Chapter Text
If Eva was being honest, she really wanted to kill this creature. Throw caution and scientific discovery out the window, and just get rid of this creature. But, she knew better. She was director of this project, and that meant killing their subject of study was practically a cardinal sin. That, and Ryland seemed impossibly fond of this creature, despite how terrified of it he was.
When the mer began to bite at the chains, breaking it under his teeth, Eva’s gut sank. She’d lose her husband to this monster, all because he wanted to help her. He shouldn’t even have been down there. It was supposed to be DuBois!
But Ryland seemed to soothe the monster with his words, highlighting the simple misunderstanding. He was the only thing standing between that creature and Eva’s wrath.
Lucky mer.
But now, her and Ryland stood at the railing, with the sun burning on the horizon. They agreed to talk at sundown. Eva personally did not have any words planned. Anything she wanted to say was far from appropriate as director. “Why did you try to kill my husband? What was your plan after breaking the cage? Do you know just how far I would have hunted you for revenge?”
For diplomacy sake, it would be best if Eva let Ryland do the talking.
Let Ryland do the talking. For diplomacy's sake. Words that Eva Stratt never could have anticipated saying.
Just as the sun began to sink below the water, a figure broke through the surface, a familiarly scarred face staring up at them.
Ryland smiled, immediately speaking, “Hello! It’s so nice to see you again, now without all that hub-bub of earlier. I’m Dr Ryland Grace, but you can just call me Grace. And this,” he gestured to Eva, “is our director, and my wife, Eva Stratt. You can just call her…” he looked to her to let her decide.
“Stratt,” she told the creature with a clipped tone.
The creature looked between them and spoke with a low voice, “I’m Simon…”
Not much of a talker, apparently.
Ryland, thankfully, filled the silence, “Well, hello, Simon. I’m so glad we are able to finally talk. We are here to study the ocean, and Stratt here and her other scientists noticed the warmer area here. They wanted to find out why, and while we haven’t really gotten to the bottom of it, we did find you.”
Simon’s first question, the second thing he ever says to them is, “Are you going to dissect me?”
“No!” Ryland immediately denied. “No, we are here mostly to figure out why the water is warm. It’s far warmer than the other water surrounding it, but we currently have no explanation. And while we found you, and we’d love to learn more about you, we are not going to dissect, or rather vivisect you just to do so.”
Eva added in, “However, I recommend you do not try and kidnap any of my crew again. Especially my husband.”
Simon turned to Eva, and narrowed his eyes. He told her, "Maybe you should not send an unwilling crew down into my territory.”
Eva swore her eye twitched. The nerve of this creature. “Unwilling? Tell me, what about Grace seems unwilling?”
Simon scoffed, like she was an idiot, and said, “When he first went down, I saw that someone shoved him in. Then, when he saw me, he freaked out, but no one moved to save him until after I showed I was peaceful. And just today, he seemed nervous and upset over being pulled up early.”
“I guarantee you Grace has been a willing participant in everything. He seemed upset being pulled up because he wanted to continue. I ordered him back up because you seemed upset at the needle. I didn’t want him getting hurt.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt him!”
Ryland spoke beside her, “I know you both care about me, let’s just put a pin in this. Thank you, Simon, for caring for me, and thank you Eva, for caring for me. Now, Simon, anything you’d like to tell us about your kind, just from an overview?”
Eva kept her eyes focused on Simon, her ire burning on him. Simon spoke, glaring at Eva pointedly, “I am not going to be your pet or just an experiment for you to poke and prod. It has happened before, and I will not stand for it again. Will that be a problem?”
“It depends,” Eva frowned at him, her voice just barely level, “Will you still cooperate with our few requests or will there be violence?”
Ryland interrupted, “You can tell us things just like you are now. Far out of our reach. How about we start with your anatomy. It obviously differs from humans quite a bit.”
“I have a tail, with fins and spines to sense things around me. I also have gills on my torso to breathe the air in the water.” Simon gestured at his teeth and said, “This isn’t a siren thing, in case you were wondering. Neither is the missing arm.”
“What led to them, then?” Ryland asked, his eyes far too bright with curiosity than they should be. Simon’s glare, and the chest rumbling growl was hint enough that it wasn’t for pleasant conversation.
Eva asked, “What would you refer to your kind as? I heard you say siren before, but I’d like to confirm that is your proper identification.”
“I’m a siren. You either are born on or become one. I guess we also can be called mermaids or mermen. I wouldn’t really know. My mother didn’t leave me a manual on how to be a good siren.” Simon then adds, more for himself, “I wouldn’t have read it anyway.”
Eva hummed thoughtfully. Ryland asked, “Are you a born siren then? And when you say ‘become one’, what does that entail?”
“Well, there are turned and born sirens. Turned are when you get bit by a siren and are turned into one of them. You go through an excruciating process of growing the tail, and everything else. It takes a few days. But born sirens have it easy. We just exist, and go through puberty and everything like a human, just with a tail, and some sharper edges.”
Eva asked him, “Is there any way to turn back into a human after becoming a siren?”
Simon tensed, and told them, “I think? I hear of some sirens who become humans to survive on land. But it's basically just as excruciating as turning into a siren. Nearly a full week of drying out, and feeling your entire body rearrange itself for survival.”
“So sirens basically have an advanced adaptation process?” Ryland’s eyes were wide with curiosity. “Can all sirens turn into humans, or just turned ones?”
“Just turned ones,” Simon answered far too quickly. “It’s more of a story than anything. No one exactly wants to nearly die just to be around humans again. Most of you really suck, and sirens are just your toys to play with and cut up until you get bored.”
Eva did not miss how Simon’s glare bounced between her and Ryland. Ryland, however, definitely missed it, saying, “We aren’t like that, I swear.”
“Yeah,” Simon dismissively said. “No one is until they are, right? It’s all about compliance and convenience. When I’m not useful anymore, then it’s all fair game.”
Eva told Simon, “I swear to you that no one on our team would harm you, Simon. We are here to learn, not to needlessly hurt you.”
“Sure, Stratt.”
Eva swallowed back her irritation. This siren was such a skeptic. She looked at the sun and told Simon, “How about we wrap up this conversation. We will talk again the day after tomorrow, at the same time.”
It wasn’t a question, nor a command. He either showed or he didn’t.
Simon agreed, “I’ll see you then, I suppose.” Then, without a goodbye, slinked under the water, into the depths.
Once Eva was sure he was far under the surface, she spat quietly, “That insolent, paranoid siren.”
Ryland shrugged beside her, “I like him. He’s a little mean, standoff-ish, but he’s clearly been through a lot.”
“I understand that, but he has to understand we aren’t here to harm. And he is definitely lying about some things.”
“Eva, he has no reason to lie to us yet, we have been honest with him about ourselves. And even if he is, what do we know. He is our only source of information.” Ryland frowned at Eva. “He will warm up eventually. But it won’t happen with you doubting him.”
“I will stop doubting him when his lies are convincing.”
—/—
Eva Stratt reminded Simon all too much of Ava. That glare, the power in her words. But she didn’t have the anger.
Ava would snap at him, yell insults at him through the sub’s porthole window. She’d dangle his freedom over his head, then pull it away right as it was in reach. She had him torn open, sewn up, then thrown into that submarine.
Who’s to say Eva Stratt won’t do the same?
Especially when she finds out he lied.
All sirens can turn into humans. Any of them. But the process is just as agonizing as it is to turn from a human into a siren. The COI knew this, and when they needed someone to man a submarine for a deep sea investigation into what they called the ‘blood ocean’, the logical choice seemed to be a creature already well attuned to the ocean.
Simon took about six days to become fully human. He had felt like he was thirsting to death, left to dry in the sun, with his body strapped down to the surface leaving just his tail free but painfully flaking scales.
When that damn submarine finally broke, it took only two days to return to being a human. It was still painful, just crammed into 48 hours rather than 96.
He would not be telling Eva Stratt or even Ryland Grace about those facts. It just gave them more ammunition against him. They can be left to believe it’s a one way transformation for some sirens, most of whom do not attempt.
If the process was less painful, more sirens would do so. The human world and the one under the sea was far too different to even compare. What’s the human phase — compare apples to oranges? Something like that.
Simon curled up on the floor of the sub, moss overgrowing on the metal. As long as those humans didn’t try anything, he would try to be civil. But if there was any hint of harm coming his way…
He guessed if he had to spare a human, it would be Grace. As for Stratt, he was unsure if he would save her for Grace’s sake, or save her just to have her death be at his hands.