[This is exactly the reason they're not supposed to be doing what they are. Humans are easily tricked, but persistent- stupid, but strong. And while the twins can play their advantages like no other, they both know they're useless out of the water. Lup is yelling but Taako can't turn his back, can't leave without assurance. So when he makes it under the ship and spies a look at her, his heart clenches in his throat, and he's hardly stopping before he's swimming right at her and grabbing for her hands to pull back, to get her out.]
Come on, Lup, just-- just swim with me, we'll take 'em out, come on--
[He can't let them take her he won't he won't he won't, he's never been without her and the very thought makes him want to die. If she gets caught, he's coming too. He won't leave her.]
[That's one lesson they should have actually listened to.]
No no no - Taako, go!
[His hands find Lup's, gripping her tightly and just refusing to let go, but the mer pulls back, further into the net, not wanting to risk her twin getting tangled up and dragged to shore with her. She can escape, Lup's so sure of herself, but just the thought of Taako getting caught by these humans makes her throat go tight, tail twisting in anguish from where she's bent in the net.
No matter what, she can't let that happen. She just can't.]
It's this - this fucking net! [No matter what tooth or claw attempts to rip through it, the net's thick loops seem too strong for her, reinforced exactly for this kind of difficult catch, against the kind of creature that most definitely doesn't want to be caught. Lup flails, her body in constant motion there beneath the waves, fighting as hard as she can against this, but just as she's reaching to chomp down on the net, the whole thing lurches upwards through the water towards the surface.]
[The net moves and he feels his heart go with it, like it's being pulled from his ribcage. Their hands are torn apart with the jolt and Lup pulling back and he almost goes forward again. He won't leave her here. He fucking won't. If they can't break the net he'll-- he'll figure something out, he--
Panicked, he surveys the boat quickly, and looks back up to her, trying to ignore the horrifying thought that this may be the last time he ever sees her again.]
Don't let 'em knock you out, I'm gonna take out the ship! Hang on!
[And he darts down, underneath and out of gaze of the deck, heading for the rudder. He's going to break it, jam the engines full of seaweed and rocks and make sure they can't fucking go anywhere. Even if she's trapped, they can't leave, and it only takes a few holes to sink the whole thing.
They'll die for this. For even daring to try and separate them. He'll kill them all.
He swims low, underneath the bottom, trying to find his way in to shatter this thing and stop their escape.]
[For as long as mermaids live, it shouldn't be too surprising that there are a few details of her life that Lup doesn't remember.
She doesn't remember the faces or the names of her parents, the mers who left their twin children behind long before ever forming any real bond with them. She doesn't fully remember those early years of just the two of them on their own, out alone in the ocean together, just learning to survive. She doesn't remember her first words or her first fish or even what her own birthday is.
But Lup remembers Taako, remembers every moment the two have spent together, how every single second of her life has ticked by while he's been right there at her side.
Until now. Until now when she sees her twin slip away just out of sight beneath the boat, his long, bright fin twisting once, then twice before disappearing completely. Something unfamiliar weighs down heavily within her belly at the sight, something sharp that twists until she feels like she's going to be sick.
Is this last moment they'll have spent together? Will the last words she ever hear her brother speak be drowned out in sheer panic, his hurt forever echoing in her mind?
Taako disappears and Lup fights, she doesn't give in, she can't when he's relying on her, but the men aboard the vessel heft her net straight out of the water with ease. Out of water, tangled up in a net with her tail pinned painfully to her chest, there's just nothing left for the mer to do but shriek at the men, hissing and wriggling, never giving them a second of relief.]
[As far as he's concerned, a lot of their past doesn't matter. He doesn't need parents, or firsts, or pieces of an identity that others need to have him. He has her. Taako cares that Lup is with him and very little else, which is what makes this so fucking hard. He forces himself not to look back to her or linger any longer, because he's got a window of opportunity he has to take. He won't fucking let them get away. He won't.
Taako makes it around the bottom, calling on any magic he can summon to slam into the side of the bottom of the vessel, aiming to hit a hole anywhere he can. It's strong, but he has to be stronger. He strikes across the hull, swimming around quickly and trying to find a rudder, a motor, something he can do to stop them from fucking moving.
One thing's for sure, for the people on that boat- they're not going anywhere until they deal with him. Somehow.]
[Taako slips away, darting through the water with a speed that comes from a lifetime spent chasing one another through these waves, while Lup flops aboard the ship, shrieking between every gasping breath, flailing against the net that binds her. But with each struggle, she just gets more and more tangled, movement restricted more with every twist of her lanky frame.
While Lup distracts the men onboard, Taako has the time to stage an attack beneath the ship. But the vessel they are on is so much stronger than the ones the twins are used to messing with. Most of them are made of cheap aluminum, easily punctured and wrecked. But this one is an expensive research ship, the kind that's had thousands dumped into it to make sure that it doesn't sink under any circumstances. The hull is all steel, heavy and seemingly untouched beneath the mer's attacks.
And then there's shouts above the water, men readying up to sail back to shore, throwing out commands to take off.]
[This is not happening, this can't be fucking happening. He bangs his fists ineffectually into the metal plating, scraping sharp nails across the surface. This isn't a small wooden boat where he can latch his hands onto boards, rip open ill-fitting plating, use the power in his tail to sweep a current and slam a boat into a reef. This has motors, and single panels expertly welded to give no moment of relief. There isn't even a porthole he can put his fist through or shatter with his voice. It's like they knew.
The horror grips him then in his chest. They had made themselves too obvious. This isn't fishermen, these aren't observers, these are hunters. And they were there for them.
He's got too much adrenaline running through him to stop, but he can't fucking run away from this no matter what Lup told him to do. So he races off to the side, brings his head above water, and screams as loud as he can.
They won't take her alone. If they go, they go together.]
[They've spent a lifetime together getting out of danger, of slipping away just in the nick of time from human sight, of outwitting sharks and fishing vessels and sea monsters with a laugh while they flip away through the water. And after decades of always getting away, it just makes sense that one of these times they'd have to finally lose.
No one's that lucky.
The last thing that Lup hears before passing out is her brother shrieking after her, his shrill voice echoing in her ears as she finally flops limply down against the deck of the boat, vision blurring before she's just gone.
As for Taako? It would be impossible for the men aboard to not hear his screaming, to not see that the mer they've caught is passed out lifelessly on the deck and yet there's still another's shrill voice ringing through the air right beside them. But the ship's turning fast, the waves around them rougher than before, and it's right at the peak of his scream that the hull of the ship smashes hard into the mer's head, cutting him off.]
[It was their only option, to be frank- it was obvious they got the more docile of the two, if it could be called that. When they make it to port the researchers will marvel at the claw marks raked through steel in imprints, the way glass is shattered in patterns of a soundwave. But they can't take him. Too risky. Too dangerous.
Taako's too busy trying to get something to break he can't move fast enough as the current catches him in it's tide and he meets the boat hull. In an instant, the collision slams him hard, and he sinks unconscious under the waves, under the boat, a bit of blood trickling out of a new sideways cut against his head from the impact.
He won't wake again until hours later, until they're long enough gone that he can't even follow the current to carry him. And he'll curl up then, in the reef where they used to play, and mourn the loss of his heart.]
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no subject
Come on, Lup, just-- just swim with me, we'll take 'em out, come on--
[He can't let them take her he won't he won't he won't, he's never been without her and the very thought makes him want to die. If she gets caught, he's coming too. He won't leave her.]
We're getting out, okay, we're getting out, please, fight, keep fucking fighting!
no subject
No no no - Taako, go!
[His hands find Lup's, gripping her tightly and just refusing to let go, but the mer pulls back, further into the net, not wanting to risk her twin getting tangled up and dragged to shore with her. She can escape, Lup's so sure of herself, but just the thought of Taako getting caught by these humans makes her throat go tight, tail twisting in anguish from where she's bent in the net.
No matter what, she can't let that happen. She just can't.]
It's this - this fucking net! [No matter what tooth or claw attempts to rip through it, the net's thick loops seem too strong for her, reinforced exactly for this kind of difficult catch, against the kind of creature that most definitely doesn't want to be caught. Lup flails, her body in constant motion there beneath the waves, fighting as hard as she can against this, but just as she's reaching to chomp down on the net, the whole thing lurches upwards through the water towards the surface.]
no subject
Panicked, he surveys the boat quickly, and looks back up to her, trying to ignore the horrifying thought that this may be the last time he ever sees her again.]
Don't let 'em knock you out, I'm gonna take out the ship! Hang on!
[And he darts down, underneath and out of gaze of the deck, heading for the rudder. He's going to break it, jam the engines full of seaweed and rocks and make sure they can't fucking go anywhere. Even if she's trapped, they can't leave, and it only takes a few holes to sink the whole thing.
They'll die for this. For even daring to try and separate them. He'll kill them all.
He swims low, underneath the bottom, trying to find his way in to shatter this thing and stop their escape.]
no subject
She doesn't remember the faces or the names of her parents, the mers who left their twin children behind long before ever forming any real bond with them. She doesn't fully remember those early years of just the two of them on their own, out alone in the ocean together, just learning to survive. She doesn't remember her first words or her first fish or even what her own birthday is.
But Lup remembers Taako, remembers every moment the two have spent together, how every single second of her life has ticked by while he's been right there at her side.
Until now. Until now when she sees her twin slip away just out of sight beneath the boat, his long, bright fin twisting once, then twice before disappearing completely. Something unfamiliar weighs down heavily within her belly at the sight, something sharp that twists until she feels like she's going to be sick.
Is this last moment they'll have spent together? Will the last words she ever hear her brother speak be drowned out in sheer panic, his hurt forever echoing in her mind?
Taako disappears and Lup fights, she doesn't give in, she can't when he's relying on her, but the men aboard the vessel heft her net straight out of the water with ease. Out of water, tangled up in a net with her tail pinned painfully to her chest, there's just nothing left for the mer to do but shriek at the men, hissing and wriggling, never giving them a second of relief.]
no subject
Taako makes it around the bottom, calling on any magic he can summon to slam into the side of the bottom of the vessel, aiming to hit a hole anywhere he can. It's strong, but he has to be stronger. He strikes across the hull, swimming around quickly and trying to find a rudder, a motor, something he can do to stop them from fucking moving.
One thing's for sure, for the people on that boat- they're not going anywhere until they deal with him. Somehow.]
no subject
While Lup distracts the men onboard, Taako has the time to stage an attack beneath the ship. But the vessel they are on is so much stronger than the ones the twins are used to messing with. Most of them are made of cheap aluminum, easily punctured and wrecked. But this one is an expensive research ship, the kind that's had thousands dumped into it to make sure that it doesn't sink under any circumstances. The hull is all steel, heavy and seemingly untouched beneath the mer's attacks.
And then there's shouts above the water, men readying up to sail back to shore, throwing out commands to take off.]
no subject
The horror grips him then in his chest. They had made themselves too obvious. This isn't fishermen, these aren't observers, these are hunters. And they were there for them.
He's got too much adrenaline running through him to stop, but he can't fucking run away from this no matter what Lup told him to do. So he races off to the side, brings his head above water, and screams as loud as he can.
They won't take her alone. If they go, they go together.]
no subject
No one's that lucky.
The last thing that Lup hears before passing out is her brother shrieking after her, his shrill voice echoing in her ears as she finally flops limply down against the deck of the boat, vision blurring before she's just gone.
As for Taako? It would be impossible for the men aboard to not hear his screaming, to not see that the mer they've caught is passed out lifelessly on the deck and yet there's still another's shrill voice ringing through the air right beside them. But the ship's turning fast, the waves around them rougher than before, and it's right at the peak of his scream that the hull of the ship smashes hard into the mer's head, cutting him off.]
no subject
Taako's too busy trying to get something to break he can't move fast enough as the current catches him in it's tide and he meets the boat hull. In an instant, the collision slams him hard, and he sinks unconscious under the waves, under the boat, a bit of blood trickling out of a new sideways cut against his head from the impact.
He won't wake again until hours later, until they're long enough gone that he can't even follow the current to carry him. And he'll curl up then, in the reef where they used to play, and mourn the loss of his heart.]
no subject