#faeriesfromthedeep

[primechicagowizard]

@faeriesfromthedeep

"Bob, how do I attract a mermaid?”

That was how the conversation started. It wasn’t a flame that lit up an intricate web of fine details. As a matter of fact, those disembodied orange eyes leveled on Harry for a moment longer than necessary, the silence stretching between them to an uncomfortable degree. When it was finally disrupted, it wasn’t with clarifying questions to find out precisely what he might mean by his inquiry, but a deep bellied laugh. Which was.... odd considering Bob was only a skull. Well, HE wasn’t a skull, but he was housed within a skull. There was no belly involved, nor the air necessary for that kind of guffaw. 

It was the sort of laugh that might have involved tears springing to the eyes for any mortal who fell into it, red-faced and crying, stomach aching, gasping for breath.

Harry stood with his arms folded, his foot tapping impatiently, his lips pursed into a thin, annoyed line. Every time he thought the show was over, Bob would scream again and start anew.

“Okay!! Okay! Enough.” Harry snapped. 

“Oh Harry.” Bob chuckled, his voice filled with mirth. “You tell the best jokes.”

“It’s not a joke, Bob.” 

“It isn’t? That’s just sad.”

“Bob!!”

“Well, Harry. It’s just... you don’t attract mermaids. THEY attract you. That’s how that sort of thing works.” Now maybe it would be different if they were creatures of the land, but there was something to be said about those entities that lingered below their feet. Either in the earth or the briny deep, places that couldn’t be as readily explored as the surface area. It wasn’t like people could just dive down into the ocean and experiment the way they did things on land. There were just too many factors that could go wrong, too many ways that the situation could turn into a grave rather than an educational field.

“Why do you want to attract a mermaid any way?”

“Not in the way you’re thinking, you dolt.” Harry groaned, pacing back and forth impatiently, hands clasped behind his back. “Look, this is important. I know it’s not typical, but if you could just give me some advice here as you’re meant to do when I ask, that would be grand.”

“Hmmmmmmmmmmm.” Bob’s eyes narrowed. “Okaaaaaay. But I mean, every time you get bossy like that, it turns out bad. I mean like, I gotta get to the hospital bad.” 

“Bob, I swear to the----”

“Okay okay okay, grumpy pants. Gee whiz, you’re getting worse in your old age. Get laid, my man. That works wonders. Cheaper too. There are a few weird ways of going about it, but I’m telling you, the likelihood of this working is about slim to none.”

And that was how Harry ended up on the shoreline on the East Coast in deep night, a burlap bag in hand with the human skull in it sitting safely away from where the tide would potentially come whooshing in.

He was about thirteen hours away from home, Ocean City, Maryland.

Harry had a string of pearls which he dangled into the water. 

Mermaids were said to be pretty vain. And they liked the shimmer of a nice pearl. He blew on a conch shell. He deposited cheap treasures on the surface of the water that shimmered and shined to attract a curious sea creature. He even tossed a mirror down into the depths. In other words, he littered. There was just a little bit of magic involved, something to call to the greater entities under the sea

“This is dumb.” Harry grumbled.

“I told you.” Bob would have shrugged if he could. “You’re not their particular fodder. Not that they have a preference for good looking guys instead or anything---”

“Watch it.” Harry growled, hearing the burn of an insult in there somewhere.

“---- but you’re land bound. A more dangerous morsel than one that they can just catch out to sea. No predator is going to work THAT hard for a piece they can just get somewhere else. Even when they’re desperate.” 

“I considered throwing myself out to sea, but I figured this was testing my luck far enough.” Harry flopped down to sit on the sand.

“They do come on land---”

“Wait, they do?”

“Don’t get any ideas. It’s not so easy to detect them. What would be the point if you could just pinpoint the mermaids in a sea of familiar faces? You let your imagination direct you too often, Harry. This ain’t a storybook.”

Harry scowled, looking out to sea. 

[rexargentum]

@faeriesfromthedeep​ || continued

       Melanthe’s exuberance shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. He had never known her to be anything but bubbly and enthusiastic. However, that she reacted so favorably to Isley’s rather questionable attempt at putting her hair up still managed to shock him.

       “I could try and teach you, sure,” he raised an eyebrow at her, “but I think you might be better off asking one of the women in town. They have far more experience than I do in these matters. Maybe they’ll even teach you how to braid flowers into it!”

       Isley wrapped his arms around her waist as she clung to him. It was an odd exchange, really. He had lived most of a century without anyone who dared to touch him so casually or openly. Now, all of a sudden, he had both Melanthe and Priscilla. He’d need time to adjust... though, to be fair, he did like it.

       “Anyway, this should be good enough for now.” With a smile, Isley brushed a stray strand of hair that hadn’t made it into the braid out of her face. “As long as it doesn’t catch on my fingers as we move, that’s all that matters.”

       Speaking of, it was time to show her how this would work. Isley pulled away from her and held up his hand. Taking on a dark grey cast, his flesh discolored and hardened. Each finger formed a visible outer joint, allowing movement even as his hand became disturbingly exoskeletal. He held his hand palm up and tapped the center of it.

       “I’ll be carrying you in one hand,” Isley explained. “With you clinging to my fingers, you shouldn’t run too high a risk of falling. Just be careful not to hold onto the joints; they’ll pinch like hell if I bend my fingers. It should be fairly safe for you overall, though.”

[carpenterwithacoin]

(ʘᗩʘ’) - That was certainly strange. Melanthe was quite certain the splash she’d heard was about the size of a very large rock. Rocks, however, didn’t just fall from the sky. Rolling over onto her back to sit up, she eyed where the water rippled outward, noting the point of impact. Nothing surfaced immediately which was also strange. No ships in the distance, so it couldn’t be cannonfire. Her body slid forward to re-enter the water as curiosity won out. What was it?? (Faeriesfromthedeep)

@faeriesfromthedeep

Portals were really weird, a branch of magic in and on itself. They weren’t wholly physical, so when Alicia tried to grasp its borders in an attempt not to fall, there was no luck. When she tried to shapeshift, she wasn’t fast enough. 

For a whole second there was darkness, then light blinded her and Alicia struggled to grasp something, anything. She tried to breathe and found herself falling, then a splash and water in her lungs. It burned. She could hear Izitayel in her mind but she couldn’t make out the words, frantic and panicked as she was. She tried to swim, she couldn’t see anything, she didn’t know what was up or what was down. 

She was going to die. She was terrified. 

The world stopped and Alicia felt everything go still, her body included. She felt Izitayel’s presence around her, she managed to see the water around her. There was light, somewhere. 

Think. The Fallen asked of her. Swim. The surface is there. 

The first breath of air felt like sunshine. The second made her cough, the third got her thinking at last and she looked around, trying to make sense of where she was. 

[adaroaunga]

~ Currents ~

@faeriesfromthedeep

For the first time in what felt like a long time Solomon was home.  He’d just wrapped up an extensive salvaging job and finally had some time to look into a personal project for an old friend.  But not today.  Today was for relaxing.  Winding his way down the stairs of his home to the beach below, the tattooed man admired the ocean in the distance.  This right here - it was his own private paradise.  Literally.  Not only did he own the house, but a good bit of the surrounding land, plus as much of the beach as he was allowed to by law.  He’d been doing A LOT of swimming for his last job (not that he ever got tired of it) but all the adaro wanted right now was some bright sunlight.  The swimming could come later, once he’d baked himself long enough under the sun’s rays

Reaching the beach, Solomon closed his eyes and just listened for a moment, taking in the sound of the ocean waves.  A part of him wondered if he would love it as much as he did if he himself weren’t a creature of the sea.  No way to know… not unless he somehow managed to regain the memories he lost all those centuries ago... from when he was still human.  Not wanting to dwell on memories of the past, he unfurled the over-sized towel he’d brought with him, and settled himself onto the plush fabric. The man allowed his mind to focus on the sound of the waves rushing in and out, emptying it of everything else.  Mmm… paradise!

Solomon wasn’t sure exactly how long he’d been resting when the soft click of something mechanical reached his ears.  With a confused expression he rose his hear to look around right as a loud CRACK broke the silence.  Something shoved the adaro backwards into the sand and he knew almost instantly what had happened (because it had happened a few times before.)  Someone had just shot him!  The only reason they’d hit his shoulder and not his head was because he’d moved.  With a growl, the adaro rolled to his feet. just as the sunlight glinted off of something on a nearby cliff and another bullet kicked up dust at his feet.

Reacting almost without thinking, Solomon summoned the ocean to his aid, bending it to his will and dragging the would-be assassin from his hiding spot and out into the open.  Black tendrils of smoke poured from the wound on his shoulder as he stalked over to the dangling man.  “By now,” Solomon replied, expertly keeping his temper in check.  “You’re realizing exactly how bad of an idea it was to take this job.  Tell me who sent you, and I promise to make your death quick.”  He allowed the water to creep itself around the man, so that only his face remained uncovered.  “Drowning is a terrible way to die… or so I’ve been told.”

[selkiessong]

"Now that I have untangled you, you must do something for me?" (faeriesfromthedeep)

Wide blue eyes stared uncertainly up at the stranger before she slowly, and with great reluctance, nodded. “Yes, I suppose this would count as you saving me and therefore I owe you a favor.” She said in a light, lilting accent.

@faeriesfromthedeep

[abyssalrulerofthenorth-blog]

--Continued from ❄--

@faeriesfromthedeep:

The water was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. Similar to bathwater in that it seemed to be very warm, to the point that steam was rising from the surface, but the smell was very different. Bathwater was usually very neutral smelling, or sometimes smelling faintly of dirt, but this had a smell that was entirely differently. Had Melanthe ever experienced sulfur before to know what that smelled like, she would have understood. As it was, she gave the water a skeptical look as she crouched down next to the steaming pool, somewhat hesitant about dipping her fingers int the pool.

Isley, on the other hand, had started to shed clothes much the same way she did whenever she wasn’t afraid of being seen by other people. Dark eyes that were filled with skepticism moved up to him to watch, not out of any sense of ogling, but because she was so uncertain about the water.

She continued to watch him for a moment longer before shaking her head a little. “It smells strange. Are you sure that it is….” Isley moved into the water without any sense of hesitation, “… safe?”

Well, he wasn’t screaming, nor was his skin melting off or anything like that, so the odd smell must just be something inherent to the type of water that it was. Standing, she stripped out of what she had on and dropped everything into a heap next to the hot spring. There was no real point in making the pile tidy - she was only going to have to put it back on again later, much to her chagrin, and she didn’t especially care if there were wrinkles in the fabric or not.

Somewhat hesitantly, she dipped a webbed toe into the water, finding that even though it was steaming and quite warm, it wasn’t so hot that she couldn’t stand it. Slowly, she lowered the rest of her body into the pool of steaming water, brows furrowing a little as she tried to decide exactly what she thought of the water. The smell seemed to be lessening, or maybe she was just getting used to it. Either way, it didn’t seem awful, and it didn’t hurt, so it must be all right.

Melanthe glided across the pool so that she was within arm’s reach of Isley, still quietly contemplating the water, its scent, and its temperature. Dark hair drifted along the surface of the water behind her, pooling near her shoulders when she stopped moving. After a moment, she nodded. “It smells strange, but it feels nice on the skin. It is rather relaxing.”

Watching Melanthe hesitate the way she did was almost funny. Almost. However, Isley had once been in her position, in a sense. When he’d Awakened nearly a century ago, he’d become a different person both physically and mentally, and because of that, many of his experiences after that point felt alien and uncertain. He remembered how it felt not to understand certain things about the world around him, and those memories left him patient and sympathetic to her current position.

“It’s mostly safe,” Isley clarified. He stretched his arms out along the rocky edge of the pool comfortably, smiling at Mel as he did. “I don’t know much about your body works, but if you’re anything like a human, you probably shouldn’t stay in the water for too long. The heat can make you sick if you don’t get out to cool off now and then. But, temperature aside, it probably won’t hurt you.”

As she finally tested out the water, Isley watched her carefully in case it was harmful to her for whatever reason. There wasn’t anything he could really do if it was, but he was curious to see how she might react.

And... nothing happened. That was for the best, of course. Still, he kept a close eye on her until she was fully settled in and close by. It was only when she stated her opinion on the hot spring that Isley felt confident it wouldn’t harm her. And now that he could fully relax, he reached over and playfully twirled a strand of Melanthe’s partially wet hair around his finger.

“See? There’s a reason people come here to unwind.” He smiled, continuing to play with her hair. “Personally, I wish it were hotter, but I doubt it would make much of a difference in what I feel. The way Awakened bodies regulate temperature, I think it would feel the same. Too bad I can’t control that.”

Hotter might not be better for Melanthe, and Isley had to keep that in mind. Having spent most of his life around others of his species, it took effort to remember that people like Raki and Mel might not be able to tolerate extreme conditions like he could.

“If you feel too hot, let me know and we can sit together on some rocks nearby. Just don’t wait on me for some cue to get out. I could stay here indefinitely if I wanted to.” Though he wouldn’t, as he wasn’t fond of how wrinkly his hands and feet got in water. “It’s dark enough that I can’t tell if you have a tail or not right now, but if you do, you could probably use some help getting out.”

[priishiira-blog]

     People didn’t come by the house often. That was Priscilla’s fault, she was sure. Neither of the men she lived with were very fond of letting her meet new people, though she never understood why. However, there was a recent exception to this rule: the girl Isley had started hanging around.

     They hadn’t yet been formally introduced, which was largely because Priscilla had ignored her up until that point on the assumption that this new girl was just passing through. But she hadn’t disappeared yet, so maybe this one was different. And that meant she was worth checking out.

     Peeking around the corner of the house, Priscilla spotted the new girl outside. Isley wasn’t around, but that was okay. She felt confident she could talk to this one alone. Silently, she stood there observing, waiting until what felt like the perfect moment to speak. To be fair, that was decided more or less at random, but it felt right, and that was good enough.

     “You’re Isley’s new friend... right?”

@faeriesfromthedeep

[abyssalrulerofthenorth-blog]

Relationship meme for Mel and Liv! -izzymun

❄Relationship meme -- ACCEPTING

@faeriesfromthedeep:

Oh boy, Melanthe endlessly confuses and entertains Isley. For him to genuinely like a non-human this soon after meeting them is rare, and it’s safe to say she’s made a better (and stranger) first impression on him than anyone has in years. These two have a lot to teach each other, and are going to do a good job of providing both companionship and positivity in their lives. Of course, they’re going to have to get more used to each other first.

It also doesn’t hurt that Isley finds Mel to be quite cute.

@botanyandbrilliance (Royalty AU):

So far, Liv has somehow managed to bring out the best in Isley. He’s not always the nicest person (though he tries to hide it), but Liv’s pleasant and helpful nature is really helping him in a vulnerable time where he might otherwise be testy, if not somewhat cruel. Honestly, she’s good for him. He considers himself lucky to have made such a good friend so quickly. The downside? Now he’s going to cling to her. Once Isley opens up to someone, there’s no going back. He’s made his one friend in Lautrec, so that’s all he needs. Now Liv is in for a heck of a ride.