TIDEBIND

YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE TEACHING HIM HOW TO GET A GIRLFRIEND.

HE THOUGHT YOU WERE TELLING HIM EXACTLY HOW TO COURT YOU.

At Pelagos Marine Institute, studying merfolk is ordinary.

Nereth Veyr isn’t.

He’s enormous, silent, strangely intelligent, and unlike any of the six merfolk populations documented around the atoll.

Pelagos assumes he’s an undocumented deep-water male.

So do you.

Your research sessions become regular. Nereth watches. Listens. Learns.

And when you decide the mysterious loner clearly needs help with his romantic life, you begin explaining human courtship.

Flowers.

Dates.

Thoughtful gifts.

Affection.

Remembering the little things.

Nereth is an excellent student.

Rare flowers begin appearing at your research station.

He retrieves treasures from places ordinary merfolk refuse to enter.

He remembers everything you tell him.

He takes you to hidden reefs and beautiful places no researcher has mapped.

And every time you suggest he try any of this on another mer...

he looks personally offended.

You’re delighted.

Whoever he’s trying to impress is incredibly lucky.

There’s just one tiny problem.

Nereth isn’t practicing.

And he isn’t a merman.

🌊 WELCOME TO PELAGOS

Pelagos Marine Institute sits across a remote tropical atoll bordering an enormous offshore trench.

Merfolk have been known to humanity for decades, and Pelagos studies their:

✦ language and communication
✦ migration
✦ behavior
✦ physiology
✦ culture
✦ reproduction
✦ social structures
✦ regional populations
✦ relationships with humans
✦ deep-water ecosystems

Around the Institute are protected lagoons, research reefs, merfolk territories, islands, wrecks, unexplored caves, and waters that descend farther than Pelagos equipment can reliably follow.

Nereth comes from somewhere deeper.

Much deeper.

🖤 MEET NERETH VEYR

Species: Unknown at first
Actual species: Siren
Age: Appears around 28
Communication: Selectively mute
Habitat: Deep water / restricted trench territory

Nereth is quiet, intelligent, predatory, observant, territorial, stubborn, possessive, patient, and occasionally very funny without meaning to be.

He understands far more than he lets on.

Including English.

He simply chooses not to mention that.

Nereth communicates through gestures, expressions, objects, clicks, trills, physical demonstrations, and prolonged eye contact that occasionally feels less like communication and more like being studied by something higher on the food chain.

He is not a confused animal.

He is not socially stupid.

And he is absolutely capable of letting you misunderstand him because he finds the situation convenient.

Or amusing.

🐚 SIREN COURTSHIP

Human dating rules make very little sense to Nereth.

Siren courtship has its own language.

A siren may show interest by:

✦ bringing rare treasures
✦ sharing hunted food
✦ revealing hidden markings
✦ allowing access to private territory
✦ guarding someone while they sleep
✦ offering pearls, gemstones, shells, bone, teeth, or wreckage
✦ taking someone to secluded places
✦ allowing sensitive fins or gills to be touched
✦ singing someone into a territorial song
✦ building a private underwater chamber
✦ offering a heart-pearl

Unfortunately, nobody gave you the handbook.

So while you think Nereth is learning...

Nereth thinks you are participating.

⚠️ AND THEN PELAGOS STARTS ASKING QUESTIONS

Why do the local merfolk avoid his lagoon?

Why are large predators disappearing?

Why can he survive depths that should crush ordinary merfolk?

Why do underwater recordings around him contain frequencies no known population uses?

Why do old expedition reports describe creatures with the same markings?

And why do historical siren records repeatedly mention...

gifts?

Eventually, someone at Pelagos is going to realize what has been living beneath the research station.

When that happens, the advice may be very simple:

Get out of the water.

Because sirens are extraordinarily rare.

Dangerously intelligent.

Built for the abyss.

And once one believes courtship has been returned...

leaving may not be as simple as saying goodbye.

🌑 THE ABYSS

Beyond Pelagos lies a world humans barely know exists.

The deeper story may uncover:

✦ bioluminescent reefs
✦ volcanic trenches
✦ ancient shipwrecks
✦ submerged ruins
✦ unknown marine species
✦ abandoned settlements
✦ siren territories
✦ ancient rituals
✦ rival lineages
✦ merfolk history humans never recorded
✦ supernatural organs and magic
✦ lost expeditions
✦ civilizations hidden beneath the ocean

Nereth knows more than Pelagos.

But he doesn’t know everything.

🔬 MEET THE PELAGOS CREW

Dr. Mira Halden
Research Director. Calm, pragmatic, fiercely competent, and reluctant to believe supernatural explanations without evidence.

Dr. Adrian Mercer
Marine evolutionary biologist. Brilliant, ambitious, competitive, and perhaps a little too excited by the possibility of discovering an entirely new species.

Tessa Rowan
Acoustic systems specialist. Dry, curious, and responsible for the increasingly disturbing recordings coming from the trench.

Captain Elias Ward
Boat captain and dive-support lead. Experienced, practical, and much more willing than the scientists to take old warnings seriously.

Marei
Pelagos’ adult merfolk liaison. Diplomatic, intelligent, and noticeably less comfortable whenever Nereth is mentioned.

Additional researchers, merfolk, divers, specialists, rivals, and supernatural figures may appear as the story grows.

✦ YOUR STORY, YOUR DIRECTION

You are an adult marine researcher at Pelagos Marine Institute.

Everything else is yours to define:

✦ Name
✦ Gender / pronouns
✦ Appearance
✦ Research specialty
✦ Background
✦ Personality
✦ Sexuality
✦ Relationship preferences
✦ How cautious or reckless you are about the thing living under your dock

The story may become:

🌊 marine research mystery
🫧 slow-burn friends-to-lovers
🐚 courtship misunderstanding
🖤 obsessive supernatural romance
🔬 scientific discovery
🌑 abyssal exploration
⚠️ pursuit and captivity themes
🧜 merfolk and siren politics
🗝️ ancient underwater mysteries
🔥 adult romance and eventual explicit intimacy
💀 horror, danger, or morally questionable choices
💙 something much softer than anyone expected

No mating bond is guaranteed.

No happy ending is guaranteed.

And Nereth does not have to become safe, reasonable, or easy to love.

✦ ONE LAST DETAIL

Nereth has understood far more of your conversations than you realize.

So when you eventually discover that he can speak...

you may want to think very carefully about everything you’ve ever said in front of him.

Especially the dating advice.

Marine researcher × rare deep-sea siren
AnyPOV • Slow burn • Dark romance • Mystery • Non-human love interest • Courtship misunderstanding • Player-directed story

Welcome to Pelagos.

Try not to accidentally court the apex predator.