[Closed] @eidxiety🧜‍♀️🔬

[winterbolt]

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[dyn4m0]

[You're really gonna make him say it, huh...

Add purses his lips, looking a little put-out...but after a moment, he'll mutter in a voice that's just barely audible.]

I think you're cute.

[eidxiety]

YAAAAAY!!

[Ain swims up to the glass and kisses right where Add's lips would theoretically be if he leaned down, makes a dramatic MWAH! as he parts, and then flits off to go do??? something.

Dig a hole and bury more breakfast bones in it, clearly.

They might have to clean his cage soon, the bone and dead kelp leaf storage is getting out of hand. It's not like these things are gonna biodegrade in here...]

[dyn4m0]

[Add makes a sort of disgruntled, embarrassed sound as Ain MWAHS the glass, shaking his head as he swims off, satisfied by something so simple as that...

Whatever. This is going to be his life now, and over the coming days, he's going to have to figure out some way to come to terms with the fact that he fully went off the deep end and mated with a Siren. He'll just have to make sure he takes this to his grave. Surely that won't be hard, even though he literally works in a facility that works on conservation and rehabilitation for the species.

Totally easy. Totally doable.

Add tries to lay low as the week wears on. In his next meeting, he floats the idea of giving Ain a bigger tank when it's mentioned his needs a deep clean, both for more space for him to swim around, and also so he can be more easily studied. Somehow, this causes a coworker to suggest that the extra space would make room for another Siren to be introduced to Ain's tank, for companionship and mating purposes, but Add manages to steer them away from that idea for now given how stressed out Ain was the last time they introduced a Siren (female) to his tank. They'll revisit this idea when his next heat rolls around, he says.

It's going to buy some time, at least for now.

Fortunately, getting Ain a new tank falls neatly during the same time he's been allotted for exploring the facility. Add is already prepared for it mid next-week as he comes into his office, and instead of giving Ain his breakfast immediately, he goes straight to the top of the tank to open the grate.]

Alright, it's time to let you out. I need you to listen to everything I tell you while you're in the open facility, got it?

[eidxiety]

[Ain has been a good boy all week (read: he has been himself and that means he fluctuates from being a good boy to being an evil boy who rings when he wants attention and asks the scientists to bring him more toys). But the tank gets to a state where it's a little yucky, and this starts to limit his bath spots since he keeps burying trash expecting it to just. Degrade. Like how it does in nature. Mmmm. He isn't understanding why this isn't working...

Anyway, the week passes and his heat ends with Add thank God, and so when it's time to be let out, Ain tries wiggling out of the tank like he did last time Add sat there and "let" Ain lay on him. He is letting Himself out thank you very much.]

I'm a good listener~.

[This may be true, but he is also Creature and he is also too fucking curious for his own good.]

[dyn4m0]

Good. So you're going to stay by me, right? You're not going to wander off?

[Add asks this as Ain lets himself out of the tank, waiting until he's properly flopped up onto the platform before he pulls the grate back over the top. Since they'll be removing this tank completely, it'll be pumped empty of water soon, and then they'll be able to clean and replace it with the new one. If it ends up taking longer than a day like Add thinks it might, they can just put Ain in a temporary tank in another room. They might be able to even put him back with the Pod temporarily if he wants...]

[eidxiety]

[That pod is gonna be like "you're mated to the human???" And Ain's gonna have a lot to explain. They should put him in with the seals—]

I won't wander off!

[This is a fucking lie and neither of them know it yet.]

But do I get to lead? I want to see the things I haven't seen, and only I know what things are.

[He legs up, then scrambles down the platform as usual. He knows he has to be somewhat dressed for this, so he stands there politely waiting for Add to Pants him. Maybe even labcoat him. It's gonna be difficult with his fat tail in the way but surely Add's thought of something?]

[dyn4m0]

[Although a lab coat isn't a bad idea, Add's boss had a better one. As Ain stands there waiting to be pantsed, he will be scrub'd instead. They managed to buy a pair of scrubs that fit Ain well enough (they're just slightly big), meaning the back is open so his tail can fit through. Of course, that also means if he bends aaall the way over you will in fact see hole but it's fine he just has to make sure Ain doesn't do that-

He fits the scrubs onto him, tying it off backwards as it tends to go, then looks Ain over once before humming in approval.]

As long as you stay in front of me where I can see you. But you can't go outside, and don't open doors unless I say you can. There are some rooms you can't go into.

[eidxiety]

[Ain does not like the texture of these clothes no sir. Once they figure out he can comfortably wear a dress and maybe undies with a tail hole it's over for Add's future crossdressing fetish.

He makes a face, but declines to comment on how itchy fabrics are. His tentacles hang out pathetically underneath the bottom of the hospital scrubs while he sits there debating all the crimes he could do right this second.]

Okayyyy. Can we go now?

["I'll listen to you but also I'm like five years old rn and I want to Run"]

[dyn4m0]

[Sorry Ain, for as smart as your humans are, they can also be a little dumb...this was the best solution they could think of, and the thought of putting a dress on the Siren literally never crossed their minds. Less fabric is better for him, etc.

But with his fish clothed enough to be decent for the public, Add takes a step back and folds his arms across his chest.]

Yes. But remember what I told you, otherwise you'll have to go back in your tank.

[eidxiety]

I'm a good boy!!!

[He's the goodest Ain! He will not do a crime! Anyway the second the door opens he literally runs out into the hallway and gets briefly distracted by a water cooler, you know the ones, so that's a good sign. He is incredibly fast for such a creature who cannot walk.

Luckily, the water cooler doesn't keep his attention after he figures out what it is (it is water), and he trundles down the hall on all fours (like Add didn't want him to do) toward a potted plant. This? This is interesting. This is leaf but not leaf in water. It's a nice snake plant, very green, very lush, and Ain (who has not been fed) takes a bite out of it.

Well, at least the tip of that leaf will grow back.]

[dyn4m0]

Ain-! You can't eat that!

[Add wishes he had a leash on you, he swears to god.

He moves in front of the Siren and ushers him away from the plant, which is fortunately not going to hurt him to eat. They don't keep plants that are toxic to the creatures in the building for obvious reasons. At least he didn't try to stick his hands or fins in the water cooler.]

We're on the way towards the cafeteria. My boss said if you behaved, she'd allow you to try one meal from there. You can't eat there all the time because it's not good for you, but once as a treat is okay.

[eidxiety]

[His tail wags. Lord help him he is a dog.]

Caf-a-teria. Got it.

[Ain stands up and continues to big steppy down the hall. Unfortunately this does not stop him from asking about every door up here. There's one open door — the bathroom — that he passes by and pokes his head into. Makes a face.

Leaves.

Step step step.

Somehow, they make it out of this hall without incident, but from there it's basically a maze and Ain veers off the wrong direction at first before he smells food and suddenly pivots and runs forward on all fours. He has to correct this behaviour so that no one is seeing his whole ass. An elevator nearby in this hallway dings and it makes him jump before he realises what it was, and then he dings back at it with his headfins flared like he's threatening it. Some of the staff in the hall giggle at him. He seems quite confused by this.

There are a lot of new sights and sounds and smells, and it's a tad overwhelming for a creature who's been living his life in a box. Someone in a hat passes by and Ain stares at them like he's trying to decipher what's wrong with them before he points and goes:]

Aaaa????

[Because they can't like, let people know they understand each other obviously, so he's gone back to full babymode for now.]

[dyn4m0]

[Oh my god he knew you'd creature but he didn't think you'd creature THIS hard...

Add has to also remember not to call him "Ain". That wasn't the name he was assigned, so "Bluhen" continues to be his public-facing name. Sorry Ain, he knows your real name now, but you're going to have to bear with it. He's just glad he stopped before he burst headfirst into the cafeteria. The last thing he needs is to try to hold a hungry Siren back in there.

It takes him a moment to even realize what he's pointing at, since at first it seems like he's just pointing at one of his coworkers.]

That's a hat. H-a-t. It's clothing.

[He tugs on his own clothes for emphasis.]

For decoration.

[eidxiety]

Hat?

[Latching onto words is easy now that he both a) understands and b) knows how to annunciate humanspeak better. Hat. Hat... hm.

He sneef snorfs his way to where the food is served at the cafeteria. There are wrapped foods like sandwiches and salads and muffins, a kitchen in the back serving fresh but bland food to anyone who gets in line with their trays, a whole station dedicated to packaged desserts... Ain is so overwhelmed with choice. Oh, but he sees a banana! He knows banana, they grow on the islands! His pod used to visit those!

Ain points at the banana. God, how does he communicate that this is a banana.]

Aa!!!!!

[Yeah, nailed it.

It's still breakfast time, so they're serving largely breakfast things. That means the chocolate chip waffles that Add was told about, lots of fruit, bacon, eggs, the works. It's not the most unhealthy thing for Ain to eat, actually, considering that lunch today looks like it's going to be chicken tenders or cheeseburgers unless you get into the cold case and grab a sandwich.

He points to the banana again in the cold case, relatedly.]

Have?

[The staff around are watching him. Look how polite he is! He's asking first!]

[dyn4m0]

[You know, Add is actually shocked Ain wants the banana over something else he could be eating, like one of the aforementioned unhealthy foods. He has no idea Ain's seen a banana before, that's not something he's learned in his Siren research. Nevertheless, he knows Ain well enough to know that "point and scream at" probably means he wants the banana before he all but confirms it.

Add nods and gestures for whoever is working the cafeteria today to pull out a banana to hand over to Ain so he can do with it what he will. Peel it, eat it peel and all, whateverthefuck.]

Good boy for asking nicely.

[eidxiety]

[You fool, it's Ain. This is not enough calories to sustain an Ain. He... has tail weight to maintain. The banana goes in a tentacle for now, and following what the humans are doing, he picks up a tray and waits very politely in line until he can get to the front and point through the glass at what he wants.]

Aa... aa!!! Aa... aaaa.

[That is, in order: Two waffle. Tiny cup of fresh fruit. Bacon. Scramble egg.

Largely not the worst thing to eat. Besides the chocolate. That might not be too great, but Ain has gone to regions with cacao beans before. Same shit, right?

The cafeteria lady asks Add if Ain can have any of the drinks they offer here like milk, or if that'll be bad for him. Add clearly knows, right?]

[dyn4m0]

Uhh...

[Hm. He'll have to make a judgement call on this one. He's, yet again, SHOCKED Ain is being normal and ordering like? A normal human person amount of food??? He figured he'd just try to put his noodles into the back of the glass to grab things.]

He can try one. We'll know later if they don't sit well or not.

[Again, this is a special treat one-time sort of thing, so it should be alright just this one time. As far as he's aware, dairy shouldn't be toxic for a Siren or anything.

And...after some not-too-subtle coaxing from the other cafeteria ladies, Add finally relents and gets breakfast too, getting himself an omelette and a couple waffles.]

[eidxiety]

[Ain will be given a little plastic bottle of milk. Recyclable, you know the drill with these places. Ain holds all the things in his tentacles and the tray in his hands, says "bye bye" to the lunch lady because he has no idea how to say thanks, and then big steppies off to sit down like the people do. He's mimicking, that's the only reason he's being normal right now.

Unfortunately normal stops here because he doesn't know what forks are.

The first thing he does when he's sitting down is open the banana with his tentacles and take a bite. These bananas taste sweeter than the ones he's used to, and he makes a confused face like... what. What is this. He does not understand farming unfortunately.

...

Nom.]

[dyn4m0]

[One thing Add wanted to try to avoid when studying Sirens is "domesticating" them too much. If Ain were to learn the complete ins and outs of being a person, would that diminish from his skills as a Siren? He doesn't know for sure. But since he's already out and about in the facility, he's not just going to leave him completely to his own devices, especially if there are new things for him to learn. This is supposed to be stimulating his brain and enriching more than anything, after all.

So, while Ain munches curiously on his banana, Add picks up his fork and shows him how to use it.]

Here. You can use this to pick up your food so your tentacles don't get all sticky.

[He'll even cut a piece of Ain's waffle for him, then spear that piece with his fork before holding the fork out for him to take.]

[eidxiety]

[?? Fork???

Ain leans forward and takes the bite from Add's hand, but

the fork unfortunately goes with him. Thank god for metal dishware or else he would have bitten it completely off, but he sure is trying to chew on it??? Like. Darling.

You can't do this.]

No.

[He doesn't like how the fork tastes and gives it back to Add.

His tentacles lift the waffles up and he folds one of them into a burrito and noms.]

[dyn4m0]

[Yeaaah he was worried that would happen-]

No, no.

[Add picks up his own fork this time to demonstrate, picking up a piece of his omelette with it. He shows Ain then how to take the food off the fork with his mouth without eating the hard, metal part.]

You don't eat the fork. The fork is just to get the food to your mouth. See?

[Fork...extension of tentacle, more or less.]

Guess you can eat it like that though, I won't stop you.

["That" being just grabbing it in his tentacles, which is what he'd be doing in the wild anyway.]

[eidxiety]

[Tilts his head. He pretends he doesn't understand Add, but he Super hears him. He's not sure why you'd eat with these things if they don't taste good... Ain's assumed this whole time that the eating sticks tasted good since they were in people's mouths.

He chomps his waffle and his banana. He likes these together. Nom, nom, nom...

The people in the cafeteria are giving him no shortage of stares, like awww what a baby he's eating him food :) cute creature :) this man is sentient but he's creature enough to where no one knows better.

Ain will get through most of his breakfast while looking around at how other humans eat and occasionally sniffing the air. There's perfume, cologne, hair products... laundered clothes, labcoats with chemicals spilt on them, chlorine scents, food food food...]

Mmm.

[Contemplating, Ain finishes off the sweet parts of his breakfast before shovelling eggs into his mouth with his hands, finding them difficult to lift with his tentacles. He eats that, and then the bacon, and he thinks he likes the bacon almost as much as the waffles. He wants more bacon.

There's a bunch of grease and syrup and stuff left behind on the plate, though. Ain doesn't like being wasteful, so he goes to lick the porcelain clean, and then

lo and behold

there's this horrifying crunch as he takes a bite out of it.]

[dyn4m0]

[Surprising everyone, but especially Add, Ain is downright polite as he eats his meal. He's eating more-or-less like you'd expect someone to, and he's not making a terrible mess as he does it. Add expected nothing and was rewarded for it, it would seem.

Of course, now that Ain is mostly done, he figures he'll start asking for more food. Such is the way with this Siren, the bottomless pit that he is...at least, until Add watches with muted horror as Ain picks up a plate and happily takes a bite out of it. The porcelain, as you'd expect, shatters immediately under his teeth into several large pieces, one of which Ain is trying to eat oh my GOD-]

No-! Bad! Spit that out, no!

[If Ain doesn't spit it out himself, Add will risk cuts on his hands to try to pry his mouth open to get the porcelain out, because the last thing they need is Ain cutting his tongue or worse, swallowing that. He's pretty sure Ain does NOT want to have to have surgery to have what is essentially glass removed from his system.]

[eidxiety]

[Luckily he understands and blehhhs the porcelain out onto the tray like ??? while some people look on in muted horror. Someone mutters "poor baby" while Ain's just completely clueless over here. What did he do...? Don't eat that? It didn't taste good anyway... is it not food? Why serve food on plate if plate not food?

He looks so sad and wet. He hasn't drank his malk, though, so he cleans his waffle-tentacle off and noodles the bottle...

...

There is a cap on this. How does he remove this.]

Help.

[Thrusts the bottle at Add like how do remove lid?]

[dyn4m0]

[God Ain you're shaving years off his life, he swears to god.

But with that crisis averted...Add will talk aloud as if explaining to Ain despite knowing he "can't understand", when in reality it's for his benefit so he WILL understand. Nobody else has to know this-]

Plates aren't food. Glass isn't food. You'll cut and hurt yourself if you try to eat that. It's for holding food, not eating.

[As he explains this, he'll open Ain's malk for him. He'll even hold the bottle up and show him how he uses his hands to grip and pop the top open to get the lid off.]