This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Ok-Insurance1945 on 2024-09-14 15:22:20+00:00.

I have fins and a fluke. I like my fins and my fluke. I use them to push asteroids sometimes. I also have a dorsal fin. It gets in the way of rolling on asteroids. My mother gathered many asteroids for my nursery. “Stay in the middle and don’t be seen,” she said before leaving to feed, “And don’t jostle the asteroids about so much! They will push each other away and I will have to clean them up.” But what is there to do amongst the asteroids?

If I jostled only one, she would never know. As I swim around it I push it with my fins from this side, and with my fluke from that side. Now it has gone spinning. Too much spinning. I try to stop it spinning with my head. Ouch! The big asteroid scrapes my nose and starts to wander toward the others. I should stop it. But if I don’t, it will collide with all those other asteroids and make such a scene… and that will be fun to watch.

The asteroid slowly stops. Why, asteroid? Why would you stop? Asteroids go or asteroids collide. Only mother can make asteroids stop. 

Now the asteroid begins spinning. And spinning far too much! I follow the spin and on the other side of the asteroid I see something… something new. It is a shape like me but where I have a fluke it has something coarse and hot, and where I have fins it has long graspers that it uses to spin the asteroid. 

The new thing backs away from the asteroid with more course and hot spots on its body. It turns toward me, though its body doesn’t move a muscle. What a large eye it has! And what are those things inside the eye? Moving things with eyes of their own! Long graspers coming from their sides raise into the air above them and flap back and forth. I raise my fin up and down, copying them. They begin bouncing and touching each others graspers. 

I wanted to touch them too, I move close but the new thing moves away, the things in its eye no longer bouncing and grasping. I move closer again and the new thing moves back again. When I stop the new thing moves toward me! This is unexpected and almost frightening so I back away myself. The new thing then backs up again. This… is very fun! I move forward with a giddy flick of my fluke. The new thing turns around and it’s course hot spots get coarser and hotter. The new thing crosses between two asteroids and vanishes from sight. 

My fluke and my fins move almost on their own, yet not fast enough, as I give chase. Once I pass between the asteroids I find nothing there. I sense the new thing pass between two asteroids behind me. I weave between asteroids myself, enjoying our new game. A game of weaving and flying. There again is the new thing in front of me! It faces into the center of the cluster, my nursery. But I am not there. How thrilling! I swim to the new thing and touch it on the side. It immediately flicks about to face me with its eye. The things inside grasp their own centers. The new thing sneaks smoothly forward and touches my nose with its nose. Elated, I flee from the new thing. I hope it is chasing me. It is! I swim between two asteroids. A clever trick I learned from the new thing. Then I swim under an asteroid and hide on the other side. A clever trick I came up with myself. Slowly the new thing floats over the asteroid. It’s eye points away. I have fooled it! I swim under it and touch its belly with my nose. The new thing floats away, tumbling, course hot spots flickering all about it’s body. It turns around to look at me with its big eye. The things in its eye are not bouncing. One of the things reaches both its graspers out toward me, crossing them one in front of the other. The thing then strikes the other thing with it’s grasper. The other thing puts up both its graspers toward me. I have no graspers. I cannot copy them. I try to wiggle my fluke and my fins like they do with their graspers, but it only moves my body. I prefer our weaving and flying game. One of the things in the new thing’s eye grasps the other with both graspers. A shadow covers me. Mother has come back! She will like this new thing!