I think we might be able to wrap this story up by the end of the month! Not often I can make predictions like that :)
Displaced I stopped as soon as I saw it moving, and Stef took a couple of steps ahead of me and then saw it too and stopped. He started moving backwards when the thing started to pull itself upwards, water splashing off it and onto the grooved deck around the moonpool. I froze, so Stef backed into me, and we ended up sort of side by side, not quite holding hands but definitely unwilling to let go of contact with another human. While the displaced water ran back into the moonpool and the thing in the water somehow reared up from.
It was sea-green, mostly, with darker patches that swirled around as though it was made of water. It appeared translucent until you concentrated and then you realised that only the surface -- the skin? -- was translucent and the deeper parts were opaque. It was shaped something like an s-shape, maybe like a sea-horse, but I could hold a sea-horse in the palm of my hand and this thing could hold me and Stef in its palm. If it had one; I couldn't see anything that looked like arms or legs. In fact, I was pretty much only guessing at where its head was too; for all I knew it might have kept its head at the other end.
Two great, green eyes opened; lines splitting across what I took to be the body of the sea-thing and opening into huge, glowing globes of a beautiful but bowel-clenching jade-green. A strong smell of freshly cooked rice filled the air, and just for a moment I was hungry. "You have not answered," said the thing in a voice that rang like a bell and seemed to resonate around the whole hidden deck. "What the holy fu--" came from Kraulik, still upstairs, but he was drowned out. "We are ready to conclude the contract, but you haven't answered." "Answered what?" demanded Kraulik, leaping down the ladder and landing with a heavy stamp at the bottom of it. He stormed forward. "And why are you shou..ou...ow. What in the seven hells is that?" "We agreed I would use the name 'Eden'," said the sea-thing sonorously. "Which of you is Chuckles?" Stef started to raise his hand but Kraulik slapped it down. "Chuckles is dead," he said. "Well, as good as. Trying to get down here, probably to answer you." "What is dead?" "Oh boy," whispered Stef. "He can't answer you any more," said Kraulik. "What was the question, we'll try and help." "Is everyone who is not part of the contract off the... plate?... now?"
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I think we might be able to wrap this story up by the end of the month! Not often I can make predictions like that :)
Displaced
I stopped as soon as I saw it moving, and Stef took a couple of steps ahead of me and then saw it too and stopped. He started moving backwards when the thing started to pull itself upwards, water splashing off it and onto the grooved deck around the moonpool. I froze, so Stef backed into me, and we ended up sort of side by side, not quite holding hands but definitely unwilling to let go of contact with another human. While the displaced water ran back into the moonpool and the thing in the water somehow reared up from.
It was sea-green, mostly, with darker patches that swirled around as though it was made of water. It appeared translucent until you concentrated and then you realised that only the surface -- the skin? -- was translucent and the deeper parts were opaque. It was shaped something like an s-shape, maybe like a sea-horse, but I could hold a sea-horse in the palm of my hand and this thing could hold me and Stef in its palm. If it had one; I couldn't see anything that looked like arms or legs. In fact, I was pretty much only guessing at where its head was too; for all I knew it might have kept its head at the other end.
Two great, green eyes opened; lines splitting across what I took to be the body of the sea-thing and opening into huge, glowing globes of a beautiful but bowel-clenching jade-green. A strong smell of freshly cooked rice filled the air, and just for a moment I was hungry.
"You have not answered," said the thing in a voice that rang like a bell and seemed to resonate around the whole hidden deck.
"What the holy fu--" came from Kraulik, still upstairs, but he was drowned out.
"We are ready to conclude the contract, but you haven't answered."
"Answered what?" demanded Kraulik, leaping down the ladder and landing with a heavy stamp at the bottom of it. He stormed forward. "And why are you shou..ou...ow. What in the seven hells is that?"
"We agreed I would use the name 'Eden'," said the sea-thing sonorously. "Which of you is Chuckles?"
Stef started to raise his hand but Kraulik slapped it down. "Chuckles is dead," he said. "Well, as good as. Trying to get down here, probably to answer you."
"What is dead?"
"Oh boy," whispered Stef.
"He can't answer you any more," said Kraulik. "What was the question, we'll try and help."
"Is everyone who is not part of the contract off the... plate?... now?"
Greg - I am excited to see the conclusion to this tale!
There are a lot of great details here. I think my favorites are Stef starting to raise his hand and all of your descriptions of Eden.
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