[DoA] Career trials: [DoA] Net weaving

Deep Six was, for lack of a better word, thoroughly screwed.

No, he didn’t mean the fact that he was just about at the very bottom of the sea, in the valleys and cracks between the seabed, so far down that if he wasn’t contaminated there was no way he would still have sight. That didn’t help, admittedly, with his predicament.

No, his predicament is that he was very entangled in the net that he weaved himself into. Suddenly, he understood why Event Horizon constantly called him an idiot. Because here he is, an idiot sandwiched between a rock (the wall of the chasm) and a hard place (ligament-nets that caught him between his scales). He tried wiggling, but the glowing red scutes that usually protected his back are becoming an encumbrance now, the thin and almost invisible strands of the net firmly wedged between them and preventing him from breaking them over the rock that he was stuck next to. Thankfully there was no fast current here, otherwise he might’ve been dragged away with the net still stuck to him. Even so, it wasn’t a nice place to be in for a long time… Maybe it was time to call for backup?

Deep Six dimmed and brightened his scales, hoping that Event Horizon was still nearby to see his signal. It was dark enough in the chasm that any bright flash of light would attract a fair amount of attention (hopefully not the wrong ones like a shark), and sure enough a few seconds later Event Horizon poked their snout around the corner with black and white stripes of irritation on their skin.

They then snorted a bubble ring at the predicament that Deep Six got into. What a supportive friend.

“See, I told you weaving that net in the current wasn’t a good idea,” Event Horizon gestured to Deep Six, twisted in an awkward C-shape.

Deep Six huffed while Event Horizon set to untangling the strings of ligament that were stuck on him. “Listen, in my defence it wasn’t that bad of an idea. It would have been just as hard to drag the whole net and anchor it to the sides of the chasm.”

“Great defence for the one trapped in the net right now,” Event Horizon did not in fact stop their laughing as they slowly took off the last strand of the net. “There you go, seriously, I’m not gonna save you again. Actually, you know what, let me weave it with you,” they decided.

Deep Six felt the need to protest for the sake of his dignity, but then closed his snout as he thought better of it. Event Horizon probably was more experienced at this type of weaving stuff than him. So he accepted, and the two of them had to scrap the last net they weaved to do it again.

“What did you need the net for again, anyway?” Event Horizon mentioned offhandedly as they were finishing up a section of the edge, tying each ligament twice to make the sides stronger.

“I was going to make these for hunting, you know, for some fish traps since there’s basically nothing to eat down here.” He stopped temporarily and gestured with a flipper to the landscape around them, which was in fact stunningly devoid of anything resembling a large enough aquatic animal to eat.

“Yes, but don’t we get a lot of those eels all over the place who scavenge from the brine pool? Surely you can just go and, I don’t know, lure them in with your fancy red light and catch them,” Event Horizon replied.

Deep Six stared at Event Horizon with a very unimpressed stare. “The eels are, A, a lot smaller than us and get into cracks a lot smaller than us in a fraction of the time we’d need, and B, have you seen how easily spooked they are?” He was referring to the times when they’d swam over the brine pool, not even aware that there were scavenging below, until they scattered smoothly into the cracks between the rocks around the pool before they could even react.

“Touché.”

A short while later, a shiny new net had been finished. It was smaller than the last one, at the insistence of Deep Six, to prevent accidental entanglement for a certain red and black Swamp Skimmer. The net’s strands were translucent, which would probably have been useful for hunting in the shallow water, but basically useless here anyway as the majority of the fish here don’t use sight at all. Still, it was strong and light, and made from the remnants of their previous meals. Deep Six felt like that was a bit morbid, but whatever.

In any case, the two of them dragged the net down to the closer side of the brine pool, Event Horizon being careful not to touch the extremely salty and toxic water below, and wedged the net in a few rocks, across a portion of the edge. That way, they should be poised to catch any eel scavengers who tried to access the brine pool. The edges of the net itself, illuminated by the soft white light of the brine pool itself, conducted the light much like a fish’s fins. It was accentuated by the blue and green algae that grew on the rocks surrounding them, also glowing, and for a moment Deep Six stopped and appreciated the scenery.

Hopefully, this will catch them some food.