Without direction Hakuren swam, blind as he was in the fog. The pure white veil was cast over this desolate place, binding all eyes with a fold stronger than the steel of the chains on a slave's legs. The water was murky, a chill to the bone and sometimes a small pile of algae and the like could be seen floating on the surface, once you were at a close enough distance, of course. Albeit the lad moved and used his legs to keep afloat, he prioritized using as little energy as possible, thus he was incapable of traveling further than a few meters from the spot at which he resurfaced. Shouting would lead to the loss of precious warm air within his lungs and sight offered from little to no aid in finding the way back. This being said, hearing was the only sense left to provide any form of guidance. Closing his eyes, the young man stood in one place, rhythmically thrusting his legs in the lake to keep his stability, and listened carefully to his surroundings. By shutting off one of the key sources of information, the eyes, his brain could concentrate on any sound within a certain range and the more his sight remained off limits, the greater the diameter became.
At first, nothing but his own breathing and the light splashing of water against his body existed. It was as if being in an entirely different world. Light could not disturb the serene darkness, which stretched on and on, much like the endless pit of despair humans fell into once they realized their wishes could not be granted. This seemingly eternal despair frightens the mind of most and when in such a situation, where their windows get shut tight, the brain, fiendish as it is, plays tricks on the consciousness by using the elaborate tool, known as imagination, to create a 'picture' from the information gathered by the rest of the senses working and available. This attempt to calm the soul down after being deprived of light actually burdens it more, as it becomes frightened from the uncertainty of the source of that, which can be heard, felt and smelled. Thankfully, Hakuren had a greater control over himself, but it was his lack of fear from darkness that actually provided such a stable state of mind, even in the most dreadful of situations. There were few things in existence which he found harrowing, but they did exist. In fact, he felt pleased when feeling frightened, because fear mean you were alive, that you were trying to keep hold of your life and keep it out of harm's way. He who fears nothing has lost the sense of life in its purest self.
Little by little, something resonated in the previously steady atmosphere. It was similar to the low creaking of an old wooden door, whilst being pushed open by the hand of an elderly woman as she made slow steps with her bony weak legs. However, this did not arise a feeling of relief. Rather, the youngster was on guard, directing his attention precisely on that sound alone, but refrained from lifting his eyelids, for if he were to do so, pinpointing the direction from whence this rumbling came from would become harder. Simply because the siren failed in her first attempt did not mean she had only that one squid to pull out of her seaweed hat. As he remained in that position, soon enough a distinct splashing could be distinguished as well. Combined with the periodical wooden sound, it was apparently a boat of some kind, but definitely not a modern one with an engine. Perhaps it used oars or beaver tails or maybe even crispy baguettes. This was Nowhere, after all. Anything could be expected. From a vegetarian alligator with a German accent and a chicken for a wife to a Coke walking down the red carpet, whilst posing for a picture with her husband, Pepsi, and their dog, Love Puppy, a white ball of fluff with giant pink lips.
The noise came closer and closer, so Hakuren decided to finally open his eyes and find whoever was rowing in such a sluggish, agonizing manner, that it made the wood cry from beneath them. The whiteness of the fog and moisture in the air stung his already irritated eyes and, for a moment, his vision was clouded and he couldn't get himself together. Pupils refocused themselves, whilst the irises tried to maintain the intake of rays and creation of pigment. Blood vessels pulped rapidly, as they attempted to aid one of the most delicate receptors in the body by providing them with the needed oxygen. That short period of time, during which the boy was trying to regain control over his sense, was enough for the boat to come so near as to actually hit him in the head. Fortunately, it didn't force him to submerge again, nor did it cause brain damage, firstly, because it didn't hit him with its front, but with its side, and secondly, because of the responsible Nowhereian, Brandy, who grabbed the human in the nick of time. This was rather sudden and the young man in the midnight green coat, which was surprisingly not all that heavy yet, had to return the sudden 'tight hug' in order to not get his head wet again. Unfortunately, the rabbit-eared man evidently had no power left in him to pull the swimmer up. His face was drained and he looked like he had seen a ghost, on Earth, at least, since ghosts in Nowhere were most likely a common sight. This lack of energy made the boy smirk.
"Come on, I know you're not the strongest alcohol, but you're not a desert wine."Hakuren had found the fact about Brandy running a tea shop to be rather silly in the first place.
In the end, he had to use the bunny man as more of a stick to get a good hold of the boat and to climb into it. Once inside, he found Songbird, who was far too busy with his scarf to play his newly arrived visitor any mind. Brandy was more or less still out of it and the expression on his face clearly read as "I will kiss the land when we get to shore". Seeing as there was nothing else, the boy simply lied down on the wooden planks, which made the boat's base. He then realized how exhausted he felt. How long he had been swimming was of no consequence to him, for it was already in the past, but it was certainly not just one or two minutes. Then again, time did not follow the trends of the human world, thus just one or two minutes on their side could be tantamount to a year or so in Nowhere. Staring upwards at the fog, things seemed so natural. For every other person, this would have been insanity, yet the black-blue-haired youngster found nothing strange in almost drowning of an unknown cause. First of all, he knew the cause. It was the siren in the lake. Second of all, he didn't even think about such nonsense as how vastly different his own world was in comparison to this one. In that one moment, he chuckled lightly as he remembered one of Pumba the pig's lines. "Home is where your but sits". Many took those animated movies for childish and unworthy of an adult's attention, but they contained a hidden philosophy, a teaching which would be activated once that little child grew up and unconsciously recalled something it learned it its younger years. Imprinting, was it? Was it not? It did not matter. Neither did the illusion the lady of the lake showed him. All of those people were themselves, just as he was, and they chose their path on their own. Although he meddled with it from certain aspects, they kept on walking on their very own. He felt no regret, even when Circus was shot in the head and Samir lost himself to oblivion. He could stop those two incidents, because he knew, but he couldn't, because that fate was decided by those two people on their individual paths. Tricking them and toying around with people's heads, perhaps, but changing the flow in its core was something Hakuren completely rejected. The beauty of life was in that stream of innumerable possibilities, which were born from the choices each living being made for themselves. If it were to be hindered, then it wouldn't be a life to live, now, would it?
As he drifted off on his train of thought, he did not pay much mind to neither Harper, nor Jasper, who were brought on the boat by the Nobodies, although he did notice them with his peripheral vision. His mind was wandering again through the tasty plots revolving around the queen, the country of Nowhere and their purpose. Humans as a form of entertainment was one of the funniest of them, but there was another theory which was beginning to form within his mind, albeit he did not have as much proof as he wished to. The lad would have continued gazing at nothing in particular if it weren't for Harper, who had just woken up and slapped him in the face by accident while turning. Hakuren twitched at the contact between his finally dried self and Riddle's wet hand.
"You sure know how to slap someone back to reality." Hakuren laughed, smiling as ever.
happenings said
"W-What happened?" Harper asked whilst coughing.
"You guys came just in time!" The voice was clearly Dissonance and the white rabbit huffed and puffed as she ran towards the boat. "Martini!" Came another energetic squeal. "I knew I could count on you to convince them! I knew you'd get them to come along."
Harper decided to lie down again, all the screaming was making his head pound.
Hakuren put one finger in his ear, in order to somewhat clean it. Just awhile ago he was enjoying the sweetness of silence and now he was dragged back to the noisiness of everyday life. He felt a note of irritation from the white hare's high-pitch voice, but quickly brushed it off and accepted getting used to it once more.
happenings said
"There you are...Songbird, Brandy, and Martini. I'm glad to see you guys." This time it was Serenade's voice, she was out of breath from dragging the mayor with her as quickly as possible.
Mayor Spicy Tuna stared at the drenched humans worriedly before his eyes landed onto the earplugs on the Song and Brandy. He gulped nervously and fixed his tie.
"Um, hello, I see you two know about this place. I'm the mayor and Serenade informed me about the second item on the list. I would like to talk to all of you about that, especially you." His eyes landed on Songbird. "I'm sure you know a Siren's Song can't be physically collected." He pointed to the item on the list."Anyways, welcome to the town of Yonder...uh this is odd, but do you have any questions, perhaps?"
Standing up on her own two feet, Jasper picked a couple of green weeds off her arms and legs and rubbed at her skin in an attempt to warm them.
"Is everyone alright?" she paused momentarily for a response then turned to the mayor."Then how do you suppose we can get it?" she asked.
Sighing, Hakuren got himself up and out of the boat, tilting his head left and right as the last drops of water dripped from his ears.
"Well, Bear pretty much asked the obvious." he spoke with a smile.
"What does the current job require? Get the siren to make peace and sing a kind song that doesn't get people to commit suicide?"