• Closed • [Foster's Landing]Man and Mer make friends

[Gangui]

Ashan 24, 717
Five miles south from Foster's Landing.

The central sea of Idalos stretched from horizon to horizon. Standing at the edge of land and sea, Gangui touched the salty water for the first time in his life. He couldn't feel the water, but the soft sands under his steel boots sunk under him like pits. Taking in a deep breath of the salt air felt good in his lungs, cleansing him of some sickness with showed no symptom. His head felt lighter and without thoughts. It was a good feeling. A voice inside of him told him to strip naked and take a dive, but his conscious warned against it. Trouble seemed to follow the barbarian like a plague and he was not willing to put himself at the extra peril for the no mere reason of pleasure. Taking a knee on the surf, he made compromise with himself and removed his gauntlets. Cupping up a bit of water, he sniffed it before attempting to drink it.

"Pffff--" he spat out the salty blue without hesitation, "The water that not even horses would drink..." he repeated the words of his elders.

The nomads spoke the truth; now he understood why the tribes stayed far away from the sea. Men in suits armor like himself did not belong in this watery embrace. But something kept him staring at the waves crashing into the sand. It was a methodical rhythm he could get used to.

"Umff..." Gangui grunted to himself as he tried to piece together his next action. How in the hell was he supposed to find a little statuette in this gigantic body of water? Squinting he tried to make out any type of land mark other than the port itself. Further down the coast to the south, the warrior spotted a black object in the far distance.

Humping over to the location took a really long time, nearly two breaks. Apparently he was plagued by a mirage, but eventually he got to a rock formation that jutted out of the water near the beach. Climbing upon the rocks was easy work, but still good practice for his acrobatics as he had to consciously plan his body movements.

Reaching the last jutting stone, he looked down 40 feet into the clear, blue waters and gasped in utter amazement; below him sprawled a magnificent coral reef. Jaw agape and blue eyes wide with amazement, Gangui stared below as large, colorful fishes swam through schools of tiny fish. Bright yellow hairy appendages wiggled on rocks. Intricate, red designs laced everywhere. Weird purple creatures crawled about. Long slithering snakes jetted from shadow to shadow. Trees that resembled purple lightening dotted the underwater landscape. The rocks were like nothing he had seen before, like bubbling water that had solidified .

Most of all the colors! Oh all the colors! Gangui had never seen so many colors in his entire life. He hailed from deep within the Mountains of Steel, deep inland where everything was white and gray. Not here! Nay! The barbarian was extremely suspicious of what lied below, but was drawn to it despite his fear.

Then he realized something that made his heart drop. There was a good chance that the statuette he was seeking was somewhere in the underwater jungle. "Fuck!" Gangui yelled to no one, but himself. Scanning the area he tried to make out signs of a sunken ship to no avail. It was definitely in the realm of possibility, for the strange stones of the coral reef broke the surface of the water at many places.

Using his eye and thumb, the warrior roughly gauged the area and decided that he had enough day-light left to swim around the surface area of the coral reef. Planning out the situation at hand, he mentally mapped a route to swim from rock to rock. Finding a nice little dry nook, he undressed his battle-armor down to his under garments, completely exposed to the elements and to enemies. Shuddering at the idea of being nearly naked, Gangui pushed himself to take action despite deep regrets at his decision.

Climbing back on top of the rock, the hairy barbarian with the bushy mustachio prepared to plunge off the rock nearly forty feet below into the clear blue waters of the underwater jungle.

"1...2......"

[Moon]

Schools of glittering fish shot through the waters, As Moon pawed at them playfully with his webbed claws. The Mer man had already eaten his fill but seeing the fish explode outward and then assemble into a living cloud of silver put a smile on Moon’s face. Even living in such a beautiful and vibrant landscape, there wasn’t much to be happy about. Most things only looked beautiful so they could poison or tear you apart. Moon had to take whatever joy he could no matter how fleeting it was.

As he broke through another wall of dispersing fish, Moon spotted something in the distance moving along the glimmering surface. it had caught Moons curiosity and he moved through the cerulean waters towards it. As he got closer it was clear it was a surface dweller bumbling through the water, alone and without the protection of those magical contraptions they called “ships”. It was definitely puzzling but Moon had taken trips to the surface despite the danger so he could hardly judge.

<<Why are you in water?>> Moon stopped to project the message before swimming any closer. The telepathic message didn’t carry with it any kind of malice only curiosity though it would leave an odd sensation to who ever received it. To someone who had never received a telepathic message, having a strange echo and feeling another intentions in your mind might be alarming. <<The waters are not safe for surface dweller.>> Moon finished with a friendly warning.

[Gangui]

OOC: From this point onward, we are collaborating, not god modding.

Gangui felt a strange tingling sensation on his neck. The tingles you felt when very excited or feeling something that draws out the more primal energies in a human. It was strange to feel this underwater.

He swam towards the surface. Gasping for air, he splashed around a bit and settled into a doggie paddle. “Who is that?!” He didn’t quite understand the telepathic words of the Mer as he was unprepared for it.

“I said, who goes there,” Silence…

“Moon..name moon” came another message that carried hesitation.

The warrior’s instinctual paranoia played it’s hand here. He reached around his body for a dagger, but he had stripped down nearly naked before jumping into the ocean.

“I mean no harm” the strange voice in Gangui’s head rang again, this time with more urgency.

Breathing heavily, he yelled again, showing strain in his voice, “Show yourself then!”

There was no sign of movement right away, just the crashing of waves. Then suddenly a few feet out in the water a head peeked out, just enough for the eyes to peek out and stare at Gangui. Strange eyes, greenish yellow eyes stared unblinking at him, without saying a word. It was far from human, with blue skin, tentacle hair, and long pointed ears.

“I swear I do not mean you any harm!” Gangui yelled, water spraying from his mouth. He coughed, as he struggled slightly. Whatever the beast of the ocean was, it could probably kill him. He started to regret his incessant drive to action regardless of the consequences. Namely, being damn near naked in a place that could easily devour him whole.

“Please, I’ll do whatever you want! Just… please,” fear obvious in his voice.

[Moon]

“You need your shell” Moon responded to the surface dweller who he saw jump off the rock without the protective shell they wore. Hermit crabs didn’t last long if they were exposed to the elements, nether would this man.

“My armour? I… I can’t swim with it on,” The long drooping mustache wiggled, the slight tinge of horror still on his face. The Mer didn’t understand why, he wasn’t doing anything.

“Then why are you in water when far from land. You die, weak things always die in Waters.” The telepathic message made it clear that he wasn’t intending to be insulting but his words said another thing. It was really up to the human if he would trust his instincts or take the words at face value.

The absurd human seemed to soften his facial features slowly. The only way the Mer could feel them was through their body language. Land beings were so strange. The way they kicked and trashed to stay afloat, let alone communicate. “I… I…. Am here for an object of great value, that I willing to risk my life for,”

“An object worth a life?” Moon was caught off guard by this as survival was everything, objects would only be useful if they helped keep you alive. The spear Moon was given by his tribe carried memories for Moon but it’s only worth was to kill things before they could kill him. Moon lived in a cave and it was temporary, nothing ever lasted.

“Yes, it has great value for our cause,” he bellowed and sprayed. Slower than a sea slug, the man seemed to be heading towards a rock, obviously getting tired already. Moon couldn’t feel any profound fear like moments before.

“Your cause? Not know what is but not better than life, tools keep alive not other way”. This human was clearly foolish, but moon was still interested in figuring out what object this man could possibly think was worth his life.

“What is it? This object?”

[Gangui]

This entire conversation with the sea creature was getting stranger, rather than more comfortable for the human warrior. He wanted desperately to feel as if he had a means of defeating the sea creature; he’d swim to the tiny rock protruding the surf. Too much time in Etzos perhaps. Politics did not reach the sea. They didn’t right? Gangui discarded the question realizing a telepathic tentacle creature had blown away his reasoning for that day.

“It is a statuette. A carving of a figure,” he huffed and sprayed the salt water that entered his gullet, “Bronze in nature or brass,” Looking over his shoulder, the Mer’s head continued to follow him slowly as if it was gliding across the water.

“A carving?” The mer responded with a sharp sting of alarm that could be felt in the telepathy though the creatures face remained expressionless except for a slight twitch in his brow.
“That is not worth life. But if you wish to find it I help.”

Gangui finally reached the rock. It was slimey to the touch, full of little red things like fur. He wandered if they were alive. Lying nearly naked on his back, he wait for awhile. “Yes, yes I need help,” He leaned up and looked at the yellow eyed, tentacle haired mer, “I am Gangui,” He got on all fours and extended a wrinkly hand towards the ocean.

The mer looked at the hand protruding confusing thoughts into the mercenaries head. Which Gangui almost confused with his own and was caught somewhere between a rock and a hard place, awkwardly withdrawing his hand unsure of his own gesture.

“Uhh, so, uh what’s your name? The mustachio said.

“I already told, it Moon. Like orb in sky but not”

“Moon? That is Treid! Don’t tell me your worship Treid?” Gangui didn’t feel so good at this moment. He was stuck on a rock in the middle of the ocean with someone named after Treid.

“I do not worship them.” The Mer responded back with a hint of coldness. “ I worship the leviathans, Immortals have done nothing for Mer but make them suffer.”

“You know that we are on Etzori waters right?” Gangui was relieved at Moon’s proclaimed.

“Is this Etzori an immortal of some kind, if so I not care if I’m on their waters.” The mer said with little emotion carried in the message. Though it was clear that it didn’t know anything about the immortals.

Gangui perked up at this, his eyes shining with patriotism. He had never ever ever ever meet someone who didn’t know what Etzos was. The preacher in him came bubbling to the surface.

Oh was Moon in for a treat.

[Moon]

The human made gestures on the mossy rock for him to join him, at least that's what Moon assumed was intended by the patting on the rock. However the mer couldn’t go on the rock fully in his current form. Moon merely swam up the the rock and climbed up as far as his gills would allow. Which resulted in what looked like him hugging the jagged rock.

“Uh, that looks uncomfortable,” Gangui said softly.

“I can not go much farther out of the water in this form. I need to make cocoon and that takes days.” Moon responded with a bit of embarrassment.

The human didn’t say anything and edged down to a portion of the rock that was submerged just deep enough, he could still poke his head out of the water, “That’s better, now we can talk, what is a cocoon?”

“Oh yes better” Happiness echoed in Moon’s telepathic message but only a slight twitch of his mouth could be seen. “it is casing of slime that we use to grow legs, that is what cocoon is.”

Gangui dunked his head under the sea and came out breathing hard, his icy blue eyes wide, though Moon couldn’t tell why, “So… why don’t you do that? There are many wonders on the land, like Etzos, I still need to tell you about that…”

“I not make cocoon because it take long and very hard to do the making.” Moon failed to mention how dangerous it was to do so, but if he could work at the skill it would be safer in the long run. The waters were far too dangerous and Moon had no allies down here. “Tell me about this Etzos, is it a safe place?”

Gangui looked at the sky and smiled. He splashed his hands on the surface of the water, then forcibly shook them, pointing his index fingers at the clouds, “Etzos would be safe if it was not for the Immortals and their scumbagary. Over three hundred years ago, Morgan Pahrn, a strong hero of the olden days, cast away the yoke of the Immortal’s bondage and established the Great Stone City!” The human’s eyebrow moved, “Wait you haven’t seen a city have you? It’s like, like this rock,” He patted the stone, “But we cut it and shape it into squares,” He tried making a box with his hands, “Then we stack all the square stones in a specific way as to make castles and towers and bridges and forts. Make sense?”

“I have seen city but not much. I lived near one called Rynmere and they had my tribe look after their shiny things. I did walk to the front entrance but warriors at watch prevented my entrance.” Moon explained with distaste, he hated his time there. Why that tribe cared about chunks of metal so much was beyond him.

“Rynemere is a piece of shyke,” Gangui bellowed, “Etzos is up the Soutwood river and much better. You see the Immortals are giant gaping assholes, who just screw everything up for everyone including themselves. They impose huge tariffs, have gigantic wars, take on slaves -- I mean -- Imagine this moon,” The human put a hand on the Mer’s shoulder, “Imagine a powerful beast taking control of you and your mother and your father and everything you love and forcing them to work without end forever or until you died?” Gangui nodded his head, “Believe me, the Immortal’s do that,”

“What is mother and Father? Are they a sacred beast?” Moon added. Having been born in a swarm of eggs fertilized by a group of males he had not context for the word.

“You know your Mom?” Gangui said confused, “What don’t you have like, uh, another Mer woman who gives birth to you?”

“Females lay their eggs together the males cover it with their sperm..is that not how you were created. “ Moon tilted his head slightly and lifted his brow.

Gangui coughed, “No we are born one person, one human at a time. The female grows the human in her stomach, then when the human is ready to be born they come out…. “ Gangui waved his hands, “But that’s besides the point! The point is, imagine that all the.. Eggs were born and immediately subjected to hard-labor with all those you loved,”

“I don’t need to, I was born into a tribe of mer that raised me to kill for it, the leviathans destroyed them because they were bad. The leviathans saved me, the immortals left me to rot.” Moon said coldly.