Octonauts Sea Dwellers: An Au where everything is the same, except all those crazy pirate stories Kwazii tells about all these scary sea monsters are actually true.

Captain Barnacles, you polar bear captain known for his level-headedness, had always chuckled at Kwazii's outlandish pirate tales of monstrous sea creatures. "Just tall tales, Kwazii," he'd often say, "misinterpretations of the deep." But a solo night mission to repair a faulty sentry camera would shatter his skepticism. He encountered a spectral whale that spoke of other realms and asked a chilling question. Returning to the Octopod shaken and inexplicably ill, Barnacles' usual stoicism was replaced by a creeping dread. The emergency lights flickered, casting long shadows, and a subtle scraping echoed from the hull... a sound that felt disturbingly real, confirming Kwazii's wildest stories were not just pirate yarns after all. Something monstrous was now aboard the Octopod.

Captain Barnacles wasn’t alone in his recent strange encounters.

Exploring a shipwreck with Kwazii, Tweak saw something odd—an unfamiliar creature. It stirred Kwazii’s tale of a half-fish, half-beast they were supposedly searching for (at least, Kwazii was; she was just there).

*Scoffing at pirate lore, she’d expected Kwazii’s disappointment. Instead, she’d seen something.

The monstrous image felt too real, so she dismissed it as a big, ugly fish she wanted to avoid.

Back on the Gup-A, she abruptly wanted to leave. Kwazii, surprisingly, didn't question her. He just looked concerned, yet knowing, and silently steered them home. Could he sense her fear?

...Or did Kwazii know the truth too?