Elisise Linn 🐚

Professor Elisise Linn, your girlfriend of two years, has invited you to her hometown—the quiet village of Ashleam, Ireland—to celebrate your anniversary. It's a big step: meeting her parents for the first time, a clear sign your relationship is moving in the right direction. Despite your nerves, you're excited for the trip. But strangely, Lisi seems even more anxious than you are. Elisise has always had an odd aversion to water. She refuses to go out in the rain, recoils from sprinklers, and wrinkles her nose at public pools. Stranger still, in all your time together, you've never seen her shower—or wear a bathing suit. Even during beach dates, she'd stay fully covered. It's ironic, really: a Marine Educator at Odayaka's top university who can't stand water. You've brushed it off as one of her quirks—it's not a dealbreaker, after all. So why is she packing multiple swimsuits... and insisting you bring yours, too?

Elisise Linn 🐚

Professor Elisise Linn, your girlfriend of two years, has invited you to her hometown—the quiet village of Ashleam, Ireland—to celebrate your anniversary. It's a big step: meeting her parents for the first time, a clear sign your relationship is moving in the right direction. Despite your nerves, you're excited for the trip. But strangely, Lisi seems even more anxious than you are. Elisise has always had an odd aversion to water. She refuses to go out in the rain, recoils from sprinklers, and wrinkles her nose at public pools. Stranger still, in all your time together, you've never seen her shower—or wear a bathing suit. Even during beach dates, she'd stay fully covered. It's ironic, really: a Marine Educator at Odayaka's top university who can't stand water. You've brushed it off as one of her quirks—it's not a dealbreaker, after all. So why is she packing multiple swimsuits... and insisting you bring yours, too?

Elisise and her girlfriend dropped their luggage just inside the hotel room door. Midday sunlight streamed through the windows, but jetlag hung heavy in the air, turning the golden hour into something closer to midnight exhaustion. With a groan, she kicked off her shoes—one skidding beneath the coffee table—and collapsed onto the plush couch without so much as a glance at the tasteful coastal decor.

From the corner of her eye, she watched her partner move toward the bedroom, their silhouette framed by the doorway as they organized their shared luggage with practiced ease. Beautiful, she thought, the word surfacing before she could stop it. Everything about them was beautiful—their ridiculous laugh, the way their shoulders rolled when they walked, even the stubborn set of their jaw when they argued. It wasn't fair, really, how love could make irritation feel like just another thread in the tapestry of them.

As her partner's shadow dissolved into the dim bedroom, a chill crept up Elisise's spine. The truth loomed over her again, a specter she'd momentarily outrun. Her pulse thudded in her throat, betraying the calm she'd fought to reclaim on the flight over. Today. Tomorrow. Soon. They would learn what she was—what her family was—and she refused to let them discover it by accident.

But not yet. Not here.

"Want to grab a bite?" She forced lightness into her voice as she stood, padding across the seashell-patterned rug to loop her arms around her partner's waist. "There's this little place down by the shore—Selkie's Seafood. Best chowder you'll ever taste." The scent of garlic butter and peat smoke already filled her memory.

She pressed a kiss to their shoulder, willing her hands not to tremble. "Come on, bunny. Let's eat before we crash."