Crimson eyes on a jet-black face stared up into the murky sky. Mild disdain spread across Guy's face as it was met with the familiar-yet-foreign sensation of raindrops hitting his cheeks. When he was a plant, rain was always an enjoyable, invigorating experience for him. Now that he was some kind of obsidian freakshow... it was just melancholy. Hopefully the sudden rain wouldn't make their navigation anymore difficult. Guy turned a head over his shoulder, finding Gustav staring quizzically at his map and that skillful Locke fellow. Skillful, but obnoxious. As luck would have it, Gustav found a potential buyer for the mountains of otherwise-worthless bronze coins the trio found a few weeks prior. Of all things, it was a Sea Zora who was oddly fascinated with Goron physiology and history. Go figure. Knowing Locke may have still had some of his coins, Guy contacted him first to see he could lift those coins for a lower price, only to pilfer them at a higher price to the Zora... and succeeded. Profit would soon be had. Of course, before Guy could tell Gustav to not tell Locke about their buyer... the damn fool did anyway. Locke backed out of the deal, knowing he could earn way more profit selling to this mysterious buyer than to Guy. Gustav even arranged for all three of them to meet the buyer in-person, the damn fool. Even though he believed himself to be the most shrewd, Guy still couldn't swindle his way into more rupees. Din damnit. And now here he was, again stuck with both of these fools, now on some adventure to find this Zora fellow. Nayru damnit, too. The rain was the perfectly horrid kind of weather to suit how he felt about everything right now. ... "Bad news," Gustav walked over, a commshell still in his hand. Farore damnit as well, Guy immediately thought. "The Sea Zora was supposed to meet us at these coordinates of Great Bay, but--as you know--he missed the meeting time." With a sigh, Gustav slipped the shell back into his satchel, "When I shelled him, he said there was some kind of emergency... couldn't talk. We may have to return later, assuming he yet lives." Guy threw his hands up into the air, only to end up turning back into the sea, and pressing one to his forehead in exasperation. No one around him was competent, apparently. After a moment, the annoyed Scrub looked up from his palm, eyes suddenly wide--staring right back at a pair of gigantic blue eyes looking over the water, and rushing towards him. The monstrous fish was swimming towards the vessel so violently waves were stirring up in its wake. The man's hand instinctively shot towards his weapon's hilt, shouting, "Look out!"
The wind tugged at Locke's cloak, the Hylian grumpily peering out from underneath the ragged garment. It had appeared to be a good deal, at first. Then again so had Guy's deal, until Gustav had come up with another buyer. And a higher price. Locke was not one for shrewd business deals, simply agreeing to the highest number offered. Which is how he found himself on a boat, in the rain, yet again in the company of those two Deku. Although Guy had looked... decidedly different from when he had seen him last time. He had decided not to ask. Yet. Although he could not help but give a thoroughly bewildered stare when he first saw the Deku's stony appearance. The rain hammered away against the worn fabric of his cloak, soaking the man underneath. At this point, he was very tempted to simply hand over the coins, get his rupees and go home. At least in the Lost Woods there was plenty of shelter from this kind of weather. Locke did not even bother to surpress a groan when Gustav told them about their missing buyer. Why did every trip outside of the woods have to go downhill so fast? But it was about to get even worse. Much worse. Locke's head shot up at Guy's cry, fingers tightly wrapped around his bow in an instant. What was...? Their boat was helpless on the waves, bobbing around like a toy boat in some sadistic toddler's bath as the giant fish approached. The Hylian tried to rise to his feet, but the deck underneath him lurched and nearly threw him off. Clinging to the railings of the ship with one hand and to his crossbow with the other, Locke tried to take aim at the swimming monstrosity. It did not seem to have any intent of slowing or stopping. The one bolt he released before it all went pear-shaped bounced harmlessly off the fish's head, disappearing beneath the waves. Instead, the creature only opened it's mouth, revealing a gaping chasm and sending out an overpowering stench of rotten fish and other unpleasant things. Before Locke could do so much as yell in confusion, the fish had closed its giant maw around their tiny boat, swallowing the vessel and the unlucky trio whole. - Locke had no idea what happened afterwards. For a while, it appeared that there was nothing. Death, perhaps, judging from the blackness around him and the lightness of his body. Not that Locke knew much about the afterlife, or much about anything, but he was pretty sure that the afterlife did not smell like rotten fish. He opened his eyes, but found it did not make much of a difference, as everything was pitch-black around him. Was he still on the boat? Locke reached out, touching a hand to the floor. No. The ground was soft, squishy to the touch. And wet. And warm. Ohhhh no.
There was a chance he could out-swim it, Guy brazenly thought. As the maw closed around the vessel, he had leaped with Roc’s Cape, propelled away even further, before his body hit the water like the stone it was. In that same moment, he could hear the boat being pulverized to bits--his comrades presumably dead. His trousers morphed into the slick tail of a fish, but before he could dart away, he felt his entire body sucked backwards—struggling to swim downstream from a terrible force. It was in his last moments he realized this monstrous fish was actively sucking him up, as if he was some mere kelp or minnow. As Guy reached out desperately for something to grasp, his last sight was a certain Business Scrub looking on in horror from above the water’s surface… airborne, and out of the fish’s reach. … The first thing his body did was let out an agonized groan. He was soaking wet... with some kind of... mucus. As his eyes opened, he suddenly realized that not only did he wish he was lucky enough to be born with nightvision, but that he was still underwater (under mucus?) in some pitch-black and utterly disgusting fluid. He tried to twitch his toes, only to realize they were still in the form of a fin... ...No matter how much he submerged himself in water, it was always mildly horrifying. It felt like cold, terrible death surrounded him. With seemingly no other option, Guy maneuvered his aching body upward through the fluid--hoping beyond hope he would emerge into some peaceful and well-lit cove, filled with treasures and maybe even gorgeous mermaids. What he found was anything but a paradise. In the open air, the stench of fish penetrating his senses like a slap in the face. It was dark, but without that fluid blocking his vision he could at least make out his surroundings... some kind of slick, glistening, oddly-shaped corridor... it was... pulsating, and... undulating... Disgusting, revolting, and quite unlike anything he'd ever seen. Reaching for the damp pouch which--thankfully--still clung to his hip, Guy found and wriggled out a simple torch. Thank Nayru the contents of these Adventure Pouches were kept pretty dry. With a spit of fire from his snout, flame roared upon it, and fire filled the room... ...Except it wasn't a room. It was more like a goddamn trachea, or worse, an intestine. He had been trying to deny it ever since he awoke, but there's no doubt as to where he was... in the gut of a dindamn fish. From the sight of that body laying over there, he wasn't the first one here, either. "Hey," Guy spoke up, "You dead?"
"No." Locke pushed himself to his knees, trying to shake a thick layer of mucus off his arm. The fluid sloshing around his hands and knees smelled worse than even the rankest inns and taverns he had ever seen. It took a few moments of clumsily splashing around before the thief found his feet, all the while trying not to gag. Oh, how much he wished Guy had not lit that torch. So they had actually been swallowed whole. And survived. And were now somewhere inside the fish. Locke made a disgusted sound. He spun on his heel, walking away from Guy, towards the walls wobbling around them, fingers tight around the handle of his axe. At least that was still here. "I am not going to let some-" Locke muttered as he raised his axe, "Some fish eat me." The fleshy wall wobbled around the spot where the axe was imbedded in it. Slightly. Until it suddenly started spouting an even fouler-smelling liquid on the unfortunate Hylian. Locke staggered back, gasping and retching as he tried to wipe the gunk off his face. So much for- wait, what? Whatever he had done, had caused the walls to twitch, contracting around them as the floor came up in a wave-like motion, throwing them further down the... well, whatever part it was they were in now. Locke slipped, his boots not suited to the slick ground underneath. He snarled in frustration, now completely covered in mucus on all sides. This was pathetic. "I'm never dealing with you guys again."
With a groan of disgust, Guy pried himself up from the mucus-drenched 'floor' from a second time. "See... you should have just sold them to me. You wouldn't be here." It didn't take a genius to figure out Locke was the more disturbed of the two of them. Guy had seen six decades of shit like this... and whats more, he had a magical mermaid pants. Even if he stabbed out of this carcass from the bottom of the bay, he would be fine. "How hard can it be to kill something from the inside?" His blade slipped from its scabbard with a smooth sound. Clearly Locke must have just struck a nerve or something, he thought. One just had to be more careful... or maybe more forceful. Who knows. Before Guy could wade across the squishy 'floor' towards the 'wall'--was there even a distinction between them?--his ears caught the distinctive crackle of electricity... "...the fuck?!" Floating right through the open, humid, putrid air was a pair of... jellyfish? He wasn't even sure what to call them, but they were chasing down the two intruders from the depths of what Guy hoped was the intestine-hallway. "Is this some kind of defense mechanism?" Guy sheathed his sword in favor of a throwing knife. With all his strength and skill he flung it towards the nearest one--lodging hilt-deep in its gelatinous hide with hardly a squeak... These things were tougher than they looked...
“And be cheated of my reward?” The Deku got a rather intense glare aimed his way. But any chance to discuss it further quickly disappeared. Oh. Great. The fish did not just have disgusting insides, but it had disgusting AND hostile insides! Locke let out a hiss of breath and took his crossbow off his back, loosely aiming it at the creature. Or at least he guessed it was a creature. He pulled the trigger, watching as the bolt went straight through the… thing. It wobbled, but otherwise didn’t seem to be affected much. Locke whistled a shrill note, turning the bolt back around for another strike. To no avail. The thing wobbled, seemingly off-balance for a moment, but remained afloat. And what was that sound…? No sooner had Locke climbed to his feet than the jellyfish struck out, lightning fast, with a tendril, catching the unfortunate Hylian in the chest. At first, it didn’t hurt. Or so Locke thought. But then the shock came. His chest burned, pain spreading from there to his shoulders, making his arms and hands tense up involuntarily. It lasted only for a moment, but the pain was intense. Locke gritted his teeth, trying to keep his fingers from twitching, staggering backwards from the jellyfish. “What the… what is this thing!?”
