It was terrible that some joker exploded the Reflecting Pool yesterday, and it got algae all over everything but thankfully no swimmers or Aquatics were hurt. But also hillarious when bunch of people cornered the exploder and threw him in the pool! Then the Aquatics grabbed him and helped him out. They gave him one of their coins.

Really, it's more like synchronized deep diving. REALLY deep.

I don't even need to wear goggles anymore, because my eyes have adapted to the water. Something that the Aquatics do for you, when they're holding you breath. They put it in there. But it helps you, and it gives you the extra lenses on your eyes. Some other stuff too around your organs. And your brain. Because of the pressure.

But when you look up, and you see all those Aquatics holding everybody's breaths, and all those bubbles are lighting up, and you can see all the other swimming students, students just like me, floating just below them, in formation, holding hands and making rings with their bodies that fold and flow just like a kaleidoscope, descending, descending, down along with you.

It's like watching one of those old movies with the swimmers, swimming in the pool in their costumes. Bubbly Berkeley? Except bioluminescent.

We're going to reach the bottom soon.

I have reached the bottom.

At 38,656 feet, it took many hose attachments let me tell you! Bought out all the hose at Psychic Costco! That gold card from the Arcane Aquanatics Institute certainly comes in handy.

My heavy boots kick up clouds of biogenic ooze as I march across the plain. My headlamps light up only about 15 feet around me, where I can see rocky debris and the occasional candy bar wrapper, but not much else.

Beyond, in the distance, however, a riotous cavalcade of color! Something so vibrant against the desolate darkness of the sea floor, shooting prismatic beams into the black depths all around it. Like Las Vegas!

I am continuing to march toward the light, and checking to make sure my trusty Polaroid is in working order. This will be the discovery of the century!

Welcome to Uncle Obed’s Penny Wonder Arcade at the Bottom of the Sea!

The Aquatics have asked me to be your guide as we explore the arcade, and to help you understand the Aquatics’ unique payment system.

But first, enjoy the games! Use the complimentary tokens provided and place them in the slots. Most just take one token but some really special ones take two, like Icicle Queen, Davy Jones’s Purse, Bubble Invader, and Abyssal Zone.

And just wait till you hear about all the fabulous prizes!

My hoard of gold coins has suddenly made me very popular, now that everybody knows you can use them for the games at the arcade at the bottom of the pool. I was just giving them away at first, but now that they're in such high demand I wonder if I should start asking for trades.

Kids ask about why don't just use the coins myself. I'm not sure why. Something about going down deep so far. Feels like a long way off. And wet. And stringy with weeds.

But the Aquatics still scatter them around the reflecting pool and under the bushes. And I am an amazing coin hunter. Also Easter Egg hunts.

So there's a Arcade now under the pool! Luckily I had received a bag of coins from @Sabine 7 so I'm having a blast! My favorite game would have to either Bubble Invader or this random rhythm game cabinet that's in a language I can't quite understand. Like if somebody garbled Japanese with Egyptian hieroglyphics. I'm bad at it but it reminds me of rhythm heaven so I'm trying to beat it! Most of the arcade machines are in English except for this one and a Pacman clone.

Now that I think about it the decorations surrounding the symbols look a awful lot like the text of the unknown language..

Anyways I've also gotten a lot of fun prizes. My favorite is this giant plushie of a axolotl, except it's crossed with a blobfish. I promise it's cuter than it sounds!

I entered the magnificent underwater city through what I took to be its back streets, empty at this time of night. The phenomenal lightshow that had drawn me here emanated from the far side of the city, shooting beams of light in all directions, casting a pink and green glow over the aquatic urban landscape.

Kicking up small clouds of dust with my heavy boots as I trod the streets, I looked up at the great monuments that rose above me. Upon closer inspection, they were not statues but technology--a bubbling factory of crystal tanks, each filled with a squirming mass of small fry--undoubtedly the embryonic stage of development of the Aquatic people themselves. They were, frankly told, somewhat disturbing, with their sharp, tiny fangs and empty, black eyes.

What ho! I see I have been spotted by a member of the Aquatic race! Perhaps a constable, by the look of his somewhat paramilitary garb, and long, trident shaped electric pain stick. It is time to make first contact, on behalf of the Arcane Aquanatics Institute.

Ow!

This has turned out to be the best Underwater Summer Session ever! I don't know if I'm ever coming back.

Life here in the Aquatic's city is like, the best time you can imagine. First of all, it's always kind of twilight, with just the pink and blue neon lighting up the sea floor, which is otherwise dark because no sun. Just like my room. And you don't know what time it is because they make you leave your watches on the surface.

Next, THE GAMES. You really have to experience them for yourself. I could describe one, but it would just sound like bouncing little balls down little chutes and making them go into little holes. Which is essentially true, but there's SO much more to it when you know the backstory. And you can hear the backstory automatically through the back of your mind. All the time.

Then, there's eating and sleeping. Which, you don't have to worry about at all because they take care of it for you. And I'm so tired by the time it's the eating and sleeping period I can hardly remember what happens! Like, for some reason I remember sort of squirming together in a swarming ball with all the other students but ha ha just a weird dream.

So if you haven't already, you should come down and plan to stay!!! And don't worry about the coins they pass out plenty to everybody and keep track so you don't have to. In fact if you're not using enough they come and make you take more!

OH MIGHTY KRKKRK DO I FEEL GREAT!

NEVER BEFORE HAVE MY GILLS PUMPED TO THIS GREAT EXTENT, SLURPING UP THE KRILL OF THE DEADFALL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA! NEVER BEFORE HAVE THE BOTTOMLESS LIMPID POOLS OF MY EYES SEEN SO MUCH! NEVER BEFORE HAVE I HAD TO PICK OUT SO MANY TINY BONES FROM MY TEETH!

NOW THAT I HAVE FULLY MADE THE TRANSFORMATION, THROUGH THE INGESTION OF THE SACRED WATER OF FORGETFULNESS, I CAN TRULY SEE ONCE AGAIN, JUST LIKE OUR GREAT SPAWNING GODS IN THE EARLIEST DARKEST DAYS! LAMELLAE I HEART U!

COME JOIN ME AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, YOU TINY PINK MORSELS OF TENDER FLESH! I KNOW A LITTLE HOLE IN THE WALL WHERE I CAN INTRODUCE YOU TO MY MANY NEW FRIENDS!

Campus is so empty. Hardly any students. A candy wrapper blows gently in the breeze between buildings.

It's the end of the summer, so you wouldn't expect campus to be busy. But last year at this time there were a lot more kids.

And you know why t's because they've all gone down into the reflecting pool and HAVEN'T COME UP! They're STAYING down there!! And I can't help but feel partially responsible, handing out all those coins. Even @Chloe Evergreen. ESPECIALLY @Chloe Evergreen!

And the Aquatics have stopped coming up too. Usually there were a few splashing in the pool, ready to give swimming lessons, tossing their coins around. But now where did they go? Hibernating?

And how are the kids supposed to come back up? With the Aquatics holding their breath for them like that? It's a long way up.

Oh I wish I'd thrown all those coins right back into the reflecting pool as soon as I'd found them.