Gemma Walker Bronze

Walter was actually a bit surprised he’d gotten this far already.  A lot of the residents here seemed a bit hesitant to have him poke and pry, to say the very least.  And she seemed exactly the type to tell him to fuck off.  He prepared himself for his pitch once again.  “I’m working on a story about the citizens of Port Vale and their belief in mermaids, and what they believe in, and why they do.”  Walter looked over at a t-shirt behind her, cringing at the pun, then turning his attention back.  He had to admit, her vibe did not really match the atmosphere of the kitschy shop.  She seemed very serious.  Maybe that meant she was serious about her work?  Or that she didn’t want to be here.  Walter nodded, pretty much knowing when he came in here that he wasn’t really going to get the answers he wanted.  But he gave it a shot, pulling out his pen and paper from his bag.  “Would it be fair to say that sales from people in the town are few and far between, that your main focus is on selling to tourists?”  Walter asked another.  “When it’s off-season, like now, is it usually as dead as it seems to be now?”

-

Gemma nodded slightly, as if Walter’s description of his article was enough information to go on. She had a lot of questions - why he’d chosen this topic, what he thought of the residents’ beliefs himself, how much he’d gathered on what exactly it was they believed and why. But as was the case with Steph and now Renzie, she was worried about asking too many questions about his viewpoint. Having too much interest in the subject herself could lead one to wonder why she cared, after all. “My focus is on selling souvenirs to whoever comes into the gift shop with an interest in buying something - I'm not sure about museum’s strategy overall,” she hedged. “I wouldn’t say it’s always this empty in the off-season - there are ebbs and flows, just like anywhere else in town." She didn’t actually have a point of comparison for how those ebbs and flows looked as opposed to museum patronage during tourist season, but it seemed best not to mention that unless she was specifically asked. 

   xx

     Gemma was correct in assuming that Ridley had put plenty of thought towards material belongings, and their unlikelihood of surviving submersion. She knew she would have to give up most, if not all, of the stuff she obtained on land… and the thought upset her. “Um, no,” Ridley shook her head lightly, lying in reply to the question. It was better to keep her attachment to the things she’d stolen quiet, for now. There was always the option of a storage unit, which she’d recently learned about, but that only brought more questions up… “Hey, Gemma? So, I was, uh- I was wondering. Do you think when this is over you’ll, like, send more of your sirens to land?” Her conversation with Lena was still heavy on her mind - and Ridley had been coming up with ideas of her own to suggest to Nereida, when given the chance. 

    As a frequent traveler, Ridley passed security with ease - chatting with the sirens and pretending she felt absolutely fine. In fact, she was so good at pretending, she almost didn’t notice at first that the ache deep in her bones was already beginning to relieve. “Um… I’m fine, actually,” Ridley answered through a mouth of fish, already digging in the moment she saw the station with food set up. “I’m, like, way less tired, and-” She swallowed and flashed a smile, all fangs and her hair a floating halo around her shoulders. “I hurt less. Do I have a fever still, can you check my head?” 

-

Gemma wasn’t sure if Ridley was being entirely straightforward with her, but let the matter drop - it wasn’t as if she particularly needed to know what Ridley had thought on the subject of bringing items back to Assryia with her. If the woman didn’t want to talk about it, the topic was really of no use to her. She glanced at Ridley, pondering what might have driven her to ask about sending sirens to land. “That would depend on several factors,” she hedged. “Whether or not any more have an interest in going, for one.” There were many more considerations, but it was best to focus on the factor that revealed the least about any forward-looking strategies - especially when they were not in secure waters. 

Once they crossed over into the Coral Sea, Gemma watched Ridley carefully. The siren seemed to be doing alright, but it was good to hear it confirmed. “Of course,” she agreed, moving to check Ridley’s temperature. “You might be a little warm, if anything - but I wouldn’t call it a fever.” If she had to guess, even that would no longer be the case sooner rather than later. Fascinating. “I’ll check again in a short while. While we wait - how else would you describe the changes in your condition so far?” She wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t any other changes yet, but wanted to be sure. 

Astoria nodded, still looking back rather guarded towards Gemma. “Yeah, that’s right.” She quite liked the flower store, she’d been learning a lot about different plants and flowers, all these variations that she found so fascinating and pretty… though she knew she wasn’t here for that. “The mermaid museum.” She couldn’t hide the face she made, shaking her head. “That place seems really popular.”

-

"Far more popular than it ought to be considering everything in there is wildly inaccurate. I suppose that if we are to live in a town where some do believe in merfolk though, it is good that none of the ‘information’ in that museum will bring them any closer to identifying us. It is rather exhausting to work there in any capacity, but it is helpful that I now have an idea of what exactly it is some of the people in this town may believe. I could share that information with you sometime, if it would be of value to you.” In her role as captain Gemma wasn’t typically one to offer something to a mermaid for nothing - but given their current circumstances, any goodwill she might gain from sharing information that wasn’t particularly sensitive was far more valuable than anything else she might be able to ask for in exchange.

  xx

    With only a couple of words, Gemma managed to send Isidore from a tentative calm to a harrowing sense of dread, his heart dropping into his stomach. Disturbing news. Well, that could be a good many things, but as Gemma continued… Isidore’s dread only grew. Her expectant gaze lingered, and after a second, he realized - oh, she didn’t know he didn’t believe in it, that he’d never believed. “The seafoam curse?” He echoed, blinking and giving a low sigh. “It was never real. I thought everyone knew the hippocampi weren’t believers,” His voice took on a bit of a negative tone, always a bit brittle when faced with the differences of opinion that Isidore held against most Assyrians. If Gemma was to know the truth of his behavior lately, either from him or from rumors, Isidore didn’t want to rile any other feathers. 

    “What did Renzie tell you?” He asked, finally, expression more grave than he meant it to come across - and after a hesitation, Isidore realized that if anyone were to be spilling the beans to Gemma, it would probably be Stephanie. Would she even care to protect him anymore, after his deceit? “Oh. Steph. What did she say to you about that?” 

-

Even if she wasn’t sure if she was prepared to fully let go of her own belief in the curse, it wasn’t entirely surprising to hear that Isidore had never believed - especially given the circumstances. And she supposed she didn’t particularly care what he believed, so long as those beliefs didn’t lead to actions that put her or anyone else in danger. She would have thought that surely he wouldn’t share his secrets with humans in town whether or not he believed in the curse - but if he had kept his secret, how was it that both Renzie and Steph were out there now parroting his beliefs? She supposed it was possible they could have come to this conclusion on their own, particularly given Steph’s closeness with Mellora. But...

“I do not think I mentioned Renzie or Steph,” she answered quietly. It was possible that he had just assumed it was one of those two who had said something, considering the Anands were the ones in town who went around talking about all things Assyrian - but considering the expression on Isidore’s face, it was looking increasingly likely that he had spoken with them in some capacity. “Neither of them told me anything; they still seem to think that I am human. But that certainly has not stopped them from asking others of my kind what they are, assuring them all the while that the sea foam curse is not real. I don’t suppose you know where they might have heard something like that?” Yes, she had learned in a group chat with the other sirens in town that Steph had likely learned this from Mellora, but that wasn’t the point right now. She wanted to know how Isidore would answer the question, and what she might be able to learn about how involved he was in all of this as a result. 

          “They are very nice, yes. Both much nicer than me.” Okay that wasn’t entirely true. Aylin was nice enough, but she also wasn’t entirely trusting of people. And some people didn’t exactly like that. Aylin just knew that she had to be cautious around all the people that lived here. That’s kind of the vibe she had gotten from Scylla. Or maybe well, she was projecting her distrust of Scylla onto everyone else. “No, they are not. Neither am I. We all met a few months back.” She liked most of the selkies. At least the ones that weren’t annoyingly trusting of Scylla. “But you know those people that you just meet and automatically get along with? They’re like my family. And no one messes with my family.” It wasn’t a very veiled threat, but it covered how she felt. 

-

It was true that both Vera and Silas had seemed kinder than the impression Aylin was making for herself right now, but Gemma kept that to herself. She listened carefully to what else Aylin had to say, doing her best to dissect for hidden meaning. If the woman had known Silas for years, Gemma would have guessed that likely meant she was a selkie - but just because they had only met recently didn’t mean she wasn’t. Referring to the two as her family after only a few months was something a human might do, but it also struck her as awfully likely if the three of them were from the sea and had been thrown into this situation on land together. “Yes, I do have some experience with that. I’m sure no one would dream of messing with your family - certainly not me,” she answered, thinking back to her arrival in the Coral Sea all those years ago. More important than her own experience though, was the way the words reminded her of someone else she knew here in Port Vale. “You know, you remind me a little of someone in town - have you met Amara?” She wasn’t sure if all of the selkies in town knew each other, but she was curious to see if Aylin reacted to her name.

Status: Closed for @gemmawalker​ Location: The Lighthouse

Amara had been finding ways to entertain herself while staying the night at the lighthouse. She enjoyed herself for the most part, the only downside being the rotations where she was stuck with Stephanie. But that evening she was with Gemma which she was infinitely more comfortable with. Gemma had been extremely helpful when it came to her ability to blend in, to Amara, the way Gemma could so easily fit in the with the humans made her feel like she fit in by association. It was a win-win cause Amara just liked hanging out with Gemma and having what felt like a genuine friendship. That was her own interpretation though, hopefully Gemma also felt the same way.

“So what do you think all of this is about?” She couldn’t help but wonder aloud, wanting to hear Gemma’s insight as she lounged around in one of the comfy chairs. “All of this makes no sense to me, like I have no idea what that whole party was for, and that big speech? Is that a normal thing people do or did I interpret the weirdness correctly? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.”

-

The last several weeks in Port Vale had been stressful, to say the least. First had come the knowledge that Renzie and Steph had progressed from believing in mermaids, selkies, and sirens to actually confronting people who they felt were not human. They had actually gotten some of those guesses right, too - and while it was a relief to know that her allies’ identities being compromised had not turned them to sea foam, the situation added yet another layer of complication to an already absurdly complicated situation. Maintaining her cover was as essential as it had ever been - especially after Victoria’s little stunt at the Valentine’s banquet. After the woman had so boldly stated that Port Vale was not a haven to mermaids (a statement which presumably applied to sirens as well), Gemma’s certainty that being found out would be catastrophic had only been reinforced.

She couldn’t just lock herself away in her cottage though - if anything, hiding away after a speech like that would be suspicious. Being involved in the town in order to further prove out her humanity was the only way forward, and it just so happened that volunteering at the lighthouse allowed her to do just that while also having the chance to snoop around an area she wouldn’t normally have access to. Her shifts could be trying depending on who she was paired with, but thankfully on this particular evening she was watching over the lighthouse with Amara. 

“It’s possible the phrasing in her speech was not intentional... but I think it likely was.” Sure, it was possible that Victoria had just meant to say that Port Vale was a haven to its townsfolk rather than mermaids simply because she did not believe mermaids to exist, but that seemed rather unlikely. “Based on my conversations with others that evening, Victoria holding a Valentine’s banquet was a highly unusual move even in the eyes of those who have lived here for a long time. That suggests she had some kind of purpose for it... I imagine it may well could have been to issue a warning to those she feels do not belong here.”

“More than anyone else here, I trust Lena."

Intelligence and compassion are probably the most important factors. Ideally a partner would have firmly held beliefs similar to her own and fiercely advocate for their people and/or the seas, but someone who simply respects her views would be acceptable as well.

N   :   NAUGHTY.   what is your muse like in bed?

F   :   FLIRT.   is your muse good at flirting? how do they flirt?

She can be alright at it when it crosses her mind to do so, but she’s had other things on her mind lately.