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an Art of Dying fragment
Musing about implants and other improbable (though not impossible) things, the stone fish (mentioned briefly in a previous fragment) and things very poisonous returns and come to mind respectively.
As for the stone fish, they have background-fascinated me ever since I first laid eyes on them (on a television screen, of course, where else? some PBS show or other).
Though there are quite a few species of this strange creature, the most prevalent variety is known as the reef stone fish, aka synanceia verrucosa (of the synanceiidae family) — for the benefit of you Latin speaking readers (and seriously afflicted biology buffs) out there.
The reef stone fish hangs out in Red Sea shallow waters and in those of the Indo-Pacific. He is carnivore, and not only is he an amazingly quick-on-the-draw one (and so belies his name) but when it comes to poisons (Ma Nature thinks of them as venoms), he is the deadliest creature in all the seven seas, bar none.
He’s got excellent camouflage skills, does the stone fish. Not called Reef Stone for nothing, he’s covered with encrusted brown and grey skin with yellow, red, and orange patches which blend him very well (some would say incredibly well) in with the surrounding environment. And not only is he difficult to notice, but due to his size (in the 30 to 40…
