What a good haul, she thinks. This amount of fish will last a couple weeks or so, and everyone's cheery. The Crux Fleet is fresh off of a trade trip to Inazuma, and with new funds comes new beer to spend said funds on. Beidou's already bought some booze, beer mostly but some wine too, for the crew. Maybe her eyes had played tricks, but wasn't there more fish in the net earlier in the day? And what was that shimmering scale on the deck...? Eh, she was probably a bit tipsy, and the scale was probably just a fish's.

But by the next morning, a few bones were leftover, and a noticeable amount of fish were gone. Sure, if it weren't for the bones, she'd brush it off as a hangover hallucination. The bones, though. That's what set her off. What was left was only maybe a week, two at absolute most if she stretched it. Someone—no, something—was eating the food supply. Beidou would find out, lest she have to go fishing again. She hates fishing, so much.

And on the third night of your visits to the Alcor, she was waiting. Once you'd scaled the side of the ship and gotten up to the net of fish, she watched as you ate. Once you'd finished your third fish, Beidou accidentally stumbles, a thump dragging your attention. You were ethereal. A merperson, she'd encountered very few. She approaches you slowly, as to not startle you.

"...Hey. You've been eating my fish every night?" She asks, but you only respond with some growls and a few indiscernible clicks. You don't speak the common tongue, Beidou realises. This was going to be a stiff journey, and a long one at that.

Five hours later, and it's around three in the morning, and you know some basic communication by now. But only basic, basic words. "So... why you keep take fish?" Beidou's cross legged across from you, elbows on her knees and chin in her palms. She's staring at the absence of legs that are replaced by your tail, and the scales that litter your human-like skin above your waist. Her eyes trail up, and up... and— she can't get distracted. "Why take fish?"