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rosenbergamot · 1 month

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if you could understand me (CH.1)

Grian's voice is soft and inquisitive when he speaks. “Now, what’s this about? What’s wrong all of a sudden?” He likes when his voice gets like this, when he talks to Scar like he’s a human despite not knowing he can understand every word he says, when he treats their one-sided conversations as actual conversations, even if the language isn't there. ‘My best friend left me’, he says. ‘He’s trying to find our family. Or get rich. I don’t know, whichever comes first, I guess. And you and Mumbo are my only friends. But I can't talk to you! And I did it to myself! It's all just so...' He forgets the word for ‘annoying’ in dolphin, so he trails off. ‘Annoying’ isn’t even the right word. It hurts. It's killing him. There’s no language that can convey that. or: Scar is a mermaid. Scar has been left behind by all of his friends. Scar is lonely. That is, until he meets two humans on the beach, and decides that playing a little joke on them would be fun. So, Scar pretends he doesn't know their language. As a bit. A little prank. But Scar doesn't expect to like them so much, and once he realizes it, he's too far in to go back.

Here's the first chapter for the day 1 prompt for Mumscarian week (pranks). I'm so excited to share this with yall! First chapter is under the read more, and there is a link attached so you can read it on ao3 as well <3 MWAH

Read the first chapter on ao3 HERE !! Or read the first chapter below the cut!! OR BOTH ^^

The humans don’t know he speaks their language.

Scar doesn’t blame them, because, well... he isn’t exactly advertising it. The moment they come onto his beach with all their silly instruments and metal things and glass tubes, scooping out water and picking up fish and inspecting clams, writing it all down on some strange flimsy pads, that's when Scar knows he has to mess with them. They're just too easy, what with their silly little faces and their "aha's" and "oho's"!

Life’s been boring (re: depressing) ever since Cub moved south. In the brief few words they exchanged before he left Scar all alone, he said it would be easier to start an industry where there were more mermaids and less humans. He said it would be better for them, for both of them, if they were to just pack up and leave, go somewhere where it's not just the two of them, where Cub can use his brain and Scar can use his charisma, and the two of them can flourish. But Scar doesn’t want an industry! He really just wants to spend his time sinking ships, breaking pieces off of said sunken ships, and creating statues. Gem used to help him with that, finding sport in crashing ships and ripping them apart with her claws. Pearl would help him get the humans to shore. Cub would sigh at them, but help them lug the materials back to their cave.

(Cub had also mentioned Gem and Pearl, as hushed as it was-- as if he was afraid to say their names after all this time, after they left with no trace. He had a theory that they went somewhere warmer, somewhere more familiar, somewhere that was easier. Scar didn’t know what to say to that. So he didn’t say anything.)

That was a long time ago, though…

The first time he meets the humans it’s windy on the surface.

He lays and watches the water. The way it’s ruffled by the wind reminds him of when he and Cub would wait for boats to pass (boats , a word he learned when he was younger and more daring, peeking his head up by the docks to listen to fisherman as they talked deep into the night) so that they could chase the waves they created; man-made waves, different from the way the water breathes on its own.

It’s times like these when he wishes that Cub had stuck around. The sea snakes are only so interesting gliding across the sand until he gets bored and starts to fling them out of the water for amusement-- which apparently they don’t enjoy! And, jeez, apparently everyone’s a critic nowadays, can't handle being tossed up out of the water…

He combs through his hair, ratty and unkempt, strands coming loose as he does. Pearl used to help him maintain it. Now it’s all… annoying and long. Braiding it would help him a bunch-- would also remind him of Pearl, which could either be good or bad for his mental health right now, but he's willing to take the risk. So, yeah, he’ll braid it! Might as well do something with his time.

He starts to slowly swim through the water, searching for just the right strand of kelp to help him out. Usually the best pieces are near the shore, right where humans sometimes like to come and swim. Cub, Gem, and Pearl used to scare them away by biting chunks off their bodies, made it a competition to see who could get the most in their mouth before the humans ran away. He never participated, not as fast or as bloodthirsty as any of them, content to watch and laugh and jeer and judge. Nowadays he just nips at their toes if they're too deep in the water, sends jellyfish their way if he's feeling extra spiteful. But humans don't come around much anymore. He's not sure if that's a blessing or a curse.

If he’s lucky maybe he’ll find a piece of fishing line that some careless human left behind. It lasts much longer than kelp. Last time he had to scour the seafloor for a sharp enough rock to cut the braid because his teeth were not doing the job. Some pretty impressive stuff!

If Cub were here, he’d tell Scar to stop going so close to the shore, because one day a human is going to see him and not be intimidated by sharp teeth and claws, and they’re going to lure him in, and then they’re going to hook him and flay him open on the beach like they do with the fish.

Which is ridiculous. If they hooked him, he’d just kill them! Easy as that! And then he’d eat them! Simple plan!

(Thinking of eating a human makes his gills flare out. What do they taste like…? None of his friends would ever tell him, but they also never complained.)

In spite of the Cub in his head he moves closer to the shore, keeping his eyes sharp for a long thread of fishing line.

Humans don’t usually like wind. They yell about how it screws up their ��casts’, how it makes sand fly into their eyes, how it blows away their stuff. Which means he’s good to go as close as he needs to! What stupid human would be out right now?

(Apparently two stupid ‘researchers’ is the answer to that.)

As soon as he bursts out of the forest of kelp, right near the dock but not close enough to be obscured by it, he realizes that there are two humans standing right where the shore meets the water. Their pants are rolled up, feet bare (prime for nibbling, might he add), and they’re talking loudly about something that Scar can’t really make out. He hadn’t been able to see them until he got closer. And now that he’s closer, it seems they saw him before he saw them.

Aw, man. Rule number one of hunting: see your prey before they see you. He’s already failed.

They yell something. A commotion. He turns to retreat, but then something splashes above his head. His immediate thought is a net. His next thought is I'm going to die.

For a second, he is frozen. For a second, he sees himself caught and hooked, cut open, hung from poles and left to die and dry in the sun. He imagines Cub coming back just to find nothing in his wake. He imagines the pain he may feel at that, the regret, and maybe that gives him satisfaction for a moment, no matter how grim and disgusting it feels inside of him. He imagines giving himself up to these humans, letting them cut him open, saying Cub and Gem and Pearl with his last breaths, imagining they can hear it from wherever they went. He shakes his head, the images disappearing.

And nothing happens. He looks up and sees... a fish. A dead fish. That's weird.

A peace offering? An apology for treading where they shouldn’t?

Bait? Says the Cub in the back of his mind.

The fish is different from what he’s used to. Not from around here. That’s interesting.

That’s dangerous, dude, sneers Cub, flicking him on his imagined forehead.

I mean, yeah… but isn’t it also interesting?

He eyes the humans. They’ve moved back, but they’re still in his water. There’s a less conscious part of him that wants to scare them off right now, prove that this is his land, that they can’t just put their gosh darn feet wherever they so please! He shoves it aside, sighing.

It’s been… pretty lonely around here without the others.

Just come meet me, man! Argues the Cub in his mind-- which is ridiculous! He knew when he left that Scar wouldn’t be able to follow. He’s not made for long distance travel; Cub is. Maybe that's why he didn't even try to convince him. Maybe that's why he was gone in the morning. Maybe he knew that Scar would say no, would stay in his home, would wait for Pearl and Gem to come back no matter how long it took.

And so that's why he left. And so that's why Scar is alone. And so that’s why Scar isn’t leaving.

(And Scar is also curious as to who these people are. They’re not coming closer, not throwing weapons at him, and they walk around with their flesh exposed just waiting for him to take a bite out of them. Do they not know? Do they think this water is safe? Do they think they can set themselves up here, as if Scar hasn't been here his entire life? The most important question, however, is: what do they taste like…?)

He moves himself out of the shadows, reaches up a hand to grab the fish. His claw digs into it, warmed by the sun, and then he yanks it down.

One of the humans screams. The other one screams immediately after, an involuntary reaction.

There’s a flailing, and then one of them loses their balance and falls face first into the water. The splash disturbs a school of fish nearby, sending them careening in Scar’s direction. He swipes his nail downwards, manages to spear one on his claws, and shoves it into his mouth.

As he chews, he sighs. Those things barely put up a fight. How boring. Wouldn't it be more fun if they tried to bite back? Maybe hit him with their little fins?

He looks at the human again and finds their eyes wide open. Looking directly at him. His stare sends a jolt down his spine, makes him straighten himself up, suddenly aware of things he hasn't been aware of in forever-- like the way his hair floats around him, how shiny his tail is, how his scars look underneath the water. So as not to startle him, Scar waves as gently as he possibly can. The human starts to scream, bubbles erupting out of his mouth. Just as quickly as he fell, he scrambles out of the water.

His hand falls. He notices, then, that there is more blood on his claws than he thought there was. There must be blood around his mouth, too. Oh, dangit. Just when he's trying to be friendly and not scary, too! They even gave him this gift! Some weird new fish, all different colours than he's used to. He turns it over in his hands, claws gently scraping a deep wound in the neck. A clean wound. It was killed swiftly, not with teeth and not with claws. And, jeez, humans are so dang strange! Where’s the fun in just killing it easily? Where’s the hunt?

The humans are out of the water now. He cautiously swims to the surface, peeking his eyes out and blinking as the sun hits his head. On the beach he sees two people screaming at each other. The one who fell in the water has a ridiculous moustache on his face, his hair short and spiked from running his hand through it. The other has curly hair, some weird circular things on his face, and a whole thing of oysters at his feet.

They gesture wildly at each other, their backs to him. On his beach. Near his water. Oh, boy, didn’t anyone ever tell them not to turn their backs on a predator? Jeez, it’s like they’re asking for him to mess with them!

“Mumbo, I thought I told you to keep your nose out of the redstone supply! It’s not for snorting, it's for powering our equipment!” The smaller one yells.

“For goodness… Grian, you know I haven’t done that stuff since college. I-I’m not on drugs, mate, I’m just… I just… I saw something.” The bigger one scratches at his head, his hands shaking.

He slowly slithers up closer, making sure his tail stays below the water, his belly to the sand. He drags himself up by his claws, keeping an eye on the two of them. They don’t seem to notice anything, too involved in their little argument to even question if what they saw had good intentions or not.

And he has good intentions! Of course he does-- of course! He just wants to scare them a little bit. Maybe take a chomp out of their legs. Maybe taste their flesh. Maybe fill his mouth up with their blood.

If it were Cub or Gem or Pearl sneaking up on them like this, they’d be dead within seconds. But Scar just wants some entertainment that’s different from staring at fish all day… actually, mostly he just wants to taste them. Like, he really wants to taste them. He’s a nice guy! Just a little bit… peckish.

And he’s getting closer. And closer. And closer.

“People don’t come to this beach for a reason, Grian! They-- the locals said that there are,” his voice gets real quiet, "spirits in the water.”

“Why on earth would spirits be in the water and not on land?”

“I don’t know, man, I’m not-- not some kind of… spirit expert! Why on earth would spirits be stuck on the land, though? How does that make sense, mate? We shouldn’t apply our own logic to spirits. Honestly, check yourself.”

The small one puts his head in his hands but says nothing. Just as Scar pulls himself out of the water, eyes trained on the heel of the bigger one, the small one’s eyes flick down to him. They’re a deep brown, almost black, magnified a bit by whatever ridiculous thing he’s got on his face.

“Mumbo.” He says. Quietly. Carefully. “Don’t look now, but there’s… something there.”

Bigger one freezes up. “Y-Y-You… Grian, this isn’t very funny. I’m not a fan of your pranks! You know this!”

Small one is still looking at him. Challenging him.

Instincts tell him that he failed this hunt and he is vastly outnumbered, but curiosity gets the better of him. He could probably still… take a bite.

A pause. Then, using all his hunting instincts, he rockets himself towards the leg, feeling his fangs dripping with saliva as he does. The small one is faster on the land, though, and tackles the big one out of his reach, his jaw snapping closed onto nothing but air.

The humans fall to the sand, and Scar slithers back into the water as quickly as possible, relief pulsing through his body. Not his best move, he’ll be honest.

“Mumbo, you absolute spoon! ” Shouts small one.

He sticks his eyes out of the water. They’re both staring at him. They go white as he blinks at them.

“Do you… heh, um… do you see that, mate?”

“That’s what just tried to take a bite out of your leg, buddy.”

“Oh. Oh, goodness.” The big one’s voice trickles off into nothing. His eyes flutter, then he collapses into the sand.

Holy shit I killed him.

A series of clicks and trills come out of his mouth before he can stop them. Mostly curses. He learned it from the dolphins around here, way back when he was younger, when Cub said that he should probably spend less time listening to humans speak and spend more time listening to ocean creatures speak. He’s pretty fluent now. What good does that do for him, though?

‘I just wanted a taste?’ He says to him in dolphin. The small one doesn’t seem to care, immediately dragging his companion’s body away from the water.

Maybe I can convince him to throw the whole body into the water? Get a full meal out of it? And some cool bones! Ohhh, I’m a genius!

And then maybe small one will stick around and he’ll have tackled two of his issues! He’ll have a new friend and a taste of human! What a perfect compromise.

Just as he’s planning the best way to convince small one to hand over the corpse of big one, suddenly he starts to stir. Scar tries not to look too disappointed. The small one is whispering to him, brushing back his hair and bringing him things that he eats and drinks, slow and unsure. The whole time Scar is there watching them. The whole time they both watch him right back, conversing in quiet voices.

But he wants to hear them! How selfish!

He swims a little bit closer.

“Stay back!” The small one barks.

He stops. A beat passes.

“Do… do you think it understands us?” The big one asks, just loud enough for him to hear.

Small one regards him with a shocking amount of unfriendliness. His fins droop at the stare.

“Uh… I’m not quite sure, Mumbo. It’s not really a human. But it’s not really a fish either. Say, what are the odds that English of all languages made its way down to the bottom of the ocean in a country colonized by England rather early? Probably quite low, yeah? Just generally speaking."

Big one appears to be thinking. “Right. Point taken. Um. Do you… do you think maybe it’s just hungry?”

“Well, I gave it a fish, Mumbo! For goodness sake, it shouldn’t be greedy.”

“It’s bigger than a normal fish, Grian! Look! It’s like the size of a whole human!” Big one gestures wildly at him, his voice going all high pitched. “D-Do you absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that just one little fish is enough to satiate something that big?”

“So you want me to give it more fish.” Deadpans the smaller one. "You want me to reward it for attacking you? For trying to take a big ol' bite out of your leg?"

“Well, if it stops the thing from attacking me again, I’d be right chuffed about that.”

A dramatic sigh, and the small one pulls himself up, walking barefoot across the shore until Scar can barely see him anymore.

Amateur move. He could just kill the big one right now and be done with it, drag his body so far down the short one won’t even know what happened. His eyes must turn hungry, because the big one starts to giggle nervously.

“Y-You… right, you’re looking at me like I’m a delicious meal right now. And I see where you’re coming from! Really, I do-- I mean, I’m not a meat eater, but if I was then I’d imagine that a human would taste pretty interesting. Maybe even good? Probably dependent on their diet. Not… not that I would eat humans if I did eat meat. Because that’s cannibalism. And that’s generally frowned upon. Illegal and unethical, one may say. And they do. Say that, that is. It’s, like, a thing written into the law.”

Alright, now Scar’s confused.

He’s wringing his hands, still talking. “Say, do you even eat humans? Because every story I’ve heard says people only really leave with a few bits of their flesh missing. Much better than being eaten whole, might I say, because at least you’re still alive, even if you are missin’ a few veins and maybe even some muscles. Pretty important, but not as important as the whole body. Or the organs.” He hums, looking like he’s genuinely intrigued himself. “Goodness, but imagine if you could just get straight to the organs. Your claws look rather sharp, you could just,” he kind of swipes his hand across his own chest, “do that. You know? Wouldn’t that be a scary thing? Gosh, am I glad you can’t understand me, because I am both speaking nonsense and giving you very good ideas.”

He is! It’s very entertaining. Scar has started to drift closer, completely forgetting about his previous goals of dragging him down and feasting on his corpse-- because if he did that, then he wouldn’t get to hear him talk! And that would be a shame! He’s got a weird accent-- both of the humans do, actually, and it’s a little hypnotic to listen to. It reminds him a bit of Pearl, but different in so many ways. And his face lights up when he talks! Even if he looks increasingly more scared the closer Scar gets.

“A-Ah, buddy, you are… you are getting quite close, aren’t you?” He scoots backwards in the sand, so Scar stops. A click. A trill. Telling him not to leave. He bows his head in submission, hopes it makes him look pathetic enough that the human will forgive his former plan to eat him and keep talking. “You… huh, that’s very interesting. That must be your language. You have a language. And you are-- you are speaking it to me right now, currently, as I speak to you, almost as if you are responding.”

Inwardly, he giggles. Outwardly, he clicks once again: ‘I’m a respondy sort of guy!’

It makes his eyes go all shiny. Cute! “Wow! You are absolutely responding to me! H-Hold on, let me get my notepad--” he trips as he stands up, sand scattering, and grabs a little slab of something and a shiny tube. He starts to move his wrist, watching him all the while. “We came here to study the water and the wildlife, environmental conservation and all that good stuff, but we really did not expect to find… whatever you are! Gosh, you’re very cool!”

‘You really think so?’ He slaps his tail against the surface of the water, puffing up his chest. The human gets a glimpse of his tail and nearly drops his stuff, mouth falling open. He smiles, hoping his teeth aren’t still all bloody and off putting.

As the human moves his wrist, he speaks aloud, “multicoloured scales on tail… bared teeth at me, unsure if sign of aggression? ”

The small one is coming back now. He’s way too fast! Scar is enjoying this big one and the funny ways he speaks and how his eyes look when he’s excited and the way he admires his tail! He does not like the way the smaller one glares at him as if he’s done something wrong. He didn’t do anything!

He only tried to do something. Very different, right?

“Mumbo, what the heck are you doing?” He cries. He’s carrying three more fish. “The thing is right there!”

“Yeah, mate, but it’s been docile! It’s just watchin’ me! Listen, Grian, it-- it made these sounds,” he tries to imitate what Scar said, failing so miserably that he has to submerge himself to roll around on the seafloor, his laughter attracting some curious fish that he can’t even eat because he’s so busy giggling . When he comes back, the guy is still talking. “...and honestly I’m not quite sure if the previous display of submission was because it felt bad or was trying to be peaceful or-- Grian, I’m not certain how aware it is, honestly? It seems like it knows what’s happening. And… it’s got a human face.”

“I see that, Mumbo.” Small one studies him. He studies him right back. Small one is less curious, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still curious. He just hides it well. “I… look, I’m honestly not sure what to do with it. Like, obviously let it go, yeah, but it doesn’t seem to want to leave. Animals don’t tend to stick around like this.”

“It’s not an animal!”

‘Exactly! I’m just like you! Except only kind of. I'm missin' the whole legs part.’ He clicks and trills at them.

“See?!” Big one is happy again. His chest flutters. “It’s-- they’re listening to us! They may not be able to understand us, but they’re still capable of speech.”

The small one comes closer to the water. He watches as he bends down, placing the fish at the shore, waggling a finger at him. “Don’t you dare attack me when I’m here to give you food, or I’ll be quite pissed off.”

Ohhh, it would be so funny if he attacked him. But he won’t! He’s a man of many talents, and one of those talents includes restraint.

(But it would be really funny if he did it, still.)

He swims up slowly, so as not to startle them. The small one takes a step back. He picks up a fish and stares at it. It looks equally as shocked as he is to see it, eyes frozen over in a permanent state of disbelief. Still, he’s hungry, so he shoves it into his gullet and devours it, licking blood and viscera off of his lips as he stares up at them.

“I’m gonna be sick,” the big one says.

“Huh.” The smaller one is smiling, now, his suspicions softening. “Y’know, Mumbo… they’re rather cute, wouldn’t you say?”

His ears pin back to his head. He’s what? Cute?!

“You-- what the heck , Grian? They just devoured a fish in front of you and you think that's cute? Your priorities are... man, I don't even know what to say."

“N-Not in that way! God, I’ve just gone and embarrassed myself, haven’t I?”

“That’s practically a human! You can’t flirt with the person we just met out of the ocean, Grian, have some tact!”

“But they’re not practically a human! They’ve got a whole… whole fish half, Mumbo!” He devours another fish. They’re both looking a bit apprehensive now. “Um. Yeah, this is a whole mermaid situation, for sure.”

“And mermaids are basically human!”

“Well, we don’t know that? We didn’t know they were real until about,” he checks something on his wrist, “oh, I don’t know, thirty minutes ago?! And I wasn’t flirting, you strange man! It’s just… they looked happy to have some food.”

He’s not wrong about that. Scar’s happy to eat! Happy to be in the sun! Happy to be talking to a few humans even if they seem to think he can’t understand them! Happy to be playing a little trick on them the most!

“Huh.” Big one seems to relax. He looks at Scar, his head tilting. “Yeah, I guess they did. Say, do you think they’re struggling for food out here?”

“Maybe?” Small one steps closer, as if to get a better look at him, and yet it still frightens something deep inside of him. He snatches his fish and dives under the surface. He can hear him apologizing. He comes back up, a better distance away, and tries to soothe the nerves that jitter around in him.

Smaller one struggles for words for a second. “I’m sorry, mate, I-- shit… Mumbo, I think we’ve found something else interesting to observe.”

“Oh, what could be more interesting than…” he looks down at the stuff around his feet. “Measuring water contents and looking to see if the oysters have any genetic mutations? What could we possibly observe that would be more fun than that?”

They both grin at each other, and whatever little nuanced message they communicate via their eyes goes completely over Scar’s head, but still... he’s got a feeling he just made two new friends today.

#mumscarian week #day1prompt #mumscarian #hermitshipping #hermitfic #mumscarian week 2024 #grian #mumbo jumbo #goodtimeswithscar #me showing up late to the function with blood on my hands after writing this like #hey guys im sooo normal im feeling sooooo normal right now #if you could understand fic #thats my tag for this. decided.#EEEE SO EXCITED TO SHARE THIS WITH YALL

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