"I'm Fortitude!" Metamorphosis is clearly a sensitive subject. "I'm the only person in my brain. It does sound useful to have someone to make you do things when the Do Thing is inexplicably broken, but I have to do them all by myself. And we can feed ourselves... I mean, mostly."

"I think most of us could feed ourselves most of the time without a lover but we'd eventually spiral and starve or get sick and not take care of ourselves. So I'm glad we have them. Even Alinik."

Alinik assumes control just long enough to flick their body in the head, making Tanikit yelp and start laughing.

"-sorry. Um, you said you were pregnant. Do you need somewhere to lay your eggs? It didn't look like you could breathe water but I bet I could find somebody who thinks building a house and coparenting beachside sounds fun."

"I could be? I'm-- almost certainly not, I had my first uncontracepted sex last night."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Tanikit giggles. "I got all mixed up, there were a lot of words happening. Um... is there anything you need or else you're going to die? I can get you fish. Or fruit. Or pearls! I guess you probably don't need pearls that badly."

"I don't need pearls especially badly! What do you use pearls for?"

"We make art with them!" Tanikit swims up and runs his fingers over the pearl design on the spire, shivering happily. "There's lots of pretty things you can make art with - gold, gems, I saw someone make this beautiful picture out of black volcanic sand and white coral sand that he traveled years collecting, and then he went stomping through it, and that was part of the art - sorry, that's not really relevant. There's lots of pretty stuff but almost everybody likes pearls."

"Art isn't really very urgent for me right now. I can gather my own fruit, but it would be good to know which fruit is good to eat and which is poisonous."

"Wanna come to shore with me so I can show you?"

"Sure!"