Traditional Obligations: Fantasy

"Hey, soak it in!" Reye reared back to squat on hr haunches and glare at the jovial accuser. "I was doing it right!" she snarled. "Don't even try to tell me how to do my job!" "Not your job," he teased her, "merely your traditional obligation. They don't even pay you anything." "My traditional obligation," she agreed, bending back over the cloth, "which I perform as my grandmother taught me. My traditional obligation, which will not go unfulfilled while yet one of our line walks this planet." "And we should all be thankful for that," he said, half-mocking, half-serious, "Because should your precious ritual fail we would all drown in the tide." She nodded, serious. "Yes. That is exactly what would happen." "And what if Seline down there stops cracking open the shells of the--"

Inspiration: non-English in Bob Holroyd song
Story Potential: Medium-high
Notes: I like this setting. I like the idea of a world where people believe that all these tiny, traditional rituals that they perform are what holds the world together. They may not believe in their neighbor's ritual, but they believe in their own.