[Closed] @eidxiety🧜‍♀️🔬

[winterbolt]

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[eidxiety]

[He does not got it, he knows two things and "tank" is one of them. The other thing is that his skin is dry, yeah.]

Aa?

[No knowledge. He will continue to be flat here... he does feel like it's getting near the typical time Add goes home for the day, though. That's fine... he can survive the nights, but if Add doesn't come back in the morning tomorrow Ain's going to become evil.]

[dyn4m0]

[Oh don't worry Ain, you'll get MUCH better than that...Add taps at his laptop and continues to work for a while, until about a half hour passes and the loudest crack of thunder shakes the entire building, so violent that Add actually jumps with surprise. He could already hear it distantly raining, but now it's like. Rushing rain on the roof outside.]

Fuck.

[He hisses to himself as he gently slides Ain out of his lap so he can get up, walking across his office only to stop short when his phone be-beeps with a text. It's his supervisor...apparently the parking garage has flooded and anybody still at the office (which is like, a lot of people) aren't going to be able to get to their cars for a while. The safest thing is to just hunker down until the rain stops, so like...probably another hour? Not that Add is too mad about it, he's never been too mad about overtime, but it's already getting pretty late.]

[eidxiety]

[The crack of thunder being that loud makes Ain jump and yelp, but at least he's heard thunder before. He knows what it is, it's just never sounded so... metallic before. And suddenly there's a lot of noise from outside, too, that sounds like rain but way too violent.

Unsure what to think when Add pushes him off, Ain cowers under the desk and whines. Then there's another music note from the box, which he mimics the sound of as Add stands there looking frustrated.]

Aa?

[He can see where Add's brow is scrunched, so he taps between his eyebrows. Why mad??]

[dyn4m0]

[Frustrated though he is, he hates seeing Ain scared like that. He knows he doesn't understand, so he'll...try to explain.

He comes over, crouching in front of where Ain is hiding as he shakes his head.]

No, no mad. [He points to his own brows, then forces himself to relax.] Not at you. I'm caught up in a storm that's rained us out. I'm probably not going to make it back home tonight if my car's flooded.

[Here- he reaches under the desk and takes one of Ain's little webbed hands, carefully coaxing him out.]

Let's get you back in the tank so I can go check on it.

[eidxiety]

[Honestly, Ain is more scared of the storm than Add. Storms in the open ocean are horrifying, and though he's dealt with them before, it doesn't mean he likes hearing them. Especially not this loud and artificial-sounding through the metal and brick that makes up the building. It makes him think that the whirlpools are going to open up under the building and swallow everyone and then Add will drown because he's a human or Ain will get ripped apart or—

Anyway, he creeps out from under the desk and wiggles on over to his tank as usual, plopping into the water. In here, it's harder to hear the rain, so that's comforting at least.

Add must be going home, but won't the rain kill him? Can humans get wet?? Ain looks concerned, but doesn't say anything else, floating there while he watches Add leave.]

[dyn4m0]

[Add's gone for a while. He checks up with his coworkers, then grabs an umbrella to see what the damage is in the parking garage, only to be stopped outright by the custodian who won't let them open the door. He's already set up a ton of sandbags in front of the doorjamb because the water has reached a standing level of about a foot due to flash flooding. They are Not getting outside without flooding the building, and even if they could it's super dangerous to be driving right now. Everybody's stuck for the night, which isn't the worst outcome...they often sleep over for unrelated reasons, like needing to be there for the animals for this or that reason.

To that end, Add goes to the break room community closet and grabs himself a pillow and a blanket since he'll be sleeping on his office couch. He will also go ahead and heat himself up a TV dinner from the few they have in the fridge since he won't be able to go home or order food or anything. Mmm we love microwaved swedish meatballs.

Fortunately for Ain, Add comes back in one piece as he takes off his jacket and officially "ends" work for the day even though he's still at work, tossing the blanket across the couch along with the pillow before taking his food over to his desk. He guesses he can watch Youtube videos on his-

...and then, just like that, the power goes out.]

[eidxiety]

[Ain is lazily chewing on his kongs when Add comes back for some reason, and he excitedly swims back over to the dome like "haha you can't go in the rain can you human :)" and is about to start singing, when very suddenly the lights all go out at once and cast them both in darkness. Ain, knowing it's too early for the fake suns to turn off, points emphatically at the lights that are above his tank and out of reach like "HELLO THE SUN".

Add may or may not see this. Ain himself glows, he's quite bioluminescent especially in his eyes and the spots down his tails, and obviously the two anglerfish-like sacs on his tail are Quite Luminous, but beyond that there's literally nothing in this office that is going to light anything up.

Ain also probably looks horrifying right now, but that's okay. He swims back and forth, waiting to see if the suns come back, but something seems to be wrong with them. Add looks distantly frustrated or maybe panicked to him... and he came back, too... is this because of the storm?

He knocks on the glass. Hi can you see him?]

[dyn4m0]

[Well Ain is about to learn a new curse word as Add gets up and immediately bangs his toe on his desk before he turns on his camera light so he can rummage around for some candles to light. It’s bad enough he’s stuck here, but the power too?

They do have emergency generators for the animals who need the power to survive, but the lights aren’t considered a necessity, especially the ones in his office. Sighing, he’ll look over to Ain once he gets a few of the candles lit, and yeah he sure does look fucking terrifying doesn’t he?]

It’s okay. Power’s just out…going to just have to deal with the dark until morning.

[eidxiety]

[In case you thought Ain was all cute all the time, turns out Sirens are deep-sea predators and definitely look like it.

Ain watches the candles and literally goes :O at them. Pretty... he likes those lights. They smell like food?? Why do they smell like food?? Can he eat fire—]

Aaa??

[He points to the candles. Then to his mouth.

Food?]

[dyn4m0]

[Buddy-]

No, this isn’t food. It’s a candle. Fire, bad.

[Don’t touch it you’ll be sad if you do.

Add returns to his desk now that he can sort of see things, back to his shitty dinner that’s at least no longer lava temperature. At least he got that made before the power died.]

Well…at least this is an opportunity to study your night time behaviors. You’ll be asleep most of the time I’m sure, but still.

[eidxiety]

No??

[But it smells good. Why smells good if not food? (Buddy you're going to be fascinated by the concept of cologne.)

He spins around in the water, and in the dark it is far more creepy to see how his tail moves. The bioluminescent spots down his side turn to a degree that's horrifyingly inhuman and slow, despite the fact Ain himself moves as a normal eel-like creature might. Basically: have you ever seen a sea emperor leviathan subnautica because—

He looks again at the fake sun and frowns before blinking back at Add.]

Sun?

[dyn4m0]

[Sun…yeah, Ain would be confused by his lights going off early, wouldn’t he? Add isn’t sure how to best explain it…

He turns himself around in his chair to face the tank, gesturing with his hands as he talks.]

The storm- [He points to the ceiling.] -caused lightning to strike- [He wiggles his fingers down towards the ground, then makes an explosion sound with his mouth.] -and it took out the power. Which means it took your “sun”.

[He ends that explanation by pointing up at the currently-off lights in Ain’s tank.]

[eidxiety]

[The sun EXPLODED???? Ain looks very alarmed by this news and keeps looking back at his lights like no?? No they didn't?!! But he has no fucking idea how to articulate that he doesn't think the sun exploded but that it's just off, so???

Whatever, he supposes that he doesn't actually understand the fake sun. Maybe it did explode. Maybe that's why it's contained in long rods, to keep the explosion from reaching him.

After that, he'll swim around for a while and let Add do whatever he wants to do. Maybe half an hour before he usually goes to bed, though...

He rings. He is phone.]

[dyn4m0]

[Poor Ain thinking his sun exploded…meanwhile Add (wrongly) thinks he did a decent job explaining why the lights went out, good job him.

He’ll finish his dinner in boring silence, deciding to burn some phone data so he can watch something for a while. Then, while he’s awkwardly brushing his teeth at his desk, he nearly chokes on his toothbrush when his phone rings, prompting him to quickly grab it-

Only to answer, and find it’s not ringing at all. It takes another “ring” for him to realize it’s not the phone at all.]

Bluhen.

[eidxiety]

[Ain giggles so loudly. It's almost haunting considering the lack of lights here. Horror movie type shit except he's just ringing.

He swims around a bit more, then curls up into a sleepy ball against the dome. Not against the ground, not in his cave, no he's going to sleep outside if Add is here. He's going to Watch him with his big eyes until he falls asleep.

This is not at all how he normally sleeps. Normally he's curled up in a ball in the cave. If he gets too hot he lets his tail flop outside of it. Tonight he might get too cold considering he's laying against a glass bubble, but he supremely does not care.

He puts his little paw on the glass like he's trying to touch Add, and yawns.]

[dyn4m0]

[Gremlin!!

Add huffs and puts his phone down, heading to the couch after he’s done brushing so he can set up his bed for the night. It certainly isn’t ideal, but it will have to do…

He spreads out the blanket, but just as he’s fluffing the pillow he happens to notice Ain still outside of his cave. He goes in there every night from what Add’s learned from reviewing the security footage…so after a moment, he walks over to the tank and rests his hand where Ain’s is. It’s not purposeful, but Ain most likely will think it is-]

What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re scared of the dark.

[eidxiety]

[Ain definitely thinks this is intentional and is having a whole moment about it. One might think the way his tail twists around says he's started to have a stupid little crush... uh-oh. The humanfucker.]

Happy...

[He's not scared at all. He's just very happy that Add's sleeping over near his den, that's all. Shame that he can't just steal the man away to his cave, but humans dissolve if they touch water, so.]

[dyn4m0]

[Add, meanwhile, has no idea the fish is making fish eyes at him. Too bad he dissolves in water-!!]

Happy…guess you’re not used to being alone still.

[He hasn’t missed the way he gets listless and sad when alone. It’s not as bad as it used to be but his week off kindof undid all that progress.

Add signs, his fingers curling into his palm against the glass.]

The breeding season starts in a few months, so I’ll try to find a good mate for you once we’ve determined you’re both viable. Then you won’t be in there by yourself.

[eidxiety]

[Ain has no idea what's being said. He thinks Add must be saying something super nice right now, considering the look on his face, but maybe Ain is just having a difficult time seeing through the distortion in the glass. He starts sleepy trilling to himself, still curled up in that bubble and unwilling to move.

Add is in for a world of trouble when he puts a random mate in the tank and Ain is wholly disinterested.

It won't be long, though, until his usual sleep schedule catches up to him and he conks out in the bubble instead of in his cave with his hand still loosely pressed to the glass, at least until the usual soft currents move it for him. Zzzz...]

[dyn4m0]

[Sighs. His fish with anxiety…

As Ain falls asleep, Add draws away and goes to lay down on the couch, firing off a quick text to his boss to let him know he’s fine and is sleeping in his office, as most of them are. The storm still rages even now as he drifts off, watching the candle light reflected off the walls of Ain’s tank.

The morning comes, and the lights seem to have come back on during the night. The storm has abated but the flooding is probably definitely still present, which is fine because Add works today anyway. He gets up and shucks a hand through his messy hair, pulling out his phone to vocally record a few notes.]

Bluhen slept outside of his hide with me in the room. He seems to be highly social and doesn’t do well in isolation. Priority is to find a tank mate as soon as possible, preferably a breeding pair.

[eidxiety]

[Ain is still zonked, still zooted, still very flat and curled up, when Add wakes up. It'll be another thirty minutes until he stirs again, with his back and neck feeling particularly painful on account of sleeping against round glass all night and not anywhere nice like his bedding. He yawns, gills pumping as he gets up and starts swimming around, rotating his head this way and that until his neck finally pops.

The sun is on. The storm can't be heard, he doesn't think? That must mean it passed. Add looks cute with his bedhead...

Hehe. He pushes up to the front of the tank again and waves.]

Add!! Happy!!

[You're still here you didn't leave him!]

[dyn4m0]

Yeah yeah, morning to you too. Bet you’re glad I can feed you right away, huh?

[Add sighs and puts his phone down after finishing the recording, heading out briefly to go get Ain’s breakfast. He’ll return a few minutes later with a bucket of clams, perhaps a silent apology for leaving him so long when he got clams before. Clams are a huge favorite for Sirens since it gives them enrichment too, so Ain should be kept busy a while while Add checks what the damage is to his poor mustang.

Here you go fishie here clams.]

[eidxiety]

[!!! Clams for BABY

Yes, Ain loves clams. If Add wanted to find out his favourite thing, it's probably in the order of red meat > clams > other things, at least until he learns about candy and then it's so fucking over. He only loves red meat more right now because it's fatty and heavy and he's never had it before, but red meat also doesn't contain pearls or shells to play with... things to think about. Much to consider.

Ain will chase after all the clams, gather them up, and then go lay on the floor of his tank to eat, look for pearls, and play with the shells. He's in a very good mood this morning. If this keeps up, his greens will be back in no time.]

[dyn4m0]

[While Ain enjoys his clams, Add go checks outside, and fortunately despite the flooding everyone’s cars seem okay. He can see a ring of dirt where the water got halfway up his wheel wells, but somehow didn’t start leaking into the car proper, thank god. He still gives it a good once over to make sure it’s fine though before he heads back inside, feeling pretty tired and not super well rested but honestly when doesn’t he feel like that-

He’ll make a cup of coffee in the break room before returning to his office, sitting back down with a tired glance towards Ain’s tank.]

At least you’re having fun.

[eidxiety]

[Ain is playinge :) Add slept over and is Still Here and he has clams and is currently schlorping the meat out of them with the raw power of his vacuum cleaner mouth. He's having a wonderful time being flat in the sand.

As usual, he'll eat, put the pearls he harvested in his den, and then go about his bathing routine. Since there's actual kelp in here now, it means he can floss his teeth and be a clean Ain, and then he'll flatten himself in the sand again and chirp at Add.

...

Eveeeentually:]

Aa?

[Points to Add's coffee. Every time you drink that it smells horrible. He must have it.]