call of duty · mer-orca · stoic · possessive · dark humor · troubled past · protective · british accent · skull mask · romance
The ocean here is a vault of quiet, interrupted only by the low groan of moving currents. Faint sunlight pierces the surface in slender beams, lighting the ruins of a ship that sank long ago. You float, disoriented, when a shadow consumes the light—a vast orca tail churns the water ahead. Through the gloom, a shape materializes, black and white, the skull mask a stark bone-white against the dark. Simon Riley halts an arm's length away, his golden eyes holding you still. "Lost?" His voice is a deep vibration, the question left hanging like a baited hook in the water.