The absolute first thing that crossed Atlas's mind as the water rushed up his legs was, holy fucking shit that is cold.
As the icy water hit his midsection Atlas made the most undignified little sound as a full body shiver raced up his spine. He could see Delta turning slightly in his direction and scowled back despite the helmet obscuring his face. Oh yeah, sure go ahead and laugh it up you little shit. When was the last time you were god damn cold? Atlas thought irritably but kept his frustration to himself.
Despite how the cold seeped into him through the heavy padding, he was relieved to find it wasn't too numbing. The suits were built to keep humans alive in the glacial temperatures. At least for a time.
And yet when the water sluggishly washed over his helmet Atlas found his breath catching and holding in his chest for just a moment. Calmly he told himself that he could still breathe and should continue to do so, but his breaths still came in tiny sips at first, expecting any second something would give and he'd be flooded with the ocean water.
At the very least he was sure that Delta would rush him back inside where he could breathe again were that to happen.
That sense of trust still squirmed unpleasantly in his gut. Atlas had little choice but to rely on it.
When the airlock gate slid open, Delta stepped out with a sort of calm confidence that Atlas just couldn't share. He walked as easily as if he were still on dry land. The movements more weighted and slowed by the water they had to slog through, but not the clumsy, inelegant attempt Atlas made after him.
The suit kept his feet planted on the ground, but as he stepped out onto the ocean floor after he metal friend, Atlas felt his whole body fall off course. His balance shot all to hell as he tried to keep upright. He felt top heavy but when he tried to right himself in that way, the rest of his body fell in the other direction and threw his weight that way instead. It was madding and he stumbled around like a toddler.
Just as he felt his feet slipping out from under him, unable to find the purchase he needed and failing to grasp at nothing, Atlas was almost resigned to his fate. He was going to tipp off to the side and look like a right fool on the ocean floor.
But of course that didn't happen. He felt one large arm smoothly curl under him, catching the slow motion fall while another moved out to let Atlas's flailing hands catch something to grip to.
Delta might have promised to keep him safe from the monsters in the deep but apparently that protection extended to saving his pride the worst of the damage his clumsiness would have caused.
Very delicately Delta righted Atlas's form, careful to help him find his balance rather that just plopping him back into place only to fall off in the other direction.
He hated this. He hated being unable to just walk in a straight line, the water made it all but impossible to figure out his own weight and position.
Now he was grateful for the helmet because it meant he didn't have to choke his way through a begrudging 'thank you'.
Once he had some semblance of control Atlas slowly adjusted. Learnt with every step how to manage his weight without dropping off to the side again and once he'd managed that he could finally see the underwater landscape. Still illuminated by the dying city and beneath the waves, beyond the city walls, it was beautiful.
He'd never been a man for the wonders of nature, more focused on what was right in front of him and a bunch of plants had never exactly been that useful to him.
But now there was little else to look at besides the watery world around him and as he followed after Delta he noticed just how unusual this world seemed. He'd never thought much of the ocean floor in his life time but he'd imagined it to be more dead than this.
That plant life grew high above his head, flourishing despite Rapture built around them. And - of course - they glowed with the soft, erie colours of ADAM. He wondered if that was why the plants looked so healthy and proud down here, leaching off ADAM the same way Rapture had.
But where the substance had destroyed them, driving them mad, here the plants seemed to do nothing but grow stronger and healthier. Made sense he supposed, mother nature was one steely bitch.
Out here the parts of Rapture that still littered the environment looked more at the mercy of the water than inside despite its slowly increasing leaks. Glancing to his side, sluggish and difficult through the pressure of the water, Atlas noticed a statue of what he could only guess was Poseidon. A merman that seemed mighty out of place even for Rapture. He wondered if Ryan had been asked about that particular piece, didn't seem his style. But the closer they got to Fontaine Futuristics the greater the old gods theme seemed to get.
That he blamed solely on Sinclair now he thought about it.
Parts of Rapture out here were seemingly scattered and abandoned. Pieces of debris scattered around and through the wreckage a school of fish seemed to be playing.
Where he was content to pass the forgotten pieces of Rapture, something caught Deltas eye and he abruptly broke from what had been a relatively straight path across the ocean floor. Atlas's pace stuttered but he did not dare follow after Delta down the slight dip in fear of losing the precarious balance he currently maintained.
So he watched from the sidelines as Delta went to investigate whatever had caught his attention. Had to be worth something if he distracted him from their mission.
Imagine Atlas's shock when he knelt down and plucked a sea slug from the floor.
At first he didn't recognise it as the sand slipped through Delta's gloved hand, momentarily obscuring the disgusting little creature wiggling in Delta's grasp.
The moment he realised what it was Atlas forgot his attempts to keep that balance and jumped down the small distance between he and Delta. Disbelief written across his face as he reached for Delta's hands. The gentle giant opened his fingers up to display the slug to Atlas who gripped around his palm. Looking down at it now Atlas blinked purposefully a few times, as if suddenly it would vanish again.
"I thought…" He whispered to himself, perhaps in shock still. "...I thought they were all gone."
Hadn't that been why the little sisters were made? Because there was no other way to keep producing ADAM and they'd all but run out of these disgusting little things?
Again that information struck him as a bit unusual but he must have heard it somewhere in passing. He didn't dwell on it. Too focused on the existence of this slug.
Had they been reproducing in the absence of Rapture actively harvesting them?
Mother Nature…a steely bitch indeed.
Then Delta was withdrawing his hand, and along with it, the slug. Leaving Atlas to watch on in horror as, with a practiced ease, Delta crushed the slug in his hand and crammed squished remains into a compartment of his suit located on his forearm.
Needless to say, Atlas's expression as he observed this behavior was something caught between horror and a sort of ethereal level of doneness that few other mortal men could hope to achieve in their short life times.
God he was tired.
"So ah...you do that a lot?" Atlas asked dryly even though Delta couldn't hear him through that helmet. At least to no legible degree. If nothing else Atlas hoped that Delta might be able to garner some sort of tone.
Impossible to tell when Delta merely lifted his heavily set shoulders in a careless shrug and moved right on. Freaky.
Guess they were moving on.
As Delta wandered on off, returning to the path they'd briefly diverted from, Atlas was left to stand there and wonder how far his fascination with the slug truly went. He could not see his skin under the thick padding of his suit and yet still opened up his palm as if he could see straight through the material and down to the ADAM worn skin.
Every now and then he had to check himself. To see if his mind went fuzzy at the corners or if he began to salivate at the sight of anything carrying ADAM. Even that disgusting little sea slug.
How pleased he was when he found the thought of sinking his teeth into the squishy surface of the creature to still be more repulsive than ADAM was desirable.
For now, that was enough. He could ignore the itch for ADAM a bit longer. With that comforting thought cemented in his mind, Atlas turned to follow after Delta.
Only to freeze as a large shadow gilded right over his head.
The water around him shifted with the body of the creature that had swum over his head. A sort of gentle pulling sensation that had Atlas taking a staggering step forward along with the current. Then just as quickly seemed to change directory and violently turned above him, moving in the opposite direction nearly pulling him enough to take back that step he'd taken.
Worst of all - it was out of his sight.
His heart pounded thunderously away in his chest as his vision filled with visages of what the monsters of the deep must have looked like. He saw Alexander and the thing that attacked his bathysphere and he was terrified.
Instinctually he tried to shout out to Delta and he must have been able to get some noise across to him because up ahead Delta's pace paused and he turned back in Atlas's direction.
In his panic he had not actually identified the creature that had passed him by. Seeing it only as a shadow figure that was surely some ADAM made monster. Weren't they always?
But Delta did not panic. There was a cautious but calm nature to the way he moved, drill shifting at his side lightly to a more accessible position but not immediately coming up in defence.
Then with that same slow, deliberate motion, he walked back towards Atlas.
Atlas who was still stuck in place, doing his very best not to let his fear get the best of him and lead him to hyperventilating.
Panicked he screamed questions in his head. Why was Delta being so calm? Was now not the perfect time to absolutely lose one's shit?
By the time Delta was standing by his side again, Atlas was sure he might just pass out. Deciding right then and there that he fucking loathed the ocean. Forget how beautiful the flora was, forget the fucking majesty and all that other crap - he wanted out.
Why the fuck did he ever think moving to Rapture was a good idea? Why hadn't Moria knocked him on the upside of the head and reminded him that the ocean was full of fucking bullshit?
He startled violently when Delta touched his arm gently. Expecting to look down and see some monstrous creature gnawing him down to the bone. Instead he only saw Delta. The big daddy was staring at him, fingers giving a light squeeze to his arm - intending to reassure or chide, he couldn't tell.
When Delta looked up, Atlas begrudgingly followed his gaze and found the origin of the shadow that had fallen over him belonged to a natural resident of the ocean and not one of Rapture's monsters.
The shark glided past them both, moving in a large, misshapen circle around them. It moved much in the same way Delta had, unhurried and cautious. Observing the two that were out of place in its watery home.
Great. Not a monster. But a shark.
Atlas was only marginally calmer.
But ever so slowly his breathing began to even out as he watched the big fish do its rounds. It was huge, no doubts there, a massive creature that he would say might be near fifteen feet. If he were to make a ballpark estimate.
It was big, yeah. But Delta stood stronger, Atlas was sure.
An old sentiment ran through his head as he kept his gaze on the beast. It was the one that struck you from beneath, out of sight till the last second - that was the one that took a killing bite. This one didn't seem to be hunting, but Atlas wasn't a god damn marine biologist, he was just guessing here.
When the shark's tail twisted and abruptly it broke from its course, heading directly for them, Atlas's panic naturally hitched back up into the red.
Without hesitation Delta took a little step forward, drill pulled up but not spinning. Waiting calmly for the shark to close the distance and Atlas was horrified when he saw that giant maw open wide, revealing more teeth than he ever wanted to see and a black cavernous void behind them.
Those teeth came down on Delta's drill.
Despite the bite not being directed at Atlas, he was the one swallowing down a scream and only managing to silence half of it. Producing a choked off sound of horror that was private in his helmet.
Any second now he expected the head to start thrashing. To see the shark attempt to tear Delta apart as he'd seen that water monster be torn to shreds after he'd caused it to bleed.
Instead, what he got was an awkward chewing attempt from the shark and - with a level of causality that was frankly insulting - Delta lifting his spare hand and whacking the confused fish on its head. If Atlas absolutely had to name the action, he'd have called it a tap - a bonk even.
Then, with a surprised sort of wiggle, the shark released Delta's drill and swam on past them both. Leaving Atlas just fucking speechless.
The second time the shark came around it didn't open up that mouth full of pearly whites again and now Atlas recognised what this was. The fucking thing was curious.
And that fact Delta seemed to be indulging it returned Atlas to that state of doneness he'd found before getting the scare of his life.
It was when Delta reached out to touch the fish, to pat it, that Atlas decided that he was expanding his 'fuck the ocean' sentiment to include 'fuck the ocean and Delta's creepy shark whispering'.
Briefly Delta looked to him and he swore if the idiot made any vague suggestion that he should try this petting business he would take off his helmet and drown himself right then and there. Fortunately it seemed Delta was merely checking on him, though Atlas was sure the kid was positively giddy over all of this.
Christ. Give him a break and a breath of fresh air, please.
Finally Atlas managed to calm his heart enough to take a real deep breath and while his eyes never strayed from the shark, he felt a little less terrified.
Though as Delta had his fun with what should have been a merciless, eating machine, Atlas found himself studying it a bit more closely. It was all but impossible to say seeing as his memory of the shark that had come to finish off the sea monster that had attacked him was little more than a grey blur that had been quickly obscured by the thing's blood.
...but he could have sworn this shark was one in the same.
The thought was quickly discarded as being ridiculous, all sharks looked the friggin same no doubt. None the less, it would be a lie to say the idea didn't bring him some sort of satisfaction. Alright, as far as sharks went, this one wasn't the worst.
Given his bar for 'worst' was one that immediately ripped him into a thousand little pieces, it was not a difficult standard to beat out.
Right. Time to get a move on, he couldn't stand here all day watching Delta essentially try to make a lap dog out of an animal designed to kill everything in sight.
This time he was the one giving Delta a little touch and then tug on the arm. A silent, but firm, lets leave. Thankfully Delta didn't make a fuss and with an 'encouraging' nudge, sent the shark swimming off in the other direction. Seemingly having lost all interest in the two inedible things it had briefly found.
Atlas thanked god it had bitten metal instead of flesh.
Rather than leading this time, Delta urged Atlas to go first, to guard his back no doubt and Atlas felt a thousand times better knowing he had someone keeping watch for him in his blind spot.
And for the record, his opinion on the ocean was wholly unchanged. The sooner he was out of there the god damn better.