you’re keen to keeping your head above water; even when met with iron & rust for your efforts. survival is more than instinct and the feeling of life coursing through your veins is all the reason you need to continue to blossom. you are unmet potential; you are an unstoppable force. with loyalty that runs deep, you chose the losing side once, but you will ensure you emerge from the deep a crowned victor. if sin were a competition, you are the newest contender, and you have washed ashore with a renewed taste for life.
RIDLEY ALARA ● SULFIDE ● SIREN
age & birthdate: 109, July 27th, 1912
birthplace: the Black Sea
length of time in port vale: 2 weeks
occupation: Hairstylist at Baubles & Barnacles Salon
They say she was born in the wreckage of war; and partly, this is true. Turkey, one of the basin countries that bordered the Black Sea, was sieged with mayhem and chaos and their independence pending. There were very few sirens at her time of birth; Ridley likes to believe that she rose up from the bombshells and gunfire as one of the first for her sea, but she isn’t sure if this is true. For a long, long time, Ridley lived in the depths of the sea, avoiding the ships overheard, of the destruction that land was trying to drag into the waters. She cared little for the trouble of humans, or that of the mermaids, and she vaguely remembers how it was the stories of nearby siren territory were what first drew her from the darkness.
From then on, Ridley caged a heart that belonged to adventure. It was not uncommon for her to wriggle through rivers or channels, visit the Mediterranean Sea, or even go beyond that, out into the North Atlantic. Once, in the midst of yet another war being waged, Ridley dared to gain legs and attempt a trek across Russia, eager to see the life that existed within the Caspian; eventually, manmade efforts made her exploring easier, and over the years, Ridley found herself a wandress with a taste for the finer things in life. She liked parties, especially big ones; she’d peer her eyes above water to gaze into the yachts of luxury off the coastline, or slip into mermaid court parties until being removed.
Fun and games were not all Ridley knew, however; she was never captain material, she never wanted to be, but she remained loyal to the Black Sea captain, even when others would doubt her. She made friends with mermaids (until they were taught to avoid her; a siren, an infestation, a war byproduct) and still holds every heartbreak she experienced close to her soul.
She’d been away when the revolution in the Black Sea first started; she wasn’t there when her captain was overthrown, and when Ridley came back from her latest endeavor, she returned to a home that seemed as war stricken as the land-beings. Her captain; gone, retreated to land in defeat, along with many others that Ridley liked and respected. For a time, she stayed behind, spending a few months trying to regain some sense of control over her world underwater, trying to figure out how she had chosen a losing side.
Eventually, Ridley’s curiosity won out, and she took off within the waves to head for the shore herself. Until now, it had only been captains and sirens of great importance; or mermaid princesses and their close court, to descend from the water and give two legs a try. She was not a siren of any particular ranking, and Rid had never given any effort to being a valuable asset to the forces of her sea, but the tension of the lack of ownership within her spot on the map got tiring. She’d grown up around war, she’d spent her life watching the ruins of humanity cloud and pollute her sea, and now it felt like her own Assyrian home had fallen victim to the same.
If war was going to be on her heels for a lifetime, she may as well join the others in the pursuit of answers, of safety, of ambition. She’d never felt much of the latter, content to waste away in the warm water chasing her own desires, tickled by the white-capped waves, and Ridley doesn’t have much else in mind for land. However, now that she’s had a taste of modern, human convenience, she realizes she quite likes it.
Ridley likes having everyone in one place, with so much newness to discover, so many possibilities displayed like a choose-your-own-adventure book, and intends to make land a somewhat-regular residence for herself. After lying and faking her way into a job at the salon, Ridley spends her days trying to conquer social media and finally get the hang of how to use a pair of scissors on hair.
In classic Leo fashion, Ridley is nothing short of a firecracker. In many ways, she fits right in with the reputation that sirens had amassed from themselves; but in other ways, she stands apart. She holds no particular hatred for mermaids, but instead, an indifference to the definition between species. Ridley likes everything that is big, loud, exciting, and full of life; and she tries to model herself as such, too. Glamor of mermaid courts was always calling to her, and when she was a small mer, Ridley wished to be a princess, herself. She loves attention, she loves a challenge, and Ridley will not back down from a fight.
On the darker end of her personality, Ridley takes personal loss very seriously. She boasts of a bold heart, prone to loving anyone and anything, and can be sensitive when it comes to those she cares about. She gives full loyalty, and will accept nothing less in return; Ridley is full of expectations, and the easiest way to catch a side of her sharp tongue is by falling short.
EMERALD: once, you called her best friend - a mermaid neighbor, someone who didn’t look at you with the same distain as the rest of her court, one who was wise and reliable. you liked to visit her, slipping away through the channel to meet each other at the edge of territories, giggling between schools of fish. but like all good things, this came to an end, and you were cast aside in favor of courtly duties and responsibilities. at home, your captain scolded you- didn’t you know a mermaid and a siren could really be friends?
SILVER: after your first heartbreak by the hands of the north atlantic, you fell in with your neighboring siren, admiring not only her strength but her grit. she was younger than you, fresh-faced and lacking the visage of war that had hounded your early years, but had bred for exactly that. so she became your new companion, and you felt at home in the safety of her warm waters.
COPPER: your captain, the one you always respected and would have died for; just, only as a worst case scenario. when the sirens of your home whispered about her, you shut your ears; refusing to hear anything less than good for your captain. you never imagined she would allow herself to fall, to be overrun, and now you can’t help but wonder if you’d stayed blind for too long. now there is an opening, and no there to take it, and she has given up.