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Chapter 1 | Wake Up Drowning

WC: 1649
Warnings: Repeated death, somewhat graphic violence

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The last thing Ranboo remembered was falling.

It wasn't like falling from a cliff or tall structure. There was no jarring impact from hitting the ground. In fact, there was no ground--It felt like he was plummeting to a bottom that didn't exist, a loop, over and over again, with no clear end.

It was suffocating, too. Ranboo couldn't quite describe the feeling, but it felt like something was pressing down on his chest and preventing him from breathing. The feeling wasn't very painful, though, just a dull ache at most. He could ignore it easily.

Then, he tried to suck in a breath, but all that came out was a strained gasp. His lungs tightened, fighting for some air that wasn't there before he blacked out from lack of it. The pain on his chest constricted, turning the dull pain into short, sharp punches, making it harder to ignore.

He might have been screaming. He couldn't hear anything besides the rush of wind as he fell faster and faster. He vaguely noticed his hands slashing through the air, attempting to grasp onto a surface or ledge, anything, to break his fall, to stop this horrible, infinite, suffocating plunge, anything at all...

But nothing was there to save him.

Nobody was there to help.

Then, all of a sudden, he found himself submerged in water.

He opened his eyes slowly, unsure if his vision was blurry because of his being underwater or because he was groggy and disoriented. Probably a mix of both. The sun was only a few meters above him--it shone brightly in his face, making him squint and turn away.

Ranboo floated lazily through the water, still trying to orient himself. He couldn't quite feel the water yet, for some reason. Maybe it was his fall? He hadn't remembered falling into this water. He must have hit the surface quite hard; maybe that's why he'd temporarily lost feeling in his body.

Then, without warning, the feeling in his body returned, and the water felt painful as hell.

Ranboo didn't understand why it hurt so much. It felt like scalding hot water was being splashed onto his body. No, not being splashed onto him. It felt like he was submerged in boiling water. There was no way ocean water could be this hot.

Worse, through his blurry, underwater vision, Ranboo could see actual steam coming off of his body, like he was melting in the water.

In a fit of panic and desperation, he kicked upwards towards the bright sunlight above him, but something seemed to be pulling him down slowly, fighting against his upward movements.

Ranboo tried to swim up again, but whatever force was pulling him down was stronger. He risked a look down at what was making him sink and noticed a faint orange glow coming from the seafloor--a magma cube, forming a bubble column designed to pull you down.

But being deeper in the ocean was the last place Ranboo wanted to be right now. He wanted to get out of the water, away from this horrible, burning, melting sensation he was feeling.

He had a sneaking suspicion it was the water causing all this--but why he was reacting so badly to it, he didn't know.

Ranboo kicked, thrashed, and fought his way up to the surface, but the magma cube at the bottom wanted him to sink to where it was. He tried to swim out of the bubble column, but he couldn't break free.

The pains were getting worse and worse every second he spent underwater--he felt like his whole body was dissolving--and he desperately wanted to be somewhere, anywhere that wasn't this water.