Yet Another Story Question...

[Schlosser85]

Ok. So.

Some of you may recall me picking your collective brain for help with something or other for the sci-fi series I'm writing.

I'm looking for ideas again.

There is a mostly ocean world, the only land masses of which are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small islands.

There are two castes of the same amphibious race, one which lives on the surface, and one which lives in underwater caves.

They are in a symbiotic relationship, but are having a dispute.

I want thoughts about how they are symbiotes, and what the dispute is about.

Something involving natural resources?

Something on the surface islands the cavers need, and something in the underwater caves the islanders need?

I'm leaning toward the cavers feeling unappreciated or taken advantage of in some way, and withholding their end.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Maybe they need each other to reproduce somehow. Like the seapeople produce the genetic juice and fertilize the island people, who lay eggs on land.

Or two genders live below the ocean, but after a certain stage the embryo or whatever has to be passed on to the island people, who carry it to term on land. Remember, there doesn't always have to be just two genders.

 

[Schlosser85]

Hmm....interesting.

 

[Pink Ranger]

And one more thing, Schloss, when your stories eventually get adapted into Syfy Original Movies starring Lorenzo Lamas, Yasmine Bleeth and Don "The Dragon" Wilson, you best remember to give me credit!

 

[Piper Maru]

Don't forget John Leguizamo.

 

[Victarion]

Maybe a charismatic caver develops a grudge against the surfacers and starts using his/her/its social/military rank to turn the majority of the cavers against the surfacers. If they have a reproductive interdependence on one another, there's really no winner in allowing my proposed conflict to escalate. However, reasoning with the caver and his/her/its cult could be tricky. Especially if the caver is playing with the other cavers' spirituality, social hierarchy, or economic resources to win more cavers to his/her/its cult.

 

[Piper Maru]

Maybe the underwater dwellers need algae to breathe underwater and they're somehow running out of it, and the land dwellers can supply them with it, but for a cost.

 

[ComicChick]

don't forget the cliched love story between an ocean dweller and a land dweller

 

[Schlosser85]

don't forget the cliched love story between an ocean dweller and a land dweller

lol, nope.

It's not that huge a part of the story, just a little subplot, basically. One of the central characters is an ambassador, so she drops in on this dispute.

Thanks for the thoughts though, everyone.