#all of ford's failed attempts at communication aren't written down

[siro-cyll]

More with Ford and the merfolk/Siren. And another journal entry written by @rosenth0rne!

It has been several weeks since my first initial contact with the merfolk of the lake and I have done all that I can to establish some form of communication with them. There seems to be no sign of a native language which leads me to believe there is none as I have not discovered any other merfolk in the area. The one I am currently working with may be very much alone.

Before I came to this realization, I had been referring to the creature as ‘Siren’, believing them to be of the variant. Regardless, I’m keeping it.

My second attempt entailed getting as much fish food as I could at the local pet store, setting up a base where Siren had brought me back to shore, and yelling at the top of my lungs ‘HERE FISHY FISHY FISHY’ to see if it would answer. This resulted in me getting splashed in the face with a large wave. I am fairly certain I was slapped in the face with a large lake fish that was caught up within that wave. When I recovered, I noticed an icy glare from the water and the merfolk swam off with a cold shoulder. I may or may not have insulted them. Siren may understand more than I anticipated.

My third attempt had to be delayed due to a fishing competition on the lake. I began to panic. What if Siren was caught? What if one of the hooks hurt them? I fished out (pun intended) my second journal and found a storm spell that I had archived earlier this year. In my haste, I jumbled up the words in a way I cannot recount and watched as storm clouds gathered overhead. The substance that came down in heavy drops was not water, but a deep red color reminiscent of blood. I watched in horror as the fishermen screamed, scrambled off the lake, and back to shelter. It was then that I slowly closed my journal, turned on my heel and hastily retreated back to the cabin before anyone became the wiser. Siren is probably laughing their tail off. This was not one of my finest moments.

Attempt number… honestly, I lost count… The blood rain made it difficult to try anything. The forest rangers were keeping people away from the lake with an investigation of what the blood was. I was threatened with arrest on the third attempt to make it to the lakeside so I had to abandon seeing if Siren was okay or even there at all.

Once all the blood had been washed away by normal rain and the forest rangers got their unmentionables unwadded and left, I made it back out onto the lake, this time with a basket of food. Whole, dead fish for Siren and a sandwich for me. I was also prepared to go into the water with swim trunks. This attempt was going to play on the creature’s curiosity. I was going to pretend I was distressed over bringing too much food as loudly as possible to see if I could catch Siren’s attention. Apparently, the creature was in the area already because they popped their head up out of the water after the first call. Success!

It did take some coaxing to get Siren to come over to me but in the end, they relented and we ended up having lunch together. Siren lifted themselves out of the water and sat with me on the pier when they felt comfortable enough. I was ecstatic! I was able to see more of the creature. The shape and color of their scales, how their fins mimic human hair along the top of their head, the details along its body- though now that I’m writing this, I have come to the realization that I may have been staring in a way that would have gotten the daylights slapped out of me in any other situation.

Siren constantly looked over their shoulders the entire time while they were out of the water but calmed down over time. I did most of the talking, trying to find ways for them to understand me but all they did was stare at me with those large vibrant gold eyes against a sea of black and that cute little smile of theirs. While they can’t talk, the trills they make while trying to communicate is absolutely adorable. I can’t help but smile. Oh, dear Tesla, I’m falling for a fish. Is that even possible?

After lunch, Siren dove back into the water and tried to coax me in to follow them. Without a second thought, I began to take my shirt off, explaining that I had already anticipated going into the water. The idea of possibly being lured to my death via drowning did not occur to me at that point. Looking back now, Siren could have very well killed me for that “Fishy” attempt. I jumped into the water and I’m pretty sure I heard ‘COLD’ echoing off the cliffs around us in my voice which made me grin sheepishly. Hopefully, no one heard that. 

Siren swam up to me and I felt a strange jolt in my chest as they took my hand and pulled me further out into the lake. I must have been grinning like an idiot the entire time considering my face hurt once we had made it to the middle. This was absolutely amazing! My face fell when I noticed Siren looking below them as if searching for something beneath the water. Before I could ask, they grinned, looked at me and pointed directly below them and dove under, only to come back up to see if I understood them. They wanted me to dive down and follow them. Gladly!

We swam for what felt like ten or fifteen minutes. During that time, we had entered a small cave at the bottom of the lake where it was pitch black. Siren had to guide me from there on since I did not bring any glow sticks with me. I had not anticipated anything like this. Twice, I felt them lift me up to what had to be an air pocket so I could breathe and gather air once more. They seemed to respond to my hand squeezing theirs when I was ready to do something or if I needed something. On the third trip, just before I needed to squeeze their hand again, we resurfaced. 

Once I gathered myself, I looked around. My jaw dropped. Siren had brought me to a bioluminescence cave that had to be somewhere under the town. Caves like those are rare in freshwater, which makes me wonder if whatever was causing the bioluminescence was normal glow worms and their larvae or was it something only native to Gravity falls?! I slicked back my hair in excitement. I must have been rambling for ten minutes straight before I realized that Siren’s eyes glowed too as they watched me in silent comfort. In that instance, the radiance of the cave had paled in comparison.