Author Topic: Droplets on a Razor's Edge (Read 5472 times)

Daglobster · « **Reply #100 on:** October 28, 2021, 01:39:26 am »

Torien continued to stare, mouth agape, as Seexa tried to move her legs around only to react more and more anxiously. Now that she was shaped more like him, part of him wanted to be flushed and embarrassed, but that wasn't even a concern at the moment.

She was scared, and she needed somebody.

''You... grew legs...'' Torien said slowly, both for her and himself.

''And you can breathe. You're okay,'' he said, suddenly looking down at her, eyes pausing on her now sealed gill slits. Torien didn't know much about magic or science, but he could guess she never knew about this because, well... she'd been in a tank her whole life. Part of him was relieved, he didn't know what they were going to do otherwise.

He pulled her into a proper hug, and let himself lean backwards just a little to give her more space. He sat there, covered in water and what felt like lukewarm fish blood as he held the trembling mermaid.

Old Crem merely hung back, hand over his mouth as he tried to piece together what had just happened through the shock of it all.

DragonSong · « **Reply #101 on:** October 28, 2021, 01:58:37 pm »

Somehow, actually hearing that--you can breathe, you're okay--helped the reality to sink in. Gradually, the terrified panting evened out to slightly-heavier-than-normal breathing, and after a few more moments Seexa was able to raise her head and look down at herself again.

She managed not to completely panic this time, at least. But a tiny, confused whimper still escaped her throat, and she pressed back into Torien's arms as though she could somehow escape her new legs.

"I..." She drew in a careful, shaky breath, felt it travel down her throat and fill her lungs in a way that was new and strange and made her wince. "I didn't...know," she finally managed to murmur, and tilted her head back to meet Torien's eyes. "I didn't...know that would..."

She trailed off, looked down at herself again. It finally registered that they were more or less collapsed in a puddle of tank water and her own blood. She winced, and if she'd had her tail she probably would have been curling down into it. As it was, her legs gave a little jerk as her body tried to move in a way it couldn't anymore, and she whimpered at the strange intensity of the sensation.

"I'm...making you wet," she muttered, sounding a little dazed, and tried to push herself out of Torien's arms to give him space. She only succeeded in flopping awkwardly onto her side with a panicky little chirping sound.

Daglobster · « **Reply #102 on:** November 01, 2021, 03:09:41 am »

"I've been through worse," Torien said, remembering the agony he'd been through not that long ago, and despite her own trepidation about it Torien had not even flinched. He'd seen blood and horrors enough for two lifetimes, been covered in blood both his own and his opponent's.

She flopped onto her side and off of his lap, and rather than immediately pull her back towards himself, he simply let down a hand onto her shoulder.

"Here, let me help. Sit up with me, like this," he said, trying to find her hands so he could guide her up to a sitting position to match his, with his legs spread out in front of him.

DragonSong · « **Reply #103 on:** November 01, 2021, 07:15:31 am »

Seexa tried to swallow back another quiet whimper as his hand settled gently on her shoulder. He'd touched her there before, it shouldn't have felt so strange--though any touch was still something of a shock to her system. Still, she realized she felt even more overly sensitive to it than she'd been before.

She really hoped that was going to go away. She could feel the air against her pebble-scaled skin like a physical weight, making her itch and shift uncomfortably as she tried to push herself up beside Torien, letting him guide her up and steady her with his hands on hers.

"Okay..." She managed to settle herself beside him, leaning carefully against his shoulder for support, and looked down at her legs sprawled out awkwardly in front of her. Despite her friend's augments, his legs were at least shaped human. Hers were not.

She frowned and carefully tried to flick her tail--or whatever the equivalent that would be in this new shape. It turned out that was curling her long, webbed toes. "That's...weird," she muttered, blinking in that rapid, dual-lid pattern, first one set then the other in quick repetition. She tried it again, slightly more aware of how her body moved now, and managed to point and flex her feet a few times--like a dancer warming up--before the sensation started to prickle uncomfortably and she stopped.

"I...have legs." She looked up at Torien, then to Crem, then back, clearly completely lost. "I have legs."

Daglobster · « **Reply #104 on:** November 03, 2021, 12:37:28 pm »

Crem, no longer "The Old Man" by virtue of Torien letting his nickname slip, quickly sprang back into action. He opened up a medical case with expanding towels designed for body fluids, and set about cleaning the congealing mess of semi-amphibious vitae and tank water on the ground.

Torien barely noticed, because he was staring at Seexa in a strange mixture of curiosity and shock as she tested out the flexing of her feet. When she leaned her shoulder up against his, the water that clung to her started to run down the chrome limb in rivulets.

"And knees!" Torien finally pipped, and then he motioned downwards to his own legs. Torien's legs were augmented all the way up to the middle thigh, although Torien was still wearing his pair of ring shorts, meaning only the metal sections could be seen. Like all his other augments, they had a fair amount of external hydraulics, but along the upper thigh and knee the casing was more or less still human-shaped. His feet had the vague shape of toes on their casings, but they were solid.

Or that is what it seemed. With a mental flex of his own feet, they elongated slightly and talons useful for kicking unsheathed themselves like the claws of an eagle.

"Like me," he said, motioning to their feet, and he dipped one of his closer to hers to compare the size. He turned his head to seek out her eyes, and he motioned down to her side.

"Your gills," he said, and his hand lingered nearby to point.

"You know how to breathe with your nose, at least," he remarked with a growing smile.

DragonSong · « **Reply #105 on:** November 03, 2021, 01:16:48 pm »

Seexa watched his leg move, then flinched back a bit, startled, when the blade emerged from his toes. She recovered quickly enough, and it was plain that she wasn't afraid, just curious.

She managed a small, slightly shaky smile when he laid his foot beside hers. "Like me," she repeated. Her hand drifted up to her throat, remembering that first moment of true connection when he'd first found her. When they'd both tried to speak and winced at the effort.

Me too.

She made a considering sort of crooning noise when he gestured to her gills, nodding sort of dazedly. "It feels...weird," she mumbled, taking a careful inhale and then scrunching her face up when air traveled into her lungs. "Really weird."

She looked up at Crem, busy cleaning, and winced apologetically. "Sorry. Can...I help?" This was mostly her fault, after all. She wriggled around until she could sort of tuck her legs to the side like she might have with her tail, making a face and shuddering at the over-sensitivity, but that was fading, thank the stars.

Very, very carefully, she leaned forward until she could place one hand on the ground, the other braced against Torien's shoulder. She took a few steeling breaths--weird, so so weird--and pushed.

She managed to get almost halfway to her feet before her legs trembled and buckled under her own weight, sending her collapsing back into Torien's lap with an indignant squeak.

Daglobster · « **Reply #106 on:** November 04, 2021, 03:17:50 am »

“You get used to it, I guess,” Torien said, his own voice going a little breathless with worry as he saw her move her legs about. When she finally managed to bend and tuck them aside, he gave a reassuring smile and mirrored the same position with his own legs, facing her. He straightened a bit more when it became clear she was going to use him as a support. The hand on her side slid up her forearm to support her better.

It seemed it was in vain, because she flopped onto his lap and was suddenly very close to him. It was easier to ignore her state of total undress when she was shaped less like a person, but it was very hard to ignore now.

“Oof!” Came his exclamation. She was heavier than she looked, but he managed against it just fine and kept her from just falling off of him with a supportive hand to her back.

“You almost had it,” he said, only encouragement in his voice. Nobody had done anything like this for when he’d woken up with his augmentations, filled with foreign weapons and wielding limbs that were not his own at first.

“Here, let me help you,” he said and he did his best to gently deposit her on the ground next to himself. He brushed one of her knees with his hand, and motioned to his own. He drew his legs in until he could put his elongated, talon-bearing feet down flat, and pushed himself into a squat with his arms, twisting one side of his torso for enough momentum to right himself once he extended his legs.

“Come on, Seexa. You can do it.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #107 on:** November 04, 2021, 06:30:46 am »

She stared up at him with wide eyes for a few moments, mute, when he stopped her from rolling off his lap onto the floor. She shifted slightly when he moved to lay her down, bracing her forearms against the ground as she watched him stand with a small frown wrinkling her forehead.

At his encouragement, she took a breath and moved to try to get her legs under her body again. She managed that part alright--now she just had to make them bear her weight, right? Glancing up at Torien nervously every few seconds, she awkwardly finagled herself into a sort of half crouch, one hand braced against the ground and the other arm out for balance.

Then she took another breath and tried to heave herself upward. She actually managed to get all the way up that time, though her legs shook and bent awkwardly. Her arms pinwheeled as she tried to keep her balance, threatening to topple over, and she gave another frightened little squeak as she instinctively staggered forward and wound up grabbing onto Torien's shoulders to hold herself up, which brought her in rather close.

She was still damp, water dripping from the ends of her hair to steadily form a puddle around their feet, and she realized belatedly that by now it was starting to soak through his shirt. Seexa blinked at him, legs still shaking but at least holding her up now. "Um...sorry?"

Daglobster · « **Reply #108 on:** November 18, 2021, 10:10:48 pm »

"It's fine," came Torien's voice, as it seemed he was completely unbothered by the wetness. He'd been in much worse states very recently, he didn't mind a little dampness here and there. When she held onto his shoulders for support, she'd find him more than capable of supporting her with his augmentations, and he laid his own hands on her shoulders in a mirror of how she held him.

And hopefully she wouldn't notice just how red his face was.

"Look, you're already standing," he added, smiling a bit wider at her. He straightened up to show her a more comfortable posture and brought his heels closer together.

"Like this."

DragonSong · « **Reply #109 on:** November 19, 2021, 06:54:24 am »

Seexa stared at him a moment longer, then a cautious, breathless smile started to spread across her face in response.

"I'm...standing," she repeated quietly, almost disbelieving. She shifted a bit when he straightened, instinctively adjusting herself with his movement. Her legs still shook, but she wasn't leaning the entirety of her weight on him anymore.

Vaguely, she noted that if they both stood straight--or as straight as she could get her new legs to go--she was much shorter in comparison than she might have expected to be. Well. Inasmuch as she could have expected any of this.

Carefully, she drew her awkward, webbed feet closer together. She nearly toppled sideways, but managed to grab Torien's arm and steady herself. She shuffled a little closer, instinctively leaning into the stability he offered. She glanced up at him with another quick, small smile, though there was a slight wince behind it. Everything below her waist still felt unreasonably sensitive.

"What..." She glanced down at herself, then up again, looking between Torien and Crem. "What do I...do?"

Daglobster · « **Reply #110 on:** November 22, 2021, 03:00:11 am »

Standing with her like this, Torien did note with some curiosity that she was shorter than he'd expected. Maybe it was because the water made her look much larger than she was or if she merely had more height to her when she boasted a tail.

When it seemed she needed a little less of his support, he let his hands slip down to her elbows, supporting her forearms but otherwise allowing her to slowly acclimate to her own weight.

Seexa's gaze seemed to finally stir Crem, who seemed to come out of his almost death-like stillness. "Clothes", he said simply, and turned away to offer Seexa some form of modesty. Torien, having just been reminded of this, simply turned his face away so Seexa wouldn't see the fire that had just lit under his cheeks at the realization. And still, he didn't exactly make an effort to distance himself.

"The cloak," he said quietly to Crem, and the old man set about looking for the discarded garment. Torien looked back to Seexa, and with an encouraging smile he took a step backwards.

"Try and walk with me."

DragonSong · « **Reply #111 on:** November 22, 2021, 07:31:13 am »

Seexa blinked at him, then repeated as though the word was entirely foreign, "Clothes."

She glanced down at herself. While her creator had drawn on Old Earth merfolk as a template to give her a distinctly, if vaguely willowy, feminine humanoid shape, she wasn't technically mammalian--or at least she didn't think she was--so the slight curve of her breasts was really more decorative than it was anything else. She knew from the data feeds in the before-place that most humanoid women used them to feed young, though without nipples she wasn't properly equipped to do that.

As for her legs, well...now that she was getting the hang of standing properly, they did look slightly more humanoid--barring the large, flipper-like feet on the ends--and the slight flare of her hips indicated that a little more thought may have gone into the functionality of this aspect of her anatomy. Aside from the filament-thin barbells on her head she was entirely hairless, which revealed that a thin, almost imperceptible slit at the fork of her legs was the only indication that her species may have been capable of live birth.

That is, if she'd properly had a species.

None of that seemed particularly dangerous to her--pretty much everything important was protected by thin-pebble scales--but if her new friends thought she needed clothes then she supposed she did. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't exactly seen any of the people who'd come to gawk at her in her tank walking about naked.

Torien's voice snapped her from the train of thought and she blinked up at him, vaguely dazed for a moment. Then she realized, "Oh!" and glanced down at their feet again. She bit her lip, glancing up at him, and took a cautious, shuffling step forward to follow him.

It was strange, and cumbersome, but she learned if she let her feet turn out slightly she was able to take proper steps, albeit tiny, careful ones. This meant she moved in something between a waddle and a walk, but she didn't seem to care as she met Torien's eyes with another breathless smile.

"It doesn't...hurt," she said, sounding both surprised and delighted. She wasn't entirely sure why she'd expected it to, but was more than happy to have been proven wrong.

Daglobster · « **Reply #112 on:** December 26, 2021, 03:25:11 am »

She was still the closest thing to a naked woman that he'd held in a long time. Somehow, he knew she wasn't the first, despite the shattered memories that his conversion left him with. His vision returned to her once she started to move, too worried that she could still topple over at any moment.

She had an odd sort of density her that he supposed was a side effect of her aquatic nature, and he noted that she was definitely heavier than she looked as she leaned on him for support. One of his hands went to her side to help keep her steady, his new one.

He made a startled sound as the advanced limb registered the coldness of her skin and the texture of the scaly skin along her sides. His eyes set onto that point of contact, which made it easy for them to wander along.

She was definitely not mammalian in the slightest, even if her smooth underbelly, hips, and body shape were crafted to suggest otherwise. She was piscine, cetacean, and even batrachian all at once, but still human enough that it had his color flaring anew once his eyes wandered low enough.

When she spoke, he looked back up to her with a "deer in headlights" look on his face.

"It doesn't hurt!" Torien repeated with a beaming smile, sooooooooo happy to have something to latch on.

DragonSong · « **Reply #113 on:** December 28, 2021, 08:53:56 am »

The soft, startled noise he made when his new hand came into contact with her skin made Seexa start in turn, looking up at him with eyes even wider than normal as concern flashed across inhuman features. Had she hurt him, somehow?

But no. No, he seemed fine. He even smiled at her, an expression she returned breathlessly, nodding. The feeling of cool metal against her skin was…different, somehow, with his new prosthetic. Smoother, maybe? Perhaps warmer? As though this metal was more capable of retaining what little heat it could glean from her body.

She gave her head a little shake, putting it from her mind for the moment as she tried a few more steps, bringing her flush against Torien as she gripped his shoulder with one hand to keep her balance. “This is still…so…weird,” she giggled—actually giggled. It was a rough sound, clearly unpracticed, but the happy glint of her dark eyes made the emotion behind it unmistakable.

She glanced down at herself again, wiggling webbed toes against the floor. “I wonder…how long,” she mused, almost to herself. She glanced up into Torien’s face again. “It all feels…new. Sort of…buzzing?”

She wasn’t sure how to put the odd, tingling sensitivity of her new legs into words, or if she even needed to. Leaning a little more heavily into her friend, she glanced back over her shoulder at Crem, vaguely remembering Torien had told him to collect a cloak. “You’re a…a doctor, right?”

And he’d seemed to understand something about her. Or at least, something about what she was supposed to be. Maybe he’d have a better idea of what was going on.

Daglobster · « **Reply #114 on:** September 19, 2022, 09:52:58 pm »

Okay. He could do this.

He would have continued that line of thinking, but then she waddled just that much closer to him and he felt her arms drape around his shoulder, her damp body come flush against him. He wasn’t a sailor, not by a long shot, but she certainly could have eaten him right then and there. Metal and all.

His own hands rise to her shoulders to better support her as she used him as a support. He retracted his foot talons so he could stand this close to her without bumping her with any sharp bits.

“Feeling pins and needles?” He said in an enthusiastic whisper, but then his smile faded somewhat when Crem cleared his throat.

“The lady’s cloak,” he said blithely, coming up and very lightly dropping it on her shoulders. It was a makeshift cloak with a hood, so she’d have to hold it closed with her hands as she walked. Torien adjusted on her shoulders and took her hands to show her how to properly “wear” it.

Crem’s eyes were hard an analytical as he took the two of them in, as if he was mulling over a nagging thought that he kept to himself. “I’m not a fancy geneticist, just a surgeon and cyber-doc. It’s my guess that you have “adapted” to land. Lungs instead of gills, feet in place of limbs. I don’t know how long you can stay without water, probably not long.”

He glanced to the fallen tank, which was on its side and blinking with red lights instead of its usually gentler glow.

“So we’ve still got a problem.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #115 on:** September 23, 2022, 08:35:13 am »

“Pins and needles,” she repeated with a rough, quiet laugh and a nod. She’d heard the expression before, but had never really had any basis for comparison. Until now, apparently.

She twitched a bit at the foreign feeling of fabric against her skin when the cloak was draped over her shoulders, but quickly adjusted to hold it closed over her chest. Still moving carefully, adjusting to her new center of gravity, she turned to see the crooked and leaking tank Crem indicated and frowned.

“I…hate…that thing,” she rasped quietly, glaring at it. Logically, she knew it needed to be fixed—she would need to be in water again sooner rather than later, most likely. But just looking at it, seeing from the outside how confining it was, how limiting, her entire world—

Seexa hissed at the tank, lips drawing back over sharp teeth in a snarl. “I hate it,” she spat, still glaring at the thing as though it was a sentient creature that might retreat under her gaze.

Daglobster · « **Reply #116 on:** October 01, 2022, 03:40:18 am »

“She hates it,” Torien murmured, giving Seexa a reassuring little back rub. He was more comfortable once she had some semblance of decency. He was tired and he also wanted to spare himself the confusion that came with Naked Friends.

“But if we want to leave…” Although… he looked around at the goblin ship’s interior, and several small ideas sparked in his mind. No, that was for later.

“Well, erm… for now…” and he looked over to Crem, whose eyebrows nearly pierced the cieling. “Oh for-“ But Torien was already stepping up to make his whispered voice heard. “I’ll do all the work on the tank. And I’ll even do work on your place.” Torien strained to raise his voice confidently, but he stood in front of the old man.

Crem pointed his cane at Torien.

“It’s not you I’m worried about, Chrome Warrior,” he said, looking past him towards Seexa. He shifted on his feet, replaced his cane against the ground, and made for the ship’s entry ramp.

“I’ll get my truck. You should eat something, Torien. Kick start that interchanger.”

Torien shrugged, and once it was dark and quiet, Torien looked to Seexa, but not before eyeing the still-wrapped collection of burger-mat food brought alongside the steaks.

“Still hungry?”

DragonSong · « **Reply #117 on:** October 02, 2022, 03:22:14 pm »

Seexa managed to wrangle the sudden anger back under control and took a careful step back from the tank, though her breath was still coming more harshly than was strictly necessary. She knew she needed the damned thing, but…

She just hated it.

“Hm?” Torien’s question reminded her of the present situation and she looked to the synthetic foodstuff. “Oh. Um…yes,” she admitted with a small smile. “I could eat more…”

She cocked her head curiously in Torien’s direction. “That…what he called you. Chrome Warrior. What does…that mean?”

Daglobster · « **Reply #118 on:** October 04, 2022, 02:35:41 pm »

Seexa confirmed she was hungry, and Torien matched her small smile. He hated eating by himself, especially when there were others around. Something about being watched while eating gave him unease, even if he didn’t remember why…

With a little “come on” gesture, he walked over to the (blessedly dry) bundle of food and picked up a synthpaper bag that smelled of greasy food and fried things, filled nearly to the brim. Crem had scribbled “starter fuel” on the bag in marker over the colorful Burger-Mat logo. The only true seat in the ship was the control station, so Torien made sure to recline it as far back as possible so he could use it as a “bench” of sorts.

“It’s the name they gave me,” he whispered, and he scooched over and patted the space next to him. From the burgeoning bag, he unveiled a foil-wrapped cheeseburger. “It’s what they call me whenever they make me fight, but… it’s not a bad name.”

As he spoke, he unwrapped the burger, fold by fold.

“I like it when my friends call me Chrome Warrior. It makes me feel strong, like I’m important. Not… owned. Like I’m free.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #119 on:** October 13, 2022, 07:35:46 pm »

Seexa trailed after him, moving in some awkward combination of a shuffle and a waddle—but at least she was waking on her own! She hovered a moment, but clambered into place when he patted the “seat” beside him. She sniffed curiously at the unearthed burger, sitting with her shoulder just barely touching his.

“You are.” She dipped her head so she could meet his eyes and repeated seriously, “You are free, Torien. And…I only am because you’re strong.”

She smiled gently and let her shoulder press a little more firmly against his for a brief moment. “…Thank you. I know I already—you didn’t…have to come back for me. She might…she might not have been able to hurt you if you just left…”

She sighed and let her head drop forward a bit, webbed fingers laced tightly in her lap. “Thank you for coming back for me…Chrome Warrior.”