Droplets on a Razor's Edge

[Daglobster]

“Yeah, just need a few new pieces, is all,” Torien said, letting his eyes close as she touched his bare scalp and water dripped down his head. Even through the sensory dulling and the armor beneath his skin, he could feel her touch. Almost like it was magical.

“I know it looked pretty bad but that was just my, um... my regulator,” Torien continued, and he propped his only elbow on the rim of the tank. He brushed the backs of his knuckles and fingers along her jaw and up her cheek.

“And it was worth it.”

[DragonSong]

Seexa reached up to grip his hand as he skated the back of it over her skin. She wrapped her fingers around his and pressed his hand against her cheek, closing her eyes and letting out a long, slow breath that was too heavy to even be a sigh.

She shook her head, but only slightly, loathed to break the contact even a little. "Not worth it," she whispered, eyes tight shut. Then: "...But thank you."

She opened her eyes to search his face again and once more reached up to trace her fingertips along skin and metal, from his temple down along the line of his cheek and then down again to his jaw. A tiny smile quirked at her lips and she drew her hand back with a rueful, "I'm...making you damp."

[Daglobster]

"Not that damp," Torien countered, and he propped on the edge with his stomach so he could clear the space with his hand and give her a light touch that skated from her cheek to her chin.

"Besides, been a lot of things today. Damp's not so bad."

He held her chin for a silent moment as his eyes peered into Seexa's, and then a stiff cough from the Old Man caused Torien to startle. He gave Seexa a parting smile and climbed back down the ladder, where the Old Man was waiting with some replacement parts.

"If he's got water in the wiring, so help me..." he grumbled as he set about cleaning the damaged area and repairing the tight bundles of moving parts.

[DragonSong]

Seexa found herself going still when he met her eyes, only the gentle back-and-forth movement of her tail keeping her afloat. A little dazedly, she started to reach up to cover his hand with hers--but then the doctor called him back and she pulled herself away abruptly with something like a slightly befuddled smile.

She sank back beneath the water and allowed herself to lean up against the side of the tank, watching Torien and the Old Man with her tail curled up under her body and her head resting lightly against the glass. She chirped in a quiet, sheepish sort of way when he complained about water in Torien's wiring.

"Sorry... I'll be more careful," she murmured, wincing a bit and dropping her eyes quickly.

[Daglobster]

Torien shot The Old Man a pensive look, and the ancient one seemed moved by it. His eyes turned apologetic, and he stayed quiet for the moment. By accessing some hidden connection points, the old man was able to access hidden seams in the skin around Torien's shoulders and removed the damaged sections in tiles. Torien basically didn't have a shoulder anymore, as the entire thing needed to be replaced.

"You need a brand new arm. New housing too. So I'm giving you an upgrade. Something an old customer of mine never got the chance to pick up. I was waiting for a client that could pay for it, but heck, this is better than gathering dust on a shelf."

The Old Man opened several refrigerated boxes and started to pull out the replacement components. Sleek black components that stood out starkly from his previous augments as decidedly less crude. As he busied himself by filling Torien's shoulder with new components and mechanisms, he spoke to Seexa.

"I've... heard tales of creatures like you, lass. Sirens, and Mermaids... and other creatures of that feather. Haven't seen one of you for a very, very long time."

[DragonSong]

Curled up on the floor of the tank, Seexa perked up a bit when the Old Man addressed her and cocked her head to the side. Wide, dark eyes blinked--first with one set of lids, then the other--and she frowned a bit in confusion.

"Mermaid?" she repeated quietly. Her eyes followed the moment of his hands as he tinkered with Torien's shoulder. She shook her head slowly: not a denial, more a helpless kind of confusion. She shrugged and glanced away. "I don't...know. I was...the only one. Alone. For a long time."

She wrapped her arms around her ribs and settled back to the bottom of the tank again with another little shrug. "Made me. In the before-place. Didn't...know any others."

[Daglobster]

The Old Man listened, attentive and silent even as he put a new shaft into Torien's shoulder and cranked it in. His brows lowered, perhaps in distaste or empathy, when she mentioned being "made".

"That kind of power. To just... make you from scratch... something only the gods used to have..." he said, but his voice descended into a lower grumble as he reached the end.

"But, they used to exist?" Torien said, and that elicited a nod from the Old Man.

"Long time ago. Swam the oceans of old, luring in sailors so they could eat them with their sharp teeth," he said, ending with a smirk. Torien chuckled, and rubbed the back of his head as he looked at Seexa.

"I don't think she's done much of that," he said.

[DragonSong]

A shudder passed down the length of her body when the doctor seemed to almost lament the conditions of her creation. Seexa ducked her eyes and murmured, unthinking, “Mother...wishes to be...more than a god. Gods...only have one...world...”

She shook herself and threw Torien a quick smile when he chuckled. She hummed in agreement. “No. No eating sailors. Or...luring.” Her smile turned wry as she tapped her fingers against her throat. She may not have one of her own. But she knew the words siren song. “I do not think...I could,” she added ruefully. Her voice was still raw, rough, and though the pain when she spoke had lessened with practice it still wasn’t comfortable.

Then her eyes sort of glazed over and she leaned her shoulder up against the wall of her tank. “Wish I...could,” she murmured, seemingly more to herself than the two men. “Swim...the old oceans. Swim anywhere. I’ve never had...more than this.”

She stretched out her arms so that her palms pressed against opposite sides of the tank on the word “this”, her expression both wistful and resigned.

[Daglobster]

"There must be a way," came Torien's whispered answer, looking at her as she stretched her arms across her tank. Before he could stop himself, he reached out from where he sat and put his chromed fingers against the glass. The Old Man grumbled, but adjusted to the change in position. After he finished installing all the new inner structures, he set about replacing the plating that covered the inner workings of his shoulder.

Torien wanted to ask who "Mother" was, but Seexa had already moved on past it.

The Old Man procured one last box, a sealed refrigerated case that clicked open once scanned. The sound drew Torien's eyes, and they widened once he saw the sleek, jet black limb inside.

"Is that..."

The Old Man spoke with a smile in his voice for once.

"Yep. That's an Onotari Skylight, so quit 'yer oglin before you get eyeball smudges all over it," The Old Man chided, and Torien put his attention back to Seexa.

[DragonSong]

Seexa started slightly, snapped out of her own head, then smiled when Torien lined his hand up against hers from the other side of the glass. She pressed her palm a little more firmly to the tank, then settled back again as the older man continued working.

Torien’s reaction to what had been revealed in the box was intriguing. She shifted to try to see better, head cocked curiously to the side. “That’s…good?” She looked between the two of them, trying to gauge what exactly was happening from their faces.

[Daglobster]

Torien raised an eyebrow, and he rubbed his chin with his good hand. Hmm, how could he explain this to someone who didn't even know what a cyborg was?

"It's... very good," he initially said in his usual whisper-tone, but he realized she probably couldn't hear him all to well from where she was. He grimaced as he spoke louder.

"Better than just a new arm, it's... it's the best arm," Torien offered, and The Old Man chimed in.

"Damn expensive, too, but it doesn't stop cyber-handlers from keeping Onotaris sold out, just to install 'em onto some screwbrains. But somebody with Torien's upgrades?"

The Old Man put a hand on Torien's shoulder in an almost fatherly fashion.

"This arm was practically made for him."

[DragonSong]

That definitely sounded good.

Seexa smiled at them both, a simple joy plain in her face. "Good." She turned a tight, excited circle in the tank before propelling herself toward the top so she could fold her arms over the rim and peer down at Torien and the doctor.

She wanted to offer help, but she knew there really wasn't anything she could do.

Well. Maybe one thing? It wasn't much, but it was all she could offer in the moment.

"Torien?" She cocked her head at him. "You don't...have to." She touched two fingers to her throat. She'd noticed that wince when he tried to raise his voice. "I can hear." She flicked one finned ear and smiled a little crookedly. "I have...really good ears. You don't have to...talk too loud."

[Daglobster]

The Old Man also looked down at Torien when he strained to speak. He remained silent, though, instead quietly studying the dynamic between his self-given charge and his new, exotic friend.

Torien, for one, sighed with a smile that was both tired and thankful.

"They... reinforced me. Here," Torien said, drawing some fingers along his adam's apple and upper throat. With the skin stretched out, she'd be able to see hydraulics beneath the skin and extra "veins" that were actually wires.

"But they didn't do it very well," he said with a wry tilt of his lips.

While he talked, The Old Man set about installing the new limb, starting with the frame. The sleek, black-polished metal and delicate angles of the limb contrasted sharply with the bright, unpainted chrome that made up the rest of his augments. It came with a built-in shoulder plate that gave that side a little more bulk than the other. The Old Man started humming an ancient tune to himself as he started wiring up the synthetic muscles and nerves.

"Flex your hand," he said, and despite Torien's lack of an arm there he knit his brow with focus. The bottom set of wires sparked.

"Bicep."

More sparks, this time from one of the connections on top. They quickly covered all the movement groups before The Old Man started putting the casing on Torien's shoulder with a satisfied smirk.

Torien looked back up at Seexa and couldn't help but smile a little, finding that she looked kind of playful perched up there like that.

"I'm just glad to have a working arm again, honestly," he said, and then The Old Man grunted.

[DragonSong]

Seexa watched curiously as Torien tested the new arm, and when he glanced up toward her she chirped happily and offered a quick smile. She gripped the edge of the tank to pull herself up a little further and hold herself out of the water, leaning forward as much as she dared as she cocked her head. The gentle figure-eight motion of her tail in the water seemed to keep her balance easily enough, but she was starting to look a little precarious on her perch.

Seemingly oblivious to this fact, she gave another little chirp as she looked him over. "Better?" Her eyes flickered between her friend and the older man, but came back to rest on Torien quickly enough. "Does...that one hurt?" she asked, softer now, concerned.

[Daglobster]

"Better?" Torien repeated, and his smile became wider. He held up the skeletal frame that was installed so far, and watched the back of his knuckles as he slowly opened and closed the fingers. He was about to say something else, but then The Old Man swatted at his outstretched hand with an oil rag and Torien quickly set his arm back down.

Still, he didn't let that deflate him.

"So much better," he finally managed, letting his arm go limp again as the Old Man worked on attaching the bundles of synthetic muscle fibers to the proper nerve connection and installing the casing. When he was finally done and the last connection was made, Torien jumped a little at the sudden jolt to his nerves and the arm reacted, now with its full fluidity.

With a silent gasp, he moved his other hand to his new bicep, and his eyes widened when he clenched his fist and felt synthetic muscles bulge and ripple under the flexible alloy casing.

"It's almost real," he said with a breathless wonder in his voice,

The Old Man stood away and regarded Torien like he was a masterpiece in progress, then produced a collapsible rod from his tool kit and took his place in front of him again.

"Spacial," The Old Man said simply, and leveled the rod next to Torien's head. He pulled it away, and right before it got out of arm's reach, Torien snatched the tip with his new arm. "Hand-Eye," came the next one, which Torien passed even easier, grabbing the rod as it passed in front of him.

"I think she likes your new arm," The Old Man said with an oddly mischevous smile on his face, and when Torien looked over to Seexa, The Old Man gave him a solid smack on the elbow with the rod, and immediately Torien's new arm jumped away from the impact and he made a surprised sound, looking back to his sudden assailant with a wounded look on his face as he rubbed his new elbow.

"Twitch response is also good," he added with some genuine mirth to his tone.

[DragonSong]

Seexa smiled as Torien inspected the new limb with something approaching wonder. She giggled quietly when the doctor rested his reflexes and seemed to surprise him doing it, but she tried to smother the sound quickly.

Pleased that her new friend seemed so much happier with the new arm, she chirped and leaned a little further over the edge of the tank--and the whole thing rocked dangerously in its makeshift standing bay. Her eyes widened and she squeaked, quickly throwing herself back the other way in an effort to balance it out.

Too far. In the brief moment of panic, she over-corrected, and the tank lurched back to land with an awkward clang so that it rested at a much sharper angle, sending an impressive amount of water surging over the edge and onto the floor.

An impressive amount of water and one startled, artificial mermaid. Seexa hit the ground with a wet slap and went very, very still as the shock hit her system and left her all but paralyzed for several long moments. 

[Daglobster]

The split moment before the tank gave its final, fateful shift, Torien had been entranced with his limb. It did not feel too different from his current augmentations, most likely due to smart calibrations on The Old Man's part. One limb outperforming the other can lead to all kinds of unnecessary strain on the body and can be a a very easy way to throw yourself off balance.

Those happy, approving chirps that Seexa was oft to produce lulled him into a moment of neglect, when he really should've been making sure that, well...

...that Seexa's tank didn't tip over!

As soon as her shocked squeak his his ears, Torien looked up just in time to see the top of the tank swing backwards and away from him. The Old Man cursed as he scooped up some of his most sensitive instruments before the small wave of water washed over their part of the floor.

Water did not bother Torien, and he was up in a flash. Worry threatening to spill into panic took root in his chest, coiling around his lungs and heart and causing him to breathe heavily enough that it started to hurt.

"Seex!' He callled, and he was at her side in an instant. He had never seen a fish, let alone something like her. As she laid there, paralyzed and still, Torien's blood turned to ice, and he knelt down to get an arm under her head and to help rest her upper back on his lap. He opened his mouth to speak, but terror strangled him.

Was this going to kill her? If not, how long could she last like this? As the knots grew tighter, the Old Man behind him had risen into action. The mighty wave had left some of the packaging for Torien's new arm partially filled. The Old Man came up with a waterlogged piece of concave packing foam and splashed it onto Seexa's chest, so the gills could get some water, and he helped Torien turn her onto her side, so at least one of her sets of gills could still have something to work with.

[DragonSong]

It hurt.

That was the first thing she registered. The only thing, for the first few seconds. She'd never exposed her whole body to the air like this before, and everything from her gills down ached with a sharp pins-and-needles sensation. Oversensitive, her bioluminescence flickering rapidly, she tried to draw in a breath and choked as her lungs and gills competed, her body panicking as much as she was.

The floor felt so cold it burned, and when Torien half lifted her into his lap she gave a tiny whimper that was half relief and half pain. The water that splashed over her torso helped--at least a little, she thought--and her gills rippled in panicky little breaths as her chest started to rise and fall quickly.

Too quickly. She was hyperventilating. 

The burning, prickling feeling through her lower body wouldn't fade. She was no stranger to pain, she was used to waiting it out, but this...she'd never felt anything like this. She might have been going into shock, or entering some sort of emergency survival mode. She didn't know, and she couldn't seem to force her voice from her throat, only adding to the panic.

Instinctively, she reached out, and her hand caught on Torien's wrist as she tried to force her lips to move, her lungs to work. She needed to say something, ask something, but she couldn't--

Her mouth opened, but all that came out was a high, sharp keening as she convulsed, her tail writhing back and forth through the shallow puddle that had formed around her. She jerked against him again, her grip on his wrist tightening automatically, and the burning sensation seemed to center in her tail and intensify, until it felt like she was being ripped apart and she screamed.

Her tail stopped twitching as it split in two--slowly, too slowly, peeling a bandage inch by inch rather than ripping it off in one go. Her tailfin twitched and contracted, slowly forming into two webbed, slightly misshapen feet at the end of a pair of long, almost frog-like legs. Her gills rippled once more, then sealed themselves along her ribs, looking more like lines of scar tissue once they were closed.

Her markings were lit up a bright, pulsing blue as she collapsed into Torien's hold entirely, whimpering softly. She didn't even seem to fully realize what was happening, eyes squeezed shut as the pain finally, blessedly, began to fade.

[Daglobster]

Torien was utterly shocked, holding her head in his lap and stammering over the beginnings of words that didn't even make it out of his mouth. She wimpered with pain when he brought her onto his lap, and he gave her forehead a quick stroke with his new hand, its smooth touch contrasting the cold metal that made up the rest of his augments.

He blinked when some water splashed into his face and soaked his front, and he ignored the numbness that seeped through him. He saw her try and breathe, and when she started to hyperventilate panic really set in. She took his wrist and he leaned down, desperately trying to make out what she was attempting to say. 

"It's okay, we'll get you back in," he said, and he took her other hand to comfort her.

"Crem! Help me with-"

Then she started to wail and keen, and Torien was shocked into silence. He wanted to move her, but then Crem, The Old Man, pointed at her tail.

"Wait!" he said.

"Don't move her!"

Torien automatically made a protesting sound until he followed where Crem was pointing. Watched in abject horror as the agonizing display started to take place in front of him, and he averted his eyes. She started to squirm and thrash and Torien did the only thing he could, pulling her close to hold her, to keep her safe during whatever she was going through.

Her screaming and gods, the sound her tail made as it slowly tore itself in hand, reminded him of his own cries when he'd been torn apart and put back together again.

"By the gods," said Crem, and Torien didn't say anything, instead whispering things like "you're okay" and "I've got you," as whatever was happening seemed to finish and she was in his hold entirely. He soothed at her hair and back, keeping his head against hers.

When it was over, he didn't do anything other than speak up softly.

"Seexa?"

[DragonSong]

It took a moment for his voice to register. She felt dazed--she looked it too, when she finally managed to raise her head  and look up into his eyes, her own glazed and distant. "I..."

She shifted, some vague corner of her mind realizing that she was being held in his lap and not wanting to make a nuisance of herself, but the moment she did a new pang of pain jolted through her lower body and she went still, whimpering. It wasn't as strong as before, more an ache than that sharp tearing sensation, but it certainly wasn't comfortable.

And there was something else. Something felt...different. Wrong.

"What...?" Her voice croaked in the back of her throat, nearly as rough as it had been when they first met, and she tried to turn her head to look down at herself, find the source of whatever that had been. Surely she must have cut herself. Badly. Maybe on the broken glass of the tank when she'd fallen...

There were several long moments where she just couldn't process what she was seeing as she stared down at her legs. There was blood--too dark and thick to be human--but not nearly as much as she would have thought from the amount of pain that had accompanied it. She frowned, instinctively trying to flick her tail to slough some of it off. The flipper-like feet twitched, and her eyes widened.

"What--?!" Her voice rose into a screech that made her wince. She squirmed in Torien's hold for a moment, panicky, before the lingering ache and the awkward scrambling of legs she didn't know how to control made her go still again.

She looked up at him, trying to focus on the feeling of his arm around her and his hand against her back as her breathing tiptoed toward terrified pants. "I don't--I didn't..."

She had no idea what to do. Trailing off with another quiet whimper, Seexa turned her face into his chest and clung to him, shaking violently.

What's happening to me?