[Closed] @eidxiety🧜‍♀️🔬

[winterbolt]

Comments

[eidxiety]

Oh, that's right... they take humans away when they do things wrong. [That's not... quite it, but Ain can't comprehend this sort of law-following, social-taboo-following structure humans have. This is as he understands human rules to be, which means not messing things up because you'll be taken away forever. He doesn't quite understand where the "away" is, but he supposes it's like banishing from a pod...] But that's not your fault. I just wanted to get you something to eat.

[He flops fully across Add's lap with his whole torso, the rest of him curled up around the man. No legs for now, he is fish.]

Was what I did bad...?

[dyn4m0]

[Sighing, Add reaches up to put his hand on Ain's head, brushing his fingers through his hair.]

No. You didn't know better. But Sirens aren't supposed to leave the tanks without a human supervising them...so don't do that again, okay?

[Even if his boss ended up being okay with it, he knows this will create problems for the future until they're able to more securely lock down the enclosures. It really isn't just because they fear the Sirens, exactly, but because a Siren could leave and hurt themselves on something just by being curious about it, like how Ain broke his glass beakers and cut himself by mistake.]

[eidxiety]

...okay. I won't. But I don't know how to get you gifts if I can't leave...

[Somehow, he gets... flatter. How has he gotten so flat.]

I'm not good at gifts. It's not like I can find much for you without going out. I don't know how else to court you, though.

[dyn4m0]

[Ain...]

You don't have to court me. We're already together?

[Pat pat. No be flat.

Add sighs, twisting at the hips so he can grab something from behind him and pull it into view. It's the cake from earlier, still uneaten.]

Here. Have this with me and stop looking so sad, would you?

[eidxiety]

I have to court you because that's respectful!!

[So THERE. Huff... but he'll push himself up when Add pulls the cake out, looking quizzical before he curls up into a snakelike sit.]

Okay. We can have the cake, if you want to. But you have to eat at least half.

[He got this FOR YOU.]

[dyn4m0]

I was gonna. Why do you think I held onto it this whole time?

[Huff huff. He even pulls out a fork he brought, using it to cut off pieces so he can eat them. Ain, on the other hand, he imagines will just pick up chunks of cake with his noodles, which is fine.]

Another thing is the food in the cafeteria isn't free. Remember when I told you about how things cost money for humans? I'm going to have to pay for that later.

[eidxiety]

...that's stupid. You can just go outside and get food.

[Ain, love, cake does not grow on trees and bakers should be paid for their professions.

Anyway yeah he's noodling the cake, but he finds that cake is very, very difficult to hold so uh? Eating chunks of cake off his tentacles it is. He's not expecting it to taste like this, though, and initially makes a face while his tongue calculates the bittersweet of chocolate. What is this...

Licks frosting off his tentacles.]

[dyn4m0]

[Despite all of his anxious grousing, deep down, Add is still pretty touched that Ain bothered to get him this at all. His boss seemed to think it was sweet too, even though she...doesn't fully understand the scope of its meaning. She just thinks Ain has grown very attached to his handler, and uh, yeah. He's grown attached alright...

He looks at Ain sidelong as they eat, frowning while reaching for a napkin he stuffed into the inside pocket of his coat.]

You're getting chocolate all over your face, you big baby.

[Here let him wipe you-]

[eidxiety]

[Mlehhh— he tries to lick Add's hand. He winds up licking napkin instead.

Tragic.]

This is hard to eat. It's crumbly and falls apart too easily.

[And it's sticky, which he minds less, but like??? ?? How do you eat this. With FORK? That's lame, eating utensils are stupid. Ain is trying his best to lick cake crumbs and chocolate off of his suckers though. Thank god his tongue is long and can fit into weird places or else he'd be screwed here.]

[dyn4m0]

Duh. That's why we eat with these.

[He gestures with his fork as he cuts off another piece of cake to put in his mouth.]

If you'd let me teach you how to eat with them properly, you'd be able to eat anything you wanted no matter how crumbly or slippery.

[Add just slowly continuing to domesticate his fish.]

[eidxiety]

...maybe next time we go to get food.

[He will try... to learn how forks work... he will be so good. He's learnt to put clothes on (kind of), he will have to figure out utensils. He's becoming rapidly domesticated.]

We can try it then. 'Cause I'm almost done with this now, so there's no point, is there?

[Nom. The last few bites of his half are polished off, and boy, his entire mouth and lips are very chocolate-tasting. This is a strong flavour.]

[dyn4m0]

[With the cake eaten, Add closes the plastic container and puts it aside so it can be thrown away later.]

Guess not.

[From there he'll sigh and look down into the tank where the other Sirens are. There's the same kind of mesh grate with a door, which is different from Ain's tank which just has the grate...but he's realizing now that this is useless for keeping the Sirens in. Even this much is too much leeway. Would they still be able to get out if it was completely sealed with a lock or something, he wonders?]

If you guys could leave all this time, I'm surprised you just...haven't.

[eidxiety]

We don't really want to. This place is comfy. You give us enough food to survive and give us things to play with, and we're free from dangers and don't have to worry about things trying to bite us or harmful things in the water. That alpha in the pod down there, the huge one, he could break the glass if he wants to. That's why he's steering clear of it, because he doesn't want to.

I don't think you realise how much we could disturb the whole system if we wanted to, but we're pretty comfortable even if most of us don't like the checkups, so we don't.

[And then he shrugs.]

[dyn4m0]

Didn't realize it until this morning, no.

[It's a sobering thought. All of these Sirens...they could have escaped at any time. Nobody in this facility has ever been safe. Not 100%.]

You have to understand why it's a concern for us. It's mainly because...what would we do if a Siren came in here, and they were injured and needed rehabilitation, but they were confused and upset and didn't want to be here. They could really hurt themselves trying to get out, or hurt a lot of people working here. I don't think you, or any of these Sirens would ever do that, but...

[He sighs again, looking off to the side.]

I think most of us understand there's a certain level of cruelty in keeping you here for research purposes. You belong in the open ocean.

[eidxiety]

...yeah. The things you guys have are scary. Like your big loud machines with all the lights. [The printer. God he fucking hates the printer.] So I get it. It would help if we could speak your language. Your language is really hard, though!

[So many consonants! Have you tried clicking?]

I don't want to go back to the ocean, though. The others, maybe, yeah.

[dyn4m0]

[And in that moment...Add suddenly gets an idea. An idea that would help solve their new problem, as well as settle Ain more comfortably into living the kind of life he wants to here in the facility.]

....my boss has brought up the idea of you become an ambassador for your species. That means, like...

[He gestures with his hands as he explains.]

You'd be our connection between us and the other Sirens. You can talk to me, obviously, but you'd be able to communicate with any new Sirens that come in and explain that we don't want to hurt them. Vice versa with people, since you've learned so much more than the others have. We could probably have you speaking relatively clear English in a year or two. It does mean that we'd never be able to release you back in the ocean. You'd stay here, specifically with me as your guardian.

What do you think?

[eidxiety]

[Add, you may as well have asked him to marry you. What the fuck bud.]

Yes!! I want to do that!! I can't be mated with you if I'm in the ocean, so I want to do that! Then I can have as much human food as I want! [no,] If I'm super special with an important title, will you take me to your human den?? I want to see it!

[He drapes himself across Add's lap again, this time with his face turned toward Add rather than being flat on top of him.]

I'm good at speaking! I'll work really hard and then you can show me things!! Will I get "money" for being big and important? I'm going to use it to trade for food.

[How are you This food motivated.]

[dyn4m0]

[Damn okay he didn’t think he’d be THIS excited…Add scoffs, reaching down to straighten Ain’s messy hair. Gay.]

Maybe. We’ll work our way up to that. Also you realize we can just pay you in food, if that’s what you want.

[But knowing Ain he’ll want other things too, like toys and pets and…yeah he can envision that getting out of hand REAL quick.]

And no, you still have to have your normal diet. Human food is a treat for if you’ve been good, it’s not healthy for you to eat every day. We can supplement your diet with fruits just normally, but things like waffles and bacon…that’s human food.

[eidxiety]

[The second he figures out fish stores are a thing he's going to buy a horseshoe crab.]

But I'm the ambassador now. I want bacon and uni, and, uh, coconuts and bananas. And the red fatty meat, the steaks. And more meats! I know you have more meats.

[They haven't given Ain turkey, or lamb, or anything like that. His ass will go crazy for protein.]

[dyn4m0]

You’re not the ambassador yet! [He gently tugs his ahoge. His antennae.] My boss suggested it, but I need to confirm it with her before we move in that direction. You can have more of that stuff occasionally as a TREAT if you do a good job. Got it?

[Man he fucked up using the “A” word this early huh-]

Do you want to get so fat you can’t move, haaah?

[eidxiety]

Aaa!!!

[His ANTENNAE]

I'm not gonna get fat! My tail would look good if it were a bit pudgier! It sits really cutely over my butt when I have legs!!!

[Whine whine whine]

You'll see!! When it's really wide you'll really like pulling it up when we mate next time!! [oh my GOD]

[dyn4m0]

Oh my GOD shut up-!!

[He puts his hand over Ain’s mouth, not knowing the pain he’ll feel when Ain inevitably licks his fingers-]

You’re so lucky nobody else can understand you, but you’d better not say shit like that out loud if you start learning more English, okay? Christ.

[eidxiety]

[Yeah, Ain licks his fingers. Blelelele]

No, I'm only going to say it in Siren language to you! Only you can hear it!

[...]

What's Christ?

[dyn4m0]

Eugh-!

[Add jolts back, quickly wiping his hand off on his pants. Gross.]

...don't worry about it. [He is Not explaining human religion to you he refuses-] C'mon, we should get you back in the tank now. I need to go talk to my boss about this so we can make it official.

[eidxiety]

Mm, okayyy.

[Ain sits back up, gives Add a kiss (hehe, he got you), and then slides backwards down the hatch and back into the water. Whee!!! There he goes!

He's going to go swim back with the pod and tell them that Add was just worried because escaping means they could hurt themselves. They all nod emphatically like yes, that makes sense, the grate is not very nice for touch and we don't know how you got over that. (It's because he's gay and rough metal texture isn't that horrid when you get used to it.)

Back to playing all day for Ain! You know, before he's roped in for bath because he hasn't done that today since he was immediately doing crimes, doing depression, and now he's zoomin'.]