goodbye fare thee well, goodbye for me

(Re:Vamp RP blog for Eoin Fisherman)

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

Jax pulled her feet out of the water, drawing up her knees and resting her chin on them. She shook her head, slowly. “No. Only Jax is. Not know others live die, how many, all none could any be.” She sniffed a little. “Only Jax.”

“Ah.” Eoin moved easily even in the more rapid sections of water. He’d never been sure what to do in situations where comfort was needed. Nor was the closeness other species tended to want something that came naturally in his culture.

Not the parts he’d participated in, anyway. 

“Is there no one who knows? The Regulators?”

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

Their eyes matched, she noticed. Well….kind of. Dark sclera at least. Human eyes unsettled her, so bright and wide-looking.

“Jax learned–job have work, money word earn. Then food house money trade. Human things all strange is.” She waved a hand dismissively. But the gesture wilted somewhat at his next question. “Oh…ummm….Jax Earth crash…one Earth year, maybe. Some less days Earth.” She flicked her toes in the water, brow furrowed as she stared at the rippling current.

Mm. Eoin’s gaze dropped momentarily to the water flicking off Jax’s feet. So she hadn’t meant to come here? 

Ha. So they were both jailed on this planet.

“... Were there others with you?”

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

Jax leaned over the branch to watch Eoin’s transformation with open curiosity, cooing in interest and awe at the sight of his beautiful long tail. “Oooh! Eoin like fish is. Big big fish is.” She slung her legs over so that her toes could dabble in the cool water. 

“Earth strange is,” she agreed, nodding. “Money use. Jax money not have not earn. Coronarium home was, trade use. But home gone is. Only Earth have.” She heaved a sigh.

Fish seemed a little... broad, but Eoin didn’t know enough about Earth species yet. Big big fish about covered it. A soft fin flicked itself at Jax’s feet when she cooed over his tail. (Itself, not him. He would not.) 

“Mm, trade. Coronarium makes more sense than humans’ plans. I have not... bothered to figure out money yet.” Black sclera looked up from the water foaming around his tail. “How long ago was it?”

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

Jax made a little ‘o’ with her mouth when the package was plopped into her hand instead of Eoin’s fingers. She tucked it under one arm with a quiet hoot of gratitude and hopped through the brush towards the river.

Once settled in the branches he’d mentioned, Jax opened the package carefully, not tearing any paper or wasting any string. She delighted over the bag, opening it up immediately to sniff the inside and check all the pockets. It was buckled around her waist promptly. “Useful is, thank Eoin, thank you!” She beamed, tail curled loosely around a branch while he got settled back in the water. “Gift Jax bring give, just for phone use? Phone borrow?” 

There wasn’t anything in the pockets, though Jax would notice it lacked, in fact, any noticeable smell whatsoever—part of the... er, whatever Eden had done to it.

Once they arrived at the river, Eoin settled on the bank and removed his glamour. The dark, earthy brown skin became a deep, grey-ish teal; his legs vanished in favor of a striped tail with kelp like fins that softened with contact with the water (and here, it would become clear that what had looked like a pair of very loose trousers was in fact a long, dark skirt). His gills remained closed at either side of his neck; they would until he submerged himself again.

“You’re welcome.” The phrase came easier this time than previous times (again, Eden’s influence, though there was clearly only so much gruffness the other alien could wear at). “It’s. Uh.”

How to explain? He wasn’t oblivious to the over-formality of a gift after a brief rescue. Maybe it worked different, on Jax’s world. Maybe it worked closer to how it did on his.

“Earth has many resources but...” Some of the kelpy fins floating in the gently moving river waved. “...help wasn’t expected. In the Trenches, we repaid effort to scale with our own means.”

Which was a cold way of explaining it, lacking any information about the presentation of such a repayment that was impossible to replicate on land. But without getting into the intricacies of the help various classes (and his, in particular) was expected to serve, it would do.

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

“Yes. Jax glamour tail hide, no tail have. Not like city walk go glamour wear.” She pointed back towards the river and reached out to offer him her hand. “River go? Eoin river swim talk, more com-for-table is?” She eyed the package with clear and intense curiosity, tickled that he would want to give her something after so short a meeting. “Jax Eoin talk river happier is?”

Eoin gave a slight shudder. He didn’t want to think about walking around the city, tail split into an extra limb—or hers, made phantom. He glanced down at the offered hand. Was he... supposed to take it?

Instead, he worried the small package between both hands briefly and placed it in her extended hand.

“If you would not mind. There was a spot with low-hanging tree cover.”

When Jax chose to open the package, whenever that was, she would find

a pouch, meant to be worn high around the waist (so as to not interfere with her movement or tail), made waterproof (thanks to Eden; the how hadn’t been clear, but it hadn’t been chemicals or anything similar), and with several separate, large pockets for whatever she might find and want, each of which opened and closed soundlessly.

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

“No!” She said brightly, letting go and landing gracefully from a fall that would have injured a human. She blinked good-naturedly at him, head to one side, before her expression slowly morphed into one of concern.

“Legs…tail have? Eoin not like walking land on?” She approached with some caution, sensing from his prickly demeanor on their first meeting that he appreciated his space. But the image of his real ‘legs’ peeking through the irritating mirage of glamour was too interesting not to examine.

Eoin couldn’t imagine trusting a three-foot drop not to shatter his ‘legs,’ let alone... that. He blinked back, reflexively and in quiet appreciation. The concern, though, threw him.

“What?” he asked, not because he hadn’t understood what she’d said, but because those first few moments aside, before he’d even been spotted, had been the only time he’d had his glamour down around her. “No, I don’t like walking on land. It is uncomfortable, how the glamour changes things.”

It occurred to him, briefly, that he hadn’t seen Jax with hers. But if he felt warped by it, she likely did, as well. Neither of them exactly fit the human shape.

Hm. There were those he didn’t like to think about.

“I brought you something,” he said instead. Eden had been very enthusiastic to help, even more so once he’d realized Eoin meant for it to be a gift of gratitude. “For the assistance with the phone.”

[emptywerethecoffins]

canopycalls​:

For a moment there was just quiet—trees rustled overhead, the sound of water babbling in the river behind him. A flush of birds startled and rattled into the sky.

Then Eoin would see a little face peeking at him from a clump of branches, curious and smiling. “Eoin? Hello!” Jax called softly, swinging down to hang by her hands from a branch, feet dangling. “Eoin here swim? River swim?”

There. Eoin’s glamoured eyes flicked up to the trees, the rest of him as stock still as he’d been listening to the other sounds. The forest, he’d found, was noisy.

“Yes, I took the river, for the most part. Had to do some walking first.” Which had been awful, him not being used to it. And frankly, not preferable, since beneath his glamour he felt as though his tail had been torn in two. There was a way around that, but... No, not anymore. He gestured up to the Bahije’s grip on the branch. “You don’t walk many places, either, I can guess... ?”

[emptywerethecoffins]

Lost Worlds

Yes. I will make my way there. Be safe. Eoin

With the final text sent, Eoin set off. He dressed lightly; with tree cover and it being night, there wasn’t a need for the long sleeves and pants he’d had on the boat.

He’d still rather have it. 

Whatever.

More important things than a shitty, old, broken, and drowned boat. Like the package in his satchel and his selfish desire to talk to another in the same boat, figuratively, as him.

He emerged from the river (disgusting; the fresh water burned his insides) and headed towards the coordinates Jax’s phone had sent him.

“It is Eoin,” he called out, eying the trees. Not something he was used to. Would he ever be?

[emptywerethecoffins]

sailortakewarning​:

“Yeah. That’s where I learned pretty much everything I know so far.”

A regulator had shown him? Most of the people Sandra had met there had warned her about them specifically. Weird.

“Sailortakewarning, if you ever want to look me up.” Not the best name, now that she knew what she knew. She also wasn’t sure she wanted Eoin to contact her, but it seemed like the thing to say.

"Mm.” Maybe it was worth revisiting. “Don’t remember mine. I’ll look you up.”

Someday. At the least he’d know who to avoid going for a swim date with.

[emptywerethecoffins]

Shipwrecked.

The air smelled burnt.

Eoin tugged his jacket on, pulling the collar up to guard against the sun. ...Really needed a better idea than layers. Move more north, maybe. Find somewhere greyer.

... Swim deeper. The idea had crossed his mind more than a few times. Abandon the layers, air, the boat, and just swim. Regulators couldn't follow him forever, and the one they'd sent to check on him had been too nervous to swim deep, that much had been clear. He cast a glance over the side.

No. Not right now. Right now, he needed to find the fire. Much as he hated the boat, Lia, whatever she wanted to be called, was right. Too much trash, too much pollution, if it fell apart here.

The other, louder part, said that was too easy an out.

Didn't take much searching to tell him the burnt smell wasn't coming from the boat. Less because of the lack of any obvious issue—smoke, fire—and more because there was a steady screaming from above. (...The last time Eoin had looked up and been blinded came to mind.) He squinted through his fingers, and very quickly dropped his hand.

The screaming object was dark, huge, and coming right for him.

Hm.

No time to think. Eoin dove from the rail, swimming out and away, putting as much distance as he could between himself and his (shitty and about to be in pieces) boat. A water-dulled boom ripped through the ocean, the force sending him tumbling head over fin. When he righted himself, all he could do was stare at the jagged metal fragment that had split the ship in two before sinking at pace down.

He bobbed with the waves, once, twice, before pushing down against them and after the object. The metal was dark, even to his eyes, with no discernable markings or shape apart from a small charred-over word. Satellite, or some junk. He left it. Humans covered the space above their planet with so much shit; eventually some of it'd fall.

Had to fall on his boat. That, he did chase, following the halves down to find anything salvageable at all. He wouldn't find anything, and that...

That was more like what he deserved.

[emptywerethecoffins]

sailortakewarning​:

“No.” Sandra was glad for the change of subject, awkward as it was to admit. “I only found out they existed a couple months ago.

"I guess I have a lot more to learn. But that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“Mhm.” Eoin tapped his finger in thought. “You use that... fumblr? Regulator showed me.”

And he hadn’t touched it since that first day.

[emptywerethecoffins]

sailortakewarning​:

When it’s on its way here?!

Sandra was quiet for a few minutes as that all sorted itself out in her head. Or tried to. It was a lot.

“God. I’m- I’m so sorry.”

Much easier to focus on Eoin’s loss than the thought that this thing might be coming to Earth.

Eoin grunted. Sorry didn’t mean much, though he got the intent. He took his time replying—why not, she had.

“You don’t talk to many others like us? Non-humans?” 

[emptywerethecoffins]

thehoaxfish​:

“Yeah! Duh!” Hoax huffed, removing her finger from his chest and waving dramatically. “Of course??”

She mimicked his gesture at the water on the deck and it flicked off the side. There was a gentle bump as the large shark beneath them investigated the underside of the ship. Hoax sat on the dry deck, then, determined to wait it out.

Of course. Tracked, even if this was her being stupid and dramatic again. Regulators had all been short. 

Eoin followed the slow roll of boat as it rocked under them. He peered over the side, watching as the shark swam out from under the boat, then glanced at Lia, or whatever she wanted to be called—hadn’t been totally clear on that—plopped in the middle of his deck.

He sighed. 

Fine.

Wait it out.

[thehoaxfish]

emptywerethecoffins​:

Why was that worth boasting about…? Eoin squinted. 

“Okay. Lia. Get off my boat.”

With that, Eoin shoved her off the boat.

Hoax fell over with a dramatic splash and a “Waugh!” The shark, of course, was both highly interested in but wary of the sudden plummet. Hoax didn’t give it a chance to decide how it would like to inspect, scooping herself up in a watery bubble and back onto the deck.

“Hey! Stop that!” She could have easily taught Eoin a lesson and thrown him overboard. Instead, he got a webbed finger poking his chest. “Rude!”

[emptywerethecoffins]

Right. Water trick.

"Yes? So are you." He gestured to the wet mess she'd made all over his boat yet again, and considered tossing her next time. "That a requirement to be a Regulator?"

[emptywerethecoffins]

thehoaxfish​:

“I have so many names.” Hoax boasted obnoxiously. “You can call me whatever you want. I dunno. Take Hexacorallia and chop it up.”

Why was that worth boasting about...? Eoin squinted. 

“Okay. Lia. Get off my boat.”

With that, Eoin shoved her off the boat.

[emptywerethecoffins]

thehoaxfish​:

“Says me.” Hoax was not afraid to die, never had been. But to know her next incarnation’s life would be a chaotic disaster as the Regulators struggled to manage millions of eggs hatching simultaneously would always give her pause. What came after, even moreso.

“If you were gonna eat me you’d have scratched me up more to get your stupid ship part.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Dummy.”

Ah.

She had him there.

“Fine. Who are you? Eels not get names?” Eoin asked, wandering to the side of the boat. Shark was... still there. Still circling.

[emptywerethecoffins]

sailortakewarning​:

Ate the Trenches?

“… What’s the Entity?”

... Fuck.

The wheel went slack in Eoin’s hands. He’d seen it. All of them had. Supposed that sealed it. Who could ask what the Entity was with that kind of sincerity, unless they truly didn’t know? Fuck. A bit of the tenseness fell from his stance.

“World eater.” He grabbed the wheel again and gave it a hard tug to set them back on course. “Like a riptide, but for the stars. Makes its way from planet to planet, picking them off. Regulators said there’s usually warning, somehow. We’ll know when it’s on it’s way here.”