A Brief Encounter

Mantineus-I saw this picture of dear, old Cthulhu. It was dark, but he was pale, like a sub's light hitting him deep down in the ocean. Since this doesn't fit well with me and Tamah's Pokecraft series, it'll have to do here.

Disclaimer-Cthulhu belongs to Lovecraft.

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August, a fine time to explore the wonders that lay beneath the waves. I am an Oceanographer by trade and have been asked by the Miskatonic University's Board of Directors to scout of the waters around the quaint waters of Providence. To scout the waters around Innsmouth and whatnot, so that they may have an up-to-date map of their waters.

Though the only thing that confused me was that this tight-knit group of people would hire an outsider like me. And once I asked them, they mentioned superstition and never spoke of it again. But with everything as it was, I had no income and the bills were piling up, I took it.

The submarine they hired for me was a large, cylindrical vessel that spanned a mere five feet with a huge glass dome that could hold up to fathoms well beyond the waters of which we were to explore. The captain of this vessel was an elderly man, his back as straight as a soldier's, his beard trimmed into the typical style of an elderly fisherman's, he even wore the yellow raincoat. His first mate was a strapping young man in his early twenties whom wore a pair of overalls and a plaid shirt with a hint of stubble on his sharp chin.

"Hello, Mr. Bock" The Captain said in the typical drawl native to this region. "I'm Samson and this here's Donald."

Captain Samson shook my hand first and then Donald, admitting that he would rather be called Danny, whom took my bags and hauled them onto the sub.

"I'm fortunate that someone was willing to take me," I said. "After I heard the University mention superstitions I was almost afraid that this would be short lived."

"Ya see, Mr. Bock." Samson said, clapping a large hand on my back, leading me to his vessel. "I'm guessing the University didn't tell you?"

I shook my head in the negative.

"Well, ya see; strange things have been going on all over years back. No one but me's sure what it was, and I can tell ya-it's long gone now. Whole lot o' them died out and forgotten. That Lovecraft feller, he got it mostly right."

What the old sea dog was saying made little sense to me. What I thought of the entire time were the usual myths of the sea one in my profession still hears from time-to-time. Mermaids, monsters, everything and anything horrific. And what he said was vague and strange. Something of which I have never came across before and it worried me about my safety. For if the captain be completely mad, we may end up dead beneath the waves.

Samson lead me aboard the vessel that would carry us on our mission. Both men sat on the only two chairs in the helm, quickly working on the systems until we started to move, ever sinking slowly into the surf. Setting out from the shore, we dived until the entire sub was under.

At first, nothing was out of the ordinary. Typical fish species for the area, the terrain was beautiful. Coral of many different colors, seaweed beds as far as the eye could see. I had previously put my equipment up and monitored everything with one eye, whilst the other watched with amazement that I always seem to get whenever I'm underwater.

Several knots out to sea we come across what I first thought was a large drop off, a cliff underwater. But as we neared it we all stared on with amazement as we saw it clearly for what it was; a huge crevice. It's length as awesome and unknown as its fathom. Our lights could not pierce the bottom, revealing only water and something pale blue swimming just outside the light's rays.

A pale blue blur swam up at us. I regret that I could not glimpse at the strange new breed of fish, but that was not the only reason I was so intrigued; another was that it hit the sub at a high velocity, that it knocked out the sub's main power. The backup generator kicked on, but alas, the propellers' wires were severed.

Slowly we plummeted into the crevice, the lights are only way of seeing what laid before us in this crevice. Rocks jutted out from walls, cave entrances were everywhere, perhaps all of them were parts of a cave system.

As we got closer to where we saw those strange pale blue fish, they were gone. Instead we saw strange houses that looked as if they were made out of sea rock, but carved in such a way we almost thought it was a sunken city. Perhaps it was; decrepit with age, perhaps the marble was covered by dust, sand, and wildlife. But on a closer look, I was proven wrong. Such beautiful buildings built with rocks found under the ocean.

I have never been much of an architect major, and it proved to be a crutch when I tried to think of the design. It seemed to be primitive, yet Roman in design.

And then I saw it. It looked like a giant octopus, only the eyes! Oh the eyes were human! Staring right at me! What was worse is that in the light's edge I thought I saw two appendages on either side, as if holding onto the side of a door.

As quickly as it came, it was gone.

"Did you see that?" I shouted. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Captain Samson asked.

"I saw nothing." Danny said.

"Are you blind?" I shouted. "Are you both blind! The creature! Cthulhu!"

I pulled at my hair as a phrase entered my mind and slid out of my mouth.

"Cthulhu fhtagn! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

I don't remember anything after that. And the doctors at the asylum have drugged me that I don't fall back into such a maddening state that would make me dance far worse than a seizure patient and unseen by club goers; they claimed that I shouted some weird phrases that roused many of the patients. To prove it to me, they showed me the video tapes. Some shouted Azathoth, others Dagon, Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth. Everyone was cheering. Even myself seemed pleased.

The funny thing is; I remember other things. Rituals long since dead, true deities compared to the gods of today, Holy Rites that needed to be seen. Such were the things I remember, and thus why I am quite popular here.

They will hide no longer. Their first Come-Back failed. But their second try; their Third Coming, won't. I-and my new friends-will make sure of that.