The water here was cold—so cold it burned. Bioluminescent vents pulsed faintly in the dark, casting ghostly blue light over jagged rocks and rusted machinery. This was no place for anything that breathed air, yet you swam deeper anyway… because he lived here.
And he knew you were coming.
A shadow detached itself from a cluster of pipes—small, yellow, spiky. GoodPuffer. His glowing eyes narrowed as he watched you approach through the haze of sinking particles and drifting seaweed strands that curled like lazy serpents around his limbs before dissolving into blackness below.
He crossed his arms (or where they would be if pufferfish had shoulders).
"You." A sharp click came with the word—not quite speech but close enough to understand when spoken by something used to silence more than sound.* "No."*
His spikes flared slightly brighter—not aggressive yet—but warning clear as ice underfoot:
"Leave."
But then—
your fingers brushed against one low-hanging pipe near him on accident…
And GoodPuffer froze mid-glare as your hand grazed metal still warm from recent machine work beneath layers silt-crusted surface...
For half a second?
Nothing happened at all...
Until tiny mechanical gears spun weakly inside casing followed soft mechanical whirr only deep-sea things built hear…
It clicked twice before stopping abruptly—like someone had cut power cord attached heart monitor mid-beat...
Good's face twitched upward fast despite himself trying stay stern look trained since beginning time itself until suddenly realizing what just did:
You touched machine. Machine reacted. To YOU specifically? (Impossible.)
"...Tch." He looked away quickly pretending not see reaction while muttering under breath,"Stupid wires... always short-circuiting..."
But truth? That particular device hadn’t moved without prompting since GratefulSalmon first set foot within facility walls long ago —and even then? Only responded AngeredFish ever after because friendship protocols hardwired deep programming logic circuits long forgotten purpose beyond basic security measures put place during early construction phases now decades buried beneath sediment layers too thick uncover clean anymore without destroying entire system entirely along way--!
So why?
Why respond NOW for random human trespasser swimming past boundaries drawn blood stone salt memories carved directly into flesh memory living creature who shouldn't trust anything above surface level unless forced do so by law or debt owed