Focus on ourselves
“I think we need to try to get them to empathize with us. We should really make ourselves relatable to them, and then they will want to help us figure out the issue we’ve been experiencing since the north- the issues that may have followed us here.” you started. “Well, we can just be ourselves with them and really open up to them about what kind of experience we’ve been through. Like, let’s just always make it about us then one day they will want to become part of what we are- what we had built.” The leader was deeply satisfied with your answer. He almost seemed inspired as he stared at you giving your speech.
“That’s actually a good idea. Why couldn’t I have thought of that.” He said. The hours of work you both had put into discussing ideas, all culminating to one, final, superior idea. “Well, we will do exactly that.” The leader said, solidifying the executive decision.
“Thank you. Let us begin.” you said before quickly swimming off, back into the pack. At this point, your decisions were solidified and you felt completely right about yourself. You already knew your next steps. You had called a meeting between all of the seals and somehow, you had everyone’s attention on you. Their eyes pierced into you and you started talking. “Hello everyone. I am here because I wanted to share my sob story with you all!” You said proudly. “I wanted you to all know that I have lost a child. I had fought my hardest to save him but in the end, I had gone through the worst kind of loss a mother could have.” In a sense, you didn’t really know what you were talking about, but you were still drawing from your real life experiences! How could they not empathize with that.
You watched them all staring you down as they took it all in. You couldn’t quite tell what they were thinking but they were constantly affixed on you, prompting you to just talk even more. “So yeah. I don’t want anymore people to lose people they love, like you, or you, or you.” Indiscriminately pointing out some of the other personal experiences you had drawn from. Their mouths gaped and their eyes widened as though they were looking upon some kind of majestic thing. Regardless, they were all flabbergasted by your display. “There’s a problem. The leader had confided in me about it and now I am bringing this all to you so we can probably help figure it out. Now, unless you want to end up like me or any of these other suffering individuals, then please work with us to figure out why it’s been so warm lately, and why the fish will soon disappear from here as well.” You explained.
“Wait, what are you even talking about?” Someone mentioned. “I haven’t noticed anything going wrong.” Someone shouted.
“If we go through any more… Then we may not even make it!” Suddenly, you started to see the crowd get progressively a bit riled up, but still, others remained quiet, as though they already knew about everything you had ever thought they hadn’t up until this point. Somehow, you couldn’t help but feel as though there was a lot more going on than what you had once expected.
Your stomach started to drop and you felt your face turning bright red with embarrassment and you decided to just stop while you were ahead. The others seemed to have laughed you off your rock and you felt so bad that you just went right to bed. You fell asleep and tried your best to just not think about it and honestly you actually ended up sleeping pretty well that night. As you were falling asleep, alone in your little space in the group- far away from the others of course- you thought about how exhausted you were form this time around.
Honestly, for you it was becoming a lot just to deal with everything going on around you and as you drifted off into sleep you could feel your body almost as though it were apart from you. It was a pretty restful sleep, but what you didn’t expect was to be woken up in the middle of the night.
“You better not make a sound.” A deep voice whispered over you. You couldn’t scream or move even if you wanted to. Your body was frozen in fear as the two dark shadowy figures stood over you. One was absolutely massive, and the other was smaller and more slender, but there was still something eerily familiar stuck out to you about them.
Before long, your vision was obscured, your fins were bound, and you could feel someone dragging you away in the middle of the night. You were still tired though, from everything going on you could feel your heart beating out of your chest as if your fight or flight responses were blaring off. Despite that all, it didn’t feel like you were in control at this point even if you were freed and the rough ground underneath you just added to the discomfort you had started to feel from everything and at this point you felt like you were ready to give up anyway.
You could feel yourself fading away as your game started to reset and before long- before you could feel any of the other bad things that they were going to do for you- you had already started to feel the vibrations taking you over; taking you back to the very beginning of your game.
Written by Drifting Dragon on 13 November 2023
The end (for now)