CHAPTER 2: TECTACLES OF DECEPTION

General Warnings (these do not apply to every chapter): Non-explicit mentions of sex, child death, ableism, general darkness, and speciesism.

Special warning in this chapter for ableism and speciesism (poor Dory and Hank).

Note: Barbara is not a static character, but she is a bit of a stick in the mud and very certain of her views of all kinds of things she has learned or experienced (whether they are correct or not). She is the main character for this story. If you don't like Barbara as a character, I understand. There are more to her motivations and internal struggles than just being a grumpy old-lady crab, so I encourage you to read on and see for yourself to see how things develop. :)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The water over the Great Barrier Reef was grey and choppy. It matched Barbara's mood perfectly. A certain blue tang had woken her from her afternoon nap.

"Frank, ooh! I don't think you've met the neighbors? Uhmm, have you?"

Dory's companion said something, but it didn't register. A very large red octopus trailed behind her, tentacles wriggling. Barbara froze.

"Barbie, this is Dank. And this is." Dory pointed a fin to Copper. "What's his name-?"

"Nobody's home!" Barbara exploded. But her voice just sounded old and raspy. "You want to bring a predator here?"

"I'm not here to eat you." the octopus replied.

"Then what are you here for? You can just go away." Barbara asked. She hoped that she looked younger than she felt.

"Look, if you want me to leave, I'll leave."

"Great! Scram you freak!" She hoped this would keep the octopus away. The mollusks were too smart for their own good. In her younger days, Barbara had a few close friends who made a non-predation pact with octopus. Each time, the octopuses twisted the facts until it seemed that the crabs had broken their part of the agreement and ate them as punishment. It would seem that the crabs would learn from this, but each was an isolated incident.

"No wait!" the blue tang held the octopus back with her fin. Dory turned to Barbara. "Can't we just all be friends? Look, maybe you're busy now and I get it. But that's no reason to be mean to a guest. Right Bank?"

"It's Hank!" the octopus blurted.

"I don't care who you are. You can leave." Barbara's eye stalked darted toward Copper. A claw and two of his legs were missing from the triggerfish attack a couple weeks ago. He was watching Barbara closely.

The blue tang's eyes went blank for a moment. "What was I doing? Oh yeah!" she smiled. "Hank, this is Bara and uh-" she pointed in the direction of half hidden injured crab.

"Listen Dory. We were just told to get out. We should listen." The octopus suggested. A part of the elderly crab was impressed with his curteousness, but she knew better. The mollusk would be back by nightfall to finish she and Copper off. A trickster.

"Oh, they're busy?"

"Something like that. C'mon, let's go!" The two swam off.

After she was sure that the coast was clear, Barbara forced her stiff legs foreward in a walk. She glanced at Copper as she walked past. He was still watching her weakly. Did he approve of what she had done? Disapprove? Did he think she had just sold them out to the octopus? Barbara couldn't tell and honestly, she didn't have the energy to care right now.

She grabbed gob after gob of mucus from the Stylophora that the two crabs lived in. It was slow and tiring work for a crab with barely functioning pincers. But now that Copper was injured, she was on full foraging duty now. Barbara's younger self would have laughed because all the mucus was within a couple meters reach. But she had to do this every day. It would get stuck to her pincers. Stuck to her legs. Sometimes, if an area of the coral was particularly rich in mucus, a couple of her legs would get stuck in it. This wouldn't be much of a problem to a younger crab, but it was to her.

She turned to her husband. "I don't think I will have the energy to survive my next molting. So let's hope you can recover fast."

Copper sighed. "I shouldn't have done all the foraging before. I may be younger, but skipping it got you out of shape. Foraging is harder for you now."

"I will consider it a life well-lived. However long I can make it last. ...If we survive the night." she half-panted as her claws dipped into a particularly sticky mucus secretion.

Moments passed. "The septapus didn't seem that keen on eating us."

"Tricksters they are! They say you are buddies. Then they find a way to eat you. You know this."

"You can't judge all people of a species. ...Weren't those a mimic octopuses that ate your friends?" His voice sounded tired, but his eyes were bright.

"Maybe. Probably."

"Well, it would be best to get on this guy's good side then. He seems to be a friend of the neighbors and he's too big to be a mimic octopus."

"You haven't lived here as long as I have. The blue fish tries to befriend and take home all types of dangerous creatures. Half of them would eat her if they weren't shocked by her dumb friendliness." A leg almost got caught in a coral crevice as she shifted some goo onto her back. This really wasn't her day.

"If you're sure. I'm going to sleep."

"Sure."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That evening, the two clownfish returned home from... whereever they went followed by their dim-witted friend. Barbara knew because the blue tang getting stung woke her up again.

"Careful Dory. Remember that the anemone stings." Marlin said irritably.

"Right! Got it!"

"I learned all about sharks today. Isn't that cool?" the child clownfish Nemo exclaimed.

"Wow! Exciting stuff! Ooh, how many species are there?"

"Umm..." The young clownfish paused. "I'm not sure."

"I think it was... At least 700!" Dory excitedly.

Marlin's jaw dropped slightly. "That is WAY too many types of sharks. Nemo, please tell me you Mr. Ray is focusing on the small ones? You are too young to be learning about the bigger species!"

"Well, right now we're learning about the filtering feeding types. The whale shark and the bask umm."

"The basking shark?" Dory supplied.

"Yeah!"

The next words that left the older clownfish's mouth shocked Barbara. "You know what Dory? You learned so much from the Marine Life Institute. Maybe you could help teach a class again. Uh, with lots of supervision of course. Key words: plenty of supervision."

Barbara blinked. Had she heard correctly? This fish, the same Marlin who was afraid of his shadow when she moved in some years back? The same fish who seemed to be preparing his son so well (most of the time) for all the dangers of the ocean before went on a quest to find his son and brought back the forgetful tang when he returned?

"Ooh! I could be Mr. Ray's assistant. I've never been a teacher's assistant before."

"You have Dory." Marlin said.

"Oh, I did? I forget."

Barbara sighed. It went on and on like this. The forgetting. The reminding. The attracting predators. Day after day. Coral crabs were terrible parents as a species, but she couldn't help but feel bad for the small clownfish. His father had tried so hard to protect him before. And for what? For him to be misguided? They would all get eaten sooner or later, probably the former.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Exhaustion didn't afford her much sleep that night. Her dreams were of two things: killer octopuses and the little clownfish.

She stood there waiting for Hank the octopus to come. Waiting for it. If it wasn't tonight, it would be soon, she reasoned as the hours passed. There was nothing she could do, so she should just forget it. But survival instincts kept it on her mind. If she was younger, she would have moved house. There was no chance of it now. Now it was a waiting game- die of old age or get eaten- whichever came first.

As much as she tried to steer her mind clear of him, she kept wondering about Nemo's well-being. Would he be dead soon too due to his father's actions? Maybe his father had been foolish before and that was why he had no mate and Nemo was an only child now. Most fish had hundreds of eggs at a time, having one child at a time was unheard of. Marlin was cautious for a time after losing many children before switching back to his former poor parenting habits, the crab decided. But a nagging feeling told her that wasn't entirely true.

"Why should I concern myself with this?" she whispered to herself. "The child is not even my species. No matter what, I will be dead soon."

Barbara hoped the certainty of it all would give her solstice. It didn't.

The next morning, the blue tang swam head-first into the anemone again. Barbara watched as the father clownfish pulled the tang by the tail away from his home, reminding her for the hundredth time about its stinging nematocysts.

I was a fool to ever consider you a friend.