mom there’s a weird fish outside
closed starter with @vehxmence
Robin Ayou had learned to expect many things when she made the frozen wastes of the 4645B nigh-perpetual ocean her home. AL-AN’s world, while beautiful, was desolate, and almost impossible for her to survive without his perpetual presence. He had better things to do and she was here to help him if he needed it. If he could keep a phase gate secret for a millennia, a few more years wouldn’t be difficult.
Then there was Marguerit Maida, or Marg’ as she sometimes called herself, and Preston, her tame snowstalker. She had agreed to share space with Robin, who suspected the leathery bitch was just lonely and Robin made occasional forays to both her undersea base (had once helped Marguerit clean the place up and repair the modules that were there—had even “accidentally” left her fabricator) and the glacier-top greenhouse.
Robin also had her golden trivalve friend. Every morning, she would awaken in her windowed sleeping compartment to the thing’s silly little “face”—humans, Alan had said, were so prone to assigning their own features to other species which neither possessed nor required them, it was almost comical—pressed against the enameled glass, awaiting a treat.
Today, she saw something with far too many teeth and the trivalve nearly between its jaws. She leapt up instinctively, uncaring that she was nude, and bashed hopelessly on the glass, shrieking to leave the poor little thing alone. It was slippery and seemed to scoot free, heading underneath her compartment toward the moon pool where her prawn suit was docked. She turned and raced that way, unsure what she might do, but needing to do something. Robin skidded to a halt at the edge of the pool and realized her traitorous eyes were filling with ridiculous tears. She reached toward the clear water and cried out that the little fish-like mollusk hybrid thing should come to her.
Miraculously, it did. The little thing leapt bodily out of the water and into her bare arms making strange sounds and puffing against her equally bare chest. Eyes wide, Robin watched the water, unable to pull her eyes away to see if the thing would continue its pursuit.
