towerofanimus | I've heard the mermaids singing each to each

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I've heard the mermaids singing each to each

Characters: Kariya Matou and YOU
Setting: Floor ninety (the lagoon)
Format: Prose to start, but I'll match you!
Summary: Kariya is turned into a mermaid. Merman. Merperson. A dangerous merperson. His choice is to drown others or die himself.
Warnings: Blood, possible violence, definite death (for Kariya). And worms. Always worms.

When he'd first found his way to the lagoon floor, Kariya had thought it might be a new peaceful floor where he could rest, like his favorite floor: the meadow. The sound of the falling water was soft and soothing, the water brilliantly clear. The banks were green and dotted with bright flowers. He sat down at the water's edge with a sigh. The effort of making it to this floor had taxed his strength. He was tired. He leaned forward to look into the blue water, reaching out to trail his fingers through the cool liquid.

That was when they struck. Without any warning. His wrist was gripped by a hand, strong as a vise. It hurt, but before he had time to voice a protest, he was dragged down into the water.

He should have died at once. It was the worms inside him that kept him alive. His lungs were aching, but when he opened his mouth in panic and fear, the worms, protecting their host, shot out and fought off the attackers, stinging and striking with their sharp wings and teeth. He managed to struggle to the surface. He was aware of flashing fins, fierce faces, hands pulling him back down. The worms in his lungs felt like they were choking him, but they were sustaining him with prana, life energy. He didn't drown, but his body was wracked with incredible pain. He was used to pain, but this kind was different. It felt like it was twisting his very skin and bones. He gasped, coughing up more worms into the water, along with dark blood.

It felt like it took hours, but it was probably only minutes. When the pain grew less, Kariya finally made his way back to the bank, his gasping and choking easing. He glanced down at his hands. His fingers were cool and had a greenish tinge. His legs felt strange, or rather, they were no longer legs at all. He turned to find himself changed from the torso down: he had a long, scaled greenish length of body ending in a broad, fishlike tail. He looked up. Then he saw the other mermaids clearly, watching him with their dark eyes. They seemed to be smiling at him, swimming in circles nearby but not drawing too near.

He tried to climb up out of the water, but he realized he wouldn't get far without legs. The air felt so dry on his skin. Was he trapped here? He hurt so badly, he only wanted to go back to safer, more familiar floors, and maybe find Ishtar to heal him. He couldn't. He had no way of calling for help. He was alone here, except for the mermaids with their laughing faces and cruel smiles.

Option A: (possible drowning)
There's a new merman swimming in the lagoon, one with the left side of his body veined and scarred, looking for someone, anyone, who can help him. Now and again, he calls out. "Is anyone there? I need your help."

Option B: (after beaching)
Unable to bear his existence as a mermaid, in pain and with the inescapable impulse to drown others, Kariya has made his way up onto the shore. He's lying there, breathing slowly, as his skin dries and cracks. This pain... he'll just have to endure it as he's endured everything else. He hopes it doesn't take too much longer.

[ooc: Kariya is going to be mercy-killed by Diarmuid, but feel free to encounter him before or after he's beached.]

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"I don't know if that will work. I'm not sure if I can leave the water like this." After all, he's part fish. He flicks his tail, causing a little splash.

He should pull her into the water, a voice seems to tell him. It would be better for her. It's better in the water, isn't it? So nice and cool and dark.

She nods.

"Then what if you just stayed in the water and had someone else bring you food?"

That she could do. And it would probably be less dangerous than fishing him out of the water as well.

"Maybe, but I can't stay here indefinitely. I don't want to stay like this." Trapped in this pool, in this form. He already feels confined, alarmed, stuck here with the mermaids who'd tried to kill him. "Maybe there's some way to reverse it. I don't know. There are people with powers here."

Whatever the case, he doesn't want her to move away. She has to stay close to him.

"Do you want me to call someone over using the network?"

There should be a terminal on this floor, like all the floors. If not, she could always go up or down.

"No, stay here for now. I don't want to be alone."

[ooc: just a note: there are only terminals in the libraries and dormitories.]

[ooc: oops brain fart]

"I'll stay by you for a little bit. But you do need help. I don't think I'm the one who can give you what you need right now.

[ooc: it happens to us all!]

"That's right, stay." And he's unable to stop his hand from snaking out to grab her wrist. It's an action almost outside of his control. His grip is much stronger than it would normally be, tight as a vise like the mermaids' grasps.

"I--"

She doesn't have time to say much before she feels the oddly strong grip around her wrist.

"H-hey!"

"Don't be afraid," he says, as part of his mind protests violently against this thing he's doing. He just can't seem to help himself. He keeps acting this way, regardless of what his mind tells him. He tugs on her wrist with his enhanced strength, trying to pull her into the water. "It's better this way."

"L-let go!"

She starts struggling and pulling back, but he proves too strong for her and she's pulled to the ground. Even so, she claws at the grass, not willing to be dragged further.

"It's better down here." He doesn't stop pulling, even though he knows he shouldn't, he shouldn't. It isn't right, to harm someone like this, someone he doesn't even know, who's likely blameless. But the part of him that's screaming out against his actions is overwhelmed by his instinct to do just that, to pull this girl into the water and under.

"You just said you didn't want to stay. That you wanted help."

She starts yanking harder and harder, but can't get away. And she's still sliding closer and closer toward the lagoon, enough that her face is peeking right over the water.

"Let me go!"

"I do want help. If you stay with me, I won't be alone. You can help me here." The words aren't exactly rational, Kariya's new instincts taking over. He grabs hold with his other hand, too, pulling harder, moving his scarred, but powerful tail to propel him (and his victim) farther back into the water.

"Come with me."

"No!"

She would let go to claw at his fingers, but she's barely holding back from toppling as it is. Finally, out of desperation, she leans forward to bite his hand, but at the same time, this action topples her into the water.

He loosens his grip as she bites his hand, but he's gotten what he wants.

Once she's in the water, he leaps on her, grabbing hold of her waist. Getting as firm a grip as he can, he pulls her out deeper into the lagoon.

He can feel himself doing these things, saying these things, and somehow, he can't stop himself, even though the part of him that's himself is aware of what he's doing the entire time. His real self breaks through enough to apologize, horror on his face and in his tone. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, I don't want to do this." But he doesn't let her go even as he apologizes, pulling her down toward the bottom of the lagoon.

She flails in his arms, trying to push her face above water.

"If you're sorry, then let--"

She's cut off as her face is ducked underwater and she chokes. She claws at the water with her hands, trying to propel her face above the water again so she can breathe.

"I can't help it. I'm so sorry." His face twists. He doesn't want to do this, yet he's doing it all the same. He feels like he wants to cry. Do mermaids cry?

"Just let it happen. It'll be over quickly." His voice sinks to a whisper, as they're underwater now, and he doesn't even know if she can hear him. He keeps a tight hold on her. He won't let her rise if he can help it, even if a voice in his mind is screaming at him to let her go.

He can't.

The only reply he gets is continued struggling. Hands prying at his fingers, feet kicking at his tail. But between the water flooding her lungs and the panic, Rosa is exhausting herself quickly. She tries to hold her breath, but her body works against her as it tries to cough up the water she swallowed, but only takes in more water in the process.

Finally, her movements slow and and she remains still in the merman's grasp, her thoughts quickly fading as tears from her still open eyes dissolve in the water.

Her struggling hurts him, striking at his bad side, but he doesn't let go, even when he wills his arms to do so. If he lets her go now, she'll be all right. But he doesn't.

"It's all right... Just calm down." His grip is like an embrace. It she relaxes, she won't suffer. It'll be better that way. "I'm sorry it has to be this way. Don't be afraid."

There is no answer. After all, how can a drowned corpse answer? Rosa just hangs limp in Kariya's arms.

...Though technically, that can be seen as relaxing.

She must be dead, he realizes, once she's completely lifeless. He rises to the surface, staring at the body in his arms. He's never killed someone before. And he'd killed a girl, someone he didn't even know, for no reason at all.

"I'm sorry," he says again. "I didn't mean to." Kariya starts to weep. "I didn't mean to!" Yet no matter how loudly he proclaims it, it doesn't change what he's done. He hears a soft, choppy noise from the water that may be the mermaids' laughter.

He swims to shore and rests Rosa's body on the bank, still crying. He would give anything to undo what he's done, but there's nothing he can do. His only comfort is that he knows death isn't real here. The administrators will bring the girl back to life. Won't they? He leans over to press his lips to her forehead, gently. "I'm sorry," he says, and as meaningless as the words are, he can't seem to find any others.

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I've heard the mermaids singing each to each

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