Roleplay

A tentacle seized her leg--a freaking tentacle! Kiri's mind beat against the calming force of the siren's song as the weird mermaid dragged her to some kind of underwater throne room, the rest of the crew being similarly escorted, but she couldn't break through the magic and the shock both.

She watched bemusedly as Siren argued with some half see-through mermaid and a weird hybrid dude. The captain's eyes were wide with desperation, her magic vibrating in the air--er, water--and making Kiri's muscles lock for a moment. That's what did it. Being unable to move because of magic made her panic. She'd always hated being confined. Her emotions finally pierced the thick veil that they'd been wrapped in.

Her brief respite from them made them worse.

Grief over the guns, anger at the merpeople, shock, sadness, fear, more anger flashed through her all in an instant. She was so over this whole situation. Their arguing was pointless, almost like--... almost like human politics. Like the world she'd been raised in as the heir to a wealthy family.

Her instincts took over. She cleared her throat in an effort to get the attention of the half-octopus mermaid that was next to her. "This chatter is getting a little tedious," she began. "Technically, pirates aren't beholden to laws set down by rulers since we're criminals anyway but--" oh, gosh, those instincts had gotten rusty, hadn't they? "Um, in any case, we really do have a ton of weapons. We've also got some pretty cool artifacts--a few that are magic, even--that would give you a lot of leverage in dealing with human kingdoms," she added hastily. "Plus, we know where to get more of that kind of thing--anything you want, really... All that wasted for the lives of a few pirates? It'd be political idiocy to kill us."

It was tempting.. beyond tempting to just let Oztaluel destroy them. Oh how it tickled her fancy.. the idea of just allowing the Siren to eat one of them right in front of the others.. it would be satisfying for certain.

Then again.. the idea of exotic fruits and meats was appealing. While her merpeople could occasionally grab a creature or plants from land, the times grabbed were few and between. She didn't particularly care for weapons.. because her kind were fine with the weapons they had. Things that didn't rust.. they were fine with their own metals they forged over the underwater volcanos.

They had no need for things like 'brushes' as their hair was groomed by sealife.. and it was better that way. Humans never understood that really.

"If you humans are petty and foolish, then why should we deal with you?" Ursula asked. her hands clenching to Rothgar tightly. "As a punishment for your insolence. I will place a curse upon this man." She lay her hand on his brow, a strange black rune appeared. "And if you want me to remove it, then you will prove your loyalty to my kingdom by brining me something." she smiled, exposing a row of needle sharp teeth. "As your small companion said. Killing you would solve nothing. So.. I will use you as I see fit instead."

____

Titania watched Oztaluel as he spoke in favor of her mother, an odd expression plastered to her face. She had to agree with his statement about them preserving things they cared about. She felt a bit of concern at his willingness to attack.. yet at the same time understanding his reasoning. She herself was filled with a mixture of disgust and revulsion. The idea of laying with a human.. was.. unfathomable... and her voice.. compared to the pure tones of Oztaluel.. perhaps it was because she was female as well.. but it was not something Titania particularly cared for. Oztaluel seemed as disgusted as she was by the weird hybrid woman before them.. which made her feel better considering he'd once been a human himself. She didn't want to feel like she was betraying him somehow.

She watched as her mother placed a small curse on Rothgar. Hmm.. interesting indeed. The woman she was holding started to stir and Titania turned to face her, eyes focusing on her curiously as she spoke.

Ursula responding to the woman's words more than the words of the captain meant that Ursula probably respected this woman far more than the Captain right now. Considering all she had done.. and what she was.. it made sense to her.

lifting the woman up slightly, Titania got a better look at her, skin shifting colors in her curiosity. "You have probably just saved the lives of the entire crew saying that." She murmured. "What is your name?" anyone who could change the mind of her mother was worth knowing.

((Oztaluel wouldn't think her voice is pretty, even if by human standards it is- he's a siren, and lived with basically the siren progenitor, and sirens voices aren't too effective on each other to prevent infighting being a survival of the loudest. In his canon, he's from the beginning of Rome- descended from the Etruscans that were there before, and a more northern Franco-Germanic "barbarian" group who was displaced into the burgeoning republic. He's well on his way to two thousand years old. If it's the equivalent of 1680s, the height of piracy, he actually IS over 2000 years old. He's seen a lot of people come and go, and before he threw himself and was cursed into sirenity, he was a, well, male concubine.

He was already a good singer and dancer, and he's only had longer than Ursula's been queen to perfect this. He's seen singers and entertainers go down with their ships, kings' vessels full of beauty sunk, all that. She is not beautiful, partly because she is a hybrid, partly because she is fleeting, partly because I am resisting a hybrid, even a possessed hybrid, matching the voice of a maneater siren. They draw their power from the poor buggers they devour, and he's been involved in, or the direct cause of, hundreds of full sized ships going down. Am I alright with her being on the level of a weakened, but still potent, non-created siren, like her grandfather? Sure. But Tally is meant to be some ancient monstrosity, the kind you find in legends. Not at all the sirens who are sweet and good and have chosen mortality over immorality. He's BC, not AD. She can be a regular Siren, but he is not meant to be one. ))

((This is still open right??)) Name: Ember Age: 16 Pirate/Merfolk: Mermaid Stance: Neutral Rank: Sea Witch Skills: Ember tampers with both the light and dark arts of magic. Such as healing, conjuring weapons, death spells, any type of potions, and spells to control another's body through a puppet (voodoo) Background and Personality: Ember grew up in a cave that is beneath a coral reef with a harsh and abusive family of witches. Eventually she killed her family members and remains in the cave, which she took as the spoils. While rough and angry on the outside, it's really just a protective shell for a kind and curious mermaid who just wanted the pain to stop. She is sensitive about certain things regarding family. Ember always lashes out when she's afraid. She doesn't mind the Pirates as long as they leave her alone or treats her respectfully. Appearance: [img]http://images.8tracks.com/cover/i/001/774/023/tumblr_n0hczidzsB1qeprmgo1_500-3681.jpg?rect=0,246,485,485&q=98&fm=jpg&fit=max[/img]

(It is not, sorry.)

Dang it

With his plan shot down, he returned to his respectful silence, though he didn't feel any issue with wandering to the hybrid and investigating her lazily, from a couple feet away. His tail flicked lazily, once he'd sized her up well enough. She smelled of metal and gun-oil and smoke, and it made him smile, just a little. Pirates, and criminals, at least they didn't tend to lie about that. The curse placed was taxing to his strength until the ripples of its creation faded, and he needed a touch of a rest from it, doing his best to not shoot a glare at the queen for sapping him so. A huge yawn split his jaw at an unnatural angle, and he popped it out of place, wriggled it, and snapped it right back where it belonged, watching the scene on his flat belly, propped up on his arms, the very picture of the siren waiting on the rocks for a meal. Well, except he wasn't a girl, and he wasn't pretty, merely interesting. The shark head's jaw opened a little and he watched sand wave around in ripples on the floor with disinterest. His torso-gills blew like a bored child would huff. He'd been quite eager to rip one's throat out. He still wanted to kill the hybrid for reasons of disgust, but not here, not with the Queen and his dear Titania here. Nothing promising he wouldn't send all the crew over the edge in a storm, but right now she had the Queen's ire and protection. Could he have one of the insignificant crewmates, at least? He wondered if they'd taste like rum. Supposedly they drank a lot of it.

He swam back to Titania's side as she spoke to the reasonable human, and remembered how often humans liked to hide their weaponry under cloth and leather. He didn't figure Titania would take offense to his checking the females for weaponry, but if she did he'd just gesture at whatever confiscated armaments were found until she figured it out. Not like he hadn't expressed his views on humans already anyway. Callously, and without regard to the girl who was tucked against Titania, he looked her over with the same interest as he had the hybrid, and then, seeing nothing in particular, decided to try to run hands over the bubble-headed human woman, so as to check for weapons-- now she could move, she could threaten, and harm. "Stay still, if you don't want to be hurt," he instructed the- uh, whatever this human did. She wasn't the captain, but she spoke eloquently, so... Maybe a First Mate, or bard? Who knew. First would be arms and torso, then legs, and boot-things.

(Skye, you're godmodding. You can only attempt to search a character, not actually search them. You have to make it possible for others to make choices with their characters. For this reason, I'm going to ignore the part about searching Siren. Also, do not tell me what I can and cannot do with my characters. Not only is it rude, but I am also the one who created this RP. Before you edit my ideas, run it by me first. I let you have an overpowered character as it is, because I didn't want to be mean, but don't mistake me for a pushover. Besides, when did I say her grandfather was a natural siren? I didn't.)

((As for the rest of you, I had a bad day and now I'm angry besides, so I'm going to refrain from posting for a while so that I don't make my characters do something I regret.))

(((Lastly, I can't help but feel frustrated when it comes to my characters. I feel less like I'm RPing and more like someone else is controlling my characters. I feel backed into a corner. Sorry guys, but I might take a break for a while. This is too stressful.)))

((Snowleaf, my bad on the godmodding, it can be hard for me to find that line and I will edit to fix that. Second, I was not trying to order you to do one thing or another, I'm sorry if it came off that way but the comment was rushed, as it was typed up in about 10min at the end of class. I was rather trying to explain what I thought was the dynamic there. I'll re-do that in a way that sounds less ordery and more consider/explainey then:

>Tally is tired and old and numbed to things that aren't new. For all I know and for all you say, she's a stunning singer, but he's a siren and songs have ceased to be pretty for all the work they are to him now. A pretty voice is a pretty lure: useful, but not something he really cares about other people having. There's enough fish to be caught anyway. As a result, given that she has demonstrated no effective control ability with her voice, her lure is useless in his eyes and something he doesn't care for. If it were to affect a guard, or a crewmember, something, he'd see there's power to it, and she'd get a hateful sort of respect. Secondly, he'd prefer tones and rhythms from his own time, which means whatever inflections she'd have in song would feel just foreign enough for him to dislike it, unless she can pull some Ancient Roman-esque musicals.

>I was not planning on Tally being affected by her voice, nor would I expect Siren to be touched by his, as sirens would likely be immune or mostly resistant to each other's singing so as to not cause each other to be lured in like the sailors. If this goes against your idea of sirens, that's alright, but I'd need to work that out. I am totally cool with the crew being resistant to him, by virtue of residual surrounding-magic from Siren, so as to keep his power against those who really matter down into more of a strong urge and not a full compulsion.

>[Here was background on his canon so as to hopefully make understanding as to why I have him viewing her this way, and his origins, as he's supposed to be based on a mythological siren, not an 1800s siren- hence my initial question as to whether he could be dualform with p.sandersi birdness. He's supposed to be one of the terrifying monsters of myth and legend and not a pretty lil thing to be looked at.]

>A plain statement that he does not like the fact she's a siren-hybrid. To him, it'd be like going for a cow or sheep- a prey and a useful fodder, not something to be loved. Even though he did start as a human, yes. Self-esteem issues ahoy.

>ENTIRELY MY FAULT for assuming the point on her lineage. I just figured, since your siren-idea, when I discussed it with you, was so vastly different from the mythological canon of sirens and my own, that she would be from the General Purpose Pretty Girl Lurer Siren that they are understood as today. It is wholly my bad on that.

>With that new understanding as to lineage, I rescind my statements of vague annoyance at her being mixed-blood and apparently as powerful as he, but would like to hold against him being overpowered: He is incredibly weak to magic, and I have tried to make that clear over and over again. He's big, he's bad, he could be taken down by a child with an attack spell. He's an ambush predator, half animal and half anger, barely held together with magics. If he's gonna pull something, he needs it to be out of mage-area, and in a manner as to surprise and control before people get a hold on what's happening. Any magic in the vicinity causes effects to him- I made sure to include that bubbles formed on his gills when the humans' heads were bubbled, and that the curse placed on Rothgar caused him to be weak enough as to need to sink to the floor and take a petulant breather.

Again, I apologize for being godmoddy, I hadn't meant that and I thank you for pointing it out, because if one person points it out others are thinking it. I will truly try to not godmod in the future, but if I do, please tell me! That goes for any of y'all, I really do want criticisms if I'm stepping over the line.))

((No worries, thanks for not thinking of me as a witch with a b. Siren is a descendant of a siren born of a created siren. So, you're sort of right- her grandfather was the son of a created siren, so still more powerful than most but less powerful than Tally. She's at least her grandfather's equal in power, because she also has some innate human magic. I'll post a response later today.)