Owner	Pose
Sub-Mariner	PLACE: The Throneroom of Emperor Thakorr TIME: 1931 "So just to be sure that I understand this fully... you're telling me that MY grandchildren, who are all of age to know better, were caught venturing into the Forbidden Zone and fraternizing with Lemurian commoners? And that in the course of less than four hours were somehow able to spark an international incident that now threatens to rip asunder the peace we've been so carefully cultivating with our neighbors to the South?" Emperor Thakorr is older than almost any other living Atlantean. A life of vigorous exercise, healthy choices, and the medical treatment available to one of royal blood have all helped to keep him preserved a bit past his expiration date. But sitting on The Coral Throne, he looks a bit tired of the weight of the crown on his neck. Mostly though, he looks like he's rapidly working himself up into an epic rage at the children standing in front of him. Prince Byrrah, always a snitch, is the first to speak. "Your Majesty, you are right to be angry. When Prince Namor suggested that we leave our guardsmen and venture into the Forbidden Zone, I thought it foolhardy. Honor compelled me to protect your grandson with my life, so I followed in the hope that I might convince him to return the more readily!" As he floats before the throne, it looks as if his knees are knocking together just a bit too much. The Lady Dorma, always ready to fight on Namor's behalf, is quick to interject. "Nay! Your Majesty must surely know that Namor meant no harm! He simply felt that the Peace Mural adorning the Cliffs of Chaos could use some.... artistic improvements." You'd never know from the loyal way that she defends Namor that she actually begged him not to cross into the Forbidden Zone... Emperor Thakorr looks from one blue-skinned child to the next, his eyes causing them all to shrivel before the heat of his gaze. But when his eyes meet those of his pink-skinned grandson, they are met with defiance. Albeit defiance that's propped up largely by not wanting to look cowardly in front of the girls who are with him. Folding his skinny arms across his narrow chest, Namor does his best to return Thakorr's gaze, though he has nowhere near as much practice looking ferocious as his grandfather. Still, he's able to put on a more impressive showing than poor Byrrah, the snitch. "Your Majesty, be not angry with the others, even 'Prince' Byrrah, who is as weak as he is inbred. After all, is it not common knowledge that he was pulled away from his wetnurse only last summer, and has never been able to hunt without crying? You must save your wrath for me, your loyal grandson, for though my actions were justified in my own eyes... I see that they were not justified in yours." It's the pompous Atlantean way of saying 'my bad...' Emperor Thakorr's features remain stern, but he has to struggle to suppress a smile. If Namor weren't the son of his only daughter, he'd have him executed on the spot, but he'll have to think of a fitting punishment lest he appear weak. "Hold your tongue, Namor! I know already that I will not get the truth from you. You will only use this chance to speak about your own bravery. But YOU!" Thakorr's eyes turn toward the youngest of the children assembled. While the others are in their mid-teens, one blonde girl is no more than ten. This doesn't save her from getting a downright withering look from the Emperor. "Little Aquaria! I'm surprised by your behavior more than the others. What do you have to say in your defense, young lady?"
Namora	The blue-skinned royal cousin (her skin has not yet gone through the change that will later reveal to everyone her surfacer heritage) shifts uncomfortably where she floats as she falls under the gaze of the old Emperor. Grandfather or no, he is still the Emperor of Atlantis. "Your Majesty..." she begins, looking between the two boys and then back to the throne. She draws herself to her full height and thrusts her shoulder back defiantly. ".. do not blame Namor. I told the prince that I was going to the Forbidden Zone and he felt that he was duty-bound to protect me." she lies. "I attempted to lose his and Byrrah's pursuit but Namor was too clever a hunter and caught up to me just as I was 'redcorating' the Peace Mural. If Your Majesty must punish someone, punish me."
Sub-Mariner	The word that Thakorr shouts doesn't have an exact translation into English, but the closest approximation would probably be... "POPPYCOCK!" Thakorr looks away from the children, and instead looks toward the guards who finally brought them all home. From the looks of Byrrah, Namor, and Dorma, one could be forgiven for thinking that the guards had to use some sort of physical restraint to actually subdue them. Of course, the guards look a bit worse for wear as well... "If none of you will tell me the truth, then you will ALL spend the next six months... mucking out Giganto's pen!" The punishment comes to him in a wave of sadistic inspiration, and it has the desired effect immediately. Even Namor recoils in horror, while just about everyone else in the room puts their hands in front of their mouths reflexively to cover their gasps. Humbled by the thought of picking up after a skyscraper-sized whale-creature, Namor finally buckles. Looking down at the polished marble floor that he's floating above, the skinny princeling takes a deep breath of sea water before he speaks. "Very well, Your Majesty. I will tell you the full tale, that you may judge us fairly. It all started when..." PLACE: Just Outside The Forbidden Zone TIME: 1931, A Bit Earlier... "You see? There's nothing here. Let's go back, Namor. The... uh... girls are getting scared." Byrrah swims a safe distance behind the rest of the kids. To 'protect the rear', he said. It's not entirely clear whether he wanted to stay back there to keep some distance between himself and any danger, or whether he just wanted to be able to stare at Dorma without anyone noticing. Probably a mixture of both. Dorma rolls her eyes as she swims up closer to Namor. But she's far to polite to call Byrrah out for being a coward. And truthfully, she 'is' getting a bit scared of the trouble they could get in when they're inevitably caught. Namor always gets caught eventually. "Don't be such a fry, Byrrah! This is where Merro said that old derelict craft was. If he gets to it before we do, he's going to get all the treasure! Imagine the shame you'll feel if the LEMURIANS dare to venture where we do not!" It's clear from the tone of Namor's voice that he means it. He really wouldn't be able to live with the shame. But more importantly, he seems to be fascinated by the idea of treasure from another world: The Mysterious Surface.
Namora	"Just a bit longer, Byrrah." Aquaria calls from somewhat ahead of the group, where she was swimming. "If we con't find anything, then we can go back." "Besides, think about the things that might be inside. There might be bones or mosaics or something... then you'll see how hideous the surfacers l..." and she glances back to Namor. "I spoke too rashly."
Sub-Mariner	Even when he was a skinny teenager, Namor had already pretty much mastered the imperious 'harumph.' It's extremely useful for quickly dismissing conversation topics before they get a bit too close for comfort. Which is exactly what he does when Aquaria draws attention once again to the fact that Namor's ancestry isn't purely Atlantean. Every now and then it seems to Namor that people might finally forget that his skin isn't blue and his ankles have little wings on them, but it never really happens, leaving him feeling like an outsider among his own family. "Harumph!" Namor swims faster, getting some quick distance between himself and the rest of the kids. Dorma tries to keep up with him, looking very much like she'd like to say something nice, but can't quite think of anything. Byrrah lurks well behind everyone else, casting furtive looks around and wishing that he could go home. But his parents have insisted that he play outside more often, ever since they fired his wet nurse last year. Having crossed into the Forbidden Zone, the kids are no longer in danger of being seen by anyone. Anybody who'd snitch on them now would have to admit to having been in the Forbidden Zone. However, just because they're safe from Atlantean eyes, that doesn't mean they are safe from any others. As the royal kids swim through a trench that isn't on any of the official maps, they are unaware that they're being observed. Rows of reptilian eyes watch them as they make their progress, getting ever closer to the spot where the 'treasure' is supposed to be...
Namora	"Do you think Merro might have lied, Dorma?" Aquaria asks. "Perhaps there is nothing out here after all. I would hate to think that, though. We need to find _something_ to make this trip worthwhile. The Avenging Son has gone far ahewad. "Wait, Namor! Let us not get separated in these trenches! We have never been here before." and she swims to catch up with her cousin.
Sub-Mariner	Namor's quickly-moving form disappears around the next bend of the trench, following it with little concern for what might be waiting ahead of him. Even as a youth, he was always the most reckless creature in the seven seas. He can't help but be impressed when his little cousin manages to catch up with him unexpectedly. He's so used to being faster than everyone else that he doesn't really put much effort into it anymore. So when he looks over his shoulder and sees the girl right on his heels, he forgets any possible crankiness he was nursing and a broad smile spreads across his normally-scowly face. "Last one to the end of the trench is rotten caviar!" He takes off, trying to maintain his lead while zig-zagging through the treacherous crags of the twisting, turning trench. The trench unexpectedly opens up into a wide undersea plain. At first it's disorienting to see such a flat area after swimming through a claustrophobic trench. The plain is dotted here and there with fairly large craters, but they seem to be in the middle of the process of sealing back up. There's no way to tell for sure just how long ago they were formed. More unexpected than the craters themselves are the things that are in it. Nearly every single crater has some sort of rusted piece of wreckage near its center. Pieces of broken ships, the fusillages from old planes, long-looted shipping containers, even a couple of automobiles. The sight of it is enough to make Namor stop dead in his wake, a look of astonished wonder on his face. "Whoa! Just... whoa!"
Namora	"Na..." Aquaria calls as she tries to catch up, there's a blind turn and so she can't stop when her cousin pulls up short. "...oof." she grunts as she barrels into him. She disentangles herself from the pink prince. "Why did you stop? Ohh." and then she sees why. "Is it a graveyard?"
Sub-Mariner	The shock of being collided with is enough to shake Namor out of his wonder-induced partial coma. He gets knocked over in a very unprincely fashion, and hurries to disentangle himself before Byrrah can round the last turn of the trench and make fun of him. He manages to right himself quickly, before Dorma and Byrrah are able to catch up. He must have been swimming faster than he thought... "I don't really know. I think it's a..." Swimming close to an old A Model Ford, or what's left of one, Namor reaches to grab the steering wheel, which breaks off easily in his hands. He looks at it for a moment before tossing it over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that all of this stuff is from... The Surface! That's amazing! But... how did it all get here?" Something catches Namor's eye, and he starts swimming toward a long, thin submersible craft that looks like it's been sitting there for more than a decade.
Namora	Aquaria doesn't ask if Namor is alright after the collision, he wouldn't have admitted to any injury anyway. She drifts down to the ruined automobile while Namor moves on. "What _is_ this?" she wonders. "This looks like a bench." it was a front seat once upon a time but the covering has long since rotted away and now there are just rusty springs everywhere, some of them with sharp ends. "A torture device? How horrible."
Sub-Mariner	Swimming past ruined pieces of surface world vehicles, Namor's attention is only briefly distracted by an old wooden ship. The figurehead at the front of the ship has basically rotten away to almost nothing, and the rest of the ship won't be far behind. Nothing there worth his attention, surely. But the submarine... that's a different matter altogether. Namor doesn't know that what he's looking at is an old British submarine. He doesn't know that the K-class submarines were steam-powered jokes that were completely outclassed by the German U-Boats of the time. He certainly doesn't know that the K-class submarines almost always sank due to accident rather than actual combat. What he DOES know, is that this ship is downright tiny compared to the massive vessels that make up the Atlantean fleet. In a way, it almost looks like it's much older than even the ancient flagship commanded by Thakorr's warlord: Numenor's Wrath. All he really knows is that he absolutely has to see what's inside. He tries to open the bulkhead, but the wheel that opens it once again snaps off in his hands. So instead, he looks to his cousin for help. "Hey, see if you can find something to pry this open with!"
Namora	Aquaria nods and starts rummaging about. She kicks away from the ruined car and flits over to a downed plane. "This might work." and she collects an aluminum strut. This she brings over to the prince. She collects her hair, which has drifted into her face like so much seaweed. "There could be pockets of explosive gas in there, like a methane bubble. Be careful."
Sub-Mariner	Carefully wedging the strut into the rusted door, Namor is extremely disappointed when it bends instead of prying the door off cleanly. Freaking aluminum. But it's not like there's a brand new crow bar just lying around. And at the very least, it made a space big enough for him to wedge his fingers through. "Don't be silly... if this was going to blow up it would have done it years ago." Namor's bravado is quickly returning, for better or worse. Who are we kidding? It'll almost definitely be for worse before the scene is over. We already saw how it ends. "Here... we... go!" Namor strains, until he finally pulls the door off of its hinges, and flings it behind him like a frisbee. Not quite as impressive as it sounds though, after all they're under water. "Come on, let's go look inside! There could be... treasure!" Leading the way, Namor heads into the pitch-dark vessel, his eyes rapidly adjusting to the lower level of light.
Namora	Byrrah pushes past the girls and follows Namor in. After all, he's a prince too (and Namor went first, so whatever's in there can eat the pink-skin and Byrrah can escape). Aquaria sighs as Dorma catches up as well. "Boys." she says. "I guess we should go in too, keep their caudals out of the net, huh?" and she flows into though the hatch as well.