bakerstreet | Blinded me with science

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Blinded me with science

more than E X P E R I M E N T A L

In this laboratory setting you've found yourself in - be it a shady, fly-by-night hackjob, a secret governmental facility, or a sleek, state-of-the art facility - there's no room for error. What's done is done for science: pure, perfect, uncorrupted by human foibles. Data is the only language spoken, reason the guiding light. And for all this progress to occur smoothly, everyone must know their proper role, from the specialists at work to the lowly crew...and, of course, any experiments involved. Some more bleeding hearts would feel sorry for the latter, but make no mistake, they're little more than lab rats. They are not to be pitied. Emotion shouldn't even be wasted on them.

Especially not an emotion as messy and useless in and of itself as romantic love. Why, you wouldn't want to jeopardize the breakthrough of the ages on account of some fairy tale, would you? Besides, it would be the most unfulfilling of relationships, for you could never be with your beloved test subject.

Unless.

Unless you broke them out. Such an action would be highly illogical and, more importantly, met with severe punishment. Are they worth all that?

How to Play
- Your character is either some sort of test subject/creature/weapon/misunderstood and otherwise tortured prisoner of science OR an outside party (scientist, doctor, janitor, visitor, journalist, sky's the limit). They meet their opposite. They fall in love. Bad Shit happens. Nobody's happy.
- Comment with your character, preferences, role, info, all the good stuff.
- Reply to others.
- Be tragic and miserable together.

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Arthur paused by the sleeping guard and gave him the security camera room keys, attaching them to his belt before leading on towards his truck. They all switched around who got the keys for the evening, he hoped giving them to another guard would add to the confusion.

"Just the gate guard." Arthur said, manually unlocking the truck and helping Phoenix into the passenger seat, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders and over his head. "Pretend that you're vomitin' okay? Here-" he took the bucket of basic supplies from the flatbed, tossing the items on the floor in the backseat before giving it to Phoenix. Bend your head over that and don't look up. Gavin's on duty tonight, usually don't ask questions about sick employees, germaphobe or somethin'"

He gave Phoenix's shoulder a reassuring squeeze then closed the door and went around to the driver's seat to climb in and start the truck.

Clever. Phoenix can definitely see the gang roots here. He allows Arthur to help him into the car, hissing as he’s finally able to sit down. His legs are on fire. It feels like he’s been running a marathon.

Phoenix follows instructions to the letter, putting his head down and hugging the bucket like it’s a lifeline. He channels the nerves of the situation into holding the bucket for dear life and starting to moan softly with his forehead resting on the rim as they approach the gate guard. He doesn’t try to imitate retching—he’s not sure he could even if he wanted to, since that’s not something fish can do and it’s not something merpeople can do in human form—but he can do a damn good impression of a nauseous human.

And that’s all he has to do. An impression. Don’t look up and let Arthur do the talking, and it’ll be okay.

Arthur reached the gate soon enough, Gavin getting up, setting a newspaper aside and pulling out a flashlight.

"Evening Arthur, you're leaving early aren't you?" he commented, though his eyes immediately snapped to Phoenix.

"Yea I'm taking David home, food poisonin' or something, ain't sure" Arthur said, giving poor "David's" back a rub.

Gavin pulled a face, "Well, you returning later or shall I mark you down as done for the night?"

"Probably best, gonna keep an eye on him, ain't got anyone at home so thought I'd stick around."

"You're a good man, off with you now" Gavin said, waving him on through and raising the security pole.

Smooth as silk.

Arthur didn't breathe again until they were out of the area and heading deeper into the city.

Phoenix doesn't say a word, hugging the bucket like he really is planning on getting sick for a wile. It's something that's self-soothing. As they get further and further away from the facility, his whole body starts to shake.

He sits up, pale as he finally puts the bucket down.

"We're out," he says. It's small, the first time he's really allowed his nerves and fear sink into his voice. Good God, he'd thought he was going to die in there.

And... he's not. They got out. He's free. Thanks to Arthur.

He waits, shaking, until the car is at a complete stop. And then he leans into the driver side and kisses Arthur's cheek.

He's happy to do far more than kiss his cheek, but maybe not when Arthur hasn't even had a chance to register his preference on the matter.

"Yea, but we ain't free yet, still got to get you to the ocean. I reckon we have two days tops before they figure out it was me. Hopefully by then we'll be long gone." he said, pulling into his parking spot and giving himself a moment to breathe, exhaustion creeping into him.

Arthur turned at the little kiss. "Uhh, what was that for?" he asked, a slight pink flush staining his neck and cheeks at the unexpected affection.

"What do you think?" Phoenix smiles. It reaches the corner of his eyes. "Helping me."

Proving him right again that there are good humans. That good humans do stand up to bad ones, and it's not worth it to shut out the world of land dwellers because some of them are cruel.

(Plus, you know. Being attractive. But mostly for the other stuff.)

"Oh. Well...you're welcome." he nodded with a small smile retuned. He got out and helped Phoenix, letting him lean on him as he led the way into the apartment building, taking the elevator up a decent way before getting out on the landing. Arthur unlocked his apartment door and let Phoenix in, closing and locking it behind them.

The place was sparse, he hadn't been living here long it seemed, and he didn't own a lot to begin with. There was a secondhand couch and a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter, a few books stacked beside the couch, no tv. He led Phoenix on to the bathroom where the tub of salty water sat.

"I hope I got the salinity right" he said, "Relax for a bit, I'll get you somethin' to eat." he said, heading back to the kitchen

Phoenix has to lean on Arthur a lot more now that they're not in the facility and his pure adrenaline isn't killing the pain in his legs. Honestly, it's a wonder he's been able to walk at all. His eyes soften as he sees the tub Arthur prepared for him. He really had thought ahead, hadn't he?

As Arthur leaves, Phoenix starts taking off his clothes. He tries to fold them, but he folds them like a child would, clearly unpracticed. The pants stick to the sores on his legs, and he has to peel them gently off, the insides spotted red and yellow from his wounds. The agitation makes some of them bleed again, so he's grateful to slide into the tub.

The tub is too small for him, but that's fine, because properly salted water in a small tub is a sight better than fresh water in a small tank. His tail appears again quickly, as do his fins and all the other features of his true form. He settles into the water so it passes through the gills at the lower part of his ribs, the tip of his tail sticking out from the water and tilted towards his head so he doesn't drip on the floor. He sighs in relief, risking a rub to his raw, blistered neck to ease some of the soreness there before pillowing his head on his arms on the edge of the tub.

"The water's perfect," he says as Arthur returns. Or well, it's as perfect as tub water can be. With the return of his tail, his voice has regained that hypnotic quality again, the magical enticement that could conceivably lure a sailor into drowning himself.

"Let me know if you need me to stop talking. Sometimes humans do weird things when I talk in this form." Which is part of the reason why he usually doesn't talk as a merman. He's had to dive in to save one too many drowning humans.

Arthur got out of his security guard uniform and into a blue button up shirt, suspenders and dark brown pants, usual comfortable attire for him. He then got a plate of deli roast beef and the rest of the hard boiled eggs he'd cooked up and returned to the bathroom, finding the merman had squeezed himself into the tub. Weren't anything luxurious but he was glad the water's salt levels seemed to be good.

He stared when he spoke, then shook his head. Weird...

"Yea, its strange hearin' you talk, like you're in my head or somethin'" he said, setting the plate of food down by the tub and leaning against the sink.

Edited (grammar) 2021-04-25 05:37 (UTC)

In this form, the fins rimming Phoenix's ears are more reliable indications of his attention than his eyes. They're relaxed, but they still fan out as Arthur begins to speak, flicking to wick off water from their tips.

"It's not intentional." He nods his thanks, beginning to pick at the offered food slowly but steadily. He's determined to finish it, but it'll take a moment because his ill health has killed his appetite. "It should be safe here because there aren't any bodies of water you'd need to throw yourself in to get closer, but let me know if you want me to stop talking anyway."

He gets that he's... influential like this, and not always in ways he can control or predict. And he doesn't want to spin Arthur's brains in circles if he can avoid it.

Every time he spoke it felt...strange...like he'd do whatever he asked of him. But he was aware of it.

"Your voice makes people want to drown themselves?" Arthur asked, then realized who-or rather 'what'-he was speaking to. "Oh, so you're like a syren? Or a mermaid...merman. Or are they all the same thing?"

Up until a few months ago he didn't know either existed out of movies and books and stuff, then he made Phoenix's acquaintance.

"Why didn't your voice lure them scientists into drownin' themselves in your tank?" Maybe he was more susceptible because he weren't as smart as them.

"I don't think they want to. They just... seem to forget that they will." It's a very strange and alarming thing to witness. Minding your own business, talking to a friend, when a random sailor overhearing you tosses himself into the ocean in an attempt to get closer and forgets he can't swim. Phoenix has long since decided to just avoid ships entirely. They seem to be asking for trouble. "I don't know what the difference is between a siren and a merman for you, but I'm pretty sure they're just stories about the same thing." Creatures like him, that is.

Phoenix lets out a huff, wrinkling his nose. "Because I didn't talk to them." One ear flicks like he's shaking off an annoying fly. "Some of it was spite, yeah, but also I just wanted them to let me go, not kill themselves." And even after everything, Phoenix would have been horrified to kill one of his tormentors. And what would it get him, really? A dead body in his tank, a lot of guilt, and a whole facility now seeing him as a homicidal beast. The risk of killing someone was too great for him to gamble on hoping his voice was convincing enough to get them to let him go.

Arthur suddenly found himself sitting on the edge of the tub. How'd he get here? He cleared his throat and moved back to the sink.

Part of the voice charm thing...Yea he'd have to be careful it seemed.

"They was waitin' on you to die so they could cut you up." he said "You was gonna just let them without a fight?"

Phoenix arches a brow, but otherwise doesn't react to Arthur coming closer. It's only normal, after all. And as long as there isn't a large body of water for Arthur to drown in between them, Phoenix doesn't mind if he gets closer.

"I like humans. I believe in them. I had faith that someone's conscience would win out before that happened." Phoenix's smile reaches his eyes, crinkling the corners. "And I was right."

And maybe it's stupid to put so much faith in that. Some of Phoenix's mer friends would certainly say so, and would have given him a good shake for not using every tool at his disposal to escape. But Phoenix doesn't want to kill people, and if his options are to have faith or take matters into his own hands and commit murder, then... well, he's made his choice clear, hasn't he?

Maybe it would have been different if Phoenix really hadn't seen a hint of kindness in that place, if Arthur hadn't been around spending time by his tank and sharing food, but Phoenix hasn't gotten anywhere dwelling on what ifs.

His smiling face is strange, the creature-Phoenix-had such spark left in him. Such hope for humans. All Arthur saw when he looked around was cruelty and hardship caused by others.

"You must have a better eye than me, friend. Ain't seen much good in humans. Ain't too good myself." he would have fought to his dying breath to be free of that place if he was in Phoenix's place, would have happily lured those bastards into the tank until it was so full of bodies it was empty of water.

"Just don't like seeing creatures treated bad."

"You just have to know where to look." Phoenix perches his chin on his fist, still smiling. "You see it most when humans have nothing to gain from being kind."

And Phoenix has had the opportunity to see. Yes, humans can be thoughtless and cruel, but he's also watched from the coast as a toddler spots a beached fish and carries it back to the ocean. He's seen the good in teenagers coaxing hermit crabs from plastic cups into hand-picked seashells, in humans building splints for birds with broken wings, in drunk boaters plucking sea turtles from the ocean to swiftly cut them free of abandoned fishnets digging into their fins before setting them back in the water. Those humans stand to gain nothing from helping the animals around them, and yet their first impulse is to be kind. Phoenix puts a lot of stock in that.

"You were kind to me. And you were brave. It means a lot." Phoenix has his own brand of strength. He can sit there in a tub far too small for him with a tail peeling from human cruelty and he can still see the good in people. After months of torment, what sticks out to him is the lone guard who shared food and decided enough was enough.

Arthur smiled sadly and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, unsure of how to react to that. Still weren't out of the woods yet.

But, one thing was for certain, he was in this for sure. This was pre-meditated and planned. He'd have to start again, wherever he ended up, and hope the law didn't try and catch him.

Running again.

But, he didn't regret it. If he got Phoenix to the ocean, it'd be worth it.

"Whatever you say. I need some rest, holler if you need anything though." he said, pushing off from the sink and heading out of the bathroom to his bedroom. He fell onto the mattress on the floor, staring up at the ceiling until sleep claimed him

"Good night," Phoenix smiles after Arthur, his ears relaxing into a mostly folded position before he pillows his head on his arms. He picks at his food, forcing himself to finish before going to sleep. It's hard to sleep too well, cramped as he is, but his sheer exhaustion and relief does a lot to carry him through the day.

But he still wakes up before Arthur. Already, color is starting to return to Phoenix's scales and to his skin. He takes a moment to admire his tail's recovery before pulling himself from the tub. He perches on the toilet lid, patting his tail until it forms two legs. He doesn't even bother to wait for the scales to recede, his ears to change, or for his skin to lose its iridescent sheen before tying a towel around his waist--purely for Arthur's comfort, whenever he wakes up--and goes to explore.

There isn't much to the home. Clearly, Arthur hasn't quite settled into the space. But Phoenix has been in human homes before--even slept over in them, in fact--and he'd like a chance to stretch his legs and show his gratitude.

So by the time Arthur wakes up, Phoenix is at work in the kitchen, frying eggs in a pan. It's simple--curiously enough, fish people don't get a lot of opportunities to cook with fire--but it's simple enough that he can actually do it decently. And Phoenix does it bare-chested, some blue scales still visible climbing up his back.

The door to the bedroom was cracked and if Phoenix had peered through he would have seen Arthur lying on his back, asleep on top of the covers.

He remained asleep for a good portion of the day, finally waking when the smell of food reached him.

He got up and headed for the kitchen, surprised to see Phoenix up and about, let alone cooking. His eyes travelled along his back, taking in the beautiful blue scales as we as the lingering sores.

“Hey, ain’t you supposed to be takin’ it easy in the tub?” he scolded lightly, “You know how to cook?” He also noted with surprise.

Phoenix turns his head to smile at Arthur before starting to plate the eggs. "I am taking it easy. I needed to stretch."

He's pulled a chair close in case he needs to sit down, but he needs to regain his strength by moving around and unfortunately there's no space to swim in the tub. So he's doing the next best thing and walking around.

"Cook is a strong word. I know how to fry eggs." This isn't the first human home he's slept over at. He offers a plate to Arthur, still smiling. "I thought it'd be nice."

He also realized he wasn't drawn to Phoenix when he spoke now, so it was only when he was in his true form.

Arthur chuckled and sat down with a thank you for the eggs, grabbing the salt and pepper before he did. "I appreciate it."

He took a bite, sighing at the hot food and sprinkling a bit of the spices on before taking his time with the simple meal.

"Where'd you learn to fry eggs?" he asked

"A friend taught me." Phoenix lowered himself carefully into his chair, the only sign he's showing that his legs still hurt. He picks at his food slowly once again, but he does seem to be able to eat more today than yesterday. "I like to go on land and pretend to be human sometimes. There's a lot of things here you can't use in the ocean, like books or electricity. So I've made a lot of human friends that don't know I'm something else."

Sometimes the deception made him a little sad, but for the most part, he's always genuine about who he is if not what he is. And he's not the only mer out there wandering around on land and taking full advantage of their dual forms.

"One woman tried to teach me how to make pancakes, but I think that might be a bit beyond my skill level," Phoenix says with a chuckle.

"You like comin' on land?" he asked with a cocked brow. If it were him, he'd remain in the ocean, free as possible. No obligations or anything, just able to enjoy life without being chased after the law or in need of things like money.

Arthur chuckled, "Afraid that's beyond me as well, if I want pancakes or waffles or anything fancy like that, I find a diner. Anything over an open flame however, and I got you covered." Meat, vegetables, hell even fruit was tasty and easily roastable. Baking and ingredients? He was lost.

"Yeah. I do. I like the ocean, but I like the land, too." Phoenix has always lingered around coasts for that reason. He doesn't think he'd be very happy staying just on land or just in the ocean--although getting cut off from the ocean would certainly shorten his life expectancy. "I'm not the only one. There are a lot of people like me who like to live on both. I'm just probably... more bold about it than most."

Most coastal mer don't go around couch surfing in human homes and kissing humans, but Phoenix isn't most mer. When he finally drags his sorry tail back home to the ocean, the number of 'I told you so's he'll get for getting trapped will be legendary.

"There are probably some people in the ocean who are really worried about me." Phoenix touches his neck sheepishly. In the light, it's now easier to see the ring around his neck left behind by the chain. Luckily, it looks less red than yesterday, less angry overall, but it'll definitely leave a scar. "I'll need to let them know I'm okay after this is all over."

Mer people just blending into regular folk. He'd been land locked most of his life, preferring the great plains and an open road, but the ocean and seaside was nice. Smelled a little weird.

Arthur noticed the collar mark. He didn't have much in the way of medical supplies, but after they finished eating he'd see what he had and treat the merman as best he could.

The mention of after it was all over had him wondering about his own fate. if he were caught, he weren't sure what would happen. Maybe just jail time, maybe they'd send someone to hunt him down. The facility was pretty hush hush about what was going on, making the news of merpeople public would be hard to hide if they caught and prosecuted him.

"You uhh, mentioned you could help me as well?" he asked. If Phoenix couldn't after all, well he needed a plan for himself once he dumped him in the sea.

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