#lost line

Trying this out! This was written back when Calypso was a bit more one-dimensional, a bit more callous and a little less fond of her mortals.

*****

She gives him her best smile, the one that shows each one of her double-layered sharp teeth.

“You are not dying,” she tells him. Gives him a moment to digest her words past the sea rushing around them and the pounding of his too-quick heart. She adjusts herself on his piece of splintered ship. Plants her chin in her hand to lounge as best she can on the flimsy piece of wood. “You’re very lucky, actually.”

He hacks a spray of salt spit water into the sea. She wrinkles her nose a moment, but doesn’t otherwise react. This is a common occurrence, however nasty one it is. He blinks water and hair from his eyes before he speaks. “Who--” his voice comes out choked and raspy from the abuse of water in his throat “--what are you?”

She tilts her head. Her face softens. This is new. She’s never met a human who didn’t know the word ‘Kraken’. She’s been told that she looks dangerous even in her softer human form and there are only so many things that can pull looking human off while still sending the signal of being a threat. “Don’t you know?”

He shakes his head. His eyes are wide and white-rimmed. Scared? “What’s going on?”

She closes her smile. Feels a sting of irritation -- is she really so forgettable? She thought she put on quite a show. She gestures to where the rest of his ship is floating or sunken. The water is stained pink, still, and there are a few shark fins poking above the waves, lured by the blood. “Your ship sunk,” she tells him. “You are the only crew member still breathing.”

His reaction is palpable. He jerks back and nearly falls into the water, his face twists and lengthens in half measures. It’s amusing to see, his grief. Her appearance could have been prevented, if his captain had a taste for anything but gold, if he didn’t complain every time his crew tried to start a shanty to pass the time.

She is not unfair in what ships she takes. It is not often that she does this, even -- Poseidon calls up riptides and hurricanes on whims of anger. She takes ships for the principle of the matter. If one is going to dare to brave her domain, they better not hold distaste for it. It is tacky, she thinks, to make the ocean a part of one’s life when they do not enjoy the journey or the waters or those who rule them. Her sinking the ship and taking the crew as a meal is a small price.

*****

I thought these could be a fun thing to do. I tend to (aside from tag games) be pretty secretive with what I’m writing though I do also want to share it and this is a nice middle ground, I think. It’s writing and it’s from whatever but it’s old and changed so I don’t have to feel bad if it’s not perfect or if everything in it changes. It’s kind of an update, but... low stress. It might appear in the final thing in some way, but who knows? For now it’s a snippet, something that was taken out.