"I don't think we should split up" you tell your friends as you notice the lack of people around you. All of you are trying to currently come to terms with your new situation along with the information just provided. "Then what should we do?" Katie asks you as you stare back at the slowly dispersing group of merpeople. Before, you had all been unified as a single group, now it seemed that mostly everybody had separated leaving the four of you all alone. Well technically you still had each other, but it still felt odd to go from forty people to just four.
"Why not join one of the colonies?" Anna says suddenly shocking the rest of you.
"Wait! Are you suggesting we start a life here in this place?" Frank said clearly in shock that his girlfriend suggested this idea.
"No I don't mean like a permanent stay" Anna says waving her hands quickly as to disregard the idea "I mean that... right now we don't have anywhere to go. I just think it makes more sense to reside in some sort of colony with others before we try finding a way to escape or whatnot"
The rest of you slowly find reason in her statement. After all, what else could you do? "I think there's a colony this way, I saw those greeters or whatever come from this direction" Frank says and the four of you begin to swim down below hoping to find some form of civilization. The four of you don't talk much, remaining quiet feels more trepidatious but it also seemed to be the only option at this point. Now that you feel yourself swimming, you can tell how unusual yet natural this all feels. You aren't exactly used to swimming so easily or without legs but with a fin nor the strange new traits you've acquired. Such as being able to breathe, see, or do just about everything underwater. But your new body feels like it was made for this environment and you secretly liked it, but this notion only frightened you. Perhaps being left to your own thoughts was more frightening than talking with each other.
After swimming for a good half hour you start to see a trio of merpeople swimming around before they spot you and swim away. "Why'd they do that?" Katie whispers a bit alarmed at their reactions. You put a lip to your mouth and tell everyone to move quietly and slowly as you approach the area you last saw them. All of you are wary of your surroundings even if they just resemble a normal ocean floor until you hear a loud "Excuse me?"
You turn to see one of the greeters from before swim toward you, the eel merman, and he looks a bit confused. "What are the four of you doing here?" he asks you. You explain how you were just trying to find a colony to reside in before he interrupts you. "Sorry, we're not a colony. Down here are only some employees of Davenport Corperation. We reside here as part of our jobs to supervise newcomers and manage other tasks"
"Wait! You guys willingly turned into Merpeople for your job?" Frank says shocked at not only the dedication but the absurdity of the choice.
"Of course. We fully support Mr. Davenport and we find that all who live here eventually do" the merman tells him "now if you want to find an actual colony I recommend you swim that way until you reach a gate. There will be some people there who will help you"
And with that the conversation is over. He swims away to join some other employees you assume and you make sure to leave as quickly as possible. You wanted nothing to do with the people who worked for Mr. Davenport let alone agreed with him. Now the swim feels more heavy as the four of you continue to keep feeling more crestfallen at each revelation of information you learn. The swim is much faster as you reach some gate made from stone clearly about 10 feet tall that is between two pillars, you assume that you can easily swim over it but it feels that the gate was placed more as for courtesy rather than protection.
"Hello? Is anybody there" Katie asks before you hear a few slight noises as a merman approaches the gate. "Hello. Are you here to join us?" the merman says clearly happy at your arrival.
"Yeah we are" you tell him. He smiles before responding with a "Great" and unlocks the gate letting you inside. You then begin to follow him as he leads you to an area where multiple mermen and mermaids reside. All different species and occupied in different activities. Some seem to be partaking in activities of leisure while others seem to be caught up in more basic acts of talking or eating. The entire foundation is surrounded by pillars of rocks with a myriad of caves forming small holes around the entire formation.
"Welcome to our colony, Aeroa, where we choose to live our lives in peace and similar to the lives we once had on Earth" the merman says. You look and notice that some of the merpeople do appear to be doing acts you would see back on land, except just an aquatic equivalent of it. "Don't worry you'll get used to our customs soon. Now what do you want to do first? If you want I can give you a tour, or would you rather find a cave to reside in first?"
Ultimately, you choose to...