Put Rapunzel, the Jovian moon, Europa, the NASA mock “Space Tourism” posters, and octopuses together in a story and you have Sea Change. In this case, the prisoner is a genetically modified intelligent octopus designed for the underwater seas of Europa and the Prince is a researcher at the laboratory studying the environment.
The story takes the bones of the fable, the imprisonment of a dependent for her own good, an interloper who discovers the captive and works to free her, the discovery and blinding of the helper, and the final redemption thanks to the now-freed captive.
The story is part of a collection of sixteen. Each story starts with one of the humorous “Space Tourism” posters created by NASA and JPL. The posters apply the art deco style of the great steamship travel posters of the early 20th Century to imaginary escapes to the planets and moons of the solar system as well as to exoplanets first discovered in the 1990s.
I decided to pair each poster with a fable or fairy tale. The idea was to take the playful and emblematic imaginings of the visual designs and apply it to stories that are themselves timeless. Most are funny because that’s the way my imagination usually works. This story, however, is more serious than silly, like the poster it is paired with.