A half-argonian half-otherwise creature is traveling solo across a seemingly barren world, having neither thirst nor hunger, like a roaming condemned immortal Cain with a loosely-Cain backstory in which the character is a known killer exiled to this planet, and encounters a very large square-ish plateau, with loads of white stone orbs down the slope of the plateau. He picks up one of the orbs and examines it, and it appears to be made of some kind of pearlish marble, well crafted and pretty, and about the sized of a grapefruit, and carries it with him, seeing increasing numbers of them spotting the landscape as he approaches the plateau, most of them gathered at the base of the plateau's slope. Ascending the slow-ish grade of the plateau, he discovers it is more of a cauldron, (similar to an IRL American wastewater treatment lagoon) except hundreds of acres large shore to shore. In attempting to ascend, as the curvature of the grade increases, he discards the orb to roll back down the slope, in order to use both hands to assist climbing the slope, as the orbs are in such abundance that it would be easy to find another than bother with holding on to one to study.

Daring to enter the lake to explore it or swim for a bit, he discovers it is very shallow, but through the bottom he can see milling activity, as if he were walking on an extremely thick glass roof and the water being only about 4 feet deep. Putting his face through the surface of the water, he finds he can breathe the water with his argonian gills, and observes there is a whole civilization going about their daily lives, except in an apparent air-filled area where they are walking around unimpeded by water, as if the water were the ceiling above trapped them down below. He pulls back initially as a child spots him out of the corner of their eye, as he has a sudden impulse to maintain his concealed identity from this people. He is able to recognize patterns about the milling-about of the action below him as he walks the perimeter of the lake, so that his footfall may not be witnessed by someone glancing upward, but realizes most people except the infirm, the child, or the elderly tend toward looking skyward thru the waters, as the rest are going about their daily lives and ignoring the otherwise random/nonsensical watery ceiling above them.

The outside traveler at some point observes a lack of activity in spots of the water at the edge, and puts his head through again to observe, and sees empty rooms during certain times of the day/night, which he can observe different aspects of how each person lives, making sure to observe the movements like a spy observing the patterns of the guards, to avoid detection. He gathers lots of details about each room, and pieces together their daily dramas and circumstances, like a biography of each person in it. He is able to accurately predict when people will be elsewhere, in order to be able to confidently venture deeper and deeper into the lake, but is not confident that merely swimming with head below the surface would not create a kind of shadow above him to cause a stir below that a creature existed in their sky in order to disrupt their goings.

The people do not appear to be human, or any species he is familiar with. He observes them to the point he begins to identify favorites, who have both emotional and physical traits he admires. They do not have any weapons, or indeed very much in the way of drama or arguments, and seem to be a largely reason-based people without jealousy and more toward cooperation. How they acquire sustenance is a mystery to him, but he realizes, that he also does not require it. If any, perhaps it is more toward the unexplored center of the lake, where the outside traveler has not been able to venture.

As the months trudge ever onward, the outside traveler observes some kind of holiday, where all of the people go into some kind of grouping toward the center of the lake which he has not been able to venture toward, due to too many watchmen-like variables at play that far in. At the furthest edges of the distance from the grouping as he ventures closer toward it, people are adorned in some kind of ceremonial garb, and descend into a kind of spiral staircase but with helixes five people abreast, located near the center, to a lower level he had not realized existed. They stay below in that under-area for a long time, allowing the outside traveler to explore areas of the civilization heretofore unseen. They stay down there for a really long time, and the outside traveler becomes bored with observing a lifeless area.

During this break in the activity the outside traveler is taking a break from civilization observation, and resumes curiosity about the marble-pearlesque orbs, and examines them more closely. They do no seem entirely natural, as their surface seems too polished. They are heavy like stone, with streaks of pearl scattered throughout, as if a pearl substance were embedded into cracks of the marble to fill in gaps, and the polished. Who could have made them remains a mystery.

On a whim, he takes one of the orbs with him as a kind of stimming toy to roll around in his hands, as he decides on an arbitrary distance on the horizon, into some mountains, to go explore there to reset his mind and not dwell so obsessively with the underwater people. As he nears where the orbs become much more sparse, the orb in his hands, held about tummy high, begins to push into him, as if it cannot be taken away from the plateau beyond a certain distance. It's not a sudden stop, but as he travels further from the plateau, it's as if the orb is being pushed into an invisible mushy substance, harder and harder to move away from the plateau the further away. He tries to push and push the orb deeper into the mushy area, the mush not affecting his own body but acting solely upon the orb.

Upon returning to the plateau with renewed curiosity, the outside traveler brings one of the orbs to the surface of the plateau and as he is examining it rolling over in his hands, he steps on the edge of the plateau's inner wall awry and the orb tumbles from his hands and into the water, not only hitting the glass roof with a loud thunk that everyone in the vicinity of the thunk could hear down below, but causes a tremendous disturbance of the patterns he had observed, and brings about an abundance of activity around the spot of where the orb now rests, as the people below go up to that area of the civilization to examine the orb there. The outside traveler feels compelled he must retrieve the orb, in order to resume the civilzation's normal routines, but fear it may have been permanently disrupted at this point, requiring far too much research to establish new observation patterns. The outside traveler now limits himself to only looking slightly off the edge of the plateau's border, at a standing height above the edge, from a distance, to especially so avoid being seen, as there is now an increasing abundance of citizens now tending toward gazing skyward thru the waters. Thankfully, the orb does not seem to have cracked the glass of the barrier, as to reduce the water levels into the civilization, fearing he may drown them if it were to crack and the water fall below.

The holiday resumes months later again, and the activity around the stone again entirely diminishes as everyone goes below in their garb again, and the outside traveler dares to retrieve the orb again. However, upon retrieving it and ascending to the surface with it, he catches out of the corner of his eyes, movement down below as prying eyes of a curious disobedient adolescent who has secreted up the staircase and spotted the outside traveler retrieving it. The outside traveler looks back in surprise that someone noticed him, and now the thought exists among the Underwaters that someone is actually up there. The adolescent runs away and back down the staircase, and the outside traveler is careful to make any trips to the edge again, for fear of having completely disturbed the civilization beyond repair if the adolescent is trusted in their observation.

Perhaps the forbidden nature of venturing above the top during the holiday would keep the adolescent from revealing what he saw, in order to avoid having to confess to going toward the surface during the holiday, the outside traveler reasons, and hopes. The traveler then begins to doubt his own impulsiveness toward concealing his identity. Perhaps he could help the Underwaters in some way. They do not appear to have weapons, nor do they appear aggressive, but mostly stewardly and curious and a minimal of drama between one another. What if he did make himself known? What harm would come to that? The interruption of the pattern is what would happen, and the outside traveler living in such a barren overworld, highly values the pattern of their lives to keep him occupied. Has he grown too bored of observing the pattern, in order to risk disrupting it? Has it already now been irrevocably disrupted, by which he should do a full reveal?