jet (18+, they/them) presents HAN DAEHYUN, your resident marine activist & lowkey ecogoth ! recently he was ecstatic to be accepted for a position at the aquatic wildlife center and thus take his first step towards fulfilling his lifelong dream of working for a marine research center, until he opened the job offer and the job in question turned out to consist of ........ PUTTING ON A FAKE TAIL AND PRETENDING TO BE A MERMAID INSTEAD?! to learn more about this EVIL, EVIL WRENCH in his plans, see below the cut; to summon me into your inbox, like this post ! i’ll be asking if you’d like to plot, but please no worries if you’d prefer something more casual / to just start writing instead !
previously lived in ansan, where his parents made a living off of fishing & supplying local businesses with seafood. he was 10 when they started getting pushed out by bigger corporations and his parents decided to move to mulmalu, where they’ve lived ever since.
his parents own a fishing boat docked in mulmalu city!! they’re very nice, warm, welcoming people. daehyun is somehow almost the polar opposite, but he’s fiercely protective of them
he’s been going on fishing trips with them for as long as he can remember, so the ocean is practically his second (if not first) home. he’s not too great at fishing itself, but he does know his way around a boat and can swim ridiculously well
officially scuba-certified, lifeguard-certified, cpr-certified 8) he actually needed to get them for his job, but now if anyone’s flailing in the water he can help save them as a bonus (he will expect coffee in return tho)
if he catches you littering on the beach.....by god, don’t let him catch you littering on the beach
on the quieter side, but definitely not shy to speak up, especially if he feels like he’s in the right. kind of dramatic too if you unlock that side of him
i put a ridiculous amount of thought into his merfolk costume okay. so it’s this pretty pearl white tail with faux scales and intricate designs on the fin, topped off with fancy rope accessories draped over his shoulders and pearls in his hair, and daehyun DESPISES it!! wants to rip it apart every time he has to put it on and take it off!! also, having to shower off the aquarium water after ?? he’s FUMING
when he’s actually in it.....he’s a little chiller . mostly bc he doesn’t have to fight to get the damn thing on/off. also, he does love to swim, and he loves getting to swim around with the animals specifically, so he guesses it’s not all bad
once, he tried to tell some visitors during the meet & greet about how if he was a real mermaid, he’d probably be paler with more blubber and sharper teeth and horrific eyes to accommodate the deep sea pressure and etc etc etc. he was almost fired. now he grudgingly keeps his factoids to himself and sticks to the script -_-
dreams of working for a global-scale organization that helps protect the ocean someday....but with only the barest years of higher education and not much else on his resume, he knows he needs this first job at the aquatic wildlife center, so he’s trying to stay in management’s good graces
still stays back after closing at the aquatic center to be with the animals though....don’t tell security (they already know) (they’re tired)
when he’s not working or helping his parents, you can find him wading out in cold waters like a maniac or reading on the sand like a loser, depending on his mood. if he’s had a particularly rough day, he commiserates at the bar. if he’s having a great one, he’s probably out exploring the reefs. if it’s one of the rare occasions he feels like being daring, you might run into him at the waterfall trying to finally gather the nerve to make the dive. it hasn’t happened yet, but...y’know. one day!
possible plots / first meetings !
he’s got established plots and other possible connection / first meeting ideas here & a general plot inspo blog here! the blog is sort of organized by dynamic types, but anything there can be used as inspo for a plot or random starter tbh.
a ride or die....pls. it’s the one thing his intensity would be good for sfjwjrh
muses who can loosen him up a little ! muses who can help him see a little more magic / not resent his job so much !
muses he used to go to school with? former classmates would probably remember how even more vocal about his beliefs he used to be, and how often he’d get into arguments or debates-turned-arguments. alternatively, the muses who were in those arguments with him
muses who can’t STAND his ass and the feeling is mutual !!! bonus points if they keep having to interact by some sick twist of fate
a muse who he sees as his older / younger sibling :< he was an only child but was quietly jealous of everyone else who had siblings ngl. he’d be the annoying, teasing kind of sibling whether he’s older or younger, but he’d be v. protective of them like his real family, so hopefully that makes up for it </3
if your muse needs a wrangler, he’s very good at lecturing people LMAO
alternatively, someone who wrangles HIM
possibly a roommate if anyone would be interested in doing some deeper plotting with that!!
one of the many people that his cat sangeo likes more than him -_-
“you were amazing. so full of magic.. i can’t believe it’s you.” it’s a little breathless, but the smile pulling up the corners of his lips is brilliant.
it’s actually kind of endearing how openly the realization flits across yeseung’s face, and daehyun watches it all unfold with the same lazy, knowing smile. yes, he hoped yeseung would remember him too, but he knows how it goes more often than not -- he was more than ready to remind him, maybe ask how that drink treated him after daehyun left.
so when yeseung laughs instead, and when instead he calls for daehyun like that again, daehyun feels jolted off-course, like a train flicked suddenly onto an alternate track. that had definitely been easier to take in stride when he had a few drinks in him; now, it sears his cheeks a little, has him ducking slightly behind his folded arms. as if it isn’t enough, yeseung keeps talking, using words that has daehyun glancing around fitfully in the viewing area in case yeseung’s talking to someone else or maybe one of the fish instead.
but the hand stretched out towards him is indicative enough. "i think the believers are usually in a certain younger age bracket, but it’s nice that you have that much faith in me, hyung,” daehyun tells him playfully, finally untucking an arm from the tank to reach back. it’s brief, but their fingertips brush together, and his smile grows wider. “if i’d known i’d get another believer out of you, i would’ve invited you last night. just didn’t think you were the type.” kind of silly, now that he thinks about it. he can still hear that wondrous edge to yeseung’s voice as yeseung talks about mermaids and magic like he really believes in it, so clearly it isn’t something only wrought by alcohol. if this is just who yeseung is -- and it’s becoming a little clearer that it is -- then the aquarium seems like a fitting place for him after all.
daehyun opens his mouth to ask how long yeseung’s been here already, but this distance between them is becoming inconvenient. daehyun casts one more glance around for any of the security guards nearby, before reaching up to his own hair and finding one of the little pearls fastened there. he works it loose and drops it over the edge of the tank, aiming for yeseung’s hand. “oops,” daehyun says, flashing him a guileless smile. “would you mind bringing that up to me? there should be some steps on your right.” he tilts his head in the direction of the faux rock platform where visitors were occasionally allowed to take pictures with the performers. without any other events scheduled tonight, the platform’s empty, leaving daehyun with ample space to haul himself over and wait with barely-concealed eagerness for yeseung to round the steps.
they seemed ethereal in the water, moving in such ways that their tail shimmered like the expanse of a thousand stars under moonlight, spinning and twisting and pulling his own attention like a thread of string that they wrapped and wrapped and wrapped around their fingers. and yeseung was only tugged gleefully forth– happy to be spun into an orbit of a creature so intriguing he can only think they could have been formed with magic, with gentle hands imbued with powers as strong as an ocean’s wave.
there’s a figure. the new lights make the water murkier to see through, but soon daehyun doesn’t have to look too hard at all, because the figure comes closer and closer, and the details of their face and their clothes fill in with the proximity: familiar hair, familiar eyes, familiar mouth. if he had any doubt left that this wasn’t the same chae yeseung he’d just met the night before, there’s none left now -- maybe only a lingering possibility that he’s swallowed too much seawater and started imagining things.
but an illusion’s hand wouldn’t look so real against the glass, would it? he can see the whorls of his fingertips and the lines of yeseung’s palms, clear as day, but not so much recognition in yeseung’s eyes as he’d hoped for.
still, he’s a little amused. daehyun lines up his palm against the glass too, and he finds that the tips of his fingers eke out over yeseung’s just the slightest bit. daehyun quirks an eyebrow, glancing from yeseung, to their hands, to yeseung again, mirth glittering in his eyes and the barest of smirks tugging at the corner of his lips.
he’s the first to pull away, leaving behind a small cloud of sand as he pushes himself back up to the surface. he doesn’t need to do the little spin that he does on his way up, but he does it anyway because it makes him feel giddy. he resurfaces with a small gasp for air, and instead of heading towards the exit platform, he hooks two arms over the side of the tank and hoists himself high enough to peer down at yeseung. “liked the show?” he calls, flicking his tail lazily in the water. he remembers how well yeseung had danced under the neon lights, how effortless it had looked; maybe daehyun wants to impress him now too.
Cheol, personally, was keen to let Daehyun do most of the work here. Under the guise of his friend being the expert here, the musician had taken it upon himself to simply sit back and enjoy the scenery, for the most part. Boat gently rocking with the rhythm of gentle waves beneath them, he’d almost call this the closest to true peace he’d felt in a while – if it weren’t for the sight of Daehyun fighting for his life with the jib, catching his attention from the corner of his eye. For a moment, he pretended to ignore it as if he were still busy taking in the views around them, hiding a subtle smile behind his hand as he propped an elbow on the side of the boat to lean against.
Perhaps if it were anyone else Cheol would be rushing over to offer his assistance, but his closest friend always did have the privilege of being his personal court jester in times like these. All out of love, obviously.
Of course, when Daehyun actually asks for help, he doesn’t turn him down. No longer hiding his amusement, Cheol laughs as he pushes himself to stand, searching for the rope his friend needed. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for me to come over there? If we both get knocked overboard, we’re doomed.”
Even so, he’s creeping closer, swiping up the end of the rope so he can begin securing it to the pole pointed out to him, looking only the slightest bit unsure about what he’s doing.
“Maybe we should trade places… Aren’t sailors kind of fussy about how things are tied up? What if I break the whole thing?”
Daehyun is affronted. “Speak for yourself. I can swim. Could even outswim a boat,” he tells Cheol, waving one hand airily before that turns out to be a bad idea and the jib nearly wrenches loose of his hold again. Cursing, Daehyun wrangles it back towards him, hooking an arm over it to keep it from spinning around and smacking his best and most treasured friend who is most certainly not laughing at him, right, because that isn’t what best and treasured friends do. “This is why I keep saying we should be tied together,” Daehyun points out as he ducks under the sheet to look for the rope too. “Also, how would you break anything by just tying a--”
A particularly sharp gust of wind sends the boat rocking and Daehyun’s balance with it. He squeaks, holding onto the jib for dear life. “Okay, okay, yeah, let’s switch,” he announces hastily, carefully lowering himself to the deck because he vaguely remembers reading somewhere that lowering his center of gravity helps with balance. Or was it the other way around? Shit.
“I think I see the rope under the seat. You just have to grab this as soon as I let get so it doesn’t spin out of control.” He wiggles out a hand, beckoning Cheol over. He probably should make sure it’s tied down right so it doesn’t snap loose later. Oh, he hates when Cheol is right. “Okay, do you remember that one scene in National Treasure when they were all standing on that really big square rock? I think we have to move at the same time or the boat might flip over if we’re both on the same end. Oh, but-- but don’t stand up too tall either, okay? If you fall over, the only way I’m rescuing you is by fishing you out,” Daehyun threatens, even though he’d actually probably sooner haul Cheol all the way back to shore himself if he had to.
Cheol will only know that the day it has to happen, though.
there’s new research on the thermal tolerance of sea turtles. daehyun knows this because he’s been checking the daily articles on his go-to open access research journals and subscribed to both the website’s email list plus the researchers’ individual email lists ever since he read the first part in 2017, and he’d jumped that morning at the sight of the alert sitting in his inbox like a holy grail. much of the day had been spent blazing through his errands and even most of the things his parents his asked him to do by tomorrow, then finally settled down in the paper menagerie, at the very same table he sat at four years ago when he read that first article, to read about what had happened to those green turtle nests in cuba. it had only felt fitting.
it turns out that not only do higher incubation temperatures have an inverse relationship on the success rate of hatchings, but they affect their morphologies too. daehyun crams these things into his notes, which he means to show his boss eventually to support his case for the turtles at the aquarium to have their own habitat -- notes that his shitty macbook air is struggling to contain and are therefore also stored in a little thumb drive in case it finally experiences a complete internal collapse -- and reaches for his coffee, only to find the cup distressingly light.
the interruption has him looking up blearily from his screen. three more coffee cups lay strewn before him, acting as paperweights for his paper notes, and he thinks that he might’ve grabbed the wrong one until he peeks over and realizes they’re all empty. oh.
he collects them hastily to throw out before heading for the front counter again. he hadn’t noticed when most of the other customers left, but the shop is mostly empty now, the night sky twinkling beyond the front windows. daehyun approaches the barista at the front -- miyoung, he knows. he’s seen her around since even before the paper menagerie opened, so he’s always figured that she was one of the long-time locals, though he’s never really had the chance to say much more to her than his coffee order. now that there’s no one else in line, he finds himself a little sheepish as he approaches; he’s ordered two or three coffees in a row before, but not almost five.
“could i get another macchiato, please? i know i said the last one was going to be my last one, but this one’s really going to be the last.” daehyun chews on his bottom lip, quietly chiding himself for making promises he couldn’t keep. “how late are you open tonight?”
the lights are lowered down just slightly. he holds his breath.
there. by some stroke of luck, daehyun leans in, nearly brushing his nose against the glass, and happens to glimpse the watcher’s face through the dark and the distance. something about it makes him think of overgrown ivy and gossamer wings; he’s seen that face before, hasn’t he? but before he can recall a name, the lights begin to dim, reminding him of the impending show. right. he picks up a glowing orb prop from behind the rocks, then swims upwards to take his take his starting position.
a soft piano fills the chamber, and a prerecorded voice begins to speak, welcoming the audience to a tale of magic and wonder. resisting the urge to roll his eyes, daehyun hoists himself up on the fake rocks above the tank as the narrator begins with a once upon a time. just as the script says, he hums and takes up the orb, showing it off to the audience and pretending to wield it like magic. he sneaks another glance at the stranger, feeling their name the tip of his tongue, but again, he’s interrupted when the lights turn crimson and fake lightning crackles through the speakers. daehyun gasps, lifting the orb like it’s being pulled out from his throat, and tosses it into the water.
the story is straightforward, backed by one of alexander desplat’s dreamier soundtracks: he’s supposed to be one of the merfolk, magical protectors of the sea, until an evil sea witch steals his magic and a light fairy has to help him get it back. the fairy in question is just a spotlight darting through the water, really, and he’s supposed to follow his routine after it like it’s leading him along. it’s by chance that halfway through his eyes skate over that face again, and the aquamarine lights happen to flash against the glass just at the right time, and--
yeseung! yeseung. thank god for his memory. but why is he here? doesn't he have other things to do, like fix a car? daehyun almost misses a few of his cues before he wrangles his focus back into place.
he doesn’t consider himself a great actor. normally he has to project his own amazement at the fauna when he’s supposed to admire the decorations and picture his boss whenever he has to look upset about the witch, but now that yeseung's there, he feels like he sort of has to prove a point. what point, he's not sure, but it makes the theatrics come a little easier--he exaggerates his turns, flicks his tail in sharper motions, adds a few unnecessary curlicues to the end of each section. and, when the fairy-light finally helps him “find his magic” and he's meant to bow in gratitude, he finds yeseung's face in the crowd instead and bows like he's bowing for him.
the story has a happy ending, of course. with his magic restored, he can protect the ocean again and so on, and the narrator goes into their spiel about how the audience also has a certain magic within them to help protect the ocean. the only redeeming part of the show, in daehyun’s opinion. when the track finally begins to fade into the usual aquarium’s music and the lights return to normal, he swims for the breathing tubes again instead of the surface. it’s this corner of the tank he’s claimed for himself, where he keeps the prop orb along with interesting rocks he finds around the tank, until the day he can take a closer look at them. maybe he lingers a little longer than necessary there, partly distracted by the moving shapes on the other side of the glass, searching where he’d last seen that familiar face.
the sailboat is on the smaller side, with a keel carved out of sleek oak painted a rich, deep blue and inner planks built out of some lighter softwood, but there’s enough room for daehyun to handle the jib without knocking into cheol.
it’s definitely one of the nicer boats he’s been on, a loaner from one of the other fishermen his parents were close with. of course daehyun had volunteered at the speed of lightning to help her prime the boat for use just so she would let him take it out to sea first, and of course cheol had been the first one he told about it, because telling cheol first about anything that makes him happy is pretty much as instinctive as breathing, and also because, i can finally FINALLY teach u how to fish!!!
the fishing equipment in question sat by his seat, checked and approved by his father himself. life vests, a first aid kit, an emergency kit, a pair of ponchos: daehyun had checked over everything twice before they set off just to be safe. the air is fairly cool today, but the sun is out in full force and the sea is calm, rocking the boat gently to and fro. mulmalu island lies not too far behind them, but far enough that the dockside buildings look smaller and quainter, bringing a happy grin to daehyun’s face.
until the jib almost smacks him in the face.
“do you see-- ah, ow, if you see the end of the rope that’s attached to this, can you grab it and tie it to the big pole in the middle?” he calls in cheol’s general direction, much of his usual grace gone now that he’s fighting to keep the jib from really slapping him. oh, he can already hear the shit he’s going to get about this later. daehyun raises his foot and points it towards where he hopes the rope is, wiggling his foot for emphasis.
if a year ago someone told daehyun that this is where he was going to end up, he would have scoffed and corrected them: he would be working for the country’s top marine research institute, boarding a vessel with all of the latest technology to catalogue the specimens of a newly-discovered reef in the pacific ocean. not without some baby steps first, of course. mulmalu had a perfectly reputable aquatic wildlife center right there, and so he’d thought that a solid year of working there, combined with his independent research, could land him at least an assistant’s position somewhere.
when the formal offer arrived, he’d been ecstatic, almost falling overboard in his rush to open it with his parents. then, once he actually read the letter, he’d almost pitched himself willingly overboard after all, until his parents suddenly him up in a very nice, very supportive hug and exclaimed, oh, we’re so proud of you, kupi! you’re going to do great!
right. he’s going to do great. and when he’s in a proper facility someday, with real samples and animals to work with, he’s going to do even greater. this is what he tells himself as he slides into the tank for the third time in the week and lets the weight of his tail help him sink.
in the water, at least, he feels more in his element. it had taken weeks to get used to swimming with his legs cinched together, but now the pearl white tail feels as natural as his own limb, cutting firmly through the water as he dives for the bottom of the tank. it’s decorated with pretty, color-speckled rocks and live fauna, where the fish usually hid once the performance began. the water errs on the cooler side, but it’s pleasant, a nice counterpoint to the warmth that comes from stretching out in the water. he moves through a few lazy corkscrews before he has to head for the breathing tubes concealed behind the rocks.
he assesses the other side of the tank before he lets go. it’s still a few minutes to the show, but from the looks of the viewing area, it’s going to be a smaller crowd tonight. most are kids, exclaiming in soundless excitement as they point their parents to him, him, a real mermaid, do you see? per the job description, daehyun smiles back, waves, and blows them ridiculous little bubble kisses. do it for the turtles, he chants to himself silently. the turtles. the turtles.
the dim lighting outside doesn’t let him see the rest of the crowd clearly, but one of them in particular looks a little older than the usual age range of his audience. oh, great, he thinks. wondering if somebody he knows has come to tease him about the job again, daehyun drifts closer to the glass, tail curling lightly over the sand as he searches for a face in the dark.
