This is the one song everyone
Would like to learn: the song
That is irresistible:
..
Her hair spreads in the water, defying gravity, seems like a pool of blood. It is cascading and flowing like it has a spirit of its own. Red, bright and looks unnatural. It is natural however, her hair, her tail and scaled skin. Everything about her is sinful and seductive, from the smattering of iridescent scales that make a sort of ethereal eye shadow, to her lush, bare breasts covered by her abundance of hair, to the slight arch of her waist, slim and beckoning to where it flares out in a blue contrasting and shimmering tail. He thinks it is blue, but it is impossible to tell by the way the light catches and the colours change over and over again till he thinks he might go mad because she is so beautiful that he has noted, everything about her in the ten minutes he has been staring and has not once noticed the two sirens on either side.
..
The song that forces men
To leap overboard in squadrons
Even though they see the beached skulls
..
The song nobody knows
Because anyone who has heard it
Is dead, and the others can't remember.
..
He was a sailor, he isn't quite sure. He can't quite remember, nothing registers in his head except her. His name is Finnick and hers is Annie and for him, that is all that really matters. Vaguely in his dreams he sees huge ships, he was the captain, he can't quite tell, but the crew had been warned, they still they chose to take that route. He remembers music and singing. It is soft, repetitive and haunting. He can see his men jump to their doom in his dream but can't stop them. The song they sing, he can remember it and yet, the notes seem to slip out of his memory when he tries to hum it back to himself. Again, he wants to hear it once more.
..
Shall I tell you the secret
And if I do, will you get me
Out of this bird suit?
..
I don't enjoy it here
Squatting on this island
Looking picturesque and mythical
..
With these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
This trio, fatal and valuable.
..
She saves him. Annie. Slender, proud, beautiful, sultry Annie. On closer inspection, he can see fading feathers attached to her back. Distinctly he can recall a story he has been told on his travels. But his memory is fading like her dull red feathers. All he can think of is him and her and this moment. Her eyes hold melancholy of an otherworldly being and he aches to ease her pain. She smiles and tells him of her troubles. Her sisters are demanding, she tells him on the first day. How she longs to get away, the second time they meet. The pressure of being the handmaiden of a goddess, she hates killing, simply despises it. And he nods, he is in love, he will do anything for her. Anything. She is ecstatic when she hears this.
..
I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
..
Is a cry for help: Help me!
Only you, only you can,
You are unique
..
At last. Alas
It is a boring song
But it works every time.
..
She asks if he will save her, he asks if she will sing for him, she almost can't believe what he is saying, but a sweet smile she grants his wish. After all, they are lovers. It is her cry for help, only he can save her. This time she sings to him with a honeyed low rasp. It is the same song, soft, repetitive and haunting. There are five notes and magic of the ocean, he is confused because it doesn't sound as beautiful as it first did. He looks at her for an explanation, her hair spread around her like a robe, her eyes like slits, her naked breasts firm, her waist beckoning and tail poised behind her with a regal air. He moves towards her. After all, they are lovers. His spirit is broken, those five notes playing in his head over and over and over and over and over and. His body is a shell of himself. Annie. And he. He doesn't even remember his name.
..
Later, at the banquet, Annie sits beside her sisters. They look at her quizzically, noting the self-satisfied she is wearing.
"Another toy broken?" her sister asks her.
Annie smiles wider, "It just is so much fun this way."
A/N: For Estoma, because you like Greek mythology and Odesta.
Written for the last day of Shipping Week.
Written for Decorate the Palace at Caesar's Palace for the prompt, "different species AU."
Poem by Margaret Atwood, Siren Song.