Private Finished Siren With A Sad Song

Fox Tarts

Venus Love Chain
Jan 21, 2020
674
My bed
Pronouns
Any
Posting Status
Weekly
Stumble into trouble, siren with a sad song

Early January
Jae Yi-Lin entered his aunt's house and lingered in the living room. His aunt had a little house a stone's throw from the docks. One floor, two bedrooms, and a kitchen/dining nook separated from a living space by a half wall. What was once a back patio door, was now an open doorway that lead into a large addition. This room was where his aunt did the majority of her work and kept various trade goods from the colony.

Aunt Taliah sat hunched over a long wooden desk, writing steadily in her log book. Shelves upon shelves, loaded with glass vials and jars saturated the wall space. The floors were kept clean and clear. At all hours strong odors drifted from the room, and the moment your nose adjusted to one smell, the next would take it's place and then the next and the next. Over the course of weeks that Jae has lived in the house, the smells did not affect him so strongly, nor as noticeable. It was part of life in his aunt's house. The smell of the ocean, seaweed and other putrid things mingling with spartan decorations and clean rooms.

"Anyoung haseyo, imo Taliah" Jae greeted, offering his aunt a slight bow. Aunt Taliah did not seem to have heard him. The teen moved into the arch seperating the rooms. "Aunt Taliah? How was your day?"

"Fine." Aunt Taliah said. She scribbled out several lines on her log.

Jae thought she sounded tired, and now noticed the tired sag in her shoulders. "Um, is there, um, anything I could do to help?"

"No."

"Oh," Jae hovered between rooms, suddenly sure his aunt didn't wish to be bothered. She turned towards him.

"Do you not have school work to do?" She asked. "There is always studying to be done, joka. I wish to see perfect grades on your report cards." She did not wait for his answer, and turned back to work. Jae went to his room without another wood.

Jae's room was as spartan as the rest of the house. A closet for clothes, a desk for schoolwork, and a bookcase with file organizers to store all his magazines. The teen threw his school bag onto the bed and thought of the homework he should be working on. Tests to study for. As he always did, night after night. The only break in his routine was sneaking out at night to expend his magic. Though, was it really sneaking out when his aunt knew where he went and why? She seemed to prefer to act as though she were unaware.

With a sigh, the teen pulled textbooks from his bag and got to work. Aunt Taliah opened her home to him, kept him fed and clothed. The least he could do was work hard for the good grades she wished for. With good grades he could earn a college scholarship and lessen her burden further.

Late January
Jae came home to find his aunt on the couch and her hands tangled in her hair. The teen paused in the front door, as he had never seen his aunt look so stressed. "A-anyoung haseyo, imo . . I'm home."

Aunt Taliah's golden eyes settled upon him. She settled her hands in her lap, "Anyoung haseyo, joka. I must return to the colony for a time. I am not sure how long but it a week at the least."

"A week?!" Jae's aunt had never left for that long. "Is there, is there something wrong at the colony?" His aunt visited the colony many times, but never for so long. Nor has she ever looked so stressed over a visit. Aunt Taliah waved off his concern.

"Think nothing of it. There is nothing is wrong."

"But, imo, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, joka." Aunt Taliah stressed the words. Jae showed his worry openly, and she softened. "The colony just needs more help moving. With magic dying the Elders decided to move everyone to an elemental plane of water. It is nothing you should be concerned with."

Jae blinked, and processed what his aunt said. He heard about the dying magic, but never thought that it could have effected the colony. His mother's people always seemed so full of magic to him. And moving to another plane, like another dimension? He couldn't imagine what the merfolk of the colony must feel about that. It couldn't have been an easy choice.

"I could hel-"

"You can not help!" Aunt Taliah snapped, whole body tense. She regretted it, Jae saw it on her face, but she kept her golden gaze firm. "I will prepare dinners for you to eat, and I will leave some money for your breakfast and lunches. You will keep up with your school work and should anyone come by asking for me, tell them I am out of town on colony business."

Jae knew a dismissal when he heard one. There had to be more to the issues with the colony, and his aunt's behavior. Yet, he could not go against his aunt's wishes. Jae went to his room as asked to complete his schoolwork.

Korean words marked with italics.
"Anyoung haseyo, imo Taliah" - Good Evening, Aunt Taliah
Joka - Nephew
Imo - Aunt
 

Fox Tarts

Venus Love Chain
Jan 21, 2020
674
My bed
Pronouns
Any
Posting Status
Weekly
I'm tired, tired of singing the blues

After Valentines Day
A delicate bouquet of roses and baby blue flowers, wrapped in pink tissue paper and tied together by a white ribbon lay upon Jae's desk. The flowers selected and arranged at the Valentines Flower Workshop at school. The teen carefully examined his work, and was pleased. The flowers looked lovely together, a pastel mix of baby blue, pale pink and delicate white. His finishing touches of wrappings and ribbons pulled it all together.

Jae gently lifted the bundle and carried it across the house to his aunt's work room. Aunt Taliah was out, trading land goods for water goods. The teen set the bouquet at the center of her desk. "Oh! I should write a note." It would be the perfect accompaniment. Writing something on lined paper didn't feel right, he needed nice paper.

The teen looked about the room, then searched the drawers of his aunt's desk when nothing stood out. Her drawers were full of notebooks, receipts and other paper goods. Nothing he could work with, so he dug deeper. From the bottom of a large drawer he extracted what seemed to be an old, leather bound journal. There were big gaps between pages, and Jae opened to the first one.

The journal opened to a carefully pressed blue flower and. . . a scale? The scale was the size of his palm and the color was a near perfect match for his own scales. The same shimmery blue color but in the iridescent shine he caught highlights of pink and green.

Words were written on the page in clean penmanship that he recognized as his aunt's but the language was unknown, yet not unfamiliar. It almost. . . it must be the written form of his mother's language. The more Jae studied the page the more sure he was. Sometimes his aunt wrote reminders to herself in the same scratchy-looking writing.

Jae flipped to the next gap and found another pressed flower. This one a deeply faded pink and next to it a bright silver scale.. The same color as his aunt's! The writing on this page wasn't hers, this writing was more scrawled and pressed together. Like the writer was in a rush.

The next gap held more pressed flowers, smaller scales of both blue and silver. Jae flipped through the other pages and found drawings of trees and flowers, insects and cats. They were simple, but proficient drawings. He flipped back to the first page, something about that blue scale that seemed so. . .

This journal felt important. Jae snapped the journal shut, he realized he should not have looked through it. The teen put it back into the drawer, replacing the papers and folders that laid atop it originally. That was incredibly rude of him, to flip through something so personal as a journal. Especially one hidden so!

He grabbed the first piece of scrap paper he saw and wrote a quick note thanking his aunt for all she's done for him. Jae rushed from the workroom, then on a whim stuffed his phone into his water proof bag and left the house.

Down the road, onto the docks and, after checking the seal on the bag, dove into the water. Like flexing a muscle hidden within himself, he shifted from human to mer form. With another flex Jae was off like a shot through the water. Into an ocean current, and followed it for lack of any destination. The current was weak, but pulled him along without much effort on his part.

Wrapped in the current, cloaked in endless blue Jae allowed himself to think. That scale in the book. . . Jae felt the scales that grew from his hips and recalled something his aunt told him once. His mother's people occasionally shed their scales. Not like a snake, but like an old scale falling out for a newer one to take its place. Though old, the scales were still incredibly durable, and valued. The scale mail his aunt sold were made of such scales.

Jae had yet to lose a scale, but if he did and held it next to the scale in the journal would they be the same? The teen realized he had to acknowledge what he was trying to dance around. Could that scale have belonged to his mother? Had she written the page next to his aunt's old scale?

His throat tightened. Jae saw his mother's handwriting. Her scale. He had never seen anything of hers before. Not a picture, nor, well, anything. Ever since he was a young boy he felt that his mother, and his father, were beyond knowing. They were blank faces with the vague label of biological parent.

He continued to drift on the current, until the sky began to darken and Jae knew he had to return home. Aunt Taliah never liked it when he missed dinner. With a flick of his tail he broke free of the current, and began the journey home. It seemed he traveled further than he thought, but still light out when Jae reached the docks and heaved himself onto land.

At home, Aunt Taliah was in the kitchen, sauteing oysters in a hot, sizzling pan. Jae greeted, "Anyoung haseyo, this smells delicious, aunt Taliah."

She acknowledged him with a nod, but kept her attention on the pan. Jae left to set his things in his room, and returned to set the table. Curious, Jae glanced at her workroom and saw that she had moved the flowers. Thinking she put them in a vase to display he looked all around the kitchen and living room but saw no sign of the bouquet.

She must have put it in her room, Jae thought. He placed the plates on the table and took his seat. Aunt Taliah was an excellent cook, and interesting to watch. She moved like a pro, flipping the oysters in the pan to evenly coat and cook. The oysters cooked in a thick, lemony sauce that aunt Taliah finished with a shake of salt and pepper.

The pan was set in the middle of the table upon scale patterned heat pads and was joined by a salad of dark greens and fresh fruit. "Jal meokkessumnida." They ate in silence, save for the scraping of knives on the dishware. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, as Jae was now used to the quiet meals with his aunt.

When he first arrived to the island he tried to fill the silence with small talk in between bites. His aunt would give one or two word replies, and he learned not to talk at the table. In equal silence they finished their meals and brought the dishes to the sink. Aunt Taliah washed, while he dried.

"Scrape this off into the trash." She handed him the pan, bits of oyster and sauce clung to the sides and bottom. Jae grabbed a paper towel and opened the trash. At the bottom of the trash was the bouquet, flowers bent and broken as though forcefully shoved down into the container.

The teen hesitated, then quickly scrapped the contents of the pan into the trash and shut the lid. Aunt Taliah didn't seem to notice. They finished the dishes and his aunt said she had work to finish in her workroom. Jae waited until she sat at her desk before quietly pulling the bouquet from the trash.

He washed the flowers in the bathroom sink, then quietly slipped into his room.

Korean words marked with italics.
jal meokkessumnida - I will eat well (a thanks for a meal)
 

Fox Tarts

Venus Love Chain
Jan 21, 2020
674
My bed
Pronouns
Any
Posting Status
Weekly
They say I'm dangerous, they think I'm really bad

Late February
The journal in his aunt's desk plagued Jae's mind. First he thought he was too hasty to think the blue scale belonged to his mother. He deeply wished to know more about her, and that made him jump on anything vaguely related to her. Then he would think upon it more and decide that the scale couldn't be anyone's but hers.

His mother was someone before her transformation into a siren then her death. What was she like? What were her hobbies? Aunt and Uncle did not know, they never knew her personally. She was gone, and Jae never knew her, nor ever would. Not directly he would, but if. . .

The teen walked into his aunt's house and immediately saw her seated at her work desk. His gaze drifted to the drawer where the journal lay hidden. Aunt Taliah was the only one he knew his mother personally.

"Imo," Jae began, almost hesitant. Aunt Taliah worked very hard, and could be unpleasant if disturbed. The merwoman surprised him by looking up and greeting him.

"Joka, how was school?"

"Good." Jae said, setting his bag down beside the door. "I got my English test back. Perfect marks." He studied so hard for that test. Up late into the night, pouring over grammar books and lots of googling.

A smile quirked at the corner of her lips, a sure sign she was pleased. This was good. Jae stood in the open doorway separating the work room from the living room.

"Imo, may I ask you something?"

"You may."

Jae clenched and unclenched his fingers. "Imo, could you, could you tell me about, about my m-mother?" The words were out and Jae felt bolder. "Like what she looked like. Was she kind?" Did he take after her? In looks? In personality? What of him was her and what belonged to his equally unknown father?

The teen's heart began to pound in his chest. His aunt had not said anything. She continued to stare at him, her gaze lingering uncomfortably upon him. Then, she shifted to fully face him.

"Your mother is gone. We do not speak of her."

"Imo, but-" Jae didn't know what to say. His mother, her sister, and that is what she had to say? "A picture. One of her scales-!"

Aunt Taliah stood, and her chair went clattering to the floor. "She transformed! We do not speak of those who shamefully transformed!" Anger reddened her complexion and turning it muddy. She took a step towards him, a finger pointed at his chest. "She is dead to us."

"To us?" Jae shouted, suddenly stricken by an awful realization. "Imo, is my mother still alive?!"

The shift of expression on his aunt's face said it all. A flash of anguish and guilt, quickly covered by anger. "It does not matter, Joka! She is banished and you will be too if you continue to ask about her! The Colony does not take this matter lightly!"

"She's my mother!" Jae cried, "I thought she was dead and only now I discover she is still alive?"

"It does not matter! She is dead to you either way! Joka, forget about her-"

"I cannot!" Jae felt tears sting in his eyes. Everything his family has ever said about his mother lead him to believe she was dead. How could they keep the truth from him? He didn't care that the Colony forbid speaking of her! Jae wasn't even considered part of the colony and was technically half human. Surely that allowed him to learn about his own mother!

Aunt Taliah hissed a frustrated, "Ook!" before roughly massaging her temples with her finger tips. "This is for your own good, Jae."

Jae violently shook his head in refusal. "If she is so forbidden then why did you keep her scales in that journal?" That got his aunt's attention. Her head snapped up, shock rippled across it.

"You went through my desk!" She tried to come across as angry, but now she was just as flustered as him. Jae almost felt good about that. "Joka, I did not give you permission to go through my things!"

"You didn't answer my question, imo. Why keep that journal if she is forbidden?"

"You just had to inherit those powers!" His aunt screamed, and now she was angry again. Well and truly. Jae flinched. "Why couldn't you have gained our magic!"

"I-I," Jae began to cry in earnest. Those words stung deeply.

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

Jae went without hesitation, just as glad to be away from his furious aunt. The door slammed shut behind him and the teen sunk back and down against the wood. His mother lived, and he couldn't learn anything about her. He had nothing but her powers, and even that was wrong and unspoken.
 

Fox Tarts

Venus Love Chain
Jan 21, 2020
674
My bed
Pronouns
Any
Posting Status
Weekly
Early March
Jae leaned against the back of his chair and massaged his eyes with the palms of his hands. Scattered across his desk lay a variety of tomes on aquatic and water elemental magic. Within the school library was even an old research report on the magic of his mother's people: the Pacifica-Ul Merfolk Colony. It was a short document, only five pages in total, but completely invaluable.

The report, written by wizard of the name Benjamin Worthy, had spent some time among the colony a few centuries ago. He noted their, in his words, unique subset of water elemental magic, and the natural affinity the people of the colony had for it. A very limited report, but it meant that Jae was on the right track. Somewhere in these gathered tomes of magic was the secret to his own.

The teen took a deep, settling breath, and turned his mental gaze inward to his pool of magic. Jae had no idea what his magic would actually look like, but he saw it as a living pool of viscous blue water that moved like flame and glowed from within. That same pool was imagined as curled up, like some content house cat. Calm and sated. After school Jae had gone straight to the ocean, then a mile out into open water to sing and exhaust his wild magic to quiet levels.

Perhaps his magic was like some living thing. Not truly alive, but simply acting upon its nature as it best knew how. Wizard Benjamin Worthy did not write on the siren's magic, but Jae didn't need him or some other writer to say what he already knew. The colony referred to their magic as ocean magic. It let them manipulate water with a thought and predict the weather far in advance. Some in the colony had the magic to speak with aquatic animals and others could tame sea-monsters with a touch.

And when that magic becomes corrupted by violence and lust for revenge, it transforms into primal magic. A magic that knows only destruction and terror and only accessible by sirens.

There were many species of merfolk and siren's in the world and even across dimensions. For the colony, the siren transformation went beyond mere crime. To them it was a corruption of their species and magic and that was unforgivable. His mother became a siren, thus banished and forgotten by society. And he inherited her siren magic.

"It does not make me a siren." Jae said, out loud, for himself. He may have inherited primal magic, but he was not a true siren. So surely, surely, he had access to ocean magic. Surely he could learn elemental magic to be more like aunt Taliah and the rest of the colony. If they could see that he could use their magic as well then perhaps, just perhaps, they might accept him as one of their own.

Jae Yi-Lin held primal magic within him. He could control people with song or bring about storms, but that magic did not define him. Primal magic was not who he was. Jae desires no revenge or vengeance or any destruction. He'll learn to use the magic of the colony and prove he was more than his birth.

The teen made one big, last stretch, and dove back in to his reading. Magic was a tricky subject, but Jae was an excellent student.



Content Warning: Violence, Abuse
Italics indicate when Korean is spoken

Mid March
Jae sprinted down the beach and towards his aunt's house. A short run, as the little cottage was only a stone's throw from the docks and faced the water. The teen skidded to a halt on the porch, but still nearly collided with the front door in his haste. The door flew open, and across the room his aunt jumped in her chair.

Taliah had been working at her desk, quill raised above the report, when the teen ran over and gently tugged her up.

"Imo! Imo, I did it! I did it!" Jae said in a rush, too excited to put the words into English. "I can't wait to show you. I really did it!" He pulled her into the kitchen and beside the sink. The teen let her go to turn the faucet knob and let a steady stream of water fall. Aunt Taliah looked from it to him.

"Yes, you turned on the sink." Though her face remained stoic, Jae could tell she had made a joke. Which meant she was in a good mood, so this had perfect timing.

"Watch, Imo. Just watch." Jae took a step back, then several deep breaths. His face was red, and his chest heaved from the run, which wouldn't do. The teen composed himself then sang a long, clean note. Jae figuratively reached within himself to his well of magic and urged it into the note. The magic caught to the song. Jae pitched his voice higher, then cast it out to the water pouring into the sink.

Suddenly Jae's vision spun across the room and into the faux marble countertops. His forehead collided with a heavy thud, then bounced off. Jae slid onto the floor and sharp pain sprang across his skull and shoulder. The teen blinked, and belatedly realized his check and eye stung sharply. He pressed his palm to wound, as though he could press the pain away. His ears rang with a high-pitched tone.

Aunt Taliah stood over him, her arm raised and palm flat. She was shaking, but with fear or rage Jae couldn't tell. Tears clouded his vision and hardened to pearls as they slipped down his cheek. For a brief moment, the only sound in the kitchen was the soft plink of pearls on the tiles and the rush of water from the sink.

"How dare you." Aunt Taliah said, her voice low and dangerous. Something cold and alien lurked in her golden eyes. "How dare you use that foul magic in my home!"

"I-"

"NO!" She screamed, and raised her hand higher. "No! Don't you even think of trying that again! Don't you ever use that magic in my house. How could you be so cruel and thoughtless! Don't you know how hard this is for me? Don't ever do this again!"

"I-Imo-"

"Go to your room! And you will stay there for the rest of the night. And you will not sneak off!" She lowered her hand, then turned from him. She trembled, and the tautness of her shoulders told him to comply and fast. The teen pulled himself off the floor, and out on wobbly feet.

As he passed the hallway bathroom, Jae caught his reflection on the mirror of the medicine cabinet. The entire right side of his face was bright red and puffy. A big dark bruise bloomed around his right eye. Jae tenderly pushed hair out of the way and found another bruise and small cut on the front side of his head. Jae let the hair fall back into place and rushed into his room. The door closed behind.

He stumbled into his bed. Pearls, some blue, others the color of spoiled cream fell across his lap and sheets. A distant part of himself noted their lumpy shapes, which limited their sale value. Jae hiccuped. He wiped his nose on the sleeve of his jacket and tried not to feel so numb. Because. This was his fault.

More hiccups, they shook his whole body. He should have told his aunt what he was doing. Instead he rushed into singing, too eager to show off. It was natural to assume he was going to use the siren song. After all, she didn't know about any of his magic studies. Jae caught her off-guard and she reacted. This was his fault and completely avoidable had he stopped and thought about what he wanted to do.

Jae fell back onto the bed, and tried not to think of anything at all.
 
Forgot your password?