She watched it all again, as the horrific, mutated, fish-like creatures stormed into Rasna. She had been told Ravenna was safe. Clearly not. Even as she watched the things tear the townsfolk apart, all she could think about was how if she’d gone somewhere else, she wouldn’t be here now, about to be annihilated, and yet she was sure she’d been here before-
“MERI!”
Meri snapped back into where she really was. Sitting, on the edge of Cirrus Island, one of the last places still safe from the Atlantean attacks from the magic-polluted hellscape known as the Dark Sea. Her peculiar friend, Jen, was looking at her with concern in her moss-green eyes. “Sorry, I- I said your name three times, Meri, are you alright?”
“Oh, uh, yeah.” She let her body relax. “I can’t stop thinking about Ravenna is all. The fact that this is even happening is awful. I don’t know how they got into the War Seas but however it happened, we’re all doomed realistically. Nothing is going to save us, and nothing will be left after the fact.”
“Nothing, huh,” Jen mused. She flicked a small rock off the edge of the island. “Is nothing so bad, really?”
“Nothing is a really weird word grammatically, Jen. You can say a sentence and it could end up with two possible meanings that are polar opposites. You’re going to have to elaborate.”
Jen laughed her usual quiet, high-pitched laugh. “Alright, let me rephrase. The idea of nothing - is it really such a bad idea?”
“Are you questioning whether eternal doom is bad or not?”
“I mean, okay, yes, in this context nothing is undeniably bad.”
“It kind of is,” laughed Meri, enjoying teasing Jen.
“You know that’s not what I mean, Meri!” Jen fell backwards laughing and Meri lay down to join her. “Alright, let me try again. You’re right that in this particular context, the idea of nothing is quite bad. But let me ask you something. If two random people - one from Thorne and one from Ryujin, two majorly opposed kingdoms - were to meet and become friends in the middle of a worldwide crisis, what would happen?”
Meri pondered it and had no answer. “Alright, go on, tell me.”
Jen smiled. “Well… nothing would happen, Meri. They’d be friends, sure, but the invasion would go on, and Ryujin and Thorne would still probably have issues. But the two would have each other, and they’d do everything they could to find a safe spot.”
“Wait, that’s what happened with us, right?”
“Exactly, and that’s a good nothing. Whereas, the whole “nothing can save us” thing? Yeah, that’s a bad nothing, Meri.”
Meri felt at ease in that moment. “Can I ask you something else?”
“Anything,” said Jen languidly.
“Well, if nothing were happening right now, this whole infection thing wasn’t happening but also nothing really exciting was going on, would that be a good nothing or a bad nothing?”
Jen turned to Meri, smiling. “Well, that’d be the best nothing of them all, Meri.”
“The kind you’d kill for?” asked Meri, also now smiling.
Jen closed her eyes calmly and lay back again. “Yeah, exactly that.”
HELLO! Syk here, and this is my official entrance to the Abyss Sea community. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while so I figured now was a good time. But who are these dweebs in my piece here? WELL, have I got a story for you! …the answer is no, I don’t have a story for you, but I do have character information!
Meri Yin
Meri is a 22-year-old Ryujin evacuee who arrived on Thorne’s island after the Atlanteans arrived at Ryujin’s main island. She stayed hidden for a while due to the tensions between Ryujin and Thorne, until she was found by Jen Brooke, who she instantly formed a close bond with and the two left to ensure both of their safety, escaping to the nearest refuge whenever they had to flee. So far, neither Meri nor Jen have been infected or majorly damaged by the Atlanteans. Meri uses melee weapons, mainly swords, and the Iron Leg fighting style.
Jen Brooke
Jen, like Meri, is 22 years old. She worked as a mechanic in Thorne - one of the most skilled in her town. Once, while scavenging for parts to salvage, she came across Meri, and the rest of the story has been explained already. While neither infected nor severely injured, an Atlantean did give Jen a permanent and quite gruesome scar on her right calf, which, while not a hindrance, has traumatised Jen a lot, as she had had no prior experiences with Atlanteans. Jen uses ranged weapons, her specialty being usage of multiple pistols at once, and she has no magics or fighting styles.
So yeah hope that informs you a bit about the characters from this piece. I may write another piece at some point, who knows? But for now, I’ve made my contribution to the AU so I’m done here for now, bye!