Tag: click

I made it!

It’s been such a fun project! Even though I did have a couple days where I just did NOT want to do ANYTHING, I made my word count and got the story very close to a really nice conclusion! I can’t wait to share more of it once I get it edited up.

Excerpt:

“Please help me again,” Seth spoke and signed at the same time. “Again” was new to them, but he doubted it mattered.

Click remained dim for several seconds, not a flicker of what they might be thinking on their skin. Then, finally, they lit up in a new pattern he hadn’t seen in some time. They most often used it in his first days when he was skittish. “It’s okay,” he guessed it meant. Then, they used sign to emphasize it. “I’ll help you.”

Back again. Yesterday I wasn’t feeling it for making a post. Today I feel pretty awesome about what I wrote. I’m on the home stretch, folks. 😀

Word Count: 45,207

Excerpt:

Seth held up a hand and, after a shaky, hesitant moment, pressed it against the barrier of his reverse fish tank. It didn’t feel like glass; it never had. It always reminded him of those fountains, the ones with a sheet of water raining down a clear surface, and instead of glass this time it was slightly pliant, like a cushion against the wild current.

Click stared at him in shock, the patterns flickering through their head tendrils and across their face.

Then, just as hesitant and just as gingerly from pain, they held up their own hand. It was much larger than Seth’s, but still they placed their palm against the barrier opposite his, meeting his gesture the best they could. They practically hid him from sight when they did it.

I wrote a lot today! I got past a bit of a block (thanks to a pep talk from the inestimable @creatorofuniverses, u da best) and kept right on truckin. Also I found a place for one of my fave GT tropes at last, so there’s that

Word Count: 28,035

Excerpt:

He was just pushing himself up on his hands and knees when he felt it, and grimaced. A giant fingertip brushed at his back, strong enough to pin him down if it wanted to. Instead, it pinched at his hoodie and secured an unbreakable grip on him.

This was, admittedly, unexpected. Seth had just enough time to frown in confusion before his jacket pulled taut on his torso and he lifted upwards as effortlessly as a mouse in a cat’s paw.

No, wait. Not a great image– his thoughts were cut off by the movement of the sand below him as Click ferried him closer to the pool.

Today was a little bit slow going as I hedged on whether I was going to go ahead with a certain scene, but then I decided to go for it. Seth needed more conflict in his story (ha), and he needed more of a reason to be aligned with his fish giants, if not with all fish giants.

Word Count: 22,487

Excerpt:

This time, the fish they’d brought him emitted steam. There was no blood leaking over it, and the flesh was a whitish pink compared to the greyish red from before. If Seth were to guess, it had been boiled.

“How did you do that?” he asked before he could stop himself. Click, of course, had no answer for him, but merely watched with the same hopeful curiosity as before. Their mouth opened slightly, then closed, as if demonstrating for him what he was meant to do.

“Right, of course,” he muttered.

Made some decent plot(ish) progress today. The communication barrier is fun, but also it makes some things difficult for me. Like how do I make sure Seth knows that Click is a friend. How.

Word Count: 20,447

Excerpt:

He almost didn’t recognize Click at first. Most of the fish folk had the same sort of face, with sharp teeth, bulbous black eyes, and glowing tendrils on their heads. However, After noticing decorations of shells or coral or metal on the others, Seth realized that Click was entirely undecorated, and their betta-like fins were distinct among them.

As he watched, Click snatched a low-swimming fish out of the water. It flickered with bio-light, but couldn’t escape their grip. Seth’s mouth twisted into a frown, and he almost looked away. He didn’t want to watch the giant that kept him in a box tear a fish apart.

Another fish-giant rushed up to Click then, their own patterns glowing sharply and quickly. Click cringed back from them, clutching the fish they’d caught and chattering back. Another fish giant joined the confrontation, both advancing on Click with angry flashing and burbling.

Like schoolyard bullies, one seized Click by the arm while the other grabbed a handful of their head tendrils. Click opened their mouth, and then something stretched on their jaw and they opened their mouth even wider than should be possible, showing off even more of those sharp teeth.

Before they could retaliate, the other fish snatched their kill from their hands and darted away, clicking smugly.

I had some fun today, mostly with Click (the big feesh that initially dragged him under the ocean) bringing more stuff to Seth to make him feel better, and him mostly not feeling that much better but being too tired to panic. Things … will improve.

Word Count: 16,233

Excerpt:

The giant wasn’t discouraged. They tapped the pile of blankets, and their face glowed with an odd little rhythm of light. Seth imagined an expectant raise of the eyebrows, though the fish giant didn’t have any.

“I don’t want to be on it,” he said, his voice scratchy and tired. “It’s cold. I slept because I was tired, and I’m not tired.”

Click seemed to listen intently, but no sign of understanding appeared. They brushed gently at the blanket almost absently this time. Then they reached out and gently touched Seth’s cheek before he could flinch away.

“I-I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know what you want. I don’t want to sleep on these right now!” he cried out, too confused and wary to be frustrated.