Nuova Atlantide, Vecchia Venezia

Inspirations:

Axis Powers Hetalia/Hetalia World Stars (characters)

Hetaloid City of Water PV (characters, some plot and concept)

APH Doujinshi Dolfin (worldview, flooded Venice, dead and reincarnated Veneziano, gondola scene)

Rise of the Guardians (concept/worldview, character cameo)

MOTHER 3 (character names/cameos)

Current events (global warming, rising water level, etc.)

Various mythologies and folklore (worldview, characters)

Italics: thought or underwater speech (as sound does not travel well underwater, plus siren songs (presumably their voices) are magic, so some form of mental communication would be better suited for the purposes of siren communication)

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The first thing he sees is the ruins of a city.

He doesn't know how he came into existence, he just is. Sure, he doesn't know much about the world he's in, but he does know the basics - how to communicate, how to stay alive, what he can do.

What he doesn't have, though, is a purpose. Why is he here?

He speeds into the ruins (much faster than he would have expected, despite having no prior experiences to reference it to), hoping to find an answer.

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He names himself Venezia, after seeing it on a sign and deeming it a nice-sounding word.

It seems familiar and right, somehow, and he has no idea why.

That doesn't concern him much, though.

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Venezia wonders why he's trying to walk despite having a tail and not having seen anyone walk before.

Of course, the question "why does he know what walking is" is far more sensible for anyone in his place, but to him, it seems far to natural to even question.

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He's not alone in these ruins. There are others like him, others who have been here longer than he.

Having company is nice, and they teach him things he doesn't already know - how to hunt and scavenge for resources.

They tell him that their kind are sirenes, sea dwellers with beautiful scales and even more beautiful voices to match. He learns that sirenes are effectively immortal as long as they remain underwater, where nothing can or will hurt them.

In that case, Venezia asks, why would we need to hunt and scavenge in first place?

The others share a chuckle at his naivete.

For fun and enjoyment, of course, replies one of the elder sirenes.

Venezia pushes away the inherent wrongness he feels at that statement.

They're sirenes, it's in their nature to do such things, Venezia tells himself, without pausing to wonder why he does not think of himself as one of the sirenes.

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Venezia realizes that the word "Venezia" pops up a lot in that area. Like, a lot. It's almost everywhere. Maybe that's the name of this place, he thinks.