Walls completely marred by barnacles growing by the clumps, the walls that weren't, filled with bullet holes, seeping with saltwater, and the smell of rotted wood and the stagnant saltwater made breathing increasingly difficult.
A cold breeze wafted through, remedying their problems, but they didn't know where it came from, there's no visible grates in the walls or the floors suggesting an AC.
Walking through the rotted hallway, Theodore and Lila see faint light coming from the distance, upon reaching the end, they see old-timey street lamps, still working despite the area they came from having none.
The large bulbs reminded Lila of something from Edison. Theodore says that they resembled something from him, but there's something off about the bulbs as he's looking at them.
They're not typical bulbs like they initially thought, from afar, they looked like typical bulbs of the time, but the filaments inside weren't anything Theodore recognized.
The bulbs translucent, he's able to see inside with ease, the filaments that made up the innards, looked futuristic, almost.
Hard to explain, but it looked like tiny translucent cylinders in the centre of the bulb, giving off the light. The bulb intensified the light from the cylinders.
It felt like he's standing under the sun, almost, and Lila noticed that the bulbs weren't blazingly hot to the touch, but also risked sunburning them, if you can believe it.
"Theo, I'm getting that feeling again," Lila tensed up as she noticed noticed a pattern.
Leaking saltwater coming from the walls and ceilings, barnacles, street lamps that gave off the feeling of the sun, it's not looking great for their outlook, the more they're searching for answers.
Theodore eased her concerns by reminded her that… well… he didn't have anything comforting to tell her… she wasn't wrong, there's something strange going on here, and the fact there's street lamps replacing the sun isn't helping them much.
Gritting his teeth, Theodore ushered her along as they searched for anything useful and they ended up coming across what appeared to be a black window, like something you see in an aquarium.
Lila stepped up to it, her brown boots clanking against the wooden floor as she looked out the black window.
There's nothing out there, she can't even see anything close, it looked like someone spilled black ink.
Chewing on his inner lip, Theodore attempted to look out the large window with Lila, but he couldn't see anything with his 'Legolas' eyes.
Turning her head, Lila wondered, "What's the point of this window?"
Oh, how she wished she didn't ask that question, because she got her answer, and almost jumped into the bewildered arms of the aloof giant standing next to her.
It started off innocently enough, subtle movements, but then the first tentacle rose from the bottom of the glass, it's ghostly white, long, thick as a pine tree trunk, stark against the blackness, then other tentacles followed.
Slowly, a massive head popped up from the bottom, the gold slit eyes peering inside the glass.
A giant octopus.
… A massive octopus.
… Oh no…
"It's not Cthulhu," Theodore cut Lila's observations short as he studied the large octopus having raised from the bottom where they can't see and it's looking at them.
"Uh, wha, what, now?" Lila looked towards Theodore for guidance as she looked at the giant octopus, bigger than anything National Geography ever photographed.
She would've suggested they hurry away from the glass and try avoid any more out of fear that a giant octopus' following them, but the aloof giant had a different idea.
He waved.
Yes, the aloof giant waved.
At a giant octopus.
While Lila was green, she would've thought it's nothing more than a crazy story, but unfortunately, Lila wasn't green, anymore.
So, Theodore waved at the giant octopus looking at them with those giant gold slit eyes with curiosity, if you can believe that.
Lila's standing next to him, trying to understand the situation they're in, and then she stopped as she witnessed this giant ghostly white octopus waving back to Theodore.
It made the aloof giant smile and Lila had to ask, only for him reminding her that octopi held higher intelligence than most people gave them credit for, seeing this octopus ghostly white, he deduced that it's scared.
"No, no, I got that, but, why the waving?" Lila tried to find reason for this and Theodore snorts as he tells Lila that it's rude if they didn't greet the octopus.
He gently elbowed Lila into waving at the octopus and she reluctantly did while the octopus waved at her back.
This caused Lila to ask Theodore if he can speak octopi and not surprisingly, the aloof giant said he could, octopi speak languages as him and her all the time, nobody can understand them, however.
Must be because of the tentacles covering up their beaks.
To her amazement, Lila watched at Theodore held a conversation with the giant octopus.
He used gestures and talked to it as if he's talking to someone at the library, that Lila had to check if she wasn't dreaming.
No, she wasn't and Theodore's actually talking to a giant octopus, which shouldn't shock Lila any more than it did, but here she is, questioning reality, if it's still a thing.
As he's conversing with the octopus, Gerald, Theodore learned that it's ghostly white because of it encountering something in the cracks leading into the deeper part of the ocean.
The way Gerald described it, Theodore didn't blame it from turning paler than a starchy bedsheet.
It hid near "the weird corral" because it figured the creature it fled from wouldn't come near it. Many sea creatures in the area never came near "the weird corral" because it felt wrong to them. Looked wrong, too. Enough it drove most sea creatures away, in fear.
Talking with Gerald more, Theodore learnt that it only appeared some time ago, strange things from above came down to the depths, incrementally, until the weird corral rose from the seabed.
The strange things didn't leave it afterwards, so Gerald thinks they're still in the coral.
The way Gerald described it made it seem like submarines and scuba divers came from the surface. With the scuba divers emerging from "the weird corral" periodically, probably to do maintenance.
Hearing how no one left it since the completion, it made Theodore raise a brow, and he thanked Gerald for the help, with Gerald replying that it's in its nature helping "tourists."
Oh, and if you see giant glowing red orbs in the distance while you're swimming, that's Otis, no he's not friends with Gerald, Otis' in a nasty mood as of late, his wife leaving him for another mate and all that, best not to get in his way, or risk him swallowing you whole.
Good to know for future references.
Theodore and Lila watched as Gerald the giant octopus turned from ghostly white to a shade of red, before disappearing into the darkness behind, the water bubbling as it jetted away from the glass.
"Y'know, traveling with you, I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but here I am, surprised," Lila coughed as she looked towards Theodore as he seemed happy to made acquittance with Gerald.
Shrugging his wide stitched shoulders, Theodore tells her that it's part of the adventure, and at least they know it's friendly.
Don't want to have to risk a daring escape with that after them, does she?
"Fair point," Lila acknowledged and she followed Theodore away from the glass, heading onward as they used the street lamps guiding their way as they searched for more clues.
The aesthetics, if they can see past the bundles of barnacles growing over it, looked like something from the '40s to about the '50s, there's faded printed advertisements on the walls with the familiar traits.
While walking, the two found a posted sign, looked to be rules. Reading what they're able to read, it sounded no different than a town, except, the more they read, the more they noticed something unusual.
NO CHILDREN
NO RELIGION
NO TOPSIDERS
"Oh boy," Lila sucked air through her teeth as Theodore studied the bizarre set of rules.
Made no sense to either of them and they pressed on, looking for more answers to their mound of questions.
His icy blue eyes moving around, Theodore sees rows of abandoned outlet stores, all catering to adult interests.
Cigars, boutique clothing, alcohol, and literature.
Just the ones he managed to read off the signs.
As they're walking, they see papers plastered over the walls near the entrance to another set of hallways, most illegible due to the water damage, but Theodore found one that they're able to read.
It's protesting someone called Rupert Malone, claiming that he's a danger to everyone on Sanctuary, calling for action and demanding him expelled.
Seeing this, Lila had something to say, but the aloof giant cut-in with, "Trouble in paradise, it seems."
Seeing there's more holes than a Swiss cheese wheel, someone either agreed or disagreed with the protest, and Theodore went along with Lila down the hallway, continuing their search.
"I don't get it, how did anyone build something this far down from the ocean without it flattening like a pancake?" Lila questioned how anyone built something like this place this far down in the ocean, with the knowledge that the pressure from doing so risked killing everything and everyone.
Thinking about it, Theodore says anything's possible with enough manpower and money, which someone clearly had, because everything they're seeing, at one point, looked pristine and taken cared for, nothing suggesting a supervillain built his lair down here.
"More money than sense, to me," Lila followed him as he led them through the hallway filled with posters of different things, advertisements, protests, something straight out of a message board.
Coming to the end, they're in another part where there's a bigger window showing the outside, street lamps posted in spots, with benches under them, with a large kiosk in the centre showing the map of Sanctuary, still lit up.
Strolling with Lila, Theodore went up to the kiosk, seeing the detailed map of Sanctuary, and found they arrived in the entertainment district with them passing through the shopping district, now they're in the terminal.
There's housing, a community garden, everything that a topside town would've had, except special spas.
"Interesting," Theodore noted as he looked towards the torches before looking back at the spas on the map.
Lila asks what he's thinking and Theodore tells her that people lived down here long enough they started having severe deficiencies with the lack of sunlight, the torches and the spas their way of getting what they need, and he wanted to know how well that went for them.
With a copy of the map, the two went off searching for the housing district since it entered the other areas of the underwater city.
More posters, but they're different, and they're calling for someone else's head.
JOEY MUSSOLINI — DEPRIVER OF WOMEN!
That's the tag line and they're curious what he did to incite such ire until coming across a more detail poster claiming Joey Mussolini married nine women in Sanctuary.
"Oookay, that's a little weird," Lila raised a brow as Theodore looked between the posters.
Someone wanted Joey Mussolini exiled from Sanctuary because he took away nine women from nine prospecting men and unbalanced things.
Ended up finding another poster from the aforementioned Joey Mussolini fighting for his case with his own tag line.
JOEY MUSSOLINI — NINE WOMEN WEREN'T WRONG!
Seems he took the condemnation hard, saying that his nine wives all agreed to the marriage, all happy with the arrangements, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Except the part about supposedly depriving nine men a chance at finding nine wives, but that's for debate and another time.
"Hey, Theo, look at this," Lila called to Theodore and he joined her side, showing one more poster glued to the wall, calling Rupert Malone a child killer.
This wasn't boding well for both Theodore and Lila, already they're seeing the aftermath of the supposed Sanctuary crumbling, and from where they standing, it's only going to continue worsening, as Theodore noted they haven't looked at all the places, yet.