Citizen 697 Kassidi

Kassidi cautiously shared a small smile with her sister’s over enthusiastic one as she watched Pidgeon do backflips in the water. A ping hit her, harsher than she was used to from her sister, but it was practically boiling with excitement. She sent the smallest returning nudge, only to have “RACE YOU BACK!” shouted directly into her head as Pidgeon swirled one more time, and darted off into the darkness.

Kassidi resisted the urge to take a soothing deep breath as she watched Pidgeon swim away, the overeager armored lass off on her own quest to prove herself. Kassidi’s brows knitted with worry for her sister, though it was quickly drowned out by her worry about herself. Time to do checks then. Kassidi turned her magic off, and back on again, illuminating the area around her. Seemed as if her magic was working then. And while the water around her was trying its best to crush her, her training seemed to be paying off, as her body hadn’t as of yet condensed down to a small morbid pebble. Her magic streamed like gossamer smoke into the water around her, and she worked hard to control how much of it was venting, the mass plumes lowering down to a healthy blue wisp. Kassidi chewed her lip anxiously. Breath, Light, Pressure control, and Magic density. Well. There wasn't really anything else to check. 

Suddenly, Kass was sharply aware of just how alone she was. Twisting her head back to look at the edge of the dome, she squinted. Though her view was distorted and blurred by the deep water and the dome’s own magic, she could just about make out the rough white and brown smudge of her adoptive father, and the blindingly bright teal of her father’s ‘friend’. As she watched, the white blurr of her father’s head blurred with the bright teal of his friends as they embraced each other. 

‘Figures as much,’ Kassidi mused, shaking her head. The two of them had hidden their relationship for years and years, despite Kassidi’s many, many confrontations with Vandros about it. Perhaps once she and her sister were officially recognized as adults, Vandros wouldn't be as embarrassed to admit his interest in Eanice. It had been 8 years for the elders sake, the girls weren't stupid. Any pup could tell the two had been dating for a long, long time. 

Shaking her head, Kassidi turned from the glow of the dome and down, down into the deep, inky void of the trench below her. She caught just the faintest glimmer of Pidgeon’s lime green light, before that too was snuffed out by the suffocating darkness. Her own blue magic didn't cast quite as much light as Pidgeon’s, so she needed to be careful. There was no need to rush things, as she was fairly confident about her magic but… Listening to Pidgeon gloat for the rest of her life that she was able to return to the dome in half the time wasn't really on Kassidi’s bucket list.

The black pit below her stared back at her, taunting her. It felt so strange to be looking into it after constantly being warned not to get too close while she was learning to control her magic. Even more jarring was the knowledge she would need to dive deep into that same yawning void, ignoring every warning she had ever received about it in her life. More than that though… after living so much of her life attached to Pidgeon’s hip, it was.. bizarre to be alone. The longer she waited, the more alone she would be, and her sister was completely isolated, down below in that maw of the ocean. It was now or never. Stealing her nerves, Kassidi dove. 

As Kassidi swam further and further away from the light cast by the dome and into the cold silent ocean, it was hard not to feel the cold eating away at her warmth, the water steadily sucking the air pockets out of her fur as she dove. Farther and farther down she went, the cold started to creep its way insidiously into her bones. The weight of the ocean pressed against her magic, suffocating in its insistence. It was crushing in from all sides, its vast unfeeling presence never leaving her, reminding her of the danger she had put herself in. 

As the walls of the trench rose up around her she was sharply reminded of her isolation. She still hadn't caught sight of her sister’s lime green glow. More than that, she was painfully aware of the overwhelming silence, and the steady trickle of her magic seeping into the water around her, the only thing between her and a sudden, implosive end. There was nowhere left to go but farther down, down into the blackness. 

Or, was it black? Small particles of glowing blue specks littered her field of vision as she looked around, startled from her pensive revelry. Was this… snow? Kassidi blinked rapidly as she got her first good look at the strange world around her. Glowing specks were the least of the oddities, as bones wider than her stretched their luminescent claws out of the trench walls as if grasping for her.  Fish with strange shapes bobbed and weaved in and out of her magical glow as she rocketed down, farther and significantly faster than she realized she had been going. 

Pulling herself to a stop, Kassidi swirled around, sending a blast of magic into her halo. A soft blue sphere of light exploded from her halo, illuminating a large area of water around her. Kassidi forgot about her lack of air, her jaw falling open in shock as the strange world around her revealed itself, bleached by her own blue light. 

Strange fish glinted and gleamed, reflecting her light back at her with their reflective coloration. The bones along the walls seemed to pulse as her magic lit them, almost as if they where feeding off the brighter light. Kassidi shook her head in amazement at the sheer array of coral and other plant life that clung to the sides of the trench. It was so.. Peaceful down here. She breathed in, swirling her magic around her as she pulled from the ocean itself. The smell of salt was overwhelming, as was the rush of cold air that greeted her… and yet… She couldn't quite think of a time she had felt this calm. 

With a jolt, Kassidi realized the bottom of the trench was within her light, only about 15ft below her. Three kicks. It would take her about three kicks to go from being seen as a child, to an adult. The doubt crept quietly back into her head, chasing the inner peace she had only just the barest taste of. Was she ready for this? Vandros had said there was no shame in not being able to complete the ceremony but.. This had been.. Easy almost. The realization hit her like a javelin to the chest. She.. she could do this. Of course she could. 

Kassidi steeled herself, and swam.

Artist: Babykitten