From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Underground Pool Beneath the City
A descent through street-art murals that shift and reform as they pass. Katita navigates by memory; Leif follows blind, trusting. The tunnel opens onto an impossible sight: a stone swimming pool carved into the bedrock beneath Newcastle, fed from the harbour by channels no map records. The water is still, reflecting nothing—or reflecting everything at once. They wade in. The scene becomes dreamlike, the animation's frame-rate warping. Katita swims with the precision of a blade moving through water; Leif floats, helpless and trusting. Then the seagull, recovered, descends into the chamber. Its metal talons close around them both. They cut free—Leif with his cannon, Katita with her blade—and are flung upward through the pool's far opening, bursting back onto the surface of the harbour at dusk. The camera pulls back: they are standing on the same apartment balcony where they began. Katita: “Honey. I know you've just woken up. But. We need to go for a drive.” The frame shifts. Katita now wears scrubs. A hospital room materializes. Half Two begins.