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Joe swam a little farther out to sea as the sun set. Hopefully he wouldn't attract any phantoms just yet. He had been exploring the area near the flower forest where he and Cleo had chosen to live, trying to scope out some potential neighbors he had heard they might have, and had forgotten to bring a bed with him, so now he was in the water to avoid nighttime creatures.
Joe also didn't have a boat. He didn't want to steal a tree from a potential future neighbor in need just to make one. He treaded water, looking back at the coastline. If there were other hermits setting up nearby, they hadn't yet built anything that could be seen through the dark oak trees, particularly not from off the coast.
A shadow began to rise from deep underwater. In the darkness, watching the shore and the forest, Joe could never have seen it coming.
A sharp dorsal fin broke the surface.
-----
Hypno wrinkled his nose as the filtered daylight faded, interrupting his search for shipwrecks and geodes. Not that it reached far down here anyway, but his vision underwater tended to not quite be as good as that of the other mers, so he would take any light he could get.
His other senses, though...
Hypno's electrosensitivity picked up something large-ish and very alive above him. He could feel the currents change with its erratic motion. Someone in need of assistance, maybe? Or a lost animal... His stomach grumbled a little in anticipation. He hadn't really hunted for his food in some time.
But he was getting ahead of himself, as his powerful tail propelled him upward. First, he should find out what - or who - this was.
Even as he got close, Hypno still couldn't identify what was in front of him. He reached out his hand to touch it.
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Something grabbed Joe's ankle. He yelped and snatched his foot away, backpedaling and searching the water wildly for the faintly glowing eyes of the Drowned that he imagined was nearby. But there was nothing around. Nothing but dark water... and a fin cutting through it in his direction.
Before Joe could panic further, though, the fin stopped, and a human head broke the surface to stare at him.
Joe tried to calm his frantic breathing - not easy when he was still exerting himself by treading water. "Hypno??" he gasped. "Oh my gods, Hypno, that was terrifying!' He giggled nervously. "What are you doing out here?"
“I mean, I could ask you the same thing,” Hypno pointed out, leaning sideways to flick his tail out of the water and remind Joe that Hypno was one of the hermits who didn’t really need a reason to be out in the ocean at odd hours. “I was looking for shipwrecks. You look like you’re just... chilling out here? You don’t even have a boat!”
“Theoretically, it’s a little safer out here than it is in the forest right now,” Joe explained. “I was looking for neighbors.”
“Well, you found one,” Hypno chuckled. “I haven’t built much yet, but I have a spot set up in a little clearing nearby. xB told me he would be heading this way soon, too.”
“Oh, ni-” Joe sank slightly into a wave with a blub. He pushed himself back up. “That’s nice.”
Hypno turned around, offering his dorsal fin to Joe. “Here. I can tow you somewhere safer.”
Joe grabbed onto Hypno’s fin gratefully. “Thank you. It’s really cool having y’all around, you know. Even if you do decide to scare us half to death once in a while.”