"Hello, Peter."
"How do you know my name?"
"Michael told me."
"You mean you killed Michael and took his memories."
"Same thing. I might have a deal for you..."
The living
anomaly, the
Red Sea is a curious creature. Whatever it can't kill and absorb its knowledge immediately piques its interest. This curiosity pushed it to create a new "organ" made out of its fungal flesh. The
red lips serve as messengers of the Red Sea. But just because they are messengers, it doesn't mean that they aren't as deadly as other creations of the anomaly.
Appearance
The first red lips were just holes in the ground moving inside in such a way that they replicated basic speech. But as the Red Sea studied living beings, their anatomy, and how they communicate, it started creating way more complex red lips. With each iteration, they started resembling real mouths, with teeth and tongues, and lately, even the internal parts required for speech are replicated such as the larynx, lung-like growths pumping the air, and the windpipe. Sometimes, the Red Sea might create or summon other structures close to the red lips to make them look more like a face. It doesn't understand yet that the sight of a face completely covered with vein-like growths and lidless eyes is pretty terrifying for most people and doesn't look too sympathetic.
Red lips can be as small as a few centimeters or stretch out across the land like valleys. Similarly, their teeth vary in size, shape, and number between each specimen of their "kind", with some being sharp, rounded, or flat, and the largest reaching the size of a few meters. Even though they look like teeth, this part of the creature merely replicates the real ones. Just like the rest of this organ, it is completely made out of the fungal flesh of the Red Sea, but the anomaly made it denser to replicate normal teeth.
Senses
Red lips can't see or hear and don't possess a sense of taste. The only way they know someone is close to them is thanks to other "organs" in the area or when the Red Sea senses something touching its surface. The Red Sea didn't give them a sense of taste since according to it, the taste wouldn't give it too much information that interests it and it would waste energy that could be used in many other, more useful ways.
A "fair" trade
When it doesn't come to a fight, red lips will instead try to start a conversation with those who entered the domain of the Red Sea. It will often propose a fair deal - a question answered for a question answered. During such a conversation, one will quickly learn that the Sea is way more cunning than one would think. It'll steer their questions to unimportant things while trying to get answers on exactly the kind of things it needs to become stronger in some way. It will use memories of those absorbed, especially those close to the one it talks to to gain any possible advantage.
There are rumors about the very few individuals who managed to turn this strategy against the Red Sea and keep it unaware of this fact long enough they left its domain. Once in a while, the Red Sea will ask its new visitors about those who managed to do so, and at those moments, a sound of cold hate can be heard in its voice.
The name - intriguing. The header image - truly horrifying! I love the fungal eldritch horror theme you've created for this species! You've written something that will truly haunt my phobia of the seas, wonderful stuff :D
Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm happy to hear you liked my article!