#so close that is a prehistoric fish

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I'm reading burning Avalon and got jumpscared by huitzi with no hat

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I love bive

lemon demon reference??

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

how do I.

[mokeonn]

Eusthenopteron in hats

[marinebiologyshitposts]

FISH KIN: @lampriformity, your fish kin is...

Lampris guttatus, the Opah! Now, I do personally think it's cheating to assign you a lampriforme, because like. It is literally in your name, but I just couldn't resist this guy- and how could I? The Opah is a discoid pelagic ray-finned fish closely related to the Oarfish, probably one of the best-known Lampriformes! The Lampriformes shaped like the Opah are called "bathysomes", where the longer, slimmer ones are called "taeniosomes"- translating to "deep-bodied" and "ribbon-bodied" respectively! While the Opah is kinda an odd-man-out among the Lampriformes, given its unusual shape, the fossil record shows that MOST prehistoric Lampriformes were bathysomes- and it's only relatively recently that they started getting stretched longer! Thank you so much for your donation!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Nirmosho

Today's is interesting in that it's notably vague about what kind of creature this is, other than "lives in the river" and "smaller than a crocodile". (Convenient that the crocodile was so recent, now that I think of it.)

It should also be noted that this is our very last entry on an individual animal -- as we're winding down, our final half-dozen Bestiaryposts are going to be collections of multiple entries, mostly ones that I felt were too short or too obvious to give their own post. Artists should feel free to pick & choose which to draw, or do a group shot, or however they like.

If you don't know what this is about, you can learn at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

To see the entry the art is based on this week, click this link:

To see the entry for next week and potentially participate, click this one:

Now, let's see what people came up with.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn this very charming little beastie that is not unlike a horseshoe crab, just less flat. I really like this overall, but I'd like to highlight the tiny little eyes, the detail on the mouthparts, and the nifty fin-thing on its back.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) correctly observes that she's already drawn this one -- this is indeed the "certain kind of fish" mentioned in the Dolthruk entry, which she included in that illustration. However, in light of addition details, they have revised their design to create a fish that's capable of being mobile on land, basing it heavily on the mudskipper. Here we see an excellent image of two having a dispute in muddy water -- I particularly love the rendering of the fins and think the background works well here. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn this really nice fish inspired by various prehistoric species -- to me, it genuinely looks like this drawing would fit right into a series of illustrations in a paleontological text. To me, it's giving coelacanth, but that may be mostly because that's the only lobe-finned fish I recognize. I also like the little fang at the front. (And thank you for including alt text.)

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn this rather polite-looking snake, noting that the description provided lines up quite well with it being some sort of snake. As usual, the gold is in the naturalist-style description they've provided in the linked post -- in this case, I think it fits right in with any given article about unusual animal life cycles & behaviors. Weird, but not implausibly weird.

@wendievergreen (link to post here) is depicting, in their usual aesthetically pleasing stylized form, an insect life cycle. I like the idea of it being an insect, which does fit the description, I like the thought put into this crocodile-centric life cycle, and again I really like the vibe of the artwork here. See the linked post for more detail on the life cycle being depicted, and close-ups of the individual details of this drawing.

Now to see what the Aberdeen Bestiary has to say:

... yeah, that is neither a crocodile nor a fish.

The beast being killed here looks more like a medieval hyena than anything -- people who have read these posts from the beginning may find that spiny back familiar. And the creature killing it, which this entry is ostensibly describing, is dead-on identical to the standard-issue Medieval Wyvern Thing that you see in a lot of different manuscripts.

Anyway, as I'm certain nobody guessed from that illustration, we're going out with a bang on the world-famous... Ydrus.

If you've never heard of it, you're not alone. It isn't real, and is one of those imaginary beasts that never quite caught on. As far as I know, it pretty much only shows up in bestiaries -- occasionally it gets confused with the Hydra, but I don't think they were originally intended to be the same, similar names aside.

And now you know.

seriously i don't think the illustrator was making a lot of effort to fit the description

[lovelyerotica25]

Senshi x Laios fanfic idea:

Modern AU:

Senshi: A polynesian, Okinawan, or Filipino private chef who cooks with unique and exotic ingredients. He quite often goes hunting, foraging, fishing, etc, for the ingredients himself.

Laios: An American Paleontologist who loves learning researching about dinosaurs and the prehistoric world. He has a massive obsession with wanting to eat dinosaurs, since they are extinct, much to his dismay, he settles with their modern day relatives and creatures that resemble them.

How they met: Laios was conducting field research on prehistoric fossils with his team; Marcielle, a medic.

Chilchuck, an expert on prehistoric and ancient architecture, artifacts, and traps.

Falin: an expert on botany and horticultural medicine.

They had run out of food whilst on their expedition, and Laios took it as an opportunity to capture a crocodile to eat. An argument ensues amongst the team, and the noise alerts Senshi, who is nearby hunting for ingredients himself. Excited that he found someone who loves out of the ordinary ingredients as he does, he offers to help them cook the crocodile. Laios and Senshi bond over the experience, and Senshi asks to join their expedition.

They grow close over the expedition and eventually sexy stuff ensues. The expedition ends with Senshi inviting Laios to his home in Japan, which Laios just ever so casually happens to be working next, and Laios accepts. They eventually become boyfriends and live together and go casually hunting and foraging together as dates.

[ladychandraofthemoone]

In my au Stanley (narrow gauge) has a special interest in insects (I hc him as being into animals, they don’t judge you for your “jinx” and he’s got a soft spot for critters that are seen as “bad luck”) and tends to blurt out the most detailed information, he often info-dumps with and to Nia who encourages it cause it makes him happy once he’s freed from his “jinx” and she know every single insect name alphabetically along with their scientific names and nicknames Here we have Duke immediately regretting asking them if they can name every single species and ends up sleeping when they’re engrossed in their conversation before leaving when they were in the mid section of the e category (Nia gave him “the disappointment older sister look” awhile back so the poor guy can trapped there and wondered how did he got ever himself into this situation)

Basically it’s just Stanley to Duke in alphabetical order: Alderflies Angel Insects Anoplura (Sucking lice) Ants Antlions Aphids Archeognatha (Bristletails) Barklice Bees Beetles Bird lice Biting lice Blattodea (Cockroaches) Booklice Bristletails Bugs Butterflies Caddisflies Chewing lice Cicadas Cockroaches Coleoptera (Beetles) Collembola (Springtails) Crickets Damselflies Diplura Diptera (Flies) Dobsonflies Dragonflies-

Nia joining in cause she was mad at Duke: ah yes the alderfly which are megalopteran insects of the family Sialidae. They are closely related to the dobsonflies and fishflies as well as to the prehistoric Euchauliodidae. All living alderflies – about 66 species all together are part of the subfamily Sialinae, which contains nine extant genera. Sialinae have a body length of less than 25 mm (1 inch), long filamentous antennae, and four large dark wings of which the anterior pair is slightly longer than the posterior. They lack ocelli and their fourth tarsal segment is dilated and deeply bilobed. Dead alderfly larvae are used as bait in fishing-

duke:shooketh (Nia’s is basically the train version of a encyclopedia also her design is based off of MrTerrier673 on Twitter)

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I love bive

Bive when she sees Pest:

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

Words cannot express how much I love this art

(Credits to cube watermelon on deviantart)

[3584-tropical-fish]

hello fish! what ballets do u associate w vallerina? (& if you have specific clips can u link them pls?)

Hi morgan!!! I love having excuses to talk about ballet, thank you so so much for asking :D

I think The Rite of Spring (original title: Le Sacre du Printemps) is definitely the most fitting. The music is by Igor Stravinsky and original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky, but his choreography has since been lost, so I'm going to link the Joffrey Ballet's recreation, with choreography by Millicent Hodson. It is set in prehistoric Russia, and is about the sacrifice of a young girl (referred to as The Chosen One) in order to bring about the spring. And well. I feel like that theme of being chosen for some sort of great honor that is actually incredibly horrifying is quite fitting for Val.

The whole ballet is only about 30 minutes, but the Chosen One is chosen at the 18:28 mark, and she begins to dance herself to death at about 24:20

I've noticed that a lot of people reference Swan Lake, when they do vallerina art, which I'd guess is probably because it's one of the tragic ballets that is firmly in the public conscious and there's that Black Swan movie, but you know what people are right for it! A person is forced into a shape that doesn't fit them, is made no longer human, and its full of drama and death. Odile has this charm to her that is so fitting for Val, and I think this variation works nicely to get that energy across:

Though I also need an Odette clip, so here's the finale where she turns into a swan:

However, even more fitting for Val, I think, is the The Dying Swan by Mikhail Fokine, set to Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux. A swan song if ever there was one, a final bow for Val, trying to escape but not quite able to.

I think to close out my collection of ballet blancs I am legally obligated to also include Giselle (or, Les Wilis). A story about a girl who was wronged by her lover and dies, joining the ranks of all of the other undead women who were wronged by their lovers - the Wilis.

Paul Taylor's Esplanade I just think is fun, and the frantic vibes of it and the use of classical music are fitting for Val

Also for vibes I will share After the Rain by Christopher Wheeldon!

For the life of me I cannot find a video of Septet by Merce Cunningham, but that uses Trois morceaux en form de poire by Erik Satie, so I associate it with Val because the music that plays when she talks about wanting to be a ballerina is another Satie piece.

Anyways! That's a lot, hopefully you enjoy them, and thank you again for asking!!! If nothing else I hope more people can come to appreciate Rite of Spring as a Val ballet, because out of everything I do think that is the Most fitting

FUCK hang on im gonna throw this juliet variation in last minute this is fun too

[d6b-onion]

"Why can't this river just be normal," Mystia complained, slowly overtaken by boredom at the edge of the pier, fishing rod in hand. Her legs slowly dangled just above the water, with some of the higher ripples tickling the bottom of her feet from time to time. "Catching lamprey's usually a piece of cake," she pouted.

"Hun, I told you the Sanzu was pretty unusual~!" Urumi said in a sing-song voice. The fisherwoman sat a bit further along the pier, alongside several fishing rods affixed to the ground, which both increased yield and meant she had nothing to do until something took the bait. Compared to Mystia's flimsy handheld setup, it was very clear which one of the two was a professional. Patience being part of her trade, she just lounged with all of her length on the wooden floor, using her long, red horns to idly scratch the surface from time to time.

"Yeah, yeah, in any case, the lampreys here just look plain weird."

"That's because they're not your usual lampreys. Rather, they're a close prehistoric relative thereof, which doesn't really have a name, but I call a Yanliao lamprey. In fact, the Outside World name for it is apparently Yanliomyzon-"

"Oh, save it with all the fancy talk!" Mystia interrupted, throwing her arms up in the air, before quickly realizing she had significantly shaken the bobber, scaring away any and everything that was remotely close. She slumped down slightly and sighed deeply.

"Tsk, hun, you're gonna scare away all of my fish," Urumi said.

Mystia turned back to look and stuck out her tongue defiantly. "All that means is that I'm going to catch my own." She paused, and leaned forwards a bit. "I do need it for this evening, after all…" she said, sounding very glum.

Urumi sighed even harder, but it didn't sound totally displeased. If anything, she almost sounded.. relieved? "Oh, what will I do with you…" She slowly (and rather quietly) got up, before walking over to right behind Mystia. "So. Need some help, hun?"

Mystia's pride almost had her snappily reply "no", but she held it in for just an instant to consider it. Fishing in the Sanzu was a lot harder than she'd bargained for, and she needed the lamprey to keep her stand running. Urumi knew the Sanzu's fish inside out, and her help would definitely be valuabe. But Mystia really didn't fancy the idea of getting outside help, and relinquishing her sweet sweet "self-made businesswoman" title (that nobody else ever used).

"…Fine," she said, almost resigned to her fate.

Urumi quietly giggled at the night sparrow's theatrics. The sound bothered Mystia, in some way.

"Well, in that case, let me show you, hun. Here on the Sanzu, the current is everything."

She knelt down, and extended an arm above Mystia's shoulder to point to the place where her bobber currently stayed.

"This spot's no good, there's too much current and the fish don't dwell here for very long, you need a quieter place, such as… here."

She moved her arm to point to a spot slightly closer to the shore, where the water looked more still. However, to point more precisely, she leaned forward a bit more, and pressed the rest of her body right against Mystia's back. She instantly tensed up, not expecting the sudden contact. As the sensation settled in, she felt that refusing to get help was perhaps a tad misguided. The fisherwoman was a lot bigger and taller than her, easily encompassing her small frame. Now she couldn't ignore the sizable chest pressing against her back, which turned out to be much more intense than the sight. Urumi's body, close and warm, wrapped around her own small body. The warmth soon spread to her own chest, her head and her cheeks, a blush slowly forming.

Now, now, Mystia thought, this isn't the time to be distracted by her body no matter how beautiful she is, just focus on the fishing. She pulled the bobber back, then the rod, then swung it forwards, taking great care to not hit Urumi (including her horns), aiming for the spot that had just been pointed out to her. When the bobber landed and resurfaced, it was almost right on the spot. Amazing what I can do when not distracted by-

"Very good, hun~" Urumi said in a mellow voice, so close to Mystia's ear that she could feel her breathing against the lobe. Her train of thought came to screeching halt. The voice, the tickling sensation, Urumi's voice was like honey, effortlessly seeping into her ears and brain. Her blush grew even stronger, her body and mind overtaken by Urumi's presence. She breathed out, trying to calm herself down, but realized partway through she was being very loud.

"Birdie? Everything okay?" Urumi asked with concern, oblivious to Mystia's turmoil.

Her embarassment quickly trumped the elation from the use of that nickname, and she scrambled to answer. "Y-Yeah! No problem with me, d-don't worry about it!" she said, very unconvincingly.

Though, it was true that she had zero qualms with their current situation, save for Urumi noticing how much of a mess the proximity was making of her.

"Are you sure, hun? You-"

"Y-Yes, it's okay, I swear! I'd rather just focus on the fishing, okay?" Mystia interrupted, desperate that it would make Urumi drop it.

"…Alright, if you say so," Urumi conceded, wondering what they could possibly be doing other than fishing.

Mystia's embarassment began to recede, but her blush didn't. She would enjoy this small moment of connection for as long as it lasted, just the two of them. She relished in the sensations, both completely unfamiliar and something she knew she'd needed forever.

Mystia reckoned that asking for help maybe wasn't always so bad.

[caminthemoshpitatweezer]

I love bive

any regretevator fans here

[helmetjellyfish]

hello! this post is going to be a little different from anything i've written before, because today we're looking at fish.

this fish, to be exact.

this fish is one of the many prehistoric creatures we see in minato's dreams from ch. 48. the translation team did a wonderful job identifying several creatures and explaining them in general, but i haven't seen any specific discussion about this one yet. so i figured i'd talk about what i think this fish is and what i think it represents.

the rest of this post will be under the cut, because there's lots of images and it's going to get quite long. here we go!

so what fish is this?

let's start by looking at these three images for reference:

(you may have noticed that the head shape of the fish in the first image is a bit different from the one in the second. however, since the rest of their bodies are very, very similar to each other, i'm assuming that they are intended to be the same fish and the head shape of the second one is closer to the 'correct' bodyplan.)

to begin with, we can see that the fins are attached to the body with these fleshy lobes, meaning that this fish is probably a "lobe-finned fish" belonging to the clade Sarcopterygii.

Sarcopterygii can be split up into three more clades:

Actinistia - the coelacanths and their close relatives

Dipnoi - the lungfishes and their close relatives

Tetrapodomorpha - the tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) and their close relatives

just based on morphology, we can narrow it down to Actinistia. so coelacanths! the thing with coelacanths is that one of their most notable characteristics is their weird tail:

this is a replica of the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), which is one of the two species alive today. here you can see that the tail is split up into three lobes: the top and bottom lobes are the same width and length, while the one in the middle is smaller and protrudes further out. their tail is diphycercal, which means that the vertebrae extend all the way to the tip of the tail and the tail itself is symmetrical.

both living species of coelacanth have a diphycercal tail. in fact, almost every single genus in Actinistia has a diphycercal tail. but our fish doesn't. its tail has only two lobes, where the bottom one is much bigger than the top, which is a heterocercal tail. why is that?

it turns out you have to look really, really, really far back in Actinistia to find fish without diphycercal tails. and when you look back far enough...

you find Miguashaia, a fish that lived during the Devonian period 365 million years ago. a fish that also happens to be the most primitive coelacanth we know.

in other (slightly more overgeneralizing) words, it's the oldest coelacanth, so old that it doesn’t even have one of the main features we now associate with coelacanths. neat!

okay. why do i care about this fish?

isn't it odd that we see this same fish following minato for multiple pages during the dream sequence, when most of the other creatures only appear for a single panel or two?

it's especially weird by the time we get to the reunion with nagiko, when we stop seeing any other prehistoric creatures in the foreground (save for the basilosaurus skeleton). but this fish still stays next to minato, and neither him nor nagiko seem to acknowledge its presence. it... doesn't really do anything either. it just hangs around at minato's side or right behind him, like it's watching over him.

doesn’t it look a bit out of place in this scene?

and then what’s stranger is that we see it again later on. when haruno voices his concerns about minato's mental state in ch. 50, the implication being that he thinks minato might follow his wife to the grave, we get this panel to go with it:

there’s the whale skeleton and lion’s mane jellyfish, both of which have been previously used to represent nagiko. there's minato, reaching out to the jellyfish with the hand he wears his wedding ring on. and then there’s... the fish again. as before, minato doesn't interact with it at all. in fact, his back is completely turned to it, but the fish is still continuing to watch him from afar.

i already had some suspicions even before ch. 50, but this panel is the one that made me go "oh, okay, so that's definitely supposed to be a person, right?".

nagiko isn't the only character in the story who's connected to a particular deep sea creature or two: there's nagisa with the flapjack octopus, shizuka with the basket star, ryou with the cookiecutter shark, etc. we haven't had anyone with a prehistoric species yet, let alone a prehistoric coelacanth, but we do have someone who's depicted with modern day coelacanths pretty frequently:

so who would be a likely candidate for its ancient relative: a fish that's distinct enough from its kin to be recognized as a separate entity, while still sharing many visual similarities?

who's the person that's the most likely to come to mind whenever minato thinks of nagiko? a person who had always been at his side in his younger days? a person that minato can't truly see or talk to in his dreams, because he remains out of his reach?

a person who still continues to haunt him, even now?

wonder who that could be.

[paleoforest]

My List of super Old Browser Games with Dinosaur Thematic/Lore/Gameplay

There are Flash and Unity

These games I first played more than 10 years ago, and by re-opening them, I had a nostalgic experience. Here only remarkable and memorable games what deserve their ray of glory, yep.

Non-playable games are crossed out by red diagonal: "Jetpack Brontosaurus" (3D) was very poorly archived on FlashPoint, and the second one "Век Рептилий: бои дино!" (it used to called " Dino Crisis: Затерянный мир!") is a 2D multiplayer from Russian social media VKontakte, and its servers have been closed long time ago. So yeah, all most of them still playable! I have info/files each of 'em !!! For example, Lego ones needs .exe for launch. There are many ways to play them!

Rest titles for search: 2D: Eggstinction, Dino Run: Marathon of Doom!, Lego: Dino Outbreak, Dino Panic (2x), T-Rex Rampage: Prehistoric Pizza (Hot Wheels), Dino Paint, Gone Fishing (baryonyx), Robot Dinosaurs That Shoot Beams When They Roar, Dinosaurs and Meteors, Prehistoric Shark, Battle of Giants: Dinosaurs, Donald the Dino, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, DINOK, L.A. Rex, One Man and His Dinosaur (shepherd-theropod), Lego: Dino Archeological Dig, Obama Jurassic Park, Dino Soars!, Dino Duet, Me and My Dinosaur, Caveman Climb, BM REX, Dinosaur Killer 3D and of course Google Chrome Dinosaur. 3D: Dino Storm (Wild Western), Off-Road Velociraptor Safari (developers of Jetpack Brontosaurus)

Someday I will make fanarts and video about paleo games with my voice!!!!!! not in english, cause I'm very poor in english(( P.S. I tried to upload post in r/Dinosaurs, but my suggestion been ignored for 3 months

[naomilibicki]

Hey so!

I Heart Sapphfic is doing a weekly reading challenge, and one of this week's categories is Knight, and guess whose book (well, novella) is featured?

But that's not all! In honor of the occasion, Alter and I have written a new bonus story about Aviva and Bet, and you can read it right after the read more:

The doors of the downtown bound B train slid open to a prehistoric sea.  Through the clear water, past schools of fish and waving stands of feathery creatures, Aviva could see the name of the station in mosaic tile: 81st Street - Museum of Natural History. Embedded in the wall beside it were bronze casts of fossils.

No water poured into the car, and none of the other passengers seemed to notice anything strange. None of them moved to get off, either. Aviva—sometimes known as Vivienne of the Roses, Midnight Queen, Grand Sorceress of the Last Court—took a scarf of air and darkness out of her backpack, wrapped it around the lower half of her face, walked through the door of the train and swam out into the submerged platform, which melted away entirely, leaving nothing but the sea.

Bet had invited her to a date in the museum, and she'd been excited to go, but this wasn't . . . Bet, sometimes known as Queen Ysabet of the Sword, Pendragon of the Last Court, had made a lot of enemies when she'd taken the Pendragon's crown, and rededicated the court to fighting the monsters that lay in the shadows and preyed on those who did not see them.  This seemed a lot more like an attack than like a date.

All the fish suddenly darted away as a shadow appeared overhead: a long oval, two flippers on either side of it. Aviva moved along with them, taking cover among the fronds until the thing passed. It took longer than she expected. It wasn't that it was moving slowly, it was just that it was enormous.

Once it was gone, Aviva swam back out and took stock. Even in these strange surroundings, a structure stood out: a massive tower of twisted coral, its top above the surface, out of sight. She made her way towards it, past a school of creatures with tendrils drifting behind spiral shells. Ammonites. Aviva recognized them from the last time she was at the museum, and from the bronze casts in the station.  One brushed against her as they scudded by, heedless, and it felt heavier than it should have been, solid. On impulse, she reached out, and her hand closed on hard stone. When she opened it, the ammonite lay there unmoving. Not an illusion. A fossil.

She slipped it into her pocket and pulled herself into the tower's shadowed entrance. In here, there was air, and she pulled the scarf away from her face, calling, “Bet?  Ysabet?”

Nothing.  The tower was sandstone and coral, with windows of shimmering glass, and a spiral staircase of mother-of-pearl that looped up and around.  She followed it, up, up right near the surface of the water, where Queen Ysabet of Sword hung from the ceiling, her wrists held by cords of seaweed. Her feet barely touched the floor. Her armor was pocked with barnacles and her head hung down, her cropped blonde hair hanging ragged in her face. How long had she been here?

Her head snapped up as soon as Aviva came in.  "Vivi!" said Bet, before Aviva could say anything at all.  "You should've have come."

That was nonsense.  "What do you mean I shouldn't have come," said Aviva, crossing the room quickly, standing on her tiptoes to tug at the seaweed.  Enchanted, of course, otherwise Bet would've pulled them loose herself, she was impossibly strong.  "You said to come here and we'd have a date, then there were three smiley faces, one sideways smiley face, a rainbow flag, and there was a pound sign and 'loveyou' as one word."

"Does that sound like the way I talk?" asked Bet.

"No," said Aviva.  "But I thought that's what people were like when they were texting."

Bet sighed.  "Of course," she said.  "You know as much about text messages as she does.  It doesn't matter.  She stole my phone, and she wants you, not me.  You have to—"

“Who?” asked Aviva.

“Undine,” said Bet, and, as if summoned, she was outside the windows of the chamber, massive and inhuman, her face nearly half as tall as Aviva, with small reflective eyes, an elongated muzzle filled with pointed teeth, and hair fanning out behind it like streamers of kelp.

“Undine,” the thing repeated. “And you are the Grand Sorceress of the Last Court. You shall serve.”

Bet clenched her teeth and growled, “No, she won't.”

Ignoring her, Undine fixed one beady eye on Aviva. "There is not enough magic left in this place, for me, and—" there was an angry thrash of its tail, the bulk of moving so much water that the windows of the tower flexed under the pressure.  "And it has become hostile to me and my kind.  So, I will go back to where the world was pleasant, and it shall be your strength that shall keep us there."

"Shall it?" said Aviva, still tugging at the seaweed that held Bet prisoner, not even watching as the bulk of Undine made its slow way around the coral tower.  "I don't think it shall."

"You stood surety for the Pendragon once before," said Undine.  "You shall stand surety for her again, or I shall take her and keep here where you cannot find her, and if my body washes up on the shores of the Hudson, hers will wash up beside me.  If you do not stand—"

“I will always,” said Aviva, reaching up to grasp Bet's hand, “stand with the Pendragon.”

Undine gave a long hiss of satisfaction, bubbles frothing from her snout. “Then swear that you will remain my prisoner, my spark of magic beneath the water, and I will release her.”

Aviva let her hand trail down Bet's arm, seaweed slimy beneath her fingers and the armor hard and unyielding beneath, as she stepped forward and raised her chin.

“Vivienne!” Bet snapped.

And the seaweed binding her wrists snapped too, sending Bet to stumble forward a few steps before she recovered her feet. Aviva shot her a sidelong smile. She'd known she could get that binding loose—she'd just needed a little time.

Bet huffed out a breath and shook her head, then returned Aviva's smile as her sword Glad Tidings leapt into her hand, and she launched herself out the window at Undine.  The windows buckled and cracked, all at once, and the water washed in.  Aviva was battered by it as she pulled her scarf back around her face, and then she ducked down in beneath the water, to watch Bet battle Undine.

Ever since she'd first come to the Last Court, Aviva had loved watching Bet fight, her deadly grace and economy of movement, precision and passion. Undine was massive, half-woman, half-monster, with razor-sharp teeth and a muscular tail that sent Bet spinning through the water when it connected. But it didn't connect often. Bet was too fast, her blade too accurate, leaving dozens of small cuts on Undine's body, ribbons of blood unspooling in the water.

But when she finally drove her sword home, sinking deep into Undine's chest, Undine only laughed.

“Fool! You cannot kill me! My life is hidden, ancient as the sea, hard as stone, black as night—”

As she spoke, Aviva's hand closed on the fossil in her pocket.  She wasn't the swimmer that Bet was, or Undine, and she wasn't at all sure she'd be able to get away from that tail.  But she swam out, fast as she could, and when she reached out with the fossil, Glad Tidings was there; it cut through water and stone and it did not touch Aviva's hand; the two halves of the fossil fell away, one on either side of her hand, sinking fast.  And Undine gave a shriek and sank down as well, down, down into the darkness below.

The water subsided at the same time, the prehistoric creatures flickering and fading from view, the coral tower crumbling beneath Aviva's feet. Soon she and Bet were standing on the subway platform again. Bet let her armor fade and bent to pick up her phone, and Aviva wrung out her hair.

“So,” said Aviva. “You promised me a date at the Natural History Museum.”

“That wasn't me!” Bet protested. "That was someone who texted with multiple emojis."  Then she linked her arm with Aviva's. “But as long as we're here, we might as well go.”

Aviva nodded. “I already got us tickets. I want to see the whale.”