Private Blue Bayou

[Ishani Dinn]

Sitting and merely looking at the body, Ishani gave a start when she heard Arcturus groan. He appeared at her side, and she automatically reached out a hand to help him, though she didn’t know how to ease his pain. Her chest and throat were still sore from the mermaid’s attempt to crush her airways.

They were both wet and shivering. She started to wrap her arms around him, only to hesitate as he set to work removing the mermaid’s suit. The overcast sky was beginning to clear up, the unnatural storm dissipating. Sunlight didn’t make the corpse look any better, but it did provide some warmth.

When the suit was off, Ishani took it from him and walked to the water’s edge. She crouched down and, in a careful, almost ritualistic fashion, washed the gore from it. When it was clean she rose back to her full height, holding the Atargatis Skin so that its length draped over her arms like a bridal veil. It seemed so delicate and fragile, but she could sense the hum of energy woven into the material. Calling to her like a siren song.

She raised her head, looking out at the ocean, then glanced over her shoulder at Arcturus, wherever he was. The Skin fell to the ground as she removed her swimsuit, the tremble in her hands not necessarily due to the cold, and stepped into the Skin of a dead mermaid.

It was far easier and quicker to put on than it had been to remove. The suit clung to her, wrapping around her of its own volition in a clinging embrace. Though it behaved almost like a living thing, she sensed no consciousness within it. Alchemy and enchantments made it love any skin it came in contact with.

Ishani sank down into the wet sand, no longer able to stand upright, and sat still as it finished engulfing her. It didn’t feel like her legs were bound; it felt like she had a tail. Gills along the sides of her neck released some of the pressure on her throat, but soon they were begging for water. Her entire being ached to be submerged.

One second she was there, the next she was gone, disappearing beneath the waves.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

The two existed in silence, alongside one another. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, there was no tension there, just a fatigue which existed from the strange experiences they had just shared. Both had been injured, both were cold, and both were exhausted from spending so much time beneath rolling waves. Or at least, that was how it seemed to him.​

​

He watched as Ishani began to change out of her swimsuit and into one of the skins, averting his eyes to give her some privacy when the time came. Soon enough she was back within the water, with a shimmering tail trailing behind her.​

​

As tired as he was, as sore as he was, a pang of anxiety shot through him. What if she was accosted by someone? What if something went wrong with the suit? What if, what if, what if...​

​

He slipped on the other suit, finding the entire experience bewildering as it clung to his skin, and then when he was fully covered he too pushed off and into the water away from the shore, in search of the girl...​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani examined herself as she swam, not because she felt strange, but because she expected it to feel weird and was surprised when it didn’t. The Skin warmed her, but no slippery sweat pooled between her flesh and it; nor did it feel sticky or stiff. After just a few minutes, it began to feel less like she was wearing a suit and more like it was just her skin.

The tail likewise was fully articulate. She puzzled over whether it would turn her suddenly into a bad swimmer, since she was used to kicking with her legs, but she mastered it quickly and was able to direct her movements with ease. The webbing between her fingers was only slightly harder to get used to than the tail, and the funky striped fins running along her arms from wrist to elbow were no trouble at all.

She didn’t get very far before she sensed Arcturus catching up to her. A pang of guilt coiled in her gut. She had left him behind without any explanation, and now he was coming after her despite the danger and his own dislike of swimming. It felt like a repeat of what had happened on Chandaar, but with less shooting. Seriously though, she really needed to stop worrying him—

As she stopped swimming and turned around to face him, she froze. No rebreather or goggles? Wait… what?! He actually put the other suit on?!

<You have a tail!>

The fact that she also had a tail seemed to have slipped her mind. She reached out as he approached, throwing her arms around him. It was a very different experience compared to earlier, with no annoying equipment or cold water to worry about. She expected the Skins at least to be a barrier to touch, but found that she could feel him through it, although he did feel a little strange. Was her theory that the suit connected to the wearer’s nervous system in some way correct? How did all of this work, anyway? Did the oxygen molecules from the water get teleported directly into her lungs from the artificial gills? Or did it temporarily open a literal hole in her neck, sealing it shut as she removed the suit? And while we’re at it, how do they go to the bathroom in these things if they’re basically wearing them all the time?...

Oh, she kissed him, by the way. The current of the water at this depth pushed the two of them down so long as they didn’t swim against it, and they eventually bumped into something. Ishani couldn't tell if they had hit the sea floor or the remains of what had once been a city street. She didn't particularly care either, busy getting used to the differences in anatomy the suit had rendered upon her boyfriend.

At some point, she finally noticed the presence of another person nearby and froze, looking up. A mermaid was hovering a little off to the side, looking very confused by the pair that had, from her perspective, spontaneously dropped down from the surface while making out. Beyond embarrassed, Ishani disentangled herself from Arcturus, floundered a bit, then settled for just an awkward wave. The mermaid responded with a series of hand gestures—none of which Ishani understood, though she guessed it meant something along the lines of get a room, or maybe who are you and where did you come from?

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

It took him longer than he would have liked to find her.​

​

The ocean was decidedly different from land, in a great many ways. That he had expected from the off. What he hadn't quite wrapped his head around before deciding to swim after her was the fact that now he existed in a perpetual state of three dimensions. Forward-Backward, Left-Right, Up-Down. It was the latter which was throwing him through a loop. It was one thing to find someone when their only real way to go was dictated by the land at their feet. But remove that land? Make it so that they could go wherever they damn well pleased?​

​

Yeah... That was difficult to get used to.​

​

But he did find her, and she seemed surprised to see him. Truth be told he was surprised to be there. He still didn't like it, being in the water, but he was adjusting much faster now that he didn't have to worry about breathing, or water resistance, or being cold.​

​

I have a tail?! he inquired, eyes wide, before he began to snicker in amusement, breaking the façade of surprise, You have one too...​

​

Their worries seemed to melt away soon after. Ishani seemed intent on getting to understand the suits better, or maybe it was just an excuse to get up close and personal with him. Either way he didn't mind, in fact she hardly needed the pretense of science to get away with it in the first place. He pulled her close, and happily sank deeper and deeper into the water. He didn't even notice that they were sinking, in fact.​

​

It wasn't until she broke away from their kiss that he realized they were being watched. He glanced around himself, curious as to where it was they had ended up...​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

They had wound up in a very dark place, which she imagined would’ve been freezing cold if they hadn’t been wearing the suits. The skeletal silhouettes of tall buildings towered in the background, craggy and crusted over with sea life of a sedentary nature. But the exact area where they had landed was sand, right in the middle of a pathway created by the presence of small (and clearly artificial) underwater lights.

As for the mermaid hovering over them, Ishani was relieved to find that she was not the purple-haired one from earlier. Ishani’s sign language was pretty rusty, and she struggled to follow along. When neither of them responded to her gestures, the mermaid simply signed something else, slowly and deliberately, abandoning sentences for shortened phrases.

SEEN YOU BEFORE

She pointed to Mercturus.

JORN?

She carefully spelled out the name with her fingers, then pointed to Ishani with a smirk.

YOU RECRUITED HER?

Oh golly, he sure did recruit me, Ishani thought, rolling her eyes. Thus far, poor Mercturus had acted like a cat who hated water; the idea of him roping her into all this was just comical. But evidently the mermaid thought he was this Jorn person—probably the guy whose suit he was currently wearing.

<Well, should we keep up the charade?> she asked him. <Or should we say that Jorn let you borrow his Skin, or...?>

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Suddenly feeling as though he was in hot waters, Arcturus simply stared at the mermaid as she signed out her words and expressed familiarity. Could he bluff his way out of this? Pretend he didn't know what the woman was talking about? But then, she said recruited...​

​

Were people recruited into wearing these things?​

​

What sort of cult had they landed themselves in?​

​

I don't know he replied truthfully to Ishani, all at once aware of the water pressing in around him once more. He took her hand, and used his other to quickly sign: <LATE. GOT TO GO.> to the mermaid.​

​

Then, without much warning, he began to swim, pulling Ishani alongside him. They had to get out of here, they could have their fun later. Preferably not on a world which despised their kind, with people who seemed to all know one another.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani couldn’t help giggling as he pulled her away, sending bubbles floating up toward the surface from her mouth. <You’re adorable.>

She swam up, pulling him with her until they surfaced. The storm had completely cleared by now, and in the bright sunlight she could see the shore a little ways off, still within swimming distance.

“We can leave now if you want.” She didn’t mind—the main goal of this trip, getting the Skins, had been accomplished. Wearing them and exploring the world of the Finfolk was something she had decided to do on a whim, without putting much planning or forethought into it. Besides, seeing Arc like this was doing funny things to her. Things that ironically couldn’t be dealt with so long as they were still sealed in the Skins.

There was something else, too. She had forgotten that the Skin she now wore had belonged to a dead mermaid. Once the blood-smeared corpse was out of sight, it was out of mind. But more than that, she found that she no longer cared. It didn’t bother her anymore, or at least not enough to keep her from smiling and joking mere minutes later. Was that a bad thing? Did it make her evil or wicked?

What about what she said next?

“Arc, could you… teach me how to do that?” she asked. “Blood magic. It seems like a useful ability, is all.” Nobody so far had offered to teach her.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Ishani didn't fight him on his desire to leave.​

​

Once they broke the surface of the water he felt immediately better. The mermaid didn't seem to follow after them, if she had been suspicious he couldn't tell. And frankly, he didn't care. He could see the shore a short ways off, and began to head in that direction as quickly as his fishy tail could muster.​

​

But then Ishani spoke up.​

​

He paused mid-stroke, and turned around to face her. The act of doing so was far more gracious than he had expected, he glided through the water even now like a ballerina. A weird, scaly ballerina.​

​

"You... Want to learn blood magic?"​

​

She had seemed put off by it in the moment, and hadn't even been able to look at the corpse it had left behind on the shore. It was curious, he didn't understand why she suddenly wanted to learn more about it, but that didn't matter. He smiled, despite his current circumstances, and slowly nodded his head.​

​

"It's dangerous, even for someone trained in it. But yes... I can teach you some of the basics, and maybe I can see if Hyrva can help you with more complex things too."​

​

Hyrva always seemed happy to see him, with any luck that would extend to a possible other student.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

She was momentarily distracted by his weird scaly glide through the water and didn’t catch his hesitation. “I mean, sure. Why not? Especially if you could teach me. What’s the matter, you don’t want me calling you ‘master’?” She flicked water at him playfully.

“Who’s Hyrva?”

Where did he find these people, and why couldn’t she seem to find useful friends and acquaintances herself? Maybe it was just her personality. She knew she was… well, too fearful and timid and shy to make friends easily, but those handicaps she had learned how to turn into endearing charm. She was also too quick to dismiss those around her, too judgemental of others. Part of her wanted to blame her upbringing for it, while another part of her feared it was an inborn trait. Part of her nature, something she could never overcome.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Why not indeed.​

​

Truth be told, as dangerous as it was Arcturus found himself rather excited by the prospect of Ishani choosing to go down a similar route. She wasn't one who relied on the use of traditional lightsabers to get herself out of tricky situations, having another trick up her sleeve might do her some good, and with time it might help to bridge some of the issues she had here and there with the Force.​

​

But those issues were also something which worried him. Blood magic was dangerous, deadly if misused...​

​

"Though maybe we should ease ourselves in? Maybe I could help you strengthen your connection to the Force first? I'd hate for you to unintentionally hurt yourself, blood magic is... unforgiving..."​

​

He flicked some water back at her.​

​

"Hyrva is one of the instructors at the Academy. She's a little... intimidating at first, but she has a genuine passion for her work." She was occult in her leanings, a master of all things Eldritch. Arcturus hoped that one day he could be half the mystic as she was.​

​

He began to head back toward the shore, hoping that she'd follow his lead.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Unforgiving? Did it hurt you when you used it?” She was tempted to reach for his hand to see where he had cut it, but refrained for now. Instead she followed him, enjoying the effortless ease with which she could swim now that she didn’t need to worry about taking in water. Man, this suit was so neat…

“Oh, she’s an instructor? And not another one of your girlfriends?” She’d never quite gotten over the existential shock of Alina Tremiru kicking down her classroom door, demanding to know where Thesh was, and then dragging her to another classroom to pick up a very confused but equally worried Melydia. All those attractive young women fretting over what might have happened to their favorite redhead… Although truth be told, the fact that they all referred to him by his slave name had been quite reassuring. Her relationship with him was special after all, and that’s the way she liked it. No harem for Arcturus, nope. He was all hers. And she was all his too, despite any hiccups along the way.

They reached the shore. For a moment, she thought they had washed up somewhere very different compared to last time, but there was her discarded swimsuit lying on the sand. It’s just that, the merman and the dead mermaid weren’t there anymore…

“Yeah, uh—we should probably definitely get the hell out of here,” she said, reaching behind her to peel the Skin off at the seams.

It came away just as easily as before, only… she didn’t much want to take it off. It took an effort of will to overcome that reluctance, her rational mind warning her repeatedly of the danger that might still be lurking around the corner. Even when all of it had come off and she was wriggling into the swimsuit she had arrived in, she yearned for the clinging touch of the Skin like an addict craving a drug… and with nearly the same intensity with which she desired Arcturus. Holding the Skin in a hastily folded bundle in her arms, she wasn’t so sure it was a good idea to put it back on ever again. The siren song called to her even now.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"I mean, cutting your hand hurts," he explained with a shrug, before shaking his head. "But I more mean... a hiccup along the way can really cost you. The last thing you want is to die because a spell misfired, you know?"​

​

Some of the colour had drained from his cheeks at that thought, before he shook his head. He wasn't foolish with it, he barely used it outside of lessons after all. This had been more of a necessity, and it had worked out for the best. But ordinarily, he wouldn't have resorted to it. He had lightsabers, and daggers, they just weren't her on world. They were stuck aboard his ship.​

​

Ishani's next words gave him pause.​

​

"Girlfriends?" he inquired, the confusion evident upon his expression and held within his tone. What could she possibly be talking about? "Ish, there was no one before you... You know that right?"​

​

And no one since, though he didn't feel the need to explain as much.​

​

Still he quickly picked up on the fact that she was joking with him, which led to a reddening of his cheeks. However pale he might have been before, that was gone now.​

​

They reached the shore soon enough, the suit doing wonders for their travel times. Once they were there he glanced around, also noticing how the beings they'd left behind were gone, both living and dead. They couldn't linger.​

​

"Yeah..." he frowned slightly. Hopefully the one they had left alive wouldn't cause too much trouble for them when it came time to leave.​

​

He undressed as quickly as Ishani did, seeking out what little clothes he had been wearing before. He turned toward her as she dressed, the heat of the moment causing him to forgo his usual timidity where such was concerned. He'd taken a life, it had been quite some time since he'd done such, experienced such, and being upon the beach was a reminder of such. It set the adrenaline coursing through his veins once more.​

​

Arcturus stepped toward her, and pulled her in for a quick kiss. No water lay between them now, no strange skin suits. Just the girl.​

​

Only the urgency of their situation kept him from any more mischievous actions.​

​

Truly they had to leave.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“It’s an inside joke, babe. When we were all gathered to look for you while you were missing, I noticed we were all female and joked about you having a secret harem, stringing girls along with your exotic good looks and that goofy little boy smile.” She rolled her eyes for emphasis.

But anyway, they needed to go. Of course, Arc wanted a kiss before they went anywhere, and the quickness of it annoyed her. Damn, if only he hadn’t committed murder to protect her, they could’ve sat here and re-enacted the beach scene from From Here to Eternity. Chit.

“Should we grab our stuff, or—feth it, I didn’t bring anything important.” Except her clothes, but they weren’t worth risking her life over. Granted, she had more than Arc, who only had wet underwear to his name… where had he been keeping the knife he used to cut his hand earlier? Actually, never mind, she didn’t want to know—

She rounded a corner on her way further inland, and came to screeching halt.

The mermaid was there, still bloody, her red hair still damp from the sea. Only she was sitting up, perched on a rock with a towel draped over her shoulders. She was wearing dry clothes. So was the merman, who stood frozen nearby, staring at them with wide, panicked eyes.

“... Holy fething chit!” Ishani yelped just to break the tense silence that had fallen.

The merman blinked, but didn’t move. The mermaid stood up, a new trickle of blood leaking from the inner corner of her eye.

Ishani grabbed Arcturus’ arm and took off in the opposite direction.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Arcturus hadn't left behind much on the shore either, everything of importance was back on the ship, so not faffing around finding them again didn't bother him either, even if the cold itself did. He was shivering something fierce at this point, but the moment he laid eyes upon the pair of mer all of those concerns vanished into thin air.​

​

So too did any response he had to Ishani's little jokes. Truth be told he hadn't even fully realized that they'd all gathered to find him in his absence. Something to address later. Right now they had bigger fish to fry.​

​

Once again the male was far more passive, he seemed shellshocked. Being that Arcturus hadn't intended upon killing anyone when they came to this world, there was a small amount of relief welling up inside him. Especially now that his frustrations had waned. Ishani wasn't in danger any more, he didn't have to give in to any rage.​

​

In fact, Ishani didn't want to give into anything at all. She wanted to leave. So he took her hand and he fled into the general direction of the spaceport they had first come from however long ago. If they found their clothes along the way then good, but if not?​

​

Well, they'd be hightailing it out of here soon enough either way.​

​

Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani was very glad that Arcturus did not try to stay behind and continue their feud with the Finfolk pair. Very, very glad, because the mere fact that the chick had resurrected herself after having her organ liquified by blood magic was a sign that they really didn’t want to keep fighting with her. Ishani was less certain of what to make of the wash of relief she sensed in Arc upon seeing that the mermaid was still alive, but that too could be addressed later.

First they were running, headed away from the ruins of Pirivena and toward the airspeeder they had driven from the starport in Nezamiyeh—the only still-functioning starport on all of Chaldea, a fact which said a lot about her homeworld. The Finfolk didn’t attempt to follow them, thankfully.

They were already in the air when she picked up on how cold and wet she was, not to mention Arcturus. She turned the heat on, but it wasn’t going to be enough. “There should be some extra towels in the back...” she said, putting the speeder on autopilot for a minute as she climbed over the seats to grab them. Having tossed Arc a couple of towels, she started to head back for the driver’s seat, paused, looked at the still-shivering redhead, then at the thirty minute estimated arrival time… and crawled into his lap instead, wrapping her towel around them both.

The mood and context was quite different compared to when she had done something similar earlier, when they first took the plunge underwater and she had playfully shared body heat with him. Now she felt guilty and shaken and overprotective. She also felt like she owed Arc an explanation, but then Chaldea made her feel that way with every offworlder she brought there. Her planet was fething bizarre even by the standards of the weirdo galaxy they lived in, and it only seemed to get stranger the more time she spent away from home.

“She really should have died,” Ishani muttered. “But I think that mermaid was a Bamarri. They’re like… super rare Force entities? I don’t even know how to explain it. They’re born when lightning strikes the special marble down in Bamarre, and their bodies are made out of crystal. If the crystal cracks, their spirit flies and looks for a new body to inhabit, usually a corpse. So you couldn’t have killed that mermaid, Arc, because she was probably already dead. The Bamarri was just using her as a host.”

She was babbling now, and it was probably making his head spin, so she stopped talking for a little while. “I’m glad you didn’t destroy her anyway,” she said eventually. “Even though she attacked us, we were… I came here to steal from them. To take a part of who they are away from them. So really, I deserved it...”

Closing her eyes, she rested her head against his chest and was silent for the rest of the ride.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Thankfully it didn't take the pair too long to find the airspeeder. Sadly their clothes were a hop skip and a jump away, and quite frankly he just wanted to leave. If the mer wanted to track them down they didn't have much of a head start, nope best they get into the air and away from this place. Back to his ship, and space, and the closest thing he had to a home.​

​

There was no room for hesitation, he hopped into the speeder and allowed Ishani to set the coordinates back to the starport.​

​

Ishani said something about towels but Arcturus was already succumbing to the fatigue which often hit when adrenaline began to wane. The warmth of the girl's body and the quickly rising temperature of the speeder itself certainly helped to shock him back to the present, and as she nestled down with him beneath the towel he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.​

​

Then the girl began to mutter an explanation, an apology of sorts, but he shook his head upon listening to all that she had to say. "It's okay, Ishani. I'm just glad you're alright."​

​

The information was useful though, it definitely helped to make sense of some of the madness. Such as how the feth she'd managed to come back from the hell he'd put upon her.​

​

He kissed her forehead, and then closed his own eyes too. Soon enough they'd be safe and warm and leaving this world behind.​

​

Soon enough...​

​

Ishani Dinn ​