Training
Her training looks like dancing. That's because it is dancing — with homework.
All training below is fictional — invented regimen for a fictional character.
The daily round
She trains at the trench's edge every day the moon allows, in a sequence Marrowdeep designed and Pip enforces:
- Listening. She hangs motionless and names every disturbance within nine hundred meters: a shark's turn, a net's sink, a swimmer's kick. Missing one means starting over. She has not started over in years.
- Tide-holding. She stills a sphere of water in the middle of a riptide and keeps it still while the current argues. Pip times her with a clicking claw. The record is one full tide.
- The verse. She sings a Slowsong verse at true length — no rushing a syllable — while the Lanternfish Choir harmonizes underneath. A rushed verse is noise; the choir will stop singing, which is the worst review in the deep.
- The spiral. Tideweave drills: braiding two currents, bending one around a reef, carrying a message-shell a hundred miles and back. She makes it look like dancing. It is dancing. It is also homework.
The Worthiness swims
Once a season she swims the full depth column — trench floor to light line and back — without stopping, as a reminder of what the water asks of her. She calls it "visiting the neighbors." The neighbors include the Drowned Bell, which is why she never skips the Quiet on the way past.
Rest days
Full moons are rest days, except when they aren't (see Moonpull). On rest days she naps in the Hadal Halls, lets the choir sing without her, and allows Pip to win at current-racing. Pip's victories are a closely guarded fiction everyone maintains.
Source notes
- Training regimen is original fictional lore written for this site (2026-09-26).
- See Abilities for what each drill develops.