Scypho Pelagii

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* Scypho
* Black sea nettle

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**Scypho Pelagii** (pronounced /'sī-fō 'pə-la-jē/) is a bit of a shady character, with a spotty employment record and several petty theft convictions, and one for impersonating a tax collector. When he first meets Pezci, he's trying to sell the artifact he's carrying. That meeting didn't go well when the Mirror notices her first and does something that freaks her out. He later resorts to petty thievery and grand theft watercar to further his aims.

## Description

Scypho has a domed 'cap' on his head that is actually a part of him; it's his 'bell'. He's based on the black sea nettle, a variety of marine jellyfish of the species *C. achlyos*. He's mostly a reddish color with tendrils hanging below his waist instead of legs or a tail, and a mottled red-and-cream bell with similarly colored tendrils hanging down around his face like hair. He always wears a white shirt with the collar opened, and a worn-out red jacket that happens to match his coloration, a remnant of his time as a guard in the employ of Madam Louv. He's a fast-talking, small-time criminal who turns to petty crime for easy solutions, but who sometimes can't help doing the right thing. He's almost never seen without the Mirror nearby.

Scypho's first name is likely derived from the fact that his species is a member of the taxon *Scyphozoa*, which includes all species of marine or salt-water sea jellies and jellyfish. His last name is likely derived from the word pelagic, which refers to living in the open sea.

## Biography

Before the events of *Damselfish in Distress,* Scypho, among other things, was a personal guard working for Madam Louv, a supposedly lucrative position. His side of the story is that she became abusive, forcing him to perform ridiculous and menial tasks that were far outside of the normal duties of a personal guard, and all of it was just for her own sick kicks. Then one day, as he claims, when he was cleaning the display glass of her prized mirror, he realized how easy it would be to just take it, so he did, intending to sell it on the blackfish market for three times its value. This led to Madam Louv pursuing him relentlessly to get it back.

Scypho first meets Pezci when he goes to a nearby city to find a buyer for the artifact he took from Madam Louv. He stays with Pezci through the Light Tower's announcement, until she is forced to run away. After she flees the mob, he has a run-in with Madam Louv and her bodyguards. It takes the intervention of the maelstrom for Scypho to escape her this time. Later, he has a chance to save Pezci when she becomes entangled in a fishnet while fleeing from the same maelstrom that is destroying the city and let him get away. He notices that Madam Louv also escaped the city.

Scypho suggests he guide her to the Light Tower in exchange for her taking him in with her when they arrive. She agrees and they set off in the direction her Key indicates. He discovers she's of the Planifron Tribe, but soon learns they have all perished. She demands to know about the Mirror, and when he refuses to say, she asks about him. He spews a line of bull that even Pezci recognizes. He spots the fuel station in the distance and takes the lead over the intervening trench, only to discover she has a fear of depths. Nothing he says convinces her to try. Hanging over the looming darkness, Scypho begins to have doubts, wondering where the bubbles are coming from. Closing her eyes, Pezci swims out.

She fails. He's about to go get her, thinking the place is creeping him out, when he spots Madam Louv cruising into the area. With a squawk, Scypho ducks down by the trench wall, reaching up and dragging Pezci down with him. Her brief wail alerts Madam Louv to their presence, and her full-throated scream confirms it. The Mirror, acting independently, swivels on its straps behind their backs, extrudes a waterjet engine, and speeds them up and out. The tortuous ride ends with Scypho and Pezci dangling by their hands from the Mirror's shaft above the ocean waves, and it refuses to go back. The whale decides for them when she arcs out of the water and grabs the Mirror, dragging them all back under. He gets into a tugging war with the Madam while Pezci floats nearby. She handily tears him loose. The Mirror refuses her ownership violently, and she drops it. She and Scypho give chase, Pezci heads for the rocks. He gets there first, but a strange tentacle rises from the depths and takes hold. Madam Louv arrives to help, and they start arguing about the past. Refusing to wait, the Mirror spews a gout of flame, scorching the tentacle and eliciting a screech from the depths.

The giant blowtorch flame chases off the Madam and the tentacle, but Scypho hangs on, using the flame to keep Madam and her guards at bay. A forest of tentacles rise from the darkness, the nearest knocking the Mirror from Scypho's hands. On its own again, the Mirror sprouts flying fish wings and flutters away toward the rocks. Scypho follows close after, weaving through the tentacles. One tentacle reaches out and grabs him by his own tentacles, forcing him to grab the lip of the trench to save himself. He spots Pezci among the rocks and calls for her help. She finds the courage to go to him, but the Mirror, extruding a remora's sucker, gloms onto her head, disabling her. The tentacle pulls him back to the lip, a growl issuing from the depths.

Meanwhile, Madam Louv abuses Pezci trying to acquire the Mirror.

Growling back, Scypho stings the limb repeatedly until it lets him free. Rising above the lip of the trench, he sees what's happening, and in a rage, Scypho cold-cocks her with his elbow, getting Pezci and the Mirror away from her. Just then the owner of those tentacles comes rushing out of the trench. It's a giant worm, and it blocks in Madam Louv and her useless bodyguards. The monster roars as Scypho runs off with the Mirror slung over his shoulder, Pezci hanging below, either unconscious or dead. Madam Louv yells out that he's a "blobbin', snolly, good for nothing, vagabond, scumbag," and tells him "this ain't the end." Laughing, he swims away.

Scypho takes them over the trench without further incident and gets them to the fuel station he'd seen in the distance. He guides Pezci to a wash station where he uses pressurized water to coax the Mirror into letting go. He then decides she's earned the right to hear the story of his time with Madam Louv *(see opening paragraph).* After listening to his story, Pezci points out that in addition to being wanted for her Key, a crazy, rich whale lady is hunting them. He seems to feel that's about right, and he assures her he can handle anything she throws at them.

After a brief tussle with the Mirror, he proudly presents a map he snitched off the station clerks. Unrolling it, he shows his plans for the route to the Light Tower he's drawn on it. When Pezci expresses concern over the route, he assures her they'll make it because one of his old jobs was being a navigator for a prestigious ship and crew. Answering her hopeful "Really?" he continues on, saying they were pirates, he was a stowaway, and he only did it for a week, but he has faith in his keen memory. He straps the suffering Mirror to his back and turns away, only to have her pull at him, asking that they just rest. He thinks about it while looking around, and spotting an open and untended watercar, he gets a bright idea.

In the cockpit of the stolen watercar with the fuel gauge announcing an empty fuel tank, Scypho and Pezci are trying to outrun the police. He grounds the 'car in a grotto just as the fuel runs out, and they take to the water. Topping a ridge, he spots a submarine sitting on the sea floor. Renewed police pursuit makes them move on. Pezci calls Scy's attention to a monster fish, attended by a school of barracudas, that he says is what scared away the cops. When Pezci inevitably screams, attracting the monster, Scypho leads them off to the submarine, looking to find an easy way in. He ends up prying open a hatch using the unhappy Mirror, losing the Mirror to the monster fish during a narrow escape. Inside the sub, several of the attendant barracudas harass them, until they find sanctuary. That soon changes when the lights in the room turn red and an alarm sounds. Annoyed by her antics and the noisy alarm system, Scypho covers his head as Pezci has a panic attack. The sudden appearance of an infrared fisheye camera gets him thinking and quiets Pezci at the same time. The sudden silence as the alarm stops and the camera retreats is broken by two loud bangs followed by the water level dropping, with beams of red light coming through the grates above and below. He reassures Pezci during her next panic attack that they are not giving up the Key easily.

The water subsides, and the ceiling grate open with a creak. Framed by the opening is a pair of trouser-clad legs. Sitting on the floor beside the prone Pezci, the distressed jellyfish calls up, asking why he drained the water. The man, dressed as a captain, yells they're intruders, and saying they've made a big mistake. He suddenly stops, then calls out recognition of Pezci from her younger days, and she starts slapping Scypho with her tail in agitation. The captain tells them he's taking them prisoner, and with a snap of his fingers, they're both contained in water bubbles and shackled by handcuffs. As they head toward the dungeon room, Scypho tries sweet-talking the captain into setting them free, to no avail. He even offers up Pezci as a slave, causing her to complain, but the captain says he's taking them both. Catching Pezci's abused look, he promises her he would've come back for her. Time passes and Scypho tells Pezci they've got a big issue. She mistakes his meaning, but ignoring her moping, he explains about losing the Mirror to the monster fish. He's sure it's fine, but he needs to go back and get it. He guesses that the captain isn't award of the monster yet. Pezci drily asks what he gonna do handcuffed and with no water. Announcing his annoyance, he wonders if the captain is an alien, an idea that bothers the captain to hear. Pezci anxiously swears ignorance, and Scypho guesses that's unlikely. Piqued by their conversation, the man makes a series of facetious remarks that the pair doesn't quite get and which convinces Scypho the man is an alien.

Floating along smoothly, the captain uses the control rings on his hands to guide his prisoners into position over oval pads, and Scypho watches sulkily as vertical metal bars slide into position creating cages. When the man pulls something out of his jacket, the skeptical jellyfish loudly demands to know what it is. He is not reassured when he's told it's nothing to worry about, and his worry is confirmed when the object uses a super bright flash like a camera, making Scypho's eyes hurt because he was looking directly at it. He becomes very upset, grabbing the bars hard, when the captain starts reciting facts about him he thought he'd erased leaving no trace, such as his criminal record. He watches in bad humor as the man goes to scan Pezci, hearing her little squeak at the flash. He becomes interested again when Pezci asks how he knows so much about her tribe. The man, who says his name is Shin, acts as though it's obvious since the Dohrnii tribe has a long history of alliance with the Planifron tribe. When Pezci gets the implication, Scypho takes offense that Shin claims to be a part of a jellyfish tribe without being a jellyfish. The ensuing childish argument is brought to an end by Shin using the scanner's flash module to force Scypho to desist, proclaiming he's in charge, leaving Scypho to rub at his eyes. Shin tells them to stay there, like they've got a choice, until they reach his home city. Scypho pays close attention to where Shin puts the scanner when he stows it in his jacket. He doesn't remember until it's too late to try and tell Shin about the giant barracuda.

Scypho sulks in his cage, not paying any attention to Pezci, when the hatch to their chamber open with a bang, and Shin angrily states that there is a giant barracuda head in his ship. Scypho snorts out "oh, really?", while Pezci apologizes for not wanting to get eaten. That mollified Shin a bit, and he offered that they *are* territorial. With a sudden mood swing, Shin decides this could be his big chance. Scypho watches him rush over and eject a touchscreen monitor and start tapping furiously. With a satisfied cry of this is perfect, he tells them to imagine what the Dohrnii will think of him when he brings home two prisoner and a giant, slain barracuda monster. They'll be so happy with him.

He stops to consider his prisoners for a moment, then he announces that he's decided they are gonna help him fight those things. Scypho notices that Pezci is totally freaked by this. He watches her trying to swim back chanting "no, no, no" as Shin takes them to face the monster. Shin drops down through the grating back into the chamber where it all started, the two bubble following rapidly after. He presses a button on the wall, and an impressive array of spearguns in exposed. Choosing two, Shin tosses them to each of his guests. Scypho quickly grasps his, while Pezci barely notices hers. Shin tells them they're the simplest speargun available, just pull the trigger and it automatically reloads. Seeing possibilities, Scypho asks about giving weapons to prisoner, and Shin tells him the cuffs he's wearing will inject him with paralyzing venom if he acts out of line. As the room begins filling with water, Scypho sees Shin pull down the visor of his hat, turning it into a diving mask. His clothing also adapts to become a dive suit. As the chamber nears full, Scypho hears Pezci complain she doesn't know how to use the gun, and Shin's reply that this is baby stuff for a Planifron. With the chamber full, the battered hatch swings inwards, revealing a darkened passage outside. Scypho is worried about what's out there, when Shin gripes the fish have cut the lights. Smiling widely, Shin gets their attention when he asserts, "More drama!"

## References

1. ↑ *Chrysaora achlyos* on Wikipedia
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jellyfish Man??
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Light Tower
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Scypho Backstory
5. ↑ Nice Timing
6. ↑ Maelstrom Round 2!
7. ↑ Shifty Partner
8. ↑ Fears
9. ↑ We RIDE
10. ↑ The Mirror!
11. ↑ Tentacle Nonsense
12. ↑ The Final Struggle
13. ↑ Bigger Fish to Worry About
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Airbreather