductions? Miss trench coat first, if she may?"

[Regina]

Kindra had been listening to the minor debate with interest, not wanting to jump in and offer her opinion. But seriously, this all was happening in the Bermuda Triangle? Seriously? She had had less stereotypical hallucinations. Oddly enough, she found that she could accept everything that had been discussed. After all, it was better that they were simply in the bottom of the ocean during some weird planetary alignment than dying and ending up in some watery limbo.

"So, I guess that all of the rumors about the Triangle are true? Heh, I'd prefer being here than ending up dead. Whatever, I'll take it..." She muttered to herself, an amused smile on her lips.

She perked up at Miles' suggestion, shrugging as she pushed her hands deeper into her pockets, standing as though she hadn't a care in the world.

"I may. Kindra Dement.. And contrary to popular belief," she nonchalantly pointed to her hair. "no, this isn't my natural color."

Babydoll rocked back and forth on her heels, smiling innocently all the while. She had been listening with interest, although she really didn't care about where they were or how they got here or what the deal with supernatural beings was. All she wanted was to craft her dolls, and if the bottom of the ocean in the Bermuda Triangle didn't allow her to do that, then she wanted to leave. She curtsied once again when it came time for her introduction.

"I'm Clara Doll. I prefer to go by 'Babydoll', if you would so please. Pleasure to meet the lot of you."

She tilted her head to the side and placed a finger on her chin, appearing to be accessing their situation.

"Now, if we are indeed miles underwater, how do you all suppose we leave? None of us are floating upwards in any way, and swimming all the way up may or may not be impossible with these conditions, not to mention how long it would take. I'd rather not be trapped down here."

[Captain]

Esteban wasn't listening. Instead, he was focusing on figuring out what was on his chest. His shirt had caught on something, and now three large gashes were leaking blood into the water around him. That wasn't what caught his attention, though - it was the rather large spiral pattern glowing blue. For half a second, his mind happily realized it looked like an arc reactor, but he quickly dismissed it as 'not the time or place'.

As he a particularly interesting connection, there was a bark. It sounded rather like a seal, and echoed from somewhere out of sight.

As they turned to look, they saw a small, four-legged lumpy thing bounding towards them. It had six eyes, four of them small and spread out across the sides of the head, but two large ones slightly further apart than humans. There wasn't an apparent nose or ears, and the mouth that had a tongue hanging out of it happily was filled with rows of sharp, pointed teeth. It wasn't moving aggressively, so Esteban didn't particularly worry. It bounded straight to Miles and ran a few circles around him before jumping over to Kindra and hopping up on her leg.

"You, uh... seem to have a new friend, there." Esteba noted.

[Fira]

Miles crossed his arms. Babydoll's question was obviously intended mainly for Esteban, but that didn't mean that he couldn't give his opinion. "I'm not sure myself, but there has to be some sort of a way up. Perhaps with a bit of exploring we'll find our way home. Plus, I have a few questions I'd like ans-- Agh!" He cringed when the shape approached him, certain that it was some sort of shark, evil fish, or danger of some sort. However, it simply circled him a few times before going on its way.

Varina gasped at the sight of the new creature, her original grumpiness completely forgotten. She grabbed at Miles's pants leg, pulling at it insistently. "Miles! Miles, it's a fish dog! Look at it!" She squealed, staring wide-eyed at the strange animal with a huge grin on her face. She ached to go and study the creature, but was forced to simply sit there and watch it wistfully due to her injury. She whined quietly to herself, wishing someone would take notice of her plight but too proud to actually ask for help.

Miles glanced down at her and fiddled with his cuffs, trying to hide his moment of panic. "...Yeah. I noticed." He stepped away from Kindra, just a little, on the off chance that the fish-dog wasn't as friendly as it looked. Varina sighed and let her hand drop, disappointed by her friend's lack of enthusiasm. Miles rolled his eyes and turned to offer her a hand with a small smirk. "Here, quit whining and lean on me until I can find you some proper medical care." He pulled her up gently and tossed her arm over his shoulder to lend her some extra support. 

Varina smiled at him gratefully, standing, a little wobbly, on one leg. Her bad leg rested lightly beside it on the sand, and while the ankle throbbed a little, there was no pain. She heaved an internal sigh of relief, thankful that the exertion wasn't hurting her. She had a very low tolerance when it came to pain. "Thanks, Miles...Can we go look at the fishdog? Pleeeeease?" Now that she had a bit more mobility, Varina was determined to observe the creature more closely.

Miles gave her a look, but acquiesced with a sigh and led her, haltingly, over to Kindra. "...Fine. But not too close! I don't trust that thing." Varina had to restrain herself from bouncing excitedly, already having to remind herself that she was injured. She watched the fishdog interact with Kindra, excited beyond belief. Miles just stood there and supported her, casting a wary glance every so often at the new arrival.

[Regina]

Kindra couldn't help but smile at the new creature. She might be a former gang member, but she'd be damned if she wasn't able to love adorable things. She was a bit wary of the sharp teeth and the fact that it came from an unfamiliar environment, but once it was established that the animal was friendly, she knelt down to its level.

"Well, hello there, snarkpuppy-imitation." She pushed her glasses up again to view the thing better. She hesitantly reached out to pet it, relieved when it didn't bite her. She slowly petted it, barely registering how surreal the experience was. She glanced up at the interested Varina, taking note at her enthusiasm. She gestured to the fishdog, making it clear the other girl was free to interact with it.

"If you wanna pet...him? Her? It? you can. Sharkpuppies are generally nice creatures and as long as this thing isn't a lost baby with a murderous mother nearby, we should be fine to pet it."

Babydoll was merely observing the commotion, grinning a bit at the fish-thing. She tilted her head at it, her arms behind her back, looking like an interested child.

"Oh, it's cute!" She giggled. "My, what sharp teeth it has! I bet those could easily tear any of us to shreds!" She said that completely carelessly, not realizing that perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say when two people were in near proximity to it.

Kindra stopped petting the Sharkpuppy, her hand hovering over the creature's back. She stared at Babydoll, giving her a "what-the-fuck" look, which the blonde was oblivious to.

"Uh, right...That, that too.." She slowly curled her fingers into a protective fist, getting her hand far away from the animal's mouth.

[Captain]

Esteban shook his head at the nonsensical excitement over a small dog-like creature. He retrieved the GPS from where Varina had left in on the ground, attempting to dust it off. Of course, being underwater, that didn't work in the slightest, but it made him feel better.

Taking a few paces away, so as to not be distracted by the rest of the group, he hit a few buttons, which changed the view to a loading screen. He tapped his foot anxiously, all irritation lost in focus of the bar moving faster. When it finally hit 100%, maybe a scant 90 seconds later, the screen flipped to display a contoured view of what appeared to be a flat-bottomed bowl-cut into a surface. He tapped a side button and it zoomed in by increments, allowing him to change viewpoint. Viewing was fine until he hit inside the bowl. The screen flashed red with a popup that read "ERROR. NO INFORMATION ON THIS REGION."

As he fiddled with it further, a secondary popup appeared. "ALERT. SEVERAL PARANORMAL BODIES DETECTED. LEVEL: UNKNOWN. PATTERNS: UNKNOWN. ALERT." Frowning, he tapped the alert and it showed a list of five blinking boxes. Tapping the first, the screen turned orange and spewed data at him. He understood a great most of it, but frowned at one piece. "ANOMALY0960%=parVIP\\+2590fa3kk29sj8". Looking down at his chest, he shook his head. "No, it can't be..."

Backing out and hitting the others, he scrolled to the same spot. One was significantly longer than the others, and he couldn't manage to find the correct string. He backed out a couple screens further to what appeared to be a main menu, and hit a cartoony ghost. A radar-like detector appeared, swinging around a few times before anything appeared on-screen. When something changed, the whole screen lit up. Hues of red and red-orange covered all but five points of deep purple. He magnified it a bit and paused.

A step to the left...

Okay, now a step to the right... a few more to the right...

"How...?" Something had clicked in his mind and it made sense, but somehow, there were more questions than before. Shaking his head, he navigated back to the main menu and onto the map shown earlier. Still blinking that there was no information on the region, he appeared a side-menu and selected a button marked "SONAR" before holding the GPS in the air.

A deafeningly loud >PING< echoed from the thing, making the sharkpuppy turn its attention to Esteban. As it bounded over, Esteban brought back down the machine and inspected it. Turning to the group, he grinned. "We have data!"

[Fira]

Miles blinked and turned his head at the mention of data. "Data? Of what?" Varina, not paying attention to either of them, frowned when the sharkpuppy moved away from Kindra and nudged Miles to go walk towards Esteban so she could get a closer look. Miles sighed, but strode haltingly over to Esteban. He'd wanted to go there anyways, but Varina's insistence annoyed him just a bit. He gave the man a quizzical look, noticing that he had the GPS out again. "Found something interesting? Please, let the rest of us know. The more information we have, the better."

Varina listened quietly to the conversation, but the brunt of her attention was focused on the sharkpuppy. She clicked her tongue at it, attempting to catch its attention and bring it closer. From her current vantage point, she noticed that, like Kindra had pointed out, it did indeed look very much like a shark, with smooth grey skin and a white underbelly. It had a couple of fins on its back, and its tail was very shark-like, though she couldn't put a finger on what species it reminded her of. As Babydoll had noted earlier, it also had rows of sharp, serrated teeth, perfect for ripping prey into shreds. What she found most interesting was the lack of any apparent ears, considering the creature's strong reaction to sound.

She'd seen some of the shark puppy comics on her dash back at home, but she had no idea that the creatures were actually real. It really aroused her scientific curiosity. She wished she had a notepad or something to write this new information down.

[Captain]

"Well, I mean, it's not a lot of information, and I've got a few things I can make guesses on but not really anything concrete in reference to the majority of questions I can speculate that any of us are wondering about right now," Esteban said quickly. "But I DO have some concrete information that might help us out a little bit."

He tilted the screen for the others to see. "This is far enough under the ocean that we didn't have any data on it, I presume, or possibly it's just outside of the range of sensors. I mean, after all," he shot a quick look at Varina, "It's highly presumable we're in Atlantis right now."

He pointed to pieces on-screen. "I mean, look. These clearly look like buildings and statues and stuff, just highly broken to shit and back. And I mean, if we zoom out way further..." he hit the '-' button a dozen times until it broke the surface of the water, the familiar 'Data Site 34' appearing partway back, "we can clearly see we're still within the confines of the Bermuda Triangle, which certainly may answer the age-old question of what happened to Atlantis." Zooming back in, he added, "But, I mean, that's not really a definite answer, since this only appears to be a city and could be any NUMBER of things, Atlantis, a cousin to Atlantis, a sunken island (however unlikely), or... I mean, fuck, if we're talking about strange possibilities, this could've been its own underwater civilization, or even aliens."

He pushed up glasses that weren't actually on his face, embarrassedly sticking his hand in his pocket soon after. "At the VERY least, we know that we're standing in a circular plane amidst buildings." He maneuvered view to show them what he was talking about. "Probably flat due to some kind of explosions, as you'll note debris against walls over here, here, here, and... well, pretty much everywhere around here."

[Fira]

Miles frowned. He had no idea what that meant. However, before he could say anything, Varina spoke up. "I saw that look you gave me, Esteban. There are some legitimate theories on how Atlantis might have happened. Sure, I don't put much stock in them, but I'm only against stuff without any proof. A good scientist keeps her mind open!" She gave him a condescending smile and switched topics, deciding to go over this new information. "I still don't think we came here through some stupid supernatural method, but judging by the debris and how the crater looks, I don't think we were the first people to come here this way. There's just too much debris for one explosion, if you ask me."

Miles closed his eyes and nodded, thankful for the explanation from Varina. "So, if we're not the first to come here, then what happened to the others? Where are the rest of the people from our boat? And are there any people like us, who somehow survived? For that matter, how did we survive?" He sighed, making a face. "This information is only giving us more questions than answers, it seems...Do any of you have any guesses? To any of these questions? We seem to have hit a dead end."

[Regina]

Kindra stood up, frowning. She placed the shades back on her face, responding to the others.

"Somehow, it doesn't seem probable that everyone else managed to survive. What with the waves and the destruction of the boat and the... whatever that thing was, I doubt that anyone else was as lucky as us." She spoke darkly, with the experience of someone who was used to death.

"Oh, such a pity. Too bad for them! The nasty creature must have eaten them all up! I suppose we should consider ourselves very blessed to still be talking, then!" Babydoll pitched in.

"...Right. Hey, how on earth do you know all of this stuff? All of this weird supernatural facts and figures? Are you being serious or are you just bull-shitting us?" She asked Esteban, a bit suspicious of the situation despite the overwhelming evidence that supported his claims.

[Captain]

In response to both Miles and Kindra, Esteban set a solid look at Varina. "Ya know, I could hazard a few guesses, especially ones based off experience and what I saw, but... some of us don't put much stock in the supernatural. So, unless you're looking to start a fight, I suggest we leave certain questions to certain individuals unasked in the presence of certain other people."

"That said," he added, turning away, "I only have a limited range based on that sonar, and since it looks like we have buildings... I mean, I'd love to see what sunk, I dunno about you guys." He looked back at the others. "So whaddya say? Explore?"

[Fira]

Varina rolled her eyes, but otherwise didn't respond to Esteban's words. Miles raised an eyebrow at her, but when she continued her silence, he shrugged and replied. "I'm all for some exploration. However, we might be a little slow, since Var's injured. Perhaps we should split into groups, then? It would also alleviate some of the...tension between certain members of our group." He twitched his head toward Varina, who was busy staring at the shark puppy again.

At Miles's suggestion, Varina paused in her observations to nod vigorously. "Yes! We should do that! You'd get a lot more exploring done without me and Miles slowing you guys down. We shouldn't have any trouble over here if we...keep the shark puppy with us." Miles gave her a despairing look when she mentioned the shark puppy, but Varina didn't notice. She smiled down at the animal, eyes alight with joy and excitement. It was obvious that she cared far more about it than she did about exploring.

With a small, embarrassed smile, Miles nodded at Esteban. "...On second thought, I think it would be best to stick together. I, uh, hadn't considered that there might be danger lurking around here and with Varina injured, we'd be easy prey. Yes." His expression was a pleading one: he didn't think there were any major predators, but it was clear that he didn't want to get stuck with Varina in full science mode at the bottom of the sea, no matter how good of friends they were.

[Captain]

Esteban rolled his eyes. "I think it's pretty obvious the 'sharkpuppy' is endeared to Kindra, though easily distracted. Probably an infant. Either way, at the very least, if Varina would like to study the creature further, I cannot think of one more capable of protecting her than the one the creature has so quickly attached itself to."

"That over with, though," he jerked his head towards a building visible from where they stood with a great many steps leading up to a pillared entrance, "I'd like to be walking around, and as you pointed out, a sprained ankle is probably not good for movement. For us OR her, actually." He looked at Miles. "Where you and Babydoll go is completely up to you. I tend to hunt on my own, but I'm alright with a group. You could go off on your own, but I wouldn't recommend it, since the two other groups would have a map," he held up his GPS, "and be in a visible landmark, respectively." He gestured to Varina and the flat ground.

"So. Up to you two. What'll you do?"

[Regina]

Kindra shrugged. In all honesty, she didn't care who she ended up with. She smiled at the other girl, not minding being dubbed her bodyguard.

"Sure. I don't mind sitting with her. Nor do I mind sharing Sharkpuppy." She glanced down at the small creature, slightly flattered that it took to her. True, she would have to make sure it didn't run off, but Varina seemed really interested in it. Who was she to deny her the opportunity to study it? The other girl sounded well-read and scientific, something Kindra never got the chance to be.She sat next to Varina, whistling over the Sharkpuppy, grinning as it ambled over.

Babydoll rocked on her heels, giggling to herself as everything was decided.

"I don't mind exploring. Hopefully we'll find an air pocket or something along those lines. It would be horrid if we couldn't find any place dry." She strode over to the boys, getting a little too close to them for comfort (not that she noticed). She looked up (or, with Miles, down) at the two, an expectant look on her face.

[Fira]

Miles raised an eyebrow at Babydoll, backing away just slightly. "I would appreciate it if you didn't look down at me like that. You're barely an inch taller than me, and that's with heels." Varina snickered, greatly amused by the scene. He sighed and led her over to Kindra, placing her gently in the sand.

She blinked up at him, confused and a bit concerned. "...Huh? Miles, are you not staying?"

Miles shook his head, feeling a bit guilty, but still resolute. "Nope. I'm curious about this place, and the best way to satisfy that is to go exploring." He knew his real reason was that he wanted to avoid full-scientist Varina, but the exploration did factor in a little bit, and he couldn't just tell her that her obsession with fish bored him after a while. Plus, he wanted to get to know the others in case something happened. "We'll be back soon. And besides, it's not like I'm stranding you. You've got Kindra and Sharkpuppy. Go freak out over the new fish, Var, we'll be back before you know it." He shot her a smirk and turned to stride back over to Esteban and Babydoll before he changed his mind.

Varina looked a little crestfallen when he walked away, but she closed her eyes, assured herself that it was for the best, and that she really didn't mind that he had decided not to stay. Her words sounded hollow, so she quickly distracted herself. After laying herself carefully into a supine position, doing her best to elevate her sprain on her good leg, she clicked her tongue to get the puppy's attention. It bounded over, wagging its tail happily, and she gently stroked it with a small, sad smile.

Miles nodded to his group, looking expectantly at Esteban. "Okay, everyone's been taken care of. Lead the way."

[Captain]

Esteban nodded and began walking, programming the GPS to update the underground topography and visual map as they walked. He seemed to forget there were some behind him before he literally tripped on a rock and almost landed face-first, even in slowed-motion. Seeing others who'd spotted that, he turned red and hurried on.

It wasn't until he was mounting the steps to the building that he turned, walking his way up backwards. "So, what're your stories?"

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