Tango couldn't remember the last time he slept.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd worked on a redstone project either.
That was irrelevant! He was perfectly fine. There was a reason he was down by Gem's docks. Right?
"Tango?"
Speak of the devil and she shall appear! That was Gem herself, pulling Tango around. He didn't want to, there was something about the--
"Tango. Tango, hey." Gem forced him to meet her eyes, "Don't tell me you've been possessed again. After last time? C'mon man, you said you'd. . . do. . ."
Tango didn't know what Gem was talking about. He wasn't possessed. Tango knew what that felt like and that wasn't this.
Gem got an odd look in her eye, before latching her hand around his wrist and dragging him back up the path towards his house. But--
That wasn't home anymore.
Not when his place was down by the water-- in the water-- he was waiting for someone to come back--
"No-- Tango-! Ugh." Gem planted herself between Tango and the mists over the water-- the place where he had promised to be.
Tango found himself sitting at the edge of the dock. There was something tied around his wrist, but he didn't mind. The tips of his boots were dragging in the foam.
"Tango, homie-buddie. It's freezing out here, you should come inside." Skizz had rested a hand on Tango's shoulder.
"Can't you hear it?" Tango asked, breathless as it came back.
The song was promising him the answers to everything. He just had to be here to hear it. To decipher it's song.
"Hear what?"
Tango was fighting against the pull of hands, trying to take him away. His friends-- not friends anymore-- they wanted to take the music for themselves-- "I promised! I promised--"
His mouth was full of the taste of blood. Blood and cotton and he couldn't hear the rush of the waves anymore. He was too warm. There were voices nearby.
"How is he?" Oh, Tango recognized that voice, that was Xisuma.
"Still unresponsive. Is Ren-?" That sounded like Impulse.
"The same way."
Impulse sighed, "He's too quiet. Tango's never been this quiet."
"I'm listening." Tango had to listen otherwise he might miss the music.
He couldn't remember who the music went to, but-- It was someone he needed to be there for. How long had it been? He needed to get back to the water.
Tango was on his feet, trying to push past the arms holding him back. There was a snarl pooling on his tongue, frustration sparking deep in his bones. He needed to get back to the water.
He yelped as someone slammed into his back, knocking Tango off his feet and into the grass. He writhed, kicking, his tail lashing and sparking as he struggled to get free. There was nothing in his inventory. He had nothing but his hands and his fire and the grass around him and they were closing in--
Tango was floating in the bay, Gem's conduit letting him breathe like he should be able to. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears, his fire was sputtering, angry about being underwater.
Well too bad fire, cause Tango was right where he was supposed to be.
As evidenced by who was in front of him.
The someone, the who he'd promised to be there for when he returned.
The song wrapped around him like a blanket, smothering the chill from the sea and guiding Tango close. He didn't quite remember where he'd met them before but he knew that this was the right thing.
Until he was out of the conduit's range.
Until the water that was so welcoming before now choked at his air and bit at his warmth.
Until the song that'd promised him everything suddenly disappeared.
A hand hauled Tango out of the water by the back of his shirt, dumping him in a sopping heap on the sand. He spit up half the ocean by the time he was able to breathe again.
He was hearing words, but he couldn't figure out what Skizz was saying. Or Impulse for that matter. The music was gone though.
It had abandoned him and now?
Tango didn't know what to do next.
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Siren!boyfriend who wasn't always a siren and who was never really your boyfriend...
you were a sailor who spent more time on a boat than you ever did on land. you stop one night in a harbor town and meet him. He's human and shy. A series of storms keep you in town for much longer than planned. He's cute, he offers you a space in his bed for as long as you need it and his place is certainly much nicer than your quarters on the ship
it's only a few weeks, it's not even dating, just sleeping together really, but he's in love with you, obsessed with you. when the weather clears up he begs you with tears in his eyes to stay to be his, and he cries when you tell him you can't stay. He asks if you'll visit him again, if he can write you letters if he can get a job on the ship just to come with you. The answer is still no.
He watches with tears in his eyes as your ship sails away, as you leave him. he's never felt this way about anyone. he can't think straight now that you're gone. and the thought that you're gone, maybe gone forever, makes his heartache
it's more than heartache, he can't breathe properly now that you're gone. life isn't worth living. the night after you leave he tries to drown himself in the ocean.
Only he doesn't die, he's saved and reborn as a siren.
it's more than he can ask for really, because now he can go where you go! He catches up with your ship eventually. some of his new Siren brothers and sisters pointed him in the direction.
he sees you sometimes. as you work on the ship, as you lean over the edge of the railing to look at the endless blue, the blurring of the ocean and the sky at the horizon. and he gets to watch you.
what surprises him most about his new body, besides the tail, the gills the not being human anymore, is how hungry he is for you. he can smell you, and while he'd desired you in his human life this is different. he keeps having to push away fantasies where he bites down on your throat and your skin and muscle would break away in his mouth. He can almost taste the way your blood blooms into his mouth, melting on his tongue like butter.
But he loves you! you're his soulmate! he would never hurt you... your crewmates are nowhere near as lucky. if anyone of them gets too close or lingers alone for too long, Your siren Boyfriend will gladly sing to them, call to them until they slip over the edge of the boat and to his wanting teeth.
for a while thats enough for him. watching you when he can and eating everyone else. but he's hungry for more. He's been a siren for a while how he's sure that he can have you and not eat you... probably. he still remembers what humans need and he's sure that he can provide.
so one night when he catches you alone. he sings for you, a beautiful irresistible song. one that has you stepping closer to hear more clearly, you don't even realize you're climbing over the ship's railing until you're in freefall.
like so many other sailors you fall into his arms, but unlike so many others you live. It may have taken him becoming a monster, but you're finally his.
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Atlas mentioned Kraken once on stream so I ended up doodling fanart because angst. @rhapsoddity your au is really good and awesome.
Oh, what’s this? A secret drabble related to the art below the read more?
Boots stomp roughly against the asphalt as the two sprinted through the city. The skies above were overcast tonight, already having rained once. Sheriff’s breath came out in rough puffs as he pushed through the cold, eyes locked on the villain who continued to call back to him.
“Hurry along, little Cowboy! Where’s all the arrogance you normally have? You’d usually land a hit on me by now!”
“Arrogance? You’re mistaking me for Stratos, pal.”
He bites his lip as he pulls his hat down more onto his head, wind whipping around them threateningly. He can already feel his throat itching from the weather, no doubt a cold or some sort of ailment for wearing drenched clothes.
He roughly had to pull himself out of his own thoughts when Kraken suddenly drops down, swinging his knee up and ramming the vigilante hard in the chest before pulling hard on his lasso and swinging him forward once more for a second hit. Before the Sheriff can catch a second wind, he feels his body suddenly shift as the puddles around surge up and wrap around him, throwing him a few feet off the street and onto the docks.
He struggles to stand up, only for the water still around him to slam him back down, head colliding roughly with the wood.
“You know how rude it is to ignore someone when you’re in the middle of an encounter, dear Sheriff! If I didn’t know any better, I’d have assumed you’d been purposely ignoring me.”
He snarls, opening his mouth to argue-
Before his vision is swarmed with shifting shades of blue in the dark night, the water effortlessly forming completely around his form rather than just around his arms. He chokes as he feels it threaten to flood his throat, his lungs. For a moment, a spike of fear creeps into his chest as he tries to writhe free. He’s trapped, and he can’t see, can’t breathe, can’t do anything-!
He can only hear the water, footsteps… and muffled shouting?
He can feel himself shifted around as the shouting gets louder before suddenly going quieter, before a gloved hand roughly grabs his bandana and jerks him out of the water that flows around the pirate who seems to smile at him as much as is visibly possible with that mask over his mouth.
“Good news! Your involuntary assistance of acting as bait helped me catch that slippery little pest that’s been trailing me all week!”
Sheriff coughs and spits up water before slowly blinking his eye a bit more open. His fear only deepens as his focus is directed to the figure suspended over the larger mass of water.
Pyrolisk’s legs flail and twitch uselessly as he tries to kick at the villain, arms and head restrained and slowly drowning the fire based hero. His mouth moves, but any shouts are muddled out by the intense bubbling caused from his repeatedly doused flames. Any chance he manages to get his hands free, more water waiting below quickly surge up and secure him once more.
“S-Stop! Please! Leave him alone!”
Kraken doesn’t take his eyes off the hero, hand slowly closing more and compressing the water firmer around the hero’s head.
“Let him go! I- I’ll go with you if you leave him alone!”
The water stops and Kraken’s cold eyes slowly shift to him, eyebrow raised in silent question.
“The… the last time we fought, you said you’d wanted me, right? A-And Pyro intervened! So just let him go, I’ll go willingly!”
Kraken fully turns to him now, other hand still prepared to close fully.
“And what’s stopping me from just offing this hero and taking you regardless?”
Sheriff winces before slumping his head down.
“If… If you kill him, then you can’t hold this victory over him. You can’t brag to him or the other heroes that you’re the most dangerous threat around, and he’ll be proof that he’s only alive because you let him live…”
It’s agonizing how long the silence afterwards follows, especially when Pyrolisk’s movements start to slow down. The water is obscuring his face in shadows, no longer sizzling or boiling as his hands start to go slack. Then the water jerks forward and Pyro chokes a gasp as he’s slammed against the concrete, body trembling as it focuses on coughing up the water in his system.
“Normally I’d have let him die, let him sink. But, you do speak a point.”
Sheriff yelps as he’s slammed roughly to the floor, Kraken’s hand now outstretched to him. There’s a flash of pain before a sudden tightness in his nerves and veins, muscles flexing and throat dries as his body slowly rises up. The villain easily steps over the hero, only stopping to kick his back and rest his heel over his spine.
“Let this be a reminder to mind your damn business next time, okay?”
He looks up to Sheriff, a cruel glint in his eyes as he motions with his finger to follow along.
“It’s time to go, pretty boy~ This isn’t a request.”
Pyro weakly watches, with dots of darkness forming in his vision, as the Sheriff follows almost mechanically after the villain, gaze refusing to meet the hero’s. He slowly reaches out, hand trembling.
“D..on…t…”
His vision blurs before his eyes shut, hand dropping as unconscious settles in finally.
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