Words 'n things

Because Katters insists, I'm posting some mer word-doodles here.
Okay, so when I have a story idea, I basically write it out as a plot summary first, like you'd find on the back of a book. And then I elaborate. A lot. And ramble. Which is how I figger things out.
Keep in mind that this contains, in essence, the entire story, raw and all, so there are spoilers aplenty. Read at yer own risk, Katters, because this is a story I wish to develop further someday. Into an actual story.

Elswhere Wayward is a slightly below-average supernatural detective...merwoman. She inhabits the city of Outlantis, one of the larger cities, one of the dirtier, and not particularly renowned for anything. Times are hard, and business is slow, but she's got a dogfish to feed, so when Els gets what seems to be a small job with a big payout, even if it sounds dangerous, she takes it. It puts her on the trail of one of the most powerful crime lords in Outlantis, and dredges up secrets from her past that Els would much rather be forgotten.

Els is a small time supernatural detective that wanted to be a supernatural confrontationalist, but her family's banishment from the Society of Morally Applied Magic ended any chance at a career she would have had as a young child, when the enforcers of SMAM burst in through her household's front door and methodically hunted down her family members, her included. They either then killed those who resisted or sealed their powers with a violent, painful ritual. Els possesses the marks on her body of that seal, though they remain hidden, for the most part, under her clothes. Since that day, Els has had to content herself with tracking down those that use magic immorally through the tiny shred of sixth sense she still has and then watch while the real confrontationalists take over. It's not a happy life, but it's the only one she can maintain some semblance of sanity in. At least she gets the thrill of the hunt, if not the actual victory.
Then comes this job. It's offered her by one particular SMAM operative, someone offering her the chance to get in SMAM's good graces, maybe even get started on the path to redemption in their eyes. It's a small job at first glance and Els can't pass it up. All she has to do is find out who's behind a string of small-time thefts in local jewelry stores, someone who has an eye for antiques with ancient runes inscribed on them. Outlantis is an old city, so runes are everywhere. Certainly not hard to come by, especially since no one understands them anymore--they're ultimately useless, so there's not much point caring. But nonetheless, SMAM has taken an interest, and the runes are the only consistency.
Els goes through the jewelry stores herself first, of course, to check things out. Not much to be found, though she picks out a present for her mother's birthday. She always did like topaz. And Els gets a weird buzz off another piece of jewelry--one with runes on it. One the thief missed.
...And in the back of the store, someone notices and slips out. They were in on the job, and they report directly to Saccopharynx(gulper eel's scientific name), one of Outlantis's biggest crime lords around, and a deeps lurker to boot. See, Outlantis is a huge city built into a massive oceanic canyon. Up near the top it climbs a continental shelf to a brilliant reef of nobles and other wealthies. Outlantis stretches from the brightest of the ocean down to the darkest, and there are vicious prejudices dividing each group of mers found in each zone. Saccopharynx's fins reach all over the city like tentacles, and she rules her brood with an iron fist. Her plan is to summon the leviathan and capture it in order to secure the coveted position of Architeuthis(scientific name for squid, or giant squid, basically the ultimate crimelord), which is currently held by Vainfernalis(vampire squid, Vampuroteuthis infernalis), a vampire squid mer. When Saccopharynx hears of Els, and the fact that she was able to sense the runes' energy, she suspects that Els is one of the few surviving members of the Lustralis family, a clan known for its powerful summoning magics. Thus she chooses one of her best brothel employees and endows him with a special charm that hides his deeps lurker appearance--hideous to the suntouched dwellers--and gives him the image of a fire angel mer, (atlantic lionfish), or Volitan. Far from rare, but widely considered to be one of the most beautiful mers in the sea. She gives him a simple mission--seduce Els, gain her trust, and then bring her to Sacco so that the mer can use her powers to summon the leviathin.
Meanwhile, Els is minding her own business, looking up runes in the library--she has a hunch this is her best lead. She reads articles and in one of them the mer interviewed is cited as an employee at the local museum. Els goes there to find out more, and the man tells her of the fractured knowledge he has gathered about the runes. They were used to inspell objects with magical energy without the necessity of a constant current of magic, which is what mechanisms in all cities today run on--if they aren't plugged in, they don't work. Loss of the runes set mer technology back decades, and rediscovering it could open up leaps and bounds into the future. But one of their most popular uses was in summoning.
Els decides to cross reference and hits up some old friends. They don't want to be seen with her, a condemned, convicted traitor to SMAM(even though she was a child at the time) but she pleads and threatens her way across a few thresholds. These are professional summoners she's checking in with. She wants to check up on the old mer's knowledge. The info checks out, and now Els realizes she's not sure what to do next.
She decides to look into organizations interested in summoning. She hits up a few companies, nothing really solid, and she's lingering, brooding, at a bar, when a beautiful Volitan shimmers up and settles on the stool next to her. Els can hardly believe he's talking to her--no one ever talks to her. They either know her past or they just don't notice her. Lustrali are plain, silver-grey fish, not special, unremarkable. They also closely resemble about a dozen other kinds of mer. They only thing Els's family had going for them was their summoning abilities.
But this Volitan is interested in her, it seems. So Els plays the field, checks him out, asks him out, and they start dating. One night Els mentions she's having trouble on the case and he brings this to Sacco. Sacco instructs him to bring Els to the old ruins to maybe spark a clue for her. He does so, and Els doesn't want to go, because the buzzing there is strange and unsettling to her. The Volitan/bulbfin mer does not know anything about Els's family history--he was instructed sharply not to ask questions. But it gets Els thinking about the case, and she realizes it's time to stop playing around. She needs to start digging, for real.
So she starts dipping into her supernatural contacts. A few psychics, ghosts, some undines, and finally, she is told to ask a nearby Jorumungandar. It's dangerous, and guarded by a small horde of vicious apocolypse zealots. Els has to sneak in after lights out in the city, travelling deep into the deeps. Her visit is successful, as the Jormungandar is serviced by a massive school of "maintenance" fish that keep it clean of fungus, algae and parasites while it lies coiled in a cavern too big for it to escape. In exchange for not eating them, they clean its body and keep it informed. The Jormungandar has heard whispers of the leviathan--a massive beast said to serve its summoner with ultimate loyalty. The last living leviathin died a decade ago, but it is said that its memory is preserved in the runes that once summoned it--this was the great danger of the runes, which the Jormungandar is old enough to remember. The runes stored and remembered too much, and there came a time when they simply overloaded and self-destructed--this was the demise of the ancient cities of the past. The runes themselves survived, as they did not actually destroy themselves, merely released in smattering explosions all the little bits and pieces of spells they remembered at once, and half-formed spells are the dangerous. The pieces of spells collided, clashed, and created massive catastrophes. Someone is digging up the leviathin, trying to find the runes that once summoned it. Someone wants to bring death back from the grave. The Jormungandar does not want this--it is one of the few beasts Jormungandars once feared, one of the few beasts massive enough to be able to prey on them. The massive serpent tells Els of someone who knows much of the leviathin, the kind of person someone wanting to know about it would go to--the kind of person who might remember who's been asking about the leviathin recently. That person is a hippocampus--in ancient times before the leviathins were tamed, hippocampi were the powerful guardians of the mers, the gargoyles on their castles, if you will. The hippocampi is old and possibly the last of its kind. It does not look kindly on strangers. The Jormungandar tells Els where to find it.
/"How do you know you can trust me with this information?" she asked, half-curious, half-wary.
"You are ssssssssmaalllllll," it breathed. "The hippocampus issssssss greeeeeeaaaat. Yoooou arrrre nooo threeeeaaat. There issssss nothinnnnnggg to loooose."
The Jormunganadar was the only one who was comforted by this./
This is all the information that Els manages to get out of it before its zealots attack her. Els manages to escape, but is set upon by muggers on her way home, and doesn't have the strength to fight them off. She takes a bad beating and returns to her home in poor condition, hoping for a quiet, uneventful evening of bandaging and sleep. But then the Volitan shows up, and demands to know what happened. He helps her bandage up--is surprisingly good at it--and they end up making out and going to bed together, though there is no sex.
Sometime late in the night he gets up and goes to the bathroom, removing the glamour as soon as he's inside and the door is closed. Wearing the glamour too long results in bad headaches and possible slight brain hemorrhaging or however you spell that.
/
"What am I doing?" he asked himself, staring in the mirror.
This was a simple job. Seduce the silver-scaled woman that regularly sulked at the bar in Manchester's. Seduction deals usually took under a week, and he always was screwing them by the third date at the latest. But no, she wanted to take things slow. She wanted to insidiously worm her way into his heart...
He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut and opening them again. This was a simple job. He wasn't supposed to be doing things like...this. Like getting actually concerned. Like snuggling up to her in bed without even having sex first like it was the most natural thing in the world.
That thought brought to mind the long, sleek solidity of her body, the neat, streamlined shapes of her fins, her soft, even breathing, the serene, sometimes even childishly peaceful look on her face in sleep. It was a contrast to the constantly subtly pondering look she always had, like there was a problem in her life she was always thinking about. She always looked so thoughtful. The way she stared off into space sometimes, like she was figuring out how to fix the world...then look at him and smile in embarassment, like she knew it wasn't her responsibility, but just couldn't help herself.
It made him flush and tingle. Garis groaned quietly and ran a hand through his crests, tugging at the edges of the fore in frustration. This wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to start...caring like this. What was it about her? She wasn't any different from any other--
But no. No, that wasn't true. Because she was, wasn't she? In the past, seduction had been all physical, with him--that had always worked. Els wasn't like that. She took more than physical attraction, even if that was a definite part of it. She wanted to talk, ask questions, learn things about him. She was a wary type, cautious, so at first it had just been necessary to oblige, if unexpected. But now...he wanted her to know him. All of him. Because Garis could sense that Els was falling for him. And he...he was...
He was a snaggle-toothed black-eyed eel that glowed in the dark.
Garis sank slowly to the floor, covering his face in his hands, feeling the salt of his tears scrape against his fingers as it trickled from his eyes. He bit down hard on his lip to keep himself quiet as he shook gently for a few minutes.
Eventually he straightened up and rubbed the salt away where it had begun to crust slightly on the corners of his eyelids. He looked despairingly at his true reflection one last time before slipping the beads back on over his head--
And he was beautiful again. Shimmering, glamorous, gloriously frilled like an angelic butterfly. And Garis was no longer sure which image of him--the loathesome deeps creature or the heavenly, ghostly beauty--he hated more.
Garis turned off the light and slipped back out of the bathroom. Els, he was sure, would be the type to notice if his warmth was missing too long from her side.
He slid back into bed with her, and in that moment, he realized something.
It didn't matter if he'd fallen for Els, did it? Because in the end, he'd still succeeded. She trusted him. Now, he could begin baiting her to Saccopharynx. And after the leviathin was summoned, and Saccopharynx didn't need Els anymore, they could just leave the city. With a whole leviathin on hand to deal with, Sacco was unlikely to really notice one member of her many brothels missing, right? And besides, fresh stock was coming in all the time. He'd be easily replaced by the time Sacco noticed, if ever. And then he and Els...
Well, so he'd have to wear the beads forever. But so what? The headaches were few and far between, not unbearable, and a small price to pay. Maybe he hated the false shimmering loveliness, but Els loved him, so that, too, was tolerable. They could be happy. Everything could work out.
He'd never have to sell himself again.
And suddenly the thought of being with anyone but Els was repulsive. And while this thought in itself was glaringly foremost in his mind, there was also a vague curiosity swimming around it. Interesting. He'd never cared about selling himself before. It had just been a way to get by. And hell, money for sex--it didn't get much better, did it?
Spending time with Els, though, listening to her talk about love, when they did talk about it...she viewed it as something more. To her, it was some kind of sacred covenant, only to be shared with your dearest love. And the way she looked at him when she said that, Garis could tell she wanted to share it with him. Betraying that level of love was incredibly horrible.
Els shifted and murmured softly in her sleep, brow creasing. Garis ran a hand gently over her body, feeling the faint protrusions of the scars wrapping around her arms and back and chest. He still wanted to know what they were--they haunted her, somehow. But his touch calmed her, and Garis wrapped his arm around her torso, snug under her breasts, drawing himself close, burying his face in her back and breathing her in. She smelled like wild water. How did she always manage to smell like wild water? And that faint buzz, like nearby the site of a dispute between electric eels. The smell of magic.
Els's hip fins flexed and fell gently across his waist, and she sighed quietly, her gill fans narrowing in further relaxation. His presence calmed her. He put her at peace. Aware of her constant state of restlessness, Garis knew this was one of the greatest gifts someone could give her.
No, there was nothing wrong with loving Els. Everything would work out. It had to. That was what happened in fairy tales.
And Els was nothing if not his knight in shining armour./
Els goes to the hippocampus to find out more about the leviathin and summoning it. She learns some of her family history, a dark part no one knew, and the truth about her family's humiliation and sealing. She understands that they were involved in some dark things, and she now knows who was responsible for bringing that darkness to light. She also knows the one who headed the banishment/sealing operation, a cruel justice that exacts the deepest punishments from even the most innocent.
Els returns home, head spinning, to find that Garis has made dinner. She's about to sit down when she's suddenly accosted by agony--her seal-scars flexing hideously on her skin, moving, writhing like worms set on fire. Els screams and thrashes, Garis is terrified, but she knows it will pass. It does, and she refuses to explain to Garis. The next day she goes to the SMAM agent to demand an explanation. He informs her that it is a punishment for no progress. Els points out that wasn't part of the deal, and, amused, he requests he show her where the terms of the deal were writ--except they weren't. Els didn't get it in writing. Els tells him what she knows, and he's satisfied, but he also tells her that's enough, she's done enough. Els asks about her redemption. He dismisses her with hardly an encouraging reply on the subject. Els realizes that he may not honour their agreement to put in a good word. This pisses her off. Els comes home and rants about SMAM and how they're stupid and stuff. Garis gives it a day and comes to her with the offer to meet Saccopharynx. He doesn't tell her who it is, though, so Els unwittingly agrees--Garis passes it off as someone he just overheard talking about the leviathin.
Turns out Garis's master is tired of waiting too. On their way to meeting Saccopharynx, Els and Garis are met by some of her thugs. They club Els over the head, knocking her out.
/
The last thing Els heard was Garis's enraged protest:
"No! Stop! She said she wouldn't get hurt!"
/
When Els awakes, she's in a nicely furnished room, and is then brought before Saccopharynx, who offers her the deal. While Els is thinking it over, Garis bursts in.
/
"Els!"
Elsewhere whirled just in time to see Garis bursting in, wriggling furiously and slipping past Saccopharynx's guards at the doorway. He crossed the room in a flash, uncannily fast for a lionfish. He collided with Els, wrapping his arms around her. "Thank Poseidon you're all right. I'm so sorry Els--" He pulled away and climbed water with a flick of his tail, twisting his way around her head, slipping his hands through her crests, stroking her head. "Did they hurt you? They weren't supposed to, it wasn't supposed to happen like that--" Els grabbed him by the waist and pulled him back down to eye level.
"What are you talking about?" she said in the harmlessly curious, quiet voice she used when she was really getting very suspicious.
"Els, I was going to explain everything," he said quickly. "Please, I'm sorry, okay? I was going to tell you--"
"So tell me now."
"I'll do that and save everyone some time," Saccopharynx growled irritably. "He's one of my brothel boys. I sent him out to bring you to me. Now give me your answer."
Els was staring at Garis as he stared at Saccopharynx in disbelief.
"You're a...what?" Her voice sounded like she'd been slammed in the gut. Garis turned an expression on her akin to panic.
"It's not like that," he said, stumbling over his words. "I mean, it was--I, I was just supposed to get you to trust me, but it's not like that anymore, Els, please just let me explain--"
Els drifted away with a subtle flick of her hiplength. She was staring at him, her face a war between puzzlement and calculation. Garis could see her flipping through her memories like a photo album, analyzing everything over again, studying everything, picking apart every word he'd said, every action he'd committed. She was beginning to see.
"Els..." he said weakly, reaching for her.
"You're a...a prostitute?" It was difficult to say the polite term.
"I..." He wanted to say no, but Sacco was right there. And he couldn't lie to Els anymore. "...Yes," he whispered. "I...it's different, now, Els..."
"What else?" Everything was blank now. Els had retreated into herself, all emotion had been shut off. It was how she handled terrifying situations. And this--realizing how hideously she'd erred in judgment--that, to Els, was terrifying. "Is there anything else you've lied about?"
Sacco sighed impatiently and flicked her tail at a nearby handservant, gesturing to Garis's glamour charm. With a nod, they flicked forward and ripped the beads away from Garis's neck.
"That should about cover it," Saccopharynx said impatiently as Garis's lovely Volitan form melted away to reveal his true body.
Els stared at him in shock. Gone was the brilliant colouring, the fire-flecked moon white flanks, the ghostly beauty of the long, glorious fan-fins, the slim, delicate shape. It was all replaced by dull brown colouring that mottled to a darker shade down his back, a thick, sinister, blocky eel's shape, and chillingly predatory bulbs glowing with a soft, yellow light tipped his headcrests. His eyes were an unearthly solid black, like all deeps creatures, and his fins were reduced to streamlined, thick, mostly transparent continuous forms, one on each forearm, and one long fin that began below his navel and traveled down his underside to the tip of his tail where it continued back up his spine, ending somewhere around his middle back. Their edges undulated in gentle curves, each outward curve was punctuated with a solid circle of more softly glowing yellow. He was a bulblure. A shadow-tempter. The eeldemon that lured hapless innocents from the known tunnels of the giant sponge forests with the soft light of its bulbs and devoured them in the darkness.
"Els," he whispered, his gaze pleading, but all she could see were the jagged needles of teeth that flickered behind his lips when he spoke. Without another word, she turned away.
"I need time...to think," she said quietly to Saccopharynx. "Summoning the leviathin...with my seals, it could kill me."
"I have brought mages to see to your seals," Saccopharynx said quickly, leaning forward on her throne, eyes gleaming wickedly.
"Their chance of success is close to none," Els said detachedly. "My life is at risk. I need a day to think, or my answer is no."
Saccopharynx thought it over irritably, tapping her long, vicious claws on the arms of her throne. On one hand, she was being negotiated. Sacco hated being negotiated; it gave her an appearance of weakness. On the other, if she killed the Lutalis now, that would set her plans back weeks, perhaps months. Besides, if the Lutalis still said no, she could just kill her at the end of the day.
"One day," Sacco agreed stiffly. "You will remain here while you...ponder."
"Is there a library? Libraries help me think." Els was incredibly passive and calm now, folding her hands neatly behind her back. Garis stared at her, quaking.
"Els?" he said softly.
Saccopharynx was surprised, but shrugged and motioned a servant over.
"Take her to the bibliothequis," she said with a flick of her hand. The servant nodded obediently and swam past Els, directing her to follow with a quiet, polite tone. Els nodded and did so.
"Els?" Garis said again, louder, as she did. "Els, wait, please--" He went to follow her, but Sacco hissed.
"You."
Garis froze and turned to look at her fearfully, salt surfacing in his eyes.
"Were you not listening? The Lutalis needs time to think. Leave her in peace. Better yet, little eeldemon, return to your brothel." Sacco flicked a claw at a guard. "Make sure he gets there."
"No, wait, please," Garis begged. "Please, just let me talk to her--"
"Why would I need you to do that? You've served your purpose. Out. Now."
"Please!" Garis howled as he was forcefully dragged through the doors, despite his thrashing. "Please, I did what you asked, I must deserve some kind of favour--" The doors slammed shut on his voice.
Saccopharynx chuckled and shook her head at the thought of owing any kind of favour to a whore.
/
In the library, Els is just thinking she's going to decide to agree to Saccopharynx's plan when she sees the skull of a hippocampus crowning the massive doorway and remembers what she learned of it. And Els realizes her redemption is important to her, in her own mind, even if she means nothing to SMAM. She realizes she can not go through with Saccopharynx's plan. She also realizes she will not easily escape.
Some how she needs to find the agent locked up. I expect they try to summon help, and Els is the one that senses it. She leaves the library and finds her way down to the dungeons. Sacco has ordered that she be left alone, so no one bothers her. Els finds the agent and they plot an escape. She makes a deal, though--her seals must be revoked, or she will be unable to bust them out.
Els waits out the day like planned to give Sacco her answer. Sacco's chamber is full of beasties she likes to intimidate guests with. Els and the agent agreed to revoke the seals at a certain time. With her eye on the clock, Els keeps Sacco busy until the right moment. When her seals are revoked, it's agony at first, but then Els rebounds and summons all the beasties to her aid. They bust out their chains and start attacking peoples. Els sends them down to the dungeon to free the agent. Meanwhile, she's also summoned the hippocampus, reasoning with it that if it kills Saccopharynx, that should send a message to anyone that wants to try summoning a leviathin again in future.
Stuff happens. Els gets to Saccopharynx before she can escape and demands to know where Garis is. They engage in a vicious hand-to-hand battle, primitive merstyle. One of the beasties, a baby Jormungandar, busts out and starts trashing the place. It rips the roof off of Sacco's main palace where Els and the gulper are fighting. Els takes over its minds and makes it eat Sacco moments before the gulper's about to impale her with a lance. And that takes care of that. It's seen as a shadow rising over Sacco, and then a massive shadow falls across even that. The hippocampus has arrived to finish the destruction. Els and the agent ride the Jormungandar out of there at the hippocampus sets to busting things up. Els drops the agent off somewhere in the upper city and ends up holing up in a system of nearby caverns. She does it just to recuperate at first and think things over, but as a few weeks pass and she realizes that with her new Jormungandar friend's help she can survive in wild water, Els is thinking of making the transition permanent. Besides, there's the chance of getting sealed again if she tries to just walk back into Outlantis.
But things aren't over. Not yet. The agent comes to her and it turns out that SMAM wants to recruit her. They've been getting into runes secretly and it turns out Sacco wasn't the only one beginning to rediscover their secrets. SMAM has realized they'd better get ahead of the game before the wrong people do, so they're beginning to hunt down runes themselves. Since Els pretty much single-handedly toppled a massive tyrant, they figger it's a good move to have her on their side.
Els makes a deal. They don't seal her. Ever again. She picks her own partner(which is a necessity) and she gets to keep the Jormungandar. There's some unhappiness about that, but they agree.
/
Els leaned back against the monster and watched the sun dip into the sea at the end of the world.
Interesting how much things had changed. Questions answered, but the answers had raised new questions. The seals gone--the pain, gone. Freedom. The world was her oyster now. Els knew that she could reach out and take anything she wanted.
But the only thing she could think of was a certain body resting next to hers, and ghoulish black eyes smiling at her.
"I swear, it's as if my life complicates itself on purpose."
The Jormungandar whuffed in agreement and slowly slid its eyes shut in sleep.