Chapter Text
George walks around the base with a bored expression on his face, there is nothing interesting this deep in the ocean however the bosses said that there is something down here. Something nobody had seen before. His only question was how did they know this despite claiming to have never seen it? That was his thought.
His mission is simple, keep an eye on events in the relatively deep ocean and make note of everything that happens. This sounded easy on paper however it certainly wasn’t easy due to the fact he wanted to fall asleep at this point, as there was nothing to comment on.
Obviously there were the occasional fish, and the squids which he often saw appearing from the darkness then retreating below, however, as stated before, nothing interesting, nothing that was actually worth his time, so instead he took to drawing the fishes he saw.
His schedule has remained the same for the past month or so, at least he believe it’s been a month, it’s difficult to tell considering how deep he actually is. Either way he has a schedule, it’s wake up, check on the machines in the… machine room, have breakfast, watch fish, have lunch, watch fish, eat dinner, watch fish, go to sleep, repeat. Nothing interesting.
It isn’t all bad though, every few days a submarine will patrol pass his station and he’s be able to talk to other people vocally rather than through what is essentially text messages. He often talks to the captain of the submarine, Sapnap, about the lack of activity down in the base, he felt bad for George and stated he’ll spend more time around the base when he can.
However that was a few days ago, or so George assumes because he has done quite a few cycles of his routine and still has not heard from the bosses or from Sapnap, which isn’t as great as he had thought.
After about 5 routines after Sapnao had left, George fell asleep while he watching the fish due to the extreme boredom, he heard a tapping on the glass in front of him. George groans and thinks nothing of it, thinking it’s more of an auditory hallucination rather than anything else. He has been hearing splashes in the docking bay, or tapping on the metal parts outside of the base, there’s been nothing there either times.
However, as the tapping grows louder, it becomes harder for George to ignore it, he peaks open an eye to see… the last thing he was expecting, it was a man, yet not a man? He has the torso of a man, and a strange white mask, only revealing his teeth and dark green scales creeping up the side of his face, yet had the tail of a.. shark.. or a fish, it’s impossible to tell. The expression of the man is one of confusion, curiosity, but also excitement as he tapped on the glass more which pulls Georges attention to the mans clawed nails.
George sits bolt up on his chair, gripping the plastic arms as he sits on the edge of the uncomfortable seat, entirely forgetting about his nap. The man would grin widely showing off his terrifyingly sharp teeth, gills would be on either side of his neck as he tilts his head to the side slightly, curiosity in his body language.
Eventually, George works up the courage and walks closer to the glass, eyes either fixated on the mans- sirens tail or the pearly grin he gave. The siren stops smiling, being replaced by a small frown as he swims down to Georges eye level, tilting his head with an exceptionally curious look. George’s eyes blow open wide, scanning every detail of the siren in front of him, curious as to how the strange smily faced mask can stay on his head.
The siren, in all his glory, would open his mouth and begin presumably begin to talk, however George couldn’t hear him because of the thick glass settling between them. The siren, somehow, understands the confusion on Georges face and points to the outer microphone then swims away, George runs to the communication room and turns on the speakers swiftly, an eerie hum and growl fills the room, then shortly afterwards a calm yet accented voice would speak.
“You aren’t afraid of me?” The voice, presumably the siren, says, a quiet growl following swiftly behind this question.
“No? You’re the most incredible… thing I’ve ever seen in my life” George says out loud despite knowing the the siren couldn’t hear him, sadly they didn’t think that George would ever need to speak into the ocean.
“Meet me in your docking bay” The sirens voice fills the silence, the eerie noises and growls coming both before and after the siren spoke. Could it just be water distortion? And how does a siren know how to speak English? And why the accent?
George turns off the microphone as he hears the water displacement through the microphone, suggesting that the siren had swam away, he’d then hear splashing in the vehicle docking bay as he rushes over.
The siren, sitting on the edge of the water, is fixing his somehow pristine hair and his gills are closed over, George notices that the sirens chest was rising and falling and he’d be breathing normally. The siren seemed content lounging with his tail filling the side of the bay he is on and dipping into the water as he stares at George, his head tilted curiously.
“Wow, I’ve never seen a creature quite like you before” George manages to breathe out, however the siren simply laughs, the growls emitting from him just seems to just be part of his regular vocal patterns and not actually mean anything.
“What? You’ve never seen a merman before? I bet you’ve never even heard of my kind either” He chuckles louder, a light hearted and cheerful tone in his steady voice as he plays with a piece of scrap metal.
“I uh… well no.. my name is George anyway, do you have a name?” George immediately feels stupid after saying this, obviously this siren had a name, he seemed to be almost comfortable lounging in the vehicle bay, as if he’s done this before.
“Of course I have a name.. It’s.. Dream” the siren smiles gently, but not show teeth, maybe showing teeth is a type of threat display? George nods in respect before continuing to scan the impressive length of Dreams tail, it shimmered in the light of the bay and shifts as Dream adjusts his position, seemingly becoming more comfortable.
Dream looks at George, mildly confused at why he hasn’t either run to the furthest point of the base or tried to attack him yet. George, however, doesn’t notice this change, as he continues to scan siren in front of him, Dream chuckles quietly.
“Take a picture, it would last longer” George be snaps out of his thoughts and looks up at Dream, a light blush dusting his cheeks that he was caught staring despite he didn’t try to hide it at all. Instead, he rushes to the other room to get his notebook, that one which he used to send reports to the bosses to update them on his progress, but that was the last thing on his mind right now.
George grabs a pencil and an eraser, then begins to draw Dream. He quickly realises what George is doing and frowns slightly but held still regardless. Hours passed and little conversation happened, Dream would study George the same that George studied Dream, the two worlds meeting in some strange way. George would ask Dream a question, which Dream would answer to the fullest extent, and they would eventually learn to trust the other.
After a few more hours had passed, George had fallen asleep due to spending so much time talking and drawing, Dream silently slips into the ocean and swim away to leave George in peace.