The curious story of Tina Dooley

[Ayem]

Overheard conversation in the Hood.

Everyone said Tina Dooley had a touch of the fey about her. She was an odd one from the start. She was Pato'€™s sister, but that can'€™t explain it all. Even he couldn'€™t drive someone that mad.

When their mother and father died, Pato looked after Tina, in the crippled transport with life support malfunctioning and their remaining air turning stale and becoming thin. He held her tight and kept her warm until the rescue teams came in. They were found huddled in a corner at the furthest end of the cargo hold, as far from the smashed bodies of their parents as they could be.

Perhaps that was when it started.

Tina would always beg Pato to take her along with him on this mission, or that cargo haul, or that stretch of recon. He'€™d almost always refuse, but sometimes they headed out into space together. Pato would be at the controls, and Tina would be watching everything he did, every star viewable out of the cockpit, examining the star charts. While they were out from Arranmore and met with traders and freelancers, in space or on freeports, or Hood, she would hear the stories that Pato was hunting. Stories about the blue fish, as he called them or the Nomads as others did. There was a war, most people said. A war they thought we won.

Pato would often head to Chester, where he saw the blue fish most. He'€™d take the jumphole on breaks between piracies, and have his lunch in the grey cloud where the blue fish swam. They came up to his vessel, and would play around it, and then return to the dark formation half-hidden within. Tina was there once, and the blue fish came close, and one pressed itself against the cockpit. The hull began to groan under the pressure, Pato leapt at it, waving his arms, trying to scare it off, but Tina stopped him.

She said '€œDon'€™t worry, brother. They just want to give me a hug. I showed them what it was.'€

Or at least, that'€™s what young Pato told me.

These days it'€™s worse though. She blues up her skin, and wears things.. some things I can'€™t even describe. I don'€™t know what they are. Some like frills, or fins, other times she wears contact lenses that make her eyes look inhuman. Most of the families in our part of Arranmore are spooked. But what can we do? She'€™s Pato Dooley'€™s sister, and you don'€™t mess with ought of his.

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