"I hope not, butâŠ" she sighed, "itâs pretty bad." Maya was confused about the "lovely," but she assumed it was a common form of greeting for Sirens. Or something.
"Iâm not sure why they would stay in town, itâs so great out here! And I kinda grew up near the beach, so this helps...
Maya hummed slightly and said, "I will!" she then paused and said, "Well, actually...Can you tell me about how the healing thing works?" She wiggled her fingers as she said this, trying to imply "majjiks" and mystery.
For a second the siren couldnât remember their own name. They searched for it in their head, not about to make the mistake of belting out a note again. âEcho. Iâm Echo.â They paused before continuing, âAre you here with family or sick? If you donât mind me askingâŠâ Echo bit their lip lightly .
"EchoâŠ" Maya repeated. She hummed slightly, "nice name."
She paused before replying to Echoâs question. Do I want to tell her? She doesn't need to know. Iâll probably never see her again and everyone just gets worried when I say it.
"IâmâŠ" she clenched her teeth and then relaxed after a moment, sighing slightly and slumping a bit. "Yeah, Iâm sick," she admitted.
"Well donât worry it wonât be for long, lovely." Echo said. They smiled. "I can fix that." Echo splashed their tail a bit. "So what brings you down to the water? Most of the times the teens stay in town, I mean the temporaries do." Echo explained.Â
"I hope not, but..." she sighed, "it's pretty bad." Maya was confused about the "lovely," but she assumed it was a common form of greeting for Sirens. Or something.
"I'm not sure why they would stay in town, it's so great out here! And I kinda grew up near the beach, so this helps me feel more at home, I guess."
"Depends on what you mean by ânew,â" Maya said, shrugging, "been here for about a month now, I just havenât," a pause, "been allowed to leave the house till now. Iâm Maya. Whatâs your name?"
For a second the siren couldnât remember their own name. They searched for it in their head, not about to make the mistake of belting out a note again. âEcho. Iâm Echo.â They paused before continuing, âAre you here with family or sick? If you donât mind me askingâŠâ Echo bit their lip lightly .
"EchoâŠ" Maya repeated. She hummed slightly, "nice name."
She paused before replying to Echoâs question. /Do I want to tell her? She doesnât need to know. Iâll probably never see her again and everyone just gets worried when I say it./
"IâmâŠ" she clenched her teeth and then relaxed after a moment, sighing slightly and slumping a bit. "Yeah, Iâm sick," she admitted.
"Depends on what you mean by ânew,â" Maya said, shrugging, "been here for about a month now, I just havenât," a pause, "been allowed to leave the house till now. Iâm Maya. Whatâs your name?"
For a second the siren couldnât remember their own name. They searched for it in their head for a second, not about to make the mistake of belting out a note again. âEcho. Iâm Echo.â They paused before continuing, âAre you here with family or sick? If you donât mind me askingâŠâ Echo bit their lip lightly before flinching at a bite on their tail from a small fish. They moved up more onto the beach quickly noticing blue blood pooling from the bite. âShit.â They whispered.Â
Maya was more happy than she would ever admit that the Siren had replied, even though she was confused at first, what with the singing and all.
She blushed a little in an empathetic response to the Sirenâs blush, and then said, âI liked your story.â
"Depends on what you mean by 'new,'" Maya said, shrugging, "been here for about a month now, I just haven't," a pause, "been allowed to leave the house till now. I'm Maya. What's your name?"
Sunlight ate at Echoâs skin, the warm feeling drawing out a high pitched hum from their lips. The light splash of water that slipped behind their back and the rock every so often was pure bliss. âEcho.â A soft voice beckoned to them. The sound was a bit...
Maya was more happy than she would ever admit that the Siren had replied, even though she was confused at first, what with the singing and all.
She blushed a little in an empathetic response to the Siren's blush, and then said, "I liked your story."
Sunlight ate at Echoâs skin, the warm feeling drawing out a high pitched hum from their lips. The light splash of water that slipped behind their back and the rock every so often was pure bliss. âEcho.â A soft voice beckoned to them. The sound was a bit distressed at it always was around this time of year. Â It came from one of their superiors, Marina. âThe preparation for the festival is today.â The other siren said as if suggesting Echo didnât already know.
When the Siren finished their story, Maya found herself not wanting to leave. She was happy by the ocean, with the Siren. She was mostly happy that she wasn't in the room that was most of what she saw these days.
She watched as parents came to gather their kids, fussing over the sand all over them and feigning surprise at details of the story they had been told. They cooed over their children, telling them about the festival and their plans for once they got "home".
She could almost hear her father, wondering where she was, where she could've gone without her wheelchair. Probably calling her name, asking people if they'd seen a girl "about this tall, dark hair, she couldn't've walked far, she's too weak, we're here for her MS, nothing else could fix it and now I'm not sure she can walk 30 feet."
She couldn't bring herself to care.
Once the smaller children had left, she saw the Siren watch two older boys playing for a moment.
And then they turned.
And their blue eyes locked onto Maya's own. She jumped a little and curled a little tighter in on herself, knees meeting chin, and said, "Uh, hi."
She hears the thud of footsteps as her father approaches. She only hums in response, her focus on the book in front of her.
âIâm fine, dad,â Maya sighs, âJust because I donât want to say things doesn't mean I canât.â
âYou know it scares me when you do that. You could have another episode any time, Mae.â
âI know. But it doesn't matter if I do, Dad. Iâll be better soon, thatâs why weâre here.â
Her fatherâs lips press together into a pale white line. He breathes out an angry huff through his nose. He doesnât trust the Sirens. Not their singing, not their magic, not their healing. But Maya does. She can already feel it. The air thrums with something other, and it sounds suspiciously like music. When she closes her eyes, she can feel it settle in her chest, calling her to the ocean, to the Sirens, to heath, hopefully. The only reason she jasnât succombed to its call is because of her fatherâs worry of an attack of the muscle spasms, and of her steadily weakening limbs.
âWhy did you come here,â she asks. He was obviously here for a reason. He would leave her alone otherwise.
Her father relaxes slightly and says, âWeâre going to the beach.â
Maya perks up, âWhat? Really?â A grin spreads across her face. Sheâs been here for almost a month and hasnât even seen the beach. The Thing in her chest stretches, warming her core and tugging at her slightly.
âThereâs a meeting down by the shore for people who want to help for the festival," he pauses, "Iâve heard that there may even be some Sirens there.â Maya can tell he said the last part for her benefit. As he spoke, his slight smile had gotten slighter and his tone became darker. Maya didnât really care. There would be Sirens. She began to smile and stand up when her father held out a hand, saying, "Woah, woah, woah, woah, let me get your wheelchair." A frown resettled onto her face as she dropped back into her chair. There's no arguing with him. Not about this. She's learned about that over the course of these past few weeks. He'd probably insist on pushing her all the way down to the shore, too.Â
When her father returned with the wheelchair, she settled into it with an angry slouch. The worst part of this was that she probably needed the wheelchair by now. She had had issues crossing her room to get to her desk when she got up this morning.
But her father doesn't need to know that.
---
It took them 15 minutes to get to the shore.
By the time they got there, Maya was positively itching to get out of her chair and touch the sand and the sea and dive and swim and see the fish and hear the songs of the Sirens and go swim all the way home to New York because that's what the ocean can do, right, She heals you if you just let Her and--
She was shaken out of her odd reverie by her father tapping her shoulder.
"I'll be right over there," he says, in the tone he used when she was 5 and he had to talk to her kindergarten teacher about the fact that "Maya isn't settling well in this class" and it makes her feel small again and like she's 5 and like she can't be trusted not to panic if she can't see her father for 30 seconds.
She hates that voice.
She watches him walk away, and, for a second, the man her father is walking towards looks like her kindergarten teacher.
She stands.
As her feet touch the sand, Maya releases a sigh that is almost closer to a moan.
She had missed the beach. She missed Jones Beach back home. It was a little while away from Queens, but it was worth it. The waves were high and mellow and the air tasted like fish and sun tan lotion and it was perfect.
For a moment, standing in the sand on an island about as far from home as she'd ever been, Maya closed her eyes and pretended she was there.
On that shore.
With those people.
The kind that used sun tan lotion and played too-loud music and played football in the waves of Jones Beach, not Siren's Beach. But the tug in her chest whispered, you're not there. You're here. We're here. Come to us and it tugged hard and Maya was back on Siren's beach, with her feet in too-white sand. Her chest Thing tugged again and she took a shaky step forward.
"C'mon," she muttered, "you can do this."
Another step.
And another.
And another.
One after another until she heard voices of children to her left and she took her eyes off of her feet and turned until she saw children gathered around--
Her breath caught in her chest.
They were beautiful.
The Siren lay with their tail draped just into the water, their chest propped up by their elbows.They were paler than anyone Maya had ever seen, but there was an odd blue tint to the Siren's skin. Their white-blonde hair was dry, showing just how long they had been speaking to these children, and it shone slightly blue in the sunlight.
Maya just stared.
After a moment her feet started to carry themselves forward, following a particularly forceful tug from her Chest Thing. She walked with hardly any difficulty all the way over the the crowd of children. Maya seated herself near the back, easing herself down into a seated position as carefully as she could.
Not a single child turned around.
The Siren's voice was surprisingly high pitched, but was melodic in speech patterns. Maya could listen to their voice for hours.
Looks: A short and curvy girl. Pretty tan (race+exposure). She has black hair that is crazy curly. She keeps it long (shoulder blade level), but its usually up. A small bit is usually escaping from her ponytail (or whatever) and hangs in front of her face. Her body type is hourglass, but she's pretty skinny (sickness). She used to be very athletic, but since she got sick, she isn't anymore. Has multiple piercings (3 lower ear, one cartilage (L), nose ring (R)) . Tiny (maybe 1.5 inches across) tattoo of a seagull on back of right shoulder.Â
History: She grew up in New York. Once she got sick, she moved around within the city, but eventually got sent to Siren's Isle.
Distinguishing marks (dimples, moles, scars, birthmarks, etc.): She has a 3 inch scar on her stomach from falling out of the tree when she was 8. She also has a small scar in her right eyebrow from tripping at age 12. She has dimples.
Health: Not too great. She has Multiple Sclerosis (MS) which made her mostly blind in her left eye. This made it hard for her to do anything active. She also had adverse effects to all of the drugs they put her on, which led to weight loss. She has "attacks" of muscle spasms, cognitive impairment (leading to memory loss  and other issues), dysarthria (problems forming words due to muscle malfunction), and hypoesthesia (loss or near loss of feeling in limbs). She has progressively worsening paresthesia (tingling or burning feeling in limbs), vision in her left eye, and depression (yes, this IS a symptom of MS).
Hometown: New York (Queens)
Childhood: Growing up in New York City is weird for a kid, but she adjusted to it pretty well. She spent a lot of time in China Town and Little Italy
Education: She graduated High School (wow, accomplishment) before going to the island. High end-ish public school education, nothing particularly special. She loves biology, so she did a lot of that.
Religion: N/A, really. She was raised Jewish, but doesn't really follow it anymore. It was never really a big deal for her family. She still celebrates the main holidays when she can, though (Hanukkah, Passover, etc)Â
Finances: They're pretty good. I mean, she grew up in the NICE part of Queens, you can't be bad-off and do that. Less well-off now, because of all the medical bills, and it's VERY expensive to live on the island
Guardian Relationships: She has a good relationship with her mom, but her relationship with her father has gotten strained since she got sick. Partly because of this, her dad decided that he would be the one to come with her to the island (probably a bad plan)
Siblings: She has an older brother. He's 22 and isn't around much since he went to college. Her relationship with him has gotten a little weird because of this.
Background:Â An island founded thousand of years ago. Itâs pretty secret. People who come to the island are mostly there for the Siren Festival where the pod sings for three days. The singing is known to have healing properties.
The human population is very small on the island and most people are only there for a complete cycle (one year). (About 3000-5000 people)Â
During the mating ritual the humans have a large festival for the three days and it is widely popular to sing with the Sirens on the last night.Â
Sirens:Â
Sirens are all feminine (have breasts, generally longer hair, and more "feminine" facial features and body types) in appearance but have no concept gender, and they mostly use they (we) pronouns when referring to another siren or sirens. They refer to themselves as The People of Song. For language they sing.Â
The only reason they have learned to speak English is because they have learned from hearing the people on the islands.  They call humans Above-Breathers. Humans and Sirens rarely communicate. Itâs not that they are disliked by either species, but just mostly indifferent to one another. They live together in an almost silent harmony.Â
Every night on the full moon the current pods of the island as well as a few Sirenâs from the Motherpod rise up to sing. Each year there is a cycle of which pod is currently procreating. That pod stays at the surface until the cycle ends (lasts one year). At the beginning of a cycle the mates of the pods will go through a mating ritual that lasts three days.Â
Mermaids mate through singing (special mating songs) , the âmaleâ will impregnate their partner by singing to them on the first day. The second day they sing together. The Motherpod and the other pods will all rise to sing on the last day, the last day is a song healing to help the pregnancies.
Every 18 years (after the other 5 pods have mated 3 times) the Motherpod will procreate and the other 5 pods leave the island to migrate.Â
They are pregnant for 6 months, the babies are unable to leave the surface for another 6 months/until the cycle ends.Â
Sirens that sink sailors are ones that have either lost children, mates, or have been separated from their pod. Songs of their depression lead sailors to them and they do not mean to draw sailors in. Some mateless sirenâs mix up the sailors with potential mates and will drag them back home and accidentally drown them.Â
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