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[ the surface is a perilous place, forbidden by her peoples, and not without reason. theirs is an ancient colony, hunted near to extinction and so to preserve the whole they must take care. it has been many generations since last they interacted with the land creatures in any formal capacity, commerce and communion with mankind strictly forbidden since time immemorial. so much time has passed that more than like they have become myth to any who do not know the secret of their existence, and that is just as they prefer it. long lived as they are, new births are rare and come slowly; it will be millennia yet still to replenish their numbers to what they once were.
but alisaie has ever had a taste for the forbidden, a curiosity for the unknown, and a fierce wanderlust. she loves her peoples and her home but it is not enough, it shall never be enough, and as she grows and comes of age she is more and more dissatisfied.
they cannot stop her visiting the surface. theirs are a free people, and the sea is vast, parties of hunters and workers always coming and going. no one tracks her, and she says nothing of her visits above, of how she peers at passing ships and lays on warm rocks beneath the sun to watch the waves roll over the shoreline. she does not fear mankind perhaps as she should, and the more she quietly, secretly observes them, the more assured she becomes of their goodness. their behavior is not so different from her own, from what little she can glean from the lives of the sailors she watches - they laugh and love and suffer and work together, and they build such strange, incredible things..
she has watched this ship for several days, following its path, blending with pods of dolphins to swim near the surface during the day, risking more under cover of dark, when she peers through the portholes and listens to their voices on deck. their language is foreign to her, but the tones of their words speak plenty, their expressions easy to read. it's a small group of men, few, but perhaps they are brothers, for how fondly they seem to behave toward one another, laughing and sharing food, roughhousing playfully, the small, fair-haired one especially, who seems always to be smiling about something.
storms at sea are common and set in quickly, often with little warning. it's late in the night when it hits, stirring alisaie from her doze nearby, the crack and groan of wood cutting sharply through the water, the shouts of human voices muffled, but discernible to her keen ears.
alisaie is off like a shot, darting through the waters toward the source, but there is little enough to be done - the ship is split asunder before she can even reach it, and her heart sinks for those on board; the sea is no place for man, who braves much to sail her waters. they have paid the price. ]
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But his thoughts for himself are only fleeting. As the storm comes upon them, tossing about their boat, he's the one who first starts to ready the dinghy while Gladio wrestles with the wheel and Noctis and Ignis fight the sails. It isn't that he doesn't think they can make it out on this ship, but if they can't, there has to be some way for them to get to safety. He won't let any of them die out here.
His preparations are indeed necessary, as soon a crash of lightning and a buckling wave all but snaps their ship in half. The dinghy is loose at least and falls into the water unharmed, but the splintering ship scatters all of its crew into the sea, Prompto included. The other three find their way to the small boat, but one does not.
Prompto sinks into the depths, his lack of skill in swimming ultimately his downfall. The dim shimmer of the sky above him grows darker and darker as he slips lower and lower, struggling to propel himself upward, but to no avail. On the surface, the others shout for him, try to spot him in the depths, but he is too far down now for them to see. It seems as if his number is quite suddenly up, and while there is a clawing, panicked feeling at his chest - the lack of oxygen, probably - Prompto is glad, at least, that his last act might have helped save his friends' lives.
Everything begins to go dark. ]
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at last she turns to leave, but in the dimness catches sight of movement - a body struggling - one of them had not made it onto the little boat.
she should let it be. humans die every day to the sea, and in venturing over her waters they must know the risks that they take in sailing - it is not her place to interrupt what is his time, to save a life that is not hers to save. yet she does not leave. the words of her grandsire ring in her mind, and she cannot simply do nothing at all while another creature suffers, not when she has the means to save a life.
for all she watches them, alisaie has never interacted with a human. reckless and rebellious though she might be, there are lines even she will not cross, and she would never do anything to directly put her people in harms' way - they must not be found out. and yet she finds herself doing the impossible before she can even think not to. alisaie darts toward his shape, cutting like a knife through the water, finding the man in the darkness whose movements already begin to slow as he sinks surely, quickly, to his inevitable doom.
not today. alisaie seizes him and lifts his face, her gills flaring as she brings her mouth to his to breathe life back into his lungs, but she does not check to see if it revives him, only slips her long fingers under his arms and hauls him upward with several kicks of her powerful, silvery tail. the surface is not far, they reach it within seconds, but when she casts her gaze through the stinging rains she cannot find the small boat - it has so quickly been swept away from the site, and all that surrounds them is the wreckage of their fragile vessel.
thankfully for him, the shore is not far. nearby there is a lagoon scooped into the coastline that she has visited before, and she pulls him there as quickly as she can, heaving his body onto the wet sand, her tail still in the surf, and leans over him to look into his face. is he breathing? does he still yet live..? ]
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And then he is pulled up from the depths by those same hands. How could hands so small be so strong? The ache in his lungs is not quite as intense as it was before his unknown savior came, but he is still short on oxygen, his brain going fuzzy, his thoughts made of cotton. Perhaps he is actually still sinking into the depths, embraced in death's delirium and sparing him from the full weight of his final moments, but...if this is how he goes, and least it's while feeling like he was important enough to be saved, despite all odds.
But the release of death doesn't come. He doesn't cease or give up the ghost or anything like that, and though his grasp on consciousness is still tenuous, he knows, distantly, that he has broken through the surface of the water, and soon enough, he comes to enough to realize he is lying on the sand of the shore, still near enough to feel the pull of the tide behind his legs, but enough on land that he needn't fear being pulled back into the sea.
He groans, shifting his sore, smarting limbs, drinking up that salty, sea air greedily, before his blinks his eyes open at last, peering up —
Into the face of a girl.
He's not quite cognizant enough to realize how strange this is, or, at least, to realize this isn't a dream. Was she the one who had saved him? She looks so small...but her face is radiant, beautiful, eyes dark as they storm she had found him in, hair whiter than the sands. It clings around her face as the sun dries it to her skin, and Prompto reaches out a hand to gently glide his fingers over her cheekbone.
...Are those...gills? ]
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she should leave, before he opens his eyes, before he sees her face and remembers too much, but she has.. never been so close to a human before, never touched one, or felt its breath, or seen the color of its eyes. alisaie cannot help but gaze upon him with wonder, one hand lifting carefully, her fingertips gliding over his nose, his jawline, the bow of his lips, down his chin. his skin feels similar to her own and yet still so.. different, less smooth and slippery. she thinks to peel his lips back to have a look at his teeth but his eyes are opening, his hand lifting, and she gasps in shock, jerking back.
this was foolish. she should have dragged him to the sands and turned away immediately, or left him to his fate in the depths of the sea, but he has seen her now, touched her -
perhaps it is not too late. he's disoriented, the light is faint, no doubt he will think he has imagined it all. quickly, alisaie turns to flip hastily back into the water, praying that she has not damaged her home and peoples with her recklessness. ]
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A...a mermaid? But they were just legends, children's stories, or passed around by sailors as they bragged about the beauties of the sea they had seen. Prompto himself may have even claimed to see one on their little voyage, though it was likely just a trick of the light, but now that he sees her in full as she retreats into the water, it is unmistakable.
But she is retreating, and something calls out from his heart aside from curiosity. This girl saved him from drowning. He owes her his very life. And now she's leaving, probably startled away by his presumption to touch her.
It's a tall order to get his mouth to work, but he manages, even if he fumbles over his words. ]
W-wait! Come back!
[ Even if he knows it's futile. Even if she can't understand him, she won't heed his words. And a moment later, she disappears completely from view. ]
Gods above...
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His friends didn't believe him, of course. Even if he wasn't already the type to cry wolf, they wouldn't have believed him. A mermaid saved him from drowning? To be sure, his survival was unexpected and seemingly miraculous, but they could each come up with other reasons that he had survived. Instinct kicked in and he figured out how to swim in time to see himself to shore. A fortunate current took him the rest of the way. There were any number of other unlikely possibilities, but none of them as unlikely as being rescued by a mermaid. They don't exist. And after a few months, Prompto begins to believe them, just a little. He couldn't have encountered a mermaid. Who was he kidding? He probably had hallucinated her, her gentle yet strong hands, her stormy eyes, her supple skin...
Heh. It's typical, of course, that he would have it bad for a girl he knows nothing about, who likely doesn't even exist, because she's a mermaid.
Still a few more months go by, nearly half a year gone since that fateful voyage, things more or less returning to normal in Insomnia (once the prince was home and safe, of course), every day much the same as the last as Prompto begins work as a photographer for the local newspaper. Don't get him wrong - it's his dream job, and he loves what he is able to do, but it isn't exactly glamorous and the pay leaves a great deal to be desired, but he's mostly content, if a little...listless at times, daydreaming about the sea, and the girl beneath her waves. He had, of course, returned to the shore several times - more times than he would readily admit, really - to seek her out, but to no avail. He never sees anything, though he occasionally leaves things on a rock near where he awoke on the beach. Little trinkets, tchotchkes, small items that most people wouldn't think anything special. They're always gone by the time he returns again, but he has no real reason to believe the mermaid girl is taking them. It's probably just birds or other animals or humans taking them away, or even the wind. His silly romantic's heart is running away with him.
But even listless as he is, working at the paper, he doesn't miss the striking news that hits his ears soon. Yes, at the central laboratory...I heard the king isn't happy about it, but it can't actually be real, can it? They've captured a mermaid? What a lark!
He knocks a glass off his desk in utter surprise, quickly apologizing and sweeping up the remnants.
Needless to say, Prompto is on this scoop in an instant. The researchers at the lab aren't exactly thrilled about the idea of having a photographer inside their workspace, and there are specific rules set out about where he can go, and that he won't ever be alone. After all, aside from their research, this acquisition is something of a sideshow, a way to generate income on the side for their projects. And if too many pictures get out of their find, fewer may come to see it. It, they keep referring to her, like she's a thing, an object, and it makes Prompto's skin prickle uncomfortably, his fingers picking at the band over his wrist. But finally, they relent, agreeing that a little publicity won't be too bad, and their public relations could use some improvement. He is allowed inside to take a few photographs, and the article should focus more on the facility's research than their latest attraction.
Honestly, he couldn't care less what their terms are. He just has to get in there, one way or another, just to see...
But it isn't going to be her. What would the odds of that be? Nothing short of impossible. But then again, the impossible seems to be happening an awful lot lately.
His bones buzzing with anxiety and excitement both, Prompto heads into the lab, led by two white coats towards the tank where their specimen is kept. ]
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had she known, when she saved him, that this is what it would have come to, she might have thought twice about dragging him to shore. worse, she has returned.
at first it was circumstance. she swam back to the site of the wreck to scavenge, to pick among the scattered remains of the small vessel for anything interesting or useful, but it was simple.. curiosity that brought her to the lagoon again. she has no idea what she was looking for, mayhaps something left behind, a bit of torn clothing or a piece of jewelry, something to remember her extraordinary encounter by, and she finds her reward in the form of a little blue glass marble sitting upon a stone.
a coincidence, surely, to have ended up in so strange a place, as if it had been set there, but alisaie takes it nonetheless. when she comes again, in the same place there is now a little silver pin in the shape of a bird, and then a decorative egg, a small pocketwatch..
she knows that it must be him. who else could it be? but to know for sure she lurks about the waters to wait for him, hiding still and silent against the sandy lagoon bottom for the leaver of trinkets to arrive. when at last he does, it warms her heart. she had known that they could not be so bad as the stories had warned, that there is goodness within them, but she still does not reveal herself, and surely never will. the risk to her kind is simply too great, and while alisaie might burn with curiosity to know him, she is not yet selfish enough to endanger her family and her people to satisfy her own desires. she watches him, and she takes his little gifts, and that is enough.
perhaps she was wrong. she should have known that it was risk enough to return to the surface so often, and worse, to the same place every time - it was only a matter of time before a different set of eyes found her. or perhaps she was mistaken all along - perhaps he had been leaving these baubles to earn her trust, to lure her here consistently until she began to feel at ease, to trust this place. the thought of it burns her heart, but nevertheless, the price is paid. she reaches from the water to take the little silver bangle from its place on the rock when suddenly the thicket erupts in shouts, there is a terrible bang, something grazing her shoulder -
instinctively, alisaie darts away, back beneath the water again, her heart pounding fiercely. she cuts fast across the shallows, to the mouth of the lagoon, and right into the light, thin net that waits for her there, snagging her easily, knotting and tightening with every thrash. she claws and bites at it with sharp claws and teeth but the threads are insidious, she cannot free herself - they haul her from the water, tangled, shrieking her outrage. there is another bang, a sharp pain in her neck, and then cold darkness.
alisaie does not know how long she has been here in this tank, how many days have passed that they have prodded her and sampled her, scraping her skin and scales, cutting bits of her hair. she fights viciously, badly injuring several workers before they learn to sedate her heavily enough to work with her, to pull out her arms and marvel at her fins and shine bright lights into her eyes. every inch of her is studied, touched, tested, the ignominy and violation are wildly infuriating, but what is there to be done? she is stronger, but they are many, and they have tools to subdue her. she is firmly within their territory, should she even escape, what then? crawl to safety? she would never make it, though of course she does try.
at the very least, they cannot steal the thoughts from her head. she does not speak their tongue, but they get their intentions across with other ways, with pictures and gestures - are there more? there must be more. she cannot be the only one of her kind. but no torment in the world could pry that information from her. that she has been caught at all is atonement enough for her stupidity and recklessness, she will never give up her home.
they bind her now, to keep her from attempting escape, by a light chain around her neck bolted to the floor of her too-small tank. her space is limited, the tank some ten feet wide and tall, but comparative to a vast ocean, they may as well have put her in a shoebox. to keep her calm, the tank is usually shrouded to block her line of sight which is perhaps for the best - the sight of their faces alone is enough to stir in her a limitless rage.
but they cannot block her keen hearing. she has learned a scant bit of their language, enough to recognize certain terms. she listens to the hum of machinery and the chatter of researchers, footsteps, the scratching of pens. today she hears many more footsteps than usual, and anger and fear both clutch at her gut - this can mean nothing good. the moment the shroud is pulled away and the light hits her eyes alisaie hisses, her gills and fins hackling and shivering with obvious threat, and she slams to the front of the glass, teeth bared and hard, short claws scratching at its smooth surface. ]
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But then they take him to the room with the mermaid's tank. Even before they remove the shroud, he can tell it's very small; hardly enough space for a creature of the sea to inhabit. His finger shakes as he clicks the shutter, and he's ready, camera poised, when they pull the shroud away. The mermaid surges forward the moment the light exposes her, wild and ferocious and anguished, and Prompto gasps aloud.
He drops his camera in utter shock, and it's all but forgotten in an instant.
For a few moments, all he can do is stand and stare. Gods, it is her. How could this be? How could the hand of fate so impossibly drawn them together again? He must be mistaken, perhaps it is the light and the water distorting her appearance into something familiar, but no. The longer he stares, the more sure he becomes. He would never forget her face, the face of his savior, the girl who has swam through his dreams for so many nights now.
Here. In a tank. A specimen. A subject. A prisoner.
The researchers attempt to speak to him, but no words get through. His reaction is a bit extreme, but they don't seem too concerned about it. It is an alarming sight, after all, and the creature is so grotesque and unusual it's no wonder he looks so pale and shocked, who wouldn't be?
They chatter on, about the mermaid and her properties, the curious things they have learned so far. Prompto hears none of them, slowly stepping forward, his expression pained and sorrowful as he reaches a hand out to press his fingers against the glass.
...Is this his fault? ]
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but seeing his face is a shock.
alisaie had.. not expected that she would see him again, but now, she supposes that she should have. if it was he who led them to her, of course it stands to reason that he would show his face eventually, once she was subdued, unable to strangle the life from him for this terrible repayment of his debt, and his presence here at all seems only to lend credence to his guilt. why else would he be here?
still, it hurts to look upon his face, one she has grown fond of while she watched beneath the waters. she had thought him so gentle, and kind..
the fight drains from her, her fury replaced instead with a deep, despairing betrayal that shines clear in her eyes. how could you do this to me? she had saved his life, and this is how she has been reimbursed. she should have listened to his father. how could she have ever thought such cold, selfish creatures to be good? the shock is clear on his face, but alisaie does not know why he should be surprised - just what is it that he had expected? with her heart twisting in her throat, alisaie jerks her gaze from his face and turns away from him and his offered hand, retreating to the back of the tank and away. this is simple insult to injury. ]
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Would that he could plead with her, to make his case and promise her he'll get her out of here and beg for her forgiveness, but of course, he cannot, if she can even understand his language. Gods, what had he been thinking, visiting the beach as often as he had? Leaving gifts for her and drawing her near to a world she was meant to be separate from? He had been so selfish, thinking he was bridging the gap between them, trying to show his gratitude with his stupid favors. What a fool he had been, what an utter fool.
Tears rise, hot and stinging to his eyes as his hand drops away. Keeping his head bowed, Prompto stoops to pick up his camera from where it had crashed to the floor. The lens has shattered.
The lens has shattered...
In a moment, his resolve grows, blinking away those tears while his face remains hidden. He knows what he must do. There is only one choice for him to make now. If this is the cause of his actions, then he must be the cause if its undoing as well. Though she is strong and fierce, he sees no way she can get out of her on her own, guarded and subdued as she is. But perhaps, with a little help from the outside...
I'll come back for you.
And then he returns to form, springing up, a mask sliding into place. There is steely determination behind his actions, and that's the only reason he doesn't flinch, doesn't hesitate. He laughs, cites his shock and his clumsiness for his dropped camera. He'll have to replace the lens, but if they will pleeeeease let him come back later and take pictures, they will get the best story the paper has to offer. Headlines, great publicity, and little about the mermaid. Nonspecifics. These photos will be for his personal collection only.
He is, of course, in no place to make such a bargain. He'll figure that part out later. All that matters is that the researchers reluctantly agree, and then begin to lead Prompto out of the facility.
He maps it out as they go. Nice thing about having a photographic memory... ]
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she can't help but feel like such a fool. so easily she had trusted, had allowed herself to believe that humans could not be so bad as the elders said - the arrogance of youth, isn't it? to think that she would know better. that they were wrong, stuck in the past, and she has paid the price for her presumptuousness. a steep price. if he of all people, this boy who laughed and smiled, who had a voice so warm, could be so cruel and underhanded.. what hope is there for the rest of them?
well, she may not need to worry about that for much longer. who can say how long they will bother to keep her alive? it's only a matter of time before they pull her apart right down to the bones, and to be perfectly honest, it is for the best. she will only suffer here, and the longer she is alive, the more they will attempt to drag information from her. she is not strong enough to kill them all, she certainly isn't strong enough to use her magic to escape, without the proper tools.. though she is a fighter at heart, she does not underestimate the odds stacked against her.
at the very least she may be able to take some of them down with her.
and so time continues its slow crawl, the facility never closes and so she has no way of tracking day and night, the time before prompto arrived had been an eternity, and so the time after him is the same. moments pass slowly, dragging, they continue their work, pulling her and testing her and drugging her, sampling her skin and scales, her claws and saliva, anything and everything they possibly can. it becomes routine, and they learn to sedate her more often, to keep her mildly tranquil even when she is in her tank, for fear that she might harm herself in her violence, and attempts to escape.
so it takes a moment for her to notice the noise - the sounds of many running footsteps and shouting voices from beyond the shroud over her tank, and soon after, silence. but she is tired. too tired to bother. whatever's panicking them, good, she hopes it kills them. with heavy eyelids, alisaie reasts her head on her arms again. ]
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He's never tried anything like it. Aside from the time he's spent fighting alongside the prince in the past, Prompto has never taken on a mission such as this. And fighting is one thing, but infiltration? Is there any way he can possibly succeed?
But he has to try. He knows the minds of men like these far too well. If he doesn't rescue her, then soon enough they will tire of their research that barely scratches the surface and they will seek for something more. It will be a shame to lose their specimen, but think of what they could learn vivisecting her body, by piecing out her organs and bones. Once their stream of visitors runs dry and their funds deplete, they will kill her.
He can't let that happen.
His plan is simple, straightforward, and a million things could go wrong at any moment. When he returns to the lab to take his photos, he takes a magic flask with him - the only thing he had borrowed from Noctis, and without explanation - keeping it hidden deep in his pocket until he has an opening. As he falls to the back of the group of press being toured around the facility, he makes sure there's no one behind him who might be hit, and then he casually lobs it backwards - firaga, of course. The hallway explodes into flames.
In the ensuing chaos, it's easy to break away from the group unnoticed. He memorized the location of her tank, far on the other side of the lab, but sprinting as he does, it doesn't take him long too get there. The fire alarm is blaring now, loud and flashing lights, and others push past him towards the building's exits, heedless of the man going the other way in their haste.
Finally, he makes it to her chamber. It's quiet here, no alarm in this room, and it is deserted. Even so, he won't have long, and he has a lot of work to do to free her. He doesn't waste any time.
He pulls the shroud back from her tank, and he freezes a moment in place when he sees her again. Gods, she looks...awful. But not for long, if he has anything to say about it.
Summoning a handgun into his grip, he fires at the glass, cracking it. Already water starts to spurt forth, but it is thick and sturdy; it will take more than that to set her free. So next he summons one of Gladio's greatswords, gesturing for her to back up and away from the front of the tank before he's running forward again, hurling the weight of the mighty blade against the already fragile glass.
It shatters. ]
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it's.. him.
bleary shock and confusion are clear on her face - what is going on? has she been dreaming? he is the only one here, dressed differently but she would know his face anywhere, the first human face she touched, her distant friend, and then betrayer. what happens next is fast and sudden, sedated as she is she hardly has the time to react at all, barely able to slip to the back of the tank by the time the sword impacts, striking true.
with a rush, the water is dragged out, and alisaie with it. she hits the floor and slips against it, unable to find purchase, but the chain around her neck snags and stops her abruptly, snapping around her throat. struggling, alisaie opens her lungs with a great, wet gasp, her short claws scratching at the tiled floor, her mind spinning - what is this? what is he doing? what does it mean? ]
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He hefts the greatsword again, trapping the chain beneath his boot and bringing it down hard, severing it with a great crash. The chain gives as Alisaie is set free, and a second later Prompto dismisses the blade to kneel down next to her, heedless of the sharp glass that pricks into his knees.
Is she alright...? ]
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if he is here to spirit her away for himself, or to some better, wealthier owner, he can certainly think again. were she of sound mind, she might think better of it - he is her only chance at escape, even if he means to simply swap her to another master, and it is the best and likely only opportunity she would have to potentially secure her freedom.
but she is not of sound mind. she is angry, burning with a deep and injured fury that she cannot rein in. with a vicious hiss, alisaie summons what strength she has left to seize him by the throat and slam him down hard onto his back, her long fingers tight around his windpipe, claws pricking his skin. how foolish of him to draw so close. she is small for her kind, but she is strong, and he is not a large man; even without the buoyancy of the water it is easy enough to pin him. ]
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http://78.media.tumblr.com/5d92e1eeee8d98fe66e04c8de8e1ab0a/tumblr_myt8qfcOqF1s3hm0qo4_250.gif
i knew exactly what the gif would be before i clicked...
i knew you would :blush:
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He keeps to his normal routines as much as he can, to not give any of his coworkers or neighbors the impression that anything has changed about him, and if he stays in more often than he used to, he can use the excuse of the fire to suggest that he needed some time to himself. But of course, really, it's so he can spend extra time with a mermaid.
It still seems unreal, even though he greets her every morning, bringing her fish for breakfast before he leaves for the day, along with some knick-knacks and photographs and picture books to keep her occupied. It isn't enough, and he wishes he could do more to keep her company, but this will have to do for now. At least he spends nearly all his time with her once he returns home from work, learning to communicate with her and seeing more and more of her smile day by day.
Perhaps at first...he sees a little too much of her, as it quickly becomes apparent that he can no longer use his bathroom on his own. The notion of privacy is difficult to communicate, but he tries his best, showering in his underwear and invoking use of the curtain when using the toilet, but there's no doubt she's certainly seen...more of him than he would necessarily like. But to be fair, she's basically naked all the time, so, whatever.
Still, between the lack of privacy and the size of the tub, he upgrades her lodgings soon enough, procuring an inflatable pool and setting it up right in the middle of his living room. His apartment is not large, and the pool takes up a considerable amount of space, but it's worth it, to get her a better chance to swim around. It isn't much, but it's better, and baby steps are all they can ask for right now.
This particular evening finds Prompto perched on the couch, eating some pizza while Alisaie chows down on some fish, a slide projector aimed at the wall from the end table next to him. Prompto narrates what's on the slides, explaining to Alisaie as best he can what it is, attempting to teach her as many words as he can in the process. He wears a soft, warm smile, because for how chaotic and stressful these last few weeks have been, there's also been something...pleasant about them. Something he can't quite put his finger on, but he enjoys this time they spend together, and he hurries home not only for her benefit, but for his own, as well. Even after everything that's happened, he is still is enamored with this mysterious mermaid girl, and he can only call it fate that has brought them together again like this.
He gesture to the slide with his slice of pizza. ]
Those're dogs. Pretty cute, right? Fluffy, like to play ball, jump around a lot...I wanted to have one here, buuut my landlord told me I couldn't have a pet.
[ He never said no mermaids, though!! ]
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prompto is a good man, and it had not taken her long to truly accept that, to allow herself to believe that she had not been wrong, that his warmth and kindness are genuine. she looks forward to seeing him every day, and while her situation is in no way comfortable, she is learning so many fascinating things, and he takes care of her as best as he can while she convalesces. soon enough she will be strong enough to return to the sea.
but until then, his company is thrilling, even if he is a little.. strange. the concept of modesty is entirely foreign to her, for her life she cannot understand why he balks when she touches him, or shies away when he disrobes - why does he wear all of that stuff anyway? isn't it annoying? restrictive? gods, it would drive her mad.
anyway, she is licking her fingers clean when the slide jumps to another animal, a very furry one that looks quite jolly. she has seen land mammals before, during her taboo visits to the surface, and now and then when a corpse has sunk to the depths, but she has not seen one of these. dog. it's so adorable.. alisaie folds her arms over the edge of the pool and leans closer, resting her chin against her wrist. ]
.. cute.
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Yeah, exactly! [ He chuckles warmly, switching to a slide of a dog playing ball with a child. ] They're good friends, too. Some of the best friends you can have.
[ He looks at her thoughtfully a moment, before asking: ]
Did you...have friends in the ocean, Alisaie?
[ She must have, right? She couldn't be the only one of her kind, and while he is loath to bring up a sensitive subject, he is endlessly curious about what her life was like beneath the waves, beyond this world that he knows. ]
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after a thoughtful moment, she shakes her head. ]
No.
[ how to explain..? certainly the idea of friendship isn't foreign to her, but alisaie had not really.. had friends, to speak of, only - she furrows her brow, gesturing. ]
.. family.
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[ There's so much more he wants to know about her world that he's afraid to ask, like if their society was organized in a similar way to his own, or where they lived, if they went to school, if they fell in love...but even if he could figure out how to communicate those questions to her correctly, it felt too much like prying to ask. He didn't want to make her any more homesick than she already is, so his questions come infrequently, and hopefully she won't feel threatened by them. He really does just want to know more about her.
Not that she has given him any reason to think she doesn't trust him. Not since that first day of her freedom, when she had nearly choked him to death. How...different she seems now. Perhaps not entirely comfortable, but...far more relaxed. There is an odd, enjoyable peace between them here. ]
I have a family, too. My parents...aren't around anymore, though. Nowadays, my friends are my family.
[ He clicks forward a few more slides on the projector until they reach an image of Prompto, Noctis, Gladio and Ignis out at sea, on that ill-fated voyage that had so intertwined his life with that of this girl who is now his most constant companion. ]
You ought to meet 'em, someday. They...might be able to help me get you home.
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her people are possessed of powerful abilities, the knowledge of aether and how to harness and manipulate it - these ancient techniques are among the many reasons humanity was attracted to them, sought to use and control them. most normal human beings are unable to channel the energy of their star, and covetous as they can be, they thought perhaps they could use her people as conduits. for awhile, they succeeded. but no doubt the knowledge of these arts was lost to myth just like the knowledge of her people entirely.
she's said nothing to prompto, afraid to reveal it even to him, to expose the incredible power she can wield, and the myriad ways in which it can be used, but.. she trusts him, now more than ever, and surely this will only help in his endeavors to return her to the sea. if she can walk on two legs, it will be much easier to travel, surely. and she cannot deny that she also desires this for selfish reasons - to walk the world of man, to see the world as he sees it, and, in small part, to escape the physical restrictions that have hemmed her in for too long.
for many nights she practices while he sleeps, channeling aether through her body and encouraging the change, but it is tricky, difficult work, and it takes many nights for her to achieve it fully. or fully enough, at least. some scales still cling to her skin, and her limbs are longer still than is normal for a man, her ears different, gills still cut into her neck - but for all intents and purposes, she is human. or at least, human enough. as human as she can manage.
it's late in the night, or perhaps very early morning, and she does not want to interrupt his sleep, but - oh, she can't help herself. making her way out of the pool and down the hallway to his room is.. not easy, she stumbles many times, knocks over a stack of books, slides twice down the wall, but soon enough she reaches her destination. honestly, two legs is so annoying?? anyway, she trips twice over her feet in the short trip to his bed, which she falls onto quite unceremoniously - oh, it's so soft.. ]
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One, Alisaie comes barreling into his room and falls onto his bed.
Two, Alisaie comes barreling into his room with legs and falls onto his bed.
Three, she's also buck-naked.
This, understandably, is a lot for his brain to process in one go, and for a few moments, he is certain he must be dreaming. But then his senses start to take hold again, the surprise and shock clear writ upon his face, before his hands fly up to cover his eyes. She absolutely did not have some of those features before!!!
Choking, sputtering, he attempts to speak, though at present, he seems to be able to speak just as much as she can. ]
A-Alisaie, wh-what're you— y-y-your tail—
[ WHAT IS HAPPENING ]
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okay, in hindsight, it might not have been a good idea to crash in on him in the middle of the night with this, but.. she was just too excited to wait! even if it meant knocking down nearly everything in his hallway to get here. it's fine.. it certainly isn't the first time she's wrecked his things. the bathroom might never recover.
and yet in the face of his reaction, alisaie can only beam with pride, rolling onto her back so she can lift one foot into the air and wiggle her toes. ]
Legs.
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I-I can see that! [ Did she have those up her sleeve this whole time??? After he put her in a pool in his living room???? ] But — how?!
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even in the face of his surprise and shock, she can't do anything but smile. alisaie has never managed something this difficult or complicated, so she's rather excited and more than a little proud of herself. ah, the possibilities! there's so much she can do now, things she never would have allowed herself to try before - when she will manage to find her way home again.. well. once more, it's something she is trying not to think about.
ah, but how to explain? ]
My people, we.. use the aether. We make.. change. Many things.
[ it's complicated to convey, with her limited vocabulary.. ]
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slams this tagback into your face
about time!!
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