\n <\/p>\n
\u201cAnother one, Boss,\u201d Spooky haphazardly signed with his tentacles.<\/p>\n
\u201cMate, that\u2019s your fifth shot. You sure you\u2019re up for it?\u201d The bartender spoke in a low voice, locking eyes with two of Spooky\u2019s. Such a typical human habit \u2014 this compulsive need to make eye contact. It would have been far more practical to focus on the tentacles he used to communicate rather than struggling to pick which eye to look at.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright, alright, no need for the whole colour show \u2014 you really don\u2019t look good in black. A fifth shot it is!\u201d The bartender backpedalled quickly as Spooky\u2019s displeasure became obvious. Quadrinocularis were usually a quiet, docile species, more accustomed to basking in the sun for hours than arguing. Spooky, however, had cultivated a reputation for being irascible. When he got annoyed enough to change colour, most knew to keep their distance.<\/p>\n
Soon, a small glass of clear liquid was placed before him. The bartender struck a match, and blue flames licked the surface. Spooky flared his pores, greedily absorbing the rising fumes. His entire body shivered in pleasure. Immersed in the heady haze of Smokey Blast, he could almost believe he was back in his reef \u2014 rooted, at peace, at home.<\/p>\n
Life had been simple then. Days spent weaving colour-shows with his brethren, not for profit or spectacle but simply for the joy of creating something beautiful. Occasionally, a predator would stir things up, but the Quadrinocularis\u2019 eyes were excellent at spotting danger. More importantly, life had been static. It was so hard to remember what the reef had been like, now that he had been gone for so long. Only after a few Smokey Blasts could he recall the feeling of the warm currents flowing around him, the hum of his brethren blending into a harmony that resonated deep in his bones. His reef had been small \u2014 20, maybe 30, Quadrinocularis \u2014 but their synchronization had been unmatched. Even in the dead of night, there was always a soft pulse of colour, a quiet song of belonging. Then the humans came \u2014 driven by greed, curiosity, and their ceaseless need for movement and expansion \u2014 and everything fell apart. His homeworld, once serene, was now forever tainted by activity. His reef had lasted longer than most. It wasn\u2019t one of the great northern reefs, where thousands of Quadrinocularis moved as one, their collective shimmer making the sea itself vibrate with colour. There, the ocean was alive with a never-ending symphony. But humans needed space for their buildings, their entertainment, their noise. Like many of his friends, Spooky had left to chase the Universe\u2019s vaunted beauty \u2014 only to learn that beauty was a relative concept in the endless expanse of space.<\/p>\n
Read more science fiction from Nature Futures<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSa\u2019amm pretty, right? Saw this shade \u2014 blue, green, pink? And these side eyes? Mmm, top-notch for profile pics! Who cares if I\u2019m lil\u2019? 190 cm\u2019s a dumb human thing. Like, why\u2019s that the standard for models? And last week \u2014 last week, you know what they tol\u2019 me? They said I needed a better skin care rou\u2019ine! Smooth skin this, smooth skin that! Some of us like bein\u2019 a liiittle slimy! Discrimination, man, it\u2019s all discrimination!\u201d Spooky ranted.<\/p>\n
The bartender was fluent in Quadrinocularis tentacle language, but even he struggled to parse the avalanche of signs the wobbly appendages were throwing at him all at once.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, mate, it\u2019s all discrimination,\u201d the bartender nodded sagely. \u201cYou\u2019ll get another chance. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a brand out there looking for a pretty little thing like you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I jus\u2019 wanted was to stay in one place \u2019n\u2019 look all pretty, ya know? Ain\u2019t that what life\u2019s \u2019bout? I figured humans were all nuts, runnin\u2019 \u2019round, never just sittin\u2019 down to soak up the sun for a year or two, ya feel me? Then they come up with this fancy model gig, \u2019nd I\u2019m like, \u2018Hey, that\u2019s perfect for a Quadrinocularis like me!\u2019 Thought I could build my own lil\u2019 reef that way, ya know?\u201d<\/p>\n
His agitation reached a peak, even his rear tentacles were shaking wildly, turning his signs into an incomprehensible blur. His head began to vibrate, producing a resonant buzz.<\/p>\n
The bartender sighed, humming noncommittally as he focused on mixing drinks for another customer. When Spooky got like this \u2014 his words blurring into song \u2014 there was no point in responding anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAnother one, Boss,\u201d Spooky haphazardly signed with his tentacles. \u201cMate, that\u2019s your fifth shot. You sure you\u2019re up for it?\u201d The bartender spoke in a low voice, locking eyes with two of Spooky\u2019s. Such a typical human habit \u2014 this compulsive need to make eye contact. It would have been far more practical to focus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2876,20902,2930],"class_list":{"0":"post-38000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-beauty","9":"tag-beholder","10":"tag-eye"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}