Andie hit the atmosphere of Cedric’s mindscape with a heavy splash. The air was thick like water - maybe thicker - but it was still distinctly air. Hard to breathe air that sat heavy in her lungs and blurred the line between gas and liquid, but air nonetheless.

Struggling to breathe as she drifted slowly down, Andie’s focus was getting blurry. Still, she tried her best to analyze her surroundings. Throughout the sky there were dozens of dirigibles, which were somewhere between atompunk, steampunk, and dieselpunk in design. They reminded her of the fantastical submarines from old stories about searching for Atlantis. They were only about nine feet tall - including the balloon that made up the majority of the contraption - so they definitely couldn’t fit a full size human inside. Not every mindscape had residents inside, and in those that did they were more like automata than people - just repeating simple tasks or going through the motions of living without any acknowledgment of anything around them. Still, there was something about the way they moved that gave Andie the feeling they were being piloted by a full crew of something.

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Andie shifted her gaze downward, scanning for anything that could lead her to Cedric’s Nightmare… or give her a hint on how to help Cedric beat it.

…something was wrong. Andie couldn’t put into words why, but what was below her just… wasn’t Cedric. A large whirlpool of clear blue water spun in slow motion, with fifty or so asphalt islands caught up in it. The asphalt was held afloat by brightly colored flotation devices, and each platform held two or three shops, diners, or other pleasantly commercial buildings - painted and designed as though they came from an idealized version of the ‘70s, ‘80s, or ‘90s. The decade and precise aesthetic varied from platform to platform, but each platform was completely consistent within itself.

It bothered Andie. All of it felt so… artificial. Worse still, there was an eerie tension that drifted throughout the place, and a nagging impulse for Andie to look behind her that came and went. Like the whole place was under surveillance… or something was hiding.