Do you trade bloblings?

"You promise you won't look inside the crates?"

The merman's scarred face was quite intimidating as he loomed over Kaine.

"...Yeah...!" The high school girl's response was delayed, although weakly enthusiastic.

She wobbled slightly on her feet underneath the gangster's incredible pressure, but Kaine was resolute. She could do this! She didn't need anyone to hold her hand anymore! She certainly didn't need to depend on the charity of the more senior Otherworlders. It had been extremely kind of Rio Magriel and others to have given her food and a place to sleep, but Kaine felt bad about constantly being a burden. She was eager to begin working for herself.

Of course, picking this job may not have been the smartest idea... but Kaine felt like she had something to prove. Plenty of Otherworlders went to the Abandoned Cove to work, and she wanted to convince herself that she wasn't scared of a bunch of gangsters. She was ready for this!

"Are you absolutely sure?" The gangster repeated again.

"I'm sure! You can count on me!"

Kaine straightened her back slightly and tried to look relaxed. Moving boxes as an easy job. She could do this!

Under the skeptical and watchful eyes of the merman who was supervising her, Kaine went over to the first crate on the dock and struggled to lift it. She managed to raise it several inches off to the wooden platform without too much of an issue, which reassured her about the task. It really wasn't that heavy. This was going to be totally fine.

"I can lift it!" Kaine announced, almost triumphantly.

"Yes but watch—"

There was tumble.

"—your step."

The merman didn't even finish his sentence.

Kaine had managed to trip on a small knob of wood that sailors used to anchor boats to the pier. The crate she had been holding tumbled to the ground, and the sides of the wooden box had smashed open. As for its contents...

...

...they were blobings.

A handful of multi-colored, multi-sized, and multi-shaped blobs. In fact, some of them had strange appendages, likes wings or tentacles.

They were also ridiculously cute. They hopped around on the docks and rolled slightly.

The merman's eyes went wide. "Oh fuck me."

"..."

He buried his face in his hands.

"Illegal blobling trade?" Kaine ventured hesitantly?

"Stop! No! Not that! You didn't see any of this!"

"They're really cute."

"No! They're not cute! And you didn't see them! Fuck. The boss is going to want me to dispose of you now."

"Can I take one home with me?"

"Absolutely not! That one's worth 500$! And be gentle god dammit! Please!"

Kaine was playing with a blobling that was shaped a little like an octopus.

The merman bit his fingernails like a nervous wreck. Clearly, he was racking his mind frantically for ideas.

"I'm sorry lass, but you're going to have to come with me," he said with a resigned sigh. "I can't have you going home tonight."

"Hmmm... okay!"

Kaine's agreement was surprisingly swift.

"You're not going to resist?"

"I really like this blob. It makes me feel extremely relaxed for some weird reason. I don't feel an ounce of anxiety at all!"

"..."

"Ah, but you'll let me stay with the bloblings, right? I'll take good care of them. I really like the blobs."

"Just... get in the boat... okay? I need to go clean this up. Please don't make a mess, and don't try to jump off the boat. There are sharks in the cove. I'll try to talk to the boss later, so don't do anything stupid."

"Sure thing!" Kaine responded and walked straight up the plank to board the ship while carrying the little octopus-blob.

The merman sighed again and bent down to pick up after the pieces of the broken crate.


The first thing that Kaine did after climbing on deck was to pull out of a sheet of paper and scribble down a quick SOS note.

She rapidly glanced around, trying to figure out how she ought to deliver it... when suddenly it occurred to her maybe the blobling was the answer.

The high school girl peered into the cute octopus's little mouth. It looked dry enough, right? Well... it wasn't like she had much of a choice. It seemed that the merman trusted her a lot right now (he was kinda nice, actually), Kaine doubted she would have much of an opportunity later. Fighting the merman was out of the question (he was enormous!), and she figured that swimming was probably a stupid idea since mermaids could probably swim a thousand times faster.

In either case, she crumpled up her hastily written report and shoved it into the blobling's mouth.

Then she ran to the edge of the deck and flung the blob overboard.

...This wasn't totally stupid... right?

Hopefully someone would... notice the weird blob wiggling around and maybe pick it up?

...Somebody help...?