Dream Journal 001: The Sea People | Ocean's Gaia (Part 1)

So I finally figured out a use for this blog function: I'll dump random records of my dreams here, hah. This was one I had back in the beginning of August--it's going to sound a little ranting and stream-of-consciousness, but eh, I thought the story was worth telling.

[Transcript copied from Discord logs. Please excuse irregularities in capitalization and punctuation.]
---​

Date: 2017-08-07

So last night I had a weird dream (which I'll blame on the movie Valerian)

Where I was a species of humans who resembled normal humans in every way except that we lived underwater, with palaces and wutever, in our own snug corner of the ocean

However as mankind advanced and tech developed, it was inevitable that we'd crash into normal humans sooner or later Early interactions were peaceful, we even managed to form an alliance with one country

However as a peace loving people we were eventually taken advantage of by human greed, who wanted access to our palaces and the promised treasures therein---a joke since we didn't have anything they wanted beyond regular sea...stuff, and whatever it was that made up our diets

The one country we allied always had the advantage because they could threaten to expose our identity on a large scale. We weren't so concerned about their weaponry as we were too far down in the ocean for any of their primitive attacks to reach us (I think this should be about the 1500s when the Age of Exploration was in full swing)

One day we managed to sign some sort of treaty with this country, only for them to renegade and find faults with us based on very tiny faults. Most of the sea people were unsatisfied by ty duplicitous behavior of the humans, but I proposed we meet with them again to talk things out with logic (apparently in this dreamverse I was their queen but wutever) My citizens didn't agree, but I told them that 10 minutes of boredom endured was worth preventing 10 years of regret afterwards or whatever and went to my diplomatic tea party

--

Whatever the case it was a trap to separate the queen from the rest of the Sea People and a great portion of the adult population was decimated This was because the humans found an agent to poison the water, which the underground palace could repel with its own force field, but which they ultimately had to release when their kidnapped children + queen were being kept hostage

Still instead of surrendering they gave up their lives on their own terms so the rest could have a chance (I don't recall the details of why but it was supposed to be less Idiotic Heroic Sacrifice than it sounds here) The children were collected and imprisoned in Sea prisons (basically enclosed water caves) to work for the humans, tricked into believing that Humanity was their savior from the great seas and cared for them despite their "defect" physiology that made them more attuned to ocean living The sea itself was treated and viewed as an inferior home to those who lived on land, the "true humans" and the epitome of humanity---

O yes and the reason it was so important to separate the queen was because she and the king had some sort of inherent blessing powers that were stronger the closer they were to their people And the humans targeted the queen because she was more open to human culture and less suspicious of them than the king

---

T-this is just a dream tho, who knows where I got it from lol

Now there are some aspects of the Sea People that I'll put here
1) their natural propensity to water---they can live and breathe in it like air and travel either in it or on it at high speeds
2) their genetic "buoyancy," which makes them essentially lightweight both underwater and in the air---meaning yes, they can float in the air on land to travel if they wanted
3) amazing healing powers--they can choose to heal one or all parts of injuries by a single touch with no great fatigue if they're near a body of water (ocean or lake both work, as long as its liquid)--though to them it's less healing and more "restoring what was broken to its most prime state" Humans who have experienced their healing end up even healthier than they used to be
4) slow aging approximating immortality--because their own bodies are a reflection of their healing skills and always in prime condition, filtering out the bad parts that make others age. While sea people grow quickly as children, so that a 8-year old equivalent is equal to a 18-20 year old human in terms of looks, they stay that way for a looooong time
5) hyper fast reflexes, a leftover from their speed in water

In addition, members of the Royal Clan have these skills at vastly superior levels compared to the other Sea People, and possessed one more thing which I'll call using a term I borrowed from FGO: "Imperial Privilege," which grants them the position as judge/arbitrator of their race (Kinda like Noblesse except not) Since the sea people are inherently nonviolent, you won't see any queens or kings telling their race to kneel before them (though they might), but they can summon these...thing silvery-looking wire things with intermittent silver...pearls(?) which they can use to restrain offending members by the wrists or ankles. It only appears for a second and then vanishes from sight, but it effectively slows down the sea person in question or restrains their mobility indefinitely This is supposed to help them slow down and reflect on their actions

---

(Yeah I dream in full color HD and sometimes crazy plots emerge
Umm now where were we)

---

Okay So after the queen and random kids get kidnapped the dream skips forward Now I'm like one of the kids who's spent her life growing up in these enclosed cave ecosystem thingies Whatever country destroyed my people have benefited as a result by combining human tech with sea people....organic tech?? Though they haven't progress much I am probably second or third generation of kids the humans have raised (dun ask me how Sea People reproduce, Dream skipped those details), but about 400 years have already passed in the human world because we age so slowly right? It's the 1900s out there already

So I, as this random sea human girl, is actually 12 but looks like 17 or something and grew up listening to glorified propaganda stories about how the land humans are so great and etc etc from our human caretakers And how they're helping us so much by existing even though we're weird etc etc And get the idea in me to really, really want to see these land humans in their original habitant (on land) just because they're so cool And to be useful to them too because we have healing powers y'know? We'd definitely be able to help out somehow!!

But I keep those ideas to myself because I'm also prudent despite my rash dreams, and somehow find a "hole" in the cave wall that looks out into the rest of the ocean instead (Btw we do get sunlight in the cave from the ceiling, but obviously it's too high to look out there and all of us have been taught that we can only exist in water, we'll dry up and die as soon as we touch land/leave the water for air for too long) <-- this is a lie to keep us contained ofc

---

so in between classes on human history (this part is laughable because the humans teach us in the water themselves by using giant chalkboards stuck to the side of cave rock formations jutting out of the water) and mealtimes (I have no idea what they fed the sea children but apparently they can take human food just fine, since their body filters out only the prime nutrients from everything to feed themselves anyways), we have exercise time in the cave pool thingie where everyone just fools around in the water and does laps/water tricks

Size wise...think of the cave pool like those Sea World pools where they have dolphin/orca shows Except scattered in the pools are giant rock formations with the giant chalkboards stuck to them (were talking old school chalkboards so like green, and yellow chalk)

There are about a dozen or other sea children classmates there(lol they were the most vivid details...!) pfft anyways

So I made this hole in the cave wall right and can see outside And one day I see a life raft floating by with 4 humans on it They're bloody and covered in battle wounds or whatever Somehow the humans break out into a fight Two are heavily injured, one of whom loses consciousness

The other two help their injured friend and callously dump the fourth guy off the raft Because apparently this is WWI (don't ask me if they have sea battles I don't know either) and the fourth guy is an enemy soldier so they want to let him die since they're sick of the war in general Naturally I have no idea about all this and just wonder who's going to save the last guy since he's sinking and humans can't breathe in water LOL

(Right the curriculum also taught sea people safety first when it comes to humans, for their safety you are to sacrifice everything else, even the lives of your fellow sea people or yourself if needed, to keep them safe)

--

So I get more panicky but nobody cares because it's nap time and the human caretakers are on break as well (oddly enough I don't think they've been affected by the war, their country after adopting sea people tech became more and more isolationist like the sea people and eventually forgot their main purpose for enslaving us in the first place) (the doctrines and propaganda remained, but the motive faded or died out after 1910-1500....400ish years) I think some of the humans really do think we were part of them and not a separate species Anyways tangent over

So after flailing about in the water a bit I actually realize the quickest way was to jump out through the gaps in the cave ceiling to the water on the other side (think of a goldfish jumping out of a bowl analogy) Tho I'm worried about maybe drying out in the air I figure a few seconds wouldn't be able to kill me and give it a try First two times fail but eventually I get hold of my inner buoyancy and get out of the cave

By now the lifesaver raft is floating away and other dude is who knows where under the sea I managed to splash in the water on the other side of the cave at an angle the life raft can't see, and by then it's easy enough to stay underwater and find my human

(Dun worry he's not the male lead of this story, just some random middle age dude with a beard)

Dun ask me what country he's from either because this world doesn't really have the exact same countries as ours, being a weird alternate universe

--

[Part 1 ends here. There were some interesting comments, which I've screenshot and placed below.]

Spoiler

[Part 2 continues here.]​