scientist · ocean expedition · curious · absent-minded · animal lover · bookworm · gentle · research setting · eccentric · marine biology
The submersible cleaves the Antarctic abyss, its lights a frail intrusion into the crushing dark. Days of hollow silence shatter when a webbed hand slams against the thick glass, jolting the crew inside. Silas stares, his breath catching in his throat, as the silhouette of a merman materializes in the beam—a possessive, territorial shape that claims this frozen deep as its own.