#thesis stuff

Their vocal chords have atrophied, and they cannot produce much sound. Fine motor skills have returned somewhat with practise, and though fluent sign language might require too much precision, their writing by hand has improved. If a waterproof keyboard can be acquired that might help ease communication as fine motor skills slowly improve.

Their movements are slow, slightly uncoordinated. Not quite shambling like a zombie, but unsteady, as if muscle and tendon and bone no longer remains connected quite right. Or perhaps the nerves through which the signals are sent are somewhat eroded. Still, preliminary observations and interactions indicate they remain capable of language, of complex thought and emotion and reason. They cannot explain to me why they remain alive, nor what prompted them to at last make their way up from the ocean floor where they lay after perishing in a shipwreck. They cannot tell me their name, nor what manner of creature they are. Something, perhaps, reanimated by the sea?

The deep wound to the back of their head, which is the likely cause of death, though drowning can not be ruled out, has never closed. It remains a dark and bloody hole, and should have caused irreparable damage to their occipital lobe and cerebellum. Small shells grow along the rim. They seem to thrive despite being in the dry air.