Chapter Text
"Ahhh, finally!! It was freezing out there!!"
A boy removed his damp cardigan and fanned it out in the hopes that it would dry. Of course, it wouldn’t dry that fast to begin with, but anything was welcome at this point.
“Maybe if you bought an umbrella you wouldn’t be in this predicament, now would you?” a girl scowled at him, never looking up from her aquarium map. “Also keep it down Dumbrella, you're going to get us in trouble.”
“Tsukasa-kun! Nene-chan! Rui-kun, look!" Another girl spun and waved as the four entered the main floor. Her pink hair bounced excitedly after her. "This place is huuuge! Nene-chan, Nene-chan! That sunfishie’s probably bigger than the both of us put together! Loooook!”
“E-Emu!” Nene blushed attempting to steady herself from Emu grabbing at her sleeve excitedly. With a place so big and so many creatures to see, Emu couldn’t wait to start walking around. “Calm down! We’ll get to see everything eventually. We just have to figure out how to split up first!”
“Hey, Umbrella-rella, where should we go first??” Emu skipped over to the poor soul now drying his hair with a towel.
“A good question, however I'd like to ask how our Captain-brella got hold of four tickets to the aquarium. Is there something you're not telling us?” sneered a golden pair of eyes.
“Stop with the '-brella' names! I bought one in the end didn't I??”
Due to certain circumstances, Tsukasa did indeed lose his umbrella at school. Some few minutes after letting Nene and Rui meet up with Emu first, Tsukasa eventually gave up looking for an umbrella and, instead of quickly buying an umbrella at a nearby convenience store like a reasonable person, ran all the way to his troupe with nothing but a light jacket and cardigan. Once he got to the intersection, he was greeted by an excited Emu, amused Rui, and unimpressed Nene. He was soaked and his cardigan was heavy with rainwater. Nene looked at it both judgingly then amusedly, as Rui and Emu sheltered him with their umbrellas while bothering him with drying solutions. In the end, the cardigan was wrung out in a washroom, then intertwined with a towel to dry.
“Anyway. Thank you all for agreeing to this last minute! Since it’s summer, that means we need a show that's refreshing and cool! Literally and figuratively! And thus-!”
“We're here to examine the curious and wonderful world of ocean life.”
“Exactly. Thank you, Rui.”
“Alright. Well based on your…draft? …This is…” Nene squinted at the strange proposal.
This was indeed last minute.
Tsukasa's proposal was just a jumble of brainstormed concepts. Something about a Siren who could manipulate the weather and a sailor who turns out to be half-related to a jellyfish clan of undines??
There were scribbles about light, bubbles, and all sorts of gimmicks but the one note that bugged her the most was the one born from her own suggestion—Nene wanted to facepalm herself for suggesting that they should improve their acting prowess by performing as characters that were totally different from them. She meant for the comment to be taken as a possible warm-up or exercise rather than a whole Role right from the get go.
Sure, the outgoing, sunny siren was one thing for her to worry about but the sailor, one with such a brooding disposition... There was no way Tsukasa could pull that off as he is now. Even if he could act the part, the delivery...
“I think the penguins should fly in the chorus! They’d look so cool and super cute waddling in the song!” Emu's giddiness brought Nene back to reality. Mostly because she was shaking Nene so hard. Nene looked up from the notes and map.
“Yeah… Dunno how that’ll work…considering they’re not exactly deep-sea creatures?”
“Well, we haven’t made a solid plot yet so let’s look around for more inspiration.” Rui suggested as he popped off a marker cap, ready to mark their routes in red. “Based off the concept sheet, we need Nene's character to be two parts fun-and-magical while Tsukasa’s character is more serious-and-withdrawn. We could have Emu and Nene cover the more fun, interactive fun exhibits, while Tsukasa and I will head to the sections with the more unique and stranger-looking creatures starting with this Call of the Abyss event." Rui circled. "For research purposes.”
Tsukasa shuddered from the pause. It was a smile and tone everyone knew all too well.
“Rui. Please tell me you meant new ideas.”
“Naturally.”
“A-Anyway!" Tsukasa cleared his throat, "That’s the plan! A musical that dazzles the audience with the mystery and magic of the deep sea! Emu and Nene will look for motifs for Nene's character while Rui and I will work on the Sailor!”
If Nene had to guess, the sparkle in Tsukasa’s eye was that he couldn’t wait to see how they, or rather he, will light up something as dark as the depths where sun can't shine. It was too obvious.
“Now that we have our teams, Emu! Nene! You will head to the Discovery Dome! Rui! Let’s roll o—! Wait, where’s Rui? Eh?! Emu?? Nene???”
Nene had already started walking off to catch up with Emu. Without looking back, she waved to Tsukasa and called, “Better catch up or you’ll never find him.”
Now that she thought about it, Rui was pretty excited about this show having a different tone from their earlier underwater show so knowing him and his outlier thinking...
“He’s probably on the next floor already!”
“Race you guys to see who can find the funnest ideas!” Emu called, jumping excitedly over the crowd, “Good luck, everyone!”
“Wh…Why…”
He could see Nene shrug in the distance while Emu, who spun around to meet him, walked backwards and punched the air with wonderhoi enthusiasm.
“That Rui…!” he shook the funk. “No time to lose. The show must go on! Onwards!”