I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue

[sassybird]

Mermaid AU Meme



Rules:
- Put down your character name and series in the subject header. Put down any preferences (romantic or if you're a mermaid/human) in the comment.
- Reply to other people! RNG a choice from the prompts below, or just come up with whatever on your own.
- This is not a strictly romance meme. Feel free to have whatever shenanigans you like.


Merfolk and Merfolk

1.
Little Mermaid it
♢ One of you is a merperson with something you want. (Power? Help figuring out what this weird human doodad is? Becoming human?) The other is a powerful sea mage of some sort... And for the first of you, you better hope they're the good sort as you venture forth to their lair...

2.
Exploration
♢ C'mon. What's the worst that could happen when checking out this enormous sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean? You're merpeople! What's the worst that could happen? (Besides sharks. Or giant squid. Or maybe worse.)

3.
New tides
♢ Hey... That person isn't from around these parts, are they...? Maybe one of you is from deep seas, or a swamp-mer way out of your territory, or just from simply a different ocean. Hopefully neither of you are particularly territorial...

4.
Hey there, Ariel
♢ So. Looks like one of you actually took up on some sea witch's deal and is living in some human settlement. The other? Is trying to help you deal with that. Whether it means puzzling out human culture and items with you, pleading with you to come back home, or even offering you a dagger just in case you need to stab your crush (what? it's a legitimate strategy), you two need to cope.

5.
Wildcard.


Merfolk and Humans

1.
For Science!
♢ You're a scientist, here to study a fascinating new creature. Although the 'creature' in question might take offense to you saying that... So are you searching them out for the first time in the open ocean? Keeping them in some sort of containment? It's up to you.

2.
Stranded
♢ There was a shipwreck, and you're the sole survivor... Although you very nearly weren't. Whether you've just woken up or have been trying to puzzle things out on this deserted island, well... It seems you're not alone, although they're not exactly on the island with you.

3.
Siren Song
♢ Merpeople aren't always good signs... Sometimes they lure sailors out onto rocks, or extinguish their stamina and drown them in the ocean's tumultuous waters. Is this another encounter that will end in tragedy?

4.
Chance Encounter
♢ You're nothing extraordinary, just a regular person in a beach town, and one way or another... You find something that's very much not regular. Maybe you just walked into the cove at the right time, or found something- someone- trapped or injured that needed your help. So now what?

5.
Wildcard

Comments

[nanaharu]

[Haruka thinks the same-- he's not really interested in seeing other sharks, as reserved as he is. Only this one has caught his interest. Though he says nothing about such a boastful line. Even if the shark is unlike anyone he's ever known before.]

How long are we staying up here?

[he asks, picking a piece of kelp caught on his shoulder. Just a moment after breaching the surface and Haruka already misses being submerged. The sun is high and shining bright, the glare bothering his eyes. Ugh.]

[showyouthesight]

Got something against the surface? We are half-fish, you know.

[But he indulges Haruka and immediately dives under the water a second after making his quip, whipping his fin to push him deeper into the ocean. His racing edge has been dulled by the incident, but he doesn't want to abandon the merman just yet.]

[nanaharu]

No.

[Haruka doesn't even begrudge those fishers all that much. Though that certainly doesn't help his feelings of above.]

There's just nothing there.

[he responds, turning his head away in a potentially haughty manner. Nothing there of any interest. All he could want is down here.]

[showyouthesight]

I wouldn't say that. The surface has a lot going for it. Have you seen the sunrises up there? They're absolutely gorgeous. And those different color bits of light that form a huge arc across the water. There's nothing like that underwater.

[Not that the other mersharks seemed to care about sights like those. They preferred the darker depths of the ocean. He knew how strange he sounded to them whenever he gushed about the stars or the strange colored lights that only seem to come out whenever water falls from the sky. Another thing that the other mershark are usually too far beneath the waves to notice.]

I mean, we've got plenty of things down here that would blow away anything up there, but it's still worth checking out.

[nanaharu]

"Different color bits?"

[Haruka turns to look to Rin, more than a bit skeptical. Then he turns away, his eyes settling on some rock that catches the sunlight from above the ocean.]

You go up there a lot?

[He can't understand what would draw someone up there in the first place...]

[showyouthesight]

Not all the time!

[Rin stops swimming and folds his arms for a moment, feeling an instinctive need to defend his penchant for something very un-mer.]

Just, just sometimes. Don't you get bored seeing the same thing day after day? Sometimes, it's good to mix things up, is all.

[nanaharu]

... But I have everything that I need already. Why would I want anything different?

[Haruka glances over Rin, vaguely aware of a contradiction in his words. Befriending a shark was something different. And he thinks he's liking it so far.]

[showyouthesight]

That's the point. [Rin slaps his tail in the water.] You don't really know what you're missing until you find out what's out there. I mean, before I met you, I never thought I needed friends outside my shiver. I never cared what other mer types did. Now I want to learn about you.

Isn't the same for you?

[It has to be the same, right? It can't just be Rin who always feels so curious around Haruka. Why else would Haruka continue to seek him out?]

[nanaharu]

[Never in such direct words, Haruka wants to say. But perhaps his hesitance to answer - he's usually ready to answer with no when it's the case - already is an answer in itself. After a pause, he answers, consciously sounding indifferent.]

... What do you want to learn?

[He wonders if this tentative friend will still find him interesting after the mystery is gone, and if he'll lose interest once his curiosity is sated.]

[showyouthesight]

[Rin seems satisfied by the lack of refusal in any case and smiles triumphantly.]

Everything! I want to learn what you like and where you come from and, especially, what riles you up.

[nanaharu]

There's nothing that riles me up.

[If there's one thing Haruka can't yet let the shark figure out, it's where he comes from. Not the area, that much has been told. But more specifically...]

[showyouthesight]

You know that just sounds like a challenge, right? I bet I could find something.

Like kicking your ass in a race.

[nanaharu]

I don't care about winning or losing.

[He'll just ignore what they were up to just a moment ago.]

I only need to be fast enough to catch mackerel.

[showyouthesight]

Yeah right. So that wasn't you racing your heart out just now? I sure didn't see any mackerel around either.

[nanaharu]

You must have been imagining things.

[He kicks through the water, a bit past Rin. Ugh, he can't believe this shark is getting him all worked up.]

I could show you want I live like... but first, what is life like with the shiver?

[If they're going to be curious about each other and all.]

[showyouthesight]

[Rin smirks to himself but moves to keep pace with Haruka.]

What do you want to know? He hunt in packs and we look out for each other. All the pups are raised the same way. Of course, we also have our contests to figure out who's the best in the shiver. They get to lead the big hunts. [Like when they're after an extra big school.]

[nanaharu]

[It really sounds wild and far different from Haruka has known. Really, he should be getting back to his place, since others will surely be starting to worry even if they know about Haruka's solo adventures.

But he finds this one all fascinating.]

Do you have a leader like a king or queen?

[showyouthesight]

[Rin scratches at the back of his head, thinking of the best way to explain it.]

Not really... We're more like a bunch of groups, I guess. We decide who we're going to hunt with based on strength and if they like us, they let us stay with them. But outside of the hunts, we mostly decide things for ourselves. The closest thing to a leader we have is the shark in charge of the hunt. But that's mostly a respect thing.

How about you guys? You do the king and queen thing?

[nanaharu]

We do.

[And it affects Haruka's life more than he'd care for. The way Rin lives... it feels less restrained, but they still depend on each other.]

We live all together, mostly. But some travel outside our city.

[Like he may or may not have.]

[showyouthesight]

I don't know if that would work out well for sharks. They don't really like being told what to do. We can deal with being led a bit for the sake of the hunt. But other than that, we really like doing our own thing.

[He wonders just how many have traveled out as far as Haruka.]

Do they look for you guys if you're gone for a long time?

[nanaharu]

[Haruka nods. As much as a free spirit as he may be, swimming out to the boundaries of the kingdom and beyond, he doesn't want anyone encountering any danger on his account. Even if he doesn't care too much if he encounters it on his own.]

I need to get going.

[He starts off in one direction, before he stops. Looking like he's considering something.]

[showyouthesight]

"Ah, wait!" [Rin calls out of him, not having expected Haruka to just dart off like that.

He instinctively swims after him (it seems too soon to say goodbye again, their meetings are far more sporadic than he would like) but stops when Haruka does so.]

"Oi, you can't just take off without even saying goodbye.

[nanaharu]

[Haruka looks over his shoulder for a moment, back at Rin. He thinks over how wise a move it would be to do what he's thinking. It's a strange impulse and most certainly would be against everything that's known where he lives.

But... well, why not? If there's someone who cares about that, it's not Haruka.]

You can come too.

[showyouthesight]

Rin nearly forgets to keep pumping his tail to ensure he's still swimming. Come with Haruka? To the non-shark-mers? Would they even allow him inside? They sound like they have a pretty regulated society compared to the sharks. Naturally, they would respond to an outsider entering their territory.

But the prospect also calls to the wanderlust deep inside him, the feeling of never being satisfied to just led the hunts and return day after day, the chance for something new and different, the impulse that he's paid ever more attention to since meeting Haruka. What worlds lay beyond the shark's prowling grounds?

He feels a grin pass over his lips, as he whips his tail into catching up with Haruka. "Well, if you really want, I guess I could check it out."

[nanaharu]

There's many tall and smooth towers of some kind of stone, surrounded by coral and bright bioluminescence. Though merpeople had a decent ability to see in the dark, it only worked up to a certain extent, and the light helped guide them all home.

"Hide behind me," Haruka says, stopping in the water and just about backing into Rin. "Just until we get to my place."

Judging from the dimness of the light, roughly matching the light for the surface about the ocean, Haruka knew that most people would be sleeping by now. Once Rin is in his room, he'll check in quickly with the others before returning.