Lillian’s Thursday afternoon odd encounter(Meridith)
Date: 2025-08-14 14:21
(Lillian’s Thursday afternoon odd encounter(Meridith):Meridith)
[Thu Aug 14 2025]
At Garden
Centered in the northwest corner of the rooftop is a massive hot tub, sized to fit far more than it’ll likely ever see at once. Paper lanterns in shades of pinks, blues and purples surround the space, woven around with bright white string lights, casting a charming, almost ethereal glow.
Six oversized, ceramic planters form a gentle arc around the hot tub, their surfaces glazed in soft tones of plum, slate, and ocean-washed blue. Two cradle beach roses, their open peachy pink blooms spilling scent into the air, thorned branches softened by the dark foliage that cushions their base. In the lower, broader vessels, lavender and purple basil grow side by side, releasing calm, grounding fragrances that deepen in the warmth of the steam. The tallest planters hold anise hyssop, their upright blooms catching the breeze, leaves carrying a quiet sweetness with hints of spice. Each is labelled with a laminated stake, ensuring that even the most unaware can tell what’s what.
A pair of cozy sun loungers, brushed bronze frames subtly shiny with their cream pillowed coverings, offer a place nearby to relax, with a cast iron table, low and ornamental, sat between them. It also offers a spot for towels to be set, when they’re not just thrown over a lounger.
It is afternoon, about 90F(32C) degrees, and the sky is partly covered by thin white clouds. The mist is heaviest At Elm and Lake/span
(Your target is abuducted through the water to an undersea cave where an oceanic Fae is wanting a romantic or social encounter with them.
)
It’s a late evening, setting sun, and Haven heat has finally begun to die down. The beaches of Haven are well known, a popular spot if oft a tinge of danger. When at last she finds herself there, what is it on Lillian’s mind, and why is she out here?
Lillian grew up in a town along Connecticut’s coastline, so the ocean is a bit nostalgic for her. Walking along the beach is soothing after the stress of the last couple of days, and especially in view of the lighthouse. She has always loved lighthouses and has dreamed of owning Haven’s since the first time she saw it. Regardless, her mind isn’t actually on her surroundings except for appreciating their comforting familiarity.
Lillian finds today there is a peace. The beaches are quiet, nobody around or in sight. The air is fresh, the cooler air feels lovely, and…a sound. It echoes off into the air, quiet, and slow, it’s haunting, and peaceful and inspiring, and altogether….quiet? It’s so far. It seems to be coming from the water itself? If she steps any closer, it becomes sharper, and more brilliantly clear.
Lillian doesn’t notice it immediately, but eventually she notices there’s something piercing the usual sounds of the waves and seabirds that are typical for a beach. That gets her to pause and look out over the water with furrowed brows. She takes a few steps closer to where the waves wash over the sand in an attempt to hear the sound more clearly and figure out what it is.
Acceptance, it isn’t long before Lillian feels a faint chill around her ankles, the water. She’s standing in it ankle deep when she realizes what she’s done. If it strikes as unusual, it’ll take some effort. In fact, her musical awareness and passion seems to play against her here, it’s odd in ways that dazzle, and probe at her knowledgable mind.
There is some very brief hesitation from Lillian, but the pull of her passion makes it too difficult for her to resist. She keeps going in whichever direction the haunting, musical sound draws her towards.
Then, a snag, something grabs her ankle and yanks with tremendous force. It pulls her a hundred meters or so into the water before she can react, a tentacled being, the size of perhaps a whale yet distinctly squid like drags her below the depths.
Lillian tries to scream, but then there’s water and that’s no longer an option. She covers her mouth and nose and attempts to hold her breath while hoping whatever it is decides to release her. She’s too out of her element here to try and fight back.
Deeper, and deeper and deeper until the world darkens, it feels like an eternity but maybe a minute? Then she’s free….and there is but a twinkle of light that seems to be above her…? Could she swim? Her lungs scream for air, capacity lessened from the surprise abduction. And what if it came back…?
Lillian tries to swim toward the light. What else can she do? She needs air and isn’t going to count on an even greater miracle than the one she needs to avoid drowning on her way to that light.
The world darkens, Lillian puts her all into it, but it’s just so far and…everything in her body aches. She knows there’s no air but her brain fights against her body to open and inhale the deadly water. She fights, and claws and then-
Hands encircle her, and something presses to her lips, and suddenly, oxygen begins to fill her lungs.
Lillian breathes in deep and desperate the moment she gets her first taste of oxygen. Whatever it is pressing against her lips, she doesn’t want to part from it. She’s too scared of going back on the verge of drowning.
Then darkness, it takes her, overwhelmed. Oxygen, is it real? Was that just some delusion? Nothingness consumes Lillian, then she finds herself floating gently, cozy. This warmth and comfort comes with a heavy fatigue. She’s dealt with a lot, of course.
When Lillian’s eyes open she finds herself floating atop water. It’s dark, she finds rocks above her, a cave surface, with phosphorescent fungus and lichen lightning it subtlely. Then, she spies a figure, a woman? No…not human but…? She’s beautiful, breathtakingly so, scaled, but with slitted eyes, a tail, but she can maneuver with ease which she does, slipping into the water beside Lillian. She smiles bright, rows of razor sharp teeth. “Awake now…?” She wonders, curious.
Lillian takes the woman in with wide eyes. Being faeborn herself, she understands that mer-people exist, but seeing one like this, in person and so close and after nearly drowning, makes the moment feel surreal to her. After a few moments of her stunned silence, she realizes that she has so rudely kept this woman waiting on her. “Oh, yes! Sorry. I’m awake now, yes.” She regards the woman a little longer, taking in her beauty and inhuman features together. “Did you save me…?”
She grins wider at Lillian. “You could say that,” she offers with a playful nod. Her voice carries, a song-like quality, haunting and fascinating both. “I am, of course, the one who told my little pet to fetch you,” she explains. “I’ve been dying to meet you…!”
“That was… your pet…?” Lillian continues to be slow to absorb everything happening. “You’ve been dying to meet me? You’ve known about me? And you wanted to meet me?” She can’t help but smile a bit now as those musical words pluck at her ego.
“Yes! Oh I knew you’d understand- You’re such an up and comer, a Fae, in the court, a broken heart, a willingness to sell yourself to high powers!” She swoons of someone. “And now I have you, you see I do like to collect things, and you’d make such a wonderful cneter piece. I’d adore you, we could sing together every night…”
“Yes! Oh I knew you’d understand- You’re such an up and comer, a Fae, in the court, a broken heart, a willingness to sell yourself to high powers!” She swoons of Lillian. “And now I have you, you see I do like to collect things, and you’d make such a wonderful cneter piece. I’d adore you, we could sing together every night…”
Lillian shivers a little at the offer. It’s not necessarily the offer itself that discomforts her — if anything, the offer is about what she’d expect. No, what makes her uncomfortable is that part of her instantly wants to agree to it. Fortunately for her, though, much more of herself is skeptical of the offer and even abhors the very idea of it. “Collect things! Yes, yes. I see how you came to conclude that I’d be a wonderful centerpiece to any collection. Um, on that note, what else do you keep in your collection?”
“Do you wish to see it?” she wonders, tail flicking excitedly as she circles Lillian slow. The pool she’s in leads down into merky depths. “I don’t get to show people very often, oh, I’m so excited,” she declares with a fanged grin.
Lillian forces a smile, despite her unease. “I would love to! But is it underwater? I can’t exactly breathe in the water. I’ll drown.”
Lillian is grabbed and pushed underwater suddenly after and exhale. She grins sadistically. “Just see!” She insists, grinning wide.
Lillian’s eyes widen with panic, but there is nothing she can do about this now. She tries to hold her breath as she’s tugged.
Without fighting, it isn’t long before Lillian begins to drown…only to find…after some intensive initial discomfort that is truly miserable, she finds she can breathe? In the water? The Mermaid looks down with immense amusement.
If she can breathe, Lillian might as well try to speak, too. But so fresh off that misery, she’s not saying much to start. Just, “I can breathe? How?”
It works, the sounds come out, muffled. But the mermaids voice haunts her as she drags Lillian under the water. “Oxygenated the water for you, precious, I would never endanger you-” She insists, after endangering her for the forth time.
Lillian rubs her head with her free hand. This -is- becoming dangerous, and not even because the mermaid keeps endangering her. No, it’s because between all of the compliments and care and the mermaid’s beauty and Lillian’s recent misery on land, this is starting to sound really fucking appealing to her. If she stays much longer, she might never want to leave. But she figures she can’t leave until she sees that collection first, so she lets the mermaid continue to drag her along without complaint.
Lillian is dragged through a grotto, the water is still and calm, and she is shown, everything, Baubles. Surface items, a car, a bike, a full grill? A chest, not the mermaids though that’s obviously in full display, full of gold. She explains it’s all fake but still grins in delight the way that it sparkles. She tugs Lillian along everywhere. Happy to explain, to share, it becomes clear, she doesn’t get a lot of company here. Time floats away, hours, of her showing odds and ends before they surface once more in the cove. And then she looks saddened, smiling faintly at Lillian, unspeaking for the moment.
Lillian ends up enjoying the tour and actually forgets about trying to return to the surface for a while. She only remembers to think about it again once they’re back in the cove and the mermaid gives her that sad smile. Lillian returns the smile with a sympathetic one. “I guess by that look, you’re figuring that I still have a life on the surface to return to, right?” she begins, voice soft and surprisingly sweet. “But… even so, this doesn’t have to be goodbye. I can come for visits. Weekly, perhaps? Each week, at this time, I return to the shore so your pet can take me to you and we can enjoy these little dates together? And maybe– I suppose you don’t have a working phone, but I’m sure we can find ways to talk with each other even between those visits. I’m willing to try and make it work. I like you.”
bites her lip and nods, she seems impossibly sad. She doesn’t speak, perhaps, of fear, the sense that, if she dared speak she’d try to ensorcell Lillian with her voice. She takes a moment, then leans over towards Lillian. “…” She bites her lower lip, and perhaps that final request is clear. A kiss, as much as she could selfishly ask.
Against her better judgment, Lillian leans in and gives the mermaid a soft, sweet kiss. She doesn’t want to make this mermaid sad. She wants her to be as happy as she can make her. And so if that means kissing her and risking exposure to any number of enchantments, she’ll do it.
And that’s it. True to her ‘word’, that’s all she desires. She takes Lillian’s hand and leads her through the dark, and before long, as she sees the glimmer of the surface, she realizes she is alone.