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Under the Sea {Paper Mache Banshee and Seraph}

"This feels like a big one!"

He heard a yell from above the surface then a loud, horrid screech coming from the two ships. Suddenly the net began to rise to the surface. Darrien blinked and knew he could do nothing. He could only transform out of water and once he was out, it would be too late. They would already be able to see all his scales glistening in the moonlight. He could feel the cool night air brush against the tip of his head as he was raised slowly above the water. The net was digging into his tail and skin. It was definatly going to leave some sort of bruise or mark. When he was fully out of the water he looked up at rows of fishers that looked over the edge to check their catch. His tail blinding them a bit as it glittered in the light. He already knew what they were going to do so he looked away and towards the beach. There he saw a little speck. He had to squint and use some of his power to see who it was. It was Alex. He smiled and grinned, almost forgetting about the excited and shocked yells coming from his sides.

"Hey Alex!!" he roared at the top of his lungs, waving around like a mad man. He was a boy, he wasn't very bright either. He also had a weird attention problem. It didn't seem like she heard him so he returned his attention back to the group of men struggling to get the net onto one of the two boats. They also began to fight over who could keep the treasure and get the reward for it. He sighed and crossed his arms, hating the bickering. "If I could make a suggestion I would say to share... but... You all seem to be Mr. Greedypants." he said out of the blue.

Darrien, unlike other merpeople, really didn't care too much about being figured out. As long as they didn't prod him with sticks or anything then he would be fine. He didn't think it was a big deal either that he was different. He was like an endangered species so they shouldn't kill him. The group of fishers became quiet and came to the decision to sharing then one of the groups brought him onto the boat. To their surprise, they knew the face of the merman. Knowing they had seen him walking on land with feet they weren't going to take any risk of letting him out of the net but they did dump him into a tank they had on the boat.

"Holy cow! Ow!" He yelped as he was dumped into the water. "Gah!!! The water is too hot!!!" He yelped and squirmed around like crazy. He was from the Arctic; he hated the heat. Quickly, wanting to keep their catch alive, they dumped tons of ice into the water, causing steam to shoot up from the tank as the ice cooled the water down. This caused Darriens body to adjust oddly to the sudden change, knocking him clean out. The fishers all gazed at him as he layed at the bottom of the tank before they moved to port, preparing to ship him to the meuseum. This was definatly not going to get away with being on the news...

​
 
Alex tilted her head to the side and looked over towards the open sea and frowned slightly. She could have sworn that she had heard someone calling her name? No matter, she thought and stood back up and started to head back to the house, feeling more tired than she had thought she would be after all. She sighed and hoofed it back up the beach and into the house. She listened at the door for a moment and when there was no movement inside; she slipped in and left the door slightly ajar. Perhaps her father would think that someone snuck in last night. She could pretend that he had forgotten to lock the door, it wouldn’t be the first time he had done it. He was too absent minded sometimes.

She yawned until her jaw cracked as she crawled into her bed and snuggled under the blanket and buried her face into her pillow. In the morning, her father would freak out about his tape going missing so she needed to get in what few hours of sleep she could before then. As she drifted off into sleep, she wondered, why did he show her that he was a merman? She nuzzled her pillow before hunkering down for the night. Her dreams were peaceful, but in that way that was slightly chilling as if there was something lurking in the back of her mind she should remember, but couldn’t.

She sat up in bed abruptly as her father let out a scream and she looked at the clock, it could have been more than three hours since she went to bed—why did he have to wake up so early? Why was there even a six in the morning? She wanted to roll back over and go to bed, but she stumbled out of bed, still dressed in last night’s clothes and shouted down sleepily to her father, “Daddy? What’s wrong?”

“You have to let me on the project! I knew they existed, I’ve been writing about it, I need this, John,” he pleaded as he spoke on the phone and held up a finger towards his daughter, “I just saw it on the news, I’ll be at the institution in three hours, c’mon, for old time’s sake let me have the job—please? John, remember that time.

There was a short pause, “I know, I know, but John, I know merpeople. I’ve been researching them, so…Yes, All right, I’ll be there.” Dr. Bryce shut off the phone and looked up at Alex, “Get packed, we’re leaving.”

“Leaving? Daddy, we just got here,” she rubbed her eyes and yawned, “What’s going on?”

“They found a mermaid—well man, but they found one! I have to be at the institute within four hours or they’ll give my bid to someone else, so hurry up. John will give me the head researcher position for this! Can you believe it, Alex? I was right! I was right!” He ran up the stairs passed her as Alex stood there in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Hurry up,” he shouted back at her as he started to pull down his unpacked bags, “Leave everything but your clothes, we can have it all picked up later. John’s making arrangements for us at the institute, we’ll be able to stay there—why are you still standing there?”

“Um…all right?” Alex ran a hand through her hair and mumbled, “And I thought he was crazy before…” It wasn’t until she was half-way through getting her bags down the stairs that his words made sense to her tired brain—They found a merperson. The words echoed in her mind, and she paled, it wasn’t Darrien was it? He had seemed nice and she knew that he would be treated little better than a lab rat, and even lab rats sometimes had laws protecting them.

“Please don’t let him be,” she said softly.
 
It was apparent scientists took over and retraced the shipping over to a sea-life institute where they had a large enough tank to keep Darrien in. They also were all around the tank, sketching, writing, whatever they could to check up on this wonderful find. The only trouble to them now is getting a blood sample from Darrien. He had luckily woken up before they could even get the needle ready. Darrien now sat at the bottom of the large tank, staring blankly, and sleepily around the lad and staring at the scientists. Darrien also had attempted to play a Houdini using the pipes that attached to the tank from the ocean. When the scientists figured out they blocked the pipe off so Darrien couldn't get through it. He is also kept watched twenty-four seven. If not by human eyes, by camera.

Darrien looked over to a scientist who recently hung up on the phone with someone and started to grab something. He moved over to the edge of the tank after picking up the thing and then climbed a small staircase near it to get to the top and starting to dump fish food in it. Okay, he knew he was part fish and that it was hard to tell what he were to eat... but he didn't expect scientists to be this dumb. He looked up as the little fish flakes floated on the surface for a moment before slowly descending. Other fish that were placed into the tank with him swam for the flakes, swallowing them down whole. Darrien shook his head and looked at the scientists.

"I hope your not expecting me to eat that stuff." he said. His voice came out as if he was speaking in a microphone. It wasn't like he was drowning in water or nothing. Perfectly clear. Hearing Darrien speak, made the scientists go a little hectic and scribble away, also typing a few things on the computer. Darrien looked around, trying to find something he could eat. The only thing he spotted was an apple on a scientists desk. He frowned for a moment then swam up to the top of the tank, holding himself over the edge then reaching down as far as he could, just barely grasping the apple by the stem. Then before the scientists could even get a grab at him he slid right back into the tank. He grinned at the men and took a small bite out of the apple then gently let himself float to the bottom, on his back.

This wasn't so bad... or at least he thought so. He looked back out at the scientists as he ate away, seeing one of them dressing up in a divers suit. Seeing this his eyes widened and he bolted for the surface of the water and threw the apple directly out of the tank with so much force it knocked the man clean out. Then Darrien once more, retreated back into the cool tank water. There was only few people he'd ever trust to come near him in his form for secret reasons and they were not one of them.​
 
An hour after they had packed up what they could, the driver arrived to take them to the institute. Dr. Bryce was beside himself as he spoke on and on about the medical uses of being able to study a merperson as Alex sat there and bit her bottom lip. It probably wasn’t Darrien, she rationalized, after all he knew that her father was looking for merpeople and he wouldn’t allow himself to be caught, right? He didn’t seem like the type that was suicidal, or was he? She really hadn’t spoken with him much, so she wasn’t the best person to ask.

“Really Alex, why aren’t you excited,” Dr. Bryce asked, confused as to why his daughter wasn’t as happy as he was with the discovery of merpeople. She had voiced how often she had thought he was insane, he thought that she would be happy to know that he was right. He was the only person in the science department who was right!

Alex looked at him blearily and yawned, “Sure, daddy, excited. Woot! Civilization…internet…Mmmm…” She leaned against the door of the car again and closed her eyes. She was worried, but she was able to put that aside for the pressing need of a light nap. Parts of her, she admitted, her excited since this did mean everything she said. She could actually go back to school! It would be great, but she wasn’t too sure about living at the institution. The last time she had been there, she had been the only girl and a few of the scientist were not the most, well, socially skilled and had problems with her being around. But that wasn’t a hundred percent of them, she had made a friend with one of the older scientist who found her skills with a computer handy when he needed someone with quick fingers to type something up for him.

Dr Bryce sighed, “Really, Alex…” He looked a little put out at his daughter’s lack of exuberance at the discovery and couldn’t wait to boast about this to his ex-wife who had thought he was just as sane as a loonie. Perhaps he could get visiting rights to his son’s again!

“Mmm,” she mumbled sleepily in reply and soon light snores came from her side of the car as one hand clutched her iPod, and the other rested on her laptop, each clenched protectively around the electronic. The doctor just sighed as he watched his daughter sleep for a moment before he turned to the driver and spoke hurriedly with him, “You can go faster than the speed-limit you know. No one is out here.”

“Sir…”

“Just hurry, it’s very important, you know that,” he insisted.

The driver sighed and nodded, “Yes, sir…”

It took them another hour to get to the institution and Dr. Alexander Bryce shook his daughter awake. She grumbled but looked around blearily as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, “Yay…we’re here…”

“Let’s go see the specimen before we move in, hmm,” Dr. Bryce could barely contain his excitement as both the driver and Alex moved sluggishly about.

“Sure, Daddy.”
 
Darrien groaned as a couple of hours went by. He had sunken the lowest he could get in the tank and now was on the verge of falling asleep. He couldn't help it though. Other then the constant beeping in the room, there was only the faint murmurs he could make out from the tanks outside. It was really quiet. Darrien decided he'd listen in on the conversations for a second, just to see what was going on or if he could pick out their latest plans. All he could hear though was, "Blah blah blah discovery blah blah blah blah money blah blah specimen." Darrien groaned and forced himself to swim to the tank's surface and looked over gloomily at the scientists.

"You guys are so boring. I would've never known you guys could be so boring... and I have a name you know. It's not specimen, it's Darrien!" he huffed and looked at them as they looked up at him with a quiet expression on. "I'm bored. Do something, play a movie, find anything to do..." he said. "At this rate.... you guys are driving me more insane then Mr. Bryce is insane. " he said. That caught some of the scientists attention.

"You know Mr. Bryce?" One spoke up, tapping a pencil on a clipboard.
"Yes. I know everyone on this island," he said, glaring a bit, "Mr. Stewart-baxtor."

The scientist was shocked that this creature knew his name. At firs tthey came to a conclusion that he must be magic or have mind reading powers.

"Nooo, it was just a lucky guess." he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes then slipping into the water.

He heard something about visitors coming so his hopes were high that it was someone new or something. He kept his eyes on the door the rest of the time after that, trying to fight himself to stay awake. He lost track of how long he's been in here.
​
 
"And this is where the specimen will be staying for the time it is here," one of the interns said as he guided Dr. Bryce and Alex to the door of the lab. He stared for a moment at the punch-pad of the security door before he seemed to remember that he did indeed know the code. He glanced suspiciously at the pair before he huddled over the pad and punched in the numbers hurriedly.

Alex yawned and Dr. Bryce looked less than amused as the door didn't open.

"Um...well..." The intern floundered for a moment before the door swished open and exposed the lab. Dr. Bryce moved in as though he was walking on a cloud. He ignored everything else as he looked into the tank and saw the creature he almost lost his career over.

He froze and then pointed, "You?"

Alex walked in behind her father and felt the coils of dread tighten around her throat at his exclamation. She hesitated, almost afraid to look, before her eyes wandered over the glass tank filled to the brim with water. She looked to the bottom of the tank and shook her head slightly from side to side as if that would dispel Darrien from the bottom of the tank as he appeared to lightly doze. She looked around at the scientists and listened as they talked about drugs for sedation, blood samples, and one even wondered allowed, "Do you think he'll die? I hope I get picked to be in the autopsy!"

She shuddered faintly and walked up to the glass. Alex considered the possibility that she was the reason he was in there. What if her father had actually caught him a second time on film? No, no, she thought, he would have told her that and been angry with her that she hadn't told him the moment she found him. She whispered softly, "Darrien..."
 
Darrien looked over to the door as it opened. It took him a moment to regain his senses before being able to tell who came into the room. Then seeing the familiar girl following after, he popped up in a much better mood now. Darrien swam around for a second then pressed himself against the glass a bit as Dr. Bryce pointed and gave him a shocked expression. Just the one he was expecting from him. Seeing this made Darrien grin and snicker a little.

"You didn't listen." he said in a sing-song voice, shrugging his shoulders and moving away from the edge then swimming over to the surface and hanging over the edge again. He looked and stared at Bryce then looked over to Alex who seemed a bit traumitized.

"Alex?" he called out, tilting his head curiously. "What's wrong? Surprised I am in here?" he asked. It was a frown at first but it slowly creeped into a smile. "It was expected sooner or later. I tend to get in trouble alot." he said, laughing a bit.

"He even knows his daughter!" the same scientist from earlier exclaimed. Darrien rolled his eyes then quickly brought his tail shooting up, sending water waving over him and drenching some of the scientists. Seeing them all fumble around made him laugh a bit.

"You guys need to see the sun more." It was strange that Darrien wasn't reacting like he was afraid. He found this rather interesting and he knew it was going to be hard for the scientists to get to him. So he really wasn't worrying. Eventually he would escape if they left him unattended. He looked over to Alex.

"Maybe you can come in!" he said, smiling and going back under the water and swimming around. ​
 
Dr. Bryce looked at his daughter, "You...didn't know about this did you Alex?"

Alex bit her bottom lip and gave a little bit of a shrug, and mumbled something along the lines of maybe, she she turned her eyes away from her father. She looked back to Darrien after a moment and considered it before she nodded, "I think I just might come in." She didn't look at her father as she walked over to a chair and pulled it close to the side of the tank before she heaved herself over and into the water, yelping at the sudden chill against her skin, "Y-you didn't say it was c-c-cold."

Her father watched her from outside of the tank and seemed both disappointed in his child, as the scientists twittered around them about the infamous Dr. Bryce and the fact that his daughter knew about merpeople, or at least a merman, and didn't tell her father. One snickered and looked towards his colleague, "Bet that she did more with him than daddy knows, right?"

His friend looked at him, "His a fish, can he even...?"

"Just one more question," Dr. Bryce spoke up as he tried to ignore the previous comments about his daughter. They had only been there for one day, if that, Alex couldn't have started a relationship with him, could she? His daughter had always seemed so straight-laced, and had never lied to him before, "to add to the list. How do they reproduce...?"

Alex kicked her legs to stay afloat in the cold water and ignored, as best she could, the stares from the men in white lab-coats. It wasn't that different from being in school, she tried to rationalize, people always stared then, and thought whatever they wanted, so why would this be any different. At least, she thought, she was having fun, and appreciated that she hadn't worn a white shirt. Though, she should have taken off her shoes, they were a little heavy in the water.
 
||Sorry I haven't replied in a very....very long time. Dx I have been really busy with being a techie for a university's play. ||

Darrien swam around the tank as he watched Alex push the chair to the side of the tank. He was just about to say that there was a staircase but it was too late now. She splashed into the water and he swam over, grinning at her shocked expression.

"You never asked about how cold or hot it was. You'll get used to it. It took me a long time to get used to the water around this island. It's cold... but not cold enough." he said, looking at the surface, deep in thought. He snapped out of it and looked at Alex again. "I live in the arctic ocean..." he said. "That's how cold I like my water." He froze for a second hearing the small comment from the colleague. He let out a small laugh, that was such an out-of-the-blue question. He began to swim again, ignoring the little question the scientist made.

'How do they reproduce?'

Instantly, Darrien froze and his head snapped towards Dr. Bryce. He swam over to the surface, letting himself hang over the edge.

"Don't you think you're going a little fast there? I never touched Alex innapropriatly either in the case. " he huffed. They were probably going to bug him until he answered so he saw no way out of it. Besides, it wasn't a big deal. It's not like they were going to make Darrien show them.

Darrien sighed, "Well I guess I can do that two ways though. The same as you guys would and the second.... well... " he thought about it. It was difficult to explain. "It's sort of twisted. I can't really explain it." he said, slipping back into the water and moving to Alex. He saw that she was struggling to swim and he took a good long look at her.

"You're supposed to take off your shoes." he said, swimming underneath her and slipping her shoes off. Then he swam over to the surface and dropped them over the edge. He gave a small look at Dr.Bryce before going back to Alex. "You're dad is a little pushy, isn't he?" he whispered to her.​
 
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