#{ v: i knew no end to desiring you | merman verse | emcads }

[norringtxn]

@emcads​ said:  Pirate captain pinned now in a sinking brig, untold desperation sending her heart racing as the water rose –– and the prospect of freeing herself from the cell growing dimmer with every inch. the keys were right there, tempting her like FORBIDDEN FRUIT she could see but not reach, and ... no, she wouldn't cry. she'd always known she'd meet her death at sea, but not like this, never like this. 

 she'd almost given up hope when a noise splashing about in the water stirred her into focus again, and her heart seized first with fear: the sharks would be coming if they weren't here already, giving the amount of corpses that were once crew, and she'd be next once the already dead were feasted upon. she ... she hadn't anticipated a human face. a RESCUER ? no, it was certainly too good to be true. perhaps she was dead already. 

 ❝   hello ? please, help me ––– ! !    ❞    

Sinking ship had caught his attention, dangerously approaching with quick and strong flicks of his tail. Rare did he ever approach anything remotely human, but it was rarer still for an entire half of a ship to reach this far in one piece. He just had to look about and explore. It... brought back memories. From another time, from a life left behind on the surface.

He entered the lowest part of the ship, easily shifting between floating cargo and focusing on ignoring any corpses he came across. An air pocket was discovered, most likely there because of the angle the ship had sunk in. James should have left it be, turned around and kept on his merry way, but something urged him to press on.

The curiousity in his expression was quickly replaced by horrified shock as he was met with a human woman, begging him for help.

He stared while his lungs adapted to a different method of breathing.

She was trapped behind metal bars, gripping on to them for dear life. Confined as she was, nothing but death awaited her. James could help her but... but she was human.

“You’ll kill me.” He deadpanned, not wanting to show her any emotion. “It’s what your kind do.”

[norringtxn]

@emcads​ said:  “ oh ... gracias. ” she regards the dead fish held outward in reverent presentation with a quirk of her brow. not quite as pretty as the pearl he’d brought her, but it’d taste better. she takes it anyway.

She pronounces a word that is foreign to James, and somehow he knows it is not simply one of those unknown human words that did not reach him before the... before his change.

It sounds different, feels different. Another language.

Yet another thing to fascinate him, as all of Esmeralda does. From her knowledge to her thoughts to her skills, there was not a thing about her that James did not find captivating and he can’t help but have his curiousity for a world that turned its back on him spark to life.

So, he finds himself with the need to do something for her. Anything. And giving her gifts is the only thing that occurs to him. Esmeralda gifts him with human insight and James gifts her with bits and pieces from his own world.

He plucks whatever he thinks she could find interesting from coral reefs and the sandy floor of the sea. Sometimes he finds a wreck and brings her things he thinks she might find value in.

Today, he has brought her a fish. James holds it out ot her expectantly, smile widening when she accepts it. He she appreciates that he has held himself back from stealing a bite, for this particular fish is considered a delicacy among the merfolk.

“Grey...shias... Grahshias... What does that mean?”