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fandomweekly2025-01-31 02:27 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2025-01-31 02:27 pm
Entry tags:
[#248] Mything Persons (Torchwood)
Theme Prompt: #248 – Mermaids
Title: Mything Persons
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG. Apologies for the title, I couldn’t help myself…
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Ianto and Jack suffer a slight mishap with some alien tech.
“Mermaids are supposed to be mythical,” Ianto said, sounding put out, maybe even indignant; then he corrected himself. “Well, they are on earth anyway, I suppose elsewhere in the universe just about anything’s possible.” Working for Torchwood, he’d seen plenty of things and beings that, according to most members of earth’s scientific community, shouldn’t exist.
Jack shrugged carelessly, which was a rather strange sight on account of his tentacles, and his lack of shoulders. “There’re plenty of sentient aquatic and semi-aquatic races on other planets,” he agreed. “Even a few highly intelligent ones here on earth. Never met any that completely fit the description of the mermaids in earth legend and mythology, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s a big universe, full of variety. I’m sure there must be some fish-tailed humanoids somewhere.” He smiled reassuringly, at least Ianto thought it was meant to be a smile, it was difficult to be certain in his current form; his mouth wasn’t exactly designed for human facial expressions. Neither was the rest of his face, come to that, although the weirdest thing from Ianto’s point of view was that Jack’s hair was unchanged.
“Yes, well, none of that helps us right now.” Ianto perched on a large boulder, half in the water, idly flapping his silvery-blue tail as Jack bobbed on the surface a few feet away, watching him. “Can’t really go back to the Hub like this, can we? It’s not like either of us can drive.”
They’d come out to this beach, a few miles along the coast, a couple of hours ago, searching for something that had come through the Rift, eventually pinpointing its location among a jumble of rocks scattered at the base of the cliff at the far end of the bay. Since it had been high tide, they’d had a bit of difficulty getting to their prize, having to pick their way from rock to rock, trying to keep from falling into the water, and when they’d got there, they’d discovered it had slipped into a narrow cleft between two of the rocks.
Retrieving it had not been easy, the device had been wedged in so tightly it had taken both of them, plus the tyre iron from the SUV’s boot, to prise it out, which was when things had started to go a bit pear-shaped… As Jack had picked it up to examine it, they’d become aware of a curious deep, throbbing noise, just on the edge of hearing, then a flickering blue-green light had flowed over them, rippling and pulsing like the aurora borealis. A wave of dizziness had overcome them, and they’d both passed out, although not before Jack had managed to throw the device towards the beach, where it now rested on the sand, well above the high tide mark, and out of their reach, since the tide was already on its way out, and they could no longer leave the water.
What had once been Jack’s arms and legs undulated sinuously as he bobbed about on the gentle waves, most of his body submerged, breathing through his gills. Only his top part, incongruously adorned with his hair, and the occasional gesticulating tentacle broke the surface. He looked a bit like an octopus, although he only had six tentacles, and his mouth was a round, pouting circle when he wasn’t talking in a rather burbly but still Jack-like voice. His skin was sea-green and strangely textured, and his two longest tentacles had pinkish suckers on the undersides of the paddlelike formations at the ends that served as his hands.
Then there was Ianto, in all his mermaid, or more accurately merman glory, a long silver-blue fish tail, complete with flukes at the end, in place of his legs and feet, and silvery scales spreading up past his waist to blend with smooth, pale blue skin. His arms and hands were mostly the way they’d been before, except that he now had webbed fingers. He also had gills in his neck, and his greenish hair resembled seaweed fronds. Unlike Jack, he could breathe as well out of water as he could in it, but he couldn’t walk, and when he’d tried to crawl up the beach to get the device responsible for their transformation, the sand and pebbles had torn his skin, so he’d retreated to the water again.
“We can’t even contact the others for assistance!” Ianto said, slapping his tail against the surface of the water in annoyance. Jack’s Bluetooth earpiece had fallen into the sea when his ears had disappeared, and Ianto’s had been in his pocket, which was no help now, since his clothes had vanished during his transformation.
Jack tapped Ianto’s tail with a tentacle to get his attention. “We don’t need to. We’re already in the water, so we can just swim back to Mermaid Quay… aptly named, under the circumstances, you’ll fit right in there.”
“Haha.” Ianto didn’t sound amused. “And what do we do when we get there? Ring the bell at the tourist office and wait?”
“The whole quay is under surveillance, you know that; as soon as we’re picked up on camera, the team will investigate. Now come on!” A tentacle coiled around Ianto’s tail, pulling him into the water with a splash.
Ianto blinked his eyes beneath the surface and glared at his lover, then turned with a swish of tail and swam out into the deeper water; they were a good fifteen miles from Cardiff, it would take them a while to get back. Then the team would have to drive out to the beach, collect the device, and the SUV, and return to the Hub, before they could even begin trying to figure out how to restore their colleagues to normal
He just hoped they’d be careful handling the device, or Mermaid Quay was going to be home to a whole colony of mermaids and squid people, and Torchwood’s ability to do their job would be seriously compromised.
The End
Jack shrugged carelessly, which was a rather strange sight on account of his tentacles, and his lack of shoulders. “There’re plenty of sentient aquatic and semi-aquatic races on other planets,” he agreed. “Even a few highly intelligent ones here on earth. Never met any that completely fit the description of the mermaids in earth legend and mythology, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s a big universe, full of variety. I’m sure there must be some fish-tailed humanoids somewhere.” He smiled reassuringly, at least Ianto thought it was meant to be a smile, it was difficult to be certain in his current form; his mouth wasn’t exactly designed for human facial expressions. Neither was the rest of his face, come to that, although the weirdest thing from Ianto’s point of view was that Jack’s hair was unchanged.
“Yes, well, none of that helps us right now.” Ianto perched on a large boulder, half in the water, idly flapping his silvery-blue tail as Jack bobbed on the surface a few feet away, watching him. “Can’t really go back to the Hub like this, can we? It’s not like either of us can drive.”
They’d come out to this beach, a few miles along the coast, a couple of hours ago, searching for something that had come through the Rift, eventually pinpointing its location among a jumble of rocks scattered at the base of the cliff at the far end of the bay. Since it had been high tide, they’d had a bit of difficulty getting to their prize, having to pick their way from rock to rock, trying to keep from falling into the water, and when they’d got there, they’d discovered it had slipped into a narrow cleft between two of the rocks.
Retrieving it had not been easy, the device had been wedged in so tightly it had taken both of them, plus the tyre iron from the SUV’s boot, to prise it out, which was when things had started to go a bit pear-shaped… As Jack had picked it up to examine it, they’d become aware of a curious deep, throbbing noise, just on the edge of hearing, then a flickering blue-green light had flowed over them, rippling and pulsing like the aurora borealis. A wave of dizziness had overcome them, and they’d both passed out, although not before Jack had managed to throw the device towards the beach, where it now rested on the sand, well above the high tide mark, and out of their reach, since the tide was already on its way out, and they could no longer leave the water.
What had once been Jack’s arms and legs undulated sinuously as he bobbed about on the gentle waves, most of his body submerged, breathing through his gills. Only his top part, incongruously adorned with his hair, and the occasional gesticulating tentacle broke the surface. He looked a bit like an octopus, although he only had six tentacles, and his mouth was a round, pouting circle when he wasn’t talking in a rather burbly but still Jack-like voice. His skin was sea-green and strangely textured, and his two longest tentacles had pinkish suckers on the undersides of the paddlelike formations at the ends that served as his hands.
Then there was Ianto, in all his mermaid, or more accurately merman glory, a long silver-blue fish tail, complete with flukes at the end, in place of his legs and feet, and silvery scales spreading up past his waist to blend with smooth, pale blue skin. His arms and hands were mostly the way they’d been before, except that he now had webbed fingers. He also had gills in his neck, and his greenish hair resembled seaweed fronds. Unlike Jack, he could breathe as well out of water as he could in it, but he couldn’t walk, and when he’d tried to crawl up the beach to get the device responsible for their transformation, the sand and pebbles had torn his skin, so he’d retreated to the water again.
“We can’t even contact the others for assistance!” Ianto said, slapping his tail against the surface of the water in annoyance. Jack’s Bluetooth earpiece had fallen into the sea when his ears had disappeared, and Ianto’s had been in his pocket, which was no help now, since his clothes had vanished during his transformation.
Jack tapped Ianto’s tail with a tentacle to get his attention. “We don’t need to. We’re already in the water, so we can just swim back to Mermaid Quay… aptly named, under the circumstances, you’ll fit right in there.”
“Haha.” Ianto didn’t sound amused. “And what do we do when we get there? Ring the bell at the tourist office and wait?”
“The whole quay is under surveillance, you know that; as soon as we’re picked up on camera, the team will investigate. Now come on!” A tentacle coiled around Ianto’s tail, pulling him into the water with a splash.
Ianto blinked his eyes beneath the surface and glared at his lover, then turned with a swish of tail and swam out into the deeper water; they were a good fifteen miles from Cardiff, it would take them a while to get back. Then the team would have to drive out to the beach, collect the device, and the SUV, and return to the Hub, before they could even begin trying to figure out how to restore their colleagues to normal
He just hoped they’d be careful handling the device, or Mermaid Quay was going to be home to a whole colony of mermaids and squid people, and Torchwood’s ability to do their job would be seriously compromised.
The End
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