Deleted Scene: Orram, on Relating with Ellls
From Orram's diary, 4228.6 ir
Have I explained that my varokian sensitivity to touch has been muted by eighteen years of living with Tandra and raising Shawne, humans who need more contact than I can endure? Conn provides that.
Conn also poses the opposite problem, with his pressure-sensitive plates and surrounding hexlines, filled with receptors for heat, magnetic fields, chemicals, and electrical voltages put out by other aquatic creatures. The ellls affectionately call it “electro-fizz.” It gives our frayed varokian nerves a serious tweak. It’s worse than the pressure patterns they generate under water.
Ironically, both electro-fizz and pressure play a large role in the socialization of ellls during their schooling behavior. Loners like Conn can get along without schooling. One theory says their soft, “moss-covered,” pressure-sensitive tiles are more adapted to air than water. However, all ellls need social contact in water, especially when they are under emotional stress. Hence, as family, I was occasionally in water with Conn, enduring his electro-fizz, whether I wanted to be there or not. Fortunately, elllonian emotions are always short-lived, volatile as they are.