A Riptide Is Comming... (Open!)

[Anonymous]

((XD I guess it depends. She'd love to kill pirates. But, she probably would just... run from everything else. Other than her own kind.))

This man... could not take a hint. He was still standing there, like some lost puppy, waiting for her to.. to what? Come around? He may not be human, but he was a land dweller, still the symbolism of everything she despised. And she would much prefer to deal with this curse of hers alone. It was already shameful that he probably watched her transform into this... pitiful thing. An excuse, a shell of her true nature. A mockery.

Her lips curled into another sneer as he said he was better. What did he know of being better? Did he ever lay his life on the line to serve others but himself? Did he ever vow to die before another? Word games meant nothing to her. It was sheer instinct that helped her to survive, at least for this long. Most merpeople died in exile... not that there were many. She was just lucky that way.

She watched the garment suspiciously, backing up another step as it burst into light, but it was gone. But it was his words that hurt her. A physical ache. A haunted look entered her eyes at every word he said. Transforming into a person... away from her own kind... But then, there was anger. A sheer hatred, a fire that burned through her. She picked up her trident, even if she was weak, even if her legs were shaking. This man would not humiliate her.

A scream tore out of her throat as she caught that glint, and she didn't mince her time on words. She lifted her trident, and charged, her legs shaking and threatening to buckle with every misplaced, wobbly step. She would fight. She was trained to fight. Even if she died trying.

[Anonymous]

((Man, pirates have such a bad rap with Mers. Why do they care what people above the waters do? Dx))

Nexus could be a patient man. While he did love to have things happen instantly for him, he could always wait. Torture was slow after all, very...very slow if he was doing it. Maybe that's what this was. He'd always been able to do mental torture, so maybe that's what this was. Mentally torturing the mermaid for his own pleasure. Though he didn't really feel anything from this so it couldn't be that.

That would all be figured out later though.

It wasn't going to be a very fair fight he figured. Her pride wouldn't allow her to say no though. That look of hatred and anger though....that was good to see. That would feed her through this. That may even help her to win but...why was she always using that damned trident of hers? Could she not fight any other way? Under the water she had a pretty good offence, with teeth and claws and her tail...he supposed that might changed now.

She charged at him, and the easiest thing in the world for him to do simply let her run by him. It was easy and quick, his feet simply carrying him off to her right side, his hands aiming a slap for the side of the trident. He didn't want her to stab him, and slapping the trident would get her to definitely lose some balance. Plus it would help to get it to go in the other direction, the direction that wasn't into his belly.

[Anonymous]

((xD It's probably because pirates are selfish and want all the lovely treasure that Mers tend to have? At any rate, I doubt they would take kindly to a race that occasionally likes to drown their crew members.))

She should have expected him to dodge. It was the simplest counter-attack in the book, and yet, he got away with it. And then a hard slap to her trident, which made her knees buckle, falling hard onto the unforgiving sand. Another snarl tore from her throat, her tail thunking uselessly beside her, and she glared at him, coldly.

Even if her legs were shaking, she still stood, balancing her trident lightly. It was her only weapon now. Her teeth were shorter, the replacements gone, washed away by the tide. Her nails, about as good as human nails now, not meant for tearing and shredding. And that useless hunk of flesh and cartilage that her tail had become. If only...

An idea came to her, and she charged again, but this time, she skidded in the sand, feinting to his left side, and spun in a tight circle. Her tail followed her movements, and with any luck, it would wrap around his legs, tripping him up. Or it would just slide uselessly around them. Sekhet prayed that the former would happen, and not the latter. How nice it would be to get rid of this being, or whatever he may be!

[Anonymous]

((Pfft, pirates can't even get to Mer treasure, it's all underwater and stuff! That's crazy Don't be crazy!))

She was tired, she was weak, and he should have expected how easy this might be. It wasn't a particularly fair fight, but sometimes you had to be very unfair. If he lost this match, he'd lose a source of interest and entertainment. But he couldn't lose. Well he could, but there was only one way that Nexus lost at a fight...and that was to die. If he didn't die, he didn't lose, and would continue to fight.

She wasn't going to like that very much, because he didn't think she'd have the guts to do that.

"Is that all you have? You fight like a bass, flopping around uselessly. A bass that has to use a trident." He was almost sure that no matter how much insulting he did to her, it wouldn't really matter. She wouldn't be able to fight any better would she?

Her next charge was definitely different, and he barely had time to figure out what she was doing. He stood his ground however, even as he felt something weird wrap around his legs. It better not have been the kelp, that always felt weird when it touched your skin. He decided to show that he meant business, and instead of moving and falling for her little trick, he decided to roughly throw his elbow at her. The spin was cute but she was still pretty weak, and he wouldn't need much to throw her off balance again.

[Anonymous]

((XD Well, pirates and Mers just never get along. I'm sure enough Mers were wearing pearls that they got curious, no?))

His words were infuriating to her, moreso that there was a hint of truth to them. Of course she couldn't fight like this! Her legs weren't used to this weight, and she could barely run on this god-forsaken sand. Every step was making her knees buckle, and even if her will was to fight, her body certainly wasn't cooperating.

This was his territory, and she no longer had an advantage. That came to her in stars of pain that appeared behind her eyes as his elbow found her ribcage. The air came out of her mouth in a ragged gasp as she fell to the sand again, coughing and forcing it back into her lungs.

Her anger was still blazing, and she thrust her trident at his legs again. It was close to her last move, because she couldn't do much else.

[Anonymous]

((I suppose this is true, I guess for Mers pearls are like...nothing hard to come by. Jerks.))

He probably had picked a bad time to really fight her on land. However she was going to run away, and he hated that. People always ran away. He felt like he should be remembering more people...that there was someone important who ran....but none of them were really important were they? Not to him anyway. This had been a good way though to keep her around. He wasn't one to care about using dirty tactics after all.

She really wasn't good at land fighting. That was kind of sad really. He turned to stand triumphant over her, his arms crossed over his chest. She definitely didn't like land fighting, and for someone who seemed to become a land person...well she would have to learn. If this was a transformation that happened often.

He didn't have much time for contemplation as a tine from a trident sunk itself quickly into his leg. This was his other leg now, and that sort of pissed him off. He was tired of her using this god damn trident of hers. Red vines of power slowly circled around his non-speared leg and he raised it up. With a deafening roar he brought it down upon the flat of the damned weapon, hoping to smash the rock weapon to pieces. Enough was enough.

[Anonymous]

((XD Yeah, exactly. And Mers do end up seducing pirates off their ships. Not their fault that some pirates are idiotic enough to jump into the ocean and go after something that looks like a woman and drown! So what, the Mers get crap for the pirate's stupidity? Hypocrisy~))

Every limb was quivering, swear was dripping down her face, a sensation that she couldn't help but hate, as if they very water was leaking out of her body! But there was a small satisfaction that rose within her as her trident bit into his leg once more. That was something, wasn't it? She grinned like a demon, twisting her arms, about to sink the trident further...

The red strings, morphing around his leg. Her heart beat wildly, nerves shattered. No! Not her trident! She couldn't!

She yanked the trident out of his leg, away from the power that could destroy it, and covered it with her body, clinging to it desperately as his foot slammed millimeters away from her face. She looked at him, and screeched, even if her chest was heaving. "I give! I GIVE!"

She was a shaking, panting mess, even if her eyes still shown with hatred. She kept a death grip on her trident, holding it close to her slim body, her tail useless around her. She couldn't even beg a muscle to move.

((Heh, sorry, but couldn't have her trident destroyed~ She'd probably die if it did.))

[Anonymous]

((Yeah but you'd think they'd all want to do then is get to the Mer for some sweet revenge loving or something. I don't know how all the pirates work after all xD))

There might have been a little bit of pain in his leg, but he wasn't really able to tell over all the pleasure that shivered up and down his spine. He could have sworn there were some goosebumps that were forming on his arms. That damn trident was just being a pain in his ass...or at least in his leg. He hoped that he could smash the little thing into the tiniest of bits but...there was that wrenching feeling as she yanked the trident from him.

His foot came down to stamp into the sand, there was a strange sound of glass shattering as it hit the sand. Lots of glass had actually formed under his boot actually, and then became crushed by the weight. He had to break the damn trident, but that hadn't worked out for the best. She however seemed to think that this was the end didn't it? He grinned as he stepped back, well...he limped back a step.

"Well well. How interesting is that?" He didn't actually blame her either...he killed people for his hat. He once broke a man's arm in six different places because he tried to steal his fedora. Slowly Nexus lowered himself down to the sand to hold onto his leg, to stop the blood, and to let his leg start healing. "Take a few minutes...er...take an hour or so to compose yourself. I probably shoulda waited for you to recover from that horribly painful looking transformation."

[Anonymous]

((XD True. Well, I'm sure that Sekhet just had the luck to get the ones that wanted to kill Mers!))

The ground beside her rumbled as Nexus's foot crashed beside her, shattering glass below his step. Her body shivered unintentionally, every bone in her being exhausted. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she kept her grip on the only solid thing she still had in her life. For a while, she did not move, almost waiting for this man to try another attack.

To her relief, he didn't. He stepped back, holding the blood in his leg. A small sneer pulled at her lips. Even if he could heal himself, she had still drew blood from him. Even if she was weak, even if she gave up... There was still a flash of pride within her. For right now, it's all she had.

She hissed as she raised herself to her knees. "I don't need time!" She spat at him, gripping her trident, sticking the tines in the sand. It gave her a means of support as she stood on knocking knees, spitting to the sand and gulping air. Even so, she narrowed her eyes at him once he mentioned her transformation. She wish she could be surprised that he watched-- but the truth was that she wasn't.

"Of course," Sekhet muttered, glaring at her trident. "Of course you watched." Finally, she gripped her trident, and pulled it away from the sand. Testing the ground with her toes, carefully setting her foot upon the sand, she took a step. Even if her knees buckled, she still walked, getting used to the bearing of her weight.

"It wasn't painful," she muttered, a vain attempt to defend herself. She hated having her dignity bared like this, to nothing more than a stranger. She kicked a bit at the sand with her foot, still glaring at it. Once her gaze lifted, it was cold, carefully crafted. "Now, do you wish to talk or ridicule me some more?"

[Anonymous]

(((Right because she doesn't have a "Kill humans cause I can" vibe about her, no sir not at all!))

She had surrendered, there would have been no honour in attacking her now. Granted, one of the things he would have done would be to bind her up and take her somewhere to inflict great pain and humiliation on her but...no, she was still a warrior, and he still had some respect for her. Though the trident thing was starting to definitely tip those two scales...he'd let it lie for the time being.

"Oh, right, because you just gave up since you were winning." He rolled his eye and shook his head. He was stubborn, he would admit that, but this girl was something else entirely. Did his brother and sister get this same annoyed feeling from him when he refused to give up? Brrr, this whole thing was like a weird out of body experience.

"That's all I can do sometimes. Is watch." Mournful words. There was sadness to them. He envied her, and all people sometimes. They could stop watching. They could just close their eyes and stop watching. Granted he could look away but...he would still be watching. He would still see something and that would never change. "Looked like it was." He murmured, wondering just what she had to prove to him. Unless this was how she always acted, which he was sure that she did.

Slowly Nexus got to his feet as well. "I actually wish for something different at the moment." He approached her slowly, his posture relaxed and non-threatening. Now....how did people usually go about this again? He looked down at the woman before him, contemplating this, rubbing his chin. He could do this. Slowly his arms came out, and he suddenly embraced her, as best he could from still standing straight up, awkwardly patting her on the back. "People do this I think to console another. A hug right?" He had no idea if Mers had hugs but...this was supposed to help make people feel better.

[Anonymous]

((Of course not, not at all! Heh, really, I think she wouldn't kill humans willy-nilly. She'd hurt them for hurting her, but killing them would sink her down to their level. But once it comes to self-defense, it's no holds.))

Obviously Sekhet wasn't in a mood for joking. At his comment about her giving up, she glared at him, and her voice was low as she spoke. "Self-preservation can come before honor," she muttered, her voice drifting in the wind. There was something in it as she spoke, something that sounded lost and forgotten. But it came away quickly as she brushed sand out of her hair with nimble fingers, fingers that lacked claws and webbing, hissing. "Not that there was honor in this fight." He had challenge her while she was weak, and gave her an ultimatum: fight now or he would do something unspeakable. Did she really have much of a choice in the matter? No. And she was on land. No mermaid was a great fighter on land. Not unless they had already turned their back on their own people.

Perhaps the way that he spoke intrigued her, the notes in his voice that said that he had watched. But her spine stiffened, and she turned her back on him, attempting to tie the kelp better between her legs. It was going to have to last her at least the night, until she could find a substitute. Her voice was low again, almost barely a whisper. "You could have looked away." Her pride had been wounded by the very fact that he had seen that transformation, the curse that stripped away shreds of her sanity with every passing, that took away what it meant to be part of her kind.

She heard him getting up to his feet, but her back was still turned. She was trying to figure out something to do with her tail, the useless husk that it now was, filled with blood and bone but with no way to control it. After a minute, she settled on slinging the thing over her shoulder, nothing more than a dead carcass. But he was approaching her, and the same suspicion filled her eyes, even if he wasn't threatening.

His arms embraced her, and she stiffened, expecting this on every level possible. What was this man's deal? He seemed to delight in fighting her, making her hurt, took joy in her pain, and now... now he was... trying to console her? It was that word that made her still, eerily so. And then, a dark chuckle choked out of her voice, small hands lightly pushing at his chest, but with no real force behind them.

"I deserve none," she muttered darkly. "I am not a thing to be consoled. I am nothing. You saw it for yourself." Her eyes were downcast.

"I deserve this."

[Anonymous]

((lol, self defence, suuuuure. I believe you!))

What an interesting night this was turning out to be. She had a lot of deep dark personal problems. He also had a lot of deep dark personal problems, but he wasn't feeling like he should settle them any time soon. No that would be resolved for another time perhaps. A time when he felt like he should air all his deep dark hatreds. He however, had won the fight, and that meant that all his problems would be kept hidden while he listened to someone else for a change.

"Did I not allow surrender? Did I not say that we could not fight? Or imply it at least?" He had done something like that. The detail wasn't particularly important though. "Your pride wouldn't let you." And the fact he may have implied there could be rape involved. Could though. He probably wouldn't have gone through with it...unless she really screamed and fought back.

He gave a small snort as he shook his head. "Nothing interesting to look at. If I'm forced to watch, might as well be something interesting." It was a good enough philosophy for him really. Granted there was always something interesting to look at...but that was usually reserved to urban environments. Out here it was all nature and calmness...such a still place with very little to look at. Watching a shark woman turn into a mostly woman...now that was a spectacle to see.

"Deserve this?" He asked as he looked down at her. She was fighting, but only a small amount. She didn't want this, and at the same time it was something she needed. What the hell had happened to her? What happened to him for that matter. Here he was...hugging someone! Hugging! Consoling someone! When did he ever do that? It felt familiar. Something tugged at the back of his mind for just a moment. Had he done this before? No...no he'd remember this. However, she was a warrior, a warrior with a bad past it seemed. "Well, you deserve the hug. Unless this is hell for ya, then with your self depreciating ways I'd say you'd think you deserve the hug. But ya can't deserve worse than me. That much I can tell ya."

[Anonymous]

((xD Okay, well, she is kinda messed up... being shoved into exile will do that to someone. And I'm still trying to get a good handle on her persona. So sue me. x.x; ))

His comment about surrendering made no sense to Sekhet. She looked at him as he said it, as if he had suggested that she wasn't actually a merperson, but a person who happened to look like a mer. "Surrendering is for the weak," she repeated, something that sounded strangely like a motto. Perhaps a personal one, but there was an intonation to her tone, as if this was something she had repeated to herself, something that was as one with her as her trident was. "And my pride is all that I have left." Her shoulders stiffened at the words, a dark look entering her eyes. "I don't give in to others so easily."

Something interesting. That was all she had been reduced to, wasn't it? "A sideshow," she hissed, her hands curling into fists. "A freak." She was speaking to herself, every muscle in her body strained. She remembered when she was respected, admired... Those days were gone, weren't they? They had been left behind in the depths, to a kingdom that she could never return to.

Something had changed about Sekhet, even as Nexus still had his arms around her. Her hands were still trying to push on his chest, and her head was shaking, back and forth, back and forth, a broken piece of equipment. "I don't. You're mistaken. I deserve what... happened. But I don't deserve sympathy." Though at what the man said, she snorted. "I see." To an extent, she did. She noticed that he seemed to find joy in pain... Whether it be his own pain or hers. This did put her on edge, but... there was so much to this man. If he delighted in her pain so much, why was he trying to comfort her?

The scrape of a wave against the sand made Sekhet look up, backing away and breaking his grip, but not fast enough. The wave touched her toe, and at least to her credit, Sekhet showed no sign of pain as the skin on the tip of her toe turned back, dead by the touch of the water. She scraped her toe against the sand, and the skin came off, causing a small amount of blood upon the layer.

"I need to move," she said, her voice carefully monotone. "The tide is coming in."

It was painfully obvious by now that her transformation wasn't normal in the slightest.

[Anonymous]

((Psh, I wouldn't sue you! That'd be terrible! I'd probably not get any more role playing from you and that'd suck!))

"Surrendering is also for the smart. Sometimes it's better to surrender than to die." Unless surrendering would cause you to die as well. Then you might as well go down fighting right? However in this situation, he wouldn't have killed her. No, that would mean his fun would disappear as well, and he'd be stuck having to figure out something else to do until he could get his way onto a ship. Though now that he had found Sekhet, he wasn't sure he wanted to leave any time soon anyway. "This much I could have told you." He rolled his eye again, smirking to himself. Oh yes, he had to literally beat some sense into her, and some information out of her it seemed.

"Now you're just putting words into my mouth. There are so much better things that could put there." He grinned impishly, more to himself than anyone. She was in no mood for dalliances of that kind it seemed. She seemed more interested in wallowing in self pity. Now don't get him wrong, there were night when he sat around an empty fire and contemplated his place in the world, and found himself wishing he could let all this anger and darkness out so he could have a normal life...but she was taking self hatred and brooding to a whole new level.

It was almost refreshing.

"I think it's time for you to tell me that story about yourself." He told her with a small nod of his head. He really wanted to know more about...why she had turned into a bipedal creature, and what made her think she deserved this. Sometimes changed though, and his eye followed hers down to the water, to her toe as it was assaulted with the sea water. Alright. He'd seen a lot of things, but he'd never seen someone's skin become...black and fall off like that. Though watching her scrape the dead skin and seeing the blood made his eye twinkle almost.

"Yeah, seems like a good idea." With very little effort, he suddenly was at her again, scooping her up into his arms. He was careful of course not to get his face poked with her trident, and to let her cradle it like a baby at least. "Come along then Sekhet." As if she would have much choice. He bounded up away from the water, until they were near where jungle met sand. He didn't want to take her away from her world after all, but it was clear that she couldn't spend that much time near it. "I'll get us a nice...light going." A fire would do nothing for her, she'd probably resent the damn thing like she resented most things from the surface world it seemed. He set her down on the sand before he knelt and began to dig a small pit. Nothing too extravagant, but he filled the pit with strange white and gold strings that fell from his fingers like web from a spider. Within moments there was light, but no fire being exuded from the pit. It would be well than enough for her to see their surroundings, but not enough to attract much attention from anything.

"Now." He said as he sat back and gestured for her to take a seat. "You have the choice. You can regale me with tales of Sekhet, shark woman of Yoreiq who sometimes becomes a person...or you can hear about my life, Nexus Savaros, the thread master...and surface dweller." He added the last part on, knowing it would probably annoy her and deter. "Either way, I'll be hearing your story, but you can choose who gets to go first."

[Anonymous]

((XD Exactly!))

Sekhet mulled around the statement about surrendering, thinking it over. She wasn't stupid, and her training had taught her this much. "It can be better," she said, "if the party you're surrendering to grants you mercy. Sometimes, however, the opposing party is not one that you would give your life to. Sometimes surrendering can be worse than death, or the punishments they force you to endure on the condition of surrendering." She looked at him as she said this, straight in that strange eye of his. She didn't think that surrendering to him was a good idea, at all. Not to someone who had a pupil in the shape of a noose.

And yet even if she should have been expecting it, what he was implying with his mouth... still made her shudder. She looked away, and tried to hide her disgust by becoming fascinated with the sand instead. "You would do some good into finding more... human mouths." That was about as delicately as she would put it... and something that wouldn't exactly give her nightmares. Not many, at least. ... Nothing that she couldn't handle. ... And staying up an entire evening was quite a feasible option.

When he mention the story, she simply looked resigned. "It was part of the fight...," she mumbled. Not that any part of her looked happy about this. She was still glaring sullenly up at him, through her eyelashes, holding her tail and her trident as if she was on a death march.

And then the damn ocean had to come in. At least she didn't have this busted, bleeding toe in the water, then she'd have to worry about sharks. ... Though one could argue that sharks had more to worry from her, or that this Nexus was worse than any shark that she could have hoped to entangle with. At least sharks didn't talk. Or try to come on to her.

A yelp escaped her once she found herself picked up again, and she glared at Nexus. "Just because the ocean doesn't agree with me doesn't mean I can't walk!" She snarled, but she seemed resigned to this part of her fate. Fine, let him carry her around like some rag doll.  It's not like he could keep this up forever!  She glared at him and crossed her arms as best she could while still keeping a grip on her trident. "As if I have a choice," she muttered, and once he set her down on the sand she quickly scrunched herself up, hugging her knees to her chest and arranging her tail around her. Sekhet was still uneasy, glancing at the darkness of the forest. Ocean beasts, she could handle. Land beasts... not that much.

Her eyes widened again at the display of his strings, and she was grateful for the lack of a fire. Something like that wouldn't draw much attention, even if she was still rather uneasy. But once he asked, she sighed, and relaxed her posture a bit, letting her knees lay on the sand. "Other than being a dweller upon the surface and spitting webs from your hands and torturing grounded mermaids?" She asked, snorting. "I can only wonder what else there is to say about you..."

In other words, she was going to hold off on telling him as long as possible. Less connection to surface dwellers, the better.

[Anonymous]

It was best to drop it, Nexus found. They were going to end up arguing a whole lot of semantics at this point, and Nexus didn't particularly feel in the mood for such a philosophical topic. He would have preferred more fighting but the girl wasn't in much mood for that. She was lucky that she was such a fighter though, she had an intense amount of spirit, and it earned her quite a bit of respect with the strange man from the strange world.

A laugh escaped his lips. "Not as much fun, or interesting. I like to sample everything in life at least once." Granted she was a lot less...dangerous in this form...which was a pity. He liked the extremely dangerous things in life...but then at the same time, she had several rows of teeth before, and he wasn't particularly in the mood for reaching down her throat to retrieve his...personal property.

That would not have looked good to anybody, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to reattach it properly. That would probably make him kill her...well, it would definitely make him kill her. On principal mostly.

"You're not exactly in any sort of position to argue, so just be thankful I'm not taking you for a swim." As appealing as it sounded to go for a little dip, he was pretty sure there wouldn't be any more of these shark mers near by, and he was almost certain she'd up running as far away as possible to escape him. He almost suspected it was his fault that people ran from him, but htat was crazy. "That's right, you don't." He replied pleasantly, having caught it with his rather sharp sense of hearing. She was rather amusing to him, but what would happen when that novelty wore off? One had to wonder...and one had to keep that out of their mind at all costs.

"First of all, if I was torturing you, then you'd know it. And their not webs their..." Well, they could be webs...but they were just...strings...like...webs. "Complex." He finished with that, shrugging his shoulders as he lay back somewhat, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I was human once," Nexus started, his eyes drifting up to look at the stars above them. He was so far away from home...none of these looked like his stars. They were all different...very foreign and alien to him. "I didn't know it, but I wouldn't be for very long. I grew up in a small place, normal for the most part. Didn't have any weird eyes, pain was pain for me...probably 'cause I was human. I accidentally killed a kid though, or what I thought was a kid. It was actually an undead necromancer...ah...that's a different story. Anyway. The kid was a trap, his destiny twisted by a Goddess on high. She brought him to me, used him as a trap so that I would hone my skills against him...and eventually revealed that I was nothing but a puppet." He spat the last words out as they tasted vile in his mouth, a poison on his tongue that he would not tolerate.

"She tricked me of course, she told me to atone I would have to work for her, as an Agent of Justice. She burned away my humanity, and left me as a Savaros, her own personal Angel of Divine Punishment. Along with two others, we became kin, she was our puppet mother, and we were her puppet children." He kept his eye locked on the sky, not bothering to look at the young woman before him, but there was a rage on his face. An expression of hatred and loathing that was all too hard to hide. "We grew strong...and eventually we learned about...a way to escape. To get off the land that we were in...and to new ones far away, out of her reach. We cut the cords that bound us, hoping to strangle her with them...but soon just ran...we were weak back then. She controlled us with no...care, no thought, no kindness. She turned us into freaks, into beings that would torture and kill at her command." His eye slowly rolled down to look at her, a slightly sickened smile on his face. "She broke us little dolls, and never bothered to try to fix us."

[Anonymous]

((Hey there! I caught the flu xD And it hated me.))

One day, she would be able to leave Nexus and let him have at his own fetishes without her having to bear witness. The idea of even sampling was enough to almost make her lose her lunch. But sheer desperation kept it inside her stomach. Not to mention she had no money (yet) to grab any food with... having to use human currency. Oh, how she hated it. But for now, she simply bristled at his comment and drew further away from him.

The mention of a swim made her growl a bit, and she looked back out to the ocean, the very thing that now betrayed her. If he had... it would be a quick death, that she was certain. But not a death that she wanted. Death was not something that she wanted. As for his other comment, she just scoffed. There wasn't much of a bother in replying to it.

"So... they aren't webs?" She asked, cautiously, peering at the glowing strings. She drew closer to the pit, and peered into it, before laying back on her spot. "Oh... kay." So he didn't really know what to call them. That was fine.

It was his story that made her actually look up, watching him with a gaze that was close to unblinking as any creature of this earth would allow. He had started out as a human... but he was tricked. By a... necromancer. Her eyebrows furrowed at the word-- she had little experience with mages outside her own-- but at least she could gather enough from word meanings to understand what it was. And damn her! She felt the shock through her system, the way her eyes widen and she drew closer as he said he became an instrument to a Goddess, an angel of a cruel twist of fate. A puppet. "You were used," she spoke softly, but not an accusation. She of all creatures had no right to accuse.

His story was fascinating. He was truly not a creature of this world, something that was used. And his hate... she could taste it on her tongue, something vile and powerful. She watched the expression on his face, the anger, how he looked at the stars of a sky that wasn't his. But he escaped it... to an extent. She met his gaze, and nodded, in understanding, or as much as she could.

"You may be broken... but you're not a puppet. Not to her anymore." Slowly, Sekhet stretched her human legs out, running her hands softly over her calves. It was a few minutes before she spoke.

"I was never like this... months ago. When I was born, I had a fate. That fate was sealed for me. I was nobility, I was honor. I was what kept law in my kingdom. I was a knight, of the most powerful standing. A Neptune, descendants of the warrior god, so the legend went. I trained with a trident the moment I knew how to grip one, I fought every enemy I could come across, all to protect the royalty, the light of our kingdom, the King and Queen, and their five descendants..."

She rested her head on her knees, her gaze drifting sideways to the ocean, to look at the lapping waves. "I trained in magic, I trained in combat, in hunting, anything and everything, in preparation for serving my life to the order in my kingdom, the highest honor any merperson could want. I beat every one of my competitors, and on the day I turned twenty, I fought and defeated twenty of my own kind to become a knight, fought them one after the other. No one could match my ferocity. I thought I was invincible, immortal even, that Neptune himself guided my hand in battle... Oh, how naviety makes fools of us all."

She was silent for a while again, and when she spoke, her voice was cold, distant. "We wanted nothing to do with the human kingdoms. We made that clear. We kept the pirates and merchants away and asked for nothing, wanted nothing... but it wasn't good enough. They came one day, with weaponry that we had no way to counter. I was given only one task, to protect the prince and princesses, for only the king and queen would entrust me with their children. So I took them, but by then it was far too late. The pirates were upon us, and their spear... it went through my shoulder, pinned me to the bottom below. I struggled to get out, and I did so... only to watch the prince before me die, his body speared by the same weapon, and the princess, gone from my sight. I held his body as I looked for hers... and I found it. Broken and beaten.

"I was brought before the king and queen, brought before my parents, my kingdom... and I was exiled. And to mark my humiliation, my failure, I have been cursed by the king for taking away his children. I must walk like a human after every full moon for four days, and the touch of salt water will kill me if I try to escape this fate too early. I am forced to be among humans, with the shell of who I used to be to drag before me."

[Anonymous]

((It's okay poppet, you're back now and stronger than ever! Right? Right!)))

She was an odd duck, he would give her that. An odd...shark duck. He couldn't say he quite understood her repulsion toward such a thing as sex. Probably wasn't something she had ever done, which made it all the more...sweet. Whether intentional or not, he was at least starting to get past her defences, and soon he'd wear her down just a little bit. She had literally vomited from the kiss before, and that was just odd and a half.

He was better than a mer though, so he couldn't see why she detested the idea. He'd have to bring that up later, get a bit deeper into her head before he could get any deeper into her. Heh. That was pretty witty.

"Just accept it." He chided gently, shaking his head. He didn't really...know what to call them exactly, but they weren't webs! If they were, then they'd be sticky and he'd have caught her in them and would be doing terrible things to her. Definitely not webs. He wasn't a spider after all.

It was no surprise that Nexus had baggage, and why he was perhaps the way he was. He wasn't necessarily evil, he was just overcome a lot by rage and hate, by a strong feeling of disgust for himself and for others. It might be why he fought so much, and why he enjoyed it. It was who he was, what he had become. She had wanted to use his hate and rage to her advantage, his unending strength and unbreakable will in the pursuit of law, justice, and order. The only problem was she had no idea how to keep him under control, how to reign him in when the time came.

"Heh, if only that were true. Even now she dictates my actions occasionally." Not evil by design, he kept telling himself. He did these things as a protest. He was forced to do the right honourable and just thing all the time, to punish those that were wicked and save the innocent. Now he punished the innocent and joined the ranks of the wicked. It was all in defiance though, nothing more. Each side of the fence offered him the same amount of satisfaction. Torturing a young woman because he could was the same to him as torturing a man who had brutally attacked another person. All a paradox wrapped into one area.

She finally spoke up again, deciding it seemed to share her story, and Nexus had to sit up to watch her better. He had learned a long time ago, that just because he could see a person from any direction, didn't exclude him from actually facing them. Some found it rude, despite still giving them his full attention. It must have been a facing issue he had figured.

Some things of her story he had no clue about. Like who Neptune was. It wasn't a name he had heard in his travels of the land either, but then again this was the first Mer he had really gotten to talk to. They usually were underwater and such...very hard for a man to really get to, especially one who favoured ground close quarters combat. She had such a story didn't she? He was amazed by how similar their origins sort of were. Okay maybe not the most similar...but it did strike certain chords with Nexus. She was a knight by choice, he was a knight by force. Two very big differences, but still...they weren't that far away from each other.

He was confused by the ending though. How strange that had been. He kept quiet as he let it go through his mind, her story ended and he just...stared. "I'm not the smartest person in the world. I let my emotions get the better of me. I don't pretend to be a wise man or a holy person...but you're punishing yourself just as much for something out of your control." He said finally as he looked her straight in the...eyes. As best he could. "They punished you for something you couldn't control, and then ever since that day have been punishing yourself even more than you ever could." Granted he had the same sort of problem, to some degree but...hers was pretty obvious.

[Anonymous]

((XD Right~!))

Sex had never really been on Sekhet's mind, especially now. Before, when she was among her kind... Perhaps she had entertained such thoughts, and always found it interesting when the mermen would sometimes look upon her with desire. But such things distracted her from her training. She had never tried to pursue a relationship with any of those men, or even her fellow knights. And now... to have a surface dweller interested in her...

It filled her with disgust. She spoiled her chances with her own kind. And now, now... it was him. Not that she should expect any less. She was spoiled goods now. No one wanted her, except for strange men with eccentric tastes.

And this was a strange man, if he could be called as such. She watched him again, studying him closely. He wasn't from this realm. He was controlled, or used to be controlled, by a goddess. Perhaps not the ones that she was familiar with, but a goddess none-the-less. He was an instrument that tried to defy his master's will, and was hurt for it. Sekhet smiled to herself. 'Fate always finds you in the end.'

"Her control should be weak," she said softly, digging her toes into the sands. "You're not in her world." It was all that she could think of to say, trying to grasp at a situation that she could barely understand. But it made sense to her. If he was in one world and she was in another, even as a goddess... Then she wouldn't know what he was doing.

But it was what he said, looking at her, that made something blaze inside of her. It was hatred, hatred at herself, that every word he spoke was false. She glared at him, setting her shoulders, lips bared slightly over her teeth in a feral snarl.

"You don't get it," she hissed, her voice starting to climb. "You don't get it."

She finally stood, glaring down at him, a slight tremor in her shoulders. "It was in my control! My duty was to save them, and I failed! Two members of the royal house are dead because of me!"

Her grip on the trident was white-knuckled, and she was screaming without even realizing it. "I was weak! I was stupid! That was why I was punished! That was why I was cursed! The blood of the innocent is on my hands, the only task I was given my whole life, and I FAILED!"

Something gave inside of her when she said it, and she was trembling, her rage just below her skin. And she dropped her gaze, glaring at the sand, and watched the shoreline.

[Anonymous]

((Good!))

He wondered just how she would do if she got laid. If there was one thing he knew, he usually felt better after a romp in the sack, and she'd do well to have some tension released. She wasn't much of a fighter really, and that was also another way to get rid of tension and anger. A pity, both were fun, and both were something he particularly wanted to have. It wasn't like he was asking for much, at least in his mind.

He did believe that he had a very interesting tale to tell, and he actually was rather pleased by the fact that she seemed to even believe him. Lots of people laughed at him for that...lots of people lost their teeth for that. But she didn't seem to accuse him of that. She seemed to be sincere in her belief. That was kind of nice actually...it had been a little while since he had someone actually believe his stories.

"It's ingrained. I can always hear it in the back of my head." He told her with a shrug. "Always there. Punish the wicked. Bring justice to the unjust. Destroy injustice where you find it. Burn the sins away." He made a face of distaste and displeasure at that very thought. His idea of breaking away from it was to do everything opposite and to become the big bad angry evil.

It was working quite well.

Then he had to go and say something that completely killed the mood. He saw it first before he heard it with her. She looked at him with venom and anger, with fire in her eyes, and he couldn't help but let a bit of surprise cross his face. Alright, so this was a very touchy subject wasn't it? Of course he didn't get it, he could only look at it from his perspective.

But it seemed that perspective wasn't shared. Nexus rather liked it when she got angry. There was always something about a woman filled with righteous fury. Whether it was for him to get away from her children, or because he had irked her on, there was something primal and sexual about it. It was one of those things no doubt that dated way way back in the line of his people no doubt. Slowly Nexus got himself onto his feet. "What you're doing right now, is telling a guy who used to deal out justice for a few thousand years about what punishment is, what is weak and what is right and wrong." It was funny. She wasn't one who deserved such a thing. Yeah she was kind of weak though, but when something that isn't part of your world, your element invades, you do the best you can.

"But fine. You're weak. You're weak and pathetic. You were attacked by invaders with weapons stronger than you can imagine and you failed. Really weak." Sarcasm though, that's all he spoke, and it was quite obvious for that matter. "But you know." He perked up instantly. "If you want someone to punish you more, I'm right here." He grinned wickedly at her, one eyebrow...the only visible one, raised in suggestion at her. She really didn't seem to like him and his...sexuality, which was fine by him.

It'd make the screams all the sweeter if he partook.

"Y'know, if this was the good old days, I'd just take you to ol' Vec and he'd sort you out." The perverted expression was gone, but he didn't sit down, not yet. He still wasn't sure if she was going to attack him or not. He did wonder if he'd be able to help her. How hard could it be though?