The cyborg mermaid – a chobits fan fiction

Another original piece of fan fiction on this blog. 🙂 Clonroise from Tumblr account @underneathoursouls wrote a Chobits fan fiction about the cyborg mermaid, with many Irish influences. The use of different fonts refers to inner monologue in this piece and the use of Irish will be translated at the end of the work and is written in italics.

He was floating. He was unconscious, naturally, but still felt the buoyancy of rippling water beneath him. It was a strangely comforting sensation, as though the waves were encircling him, embracing him with each toss and turn. More than that though, he felt his lungs being restrained. Not in the sense that he was incapable of physical movement, more that his body was simply unable to function in its usual manner. He stood there, an unrecognizable countenance on his face as he stared up at the rippling ‘sky’. It was a look of fear, and yet one of transfixion. Like a deer caught in the headlights, his fate was completely out of his control for the first time.

‘I can’t breathe!’

A flash of brightness sparked overhead, lighting up the facets of a creature’s face in the dull dusk hue. He couldn’t see her properly in that moment, his eyes had begun to blur from lack of oxygen. She was making her way towards him quickly, he felt as though he was moving downwards away from her involuntarily. Swirls began to surround his black shirt, trickling down his dark hair, making it look even wetter and sticking to the back of his neck. He scrunched his eyes in confusion and overriding fear. The creature reached her arm out, a long shell gripped in the other hand. She swept the damp hair away from his forehead and slicked it backwards, running her smooth hands through his charcoal locks. Her hand was warm, small and detached, yet gentle somehow. It was not something he was used to. He closed his eyes momentarily in utter disbelief that he was envisioning this.

He should say something now. No, he should do something now. Namely muster up the courage and the willingness to ask this woman who she was and where she planned to take him.

A clatter echoed in his ears as the large shell slipped from the woman’s grasp again. He almost smiled at the desperation reverberating from her body, as if she was a maiden attempting to rescue her star-crossed lover from impending doom. Her other hand reached for the human’s cheek, and both hands directed his impaired gaze towards her. But the currents raised between them, knocking the air out of his lungs, bringing him under once again as the vision of her tears mixing with the salt water burned in his mind as his throat burned in his chest.

Many people had these visions lately, sightings of the Merrow had become more and more frequent in the passing months – this increase was in fact due to the introduction of artificial Merrow, known as the cyborg mermaids. They were known in the country as murdúchann, praised for their uncanny resemblance to the sea-maids of Gaelic folklore, but just like the legends of old, the robotic counterparts were not easily controlled unlike other persocoms. Primarily built to recreate the fantasies of young men, these creatures acted more like the real thing than originally intended. Waterproof, agile cunning. Many had already gone rogue, particularly if owned by a female. Those who had disappeared searched for men of dathúil stature to claim for their own, rather than be dominated the other way around.

And that was how Tsuba Igarashi was pulled asunder by one of these AI’s without owners. Similar to those Celtic stories of long ago, he was walking along the beach near his home in Shimoda. It was late, so the area was all but deserted. He’d been working all day and needed the opportunity to relax before going home to his empty household, and so decided to take a leisurely stroll barefoot along the sand in an attempt to clear his mind. And that was when he saw her.

A woman from the waist up, and a fish from the waist down. A sea fairy, who was singing a melody that had him smitten within seconds. He didn’t have an idea what she was saying, it was in a language unfamiliar to him, and she looked out at the sea while he gazed at her, the echoes of her voice stretching out towards the choppy horizon.

Bímse buan ar buairt gach ló,
Ag caoi go crua is ag tuar na ndeor
Mar scaoileadh uaim an buachaill beo
Is ná ríomhtar tuairisc uaidh, mo bhrón.
’Sé mo laoch mo ghille mear
’Sé mo Shaesar, ghille mear,
Ní fhuaras féin aon tsuan ná séan,
Ó chuaigh i gcéin mo ghille mear

He walked out toward the rock she was laying on, arms outstretched, totally transfixed and uncaring if the waves brought him under. But she was too far out, and the water inevitably came crashing over him, knocking his legs out from underneath him, dragging him out to sea. The persocom was owned by no-one, and yet her programme screamed at her to save him, to protect the human’s life at all costs, as she hadn’t even caught sight of him until it was too late. And so, she dived into the water, to rescue him, and even when they were momentarily pulled apart, to fight until he was back on the shore in her arms. As to her, he was already in her mind her new owner, mo ghile mear.

THE END

TRANSLATIONS:

• Merrow = coming from Irish folklore, the female merrow was known as a beautiful sea fairy who would woo men with her singing abilities, luring them towards her on the shore. Most were kind, but they were known to have wild tempers.

• Murdúchann – sea-fairy/mermaid/sea monster

• Dathúil – handsome

• Bímse buan ar buairt gach ló,
Ag caoi go crua is ag tuar na ndeor
Mar scaoileadh uaim an buachaill beo
Is ná ríomhtar tuairisc uaidh, mo bhrón.
’Sé mo laoch mo ghille mear
’Sé mo Shaesar, ghille mear,
Ní fhuaras féin aon tsuan ná séan,
Ó chuaigh i gcéin mo ghille mear

– extract from the irish song ‘mo ghile mear’, the translation of this piece is as follows:

I am perpetually worried every day
Wailing heavily and shedding tears
Since my lively boy was released from me
And there is no word of him, alas
My dashing darling is my hero
My dashing darling is my Caesar
I have had neither sleep nor good fortune
Since my dashing darling went far away

• mo ghile mear – my gallant darling

Click here to read an original zombie mermaid fan fiction by Krista Holle, author of The Wind Whisperer (2013).