CYOA - Life and Death Situations (Patreon)

Chapter 1 – warnings: incarceration of mythical creatures;  past loss of limbs (no graphic mention)

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Lúcio is in the kitchen chopping up some of the larger fish into more bite-sized chunks while over the speakers the rushing of the ocean can be heard. It’s none of his tracks – he simply  likes listening to the sound of the water crashing against the shore and the screaming of the gulls every now and then; just to remind himself what the real deal is all about.

He thinks in his line of work it is important to not lose sight of the important things. Saving the lives in the ocean, first and foremost – though it admittedly has become more and more difficult to keep in mind since…

He shakes his head, frowning, annoyed at himself. Keep focused, man!

When he has put the smaller fish and the chunks of salmon on a plate in a manner that he thinks is most appealing, he grabs the dinner and makes his way over to the living room. The sound of the ocean follows him along through the speakers that are installed all throughout his home. The closer he gets to the living room, however, the more clearly he can hear Gabriel as well, humming along softly – as if he can hear some kind of rhythm in the cries of the gulls.

There is an otherworldly kind of trill to his voice that Lúcio has yet to replicate.

He stands around the corner of the doorway, the plate of fish close to his chest, just listening to the sounds Gabriel is making – until their is a sudden silence. There is the sound of splashing and then the music from above cuts out into static before an ominous, deep voice says indistinctly: “Smell the fish. Hunger.”

Goosebumps rise all along Lúcio’s arms. As he turns with a: “Comiiing!” the sound of the ocean resumes above them.

Gabriel is at the side of his water tank, arms stacked on the rim, flatly staring at Lúcio until the young researcher feels guilt creeping up in his chest. He stops smiling and sighs.

“I’m sorry.”

Gabriel does not comment on it but the little panel installed to his right temple blinks with ominous red lights which is more chastising than Lúcio would like to admit.

He quietly takes the plate from Lúcio and, just to drive home that he doesn’t enjoy the attempted sneakiness, turns and moves away from the front of the tank to eat quietly somewhere in the dark back.

Lúcio lets him be; there is nothing he could do to explain himself anyway. Gabriel is fiercely intelligent, and he’s seen how volatile he’s been with the researchers that treated him like a dumb animal, so he doesn’t even try.

He wanders over to his couch while Gabriel is eating, and sits himself down. He stops the overhead sounds and instead switches the TV on, but his thoughts remain with work as per usual.

They have made out activity of more… hybrids, and they have sent a robot to discreetly investigate the scene. Lúcio is not sure what he thinks of the whole thing. He is excited, of course, but it makes him once more wonder about how ethically sound the whole endeavor is.

For now they’ve always been lucky in that the specimen they found have been… unfit to be let back out into the ocean by their own devices. But what if they find perfectly sound hybrids?

Lúcio stares over towards Gabriel’s tank again. It is as big as he could make it, but of course not nearly as big as Gabriel would like and need. Seeing him in there always makes his belly twist nervously in on itself.

He doesn’t have all of his tentacles anymore, but still the ink black lower half of his body is filling up so much of the tank…

Gabriel comes over to the side of his enclosure again once he has finished eating. He reaches over and places the plate on a little table next to it, then grabs the rim of the tank and starts to pull himself up. Lúcio gets up in an awkward half crouch, as always alarmed by the sight, but Gabriel is as handy about getting out of the water as he’s always been – and boy had those first few times in the research lab been scary.

Lúcio stays in the position he’s in and watches as the hybrid uses the inhuman strength in his arms to first pull himself up and then let himself down. The floor all around the tank is stone that immediately goes dark with all the water sluicing off of Gabriel’s body.

There is a weird shift as his tentacles curl in on themselves and seem to just… wither away. It always is a disturbing sight – but eventually Gabriel looks close to human. Instead of an octopus abdomen he is having human legs, one ending just above the knee, the other similarly littered in scars.

A life in the ocean is a life being a warrior, Gabriel told him vaguely when Lúcio had asked about all his wounds. Still, he yearns to be back.

Lúcio feels the same kind of twisted guilt watching Gabriel come towards him, handily crawling over the floor, but Gabriel is very adamant about not wanting help from humans, and he most of the time ignores the light wheelchair next to the aquarium.

“Oh, Gabriel,” Lúcio says softly and finally sits back down again. Gabriel reaches for him, the nails on his fingers as ink black as his lower body had been, and razor sharp to boot. He is very careful as he curls his hand around Lúcio’s knee, however, and Lúcio easily opens his thighs, cheeks feeling warm and belly prickling as he watches the hybrid crawl in between  them. 

Gabriel doesn’t know what he’s doing, he tries to tell himself, but… well. It sometimes becomes hard to believe himself.

He watches as Gabriel makes himself comfortable on the plush rug and leans his not inconsiderable weight into Lúcio’s right leg, one arm slung over his thigh. 

“You’re not mad?”

He reaches out and slowly drags his fingers across Gabriel’s scalp. He’s had long, wonderful hair once, but it had been matted down and tangled during his stay in the research facilities. And just a couple weeks ago Lúcio had installed the little panel at his temple, so they’ve kept it short, but now…

The overhead speakers crackle to life and the ominous voice rasps a simple: “No.”

The little light on the panel blinks simultaneously, then stops. Lúcio slowly drags his fingers along Gabriel’s scalp, gently scratching him the way he knows the hybrid likes. Soon enough, Gabriel’s eyes start to droop and he puts his head down, leaning it against the juncture of Lúcio’s leg and abdomen.

The first few evenings he had turned himself around to watch the TV, but he has concluded that he is not interested in the flickering lights and instead just sits turned towards Lúcio, watching him quietly relaxing himself.

It is a calm atmosphere, all in all. Lúcio never speaks of the research facility to Gabriel, and Gabriel never asks. At work, he makes up little fake progress reports that he feels awful for, but he doesn’t want them to know the things he actually gets up to with Gabriel.

And he doesn’t want them to take Gabriel away from him.

He slowly rubs his fingertips along Gabriel’s head, eyes on the screen, mindlessly touching the hybrid who is so sweetly nestled between his legs.

He’s told him multiple times he could sit on the couch with him, but Gabriel clearly seems to prefer this constellation for whatever reason.

He’s known him for almost two years now and still the hybrid is just one big secret to Lúcio.

He wishes he could tell anybody about it, but he doesn’t think his friends would even believe him. Who would have thought that mermaids existed? And that they’re weird Lovecraftian monsters?

Gabriel makes a soft, trilling sound and Lúcio looks down, watching as he shifts his position a little, his cock – very human looking in this state – sliding between his thickly muscled thighs. Lúcio can feel himself flushing immediately and averts his gaze.

He shouldn’t. He really, really shouldn’t.

As he keeps rubbing Gabriel’s head and shoulders he thinks that he needs to just distract himself.

Maybe he should check in on that robot they’ve sent out into the shallows of the coast? 

Or maybe he should call Jesse and ask him how life has treated him these past few weeks… It has been a while since he last just heard a nice, familiar voice that wasn’t his hybrid growling at him ominously through the speakers.