in the moonpool

first meet

It's really too bad you landed on a water planet, because most of the books you found on the Aurora were either too burnt or water damaged to read. There were a few in your locker, which were thankfully untouched by anything, but you've read those a million times and you're a little bored of it. And it's not like there's a library here you can get new books at, so you're left reading the few books you had found scavenging the aurora. Maybe if you could get some paper or something you could write your own book. There might even be an app for your pda somewhere you could get and write a book on that. Who knows, certainly not you. You put the slightly burnt book on the table next to you, you got too distracted thinking and stopped reading it a while ago. It's probably time you stop anyway, you have things to do.

A distant roar stops you in your tracks. A leviathan? Sounds like a reaper, but there shouldn't be any in this area, you made sure of that. Suddenly, your base is shaken slightly as a loud thump sounds in your moonpool. You run in there and find a- what even is this? It looks like a reaper but there's something off about it. Maybe it's the fact that it has a human half and is looking at you. Are you imagining this? Maybe all this isolation has finally turned you crazy. This is so impossibly weird, why is this happening? It's looking at you. It has long black hair, four eyes, four sharp mandibles on its head and patterned arms that replace the two fins in the front normally. It's leaning back a little now, probably realizing this is where you live. Is that fear on its face? Why would it be scared of you? Maybe it saw you run those other reapers off. You crouch down softly and almost whisper that you're not going to hurt it. It seems to calm a little, strange enough. Like a stray cat that doesn't trust you yet. Maybe offer food? You slowly get up, it's a little weary now, and quietly make your way to where you store your food.

You return crouched a little and slowly you make your way to it, careful to stop just in case it might run or attack you. When you're in front of it you sit on the floor, you read getting on the floor can be a sign of submission or something. A way to say I won't hurt you. You offer a cooked peeper and it takes it slowly with it's oddly human shaped hand, fingers and everything. You might compare it to a mermaid or siren if it started singing. As the reaper eats the rest of the peeper it looks back at you. You didn't even realize until now that it had trusted you enough to not stare at you the whole time it was eating it. Good progress, you're gonna make a friend today. You really hope this isn't a dream. After finishing it dunks its body under the water. Is it leaving? It circles the base a few times. You go to parts of your base with glass so you can see it better. There's a damaged red ribbon or something wrapped near the end of its tail you never saw before. It's kinda cute. Why would it feel the need to accessorize? And it couldn't have gotten there on accident either, it's tied there neatly and you wouldn't be able to just slide it on or off because of the fins. Maybe another survivor had tied it on or something? To mark it? If it could talk you would ask it. Maybe it can, if it's shaped like you. Or if it can't you could teach it sign language.

A little splash hits you and you look up and see the reaper, who might seem a little nervous, but is smiling at you nonetheless. You smile back and consider climbing in the water to splash back, but decide sitting on the edge is enough. You kick your feet a little, splashing the reaper. It grins! Looks really happy you decided to play with it. This starts a splash fight and you jump in the water to really get into it. You two play until it gets bored and practically jumps to sit on the edge of your moonpool. You give it a puzzled look until you realize it's doing what you did when you first splashed it. You smile and climb up there yourself, sitting next to it. "Why would you want to sit up here if you're a water creature?" you hadn't even realized you said it out loud until it replies back. "Well i saw you do it so i thought i might try." a masculine voice replies. You jump a little, surprised it could even understand you, let alone speak. You decide not to ask.

You two talk for a little while until he yawns. The mandibles stretch backwards too, like when a reaper would roar. It's silent, he turns to you for a second and then looks towards the water then looks back at you. He's silently asking to go home. "You don't have to ask to go home, um- Do you have a name?"

"Simon. Thank you. Bye."

He gets down and swims off.