Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
By Martin and you are listening to Dad's Bedtime Stories. Tonight,
we're headed back into the Spaceship universe for an idea
brought to you by one of my Patreon sponsors, Jackson.
Jackson's idea was to have an ocean planet where spaceship
turns into a submarine and the kid gets to put
on scuba gear and they find a portal underwater that
apparently leads to a shark world, but they're stopped by
a sea horse named Jackson, who brings them to the
seahorse area or world instead. I thought an underwater world
would be a great idea, so that's exactly what we're
gonna do tonight. Before we get started, I just want
to give a few shout outs. First of all, thank
you to Jackson Rowan, who were the first ones to
sign up for My Dad's Bedtime Stories social share contest,
where they shared the podcast and filled out my Google form.
So they are currently the only two, at least at
the recording of this episode who are in a draw
for a guaranteed story idea. If you want to join
the contest, the details are in the description or show
notes or whatever you call them. Wherever you're listening, just
read up on them, join in and enter for a
guaranteed story idea. Next, I want to give a big
shout out to some Patreon sponsors that have joined in
the past week. Thank you first of all to Connor,
Reiley and Christina who listened to the podcast every night
and recently joined Patreon. It means a lot that you
joined Patreon, so thank you guys. Next up, I'd really
like to thank Cooper, Amelia and Courtney from Seattle for
joining Patreon and sponsoring the podcast very very much appreciated.
As well. Thank you to Eddie Clover and Liz from Maine, USA.
They also joined recently and I really really appreciate it.
And the last I'd like to give a shout out
to Henry and Charlie who recently joined Patreon under the
name Henry Charlie. So I don't really know anything else
about them, but I really appreciate you supporting the podcast. Now,
if parents out there want to join Patreon for as
little as one dollar a month, it does get you
had free episodes as well as any bonus content I have.
And that's only twelve dollars for an entire year if
you listen to the podcast a lot. Now, I know
that doesn't work for everyone, and that is why we've
finally gotten some podcast ads back on the podcast. I
know they're annoying in a little intrusive at times, but
they do fund the podcast as well, and as usual,
I make a guarantee to only put them at the
beginning and sort of right near the end of the intro.
I'm never gonna put them during stories, and I'm never
gonna put a roll at the end. So if you
hear any weird advertisements at the end, let me know
it might be where you're listening, because they're not supposed
to be there. And now a possible break for that
time to close your eyes, get as comfy as you
can in that bed, and imagine yourself doing what the
kid in the story does. You wake up inside your spaceship,
you stretch your arms and legs and head out to
the main part of the ship. Good morning, spaceship says,
I have discovered a very interesting planet. It seems to
be an underwater world. In addition, there is a strange
anomaly coming from below the surface of the ocean and
checking it out could lead to some adventure. Oh interesting, Uh, okay,
let's head for it, you say, understood, course said. Spaceship
turns a little bit to the left and you continue
to blast through hyper space for a little while. Eventually
the ship stops and you find yourself staring at a gigantic,
almost entirely blue planet with the fluffy white clouds flowing overhead.
You move to the control center of the ship, sit
down in the seat and grab a hold of the joystick.
You press forward on the throttle and steer the ship
straight towards the planet. There's a little bit of turbulence
as you pass through the atmosphere and dip below the clouds.
All you can see is ocean, ocean, ocean, and more ocean.
Is there any land here at all? You ask, yes,
spaceship answers below the water is plenty of land. Prepare
for submarine mode. The ship begins to glow around you
and its shape changes slightly. A gigantic circular window appears
at the front, little circular windows at the side, and
the ship hits the water, splashes down and starts to
sink at once. Everything around you turns blue and wavy.
Sunlight pours through the water overhead, and long golden beams
and small silver alien fish dark past the window like
living arrows. Wow, you say, the world outside is beautiful
as you sink down, Tall green sea plants sway back
and forth as if the whole world is breathing. Pink
coral branches spread like underwater trees, Huge smooth rocks lie
on the seafloor, and bright little fish weave in and
out of them. In the distance, something that looks like
a jellyfish drifts past like a glowing floating lantern. You
decide that you'd like to explore this first hand. Uh,
any idea if I can go for a swim myself,
You say yes. Your spacesuit has an underwater mode as well.
You look down at your watch and start to flip
through the different until you come to one that's a
picture of a sort of high tech spacesuit with flippers.
You press the accept button and the suit folds out
around your body, little nanites crawling out of the watch
and forming themselves into armor. Before long, you're entirely protected.
The helmet's a little larger than you're used to, and
it seems to have a bright light on the front
of it, and the feet are giant flippers. You head
to the back of the ship and notice that it's
been changed too. Instead of a simple opening to the outside,
there's now a door that leads to some other little room.
What's this for, you ask? That is for transitioning to
water without getting me entirely wet. Please enter inside. The
chamber will be filled with water, pressurized, and then the
hatch will open, spaceship explains. So you step through the door,
sit down on a little chair. The door closes, an
alarm goes off, and water starts to rise. You feel
perfectly safe in your spacesuit or well scuba gear in
this case. As water fills up the entire room. Once
it's completely full, there's a hissing noise in the back
hatch opens. You swim outside. You start to kick gently
and float over a garden of coral shapes shaped like
spirals and fans and sort of tower like things. Tiny
blue fish zip around your arms. A crab the size
of a dinner plate raises one claw at you as
if it's sort of shaking its fist As you swim past,
Hey crab, you say, as you swim overhead anomaly detected.
Spaceship says, I believe we have found the anomalous reading nearby.
Speaker 2: Follow me.
Speaker 1: Spaceship darts forward through the water, and you kick your
fins gently and follow behind. If you'd like to go
at a higher speed, just think about moving forward and
you will be pushed forward. You straighten both of your
legs and try just that, almost like magic, Your spacesuit
or well, scuba suit propels you forward through the water.
If you think about going faster, it goes faster, and
if you think about going slower, it goes slower. You
follow behind the ship until you see it. At first
it looks like a giant ring of light, but then
it swirls. The water inside it twists like a spinning
window made of blue green glass. Uh, spaceship, is that
what I think it is? You ask? I believe so.
It is either a portal or one of the fanciest
whirlpools I have ever seen. You turn slowly in the
water and stare at it. It hangs between two coral cliffs,
glowing brighter and brighter. Strange shapes move faintly inside it.
The edges shimmer like moonlight on water. A portal, you whisper,
I believe so, I recommend caution or excitement. It depends
on what's inside. You start swimming towards it. Then something
tiny zips directly in front of your mask. Stop stop, stop,
it says, you, nearly tumble backward. Hovering in front of
you is a little orange seahorse with bright eyes and
a curled tail. It's wearing what appears to be a
tiny shell helmet. You can't go in there, he cries, Uh,
you can talk. The seahorse blinks, of course I can talk,
can't you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: But well, just usually on my planet, seahorses don't talk.
Usually kids don't wear shiny bubble helmets either. But here
we are, he says. Spaceship's voice crackles in your helmet.
I believe I like him. The seahorse spins around dramatically
and points one tiny fin at the poor that he says,
goes to the big bad shark world. You look at
the glowing ring again, the wet the big bad shark world,
he repeats, very big, very bad, and from my experience
full of sharks, that does sound inconvenient, Spaceship adds. The
seahorse puffs himself up. My name is Jackson, he says,
and if you swim through that portal, you'll probably get gobbled, chased,
or chomped, or at the very least glared at in
a very unsettling manner. You glance at spaceship floating nearby
in its submarine form. So you've been in the world,
you asked Jackson. Once, and I ran into one of
the biggest sharks I've ever seen. I got out of
there as quickly as I could, and luckily I got
out with my life. Luck If you came here to explore,
then I can show you something much better than a
terrifying shark portal. I can show you my world. You smile.
Your world, the sea horse reefs, says Jackson, proudly, best
underwater world, and this entire planet. Probably I haven't actually
been everywhere. We accept the probably spaceship ads here follow me,
Jackson says, flicking his tail, he darts away like a
tiny orange arrow, and you swim after him. The deeper
you go, the more amazing everything becomes. The coral opens
into wide underwater streets lined with swaying sea fans and
shell lamps. Curved tunnels of woven seagrass connect little coral homes.
Bubble streams rise up from the seafloor like sparkling fountains,
And everywhere there are sea horses, little sea horses, big
sea horses, red ones, gold ones, purple ones, striped ones.
Some carry baskets of seaberries. Some teach baby sea horses
how to curl their tails around drifting plants. Some race
each other through rings of bubbles. A pair of seahorses
zoom past you, shouting out of the way, urgent bubble delivery.
Welcome to my world, Jackson says. He leads you to
a coral archway of swirling carvings of seahorses and waves.
This is the sad her Reef, he says. That's the school,
that's the shell market, and that's my house. The house
is tucked inside a giant spiral shell, with little polished
stones outside, and a sign made of driftwood that says
Jackson in sort of wobbly letters. You have your own house,
you ask, well, I share it with my family, says Jackson.
I'm not rich, you know. A large seahorse glides over.
She's blue green, with a necklace made of tiny pearls. Jackson,
She says, who is this. This is my new friend,
says Jackson, and also his talkative submarine. The seahorse lady
looks at you kindly welcome. I'm Jackson's mother. Nice to
meet you, you say, and I am Spaceship, says Spaceship.
Jackson's mother nods. That's good. Jackson tugs on your sleeve.
Come on, I'll show you the best part. Jackson leads
you to the heart of the reef, where a dozen
sea horses are gathered in an open coral circle. What's
happening here, you ask? A. Yeah, well, a sort of production,
Jackson answers, and slowly and softly, the sea horses begin
to sing, and as they sing, other fish begin to
join them, swimming around in circles, off in different patterns.
The whole thing looks kind of like a fireworks display
made entirely of fish, or a musical theater production. It's beautiful,
it's color, it sounds amazing. That is beautiful, you tell Jackson.
I know, this whole place is absolutely amazing. Other than
the portal, Uh yeah, has that always been there? You ask?
Unfortunately no, We seahorses used to live in peace until
that portal appeared. One day some of us ventured inside
but never came back. And as you know, when I
went to check things out, all I saw was a
gigantic shark. Life here used to be way better before
that portal. Now everybody's too scared to do anything fun
or go too far from the village. Well, why don't
we actually go check out the portal and see if
we can like close it or something. Spaceship's pretty good
at things like that, you suggest, Really you think you
could close it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Maybe, what do you.
Speaker 1: Think, Spaceship, I am very skilled at detecting and dealing
with anomalies. I will search my data banks, but first
we must explore the anomaly further. You mean you want
to go into shark world. I guess so it's okay.
Though Spaceship can protect us, you can even like come
inside the ship if you want. There's no way sharks
will hurt us inside that thing. Your ship can withstand
the attacks of a shark. Jackson asks, I think so.
I mean it's dealt with like laser beams and giant
robots before. I'm pretty sure you're gonna be safe from
a shark inside it. Well, then I will join you.
Lead the way you swim over to Spaceship. The back
hatch opens and you and Jackson move inside. You find
a little bull sitting on the bench. The bull is
for the seahorse, Spaceship explains, he will want to be
inside it before the water leaves. Jackson listens and swims
inside the bowl. The back hatch closes and all of
the water starts to drain out of the ship. You
press the button on your watch and your space suit
armor folds back inside it. Then you move over to
the little fish bowl, where Jackson still sitting. You pick
it up and move into the ship itself. Wow, this
is pretty cool inside, like your own little house mobile house.
Uh yeah, I guess, so, you say, as you walk
over to the command center and place Jackson on the dashboard.
You sit down in the seat, grab a hold of
the controls, and turn Spaceship around. All right, everyone, let's
head back to that portal and see what's really inside.
You press forward on the throttle and Spaceship starts to
zip forward back up through the coral and to where
you originally found the anomaly. The glowing swirling portal sits
in front of you. All right, everyone, are you ready
to go through? Three two one. But before you can
press on the throttle, the portal shimmers and something passes
through it, something large, almost as large as spaceship itself,
A gigantic shark. Oh no, spaceship initiate defenses, understood, spaceship says,
And immediately a whole bunch of laser cannons fold out
from the ship and point directly at the gigantic shark.
Speaker 2: WHOA, what's that about? The shark says.
Speaker 1: You press down on the speaker button and begin to
speak to the creature. You can talk, you say, of
course I can talk. You can talk. Uh, yeah, we
can talk too. We're inside the submarine. Oh I thought
you were the submarine, though I've never seen a submarine before.
Have you guys seen my nephew, the shark asks your nephew. Yes, Billy,
we always tell him not to go through the portal,
But does he listen?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Now my sister's making it everyone's problem.
Speaker 2: So I said.
Speaker 1: I'd brave things and come through here to find them.
Even though we're told that this place is a nightmare. Wait,
you're afraid of this place? Of course I am. As
far as we understand. It's full of tiny, little horse
like creatures that zip from place to place.
Speaker 2: They're creepy. You look over at.
Speaker 1: Jackson and then back at the giant viewing screen and
press down on the button again. You're afraid of the seahorses?
Is that what they call themselves? Those things are weird.
I was once sitting around on my side of the portal,
just minding my own business, when a little orange one
zipped straight into me. He just about scared the daylight
out of me. Then he zipped back through just as quickly. Ugh,
the feeling it gave me weird. Anyways, we sharks decided
to stay on our own side of the portal, but
little Billy didn't listen.
Speaker 2: Have you guys seen.
Speaker 1: A little shark around here about this tall No, but
we could help you find him. Oh that would be great.
Just be careful. There's a lot of little seahorses around here.
They're so weird. So you begin to search around the area.
Jackson leads you to all of the good possible hiding spots. Man,
I think there's a cave over here. He could be
in that, Jackson says. You steer the ship over towards
a large cave and slowly make your way inside. But
no shark. Next, Jackson leads you over to a coral maze.
He could have gotten trapped in the maze. He guides
you and the shark left and right, up and down
through the very intricate maze. But again you don't find
the shark anywhere. Ah, maybe some people at the village
will know where he is, Jackson says, you press the
button on the speaker and announce it to the shark.
We're wondering if we should check the seahorse village. Maybe
somebody else there has seen him. You say, you want
me to go to an entire village of those creepy
little horse creatures. The shark asks, ugh, I don't know
if I could do that. You could come in the
ship if you want to. You say, oh, yeah, I
would probably be better. You open up the back hatch.
The shark swims inside, and spaceship closes the hatch, keeping
him behind the little windowed wall.
Speaker 2: Oh this place is amazing. Wait a second, is that
a sea horse I see up there? The shark says, uh, yeah,
but don't worry, he's not gonna hurt you.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be so sh sure. You steer the ship
back down towards the seahorse village, through the coral, past
Jackson's house, and to the town center, where the same
sort of production is still going on, singing seahorses, swimming
fish and a little kid sized shark swimming around in
the middle. What that, Hey, press the button for me,
Jackson says. You press down on the speaker button, and
Jackson begins to talk. Ah, guys, isn't that a shark?
You ask the other sea horses look at the shark
and then back at the submarine.
Speaker 2: Uh, yeah it is. But he's so cool and so nice.
Speaker 3: He even told us that the whole other side of
the portal is absolutely beautiful and that sharks this are
afraid of sea horses do.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I sort of heard that already. Anyways, shark,
whatever your name is, your uncle's with us. He's been
looking for you, Uncle Ron. The shark says, Oh, her
uncle Ron.
Speaker 3: Hih, sorry I got lost.
Speaker 1: Tell him his mother's been worried. Ah, your mother's been worried,
Jackson says over the speaker. Follow us back to the portal.
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess we better go.
Speaker 1: You turn the ship around once again and lead the
little shark up through the coral back over to the portal,
and you finally enter inside, followed by the little shark.
Then you open up the back hatch and let the
big shark out.
Speaker 2: Thank you, The big.
Speaker 1: Shark says, you have shown true kindness. And it turns
out those sea horses might not be as scary as
we thought. It turns out sharks might not be so
bad either. In fact, this whole shark area is absolutely beautiful,
Jackson admits, and he's right. The Shark city, your shark
world is absolutely beautiful, like Jackson's world. It's filled with coral,
reefs and seaweed and beautiful colored fish of all different
shapes and sizes. Maybe seahorses and sharks can't get along
after all, maybe, the shark, admits you suddenly yawn.
Speaker 3: Oh well, this has been fun and all, but uh,
I think I should probably get you back home.
Speaker 1: Jackson. This has been a really weird journey. Honestly, eh,
I understand, but at least you've taught us something about
the sharks, and the sharks something about us. There's nothing
to be afraid of anymore, right, I mean, except like
being eaten by a shark. You say, what do you mean, Jackson, responds, well,
as much as they're afraid of see yours, as they
could definitely eat you. You are really small compared to them.
I'd never even thought of that, Jackson says, as you
walk his fish bowl back out to the back of
the ship. This gives me a lot to think about,
Jackson says. As you place him down on the bench
and make your way back into the main part of
the ship. You close the door and the back hatch
fills with water once again. Jackson swims out of the
bowl and the hatch opens up. Spaceship slowly rises up
to the surface of the planet through the seaweed, past
the coral reefs until it pops up and begins to
float on the surface. Then the ship glows around you
once again and forms itself back into its traditional spaceship mode.
You lift up off of the ground and the water
streams off of the ship. It rises up through the clouds,
through the atmosphere, and out into space once again. You,
feeling tired after such a strange adventure, head to your bedroom.
You crawl into your bed, You pull the covers up
to your chin, and you close your eyes. The lights
dim and you start to focus on your breath. With
each breath, your arms and legs begin to relax just
a little bit more, Sinking deeper and deeper into the mattress,
you let go of the tension from your shoulders, from
your neck, from your head, and your face, until you're
just gently floating on the bed. The more you breathe,
the deeper you sink, and the deeper you think, the
better you feel, until your mind starts to wander off
to thoughts of new dreams, new planets, and new adventures
to come. Good night, everyone, la never nion.
Speaker 2: A name ACoM never.
Speaker 1: In New yor
Speaker 3: More unionism thing no