Asan, the sleepy seaside town: Humble Beginnings

The small community of Asan was beginning to expand, seeing the new houses and shops being built by the day. The most interesting had to be the small private dock that led to a house being built on stilts. The owner of the property was pretty hard to find, and some of the locals had been trying to reach them. Once the house was built and finished a rather tall man could be seen out on the docks, often wearing a black muscle shirt and cargo pants to keep various tools in. He would often spend his days out there, before heading inside in the late evenings. On the other side of the town a well known woman was busy setting a flock of magpie free. She was often accompanied by a small group of children, all under the watchful eye of their headmistress. This wasn't an uncommon event, but when Flipper suddenly flew off toward the beach Eien knew that today wasn’t going to be a normal day.

Captain had been immersed in his work, patching up some holes in a wrecked jon boat. It wasn’t anything too outrageous, just a few holes where the boat had been dragged across some rocks. He had his welding mask down, working carefully to seal the holes, thankful the boat was metal and made for easy work. He was quietly humming to himself under the whine of the welding gun, an old sea shanty. A blur of white caught his eye as he glanced up, pausing his work before finally lifting his mask. His voice was rather soft as he spoke, looking at the seagull in front of him. “Ello there...where you come from? You look hurt..erm..you have collar?” Flipper gave a cheerful squawk to the taller man as Captain carefully examines the collar for any information on where this bird came from. Before he can say anything a very short woman came running down the pier to them. “Flipper, there ye are! I was worried sick! Wh-” She finally paused to take in the man in front of her. He was standing close to 6’2”, with a slim build. There was definitely muscle definition there as he slowly crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. 

The white haired man looks at the short woman in front of him, taking in her fluffy red hair that doesn’t seem possible to comb down. She was wearing a black wetsuit with a yellow stripe on the side, a small tool belt was around her waist. Eien had given a small smile as Flipper hopped onto her shoulder, rubbing his beak on her cheek. Finally she sheepishly looked up at the taller man before talking “yeh 're the new bloke everybody's been yakking about! I'm Eien, resident animal rescuer and rehabilitator.” Captain rubs the back of his neck, looking at her with his uncovered eye. “Da. I go by Captain. Pleasure to meet you.” He speaks in a clear Russian accent, which is quite the drastic difference to Eien’s British accent. She gasps when she finally hears him speak. “Oh bloody nora, thou 're Russian. What brought thou all the way out here?

The male in question was setting down his tools and brought an upside down bucket over to sit on. He gives her a small smile, finding her curiosity calming. “Came out here to start new life. Old town did away with our harbor, so I packed up and left. This town is...quaint, but shows lots of promise.” Eien had sat down on the dock to listen, finding his accent to be fascinating. The two end up spending most of the afternoon on the dock, just talking about their pasts. Eien learned that Captain is turning 30 this year, while she herself was turning 24. The two had a similar love of the ocean, which fueled them talking until the sun was slowly sinking toward the horizon. When Captain finally notices he slowly gets up with a low groan, offering her a hand “Come on, time to get you home.”

Eien gently takes his hand carefully and gets up, Flipper was flying around them before heading to their home. Captain carefully watches the bird before looking at Eien. “Lead the way, miss, I want to get you home before dark.” Eien starts to giggle, leading the much taller man down toward the town so she can get home. Some of the locals are looking at them in surprise, not expecting to see Captain in town, much less being led by Eien. When they arrived at the 2 bedroom house Flipper was waiting for them, sitting in a basket on the porch. Eien rushed over to rub the bird on the head, smiling and looking at Captain “G’night Cap” She gave a salute and a dorky smile before turning and going inside with Flipper. The russian gave a wave and a smile before walking back to his home. The sun had set by now so he was looking at the stars above him while walking, quietly mumbling to himself. “Nura would love this, stars are crisp and clear here” 

As if on cue his phone dings with a notification, it was a message from the woman in question. She had sent a picture of a hunk of rock, with the caption “Got a cool find! Video chat when you get home?” He sends a quick reply before jogging home, rather excited to see just what she found. Nura is a childhood friend of Captain, the two formed a sibling relationship over their love of the ocean. Once he got inside and shook the sand out of his boots he set his laptop on the kitchen counter, ringing Nura. He was pulling out ingredients to make a simple stir fry when she picked up, seeing her fluffy white hair filling up the screen. “Nura. Your bird nest is clogging camera” Nura pulls her camera away, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry bud! I can’t get this thing positioned right” Nura has ear length hair that’s a curly white, and more freckles than stars in the sky. Her american style of speech is quite surprising, seeing as her appearance gives no hints to it. 

He grins at the camera, dicing up his veggies to start frying. “Glad to see you in one piece. All you said was you found new thing.” Nura nods excitedly, showing him the hunk of rock that was in the picture from before. “I found it washed up on the shore earlier today! After doing a few tests we found there’s remnants of fossils in here! I’m hoping it’s megalodon teeth, so I can date them and get a rough idea of when they roamed Earth..ah crap I’m rambling again, sorry Captain.” She sheepishly rubbed her neck and looked at the camera. He gives a laugh, waving a hand at her to try and ease her nerves. “It okay. You have interesting point. Continue” Nura’s eyes light up as she nods, continuing on with her subject. Captain had finished cooking and drew up a barstool to listen to her talk, chiming in occasionally before mentioning what had happened earlier. “So I met a girl today, has a pet seagull.” Nura wiggles her eyebrows “Oooooohhhhh, is she cute? What’s her name?” Captain snorts, but his cheeks flush pink. “Her name is Eien, and don’t start about her being cute. None of your business.” The two go back and forth before Nura finally has to go, ending the call. Captain gives a soft sigh as he closes his laptop, heading to his room to get ready for bed. He looked out at the ocean, smiling. He wasn't sure what this town had in store for him, but he couldn’t wait to find out. Maybe Eien could show him around tomorrow.