Reality's Strange

The Octonauts (Melody's P.o.V.)

A.N.: Don't expect me to try and type out Tweak's accent, please. I can't even begin to figure out how to type it.

Andromeda seems to be angry at the cat. She's having- I'd call it a staring competition, but it's more of a glaring competition. The cat glances up at the ceiling, and then at the screen, and then the floor, all in one second. My oh-so-helpful mind immediately reminds me of the time when we went camping. When we joined back together after the trip, it seemed like Andromeda had tried to bandage up the tip of her tail, which turned out to have been sliced off in some way. I'm not quite sure how she got through the pain, though. When Midnight re-bandaged it and asked how she'd done it, the rat snapped at her! Andromeda! Snapping at her sister! Sure, she's a grumpy person, but usually she isn't that bad with her own family. When Midnight said it was a cat scratch, Andromeda just hissed to herself. We left her alone about it after that.

Wow, me.

If I'd written that down, it'd be a wall of text, I'm sure of it!

I pay attention to the others again.

"I'm Captain Barnacles, leader of the Octonauts," the polar bear says over the speaker thing, sounding a bit awkward for some reason. Maybe it's the glare Hilda gave him.

"The grumpy rat's Andromeda," I pipe up, and the grey rodent turns her death glare on me. Okay, maybe I could've done without the 'grumpy' thing. Andy looks around at me and gives me that 'not right now' look that has been used more times than I can count.

I can hear a faint buzzing. Possibly from the speaker thing.

"...Err, we'll head outside. Barnacles out," Captain Barnacles coughs, breaking the silence. There's a 'zee-oop' sound and the buzzing cuts out. I can faintly hear him saying something like 'Tweak, open the Octohatch'.

"You are in many levels of trouble," Andromeda hisses in my ear, before swimming away in her usual grumpy way.

By now, the rest of the crew have joined us, including Midnight. She can get pretty sulky, but she isn't nearly as bad as grumpy Andromeda. The rat looks at me inquisitively, and the insides of my ears go redder than normal.

Captain Barnacles swims up to us first. The cat follows, then Dashi, then the sea otter, and a few others. The octopus stays inside, though he appears to have hopped down some sort of chute. Among the 'Octonauts' here, the one that catches my eye is... a green bunny.

That's right.

A green bunny.

"You're green," I say in a monotone voice, staring at her.

"That's right."

"How is your fur green?"

"I dunno. Unique to my family, though. I'm Tweak."

Ah, so that was who Barnacles had been talking to when he said to open the 'Octohatch'. I nod slowly, unsure what to say. And then, "I'm Mel."

"I heard."

"Ah."

What an awkward conversation.

Andy seems to have striked up a conversation with - what's his name?

"...Shellington..." I overhear, managing to only notice that word. Ah, so the sea otter is called Shellington. They're discussing- I think it's called the Placebo Effect? Something about how someone gave someone else water and called it a life-saving medicine and it actually worked, despite it being just that - water. I'm not sure if it's true or not.

Hilda's discussing being a captain with Barnacles. A small penguin's talking with Midnight, and giving her medical tips.

Wow, I feel out of place.