Amongst mermaids and humans

[redblood]

Important note

You can only be human or mermaid/merman, there are no other magical creatures.
You decide yourself if you want the human to try to help the mermaids/mermans or if they want to capture them to get money.
Romance is allowed but mature things aren't.
A mermaid/merman can look different, some just have tails, some have squidlike tails and so on, as long as they have som fish/squid part then it's good
HAVE FUN :D

Aqua was bored, she wanted to do something and not just stay at home all day. Her friends were out at the reef and she weren't allowed to swim out of town at the moment because she had been to close to the surface just some days ago. Her parents were to overprotective, it was so bothersome. She was old enough to do whatever she wanted to do, after all she would be seventeen in just some month's. And she couldn't see anything wrong with the surface anyways, what was so dangerous so they couldn't go up there? She was to curiouse on the surface, she knew that she shouldn't try to go up there but she wanted to. Even though everyone said that humans were dangerous creatures she couldn't believe in it.

One reason why she couldn't believe in it were because they could turn in to humans and breath air, even though it was only for a short time. Someone with good controll could do it for three or four hours but the most of them could only do it for one or maybe two hours. Her father had told her that it were because if they got up on land during a storm then they could go down in to the water again if they got legs and they wouldn't need to suffocate on land while trying to crawl back in to the water. But it must be more than that, they were so much like humans so in some way they must be related and if that was the case then they could get to know some humans.

She had thought about the same thing for month's, maybe even a year and now it was time to see how humans were. She would go up to the surface and this time she wouldn't get caught. Her parents wasn't at home for the moment so she wouldn't have to worry about them, but other people would tell her parents if they saw her swim away from home when she weren't allowed to leave. Well she just had to try and if it failed then she could try again.

She swimmed out of her home threw a window and swimmed up untill no one could see her. If someone of her friends saw her it wouldn't matter, they would probably just come after her and tell her to turn around. It was all the others that were the problem. Soon she saw the shore and swimmed over the surface, the air wasn't cold but it was colder than the water which made her shiver. Aqua swimmed closer to the shore to see if she could see some humans close by.

 

[Layne]

Faintly glowing rocks scattered across the bottom of the sea cave provided an eerily tained light, forming more shadows than necessary. A slimy coat of algae made the glow appear a sickly green, making even the water appear to be thick and poisonous. Small creatures scuttled across the rocks, throwing dancing shadows across the walls and giving the illusion that bigger things were moving around. The cave began in a tunnel hidden behind a dark reef, holding several twists and turns before opening up into a spacious cavern. Several rock formations were placed carefully around the cavern, providing seating in some places and decoration in others. Seaweed hung from the ceiling in lazy swirls, slowly undulating in the slight current that flowed through the cave to keep it from going stale.


Laying on a rock near the center of the cavern, Arlyn gazed at the dangling seaweed. She had lived here for years now and couldn't imagine leaving to live in that bright, sparkling world that the rest of her people seemed to enjoy. As a very small child, she had wandered too far and run into trouble with a vicious squid. Her panicked swim had led her here, to this cavern. Back then, there had been an elderly merwitch here. The woman had taught Arlyn most of what she knew before she died one day, out gathering shells. Now, the runaway girl lived alone, not counting the many fish and eels that resided in this place. She found herself growing bored, as well as unhealthy. For some reason the deep green of her tail was fading along the tip to a yellowish brown that looked sickly in the light of the cavern. Despite trying every remedy she knew, the tail never changed back.


Now she found herself pushing her slender form up from the rock and swimming lazily out of the cavern and down through the tunnel. In her hand she grasped a bag woven of frayed fish nets and strips of seaweed. Perhaps getting some shells and plants to replenish her stores would perk her up. She swam low to the sea floor, her nimble fingers plucking up any shell that seemed different than the others or shone in a pretty way. Despite living in a world of darkness, she couldn't help but be attracted to sparkly things. A small fish swam along with her, a pale bluish yellow with bright yellow fins. It darted along, hovering above shells that it thought she would like. She brushed her flowing brown hair from her face and nodded, a small smile on her lips as she picked up a shell the fish had picked. A swirling gold, it was stunning. She tossed it in her bag and kept moving.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista layed on the bottom of the ocean floor. Only the fin of her tail showed through the cool sand. Her eyes were closed as she began to day dream of what the shore might be like. She was seventeen and the shore was something she had never seen. She quickly grew tired of playing with a shell and threw it to the ground slowly turning onto her stomach. Flickering her fin from the sand. She could see fades of red in the water. It was her long hair flowing with the ocean. With a quick sigh she swam to a cave where she and her family lived only to see none of them there. She arched her eyebrow and quickly looked around biting her lip. She knew that if she was going to go to the shore this would be her only chance.

She gave her tail a flick and was off. It seemed like the faster she went the further the shore was. She could see the change in animals and plants as she grew closer closer. She stopped for moments to look at all the fish she had never seen before. Smiling at there bright colors, she swam threw their plants closing her eyes from the touch. All her life she lived in the dark damp part of the ocean. She wondered to herself why her parents didn't like it so close to the shore, so close to the bright colors, so close to the...sun.

Soon she reached the sun. Sticking only enough of her face out to see out of the water. Glancing around she could see other mermaids. When she stuck out the rest of her head she could see and here creatures soaring through the sky. She looked at them with intense eyes trying to figure out what they were. A brief wind caught her face and she raised her body from the water more to catch it.

(Sorry I can't get my picture to get bigger but if you double-click it you can see it better)

 

[Stacisaur]

Theme Music

Bloodwake

Bloodwake did not bow down to the winds of the day, nor to the crashing of the persistent waves below. The force applied by each gathering of water at the sea did no damage to the hearty wood that made up the vassal. If a ship could boast of it's own strength, well, naturally Bloodwake would. It's mustard colored masts glowed against the rays of the sun, pushing ever onward with the guidance of each gust lending out an airy hand. The decks below within it rocked constantly back and forth. Buckets, ropes, sleeping bodies of crew shifted along the floor in a rhythm. This was not out of the ordinary for a usual day aboard the Bloodwake.
On deck, crewmen shuffled around to their respectable duties, taking care of whatever job was theirs to manage. They were attentive, and very hard-working, for the most part. They were programmed almost to be this way, with the usual con of disobeying orders or chores never being quite worth the trouble. For, every man aboard Bloodwake knew, if one was to go against their assigned task, they would be either sent overboard, killed on deck, or locked in The Cellar until they slowly starved there. None of these options seemed very nice at all, so best not to go out of line in the first place.

At the head of Bloodwake, windows encasing a room could be made out. Curtains of red velvet were currently drawn against these wide windows to block out the morning sun. The sun was not a welcomed visitor in the morning for someone who had a lot to deal with during the days and nights aboard such a magnificent beast, and thus it would be shut out whenever possible. Silence floated around the Captain's room, filling itself against each corner, only to give way to the gentle rocking of the ship. The calming movement back and forth really wasn't calming at all to someone who was not use to it's ways. In reality, it was jerky, and rather annoying, and could even make someone seasick. However, to one born of the sea, a true soul meant to travel against the tides and hurricanes, well, it was ever relaxing. The soft clink of a full ring holding various keys sounded out distinctly against the lamp holding it up. The brass items tapped against the porcelain of the once expensive lamp, now broken and used as a holder for all sorts of things. There were many items in this room that were once valuable, but now were not so much in a currency sense. They were more of a personal treasure to one, and one alone.

Red silk sheets crumpled up as the body beneath them moved back and forth against the king sized bed. The headboard was painted with a gold hue, white pillows with the same kind of gold for trimmings at the sides and corners. There were five large pillows to be exact, and one was currently in use. Lockets of dark, chestnut hair flipped along with the ways the head turned opposite cheek to the bedding. Dreams were interrupting the Captain's sleep, she did not enjoy this intrusion against her sweet slumber. A grimace held to her lips as she awoke to the usual sounds her keys gave off atop the endtable beside her. Staring up with dark green eyes, she growled underneath her breath, sitting up straight for a full minute. Throwing the covers to the ground carelessly, her bare feet took to the floor. It was cold to touch, and she didn't like the cold. Moving along the room gracefully, in tune with the rocking of her Bloodwake, it was as if they had became one over all these years of being a team. As she draped the thick, dark red robe over her, covering up the black, long nightgown, her hands worked at tying it against her waist, keeping it shut from the rest of the room. Staring at the mirror before her, cracked in the lower right area, something told her today would possibly turn out to be a very big day. Perhaps today would be a day for capturing a mermaid or two. A slick smile curved up her lips, and she turned to the windows surrounding her room.

Grabbing at the curtains, a handful in each palm, she threw them apart from each other. The sun hit her face mercilessly, but she did not shield her eyes. Glaring right back out at it, the Captain lifted her chin up, and watched as the clouds parted. Even the clouds dared not to enter her path, they would steer clear of her way if they were smart enough. Looking down to the shimmering ocean, she took in a deep breath and watched as Bloodwake pushed along, directed to the North to where a reliable source gave her news of sightings a few days ago. Sighting of mermaids were all that she needed. Her crew and her had success in the past with their line of work. It was simple, really. Find a mermaid, capture the mermaid, sell the mermaid to a wealthy Englishman, collect the money, then kill said Englishman, and take back the mermaid to 'sell' again to a different client.
It all was very simple.
Pirate Queen Renee' Cutlace would have her mermaids, and would have her gold.
Whether they chose to give in to their fate or not was another matter.

Renee' Cutlace

​

 

[redblood]

Aqua was mesmerized by the blue up in the air, it looked like there was water up there to. Also there were some white things that seemed to float on the water in the air. It felt like she were in some kind of in between two worlds, the water world she lived in and some other water world high up in the air. The shore she had wanted to see and meet humans on were empty for the moment, no humans there. It was really disappointing, she had wanted to see a human, maybe even talk to one. But if she swam around the shore then she would probably see one eventually.

But soon she got distracted when she turned around and saw another mermaid there, was it someone sent by her family to get her home? No, in that case she would have recognised the girl but she had no clue who it was. Maybe it were someone else that had decided to get up to see what it was like on the surface. It was impossible for her to know what the red haired mermaid were doing there if she didn't talk to her. With that thought Aqua waved to the girl before starting to swim towards the girl, Her hair gently following her on the water surface.

But Aqua didn't swim all the way to the girl, she stopped a bit away just so they would hear eachother talking. "Hey, what are you doing up here?" She asked the girl curiously, everyone had always told her how dangerous it was up there and still she wasn't the only one that had swimmed up.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista was so deep in her own thoughts she didn't notice another mermaid was there until she spoke. She turned to face her. "Well my family was no where to be found and since they don't want me up here I decided that this would be the perfect time to explore." She glanced up at the sun and smiled looking back at the girl she said. "What brings you up here?"

The mermaid was beautiful with long dark blue hair, but then again most mermaids were maid to capture beauty. What suprised Arista was that this girl had came this far up to the shore and was alone. For some reason Arista felt that this girl was not brave enough to do such a thing, but then again who was she to judge. She gave the girl a smile as she waited for her to speak. In the distance she could hear an unfamilar sound, it was far off to not be a threat. In her mind she figured there were no threats above the waters. Was she wrong?

 

[redblood]

Aqua listened to the girl as she spoke, while watching her red hair wave in the wind and on top of the water. It was stunning that they were so alike, at least in the way they had it. Both families wanted them to stay away from the surface and they both were able to get up there on the exact same day. "For me it's about the same, I want to see a human up close. We look so much like them and can even turn in to one for a while so I don't really understand why we are hiding from them. Everything up here looks so amazing, how can you not want to see it?" She told the girl.

The world above water truly was amazing, it weren't only another water world just above their head they had water under their feets to. How did they even reach the water that were so high up in the air? Some animals were running on the beach, what was those creatures? They didn't look like fishes at all, they looked a bit furry. What could it be? Aqua had most of her attention on the other mermaid in front of herself but sometimes now and then she noticed things around her to. "I'm Aqua by the way." She fast said when she remembered that she hadn't told the girl her name yet.

 

[Layne]

It didn't take long for the bag on her shoulder to become full to bursting with new shells. She sat for a moment and went through them, careful to examine them. Occasionally a shell would appear nice at first, only to have a hole on the other side or be all scratched up. Plus, several had occupants that she had to tug out and toss away. Cruel, maybe, but the shell at the end was worth it. Once she was done, she only had about three quarters of a full bag. She was further from the cave than she had been in quite a while, but she decided to keep looking anyway. Perhaps she would find something that made it worth it. The tiny fish that followed her constantly seemed to agree with the idea, and immediately zipped off for her to follow.


Soon a large shadow formed before her, and upon closer inspection she realized it was a reef. It was too tall to see over and stretched for miles in either direction. To keep going she either had to swim over it, or go a different way. She hesitated, then frowned. Since when was she a coward? She had more power in one hand than most merpeople did in their entire bodies, and she was going to back down from a simple reef? Shaking her head at her own cowardice, she started swimming upward. Hundreds of tiny fish darted in and out of the reef, but the closer she got to the top, the more she realized how abandoned this place seemed. It was as if everybody was hiding from something. She smirked to herself and rolled her eyes, assuming that they were all just hiding from her. A little conceited, maybe, but only thanks to having all sorts of creatures avoid her for her entire life. She was a threat, and threats should be avoided.


Finally she reached the top. The water here was different. It felt.. strange. She looked up and realized that she could see the faint light of the sun shining down. The surface was right up there, easily within reach. Personally she had never gotten the desire to see the surface. Air breathing monsters, that's what the former sea witch had always called them. Things that could barely swim and had no clue how to breathe under water. Uncultured beings that devoured fish by the millions and attempted to destroy the merpeople way of life. That's how she thought of humans, and she knew her opinion wouldn't change just by seeing how things looked up there.


She shrugged off the thoughts and started swimming over the top of the reef, allowing her fingers to trace long the tops of a few rock formations. It wasn't frightening, being this close to the surface. She started to wonder why everybody seemed to warn against it when she heard a strange noise. Curious as ever, she swam to the opposite side of the reef and peered down just in time to get caught up in a huge school of fish. She tried to swim free, but the fish were a lot more desperate than she was, and they weren't budging. That was when she realized she was caught in a huge fishing net, being tugged toward the surface where she could barely make out the shadow of a ship. Quickly she let off a high-pitched cry for help that would carry for miles, but she doubted anybody would answer it. She was a sea witch, why help her? Her bag was pressed against her hip hard, and she tugged one of the shells free. Snapping it in her hand, she quickly tried to sever the ropes, but they were thick and sturdy. The churning fish were panicking and soon she was drawn into the middle of the mass, not even within sight of the net anymore as she curled up in the wiggling creatures.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista smiled. "My name is Arista." She was about to give the girl her hand to shake it when she thought she heard a far off distant scream. She was going to ask Aqua is she heard it but didn't bother to ask thinking it was nothing. She looked down at the water as the small waves sudden to become slightly bigger. "The waves are changing. Do you think there is an animal headed this way?" She asked Aqua looking up. The waves were big so whatever was making them had to be big as well. She thought of it being a whale, but what kind of whale comes this close to a shore? She kept the thought in the back of her mind as she waited for Aqua to speak.

 

[redblood]

Just as the girl had told her her name Aqua heard something that sounded like a scream or cry for help. Arista didn't seem to notice it because she kept on the talking, was it her imagination then? Was someone in danger somewhere? She got taken out of her thoughts as Arista wondered about the changing waves. "I don't think it could be an animal, they would have to be big for creating this kind of waves but such a big animal wouldn't come this close to shore." She said a bit distant, watching out over the ocean. There had defenitely been a scream out there.

"I think I heard someone scream." She then said "I'm going to check it out, someone might be in danger." Aqua continued hoping that Arista would come with her, or else she would maybe meet something dangerous alone. She started to swim towards the way the sound came from, maybe Arista were with her and maybe she weren't, Aqua didn't think that much about if someone were beside her or not. Another merperson had gotten in danger, they needed to help them. She held herself just under the surface so her back sometimes now and then touched the air over the water before going down under again.

It weren't that far to were the cry had come from, Aqua stopped as she saw something big that she had never seen before. It floated on the water and were as big as a wale if not bigger. But it didn't seem alive. What she could recognise from the weird thing were the nets that were down in the water, taking up fishes. It was first then she started to look around to see if if Arista had come with her or not, nets were dangerous if they got caught up in them, that much she knew. It was better if they were two so that if one of them got caught in it the other one maybe could go get help. If they could find something really sharp then maybe they could cut up the net and let the fishes out, she wasn't certain but it could be that another mermaid were inside the net and that's were the cry had come from.

"Arista?" She said turning around to see if she were there.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista looked up when she heard Aqua apeak of someone's scream. Before she could say anything though Aqua had dashed back into the water, quickly she had followed. "So she heard it too?" Arista thought in her head. She wasn't just hearing things, someone was really in danger. Arista was starting to think that now she should have listened to her parents. Even with that thought burning in the back of her mind she knew it was to late to turn back now. Someone needed their help she couldn't turn her back on them. At the same time would she be able to face what danger was soon to come. She stopped in mid-thought when she heard Aqua call her name.

"You heard the scream too? I thought I was just hearing things so I kept quiet." She said looking off into the deeper part of the ocean. "What are we going to do? We don't even know what we're up against."

 

[redblood]

Aqua understood what she meant, they didn't know what they were up against. Who knew what that big floating thing were. They were at a pretty deep part of the ocean and if they were going down to the bottom to find something to cut the net with then the net would probably already have been pulled up from the water. "If we had something sharp then maybe we could cut the net but I wonder if we would be able to reach the bottom and find something and still be able to get up in time." Aqua said and turned to look at the net that were slowly being pulled up from the water towards the big floating thing.

"If we can get up on that thing then maybe we can get it off from there. But that would be much more dangerous than just cutting the net I guess." She knew that it was dangerous, ofcourse she did but there wasn't that much they could do if they didn't try that. "I can try to climb up on that thing and find some way from there to let the net down." she suggested, not knowing at all what or who that were on the big floating thing. The net was a bit over half up in the air now and the fishes that were over the water struggled as much as they could even though it were in vain. Somewhere in there a merperson was probably trapped, they needed to do something fast.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista thought of what Aqua said for a minute and then thought of a great idea. "My house is a small cave in the lowest darkest part of the ocean, I always have to swim to up from there. If anyone could get there and back in tim it would be me." Without waiting for Aqua to reply she quickly dived up to shore. She glanced at the net to see it being fully pulled out of the water. Quickly she did something smart but also reckless and dangerous if she was to be spotted. She dived out of the water fin and all she used the force from her jump to dive in as far as she could into the water. Not waiting to slow down she zipped through the water. Thrashing her fin and arms for more power. Praying that she would make it back in time. It didn't take her long to reach the floor level. The only problem was she couldn't find anything sharp enough that would cut the rope. She looked back up only to see darkness. She had to hurry.

 

[redblood]

Aqua weren't able to say anything about Arista's idea before she jumped in to the water and swam to the bottom of the sea. It didn't take long before she couldn't see Arista anymore when she were to deep. At that point Aqua's eyes were turned up towards the net that were about to get up on the boat, would Arista make it in time? Aqua swam to the net and tried to take a grip on it to keep it down a bit longer but her weight didn't do anything to stop the rising net.

The panic grew inside of Aqua, if there were a mermaid somewhere in there among the fishes, what would happen if they weren't able to get her out? They had no idea what could be up at that big floating thing. She could hear a lot of noises from the top of the big thing and at some point it sounded a bit like voices. But it couldn't be, who or what would be up on such a thing?

She swam around the rising net trying to find a weak place so that maybe she would be able to just pull in it and make a hole. But there didn't seem to be any place in the net that would be so fragile. She pulled in many places of it but in vain. The net with the many fishes and maybe a mermaid in it kept rising and soon it was to high for her to reach. If Arista would come up from the water with something sharp then they would need to climb on the big floating thing to be able to reach the net.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista was finally able to find something sharp enough to cut the net and took off for the shore. Her head was pounding from the pressure of the water and her body felt like it was going to give out, but she kept going. Slowly the deep black water went to a deep blue and finally a light blue until she was almost above the water. She spun around to see where the boat had gone. When her eyes caught glimpse of it her heart dropped. The boat was almost another hundred feet away and the net was no where in sight. Quickly and swiftly she began to jump in and out of the water. Each dive bringing her closer and closer to the net. If someone could see her they would have said she looked like a dolphin.

With only a few feet to go she called out Aqua's name hoping to get her attention. She figured Aqua could meet her half way. Aqua had a better chance of swimming to her and back to the net then Arista did swimming the whole way there. She looked up and could see the net half way from the water now, the innocent fish gasping for their last couple breaths. This caused anger to boil within her. Helping her find the stretgh to swim faster then she did before.

 

[Layne]

[[I'm waiting for the others.]]

 

[redblood]

(DON'T WORRY WE WILL SAVE YOU SOON LAYNE xD haha)

Aqua held her focus on the net that slowly were pulled up, she barely noticed Arista that came up over the water a bit away and started to swim towards the big thing again. It was first when she heard Arista calling her name that she turned around and saw her coming towards her. She started to swim towards Arista as fast as she could, was it just her or did it seem like Arista were a bit slower than before? Maybe she had gotten tired after swimming down so deep and coming up again. It must have been exhausting to swim so far down so fast.

"Did you find something?" She asked her as she were certain that she were on a distance that Arista would hear her on. "We will need to climb up on that hing to reach the net, I can do it if you are to tired." She continued and stopped her swimming to turn back when Arista almost were where she were. They couldn't afford to stop for even one second.

 

[MajeticBeauty]

Arista at a lost for words simply handed Aqua the object and watched as she took off. She took time to catch her breath and then started to climb along the wall. The wind was bringing goosebumps on her back, and her long hair kept getting in her way. This caused Arista great irritation but she knew that right now it was time to focus. She looked up at Aqua waiting to see what she was going to do.

 

[redblood]

Arista only handed the sharp object to Aqua without a word, Aqua didn't say anything either because she wanted all the time she could get. The net were almost all the way up now and she had to hurry, who knew what could be on that floating thing and what would happen with the fishes and the mermaid that were in there if the net were allowed to get all the way up. Aqua took the sharp object and held it with her teeth's so that she would be able to get a grip with both hands on the big floating thing. Even if she would turn her tail in to human legs she wouldn't be able to use them, no one could actually walk, stand or use them in any way the first time they transformed. This was the first time she were somewhat over water so she hadn't been able to test it out before. Instead of helping her climbing it would just become a obstacle.

So instead of trying to get human legs she just tried to use her arms to climb up on the big floating thing, her arms were shaking and they started to hurt when she got closer to the net. She had never used her arms to lift her whole body before and she would probably never need to do it again, the only thing that made her keep going at the moment were the thought of saving a fellow mermaid. When she finally were at the same high as the net she used the little strength she had left to jump over to the net, it was almost so she fell down in to the water again but she were able to catch the net and hold herself up. Aqua took the sharp object that she held between her teeth while she tried to keep holding the net with only one hand. She felt how she were about to fall so she needed to work fast.

She started to cut the net as fast as she could, even though she cut it at many places it still wasn't enough, the fishes were so smacked together so almost no one fell out at first. She cut more and almost panicked as it were about to get taken over on the big thing, but just before it happened the net got cut just enough for all the fishes to get out. Aqua didn't see if there were a mermaid falling with them to because she lost the grip as fast as the fishes starting to flush down over her. She got pushed down under the water and became unconscious. Slowly her body sank to the bottom were she laid for a while before waking up.

 

[LVL1337N00B]

Somewhere in the ocean a raft floats, shining with material wealth. The small piles of gold shift, some of it sliding off into the water, the little coins shimmering on their way down into the depths. From under the piles, a hand slips out and into the water, following is a groan. One more, and then silence. Twenty seconds or so passed before something jolted upright, flinging many more coins into the sea. "What? Where?.. Again?.. ", the man sighed as he pressed his face into his hand, his mess of dirty brown hair in disarray, pushed lightly forward with the wind.

It was quite a sight to see, this man lost at sea. His brown, long-sleeved cotton shirt and darker brown trousers covered in rips and splotches of red, covered in gold. Strange that he and his treasures hadn't sunk to the bottom of the sea, considering the weight. Must have been one fine raft. The man lifted his head only slightly, that shimmer of gold reflecting against deep blue eyes as he watched the coins roll down and sink. His hand moved away, revealing a young but worn face wearing rough stubble and a couple of scars as he patted around in the gold. Finally, he found what he'd been searching for: A bottle. Without taking a look at his hands, the man pulled the cork out of the bottle and brought it near his lips, tilting his head back.

He frowned as a single drop hit his tongue, just enough to tease him. The man flung the bottle out into the blue and let himself fall onto his back again, sighing again, a bit more heavily this time. His head turned slightly to meet lifeless eyes set in the severed head of another man. "Don't recognize you.. No wait.. ", he stared for a moment, narrowing his eyes, "Sammy?.. That is you, 'innit? What's happened with the rest of you?" As you'd expect.. Or at least hope, there came no answer. Several minutes had gone by in silence before the scruffy looking fellow shoved the severed head off of his raft and rolled over onto his side opposite where Sammy had been. Near an hour he floated like that, just laying there on his little gold covered raft. Despite the situation, he seemed disturbingly calm, as though it was something he'd been used to.