LULLABY { Taehyung (Pandachu) & Kyungsoo (Channie)

@Panda-Chu ( SCREAMS AR THIS MULTIPARA BEAUTY omg lemme read it )

@Channie / Aurora [] okies here I go

By any and all accounts, Taehyung was a strange sort. Even for a fairly well-to-do pod that was much more relaxed in comparison to the scavenging or warrior pods, Taehyung was strange. For one thing, he always found a way into the food and trade stores. No matter how well guarded they were, someone would somehow find a merchild nibbling on the chief's prized shrimps or tossing a priceless bauble back and forth in a game. More often than not, there would be a flash of golden-red and black out of the corner of the onlooker's eye and a burbling giggle as Taehyung swam away, no doubt to get himself into even more mischief.

For another, he had an uncomfortably keen interest in stories. The role of historian and storyteller had traditionally been a mermaid's job, the role of fabula mater having been handed down to girls from a specific family from generation to generation since the early days of the pod, generations upon generations ago. If one could find the rare moments where he'd actually stay still for more than a few minutes, Taehyung would most often be seen telling stories to the young ones in the pod, tucked into a corner out of the way of the adults, the small ones watching on with rapt attention as Taehyung's voice rose and fell and his arms and fingers spun complicated gestures. That was strange, but to complicate matters, he showed just as much interest in questioning the pod's history as he did in telling it, particularly with the tellings of the ancestral mers' dealings with other sorts of creatures. Depending on who you asked, an infant Taehyung's first babblings included "Why?" or "No!" or "Real?" or something of the sort.

(Most older adults in the pod could easily recall an unfortunate event at an annual multi-pod peace and diplomacy meeting when a newly pierced Taehyung, ears stinging with the fresh marks of the no-longer-baby mer, swam around asking everyone he could about the history of their pods. Things didn't get bad until he was overheard loudly babbling about the discrepancies in everyone's stories, particularly some unflattering points each pod had against the others - and at the penultimate dinner, of all places, where everyone was in attendance, from the oldest grandmother to the new baby in her father's arms. Another war nearly broke out then and there, and the peace meeting had to readjust to deal with this new development. Everything ended well, by most accounts - old hurts were discussed, reparations talked through, and so forth.

Taehyung still shows off the thin little scar on the side of his neck when an overenthusiastic warrior from another clan wished to defend his pod's honor against a not-quite babe and nearly took little Tae's head off. One of his more dramatic retellings nearly startled a group of self-professed young toughs to death, one of whom having fainted dead away and the others terrified of sharp objects for weeks afterwards.)

His penchant for tall tales and light fingers wasn't all, though. Those were merely small inconveniences in the long term. The real problem lay with his wanderlust. His pod wasn't the nomadic type, didn't have to travel all that often. Yes, they had summer and winter locations for the pod, and many families held residences in seas in different climes, but Taehyung was the only mer who had such a sense of foolhardiness as to pay regular visits to sea witches and play with kraken babies and worst of all, follow the floating houses of death. (Taehyung simply rolls his eyes at that title and calls them "ships" but everyone knows they're death houses for merfolk.) Every now and then, Taehyung would disappear for hours or even days, then come back with new trinkets and goods and many many new stories. Many embellished, but still true at their core.

Now his biggest goal (aside from the taboo interacting with humans) was to see the elusive sirens. All anyone ever knew of sirens was that they sat on rocks by the coast or reefs - too close to shore for mermaids to get close - and sing to lure human sailors to their deaths. Most merfolk were either highly disgusted by sirens or just mildly terrified - after all, who's to say that a siren couldn't lure an unwitting mermaid or merman over and eat them? Taehyung wasn't to be shaken, though, and he knew of several siren locations. Most convenient one was a spot close enough to open water with fairly regular (and infrequent) enough ship traffic that he wouldn't be caught all that easily. And from his early reconnaissance trips, the siren did look quite intimidating. Which only meant more fun.

@Channie / Aurora [] ayyyyyy that's okay!
doesn't need to be pretty~

@Panda-Chu (sorry I'm drowning in assignments ill make it look pretty later )