After the takeover, we find that many of our problems are no more. Travel, with all its messy aspects of tickets, crowded airplanes, highway... the confusion of seaports, the horror of roads. No more, I say. And yet, at times we like to sit (as it were) and remember. Remembering is one of the things that we can do very well now. We sit, and we remember things, and we share them with our friends and neighbours and partners (which, in our present condition, are really the same thing).
Our current environment is not unpleasant; the water is very fresh, and there is a plentiful supply of food. The light, always on, plays on our bodies. It is very bright, but the visibility is never more than some meters. Anyway, we don't rely on sight anymore. Vision is just a minor complement of our new sensorial world. Taste, well, it is something different. Eating shrimp has become an overwhelming experience; in the eating we really feel the subtle texture of the crustacean shell, the flavor of the internal juices and (I should be ashamed to share this), we even enjoy the twitching movements of the little animal.
Yes, we have all become refined epicureans. The freshness of our seafood, you will excuse me if I go back to this theme, is astounding, never matched before by any Chinese or Japanese emperor's table. Sex, on the other hand, is not such a big issue. When the time comes, and we know because the ultraviolet radiation that bathes us has a sudden pleasant spike, we get release. It is always a solitary act. Fecundation is chancy; only the multitudinary potency of our loins guarantees propagation of the species.
We sit, I said, and we gently sway. We like swaying. If we did not like it we wouldn't be able to do much about it, because the whole world sways and we sway with it. Gently undulating, feeling, tasting (and smelling, it is the same thing really), we spend our lives rooted to a spot of rock in peace. We don't disturb anybody, and nobody bothers us. No fish dares nibble on us; they know that our tentacles, though small and brightly colored, inflict painful burns... I still remember the painful rash that appeared on my feet after swimming in the wrong place when I was a child. But that, as I mentioned, is one of those problems that we don't have any more.