Jarr burst through the door, his clothes matted and hair slick with sweat and seawater. As the ship lurched starboard, he was dragged across the room by gravity, steadying himself against the window with one hand on the sill. "Captain! What's this madness!? Felicity says we've moved beyond the charts!"

The ship swung back like a pendulum, sending Jarr stumbling in the opposite direction. He slammed bodily into the wall beside the door, then braced himself against it.

Captain Reyna Carrion-Quine didn't look up from the book in her hands. Even as her chair slid back and forth with the turbulent tossing of the vessel, her eyes remained fixed downward, lips silently tracing the words she was reading.

"CAPTAIN!" Jarr bellowed. "We're going to capsize if you keep steering us into this storm!"

Reyna looked up, and Jarr instinctively backed away a step. There was something in her expression that he'd never seen before, and it scared him even more than the tempest raging outside. Madness.

"If you fools can't keep us afloat through this, that's your burden to bear," she replied, her tone measured.

In response, Jarr flung a hand behind himself, gesturing at the mountainous waves crashing over the deck. "Nothing could stay afloat during this! Captain, the mast will snap unless-"

"Let it," Reyna interrupted, returning to her book. "Flee if you wish, but know that you will forever be branded a coward."

Jarr growled something under his breath, then lunged forward, tearing the book out of Reyna's hands. He scanned the pages, then held it out triumphantly. "I knew it! You never intended for us to survive this, did you? This was a suicide mission from the beginning!"

Reyna shook her head. "Not for everyone else. For me... yes, perhaps. But-"

The window shattered under the force of a thousand tons of water. Both Jarr and Reyna were knocked backward by the surge, the latter barely having time to draw a single breath before being submerged.

Underneath the waves it was chaos. The salt stung her eyes as she desperately tried to pull herself free of the sinking ship. Bodies hung limp in the water around her, a grim reminder of the cost of her quest.

But it would all be worth it... if I could see her again...

Reyna's lungs were burning. She wanted nothing more than to open her mouth and breathe, but she knew that to do so would spell death. Above her, the water seemed almost calm, as if something had suppressed the storm the instant the ship had been claimed.

As her vision dimmed, she swam upward, using the last of her strength to reach out, to touch the shimmering surface one last time...

• • • • •

Howdy!

I've deliberately left the specifics of this this very open. The general plot, as I have it in mind: a mariner (Reyna) encountered some sort of mythical creature at sea, possibly saving her life, and she fell in love with it only to be 'saved' and returned to shore. Driven by a desire to meet it again, she sailed back to where she initially met it, and there begins the above passage.

I'm happy to discuss possible directions. Want to play the initial meeting, with the above as an expository flash forward? Want to play the reunion? Have an idea of your own?

I'm also keen to hear what sort of creature you'd like to play. Mermaid or siren were the two I had in mind (hence the title), but if there's some niched mythological creature you fancy bringing to the table I'm all ears.

Further details can be hashed out in PMs, but let me say I'm looking for confident, capable writers. You don't need to write a huge volume per message (I won't, as my average is 1-2 medium paragraphs per message); I strongly value quality over quantity. I also have a light preference for Discord, but I can stick to PMs if you'd rather.

Looking forward to hearing from you!