Featuring art of Lloyd Irving and Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia. Lloyd is sitting in a wooden boat on the ocean, holding a fishing net. Colette is in the water with a mermaid tail.
Excerpt:
He kept searching through the tight corners of his little boat, but couldn’t find the fishing line anywhere! “I thought I…put it here…” Another search, but he only came upon the same boots, the same pack full of bait. “Where is it…?” Ugh, did I really leave it at home?
A soft voice floated to him, so light that a strong gust of wind could have blown it away. “Is it this?”
He turned. A hand was outstretched, holding the plastic cord gently in its palm, the line wrapped around it as clear as silk.
“Oh, thank you! I was looking for that.” He took the fishing line gratefully. Then stopped. Then thought a moment.
He was out in the middle of the ocean. So, another hand… was kind of weird, wasn’t it?
When he moved to look over the side, he didn’t do it quickly or with loud movements. A hand carefully placed itself over the rim, fingers pressed against the damp wood, the thin lines of a fishing net he had also brought along with him, ready to be cast out into the water.
Sunlight fell over waves, so bright that it blinded him. Salt on his tongue, eyes still peering through the light, he found her there–and felt familiarity.
It’s said that beauty cannot be trusted when it’s from the sea. A wondrous pattern can lure any curious sailor to fall overboard, or a song so piercing the heart can smash a ship to pieces against rocks hidden beneath. But the girl that peeked her face from the waves only blinked, her golden hair unfurling all around her, like the serrated drapes of a strange curtain.
Lloyd leaned forward, just a bit, as his tiny rowboat wobbled, the splashing water taking over sound.
He saw the shape of a fish tail far beneath her in the swirling dark, saw the trails of scales that dotted her shoulders, and the curved fins that poked out from the sides of her head.
Third fic shared for #ColloydDay2025!
🧜♀️ How I Became the Sea 🧜♀️ (2021). A mythology-inspired AU fic of Colette as a selkie and Lloyd as the fisherman who finds her in the sea. An art/fic collab with @frayed-symphony.bsky.social ! #talesofsymphonia
🔗: archiveofourown.org/works/31923289