SHIP'S LOG:

Eyes Without A Face

Grace Gearhorn 10/30/2026 10:07pm

The big creature took an interest to @Claira's creature, perched on its snout like that. The big one stood stock still and crossed its eyes looking and the little one, and let out a single snort.

They certainly did look a lot alike. Five cloven legs, black fur, three big horns, two glowing yellow-green eyes. One just much bigger than the other. It did seem like it could be a baby.

The big one sat back on its haunches with a thud. Then it tried blowing air out its bottom lip up over its nose to try and dislodge the little one. It was unsuccessful, and @Claira's creature let out squeals that definitely sounded like laughter.

"Weeeeek week week week! Weeeeeeek week week week!"

The handlers had left what was left of the pen, and a big hole had been knocked in the wall.

And through it was peeking a ragged little street urchin. An orphan of the swampy docks?

Grace Gearhorn 7/4/2026 11:42pm

"MWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" bellowed the creature.

It was huge, rearing up and flailing in its stall. A pair of handers were struggling with its tethers.

"Is that a BABY?" one cried. "For cripes sake get it out of here!"

"Huh?" The other handler turned to look our way, and was immediately sideswiped by one of the creature's five cloven legs. Black fur, three big horns, two glowing yellow-green eyes...

"Weeeeeeeeek!" cried @Claira's creature.

The giant one turned toward us and landed on all five hooves, crushing the other handler in the process. Then, it huffed, and it puffed, and it thrashed a pile of wooden crates with its horns. It stomped closer to us, backing Claira, her creature, and I, into a corner of the barn.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!" cried Claira's creature again, as it lept from Claira's shoulder and up into the face of the beast.

Leroy Spindels 3/7/2026 11:30pm

Naturally I didn't spend time making any "introductions." The entry to the pens was dark and windy, and I took my leave of the captain and crew before reaching where the creatures were held.

As I left the great smelly hall from a side exit, however, I knew they'd found their way. The roars and screeching were horrendous, and I cleared out before I was in any danger of being injured. I listened to timber cracking and planks splitting and splashes till reached the outskirts of town. It was time to find an airboat and return home.

Grace Gearhorn 11/5/2025 11:13pm

"Well, the Leeward Reaches are quite far from any centers of civilization" @Leroy Spindels said. "Not a cosmopolitan center like Ypsilanti Station. So you're bound to get some stares. But don't you worry. Reachers like to keep their distance!"

The soggy, teetering catwalks at this station had plenty of foot traffic, but people were clearing a path for us. Flouncey, the crotchety old shopkeeper and I, and @Claira with her little five-legged fur pig on her shoulders. Lots of stares and the denizens elbowing each other and whispering as we passed.

After a long walk through ever more dilapidated catwalks and storefronts, we came to a warehouse district. There was a new reek on the wind, competing with the fetid swamp fumes. Something musky, and the stench of piss an manure. Animal trade.

"MWEEEEEEEEEEEK!" came a roar from inside the buildings.

"Weeek?" said @Claira's creature.

"Right this way," said the shopkeeper. "I'll introduce you."

Grace Gearhorn 7/11/2025 11:27pm

"I guess I was expecting something... grander," I said.

"It's the location the shopkeeper gave us," @Ensign Charmers said. "Didn't notice many other options on our way in."

Up close, the Leeward Reaches lost their epic, glowing grandeur and had become something more fetid and murky. The substrate that was home to the bioluminescence became more and more diffuse, fuzzy and dissolving in the murk. The station the shopkeeper had directed us to was ramshackle, with sagging jetways and a sodden roof.

"Where is that shopkeeper, anyway?"

"Eager to be off board, captain. He's packed and waiting at the disembarkation hatch."

"Ok then. You have the bridge, Ensign. And let @Claira know we'll be heading out in 10 minutes."

Grace Gearhorn 3/19/2025 10:26pm

The Leeward Reaches. I'd never seen anything like it. Them. Whatever.

Even through the murk--and at such a great distance--they shone through. Bioluminescence wasn't unique on our side of the Drain, but never at this scale. Great feathery arms of fuzzy green and purple, stretching across the entire murkstretch as we could see it from the viewport.

"Triangulation says it's at least 7500 dripsecs, end to end," @Ensign Charmers said.

"Weeeeeeeek!"

Grace Gearhorn 11/24/2024 11:42pm

Traveling through the murk on the far side of the Drain is pretty much exactly what the murk is like on our side of the Drain.

"Oh no, captain," @Ensign Charmers. "Can't you smell the wonder? The excitement? The freedom of untamed lands?"

Of course, all the hatches were closed on the Eyes Without a Face. Otherwise the murk would pour in and drown us all. So the murk wasn't something one would generally ascribe a scent to. It was always just "there."

"Thinner too," continued @Ensign Charmers. "And less viscous. Which is why we're making such good time to the Leeward Reaches."

And once we reached the Leeward Reaches, see what we can find out about @Claira's little five-legged fur pig, and if it really is from this side of the drain.

"Steady as she goes, Ensign. You keep an eye on the conductivity and temperature too. Who knows what this side of the drain has in store."

"Aye aye, captain"

Leroy Spindels 7/31/2024 10:59pm

These are some fine accommodations indeed.

What strange designs they have from across the Drain... I can see the resemblance, but with so few visitors from the other side, their styles become reinterpreted endlessly through our own hardscrabble proclivities. I must say I prefer the "real thing," especially as an entrepreneur who specializes in what I market as "Home Culture Goods."

But what of the Peckerel? What will happen when these hapless colonialists discover their real nature? I'm already arranging my exit for shortly after my arrival at the Leeward Reaches...

Grace Gearhorn 4/8/2024 10:36pm

"I don't think taking a crotchety old shopkeeper on as crew really makes a lot of sense."

"Ahem," the shopkeeper said from behind me.

"And you've let him onto the bridge without permission?" I asked.

"He's the guide we need," @Ensign Charmers said. "He really does know all about the Peckerels."

"The what?" I said.

"Weeeeeeek!" said @Claira's creature,.

"If I may, ma'am," said the crotchety old shopkeeper, "I have been overdue for a visit home, and it's no problem for me to close up my shop for a few weeks. Consider it an exchange of services -- for one-way berth to the Leeward Reaches, I will introduce you to the leading experts on the Peckerel. I take it this creature's provenance is a mystery you are interested in?"

I didn't have an argument on that one.

"Ok," I said. "Charmers, see to a cabin for...?"

"Spindels, ma'am," said the shopkeeper. "Leroy Spindels."

Ensign Charmers 12/19/2023 11:56pm

“Awww, what a cute little Peckerel," said the shopkeeper, scratching @Claira's little five-legged creature right between its three little horns. "You folks don't look like you're from the Leeward Reaches."

"Weeeekweeekweekweekweek."

Claira's creature was almost purring.

"Oh, uh, no sir. We're from the far side of the Drain."

The shopkeeper looked startled, then took his off his spectacles and rubbed the lenses with his apron.

"Well then," he continued, taking a closer look at us. "Then you've been by the Leeward Reaches."

"No sir. Can't say we know where the Leeward Reaches are."

The shopkeeper looked at Claira more closely.

"Then you've meet someone from the Reaches?"

Claira looked at me with her eyebrows raised.

"Not that we know of, sir," I said. "We've never heard of these Reaches."

"Well, then, little Peckerel," he said. "You're a long way from home!"

"You know what kind of animal this is?" I asked.

"Well, yes. It's a Peckerel!" he said. "Only found on the Leeward Reaches, and don't much survive well beyond them." He looked at Claira's creature thoughtfully. "I had a dozen when I was young."