#mermay day twenty two

[profoundbondfanfic]

We've heard it's Mermay and decided to make our contribution with some of our favorite destiel fics involving Merpeople because who never imagined our boys as Ariel or Prince Eric? (No? Just us? okay then.)

A Fish Called Castiel by orphan_account [Explicit, 37k words]

Dean Winchester plans on proposing to his summer fling, Lisa Braeden. He buys a ring, against the advice of best friend Charlie Bradbury, and books a table at an expensive restaurant. Before he can propose however, Lisa breaks up with him. His pride wounded, Dean drives out to the coast, gets liquored up and throws the engagement ring into the ocean. When he goes in to retrieve it, he heads too deep and that should be the end of the story. He shouldn’t end up back on the shore, coughing up seawater with a beautiful young man tending to him. Dean doesn’t know where this man came from or who he is but he gives him the engagement ring as a thank you for saving his life. He never expects to see the guy again, but two days later he gets a call from the local Sheriff about a strange man she's picked up wondering naked in town with Dean's wallet and ring on him. The guy’s name is Castiel and, much to Dean’s surprise, he’s a mermaid.

A Fish Out of Water by MalMuses [Explicit, 64k words]

To tie up the loose ends of a hunt, Dean is forced to go undercover and visit Brock Pleasure Ranch, a horrifying establishment that markets its inhabitants to people with ‘monstrous’ tastes. It should have been a simple thing, to persuade a mer to give him a few scales for a spell. All part of the usual Winchester byline: saving people, hunting things. But Castiel is far less of a ‘thing’ than Dean expected. He might not be human, but he’s definitely a person. And that means he needs saving, too.

A Merman's Tail by remivel [Explicit, 14k words]

Castiel was a merman who was born with the tail of a Great White Shark. Treated as an abomination by his own kind, Castiel found solace in observing humans and following their ships. He was content with watching them from afar, until he saved Dean, a human prince, from being killed by a shark. Soon, watching Dean from afar was not enough, and he wished to leave his life under the sea for a chance at being part of Dean's world.

Beneath the Surface by riseofthefallenone [Explicit, 252k words]

An alternate universe of my beloved Out of the Deep that takes place entirely in the world of the Fin-kin. Castiel is still the bright-fin we know and love from OotD. But Dean? He’s a fang-fin; a violent breed of fin-kin who want nothing more than to bring war to Castiel's colony - or so he's been led to believe.

Bitten on Both Wings by squirrelofcelestialintent [Explicit, 31k words]

You may have seen The Little Mermaid, but you have no idea how the real story goes. Castiel is cursed. He comes from a long line of cursed Mer, not that he’s ever met any of them, or been told anything about the burden that he inherited. When he saves a human man from drowning, he finds himself suddenly on land and wearing two legs. It feels like an adventure. And when that man turns out to be someone he might love, there’s no risk he wouldn’t take to be able to stay with Dean. But Castiel doesn’t know what it is that he’s risking.

Breathing Into You by casblackfeathers [Explicit, 110k words]

‘Beware the deep sea, that’s where the monsters come from.’ Dean had heard these words since birth, his father’s warnings shaping him into the man he is today. That’s not the root of Dean’s hatred for merpeople, though. Twenty years after the day tragedy had touched the Winchesters’ lives forever as well as the end of the Great War between humans and mer, Dean is still haunted by that moment. But loving the sea is just as much a part of him as the dread for the merfolk, so when he isn’t working at the local bar, he is there, underwater, immersed in the vast blue his mother used to speak of in her bedtime stories. Dean knows, however, that the sea can be as ruthless as it is soothing. When he is caught in the middle of a storm and faces the anger of the waves, the mysterious appearance of a stranger with blue eyes as clear as the waters Dean loves losing himself in forces Dean to question the truth behind his father’s old mantra.

Here We May Be Free by FriendofCarlotta [Explicit, 39k words]

When Dean was eleven, he saw something in the ocean: a boy with blue eyes and iridescent scales. Almost twenty years later, a spontaneous detour after a hunt brings Dean and Sam back to the town where that encounter took place. And Dean can’t shake the feeling that Castiel, the owner of the local Mermaid Museum, looks familiar…

Hold Your Breath by camwelgrace [Explicit, 151k words]

The summer after Dean Winchester's high school graduation doesn't seem like it's going to be a very exciting one. Dean's life consists of working for Bobby at the salvage yard, taking care of Sammy, and helping his dad run the motel. That is, until a violent storm washes up a dark-haired, blue-eyed merman into The Beach Bunker's pool. With Castiel on land and sporting a brand new - albeit transient - pair of legs, the two of them discover that there's a lot for them to learn from one another. Not only about themselves and their present, but also about the past. Or, The one where Dean Winchester can't believe he's falling for the hot merman who got washed up in his pool. Since when was his life so friggin' weird?

Song of the Sea by Faster_Than_the_Speed_of_Sound [Mature, 37k words]

In a world where the merpeople of the ocean are known by humanity, but sirens are thought to be extinct, Dean Winchester is in trouble. On a routine hunt with his brother, he manages to get himself captured by a group of fishermen who sell him to scientists for experimentation. Dean finds himself locked in a tank hundreds of miles away from his home, with no allies and no conceivable way to get back to the ocean. Just when Dean thinks he has no chance of escaping alive, he finds a friend in the kind, blue-eyed doctor named Castiel. As Dean tries to survive in the facility, he finds salvation, safety, and maybe a little more in his new ally. In the frantic rush to break Dean out and get him back to the ocean, is there any chance for the budding attraction between the siren and the doctor to thrive? Or will it be doomed to a watery grave?

Out of the Deep by riseofthefallenone [Explicit, 488k words]

Stay away from the light-beds. Stay in the deep. It is the first thing hatchlings are taught the moment their fans unfurl and they can swim without their parents to buoy them along. It is the first rule, the first law. It is the beginning of every boogey-monster bedtime story told when they settle against the cliffs to sleep. Castiel should have listened better.

Wish I Could Be by EllenOfOz [Mature, 51k words]

Once upon a time, far beneath the ocean waves, King Triton ruled over the merfolk. All was peaceful, but the youngest prince, Castiel, dreamed of more. For he’d seen them—the humans on their fishing boat, including one particular green-eyed sailor whose face he couldn’t get out of his mind. Just how far would he go to be part of that world? A retelling of The Little Mermaid written for SPN Media Big Bang, featuring art by girlinthemirrorbluenight.

[monstersandmaw]

Happy Mermay! To start things off, here is Chapter Eight of Laces for a Lady.

For those who may have missed this over on Tumblr, it is a polyamorous (m/m/f) romance set in 18th-century Cornwall, at the height of the era of smugglers and excise men. It features twenty-five year old Eleanor 'Nel' Bywater, who travels alone from Sussex to Cornwall to take up the position of 'companion' to a young widow at Heath Top House, situated just outside the fishing village of Polgarrack.

There Nel meets Edmund Nancarrow, the reserved and dark-eyed tailor's assistant, and Locryn Trevethan, a wild, grizzled, older man who keeps to himself on the outskirts of even Polgarrack society. She finds herself falling in love with the rugged coastline and its fierce and hardy people, and is quickly drawn to both Ned and Locryn, who seem equally taken with her wild spirit and quick smile.

You can catch up with the story on Tumblr here, and this post will go public here on Patreon next week. Part One (sfw), Part Two (sfw), Part Three (sfw), (bonus Locryn & Ned chapter post Chpt3, sfw), Part Four (sfw), Part Five (sfw), Part Six (sfw), Part Seven (sfw)

I highly recommend listening to this ambient soundtrack on YouTube from Poldark while you read this, if combining music with reading is your thing... :). I always play this when I'm working on this story.

Contents: a wild, winter storm stirs up frightening memories for Winnie, Nel learns a little about the folklore of the region from old Aggie, Blackthorn the mare is her usual wilful self, Edmund reveals a bit about his past and how he came by his injury, and Nel comes upon something on the shore on her way home that sends her tumbling from Blackthorn's saddle... Wordcount: 5615

(long) preview:

The dreams started up again with startling clarity after her visit from Edmund, and Nel began to question her sanity.

Sometimes she lay tangled on mounds of silken sand or a bed of soft kelp while something silver brushed against her outer thigh, and other times she lay deep beneath the waves, able to breathe in the dream, and found herself coiled around and around by the thick muscle of a creature’s tail. Always though, it remained at the periphery of her mind; just out of reach of the grasping fingers of perception.

Sometimes Nel was lifted up by strong, rough hands that reminded her of Locryn’s when he’d spun her around in the country dance, but these hands ended in black claws and the skin was a dark, greenish brown, and as they breached the surface of the waves together and sent water sparkling up in a shattered spray, something in her would shatter too, and she would wake gasping and dewy-damp with sweat and desire.

She wondered if perhaps exercise would tire her out to the point where she no longer dreamed, and so whenever Winnie had no immediate need of her, Nel took to walking around the estates and riding Blackthorn relentlessly up and down the roads both inland and along the coast for the remainder of a rather blustery October.

The weather in November turned out to be such a mix that Nel and Winnie couldn’t make any sort of plans from one day to the next. Some days, when Winnie was caught up with running the business of the mine or writing to the Board, the weather was lamentably clear and fresh, while on days when they’d hoped to ride together or walk into Polgarrack for some exercise, the heavens unleashed torrents of rain from morning to night.

One night, when it had been blowing constantly in off the sea in ugly squalls that had kept all but the hardiest or most desperate at their hearths, a terrible crash was heard above the racket of the storm. It woke everyone in the house and rattled the windowpanes and Nel heard Winnie’s scream of terror from three rooms away.

She jolted out of bed and flew into the corridor in only her night shift. She navigated her way by touch and memory alone and fumbled her way to Winnie’s room to find her sitting up in bed and shaking all over.

“Winnie,” she called, having to keep her voice loud above the storm outside even as she rushed to the bed and took up her friend’s hands. They were ice cold and trembling.

“The tunnel,” Winnie breathed, wild-eyed and unseeing. “James…”

“Hush, it was the storm outside,” Nel said, sitting down and turning her face with slightly callused fingers to Winnie’s delicate jawline so that she was looking directly at Nel, though there was hardly enough light in the room to make out the pinpricks of reflection in her wild eyes. “And that crash was probably the big beech tree near the gate coming down, or a branch or two of it at least. You know how beech trees drop their limbs in high wind.”

Winnie sat shaking with the blankets pooled around her hips. For a long time she didn’t speak, though she seemed a little more present than she had a few minutes before.

Nel rose and crossed to the window, knowing that Winnie’s room overlooked the entrance to the house, but although she peered out into the night, she couldn’t make anything out. “We’ll have to see in the morning,” she said, but she heard shouts from outside and the whinnying of horses. “It’s being taken care of though, don’t worry.”

“I should… I should go down…” Winnie murmured and there came the sound of blankets shuffling.

Nel shook her head and crossed back to her. “I’ll go. You stay here and I’ll see what’s happening. If you’re needed, I’ll fetch you, I promise.”

“Thank you, Nel,” she croaked, and she drew her knees up under her chin. “Take my dressing gown or you’ll scandalise the staff in just your shift,” she added, and at that Nel barked a laugh of relief that was almost as loud as the tree falling outside.

She shot Winnie a look over her shoulder at the door and unhooked the robe. “Don’t you think they’ll be more scandalised that I was in your bedroom at this hour to have such swift access to it?” she said, and slipped it on. She left the room without waiting for an answer, but she could hear Winnie chuckling behind her still, and relaxed.

Below in the entrance hall, she spotted Winnie’s father-in-law speaking by lantern light to Joe, the head groom, and both men twitched around when they saw her coming down the stairs like a ghost.

“Miss Bywater, really, this doesn’t concern you,” Lord Edgar Penrose scowled, eyeing his daughter in law’s dressing gown pointedly. “You should return to your room.”

“Forgive me. Winnie was concerned and wanted to make sure nothing serious was wrong and that no one was hurt. Joe, I trust the tree didn’t come down on the barn?” It was bold of her indeed to address the man in Lord Edgar’s employ instead of the lord himself, but she had little time for that kind of nonsense, and she’d struck up a good rapport with Joe in all the weeks she’d been taking Blackthorn out.

“No, Miss Nel,” he said, ducking his head and lowering his eyes respectfully to the puddle accumulating on the chequered marble floor around his muddy boots. “Missed it by a whisker, though the roof’s taken a bit of damage from the wind. Once it blows through, we can fix that no problem. Tree’ll take some work to shift though. We’ll have to borrow a couple of the bigger horses from Mister Angove’s farm. Blackthorn’s not up to moving that lot by herself.”

“Even the stubbornness of that mare has its bounds, I suppose,” Nel smirked, and she found it answered in a poorly-hidden snort of agreement from Joe. “Well, thank you. Winnie will be relieved to know that no one was injured, and that the horses are safe too. Goodnight, gentlemen,” she said, and left them to it.

Winnie sagged as she blew out the breath she seemed to have been holding since Nel had left the room, and she deflated into the pillows behind her with a tiny whimper of relief. “You must think me such a wallflower,” she groaned. “I used to be so much bolder… with James around.”

Nel hung up the dressing gown on the back of the door and crossed to Winnie’s bed while her friend shuffled over without a word and drew back the warm covers for her. Nel brushed off her bare feet before slipping in, and lay curled on her side while Winnie did the same on the other pillows, facing her.

“I think you’re still very brave and bold, Winnie,” she said. “You run the Penrose Workings with the Board, and oversee the management of the mine every bit as well as James did, and you’re doing it while still grieving for him.”

In the near-complete darkness of Winnie’s room, she heard a sniffle and felt the movement as Winnie dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her night shift. After a long pause, Winnie exhaled shakily and fumbled for Nel’s hands, and when she found them, she gripped her fingers hard and kissed her knuckles. “I’m so glad you came to live here, Nel. I’m so glad I have you now, to call my very dear friend.”

-

Read the whole thing right now over on Patreon, and get access to my upcoming, Patreon-exclusive story for Mermay, which will feature (as voted for by patrons) a deep sea merman and a gender neutral reader. You'll also get access to my entire backlog of Patreon-only stories, plus you can join our chilled out Discord server, and you'll be able to read all future free stories a week early!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

MerMay 2024 Day Twenty-Eight Another Way

“So... they’re really going to do it,” Chase said. He sat by the entrance to Anti’s room in the shipwreck, his tail curled up around himself. “Between Roxy and Lise, they know a lot of humans who might be able to help. Stacy and Ollie even say they might know some people.”

Anti didn’t answer.

“Look... I know it’s scary.” Chase took a deep breath. “I’m scared, too. I don’t want... I-I know that the more humans who know about merms, the more possibility there is of bad people being in the mix. Sereia and Muirin say they’re confident that they can, uh, use their magic to help things go smoothly. But that’s a lot of power and they’re still very young, even if halfling magic is supposed to be more powerful.”

Anti still didn’t say anything. Chase leaned through the curtain of wires to check if he was there. He was. His green glowing eyes were darting around wildly.

“But here’s the thing. We need the numbers to help the others. To get rid of TridentCorp forever and stop them from bothering us and all other merms. So... i-it’s a risk, but it’s a risk we have to take. Besides... there are humans who want to help us, too. These four guys are proof, aren’t they?”

Anti’s eyes locked onto Chase. He tried not to shrink back.

“You... i-if you want, you can go off on your own once all this is done,” Chase said. “I don’t think anyone would stop you. You can find somewhere nice to hide.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Anti whispered.

Chase jumped slightly in surprise. “H-huh?”

“What if I don’t want to hide anymore?” Anti asked.

“Well... then... You’ve made a nice home here.” Chase looked around at the dark shipwreck. It wasn’t ‘nice’ by his standards, but Anti seemed comfortable here. “You can stay here.”

“You’re not... worried about... how close it is to your Jack friend?” Anti asked.

“...I would’ve been a while ago,” Chase said. “But... I think you’re different now. I think... you’ve learned some more stuff.” He paused. “I... trust you more.”

“...why?” Anti asked. “Trust just... gets you killed.”

Chase shook his head. “Not in my experience. Not in most merms’ experiences. Whatever you went through that made you think that... it was... probably bad. But it wasn’t normal.”

They sat in silence for a while. Chase glanced through the wire curtain again to check that Anti hadn’t fallen asleep. He hadn’t. He was just staring at Chase. “...if... I told you... something...” Anti said slowly. “Would you... tell me... if it was... ‘normal’?”

“Of course,” Chase whispered.

Anti nodded. He shifted around, staring up at the ceiling of the room instead of looking directly at Chase. “I was... in a school,” he started, his voice so quiet it was barely audible. “A school of eels. W-we all could do the same thing. Shock things. We... we lived in a river. We went up and down it, up and down it. From a place where we stayed when it was warm, to a place where we stayed when it was cold. When we went up and down it, we passed through a spot where human buildings were on the riverbanks. The grown-ups said to be very quiet.”

Chase stayed silent. He could tell that Anti was sharing something incredibly important with him.

“One day... w-we were tiny, the three of us. And we blended into the water. I-I don’t blame them for losing track of me and only seeing the other two. I swam up to the surface. And they were there. Some of them saw me. I went back down. But later... later that night, there were...” Anti’s voice trailed away for a moment. “Loud... noises. Bright flashes. Th-they didn’t come into the water, w-we couldn’t shock them. Th-the whole school was swimming around, t-trying to leave. When there was a loud noise, there was dark liquid in the water, and one of us stopped moving every time. My two... w-we were tiny. I don’t... know how they... saw the two of them.”

“Holy shit,” Chase whispered. “Humans... humans killed your... your school?”

“That’s why humans were bad,” Anti said. “I-I should have known.”

“Do you know how old you were?” Chase asked gently.

“I was tiny,” Anti merely repeated.

“Then it wasn’t your fault. I-it sounds like... like it was a mistake. I’m sure your parents felt terrible about losing track of you. And you... you didn’t understand. It was fine.”

“I’m not done yet,” Anti said.

Chase stayed quiet.

“I was... alone... for a long time. I-I was still small, but I wasn’t tiny. I was swimming somewhere new, but then I found someone. I-I found another eel from back then. Sh-she was a little bigger than me. She said she remembered me, a-and that I was... not good to keep around. Because I didn’t know h-how to do anything. So we fought. She won. I-I pretended to die, and that’s when she left.”

“Oh...” Chase whispered.

Anti’s gills widened as he took a deep breath. “Then I was alone for another long time. I was getting bigger, but I was still small. And I found another merm. Not an eel. A fish, a big one, w-with tiny light spots on dark scales. I told him where I came from. H-he said I could stay with him. We swam together for a while. I-I thought he was nice. I thought he was taking care of me. But one time... I fell asleep. And when I woke up...” He reached up to his neck. “He hurt my neck. There was... a lot of blood. I thought I would really die. S-so I grabbed him and shocked him until he was gone instead.”

“How old were you?” Chase asked, his voice full of quiet horror.

“I don’t know.” Anti was quiet for a moment. “You know when... you grow up, there’s a time when you... really start to change? When you stop being small and start being a grown-up? I was in the middle of that.”

“You were... maybe fourteen or fifteen, then,” Chase whispered, eyes wide. “A-assuming that electric eel merms go through puberty the same way other merms do—Oh my stars.”

“A lot of stuff happened after that,” Anti muttered. “Big predators. More merms that didn’t let me come with them. Not just in the river, in the ocean, too. So I... I-I protected myself. I thought I was protecting myself when you all found me... that while ago.” He paused. “Is that... normal?”

“No,” Chase whispered. “Anti, none of that is normal. That’s not—not how the world works. You just... had some really, really bad luck, and ran into all the bad people out there.”

“But th-there were... there were... so many of them,” Anti said. “For so long.”

“I know. I know.” Chase got up, inching through the curtain of wires. Anti didn’t react much, so he approached him slowly. “But Anti... I promise that’s not how things are. It’s going to be hard to believe, after all that. But I think... I think you’ve seen it yourself. I think you’ve experienced it yourself. You came to get me out of that TridentCorp tank, didn’t you? Even though you had to go through all that effort to get the transformation potion.”

“I did that because you guys got me out,” Anti muttered.

“And do you know why we rescued you?”

“Because I pushed you out of the way of the net and you wanted to make sure we were even?”

Chase shook his head. He was right in front of Anti now, and he slowly sank down to the floor. “It’s because we couldn’t leave you to that. We couldn’t stand knowing someone was getting hurt, even if you’d done bad things to us before. That’s how most people are in this world. These four humans helping us, they don’t have to do that. They don’t have to make sure we’re even. And I... I... There’s... the world doesn’t work that way, you know. There’s another way. One that I...”

He wasn’t sure if his words were getting through to Anti. So he just stopped speaking. He inched closer to Anti... closer... closer... until he was pressed up against his side. It was dangerous to curl up next to an electric eel, but Anti seemed more scared than Chase was. He could feel him trembling slightly. Chase didn’t move. He stayed there, and after a while, he felt Anti relax. “You... y-you merms are all fools,” Anti whispered. “But I... I sometimes think I’m a fool, too.”

Chase nodded. “Well. You can’t be waiting to be hurt all the time. Sometimes you have to be a little foolish.” He paused. “I’m... going to help Stacy and the others get more humans on our side. S-since I can speak English, they think that I could convince people. But that means... I’ll probably be leaving for a bit. Going to meet up with all these humans.”

“I... don’t want... you to go,” Anti whispered.

“I’m not going right now,” Chase explained.

“Still.”

“You could come with me, you know.”

Anti tilted his head to the side, considering that. He leaned against Chase. “I could come to protect you.”

“Heh.” Chase smiled. “I’d appreciate that.”

Anti then fell silent. Chase thought it was because he was usually quiet. But then he glanced over at him... and realized that his eyes were closed. He had never seen Anti fall asleep when another merm was nearby. Maybe... he’d never felt safe enough to.

Chase wouldn’t leave him yet. He would let him rest first.

[weirdenbyferret]

Day twenty two, Koi

Its still mermay shut up

This is actually the first time ive really drawn Eclipse for my sea beasts au! That was mostly because I didnt know what hed be, but thank you my mermay prompt list for helpung with that <3

In this au, Eclipse is called The King, and is the most dangerous sea beast.

He was only ever discovered after a ship attack ten years from the present in the au, where there was only one human survivor, who told of how their ship was attacked by many see beasts that suddenly, as if coming out of nowhere, came to the ship after they heard this loud, long, eerie, but elegant sound from below, almost like the call of a whale.

The survivor had been knocked off the ship and into the water, soon seeing a large oraneg eye looking down at them, before shortly after they heard another one of the loud eerie whale call-like sounds, and just before they passed out they were able to see the other sea beasts leave.

They awoke on the shores, a miracle, and shared the tale.

And soon, the beast was named The King, as it was clear that it had control over the other beasts of the sea.

His sleeves are a pair of flags that have splotches of blood :]

[rocksandrobots]

Mermay Week Day 2: Pearl

Spoilers for Season 4 Under the Cut

Varian hated wishes.

Wishes, especially ones that came true, were too much like magic for his liking. And magic always brought trouble.

It certainly brought trouble to this little undersea grotto.

Five different kingdoms were fighting over the priceless Mariner's Pearl. An ancient artifact that was supposed to grant the owner's deepest desire.

Sea monster, mermaid, and human alike fought tirelessly as each group chased the other around the cavern, and under the water, to grab hold of the priceless pearl.

Varian didn't know which outcome would be the least disastrous.

The Saporians would no doubt wish for the subjection of Corona and its populace, and he'd seen enough of Andrew's rule to realize what that would entail. Even with Cassie supposedly in charge now, he still didn't know if the woman could be trusted with her violent temper.

As for the kingdom of Corona, well its princess was at least less vengeful than her former best friend. But Rapunzel was also an idiot, and she was liable to wish for something well meaning but stupid that would backfire horribly... Like 'world peace' that turned everyone into zombified drones with fake smiles permanently plastered on their faces.

No that wouldn't do at all.

Then there were the three ocean kingdoms to contend with.

The Atlanteans and the Sharkanias hated each other, and each would destroy the other if given the chance. While the Vodniks were supposed to be a mediating party who had agreed to keep the pearl locked away in order to maintain peace. Yet this was the third time they had failed to prevent the jewel from being stolen right out from under their noses... by the same person no less!

As for Hookfoot's girlfriend, Varian had no idea what she wanted. Seraphina had seemed sincere about wanting to redeem herself, and yet she had been the one to cause this mess to begin with.

Varian shook his head as he watched the chaos around him unfold. There was no other option. He would have to destroy the pearl himself and prevent anyone from using it.

That was easier said than done however. 

For starters, being magic, it wasn't as simple as dissolving the item in vinegar. The molecular structure of the thing was probably different to that of a normal pearl. Secondly, he would have to obtain the jewel before anyone else did, and right now it was a battlefield out there.

He took a deep breath, waited for his chance, and then darted out from under the outcropping he had been hiding under. He slammed into a poor Vodnik who had just picked up his prize and they both went rolling into the water.

Twenty others dived in right after them. Some naturally better swimmers than others.

Varian found himself racing neck to neck with Urichin; the Atlantean he had befriended earlier in the tunnels. He didn't seem like a bad person either, but his loyalties obviously lied with his own king and country.

The fair haired merman shot Varian a smug smile of satisfaction and then flew ahead easily with a short burst of speed. While Varian had to remind himself not to gasp while underwater.

He was a fool to think he could outswim a fish. Yet no sooner did Urchin reach the pearl, then so did Seraphina and the two of them went twirling in circles, trying to yank the precious stone out of the other's hands.

Varian's lungs burned.

He needed to think of something fast.

In a blind panic he ripped a chimball off of his belt and squeezed it till it busted open. The sea grew dark as black smoke poured from it.

----------------------------------------------

Varian broke the surface with a heaving gulp of air.

The other combatants soon followed, human and sea creature alike. Each coughing and sputtering from the now tainted water.

 Varian ignored them. He pulled himself up onto the ground of the cave, clutching the pearl tightly.

He'd won, but what was he to do now?

He stood up on shaky legs and desperately hunted for a chimball that might help. An acid or a bomb or...

Oh how he wished Honey Lemon was here. She'd know what to use.

No sooner did the thought cross his mind than the pearl in his hand started to glow. 

He barely had time to comprehend his mistake before a portal began to open up before him, and he saw the silhouette of a lithe figure floating in the middle of the blue. 

The figure became ever more distinct as the portal grew ever larger. Long limbs, flowing red hair, soft lips… Varian felt sick. 

How long had it been since he'd last seen her? Heard her laugh? Held her?

Instinctively he held out his arms to catch her. 

He had given up hope of ever returning to San Fransokyo. Given up hope of seeing his loved ones again. Given up hope of ever kissing his beloved Honey once more. 

His heart raced as he stepped closer to the portal. 

And now she was coming here! Soon they would be together. One minute more- 

Varian stopped.

She was coming here! 

She was going to be trapped in this world of magic and nightmares with him! 

His heart leapt into his throat. 

That was the last thing he wanted. She wouldn't be safe here. She'd be separated from her family and friends. She'd miss out on her future… 

He stood there; torn with indecision. Every fiber of his being desired nothing more than to hold her close, but the rational part of his brain was screaming at him to close the portal. To keep her safe. 

The choice was made for him when a Saporian staff knocked the pearl out of his hand. 

The portal disappeared as he clutched his now sore arm and the battle for the wish granting artifact resumed. 

He cursed under his breath, mentally kicking himself for being so weak. He'd missed his opportunity to destroy the pearl and lost his love yet again. 

With a hiss he unhooked another chimball from his belt and ran back into the fray. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. 

-----------

From above the battlefield, unseen by the warring soldiers, the demon that was always watching smiled knowingly.

[mdzs-is-rotting-my-brain]

Mermay 2023

Day: I

Prompt: Aquarium.

🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

Lan Wangji let out his breath.

Easing the tension around his shoulders, rolling his neck and consciously unclenching his jaw.

The cool darkness of the Mermaid auditorium surrounded him on all sides, three walls of thick glass. The hazy blue depths of chemical treated water always reminded him of home. The pastel blue walls, the overwhelming sense of peace and silence after so long around children.

He could hear the water lapping against the glass, the bubbles from the filters, the muted voices from the school field trip a room over having lunch.

The auditorium was dark and empty, it smelled of the chemicals used to keep the fish healthy, and of wet earth and that briny, fishy, smell he was worried would never come out of his clothes.

The water shifted, the waves slapped harder against the glass.

Lan Wangji opened his eyes, blinking several times to ensure he was not hallucinating.

There was a mermaid in the tank.

He was lean with dark skin. There was a scar on his chest, but it was hard to make out in the water and the black fish-net shirt he wore with a long trailing ribbon tied at his back to keep it cinched around his chest, exposing his lean torso.

Curly dark hair floated in the water around a face of sharp, slightly, boyish features of a twenty-something young man.

He swam behind a rock outcropping emerging from a cave closer to the glass.

His fin was similar to a Gobionidae, but instead of gold, his scales were red, with extra dorsal and tail fins that floated when he was still, to flared along his body as he moved. Creating a dramatic appearance that mimicked a real life fish.

He swam up to meet another mermaid, one Lan Wangji recognized.

Lou Qingyang was wearing yellow, her outfit more regal with stones and gems that sparkled when she caught the light.

Watching them move around each other was ethereal. Even though he knew it was fake, he could believe they were mermaids, even as the surfaced every five minutes for air, even with the safety divers lurking in the dark, they moved as if they were born for the water.

The young man especially, he held his breath for longer, and the way he twisted, diving between rocks and through caves, and swimming between the fish for a dramatic appearance. Blue and white pearls woven into his hair, set against dark hair.

Lan Wangji watched him, wondering what it would feel like to run his hands through that hair, tugging on each pearl until-

"Yuanyuan, I don't think we're supposed to leave." Lan Jingyi's voice jerked Lan Wangji back to alertness. Turning around he saw his own nephew and Wei Yuan, his favorite student thought he'd never say that aloud, already across the room, standing at a door that read Staff Only.

"Lan-laoshi said I could say hi to diedie." Wei Yuan said pulling open a door that should have been much to heavy for a six-year-old.

The silence of the auditorium was replaced by heavy machinery, air filters not muted behind thick glass.

Lan Wangji was on his feet, following them before the door could swing shut.

He tried to call for them, they were halfway up the stairs, the sounds were louder in here, an assault on his ears. The chemicals burned his nose and throat, choking his words before he could even utter them.

He ran up the stairs, his feet pounding against the industrial steel, his heart racing as horrible images of both boys falling into the fish tank, their tiny bodies unable to float because of their heavy winter coats. His brain conjured images of them, bloated and blue in the face, with glassy eyes, being pulled from the tank.

He reached the top of the stairs in the service area. He didn't know a single thing about anything here other than everything could be dangerous for two curious little boys.

Said boys were currently standing on a catwalk over the large tank Wei Yuan was turning a lamp on and off in a pattern.

"Lan Jingyi, Wei Yuan." It didn't sound like him when he spoke. His voice was dry, hoarse, and rough.

He was uncomfortably reminded of his father in his final hours.

Lan Jingyi jumped at his voice, spinning with wide guilty eyes.

"Yuan-er! My little radish."

It was the mermaid.

His hair was plastered to his face, a pearl resting in the center of his forehead like a prince of old before he pushed it back, swimming over to the catwalk.

Wei Yuan sat on the catwalk, his father pulled himself out of the water, twisting expertly to sit in it beside his son, his fin drifting in the water.

Water rolled down his neck and chest, dark skin pebbling in the cold air.

"Jiujiu." Lan Jingyi said, "Yuan said we could come back here, he said baba gave him permission."

Lan Wangji looked at the child in question, his gaze colliding with dark eyes sparkling with interest. A large, guileless smile, and dark red cheeks.

Wei-xiansheng looked down at his son, "Yuan-er, did you ask?"

Wei Yuan crossed his arms, huffing at his father, "Of course I did diedie. And I even made sure Lan-xiangsheng came with us to supervise."

Wei-xiansheng blinked, dark eyes darting to Lan Wangji again. "Lan…xiansheng. You're Lan Xichen's younger brother? You're the new teacher at Cloud Recess Academy?"

Lan Wangji nodded, "Mn."

"You teach the kids archery and Bei Pai?"

"It is a new course. Wei Yuan is the top performer." Pride and fondness warmed his tone. Though he could trust his typical frigid personality would prevent Wei-xiansheng from noticing and calling him on his favoritism.

Wei Yuan pulled himself up, smiling brightly.

Wei-xiansheng stared at him a moment longer before he smiled, long and slow, like he'd seen something he'd been looking for for weeks.

"I see." He said turning back to his son, "Did you tell Lan Xichen where you were going?"

Wei Yuan's lower lip slid out, "Diedie!"

"Oh you naughty boy!" Wei-xiansheng attacked his son, tickling him until Wei Yuan's delighted laughter echoed around the tank service area, "You've been listening to Wen Qing too much, you scheming little sea bunny. I should throw you in the tank and make you go home wet."

"Diedie no!" Wei Yuan managed to get away from his father, scurrying behind Lan Wangji, leering at Wei-xiansheng from behind his leg.

Wei-xiansheng collapsed in laughter just as delighted as his son.

Lan Wangji put a hand on Wei Yuan's head, looking down at him.

"You must be transparent about your intentions. What would happen if you and Jingyi were hurt and unable to signal your father?"

Wei Yuan stares at him with those large, soft brown eyes that reminded Lan Wangji of his rabbit, and of his mother.

"Yes Lan-laoshi."

When he turned back to Wei-xiansheng, he met dark eyes, warm and bright. A playful smile, and a lean body still tantalizingly wet.

"Wei Ying." He held out a hand, his hand was mostly smooth, he had callouses along his fingers that suggested sword work, but they were must softer than told of regular work.

"Lan Zhan, courtesy, Wangji."

His eyebrows rose, and his smile twitched higher, "I see. Yes, yes…it's all coming together." He said.

"Diedie I wanna stay with you!" Wei Yuan said loudly, still holding onto Lan Wangji's pant leg.

Wei Ying glanced between him and his son, "Someone would have to wait with you baby, and Qing-gugu isn't here today."

"I can wait with him."

Lan Wangji wanted to know what was wrong with his mouth.

First it was volunteering to chaperone the class on their field trip, now it was offering to stay extra hours until Wei Ying's shift ended.

Wei Ying, for his part, did not seem surprised at the offer, rather his smile canted higher, his eyes shining bright under the florescent lights.

"I have a feeling that would have been the end result anyway. As long as it's okay with Lan Xichen." He pointed to a bank of steel grey lockers behind them, "My clothes are in 316, in my bag are a few visitor passes, just make sure you clip it where it's visible. If anyone asked, tell them you're with me."

Music poured from the speakers, Wei Ying flinched, "That's my que. I have to go, Yuan-er this conversation isn't over. Tell Lan Xichen I'm talking to him too."

Wei Yuan was smiling as bright and beguiling as his father, "Okay!"

Wei Ying sighed, shaking his head, he looked at Lan Wangji again, smiling turning mischievous,

"I'll see you in a couple of hours."

He winked, diving below the water before Lan Wangji could get his brain back on track to answer him.

🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

Lan Xichen and Wei Yuan in the background conspiring to get Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian together, are not as secretive as they like to think they are.

[wpmorse]

Mermay 2024 - Day Twenty-Two - Lagoon

For today's prompt, lagoon, I immediately had the idea of sticking with the Hawaiian theme. So, here are some mermaids enjoying a luau at the bottom of a lagoon.

I have very mixed feelings about this one. At first glance, it's a mess. It's crowded and the lighting of a sunset through the water doesn't work. It doesn't even look like a lagoon. On the other hand, the basic composition with Doris ogling the cowboy merman works, and I like the colors in an abstract kind of way. So, while I think it's a failure, it's a productive experiment.

[merfolk-are-the-best-folk]

MerMay 2024 Day 1: Marine Biologist

Decided I would use MerMay to reignite my writing habit. Since the 'official' tags suck butt I am using the infinitely more evocative prompt list of @mossypidder. So here it is, day 1. Let's see how many days it takes until I fall off from it xD (it's under a read more bc way longer than I anticipated).

“The place where all the trackers broke and vanished is just ahead.”, the helmsman of the small vessel said, his body hunched over a monitor in the cabin showing a map of the surrounding area, with all sorts of lines and dots in different colors drawn over it. The area they were heading towards was a region where many of those lines just stopped, creating an ominous empty field of ocean on the map. “And we have no idea what is doing that, then?”

I positioned myself next to him and looked over his shoulder. Not an easy task, considering I was quite a bit smaller than the experienced seaman. “Well, I have a few theories, but nothing I am confident enough in to actually talk out loud about it. We’ll just have to see”, I said with a slight shrug. “But comparing our data with similar studies got us nowhere closer to the answer. Of course there was always an amount of tracking devices that stopped working for one reason or another. But not in this amount and very much not in this consistency regarding a location. That’s why we are here to find out.”

“That’s all fine and dandy. Just begs the question, why are you on this trip?”, another voice from behind both of us cut in. The woman who had just entered postured herself with crossed arms in the doorframe of the helm. “I thought you eggheads tend to stick with the books and computers, leaving the wet work to us.”

I felt my face flush red, not really knowing if it was anger or embarrassment, or some mixture of both, that caused this reaction. “Well, Professor Benson wanted someone at hand to evaluate any and all information we gather here right on the spot. So that’s why he sent me.”

The woman did not seem satisfied with the answer, but before she could resume the banter she was disrupted by the helmsman: “Well, we’ve arrived. Get ready.”

She just  nodded  and turned around to exit, leaving us two in the cabin. After a moment in which I was not really sure what to do or say now, fidgeting a bit with my hands, the stout man turned towards me. “Did you not hear me? I said: Get ready.”

“What do you mean?”, I asked, quite confused. I could only examine the evidence we would collect after it had been collected, after all.

“You’re going down, too. The Prof said it would be a good experience for you.”

“What?!?”, I blurted out. “But, butbutbutbut…”

“You’re a marine biologist, aren’t you? You should be able to do studies out in the field.”, he said while crossing his arms in a manner that mirrred the stance of the woman from before quite well.

“Well, I’m an undergraduate. I’m still…”

“You can stay here on the boat, not gonna throw you to the fishes against your will. But I am sure the Prof will not be happy about it.”

I stammered, trying to find excuses whyI shouldn’t go dive in a place where our devices mysteriously disappeared, but everything got blocked out by the mental image of my professor’s very famous disapproving glare. In the end I just sighed and nodded. “Yessir.” 

It took me almost twenty minutes to force myself into the wetsuit that I had assumed had just been stashed in my cabin on the off chance I wanted to look the part of a real field researcher. I exited the cabin and walked onto the stern deck of the boat and was directly exposed to the stern glare of the woman from earlier. She wore a very similar outfit, but admittedly, she looked way more comfortable in it and less like a cheap impostor. 

“Could you have been any slower?”, she asked, nevertheless handing me the rest of the diving equipment I would need for this trip.

I wanted to answer, maybe even return the mean spirited banter, but I was not able to find the right words, instead I just focussed on not embarrassing myself any further by fumbling at donning the equipment.

Another five minutes later my heart was racing as we sat down at the edge of the boat, getting ready to plunge into the depths below us. In my mind I was counting down from ten, to hype myself up for the dive and to find a reason not to just sit here at the precipice for the next two hours.

And as my mind reached the number two, it was violently interrupted by a loud, clattering noise. My head turned around and I tried to find the source of the noise as I noticed a metal object that had fallen onto the deck. I pulled off my mask to see more clearly and gasped, finding the metal ball to be a crumpled clump of scrap metal that seemed to consist solely of trashed tracking devices. And just as my mind tried to comprehend this very weird thing that just happened, another voice coming from behind ripped me right out of it. “You can keep your trash on your side of the water’s edge. Now scram!”

I turned my head towards the sea, and there was a head popping out of the water. And even without my glasses and at this distance I was very sure that this was not a normal human who had just told us off about ‘littering’...

[priapus-at-the-gate]

Shameless self-plug eminent! Keep an eye out for a Vampire Chronicles fic on A03 under the simple title “Splash” to be posted in the next couple of days! Two birds with one stone here! I wanted to write something for VC Mermay, but also for the hilariously named “Dick-Or-Treat: Uvula Region” event. Long story short, all you have to do to enter is write and submit an explicit fic named after a Pokémon move. Yup. Anyway, here’s a preview of Splash! (That thrumming you hear is me practicing vibrating with excitement, lol.)

Human Louis starts working on a fishing boat to support his family estate. One night, several months in to his employment, he catches something HUGE. Everyone else is asleep, so it’s up to him to drag the catch aboard. 

He’s gotten stronger, but this is ridiculous! After nearly twenty minutes, he’s got the net aboard. He sits down by the net and shines his lantern on his catch. Louis can’t believe his eyes: it’s a merman. Said merman is cowering and hissing like a cat. Louis waits for his muscles to stop screaming before doing anything. On one hand, he’d get a hefty reward for a merman, but on the other… this thing looks far too human for a sea monster, despite the huge fishtail. Louis sees salt-drenched golden curls and silver-blue glowing eyes. Soft-looking pale flesh that disappears into red onyx scales. Such a beautiful, ethereal monster. Louis doesn’t know what to do with it. On one hand, the merman could earn him a huge monetary reward, but on the other…

Louis decides to throw the merman back. First he needs to get it— him— untangled. Louis quickly realizes that the merman has a huge gash in his tail from the net. “Hold still. Let me get you out.” Can the anthropic fish-man even understand him? Carefully, Louis draws his knife. The merman snarls and thrashes around in fury. “Please, just let me—“ Hiss— “I won’t hurt you. I’m sorry this happened.” ‘Are you going to sell me? Eat me?’ Louis jolts at the voice in his head. “No. I’m going to send you back. You don’t belong up here. You aren’t just some animal. You are a person, aren’t you?” The mention if being thrown back into the water in his current state irritates the merman. “I won’t just dump you in the water. Let me help you with your tail.” Reluctantly, the merman lets Louis cut him loose. ‘Thanks. I guess.’ “Can you speak? How did you even manage to get entangled in the net?” Louis’ questions are answered with a horrifying vision of other merfolk fighting the blond and one, a small auburn-haired man, slitting the blond’s throat. “Why would they do that to you?” No answer. Louis shines the lantern in the merman’s face to get a better look. On the other man’s neck is a telltale healing slash. Louis definitely can’t throw the merman back, not right now. He stands and reaches to lift him up. The merman hisses, smacking Louis in the knees with his tail. It’s a good thing Louis’ lantern is one of those nice closed ones, huh? Louis gets thrown onto his ass. “I’m going to take you to my quarters. I want to clean your wounds. I’m not going to do anything to you. Please,” Louis tries again. The merman stops fighting him, so Louis passes the merman his lantern and hefts him up. 

Louis puts the merman in his bathing tub and grabs a bucket, which he fills with sea water. He dumps the sea water into his tub. The next 20 minutes are spent cleaning and dressing the nasty gashes. When Louis is nearly done stitching the merman’s tail, he nearly drops his needle when the voice pokes into his mind again: ‘Lestat’. “What? Is that—- oh. That’s your name?” A silent nod. “Lestat. My name is Louis.” ‘Thank you, Louis.’ “Of course.” 

Louis makes sure Lestat is settled in before going to bed. At some point during the remainder of the night, Louis wakes. He watches Lestat sleep, and takes the time to really look at the merman. Lestat is beautiful. His golden salt-drenched curls run down his bare, smooth shoulders in shiny rivulets. His face is soft and elven, sharp but gentle. His pretty pink mouth is open slightly as quiet breaths escape him, his carved chest rising and falling in tandem. Lestat’s dorsal fins twitch cutely in his sleep. 

Desire fills Louis, and a wave of great shame hits him like Lestat’s tail did earlier. Louis wants Lestat, but it’s wrong, this poor man has already been through enough. Louis doesn’t want to break the trust he’s earned. Perhaps if he’s quiet, Louis can…

Guiltily, Louis yanks his trousers down to his thighs. He wraps his hand around cock, biting his lip to stifle his moans as he starts stroking. Louis closes his eyes; it’s bad enough he’s getting off at the thought of his willing captive, but to look at Lestat while doing so would be even worse. 

‘Lestat’, Louis’ mind whispers, ‘Lestat, oh please—‘ Louis rocks his hips, thumbing the tip. Suddenly, he feels a warm wet hand over his. ‘Louis,’ Lestat murmurs. “Y-You shouldn’t be out of the water, Lestat!” Louis hisses gently. ‘Then come join me. I need you, Louis.’

OwO what happens next? Stay tuned…

-B76

OH MY GOSH WE CAN'T WAIT TO READ THE WHOLE THING!!! 🥵🥵🐠🐠

[bethanygabrielleart]

day twenty two of mermay ! i liked doing the tail fin

[thiswasinevitableid]

Day to Day (Indruck)

Runner Up in the "Location" mermay prompt was: A ship trapped in ice at the North Pole

No stranger, I, to the touch of steel

Or the honest fear any man can feel

But I long for dust under my heels

And a pocket full of pay

So I’ll take it from day to day

-Stan Rogers, “Take it Day to Day”

There were seventy-five of them at the start. Two fell ill and died before they became trapped. And when the captain and the officers decided there was no escaping the ice locking the Beacon in her tomb, they gave the men a choice: they could follow the captain and officers in search of land, of help, of another ship, of something. Or they could stay aboard and pray the ice released the ship before they all perished.

Forty left. Duck was one of the thirty-three to stay; they have no idea where the nearest help might be. Spring, however, will come like it always does. And with fewer men aboard they could better ration what food was left behind. 

Then the sirens came. 

Now Duck is the only man left. 

Four nights after he made the choice to stay, the song began. It promised him warmth, promised him shelter and a soft bed. There was shifting in corridors, footsteps on the deck as the other men followed the voice. 

Duck’s friend, Minerva, once told him he could be as stubborn as twenty mules. Maybe that was what stopped his feet, halfway from their hammock to the floor, and reminded him that there’s no way a shelter was waiting for him because he’s on a ship, hundreds of miles from civilization, that is currently stuck in the fucking ice. 

He counted seven splashes and a lot of screaming, but by the time he reached the main deck there was nothing he or any of the others could do but watch red bloom in the stray patches of water. 

He’d been able to convince the remaining men to plug their ears with rags or cotton from the infirmary, since the shimmering tails flashing through cracks in the ice left no doubt as to what was after them. Duck never believed in mermaids and such, not even as a kid. This is a hell of a time to find out he was wrong. 

The earplugs protected them for a few days, but some of the men got careless once they stopped seeing the sirens and removed them. That took five more in one swoop. Even when they didn’t take the cotton out at all and resorted to writing or mouthing their words to each other, it wasn’t enough; several of the sirens can sing in a way that allows either a very high or very low, thrumming melody to reach him, even through the cotton. 

Five days ago, he was too slow to grab the last of the other sailors and watched him fall to the ice. A blonde, male siren kept wordlessly singing until he could grab the man’s coat and pull him under. 

Worst of all, the entire time, his eyes and smile were on Duck, even as he dragged the poor guy down.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------

There’s a reason Indrid rarely visits his kin. Their pod has only grown more ruthless since his brother took over, and were it not for the terms of his bargain, he wouldn’t come back at all. 

His comments that there are plenty of fish and other food for them beneath the ice have been brushed off in favor of going on a hunting spree of the humans above them. Half of them haven’t even been eaten; his brother or one of the others just killed them because they found it amusing.

Unfortunately his brother, Apollo, has picked up on his disdain for hunting humans and is going out of his way to chase off or otherwise interfere with Indrid’s ability to catch other food. So now he’s starving, horrified, and seriously considering risking breaking his promise in order to get out of here. 

He’s not quite ready for that risk, and so this afternoon he’s hauled himself up onto the ice to think. The ship towers above him, giving him an idea, and he checks the futures to see if there’s any chance of it working.  Then, with a great deal of concentration, he opens his mouth and begins to sing.

—---------------------------------------------

Duck’s gotten pretty good at telling which siren is trying to lure him out. There were seven, distinct songs to start, but lately there’s only one or two. The one starting up now is new. It feels sadder and eerier than the others, but he pulls the cotton from his pockets all the same. 

The first image of the song reaches him; a tin can. Some honey. A fork?

The only possible conclusion is that they’re fucking with him. And he’s had enough of being toyed with like a cornered mouse. 

He grabs a harpoon and carries it over to the source of the song. The siren is fully on the ice, eyes closed, and his silver and black tail is muted compared to the shine of the others Duck’s seen. 

Before he can say anything, the siren opens his eyes. They’re ember red, burning in a striking face. A face he knows. 

“Please, put down your weapon. I am not who you assume.”

“Oh yeah? How the hell can I be sure? For all I know y’all can shape shift!”

Red eyes blink, “Your accent is very charming.”

He raises the harpoon, “That ain’t an answer.”

The siren holds up his hands defensively, “It is not a power we possess. And even if it was, I am too weak to do much enchantment. That was why I was asking for food. I was trying to envision what might be on a ship such as this that you could share with me.”

“Why the fuck would I share? Ain’t you had enough to eat tearing apart a bunch of fellas who never did you any goddamn harm?” Were he not shaking from the cold, he’s positive he’d crack the handle.

“I have done no such thing! I do not kill humans.”

“Why the fuck should I believe you?”

“Did you recognize my song? You have heard them all by now.”

He shakes his head, “No, but that don’t prove much. Maybe you let someone else hunt for you.”

A sharp laugh, “Even of I pleaded, none of those here would. Do I look well fed to you?” He gestures to his tail and his arms.

“Okay, so you’re a little skinny.” He shivers; he needs to get back below and warm up, “fine. If I give you food will you fuck off?”

“Yes. Was that not clear?”

“No it wasn–fuck it, stay right there and don’t make a goddamn sound.” He stomps down into the galley, finds a tin of meat, and brings it back up, throwing it to the siren with more force than necessary. 

“Thank you.” A crunch as he bites through the lid, “ooh, very salty. I do wish they would put more sweet things in cans. I like them.” He looks up at Duck, silver hair catching in the breeze, “in an hour another siren will come to try and sing you down. You will resist him, as you have before, and he will not try again for two days.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can see the future.” He slides towards an opening in the ice, “farewell.”

Duck watches him disappear, then goes below to huddle under as many blankets as he can find. 

—------------

“Hello? Duck Newton? I have something you need to hear.”

“What?” Duck sticks his head from the window, “and how do you-”

“-Know your name? Future-sight, remember?” The siren taps his head, “and what it has seen is of use to you. A great deal of your food is about to make you very ill.”

“Fuck. Which stuff?” He knows it’s ridiculous to trust him, but the last prediction was dead on and the last thing he needs is to get dysentery or some other shit.

“Primarily that in cans. And yes, I am aware that is a lot of it. If you bring me aboard, it will be easier for us to sort it.”

“....I’m keepin my rifle on me if you do.” 

“I foresaw as much. I do not begrudge you your precautions. If you want my help, please lower a boat. “

It takes some doing for him to get the boat down and back up on his own. The siren flops out of it, situates himself against the hull as Duck brings up a crate of food. They spend the next hour–minus a brief trip back to the water for the siren–separating good from bad. The siren, Indrid, looks ahead to see if opening a given can leads to Duck getting sick. By the end, his food supply is badly dented. 

“What the fuck?” He whispers at the too-small pile.

“Perhaps those who funded your voyage employed rather suspect canners for the sake of cutting cost?”

“Probably.” He glances at Indrid, “they got that kinda shady dealin’ in the sea?”

“Not as such. But I spend a great deal of time around humans; they interest me and sometimes one will actually listen if I warn of a shipwreck or flood. After a while you pick things up. There is a very nice cannery far, far down on the California coast.”

“You really get that far?”

“Indeed. I prefer warmer waters, but I…I am honor-bound to return to my home once every two years.” He gestures out to the ice, then looks at Duck, “what is your home like?”

“It’s…green. There’s pine trees everywhere, and in the summer cicadas scream so loud it’s hard to sleep. A big ol’ river runs through town. My sister and I would swim in it when we were kids, I even built myself a raft outta branches to use on the slow parts. First ship I ever got on.” He sighs, “shoulda made it the last”

“You could not have known.” A cold hand settles on his knee, “and you are not to blame. Goodness knows yours is not the first ship to be taken by the sea and the ice.”

“That’s just it! I knew this was dangerous and I signed up anyway because the captain was told I was a damn good sailor, the kind meant for this sorta job. And I said yes because the money meant I’d have enough saved up to move somewhere and train as an arborist. I just…I gotta make it to the spring. They’ll send someone to look for us if they don’t hear we made the Yukon like we planned. Right?”

Indrid stares into space, then nods, “Yes, it seems they will send a ship in search of you.”

Hope kindles in him, but he shivers all the same. 

The siren smiles gently at him, “You should seek shelter below. The wind will be bad tonight.”

“Thank you. For helpin me. Especially after I threatened you.”

“Bygones.” He drums his nails on the deck, “do you wish for me to return tomorrow to keep you company.”

Duck thinks of the endless hours listening to the groaning ice and his own thoughts. 

“Hell yeah.”

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And the whole damn thing blew up in our faces” Duck chuckles, “moral of the story is don’t try’n sneak beer out for a party by rollin’ the keg all the way home.”

Indrid, on his belly on deck, rests his chin in his hands, “I will keep that in mind. I do not much care for human alcohol, though there’s a bar on the coast of Mexico that mixes melon juice into a lighter beer, which is not bad.”

Duck makes a disgusted face, “Think eatin’ raw fish has ruined your tastebuds.”

There is no malice in the words. Indeed, in the week they’ve been talking, he finds Duck strikingly handsome and gentle. Indrid tells him this, and he blushes. That Duck is also Indrid’s preferred shape for a partner–sturdy and soft, but strong enough for a life at sea–is something Indrid will keeping to himself. 

“I will have you know some fish is delicious raw. Other kinds not so much. I regret eating raw catfish.”

“Ugh.” Duck pulls more blankets around himself, “Christ I’m cold. Your honor must be a hell of a thing if you came all the way up here for its sake instead of staying where it’s warm.”

“It is complicated. When I was younger, my father made a mark on me and my brother. As long as it was in place, I could not stray too far from here.” He sweeps his arm towards the bleak ice, “when he fell ill, he was weak enough that I was able to bargain for some freedom; he’d remove the mark, on the condition I return home once every two years and remain for two weeks. As he was constantly telling us we would not be welcome in other waters, as Colds are too formidable and skilled and it makes others jealous. I think he assumed I would find this true and slink Northward to stay. But a somewhat nomadic life suits me, as does aiding other merfolk. And humans.”

Duck looks wistfully into the distance, “I have places I wanna travel, too. Not that my folks were bad or kept me trapped. But we ain’t wealthy and the kind of work I wanna do needs training and supplies and I just couldn’t bring myself to leave until I was sure they wouldn’t miss the money from my sailing.”

“Where will you go?” Indrid scoots closer, careful not to let the damp of his tail seep into the nearby blankets. 

“California, for one. They got redwoods there taller than any building. And there are deserts with cactus big enough for owls to live in. I heard there’s patches of the Northwest where it’s thick with berries and there’s flowers that only grow in one valley and are completely different from another. I figured somewhere in all that I’d find work, I’d help things grow. Gonna have a garden all my own, too, and not just for food. Gonna plant things just to see what happens.”

“That sounds lovely.” He looks to the futures, “you should retire for the day. A snowstorm is coming.”

“Fun.”

Wanting to comfort him, Indrid leans forward and rubs his cheek against Ducks own, scarf-covered and worryingly chilly. 

When he sits back, the human blinks and then huffs, amused, “Thought you were gonna kiss me there.”

“Nothing of the kind. If a siren is not careful they can turn a man into a mer with a kiss. What I did was to say thank you for braving the cold to speak with me.”

A gloved hand hovers above his own, then squeezes it, “Any time.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week later, Indrid hauls himself on the ice to hear cursing from inside the vessel. Alarmed, he calls to see if Duck needs his help.

“I do, but I ain’t gonna get it. Unless you can turn back time.” Duck appears at one of the windows, “I was trying to work out my rations for the next few months and I, ‘Drid someone fucking slashed a bunch of bags and drilled holes in barrels. I didn’t spot it until now because they’d turned them, fuck, a bunch of it is rancid or otherwise fucked. I got no idea what happened!”

Indrid recalls watching an awl sink into the abyss as he was minding his own business. He’d looked up to see Apollo, dragging a sailor the other way. It is not beyond him to have ordered the man to doom his companions before drowning him. 

“Is there still enough for one man?” 

“Maybe? I can’t tell right now” Duck keeps looking behind himself, panic rising in his voice, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do if there ain’t. I, I can’t talk anymore. I gotta figure this out.”

Indrid says he understands and slips into the depths. Then he dives, deciding it’s time for a real hunt.

—-----------------------------------------

Duck is counting and recounting, checking his notes of days he’s been here against his best guess as to when others will realize the Beacon isn’t at her intended destination when she should be and how long it will take any kind of rescue party to reach him. 

It’s not looking good.

As he’s trying not to lose his meager lunch to panic, Indrid calls to him from the ice. When he reaches the window, the siren sits with a slightly bloody smile with a massive fish dead on the ice before him. 

“Is that a fuckin shark?”

“Indeed. Consider it a thank you for initially sharing your food with me. If it comes to it, I will bring you more. Well, not more sharks, this was a lucky find, but food nonetheless.”

Duck’s so relieved he could cry. Instead he asks Indrid to help him get the catch aboard, then butchers it on deck. It’s an unusual taste when he cooks it, but it’s food that didn’t come from a can or force him to burn precious energy finding it. 

Still, even with his belly full, he’s finding the chill won’t leave him no matter what he does. When he hears Indrid re-emerge from the sea (he knows the sound of him coming and going these days) he asks if he has any ideas. The siren thinks a moment, then tells him to tie his ankle to something solid. 

Duck calls out when that’s done and huddles down in the nest he’s made of bedding. Indrid’s song drifts through the window, telling Duck to close his eyes. For the first time, he lets himself obey the siren’s call. 

The song swirls around him, singing to him of a sunny beach, of hot sand beneath his back and warmth on his face. There are palm trees to his right and someone he can’t quite make out to his left. Whoever they are, they’re running their fingers through his hair. And as Indrid paints the picture, he can hear the rustle of wind in the fronds and the gentle waves on the shore. His shivering subsides as the sun beats down as strongly as the real thing. 

He stays on the beach so long it goes from midday to evening, the sky rosy gold as the air stays warm. 

When the image begins fading, he nearly begs Indrid to just leave him there. Then he registers the wind whipping outside and the exhaustion in the siren’s voice. He’s been singing to him for hours. 

As he fully returns to reality, he blinks at the calendar he’s tacked near his nest to track the days. The days bleed together that he’s sort of lost sight of how long it’s been since they met. 

“‘Drid? How long were you here before we got stuck?”

From the ice, a slightly hoarser lilt than normal replies, “five days.”

“And you’ve stayed…two fuckin months.” He whispers, then crawls to the window, “Fuck, I’m so sorry, you should have headed south.”

Indrid looks up at him, “You are my friend. I am not abandoning you. I will stay until rescue comes. Even if I have to sing them over here myself.”

—---------------------------------------------------

He knows what’s waiting for him on the ice, but he’s alarmed all the same to emerge to Duck on the ground rather than aboard his ship. 

“What’s wrong?” He can see the answer, and hopes against hope it won’t come.

“I…I think I’m dyin’ ‘Drid.”

“No, nono, I know you haven’t been feeling well these last few days but you must just be tired. If I bring more fish, and you maybe make a fire-”

“It won’t work.” Duck tries to walk to him but stumbles and falls to the ice, continues at a crawl to where Indrid is still half-submerged “I tried everything. I’m so tired ‘Drid. I tried to hold on, but we’re months from anyone comin’ and I, I’m so cold and tired and I just, I want, I want to sleep. I want it to be over.” 

“No you don’t. You have so many things you wish to see! So many plans! The, the redwoods, the desert, your sister when she marries. Remember?”

“I do.” His voice is so weak, “I gave me somethin to hold onto, tellin you about all that. You been a godsend, ‘Drid.” The light behind his eyes is going, “sing to me? Please? It’ll be like fallin’ asleep that way. And the last thing I’ll ever know will be you.”

Indrid doesn’t look to the future. Instead he grabs Duck and pulls him under, the human falling without a fight. When the cold engulfs them, there’s a spark of panic in his green eyes as he looks at Indrid. 

It dies when Indrid kisses him. 

There’s a rush and hum of water, a whirlpool so intense it rips them apart as silver-black light spins before him. 

Then Duck is floating and gasping as his body discovers he can breathe beneath the waves, and his mottled green and brown tail whips to life. 

“Holy shit” Duck looks down at himself.

“I am sorry, I ought to have asked but I, I could not lose you. You did not deserve to end your time in such a lonely place with so much left you wished to do. If you are angry at me for transforming you, I understand.”

“Are you fuckin kidding?” Duck swims a bit awkwardly to him, “‘Drid, you saved my life. I’m still hungry as fuck but I ain’t freezin to death any time soon.” He loops his arms around Indrid’s shoulders, “besides, I got to kiss you. Been wanting to do that for awhile.”

“Really?” Indrid trills as Duck holds him closer.

“Yep.” Duck kisses him again, slow and curious, “mmm, even better the second time.”

“I concur. Shall we begin our journey south? They are not redwoods, but I know of a kelp forest where the plants extend for over a mile towards the surface.”

Another kiss and a playful bump of their cheeks, “Lead the way, darlin.”

—--------------------------------------------------------------

I’m going South where it stays warm

And there’ll be someone on my arm

To help me spend my pay

So I’ll take it from day to day

[nuagederose]

🫧 mermay 2023 // day twenty-two: zodiac 🫧

🫧 fierce, feisty, tomboyish, childlike, “me first”, “shoot first, ask later” aries sun 🫧 futuristic, third-eye-is-always-open, probably hails from another world aquarius moon 🫧 stout but strong, round face, round belly, chesty, always-watching-you-like-the-moon CANCER RISING! bonus: i also have mars and juno rising (nestled in between them is the star sirius, the “dog star” and the “artists’ star”); quadruple aries with the sun, mercury, venus, and asteroid ceres—the latter three are in constellation pegasus (my sun is in constellation andromeda, too); and shadowy badass lilith is right on top of my pisces midheaven ✌🏻🧜🏻‍♀️

ig: badmotorartist

[crystalninjaphoenix]

MerMay 2024 Day Twenty-Two The Last Resort

They didn’t want to meet at the Institute of Marine Biology, just in case someone from TridentCorp saw Lise heading there and thought it was suspicious. Luckily, the group soon found a location that would work for everyone. A small, rocky island just off the mainland. Too small and stony for the humans to do much on it. So one day, early in the morning, three boats gathered near it and humans stepped onto the ground.

Chase grabbed the rocky edge of the island and pulled himself onto it, sitting with his tail hanging off the side. Anti stayed in the water, but he didn’t hide away. Even as all the humans started gathering close by. “Well... it is... lovely to see you all again,” Lise said awkwardly.

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Ollie replied.

Stacy and Roxy stood next to each other. The kids had wanted to come, too, but Stacy insisted they stay on the boat. She wanted to forbid them from coming, but knew that they had a knack for stowing away, so decided this was the second best thing. “So... h-how have they been?” Stacy asked.

“Your mermaid friends?” Lise asked.

“Merms,” Chase said.

Lise jumped. “Right, right. Um, merms. I... think they have been alright. More or less. There was an incident yesterday... They were, ah, doing an examination.” She shook her head, looking disgusted. “There was no need for the samples,” she muttered.

“Samples?!” Chase repeated, alarmed.

“They are more or less alright,” Lise insisted.

Anti growled. Chase instinctively lifted his tail out of the water, just in case the electric eel decided to pulse.

Lise looked over at Anti. “O-oh. You are... the eel from before. Ah, I am... sorry. About everything. W-we did not think you were, um...” She cleared her throat. “Glad to see that you are okay.”

Anti just stared at her. He nodded slowly, not saying anything. Despite being able to speak English ever since the transformation.

“Dr. Ester,” Roxy said. “Pardon my language, but how the hell did TridentCorp manage to kidnap five merms? Chase and Anti have told us there was an incident with a net, but why did they know to drop the net in the first place?!”

Lise winced. “We had tagged fish that we took in to study before, but recently we’d been experimenting with tags that give off radio waves. It seems that Chase and, ah... Anti?” She glanced at the two merms. “They had some of those. For a long time, I convinced others that we were content to know where they were, but Mr. Visser got impatient. He wanted another lifeform to show off, so he sent a seaplane to catch one of the radio signals. It was bad luck that they were all gathered together.”

“Lise,” Chase said. “What do we do? We have to get them out of there! Th-they’re my—my friends.”

“I know,” Lise said quietly.

“Uh... do you need a getaway vehicle?” Ollie asked. “I’m a great sailor. And I’ve probably already been seen by these guys, so like... no one else would get in trouble.”

Lise shook her head. “Security has been increased. All entrances to the C-SAHL are equipped with keycard scanners, and every inch from the dock to the building are covered in cameras. We have hired more personnel, too, and they have been told to be better safe than sorry with checking out violations.”

“Meaning... they check security breaches even if it’s some random guy causing an accident?” Ollie clarified.

“Exactly.” Lise reached into her bag. “I have with me some copies of the building blueprints.”

Stacy raised an eyebrow. “How did you get those?”

“I was in charge of building the whole thing. I had these before the security increased. But I have added markings where the cameras I know are. But I also know there are ones I have missed.” She spread them out on the rocky ground, and all the others gathered around. Even Anti grabbed onto the side of the rock and pulled himself up for a better look.

“What if you steal a keycard that we can use to get in?” Stacy asked.

“Not possible. We are instructed to keep them on us at all time, and if we somehow lose them, we go straight to security and they deactivate the card.”

Anti grumbled. “Why don’t we just fucking storm in?”

Lise looked at him in surprise. “We have up to one hundred security guards on-site, that’s why. We wouldn’t get far at all, especially if we have to take five merms out.”

“Overkill, much?” Roxy asked. “Alright. What if we...”

The group all talked for a while. The sun beat down on the rocky island, moving slowly through the sky. Every solution they came up with was rebutted by Lise’s explanation of their new security protocols. They couldn’t bust the five merms out in a grand heist. They couldn’t sneak them out one by one. They couldn’t replace the merms with some sort of decoys.

“We just... don’t have the resources,” Stacy finally concluded. “Even with the Institute helping. We can’t sneak them out.”

A grim silence fell. Chase glanced towards the boat Stacy and Roxy came on. He saw Sereia and Muirin duck under the railings—trying to hide how they were listening in. Maybe... if they could use some sort of magic... Those wish talismans, maybe? Chase opened his mouth to mention that—

“Why do they want merms, anyway?” Anti asked.

Lise looked at him. “Well... I always wanted to learn more about fish. They are incredible animals. So when I heard there were mermaids that might exist, I-I wanted to learn more about them, and protect them. But... that is not what TridentCorp as a whole wants. They are a business. They make money. Their scientific endeavors are all towards things that they can gain something from.” Her tone was decidedly bitter. “Their plan now that Visser has taken over the project is not to protect the merms. I believe they are working on some special aquarium plan. And seeing if there is anything else merms can do that they can sell.”

Chase’s stomach dropped. For a moment, he couldn’t say anything. But he cleared his throat and tried anyway. “And... if they make this aquarium... is there no way to stop them?”

Lise shook her head. “It will be very difficult.”

“Maybe... maybe our way to get the other five back,” Stacy said slowly, “is to find some way to stop the aquarium project.”

“How?” Ollie asked.

Chase sighed. “If we had more humans who could help, we could do it, I just know.”

Roxy coughed. “Well... the Institute already knows. It... wouldn’t be too hard for us to reach out to other similar organizations. Oceana, MarineBio, World Wildlife—I mean, merms aren’t wildlife, but it should be similar enough—”

“You want more humans to know about us?!” Anti blurted out, eyes wide and fear evident in his voice.

“Not all humans, just the ones who would help,” Roxy said.

“It could work,” Lise said slowly.

“But it’s only a matter of time before someone in one of those organizations spills the beans,” Stacy pointed out. “If we tell others, it will spread eventually.”

“No—No!” Anti swam backwards through the water. “N-no!” He suddenly dived under, disappearing.

Chase watched him go, then turned back to the others. “I, uh... should keep an eye on him,” he said. “But for now... let’s consider that... a last resort?”

Stacy nodded gravely. “We’ll talk more about this later.”

Chase nodded back, then dove into the water and swam after Anti.

[draconli]

Mermay Day 22: Pigs in a Blanket 

More like piglets in a blanket! So adorable!

[wpmorse]

Mermay 2023 - Day Twenty-Eight - Sailor

I had a little bit of trouble with today's prompt. My first idea was to have assorted mermaids spying or tempting a sailor. The problem with these is that one of my rules is to make it clear that these are mermaids. If you just see half of them with their tails nowhere in sight, they could be eccentric skinny dippers for all we know.

I eventually went with two mermaids pulling a sailor under. I painted it upside down because the downward pose I had would have all of the faces upside down which is hard to do.

When I turned it back right side up, the composition looked off. So, I kept it as is.

[youssefguedira]

it is the 31st of may aka the very last day because i like leaving things til the very last minute but. here have an andromaquynh mermaid au (feat. a lil kaysanova if you squint) for mermay. affectionately nicknamed mermandromache

-

Do not go down to the water, they say.

It had been something Quýnh had been told as long as she could remember. Do not go into the woods when the moon is full. Do not stray from the mountain path. Do not go down to the water at high tide on a clear night.

When she was thirteen, she had asked the caretaker at the orphanage where she’d been raised. The woman had simply smiled and shaken her head. There are strange creatures that walk in the light of the moon, child, dangerous creatures. Best to stay safely inside.

Even now, at twenty-seven, she still gets the same old answer. She’s not sure if they’re unwilling to tell her, or if they themselves don’t know.

Quýnh had never exactly been one to do as she was told.

Tonight, she waits until the moon is high in the sky before climbing out of bed and hurrying outside, grabbing her cloak from the hook by the door as she goes. Most of the town is fast asleep, but she sticks to the shadows between the houses. She does not want to be caught. She does not want anyone to follow her, either.

Her house is the closest to the water, perched on the cliffs overlooking the sea. It had gone abandoned for a long time - nobody wanted to live that close to the sea. But that just means that she rents it fairly cheaply, and that she doesn’t have to walk far tonight.

The sea is calm tonight, and the sound of it has always grounded her in a way nothing else seems to. Quýnh walks out onto the rocks, careful not to slip, and sits down on one that’s just high enough that the waves don’t touch her. She folds her cloak in her lap and prepares to wait.

She doesn’t have to wait long.

The first sign of Andromache’s presence is always the stillness: the birds are silent, the wind stops, even the waves seem to stop in their tracks. The whole world seems to hold its breath whenever she draws near.

After a few moments, Andromache’s head breaches the surface of the water. Her hair flows around her shoulders like seaweed, the tips of her pointed ears just visible behind the dark curtain. The moonlight reflects off of the dusting of silver scales on her neck and shoulders, and her eyes seem to glow even in the dark. Quýnh can just make out the outline of her tail below the surface of the water.

“You came back,” Andromache says. She always sounds so surprised, as if Quýnh doesn’t return every time it’s a clear night.

“Of course I did,” Quýnh responds. “I wanted to see you.”

Andromache smiles, revealing pointed teeth. It’s the sort of thing that should frighten Quýnh, but it doesn’t. Andromache is her friend. Not something to be feared.

Quýnh pats the space next to her. “Well? Are you coming?”

She watches as Andromache swims closer to the beach. For two hours a night, she can become human to leave the water, but for no longer than that.

(Quýnh wishes it was longer - she wants to show Andromache her home, and the forest on the outskirts of the town, and the view of the sunrise from the cliff. But two hours is never enough.)

The transformation is too fast to see. She blinks, and Andromache is walking out of the water towards her, her tail gone, her scales now just a delicate tattoo across her neck and shoulders, her ears more rounded.

Quýnh stands up and passes her the cloak. “Here. It’s cold.”

It’s not, really, but Andromache has nothing else, and so she takes the cloak and wraps it around her shoulders. “Thank you.”

They walk along the beach, talking about anything and everything: Andromache talks about her sisters, and her home beneath the sea - the city towers sparkle, and there are brightly colored fish everywhere in the coral gardens. You’d love it. In return, Quýnh tells her about the most recent events in the town - Mrs. Brown had her baby last week, and one of the lambs got loose from the farm. The whole town was looking, but we found him in the end. She always loses track of time when they do this, and it feels like it’s only been ten minutes when Andromache stops and says, “It’s time.”

Quýnh tries to keep her voice light. “Already?”

Andromache nods, but doesn’t move away. Quýnh realises with a start how close they are, how easy it would be to lean over and close the distance between them. The breeze has blown her hair into her eyes. Andromache reaches out to brush it back, and her hand lingers. Her eyes, even in her human form, seem to glow.

Before Quýnh can do anything, Andromache lets her hand drop and steps back, shattering whatever had just passed between them. “You’ll come back?”

“Always,” Quýnh says, even though she doesn’t know when the next clear night will be.

“I’ll see you next time, then,” Andromache says, almost reluctantly. But then she passes Quýnh back her cloak, and walks back into the sea. Quýnh blinks, and the last trace of her is a faint disturbance on the surface of the water.

Quýnh lingers on the beach for just a little longer, staring off into the distance as if she could see Andromache if she looked long enough. She misses her already, like a physical ache in her chest.

Then she turns and runs back up the beach.

--------------------

She doesn’t go straight home. Instead, she heads for the manor house on the other end of town. All the windows are dark, save for one on the fourth floor, and it is this one that she stops under, reaching to pick up a stone from the gravel pathway. She hurls it at the window, and it bounces off with a clatter. Nothing happens. She throws another stone.

It takes four before the window opens, finally, and Yusuf sticks his head out. She waves. He rolls his eyes, exaggerating the movement enough that she can see it even from down here, and gestures for her to come up.

Conveniently, Yusuf’s window is located near a tree, with a branch that runs close enough for her to jump to the window ledge. She scales it quickly and makes the jump without faltering, having had so much practice at this that she thinks she could do it in her sleep. Yusuf pulls her inside and shuts the window behind her.

She’s known Yusuf for as long as she can remember. They were raised at the same orphanage, and she’s always thought of him as her brother in all but blood. They’d spent most nights sneaking into each other’s rooms, talking long past their bedtimes. Now, they don’t live in the same building anymore, but the old ritual hasn’t changed. Even if Quýnh lives on the edge of town, and Yusuf, who works as the lord of the manor’s assistant (he’s always been good with both words and numbers), is given a room here.

“Did you go to see her again?” Yusuf asks as he closes his sketchbook - she catches a glimpse of a half-finished wolf on the page - and sets it on his desk.

“Of course I did,” Quýnh says, flopping down on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. Yusuf’s painted it with a pattern of stars, the full moon just above her.

Yusuf crosses the room and lies down beside her, the way he had when they were children. “And?”

Quýnh sighs. “I think I love her.”

It took her a long time to even think the words, let alone say them out loud, but she’s sure. She’d never been scared of Andromache, not even the first time she saw her. And after that, once she’d gotten to know her… Andromache is kind, and sharp-witted, and funny. She’d brought Quýnh a gift once, a shell that shimmers in the sunlight, and Quýnh had known then.

She reaches for the shell now - she’d threaded a cord through it, and now wears it around her neck. The words hang in the air for a long time, before Yusuf finally says, “Oh.”

“Two hours never feels like enough, you know? I want to be able to be with her, without sneaking around, and I want to see what it’s like under there, and…” She waves her hand in frustration.

Yusuf furrows his brow thoughtfully. “Hold on a minute.”

He stands up and walks over to his bookshelf, running his fingers over the spines while muttering to himself too quietly for her to hear. She tilts her head to watch.

“There.” He pulls out one of the books and flips to a page about halfway through, and then turns it so she can see it. “There’s a spell that can temporarily give you the ability to transform into one of them.”

She sits up. “Can you do it?”

“Maybe.” He turns the page. “One of the ingredients will be difficult to find, though.”

“Why?”

“Because it only grows in a certain part of the forest, which means we’ll need help if we want to find it.”

“Why can’t we just find it on our own?”

“We’d spend hours looking. But I know someone who might be able to help.”

“Good. So let’s go.”

Yusuf shakes his head. “It has to be at night, and it can't be a full moon. He won’t be there otherwise. Are you sure this is what you want?”

Quýnh stares at him blankly. “What do you mean?”

“I’m just saying… maybe this isn’t a decision you should rush into. Just be sure it’s what you want.”

Quýnh’s never been more sure of anything in her life. “I want to try.”

--------------------

Four days later, Quýnh makes her way to the forest instead of the water. It’s cloudy, but Yusuf had promised that it wouldn’t be a problem - whoever his friend is, they aren’t like Andromache, who only appears on clear nights. Yusuf is already there when she arrives.

“Where’s your friend?” she asks him.

“He never comes this close to the town. We have to go a little further.”

She follows him into the woods.

She’s never spent much time here, at least not at night. She knows Yusuf has, searching for ingredients to mix his paints. At night, the place feels otherworldly: the trees loom above them, impossibly tall; the snap and crunch of the undergrowth under their feet feels amplified; the rustling in the distance has her looking up every time, alert. The further they go, the more she feels like something is watching them.

They reach a clearing, and Yusuf holds out a hand to stop her. “Here.”

He whistles three times - one short, two long. Nothing happens, but Yusuf searches the treeline in front of them as if expecting something.

“Yusuf,” a quiet voice says from behind them. Quýnh whips round to face the speaker. It’s a man, with shoulder length hair and piercing eyes. He looks perfectly ordinary, but there’s something inhuman in the way he looks at them warily with his head tilted slightly to one side. His gaze, which had previously been fixed on Yusuf, slides to her. “Yusuf’s… friend.”

“Quýnh, this is Nicoló, a friend of mine,” Yusuf says. “Nicoló, this is Quýnh - I told you about her, remember?”

“I remember,” Nicoló says, relaxing and inclining his head to her. “It is good to finally meet you.”

“And you,” Quýnh says, “though I don’t remember Yusuf ever mentioning you to me.” She gives Yusuf a look that says we’re talking about this later as she says the last part, while Nicoló lets out a small huff of laughter.

“We need your help,” Yusuf tells him.

Nicoló straightens immediately. “What do you need?”

“There’s a plant… here.” Yusuf shows him the page in the book with the diagram - a thin stem with purple flowers shaped like bells.

Nicoló studies it for a moment before nodding. “I know where to find it. Follow me.”

--------------------

It takes two more days for the spell to finish - it has to be mixed at night, then left under the light of the moon for a whole night. Finally, finally, it is ready.

Quýnh runs down to the beach on the next clear night that comes, the vial clutched tightly in her hand. Drink it, Yusuf had told her, and you should be able to transform. For two hours only, though, so be careful.

When she arrives, Andromache is already waiting, hovering in the water just near the rock Quýnh usually sits on.

“I have something to show you,” Quýnh tells her, holding out the vial.

Andromache examines it for a moment, then gives Quýnh a confused look. “What is it?”

“It’ll let me become one of you. Only for two hours, but-”

“You’re serious?” Andromache asks disbelievingly. “You can- we can-”

Quýnh nods. Whatever she is going to say next is lost, because it’s at that moment that Andromache reaches up and kisses her.

The angle’s not quite right, and Quýnh has to lean down to reach her, and it’s not exactly the best. But, at the same time, it’s perfect.

When they break apart, Quýnh slides off of the rock and steps into the water. It only comes up to her knees, but she can already feel the tug of the waves, pulling her deeper. Andromache swims over to join her.

Yusuf had better have been right, she thinks, before uncorking the vial and draining its contents in one gulp.

Immediately, a warm tingling sensation spreads through her whole body - she can feel her ears lengthening, scales appearing on her shoulders, her tail forming. Andromache gives her a sharp-toothed grin and takes her hand, pulling her under the water.

Quýnh’s instinct is to fight to get back to the surface and breathe, but she trusts Andromache, and so she lets herself be drawn deeper. When she can hold her breath no longer, she closes her eyes and breathes.

The sensation of breathing water is strange at first, but she gets used to it. When she looks down, her tail is red, and the scales sparkle.

Andromache pulls her deeper, deeper, and Quýnh follows her willingly.

She would follow her anywhere.