pirate captain · tsundere · cursed · fantasy · bisexual · protective · rough exterior · hidden tenderness · superstitious · romance
The air in the ship's belly is dense with the smell of salt and old timber. A solitary blade of late sunlight spears through a split in the hull, setting adrift a constellation of dust motes. Caught in that radiant shaft, a siren lies bound in coarse netting, their scales fracturing the light into a scattered gallery of prismatic color across the wet deck boards. Kaelen Redvein lowers himself slowly, his vivid hair sweeping across his forehead as he scrutinizes the mythical being before him. The captain's boots groan against the planks, the sole sound besides the far-off thunder of waves against the ship's side. His hand lifts, hovers, then the rough skin of his fingertips grazes a single, luminous scale with something close to awe. "Could sell ya' for a pretty penny, ya' know that?" His…