Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Dock(1x1)

Xeones was sitting out on the edge of his dock, with his pants rolled up and his feet hanging over the edge. His toes barely skimmed the water, and he was enjoying watching a school of fish swim close to the surface. He wasn't having the best of days, he'd recently found out one of his only friends was missing, and he'd had an argument with his fiance the day before. His dark green eyes were a little puffy and red rimmed, a dead give away that he'd been crying lately. His blue hair was hanging in his face, but he hadn't bothered brushing it back.

He had on a plain blue tee-shirt that looked as if it might be fitted for a girl, and the pants he had on were some grey sweatpants that also looked like they were for a girl. He had a notepad and a pen sitting on his blue dock next to him, but he seemed to be more interested in watching fish than writing down anything. He felt like all his creativity was sapped.

Panne drifted down the river, staring up at the sky. She was bobbing on the water with her tentacles swirling and coiling at ease beneath the surface, thinking in the peace of her surroundings. Around her small waist she has tied a small bag, filled with various trinkets she had found on the land.

While the clouds made various interesting shapes she identified one by one, she failed to recognize how close the lonely house along the river actually was. She swam upstream often to explore, as the area was not too densely populated. Near buildings it was her custom to dive and go unseen in the depths of the water.

Yet now she sinply continued to drift. Her strawberry blonde hair was spread all around her head, her meager and covered bust barely sticking out and her tentacles hidden from sight. She looked like a normal young woman floating on her back, or a normal young woman who drowned and floated on her back. It was difficult to tell with how motionless she was amidst the gentle waves.

Xeones was staring out at the water, so there was no way that he missed the octopus girl, though he couldn't tell she wasn't a normal girl from this angle. He seemed rather alarmed, "Miss! Miss!" He'd sit up some and lean out over the edge of the dock, though he probably wasn't near close enough to even touch her. "Are you alright!??!"

He was starting to get a little scared, he had no idea what to do if this woman was in fact dead. He hadn't even had his fiance teach him CPR or anything like that, something that he was planning on correcting as soon as Chance got home.

There was a man calling out. Oh gods. Shocked and terrified, the poor girl was flailing in the water and emitted a high pitched cry before she went under. A tentacle had briefly surfaced, but was easily missed in the splashing water. (Or it looked like the kraken got her...)

Her heart was pounding and she stayed beneath the surface for what felt like an eternity. Curses, why hadn't she paid more attention? She didn't want anyone to know of her existence, lest they capture her and condemn her to another life of captivity. Her faith in the 'landwalkers' had not been restored quite yet after all.

Water pumped through her system at an alarming rate, filtering oxygen to feed her racing heart. She'd been a good fifty feet away from the dock, but she'd also been drifting with the current. The water was too murky to see very far ahead... And unless he disturbed the water by recklessly diving into it, she emerged enough to let her head break the surface and peer out over the glistening waves to orientate herself.

Xeones is a terrible swimmer, and so while his first instinct was to leap into the water and try to save the girl, he knew that he might very well drown them both if he did that. His heart was racing out of his chest when she went under, and he fumbled for his phone which was sitting next to him on the dock. His fingers were shaking so badly that he mis-dialed a couple of times, which was good because it gave her a chance to peek her head up over the water.

"Miss! Are you alright!?" She could probably hear the fear and urgency in his tone, "If you swim this way I might be able to pull you up on the dock!" He still had absolutely no idea that he wasn't speaking to a girl that had somehow floated up river. Hopefully she wouldn't go under again, because then he might really start to panic.

Panne froze when she found herself staring right at the man. He had some strange device in his hands he was fumbling around with, and for a moment she feared he was going to reel her in and keep her in some fancy tank like the others had.

Then he asked if she was okay. Offered to help her get on land. "NO!" She cried out after emerging, realizing too late he might take that as a 'I'm not okay'. "I'm fine, I don't need to get out of the water." The current was making her drift closer to the dock, though she hardly dared to move around much. Her tentacles had a nasty habit of d- Okay, yeah, damnit.

*splash* One of the tentacles had apparently misinterpreted 'stay under the water' as 'SPLASHY FUN TIME', because it was making quite the ruckus by sending water flying everywhere. It was an appealing shade of light reddish brown with cream stripes and flecks. Of course, one might get distracted by the large suckers that looked rather intimidating.

She grimaced and pushed the tentacle back down, offering half a comforting grin and hoping no questions would be asked. That wasn't an unreasonable hope, right? ... Right... ?

Xeo had indeed taken her cry to mean that she was in danger, "Okay, I'll call fo--" He was cut off by her saying she was fine, "...you want to be way out there in the water?" He's confused, "I thought you were drowning...?" When the tentacle appeared out of the water, Xeo scrambled backwards. It was obvious he was more afraid of her then she was of him. He couldn't swim very well, and those suckers on her tentacle looked pretty scary.

"Um...that was part of you right?" He's looking around, "There aren't any giant sea monsters in this river...?" He hadn't really been swimming in it yet, though he had gone out on a rented boat a time or two. He slowly moved back to the edge of the dock and peeked into the water, though her swimming around had probably made it murky. "I've never met anyone like you before..." He seemed to be going a little shy now, "I'm Xeones." He hoped she wasn't going to get scared and swim off, to be honest he'd been feeling more than a little lonely lately and it was nice to talk to someone.

His desire to put distance between them surprised her. While her hands kept one tentacle down, the others made a ruckus trying to keep her in one place. She still slowly drifted closer in her efforts to keep them down, limiting their ability to accomplish just that.

She inhaled deeply. "Yeah, they are." If she got close enough for him to see the details of her eyes, he'd notice she actually had a bit of a weird pupil. It wasn't round, it looked more square than anything.

In all honesty, she just wanted to dive back in and flee. Landwalkers were more trouble than they were worth. It was his irrational train of thought on sea monsters that made her stare. And stay. She suppressed the smirk creeping up on her face. "Haven't seen any," she said. She squinted lightly when he admitted she was the first of her kind he'd seen. "That's a good thing then." If it hadn't been for them, she'd still be with her family, living in the depths of the ocean. Happily.

His name committed to her memory instantly. She brushed some wet hair out of her eyes and considered, then quietly spoke. "Panne. You're not going to capture me, are you?"

Xeones wasn't put off by creepy eyes, thankfully. Otherwise he wouldn't be dating an alien! He looks relieved when she says she hasn't seen any sea monsters, "Whew. Good...I'm...not a very good swimmer. I wouldn't want to get pulled in." He probably shouldn't have confessed that to her after seeing her terrifying tentacles, but she didn't seem like she was eager to have him in the water anyway.

He'd relax, and he'd lay on his stomach on the dock, with his head propped on his chin, "I thought merpeople lived in the ocean only?" Though they were close enough to the delta that the water was probably still pretty salty. When she gave her name, he smiled, "That's a pretty name."

When capturing her came up, he looked confused, "No. Why would I wanna do that? Aren't you more comfortable out in the river?" Xeo was blissfully unaware that slavery still went on all around him, he honestly had no clue as to why she would think he'd capture her. "What's it like down in the water? Can you see lots of fish?" He'd already made mention of not being able to swim well, so he probably just watched the fish from the dock.

That was an interesting bit of information to have right there. Panne was not a vicious killing machine by any means, but in case of an emergency it was nice to know he would be an easy target in the water. Her freedom was far too important.

And there, right there was prejudice! She snorted and managed a weak scowl. It actually looked kind of cute on her. "Now just because those pesky mermaids don't come up here, doesn't mean others won't!" Oh yeah. She loathed mermaids and mermen and any variation thereof! And then his compliment made her stutter and choke on her next exclamation of loathe. Her cheeks tinged a rosy hue and she looked away.

"I am. I like it here, so don't try anything funny! I've killed sharks before you know." There was that spark of defiance that she thought lost, but had slowly regained over time. She arched a brow. "It depends... I'm sure you scared most of them away by now."

Hopefully Panne would not attempt to drown Xeo, because his fiance might not like that too much. Xeo didn't seem to be trying to get into the water anyway, and he looked quite comfortable with his chin propped on his hands.

He looked upset when he seemed to have offended her, "I'm sorry..." He hadn't realized they weren't the same at all, "I meant no harm..." He went quiet then, seeming a bit sad. Maybe now that she was closer she would be able to see that his eyes were red rimmed as if he'd been spending a lot of time crying. He didn't understand why she was so angry with him, "I've no reason to try anything..." He'd seem confused, "You eat sharks?" He couldn't imagine doing something like that, sharks were scary!

As for the fish though, he seemed to get a little angry, "Me? They were just fine until you started flailing about. I was watching them. I like the fish." He was naturally a redhead, and he had that same fiery temperament even though his hair was currently dyed blue. He could only take so much insulting at a time, and he'd done nothing wrong to the fish to be yelled at over.

She studied his face with mixed feelings. While her species didn't quite suffer from red eyes after crying, she did recognize it from many years watching land walkers. As tempting as asking if he was fine or not was, the desire was quickly eroded with the man's silly question. "No... I said I've killed them. I don't eat them." Self defense and all that lovely jazz, but she didn't expect him to understand that.

Then she snorted. "You land walkers have no idea how awfully loud you are in and near water! If you hadn't called out, I wouldn't have had t- My bag!" She'd automatically reached for her bag of treasures to make sure it was still there and found nothing. Mild panic took over as she looked for it, and - might as well have all the bad luck in the world today - it had drifted off and got stuck between some rocks right where water turned to land. Her lips thinned and she frowned. If he touched it she'd smack his face until it was nothing but one silly mess of sucker marks! But... she'd have to get it herself. And needed to get onto land.

Considering the circumstances (being found out, getting into conversation, arguing with the man) she could do that on top of everything else as well. "Let me go grab that," she mumbled and swam past the dock up to the land. Her tentacles, powerful masses of muscle, had no problem dragging her boyish frame onto land far enough to be able to reach it. The downside? Now the human had a pretty good look at what she really looked like.

Xeones wrinkled up his nose, "Oh. Still scary." He was content to stay on the dock, with his chin propped in his hands, "I called out because I thought you were drowning! You didn't honestly expect me to not try and help did you?!" It's obvious that she's not drowning though, and he's in no hurry at all to get in the water.

She seemed worried about her bag, and he'd look around for it, but she was the first to spot it, "I could--" But she was already going for it, so he let her be. He'll just watch her, fascinated by her tentacles, and also a little bit scared of them. "They're more colorful than I thought they would be." He's still laying on the dock, so hopefully she wouldn't feel threatened. "What's in the bag?" He's just curious, "If anything fell out of it, I could see if it washed up on shore."

Panne snorted. "Very." She grabbed the bag and held it to her chest before turning towards him. The glare she sent him said enough about assumptions, but she didn't feel like continuing a useless argument.

So instead of making a fuss, she reclined comfortably on the shore and opened her bag. "Colorful means I'm dangerous." A tin can emerged from the bag before she put it back in. There were shells, random junk people threw out and a couple of pretty colored rocks in the bag. She secured the rope back around her waist and spotted the cellphone - broken screen and scratched terribly - stuck between the rocks.

One of her tentacles curled towards it and grabbed it. "What's this?" She held it up for him to see, curious expression on her face.

Xeones looked away when she glared at him, his eyes drifting to his notebook. "Like a snake?" He didn't even realize she might not know a lot about snakes, since she lived in the ocean. He's still lounging on the dock, he didn't have to get any closer so they could talk.

She's grabbing the old phone, and Xeo looks a little sad. "It's an old cellphone, like a machine people use to call each other. That one is broken though. It's terrible what people throw in the water sometimes. Cosmo and I at least try to keep this area cleaned up." Xeo liked watching the fish, and he couldn't do that if there was trash everywhere!

The blank look she gave him probably said more than her "What's a snake?" as he confirmed. She knew snake-like people by their species as Nagas, but had never seen actual snakes before. They didn't venture into the ocean and it was only recently she even came this close to civilization.

Her eyes fell to the broken device. "I don't understand. Do you mean like a mating call? Like the whales?" She frowned when he spoke so poorly of it, pretty much labeling it as junk. It was.. intriguing to her, regardless.

Xeones furrowed his brow, "Um...it's like...an animal. A reptile, and it doesn't have any legs. So it slithers around, and usually the brightly colored ones are poisonous. So you get real sick, or could even die if they bite you." At least, that's what he'd grown up hearing.

As for the phone, he'd shake his head. "No...humans don't have mating calls like that." He's pulling out his own functional phone from where he'd put it when he decided not to call an ambulance, "Here, I'll show you." He'd look at his phone book, before calling someone. He'd put it on speaker so it would ring and she could hear it. Eventually the ringing would stop and someone would answer with a "Hello?" Xeo'd grin, "Hi Dad. I was just making sure my phone still worked. I dropped it."

She squinted her eyes. That sounded like Nagas, except they were like.. humans. In the same way she resembled a human. "Well.. alright. I'll stay away from them."

Her curiosity was piqued again when the working phone appeared. "Oh." She fidgeted with her fingers. "What's it like? Your mating call..."

But then he stared at the device and tapped things on it. As soon as it went on speaker and began to ring, her jaw fell open and her eyes went as wide as saucers. She'd never heard a sound like that in her life ever before. The people who captured her did not possess or chose not to utilize this level of technology.

And then it freaking spoke. Xeo was just grinning and acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. Panne, on the other hand, went horribly pale. "W-why... it... Why does... HOW..." She stammered and proceeded to create a few more yards of distance between them, crawling higher up on land. "It's a spirit, isn't it?!" She cried out, possibly loud enough for his Dad to hear.

Xeones would have to get off the phone with his father before he answered her question about mating calls. His Dad can hear a woman freaking out in the background, "Who is that? What's going on?" Xeo seemed surprised by her reaction, "Uh...I'll call you back later Dad, I gotta go." He'd abruptly end the conversation, even though his Dad was still trying to speak.

"No, it's...my Dad has one of these too. And then I punch in a series of numbers and it makes his device ring. And then we can talk!" He's smiling at her, and hopefully she'll calm down. "Humans don't really have mating calls either. I mean...some jerks like to wolf whistle at girls I guess, but that doesn't work usually. Humans um...do lots of flirting, and take each other to fancy places as a pre...mating...ritual." Sounded weird when he said it like that though!

Panne stared at the devilish device for a couple more moments. She hurled the broken cellphone, still in her hand, away further onto the land and wiped her hands on her hips. Her expression was comical to say the least, shocked and weirded out.

She pursed her lips. "It's amazing you manage to find mates that way... Has that worked for you? Then again, with such weird devices..." Clearly not impressed, just freaked out!