𝓞𝓾𝓽 𝓦𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓣𝓲𝓭𝓮

Sap? What was sap? Gabi had absolutely no idea what that was, and it sounded like she should know by now. All of this time over the last couple of weeks trying to paint trees, and she hadn’t come across any sap. Well, she was in too deep with land culture to do anything but pretend. “No. But then I don’t have any use for sap. Are you allowed to get that? Who owns these trees? Everyone owns something.” 

While Seungho might not have meant it as a challenge, Gabi accepted it as such. It was a pity that humans didn’t settle things with physical altercations- how boring. She would have probably won because she knew that she was good at what she did. Or, well, she liked to think she would win even though she hadn’t had the chance to fight anyone but trees and a few confused humans like Steph recently. Anyway, what was important was that she was going all-in on the challenge.

➨🦆

She made a good point, unfortunately. Maybe. He wasn’t actually sure. He was too used to the innate generosity of this small town to worry about details like that. It would’ve been more accurate to say that he just assumed everyone else was as generous as him, always the first to offer the shirt off his back to anyone in need. Even to this woman, but he got the sense that she was the type to rather die than ask for help.

He really wasn’t offering up a whole lot of information there. Mechanic… Fish… Korea… The only thing she could tell they would have in common is probably what she held in common with most of Port Vale: a love of seafood. 

Nonetheless, that only made her more interested in dragging the information out of him. Of course, she would never come off so aggressive, but… The Cyrena in her head was much more aggressive, and crass, than the one that everyone else saw. 

“Boats… Hm…” She fucking hated boats. But she didn’t see how that would help to bond with this human, so she tried to pretend she didn’t think those contraptions were just obnoxious eyesores in the ocean.

“Me? No, I’ve just moved here recently. I don’t know much about Korea but I know this place is far different from where I’m from.” A gleam of honesty. “New York doesn’t have sunsets like this. You know?”

➨🦆

“They’re different here.” He agreed, taking a bit of time to gather his thoughts. Finding her also similarly guarded, he struggled to come up with something to say. He didn’t know much about New York beyond what Friends had taught him. There was also the matter of his sadness that he wasn’t sure if he had the energy to try to prove her wrong about. Did he even want to?

location: the lobster haven

time: Feb 14, evening

status: closed for @lostlikejetsam

Silas didn’t really know what he was expecting when Siobhan convinced him to sign up for the town’s Blind Dating event, but he figured he didn’t really have anything to lose. He had a few contenders around town that he would have liked to go on a date with, but knowing the mechanics of the event, he knew he didn’t really have a say on the matter. He had gotten to the restaurant 30 minutes early, circling the block around for another 30 minutes prior just to release some of his nervous energy. He had changed his outfit 5 times and contemplated standing up his date, but he worried how that might make him look.  He felt as though a lot of eyes were already on him at any given moment, so he really didn’t want to make a big deal out of this. 

He wasn’t even sure if they took his sexuality into account, and that helped to calm his nerves a bit. After all, he found it a lot easier to talk to the female population than any of the male humans. Male humans always just seemed to unnerve him for some reason. He checked the time on his phone for the 10th time and wondered if he should start a game of Pokemon Unite when he saw the Squirrel man enter the restaurant, looking around the room probably looking for his assigned table number. An uneasy feeling fell at the pit of his stomach, and he was praying to whatever was up there that he wouldn’t be going on a date with the man that saw him fall on his ass. 

No such luck in the stars, apparently.

Ronan hadn’t told Seungho anything, just to show up at the restaurant and look for table eight. Thinking this was an errand in some way he hadn’t dressed up, clad in his steel toes, grease stained jeans, and flannel his stomach dropped as he realized what he was walking into as the door closed behind him. His palms immediately became sweaty once he locked eyes with Tree Boy. 

Resistance. She liked the occasional chase. He seemed the very down-to-earth, logical type so far. She’d have to remember how to process that kind of behavior after spending so much time around Aylin.

Had she gone over solely because he looked sad? Yeah, probably. But that didn’t sound like the kind of answer any person would want, so she improv’d.

“Well, that and I enjoy making friends. You look like you would make an interesting friend… Are you a traveler?”

➨🦆

At least she didn’t completely deny it, even if that left him with mixed feelings. He knew he was sad, but the fact that he apparently wore that sadness in a way that had complete strangers approaching him out of concern was something he wasn’t quite equipped to face. Did everyone think like that? 

Her phrasing was interesting and perhaps not something other’s would notice but with English being his second language it made certain things stand out. ‘Are you a traveler’ stuck in his ears when most would instead ask ‘do you travel’. It sounded like a question he would say back when he first arrived, knowing the basics but still fumbling with their application. Being new in town was one thing, but also being from far away would only make things harder and he could sympathize.

“Mechanic,” he gestured in the direction of Shore’s, “Used to be a fisherman, back in Korea. I uh, I like boats.” Realizing how simple it was to summarize his life, he struck again but how sad that was. A man only needing 3 short sentences to explain. “And you? Just visiting?”

xxx

Brielle’s focus was pulled when she heard the undeniable sound of a duck quacking. What? She had to look up and make sure she wasn’t hallucinating because, wow, that was definitely not something you saw everyday. But, sure enough, a duck had been waddling towards her. She looked around, as if to find any semblance of an explanation for why this duck was approaching her; and, oddly enough, there was a man who seemed to be chasing after the aquatic bird with a baggie of seeds in hand. The sight was so bizarre and unusual that all she could do was burst into a fit of giggles. Sure, her life was far from normal, probably especially compared to any human’s standards; but, this was strange even for her. But, in the most delightful kind of way. 

As the duck stepped onto her blanket, her giggles continued and she smiled down at the water bird. “Well, hello! Aren’t you friendly?” She greeted, still giggling. Cautiously, she slowly reached out her hand and lightly stroked the duck’s feathers. Brielle loved animals, especially the aquatic kind. She then looked at the man and quirked a curious brow. 

“Does this duck belong to you?” She wondered. 

➨🦆

Himchan reveled in the attention, his little tail feathers shimming happily as he waddled closer. This one had earned his favour with her worship and well placed pets. He could forgive her for laying the infernal square of capture on his territory. Now if only the servant would provide him with sustenance. 

Seungho finally caught up to the duck but only because he had stopped. He was not built for running, being rather top heavy and suited for lifting things. The added exertion thanks to the sand had him panting, holding himself up by pushing against his knees. Lifting his head, about to scold the duck, he found himself stunned by her question.

“No,” he shook his head, “Himchan just follows me around sometimes.” If Seungho had a pet, it would certainly be more polite than that diva of a duck. “Sorry that he interrupted your morning.”

A summoning quack had his attention drift to the foul fowl, that pointed his bill at the bag in his hand before quacking again. Seungho’s eyebrows lifted incredulously, “you make me chase you across the beach and think you deserve a snack?” Quack.

Silas took a sharp breath which was followed by a hiss as pain shot up his shoulder and arm. He was more startled by the rattle of metal and other things that he was now realizing might be human trash. The squirrel was probably laughing in his little cubbyhole, by now, at his expense.  He blinked up as a shadow came over him before it was followed by a man. He jumped and clumsily crawled backward instinctively, his mind reverting back to when he was but a small sea lion pup at the mercy of his captors.

He flinched as the man’s hand came in contact with his head, shocked to find his hand had came back with a bit of blood. He must’ve cut his head on something. He gasped as the man proceeded to palpate his abdomen more in shock at the sudden sensation, than anything. His abdominal muscles clenched instinctively in guarding, recoiling back when he pressed against a ticklish spot. “Did you see where the squirrel went?” He asked, more to distract himself from the absurdity of the situation than anything.

➨🦆

Seungho’s hands retreated as he realized he was essentially patting down a complete stranger, regardless of his intentions. But the boy was moving and not acting hurt, so that was enough for him. Not that he would be much help either way as he wasn’t a doctor, just knowledgeable enough from having to fend for himself on various boats.

Mike had been wandering around town with no particular goal in mind for a little while now. This wasn’t uncommon, giving his small living quarters and tendency to seek out interaction with others. The uncommon part was that he hadn’t found anyone to strike up a conversation with just yet, but that particular problem was solved when he caught sight of Seungho carrying… was that a bag of thermoses? “Hey, Seungho,” he greeted, cheerful as ever. “Whatcha got there?” There was no concern in his voice or expression, just a friendly curiosity. “Anything I can help with?”

➨🦆

Turning, Seungho’s eyes crinkled as he smiled back at Mike, nodding in greeting. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to go a block in this town without running into someone he knew, but he was particularly relieved to have it be Mike. Throughout the years he’d yet to find anyone that could say something bad about the bartender, always warm and friendly but far more perceptive than he let on. It was the little things that stuck out, like how Mike would silently push him a glass of water between rounds back when Seungho drank, out of concern not judgement. In short, Seungho liked Mike because Mike was just a likeable guy.

“Hello,” he searched through the thermoses and wondered why he didn’t have the foresight to label them. Not that he would be able to read the labels anyway since he forgot his glasses again. “Are you sick? I heard people are getting sick.” Pulling out one, he unscrewed the lid and took a sniff, nodding in approval before holding it out, “Please try this.”

◇──◆──◇──◆ ── ◇──◆──◇──◆

Once he had looked away again, Cyrena allowed her expression the smallest change: a crease of fresh concern between her brows. Her instinct about him definitely wasn’t wrong… There was something deeply, emotionally wrong with this guy. She was almost more curious to find out why than she was inclined to help him… But those two things generally went hand-in-hand, she had found.

“You look like someone just tossed your puppy into the Sun,” she began bluntly. “If that’s the case, I totally get it and feel free to continue to visibly mope. Can’t imagine the shock you would be in. But if you’re just having a regular hard time, let me buy you some dinner. I can’t, in good conscience, leave you here without making sure you’re okay.”

➨🦆

“I don’t have a puppy,” Seungho began, utterly bewildered at the rollercoaster of this conversation. How would one throw anything into the Sun exactly? Was that a saying where she was from? He was never good with idioms. Reaching up to scratch the back of his neck, his eyes kept flicking between her and the ocean honestly not sure what to expect next. Now she was hitting on him?

“I- Thank you but no thank you. I already ate.” It took his brain a little bit to catch the nuance and details of her … pitch? “Did you come over here because you think I look sad?”

with @han-minsun

The warm morning rays of the sun tapped at his eyelids, making him let out a small hum as he shifted burying his face further into his pillow to try and block it out. Distantly noting that it was usual for him to sleep in but dismissing the idea just as quickly. Clearly he needed the rest. Although when did his pillow get hair? His arm flexed. When did his pillow get abs? Oh no.

Cracking an eye open, he tried to blink away the blur over the world before giving up. Recognizing among the blobs that he wasn’t in his room and knew exactly where he was. He didn’t even have the excuse of being drunk anymore why did this keep happening? That was a stupid question, he knew why. 

with @isidoredelgado​

The first stars of the night greeted him as Seungho walked down the street, having closed Shore’s rather late as he found himself ensnared in old fishing stories from one of the many retired seamen that liked to linger the shop. He always entertained them, brewing another pot of tea and having a spare seat that faced the water. For the most part the old timers were just looking for someone to listen so they remembered how their own voices sounded and he was more than happy to get lost in memories not his own. He always left those conversations having learned something, and this time he had something he knew Isidore would be interested in. 

It had been a while since he had seen Isidore, well a handful of days but that was long enough to be noticeable in this small town. So he took it on himself to seek him out, knowing this was time sensitive information. His knuckled rapped against the door to the pattern of the Wellerman and frowned as he found himself waiting longer than normal for a response. Worry overrode his manners and he tried the knob, poking his head inside to call out, “Isidore? Are you home?”

There was no real way around it: Port Vale was full of weird people. Gabi knew that she was a siren and relatively new to pretending to be a human, but a great many of Port Vale’s finest seemed to lack basic… stability. Yes, that was the right word. She had been on her way to finding a good spot to try painting when she noticed someone knocking on a tree. The movies had told her that this was what one did when they weren’t sure if someone else was home, but that usually happened on wooden doors- not trees. This was weird even if the guy thought he was knocking on a door.

“What are you doing?” It was less of a question and more of a criticism. Gabi was in a turbulent mood at the moment, and she was ready to take it out on somebody else. When the perfect fool presented himself to her, who was she to turn down the opportunity? “Whatever you’re doing, it doesn’t look like you’re doing a good job of it, so perhaps you should quit while you’re ahead.” If there was an adequate reason for this normal behavior, she ultimately did want to know.

➨🦆

He wasn’t sure how she made that question sound more like ‘just stop’ instead of an actual inquiring but he was a little impressed. But then she kept talking and Seungho was left with simple confusion. Last he checked these trees didn’t belong to her or anyone else. Standing up straight, he turned to face the stranger and immediately pegged her as an artist. Typical. Probably came to this town seeking some great inspiration.

☆.。.:*・°☆🖌

Emilia expected a response like that. Honestly, she was lucky she even got the one word at all. She didn’t really understand what she had done wrong, trying to think back to when she first got here, wracking her brain to think about what she had done to this man but nothing apparent came to mind. Besides his disdain for being photographed she wasn’t sure what kept him so cold towards her. She was lucky she hadn’t brought the polaroid camera out with her that day, she had a feeling this interaction wouldn’t even be happening at all.

She continued to give him a friendly smile though despite his lack of response, blinking in surprise when he handed her a different figurine from his pocket that she assumed he also made. “Oh, thanks…” she said as she took it in her hand and took a closer look at it. A seahorse. Now this just felt like a jab at her. A little hint to tease her and this newfound information Isidore had brought to her attention. No. It was just a coincidence, nothing more.

“These are good, who taught you how to do this?” she made sure her question was worded better so that he couldn’t give her just a simple yes or no answer. “Do you just do this for fun or do you make money off it too? Cause you know there’s a girl who just recently moved here, her name is Gabi, I don’t know if you’ve met her yet but she’s into wood carving too. And she’s really great at it! I actually bought one of her sculptures.” she told him excitedly, handing him back the seahorse as she started pulling out her phone, remembering that she took a picture of it after bringing it home. “She showed me a seal she made and I asked if she could make one for me too cause I liked it a lot. Do you wanna see?”

➨🦆

Seungho’s focused turned back to his carving, even when he put his knife away, just running his fingers along the figure. He knew what she was doing with her carefully worded questions, Steph did the same thing to him when they were pouring over the journal. In a way, he was grateful that she was making the effort, knowing that he would just slip into silence if given the chance. Like an eel squirming out of your grasp.

Taking her inquiries one at a time, he took in a breath, “My mother.” Yet another bruise inside his chest that he continued to ignore instead of treating. He took the seahorse back and put it into his pocket. “These are not worth selling. I’m not an … artist. Just something to keep my hands busy.” Although selling them would help him empty out his shelf, but then he would feel guilty by taking people’s money. His not-littering idea was sounding better and better the more he thought about it.

Watching her pull out her phone in his periphery, he found himself shaking his head. “Not in a picture, please.” Despite his effort to mind his manner, his tone dropped to a hard coldness and he found himself sighing as he did it again. She was being considerate and asking, he recognized that. Why was he being such a dick? Regret swirled thickly in his gut and had him blurting out the first thing he could think of, “In person? Let’s me see more. If that’s ok?”

.

Stella let out a frustrated groan. Now she needed to know how much she weighed? Scales didn’t exactly work under the sea. “I don’t know, but are you going to factor in both how much I weigh and how much worse it’s going to be because acceleration is going to increase the closer I get to the ground? You really, really shouldn’t offer to catch me unless you’re ready to accept those consequences,” Stella said, trying to use this time to imagine what a normal human was supposed to weigh. Unfortunately, she had thought that rambling for a while would buy her enough time to come up with a good guess.

Unfortunately, that hadn’t worked. Well, she had said that she didn’t know, which might have been that she didn’t know how much she weighed. Whatever the circumstances, the strange man below was either exasperating or especially strong. If she allowed him to try to catch her and it went wrong, then there might end up being two injured people, and at least one lecture in her future. Things weren’t looking good for getting down any time soon.

➨🦆

Based off her reaction, he knew that she wasn’t comfortable with just jumping so he didn’t press the offer again. Instead he rubbed at his chin as he paced around the tower, clearly trying to piece together a solution that would have her with both feet on the ground and him preferable not sore or worse. Although the state of him was a secondary concern, he tended to just get sore for no reason these days.

Not seeing an immediate pathway down, he decided he needed a different vantage point. Hoisting himself up the structure, he started climbing the outside of the tower with relative ease. This was designed to be a challenge for children after all, so even with him taking a not intended route he knew there was no real danger. He was used to having to climb up masts to inspecting rigging so this was honestly refreshing in its stability. Although he was having trouble figuring out how exactly she got up on the roof. Now inside the tower where people were supposed to be, he looked around before poking his head out.

Silas wasn’t all that much of an animal lover, unless you really counted seals, so he didn’t mind getting rid of a pesky squirrel when he was pretty much to menace to society. Sure, he didn’t plan to kill it or anything, he just wanted to catch it and maybe set it free… in someone else’s yard. He lived on a third-floor apartment, but that didn’t stop the rodent from find the tallest tree and chucking what he could only assume was twigs and bad acorns at his window, stuffing the rain gutters with all sorts of flora that it was filthy. He planned to smoke him out of the tree and catch him in his trap that he hung precariously on one of the branches. Obviously he didn’t know that squirrels had some semblance of an IQ otherwise he would have known that this plan wouldn’t work, but that didn’t stop him from perusing said tree, making sure to watch that the trap didn’t take any collateral birds in the process, when his food caught on something, causing a ruckus that scared a plethora of birds out of said tree. He came crashing down, instinctually covering his head to brace for impact as he fell on some metal cans, tins and rope. “What the hell?”

➨🦆

Not expecting to find a whole human being come crashing down in front of him, Seungho stared awkwardly at the boy for a moment as his brain caught up. That looked like it hurt and his knees gave a sympathetic pop as he stood up with an involuntary groan. Crouching for hours on the ground was not something he was built for anymore. But he could worry about himself later.

Approaching the boy, Seungho kneeled and let out a small sigh of relief to find him conscious and talking. “Let me see,” reaching down, his hand gently felt the top of the Silas’s head to feel for any forming bumps or gashes. Satisfied that they weren’t dealing with a potential concussion, he helped him sit up and watched carefully before pressing his palm against Silas’s ribs, “Big breath, please.”

with @mikethompson​

Despite popular belief, Seungho did have some idea of new developments that happened in the town. He was socially awkward and lost in his head, but living at the Mermaid Inn had the unexpected perk of being a bit of a hub for gossip. So he knew someone at some point had gotten sick with something in the past however long. He was never good with remembering details, especially second hand. But he wasn’t just going to let this happen. He’d been busy all morning, going back and forth between the Ocean’s Farmhouse and his room only to emerge with his arms overflowing with thermoses. Right a bag would make this easier. Re-emerging moments later now wielding a tote bag overflowing with thermoses, he set out to look for a victim, no test subject, wrong again, volunteer.

with @silas-waters​

It was the latest he’d stayed up in a while, perched behind a bush across from the Mermaid Inn with only the stars for company. Every once and a while his head would poke up from the cover of the branches only to shake in disappointment and sink back down. He knew it would come by again, whatever kept making those noises outside his window that kept waking him up for the past week. It was clear he was serious about this as he had actually remembered to wear his glasses in order to see what it was beyond a blob. Unlike last night. Hearing movement, Seungho shot up, rustling the bush in his haste, “ah, caught- oh.”

with @gabidrake​

Picking his way through the underbrush, Seungho would seemingly pause at random to bend down, intently examine a stick, only to throw it over his shoulder without a second thought. He was a man on a mission and treated it with the utmost priority. With a sigh, he put his hands on his hips and looked around, eyes only trained on the nearby trees and blind to everything else, like people or animals or really anything else that he probably should pay attention to. Squinting, because he had forgotten his glasses at the shop again, he pursed his lips in contemplation before trekking forward. Once at the tree, he reached out and knocked his knuckles against the trunk but that apparently wasn’t enough so he leaned forward and placed his ear against the bark and knocked again. He leaned back, hand still on the tree, and gave it a solemn nod. It had potential.