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When Remus had been sentenced to death for an attempted assassination of the king (who had totally deserved it), he’d expected a quick, boring death. But, rather excitingly, he’d been forced into, and had his wrists tied down to, a small rowboat.
It was clear what their plan was. Even as Remus’s thoughts turned bloody and violent when he thought about what was in store for him, he couldn’t help the excitement creeping up in him. He’d never seen a siren up close, as evidenced by the fact that he was still alive and not a splatter of blood and guts somewhere at sea
It was clear they wanted one of the giant beasts to do their dirty work, and Remus wanted to know how it would feel to be crushed under a siren’s giant hand. He didn’t want to die , of course, but he was immensely curious about the method of death.
His chest was fluttering with a conflicting mess of fear and excitement as the rowboat drifted out further to sea. He didn’t want to die, he didn’t particularly want to be violently murdered by a giant siren, but he couldn’t help but think about how interesting it would feel to have his guts splatter out.
He waited on the boat as it slowly drifted away from land. It had been at least an hour, maybe three. He wasn’t too sure. They hadn’t bothered putting food in the boat with him, and even if they had, he wouldn’t have been able to reach it with his wrists tied down.
He could lift his arms, only enough to bend his arms into a right angle. They didn’t want him escaping his punishment.
He started to wonder. If a siren didn’t find him, would he starve to death? Would his boat capsize and he drown? Which would hurt more?
Would the salt water quickly invade his lungs, burning them and restricting his breathing, or would he suffer the slower death of having his stomach slowly shrinking until his body started eating itself in desperation. Starving would surely go on longer, but maybe drowning would be more painful.
He wouldn’t know. He’d never drowned or starved before, evident the same way it was evident that he’d never seen a siren up close. The sun was going down, and he stared straight at it, uncaring of the way it burned his eyes.
He… he didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be sat tied to a boat and waiting to die, waiting to see how he got killed.
In a moment that fluctuated between lucky and unlucky, it seemed like his fate was decided at last. By this time the moon was almost directly overhead, and the water started rippling, before a large shape broke through.
He knew what it was immediately, from the humanoid shape (though, it was about 15 times his height), and strange glowing markings that were scattered around its body
It hadn’t even sung. He’d found his way to a siren without it even singing.
How fortunate was he, to find something this rare so close to his date of death, he thought to himself, not even sure if he was joking
It stared at him with infinitely dark eyes, and a slightly illuminated face. By god, how much purple was this thing covered in?
It was staring down at him, and he didn’t know when to expect death. He was sure, from the few people who had survived or witnessed a siren attack, that he was supposed to be killed immediately.
This siren obviously didn’t get the memo. Here it was, just staring down at him. Suddenly, a second pair of eyes opened to also stare at him. Since when did sirens have four eyes?
Well, he supposed that most people died instantly when faced with a Siren, instead of having a silent stare-off, so he figured most people had never seen their extra eyes.
Remus wondered for an agonising moment if it really was going to be the hunger that killed him. The siren was taking so long to do anything that it might as well.
Suddenly, his boat was lifted out of the water, with painstaking carefulness.
He was starting to panic now, and he tried to struggle against his restraints (to do what? He couldn’t swim, and even if he could, he couldn’t outswim a giant siren).
It brought a clawed hand closer to him, extremely slowly, and with two fingers held him still, despite his attempts to struggle. It was making noises, not the singing or screeching that was customary for how meeting sirens usually went
With the other clawed fingers, it began sawing at the ropes that bound him to this stupid boat. His restraints snapped, and he could finally move his arms. The rest of his body was not the same, still held by the siren
He struggled in the grip, but it just kept making noises, and it readjusted its grip, dropping his boat as it did so
It began swimming, keeping him out of the water, but jostling him a fair amount. He kinda liked the way his heart was racing in fear and uncertainty
They got to the entrance of a cave that was half underwater, and he was lifted up to the dry side, while the siren swam through the water. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he was thinking about several possibilities
Maybe he’d be killed in a more painful, slower way. Maybe it wanted to keep him. Maybe it was just going somewhere more enclosed to crush him.
He didn’t know. His heart was beating loud in his ears. He was enjoying the rush, but he wasn’t enjoying the uncertainty.
The cave opened up, expanding both high above water, and very deep below.
He was placed on a ledge next to the water, and the siren immediately started using those razor sharp claws to carve something into the rock surrounding him, and he watched a clear magical dome enclose him.
Keeping him, then.
His heart was still beating and his adrenaline was racing. He loved it.
The siren was once again watching him with the same interest as a kid that had succeeded in trapping a spider in a jar. He stared back, on the same vein, like a jarred spider.
He wondered what it wanted from him. He watched it for a few minutes, even after it broke its gaze away from him and towards the other things in the cave, seeming to be looking for something.
He watched in some kind of fascination. Was this what sirens did when they weren’t out killing people? It was weird that he was computing this as normal, sirens usually killed any human that they saw, with loud screeching and violence
This one was acting more like a person than a murderous beast. He could almost laugh.
They sent him out here so he’d get killed without them getting their precious hands dirty. Here he was, probably one of the only people in the world who hadn’t been immediately killed.
How weird. He didn’t think most people had ever seen sirens acting like this. He grinned. He figured this might be fun, though his heart threatened to burst with every time the siren looked at him
It was exhilarating. He didn’t know what would happen, if he would die, if he’d be here forever, if he’d be a pet, or what. He almost didn’t want to know
He loved the surprise, the way it shocked him and got his adrenaline pumping. He had never felt like this before. It ducked under water and he was notified by a splash of its tail that it had left the cave
“Not found what you’re looking for?” He joked to the empty cave, sitting down leisurely
It was dark in the cave, save for various strange luminous objects and the slightest of moonlight that was lighting up the rocky walls from above. He didn’t mind, he liked the dark
He jumped up and inspected the clear barrier that was surrounding him. Could he get out if he wanted to?
It rippled when he touched it, but it was very clearly still solid. He made it ripple over and over as he waited for his giant captor to return.
It returned about an hour later, holding various things. It placed several plants in the dome with him, and Remus could just imagine it stretching onto land to try to grab these specific plants. They didn’t really grow on beaches.
Most things didn’t grow on beaches.
It placed some big rocks/boulders in with him, which he attempted to climb up
It looked down at him again. What was it thinking?
—
Virgil, unlike most other sirens, didn’t mind humans. Sure, they tended to show up at the randomest times, and they usually freaked a lot of people out, but he was a firm believer of “ they’re more scared of you than you are of them ”
Humans were tiny, fragile creatures, and, though they often got close to sirens, he wasn’t too sure they meant to. He doubted that they could see sirens properly, with the extreme difference in size, and the fact they only had two eyes.
Until a siren moved, humans probably wouldn’t notice them. With only two eyes, they probably couldn’t see detail. But, as soon as they saw a siren, he noticed, they’d either freeze up or attempt to get away.
Of course, most people would have already started freaking out by that point, and the humans would be dead.
He felt a bit bad for them. Humans were just small and a bit unsettling, and the little creatures shouldn’t have to die for that.
They probably didn’t even know what was going on when they found a siren.
He didn’t see humans that often, as he tended to go out at night, and humans were usually diurnal, but as he went outside this time, there was a human on a little boat. It was almost still, and he opened his secondary eyes to see clearly. It had wide eyes, but it didn’t seem able to move its arms.
He talked to himself a little as he carefully lifted the boat closer to his face, to see what was restricting it.
Oh, it had gotten tangled in some rope. How unfortunate, he thought sympathetically, before very slowly bringing his hand closer
He was careful not to startle it, but it started thrashing around against the rope that had gotten tangled around its arms. He frowned
“It’s okay, little guy, I’m not gonna hurt you,” he murmured
He very, very carefully held it still, extremely aware of its fragility, and, as quickly as he could, he broke the tangled ropes.
It moved its tiny little arms, something that it obviously couldn’t do beforehand. He looked at it for a few moments
Humans were usually in groups of two, especially on boats. This one was all alone, and tangled up in rope. As silly as it was, he didn’t trust its survival instincts in the wild
He knew it was just a human, that humans died all the time, but he didn’t want this one to be the same.
He put down the boat, still very carefully holding his little human. He swam home, very carefully keeping it above water, until he got inside. He placed it on a medium sized ledge, and carved some runes to keep it safe
It stared at him with that uncanny little face. Humans, strangely, looked somewhat similar to sirens, though tiny and being land animals, with only two eyes and no claws, and subpar swimming skills.
It was strange that they looked similar, even with the obvious differences between the two species. And, with humans being just normal animals, and sirens having slight magical abilities. Nothing much, just enough to charge runes.
He looked around his cave for something that could make the little human comfortable. Humans lived usually away from the ocean, so he didn’t really know their habitats, but he could make somewhat of a guess.
He hastily left the cave, to gather some land plants. His human was messing with the barrier when he came back, and it stared at him, with those little wide eyes
He carefully placed the plants, and a few small pebbles in there with it, watching it immediately start climbing the stones. He didn’t really get why everyone was so scared of them
Virgil sat there and watched it for a while as it organised the plants, and attempted to move some of the pebbles (Virgil reached in to help with some of those, but it scrambled back a few steps, going still- Virgil felt a bit bad for scaring it)
He started thinking. Humans ate a lot of things, but what he knew for sure was fish. The really small ones. They usually put them over fire, because humans were weird. He waited for a few moments, before turning around to go gather fish to feed his new pet
Ugh, his friends were gonna absolutely hate that he had a pet human. Most of them were anthropophobic.
He caught a few little fish and, after a single moment of deliberation, decided he should cook it for the human.
As he had already been thinking, he wasn’t too sure about the human’s survival skills. And so, he didn’t really want it close to fire.
Because the cave wasn’t really the place for fire, he had to use a rune to ignite it. Soon, he had cooked the food for the human, who ate it ravenously. He began to wonder how long it had been stuck in that boat.
The boat seemed incomplete, now that he thought about it. Humans usually had things on boats to help them move it around. This didn’t. How long had his human been drifting around?
Soon, he went beneath the water to sleep. He’d been above water a lot today, he noted, before slipping into a deep-ish sleep.
When he woke up, the sky was a pinkish orange colour, signifying that he’d slept for a few hours at least, considering it was sundown now. Then again, it was nearing mid winter, so the night was pretty much longer than the day
He sat with his thoughts for a few moments, before remembering his new pet. It needed a name.
He emerged to the top part of the cave, and looked at the little human, who had burrowed into a bush.
He quietly sung to himself as he thought, organising the shelves above water.
When he turned back around, his human had gotten about as close to the barrier as it could, staring at him with intensity.
He paused, singing slowly trailing off.
He was pretty sure that was weird.
It blinked at him, once the cave had gotten mostly silent, and then walked to another part of the enclosure.
Yeah, definitely weird.
He leant down to look at it from closer to its eye level.
“What’re you doing, little guy?” He murmured, before turning his attention to the organisation of the plants. They were almost circle-like, and he had noticed this the night before, but now he was really looking at it
It was organised. Weirdly so.
He shook his head. He was being silly.
It was making strange little noises.
He sighed a little, then pushed himself back to the water. He yawned
Despite the sleep he had just gotten, he was tired. His human was not, still being very loud. Had his human even slept?
Did humans usually sleep? He rubbed his forehead. What was the need for it to chirp so loudly at all times? He reached through the magical barrier and picked it up.
He brought his hand out and let it sit on his palm. It was probably better to let it get used to him early. Maybe that was why it was so noisy at the moment
It stared at him, suddenly silent. He just sat still and waited for it to stop being so startled. After about a minute, it blinked and looked around
He stayed as still as he could, very careful not to startle it more. It got harder to keep still once it stood up, with its tiny feet causing ticklish sensations on his palm.
He smiled, as it explored the edges of his palm (he did bring his other hand up to guard it from falling)
After a few weeks, his human (which he had named Scary- it was a half joking name, he didn’t find it scary at all) had become pretty comfortable near him. A contrast to how it started, it liked being held now, and would often tap on the barrier until Virgil abandoned whatever he was doing to let it climb into his hand
It liked it when he sang, always getting closer and watching him
Something about that was bugging him, but he couldn’t pinpoint what.
His friends had found out about Scary, and had had different reactions from each of them
Patton had tried to be supportive of his pet choice, but very clearly couldn’t even bring himself to look at the enclosure, shrieking in alarm every time he saw it moving. Virgil had offered that they hang at Patton’s place instead next time
When Logan had seen it, he’d stared silently for a few moments, asking one or two questions about it, before moving topics and disregarding it completely.
Virgil could tell that he was somewhat uncomfortable near it, but Logan was better at pretending the human wasn’t there than Patton was
Most of the time, though, it was just him and Scary in his cave, though. He kinda liked holding it in his hand, even if he had to stop it from trying to climb up to his face
Of course, there was the issue with the fact that if it decided it didn’t want to be held anymore, it would bite his hand until he’d place it back to the enclosure, at which point it would hang out doing whatever in there. He hadn’t figured out a way to get it to stop that
His hypothesis had been proven wrong, either way. Scary did not get any quieter. Were all humans like this?
He sighed, watching it tap on the barrier as though it hadn’t bitten him 5 times the previous hour.
“You’re a little menace, you are,” he informed it, reaching his hand into the enclosure and letting it scramble on
It still felt ticklish to feel its tiny feet on his palm. He let it stay there for a few moments, and he quietly sang to himself.
He’d never sung whilst it was in his hands before. He could feel the way it tensed up, and stared at him with far more intensity than ever. It began climbing up his arm, but not in the same way it usually did
He stopped singing in concern. It returned to normal
Okay. That was very, very strange. It climbed back into his palm, and stared up at him. He furrowed his eyebrows
He couldn’t really think of an explanation. Maybe his singing sounded like something from land? And it wanted to seek it out? That had to be it
Was that why it liked his singing so much? Could it not help getting closer? Were other humans the same? He frowned with his thoughts, still watching it as it stayed on his palm. Eventually he was pulled out of his thoughts by the feeling of being bitten
“Ow! Stop biting,” he said, lightly telling it off before putting it back in the enclosure
It stared up at him. Maybe he should get Logan to help him figure out the weird behaviour around singing
—
Remus, admittedly, was having fun. The giant siren, which he had decided to refer to as Purple, just for the sheer amount of purple that it was covered in. Purple skin, dark purple eyes, purple hair. There was certainly a theme going there
He liked it when Purple’s friends showed up, especially the lighter blue one, because it was entertaining, the way it was so jumpy around him.
It reminded him of how his brother acted when he saw a spider, though slightly less dramatic. Of course, that prompted an interesting theory in his mind
What if humans were like spiders to sirens? The more he thought about it, the more he believed it. What did people do when they saw a spider? They screamed and tried to kill it! What did sirens do when they saw humans? They screamed and tried to kill them!
He’d always wondered what spiders felt like and now he knew!
Of course, that meant that Purple must just have been one of those weirdos who kept spiders as pets (Remus had done the same. Even if it was mostly to scare his brother)
He laughed maniacally, uncaring of the fact that Purple was trying to sleep in the water beneath him.
He was still feeling the rush. He liked being held, the way his heart would speed up with instinctual fear and he’d be feeling the drop beneath him with one wrong move from Purple. He loved it
And, if he wanted to be put down, he could just bite. He had figured out two words from the siren, from how often he had heard them
Those words being “no” and “biting”. He never listened to them anyway.
Biting was fun, even though he never broke skin. He liked the way the hand twitched beneath him, not really in pain, but surprise
This time, for the first time, it sang while holding him. He felt his mind grow empty as the only thing he could think was to get closer
He was pretty sure that Purple, and other sirens, didn’t know how singing affected humans. Their almost confused expression when he awoke from his trance confirmed it
He figured that out quite early on. Because, well, most people wouldn’t knowingly summon something they’re scared of just to freak out about it
Remus probably would. He stayed in the hand, enjoying the rush of adrenaline that always accompanied waking up from siren song, before getting bored
He bit down on the thick skin, feeling it flinch beneath him
“Ow! No biting,” he was told. He just grinned, and started running around under that glass dome after a minute of staring. He could hear it sigh.
He grinned harder. He had wanted life to be interesting, and now it was.
He loved this so much. The way he was so scared, the way he didn’t know what would happen next, the way the siren moved in a way that his brain interpreted as a threat, the way his heart tried to beat out of his chest.
He could never have replicated this feeling back home.
He was having so much fun! Purple soon left, to do whatever kind of siren activity it usually did
He sat down, suddenly feeling tired.
His sleep schedule had become somewhat erratic since being in the cave, which seemed to annoy Purple, considering that he insisted on being noisy and talking to himself when he was awake
He laid back in a bush and waited to fall asleep.
When he woke up, there were two sirens in the cave. He grinned, feeling the way his heart sped up at the obvious threatening environment
The way their markings were lighting up made it obvious which friend had been invited. It was the darker blue one, who had flinched slightly when it had seen him, but had otherwise ignored him
He shot up into a standing position. He liked it when he was able to startle the sirens. It made him feel more powerful
This one, unfortunately, did not startle this time. He sighed, resigned. Well, that was disappointing
He got closer to the barrier. Maybe he could at least be a nuisance and get Purple to hold him. He was never allowed to be held when the other sirens were there, but if he was annoying enough, maybe he could
He tapped the magic glass, watching it ripple while he waited for Purple to get him out. Purple said something to the other siren, who responded with some kind of long answer that Remus couldn’t decipher
Purple did reach in to get him out this time. He grinned, climbing onto the clawed hand. It twitched under him
He wondered what it felt like to have a person in your palm. He was pulled through the magic barrier. He couldn’t get out on his own, and it felt strange to go through, as though it was trying to keep him in
Both sirens were staring down at him, making his heart beat strangely, and his blood rush in his ears. They were speaking to each other above him. Remus stood up and walked the single step to the edge of the palm, and looked down
The drop was dizzying, and the water below was so dark that he had no clue what was down there. The adrenaline from everything that ever happened in here was amazing
Purple’s other hand was brought in front of him, likely to make sure he didn’t fall into water. There was a deep breath above him, before it started singing again, looking at Blue at the same time.
When he broke out of his trance, he had apparently scaled up its arm and onto its shoulder. He looked down. The hand was lifted up for him to climb onto, which he did. He was lowered back to usual distance from his little dome with the painstakingly boring carefulness and hesitation it always carried him with
He looked over to Blue, who was tapping something on its hand and muttering something in the sirens’ language. Hm. Was he being studied like a little lab rat? Cool
He wondered if they’d dissect him. Would they kill him first or would it be a vivisection? Would they use tools or their claws?
He conceded that since his siren was immensely boring when it came to things like this, there’d probably not actually be a dissection. But he was imagining one very vividly, and that was the next best thing
He laughed in the hand, and sat down.
He loved this.