badliifechoiice2 | mermaid oh murmur into my ear

mermaid oh murmur into my ear

MERMAID AU MEME

Rules:
● Put down character name and series in subject line.
● Add any preferences (romance and/or general, human and/or mer) in comment.
● Reply to other people!

Scenarios:

1 ♢ Little Mermaid
♢ Mer
♢ One of you is a mer person with something you want. The other is a powerful mage who can possibly give it to you. Can an arrangement be made...?

2 ♢ Exploration
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ Whatever you are, your curiosity has gotten the best of you. Whether it's a sunken shipwreck on the bottom of the ocean or a mysterious cove hidden away along the cliffside... Venturing with a friend or running into something unexpected... What will you find?

3 ♢ Exchange
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ Sometimes, territories are broached, but it's not always a bad thing. Whether you're of entirely different species, or just from different seas, you've met in peaceful circumstances- perhaps as a direct result of those! So it's time for a cultural exchange. Just ignore the fresh water mer.

4 ♢ For Science
♢ Mer and Human
♢ This is a one in a lifetime chance.... for at least one person. Are you on an isolated island? A ship far out to sea? A highly funded aquarium? Or perhaps even a laboratory with more than questionable methods... Either way, you have the chance now to study something rarely seen before. How will it turn out for both of you?

5 ♢ Ariel's Dream
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ Some say it's impossible for a mer to live on dry land... except that's been quietly proven wrong. One of you has taken to living among humans, whether for years or still learning the ropes. As for the other... Are you a concerned friend, checking in on them from the sea? Or are you a landdweller, stumbling onto a great secret?

6 ♢ Sea Life
♢ Mer and Human
♢ While they have the legs for landdwelling, some humans seem to have more saltwater in their veins than blood, and those are the kinds of humans that end up with dealing with the mysteries of the sea the most. A surfer catching waves with shark mer? A pirate bartering with sirens for safe passage? A fisherman working together with those who know fish best? There's all sorts.

7 ♢ Stranded
♢ Mer and Human
♢ Well, fuck. Good job. One way or another, you're stuck where you shouldn't be. Whether that's a human lost in the tides, or a mer trapped against the land, you need help.... So don't be picky with what you do get.

8 ♢ Not Safe For Water
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ The scenario made explicitly for Guillermo Del Toro and anyone who was extremely anxious for a xeno sex scene in The Shape Of Water. Get your smut on. Feel free to mix and match it with any of the other scenarios as well.

9 ♢ Siren Song
♢ Mer and Human
♢ Sometimes, there's a good reason people fear the too wide expanse of the sea, or how deep its depths an reach... Strange songs which string through coastal towns and cause disappearances... The sound of something slipping through the water around a ship in the dead of night... Unexplained shapes which flicker outside of deep-sea vessels or submarines or installations. Do you want to know what's out there?

10 ♢ Capture
♢ Mer and Human
♢ Sometimes, there's a good reason why people fear humans. You don't belong here, being gawked at through thick aquarium glass or trapped in a too-small freakshow tank, but what can you do? Is there anyone who cares for your plight, or are there only people responsible for it?

11 ♢ Chance Encounter
♢ Mer and Human
♢ Well, this is awkward. You didn't mean to stumble onto a mer just... there, doing whatever, on the beach or by the docks or tangled up in your fishing net, but, well. It's happened. Now what?

12 ♢ Transformation
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ For one reason or another, you want to go where you've never gone before... A mer, venturing on the land either as a rare chance or every day business? Or a human, accepting some sort of trade or just to run away from the life you have now? Either way, it might get messy.... Feel free to mix in with other scenarios.

13 ♢ Fantasy Meets Fantasy
♢ Mer and OTHERS!
♢ Who's to say that humans are the only other creatures in the world? Maybe people living beneath the sea's waves aren't the only strange things. Maybe there are centaurs who travel along coastal roads to watch the night sky along with mer astronomers. Perhaps selkies are just distant cousins. Or who's to say that mer can't be a host of things unto themselves? The ocean's the limit.

14 ♢ Sci-fi
♢ Mer and Human
♢ Some say astronauts are nothing more than sailors venturing off into another unexplored sea, one that's above instead of below. And, befitting those same sailors of older days, they seem to tell tails of strange melodic frequencies coming in over the radio to their ears, and strange comets that look like tails passing them by on a landed planet. Do they not know what's accompanying them in space, or is that what they're actively chasing?

15 ♢ Divinity
♢ Mer and Human
♢ There are stories told of what exactly it is that could be both human and fish... So it's not surprising that, eventually, one would land upon calling them divine entities, either gods of the sea or lakes, or just their messengers. Is that true, or just a very clever, long lasting ruse?

16 ♢ Afterlife
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ Some say mer are just humans, wrongfully forced overboard by superstition or cruelty and welcomed by the sea into something more. Others say that they're the spirits, haunting a particular sea or lake town for a wrongful death. What's the truth? Time to find out.

17 ♢ Peaceful Living
♢ Mer and/or Human
♢ Not everything has to be a dramatic mess. Sometimes, things just... work out for the best. These are better times, and mer are just another part of life. Water-side towns where everything is built around those that share the waters with them, or huge metropolises with water tubes and sprouts for mer to travel through. How will you imagine this sort of life?

18 ♢ Wildcard
♢ follow your dreams, make up whatever

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Basic words and body language can count for a lot, it's true. There's also the matter of Ginko's tendency to ramble when he gets stuck on a topic, but he hasn't even fooled himself into thinking that actually helps Joker understand much of anything.

Which is why, in this instance, he'll try and keep it simple. He hums thoughtfully and looks down at the squid pieces in front of him, then picks up the beak and quill and holds them up. "Because... if I eat these, they'll hurt me."

He taps at his throat, and-- conveniently, it's then that the recent dryness in his throat catches up to him and he coughs a couple times. Ginko winces, but sets down the inedible pieces without commenting on that. Joker doesn't need to know that wasn't intentional (assuming he can't figure it out from Ginko's face), it's fine.

Instead, he squeezes the remaining guts out of the mantle and holds them out to Joker. "And the guts make me sick. I cut out what I can't eat."

Can't eat, huh? Some of it is still a little difficult to make out, but he's caught onto that much. Sort of like how some things can't be eaten because they're wildly poisonous. He hadn't thought that Ginko would be that delicate... but he doesn't live in the water, so Joker guesses it makes sense.

But more important than that... Joker takes in the guts without hesitation, staring at Ginko the whole while even as they slither down his throat. Once they've passed the last bit of his gullet, he doesn't hesitate in putting his hand to his own throat. "Ginko?"

Ginko does his best not to look Joker in the eye, though that's a little harder when he has to lean over the side of the boat to dunk the squid's mantle in the water and finish cleaning it up. It's clear enough that he noticed something, there, but... well. Ginko has never been a fan of addressing his own health if it can be avoided.

Even if he's trapped on a boat out on the ocean, getting increasingly worn-out and dehydrated as he lives off fish and nothing else, and the merman currently staring at him is literally the only company he's got. It's... fine.

...Then again, if he's going to die in this stupid boat, it's only fair that Joker have some warning on that.

"My... throat's just dry." He can't remember if they've gone over that word before, so he leans over the side of the boat, tapping at the wood - first where it's been splashed with seawater, and then where the water can't usually reach. "Wet - and dry. I... can't drink this water."

If they were on land, where he could set up a fire, that would be one thing; he'd at least have a way to boil the water, separate it from the salt so he could drink it. But, uh... like hell he's setting up a fire on a wooden boat.

Wet and dry... That's a concept Joker can grasp fairly quickly, and perhaps even quicker than Ginko might expect. After all, the very first time they met, it was because Joker was struggling with a lack of water in his own way, although it was very different. A lack of water would have killed him, which is something that he knows for a fact. While he's struggling to see how it would affect Ginko when it's only his throat... He can get that it's dangerous.

A rare thoughtful expression is on his face as he bobs in place, frowning a little as he looks over the boat and Ginko. "How?" he asks at last, splashing one hand in the water to show what he means. Then, he quickly ducks his head down as if looking for something under the water before bobbing up again.

"Um... remember this?" He leans over to one of the supply boxes strewn over the deck of the boat, and rummages around in it for a bit before producing his empty water bottle. He mimes drinking from it, something Joker had certainly seen him doing now and again before it ran empty.

"The water in it was... different." He emphasizes that word, carefully, halfway for Joker's sake and halfway as he considers how to elaborate on that. Just the fact that he can't live surrounded by water isn't quite enough to get across how it is that he can be dehydrated out here.

Eventually, he sets his bottle down and leans over the edge of the boat. He holds out an arm, uses his thumbnail to scrape at the layer of salt that's encrusted on his skin from the air and water all around him. "This is salt. It's... very dry. And it's in the water."

With the very slow way Ginko goes combined with the limited Japanese vocabulary Joker has, he manages to come up with the simple equation that's being presented to him. However, just because he technically understands...

Well. The look on his face probably transcends the barriers of language. What the fuck do you mean water is dry-

Yeah, he... can't blame Joker for having trouble with that, frankly. Water salinity is bound to be tough to explain to someone who's lived in the ocean all his life... but, also, that's kind of funny. Ginko snorts despite himself, and starts chewing on another piece of squid.

"Sorry. Guess that wouldn't make much sense to you. Um..." He glances upward, then thinks of... maybe something? It might be something.

He points up at the sky. "So-- when water falls from the sky, it's rain. Like before we met." In the hopes of adding to his point, he scoops up some water from next to his boat and sprinkles it over Joker, then points at his mouth. "Have you tasted rain?"

Edited 2019-03-09 00:59 (UTC)

"Ah!" Once the gesture is done, Joker catches on quickly enough and he grins. Almost immediately, he starts to make some clicks and whistles, hand gesturing as he tries to figure out how he can phrase his thoughts into extremely questionable Japanese. It's difficult, especially since he's trying to get across something fairly complicated.

Eventually, he figures out something. Sort of. Calming down a little, he mimics the water sprinkling gesture Ginko just did. "Rain!" And then he dives partially into the water, keeping up near enough to the surface so that the way he starts to rapidly swim circles can be seen clearly. Once he's done with that, he pops up again.

"No rain?" He makes another frustrated noise, forgetting the word for 'sun', before he gives up and just gestures in the direction of the setting sun. With that, he just... smacks his face down into the water. And floats there.

Ginko waits quietly through Joker’s clicks and whistles – gods know Joker has sat through enough of his drawn-out ramblings in Japanese.

That, though, gets the point across clearly enough, and Ginko manages a thin smile and a nod. “...Yeah. I, uh... I’ll die. If this keeps up.”

Straightening himself out of the water, Joker sweeps his hair back with a slight frown. Well, that's not wrong, and it kind of gets across the point... But in the end, he shakes his head. At least, he thinks that's the proper response. Rather, after a moment, he snaps his fingers again.

Once more, he does the rain gesture, but this time he moves his hand to tap against his own chest. His hand raises up this time, kept horizontal. With that done, he pauses for a moment, looking to Ginko to see if he gets it, before moving on. This time, he kind of moves his hand flatly from side to side in front of him, over the water, before, after another chest tap, moving it lower through the air.

This probably makes no sense at all, but he's doing his best here.

With that incredibly uncomfortable confession out of the way, Ginko watches Joker's answer with some concern. He... appreciates what he can only guess the head shake is meant to communicate, whether that's insistence that he won't die or simply an expression of dislike for the idea.

The rest, though, he... doesn't have a clue about. Now it's Ginko's turn to shake his head. "Sorry, I... don't understand."

There's another phrase Joker has probably heard plenty of.

Sinking into the water, Joker blows some bubbles. Well, it's not as if he expected that to go through anyway. It's common enough for the two of them to stumble through these kind of things. Language barriers, what a pain... It only takes him a second to rise up a little more again.

Maybe something like... He touches his ear, the corner of his eye, and then his mouth before looking to Ginko expectantly.

Ginko squints down at him. On top of everything else, his current physical state sure doesn't make it any easier to decipher Joker's gestures, let alone cobble together a reply that might be understandable.

"Uh... s-senses? Like... hearing, and sight?" He taps by his own ear and eye in response.

"Yes!" There they go, now they're on the same page! Or, at least, a same page. Joker beams, pleased that they're somewhere again. Now for the next part. "Rain sight. Rain hearing?" Really he's just flinging words together and hoping it makes sense. "Rain senses?"

"Rain... senses. Uh..." Wait, okay, he thinks he's got this. He points at Joker, then taps his own temple and points at the sky, all in quick succession. "You, uh... you know when it's going to rain?"

"Yes!" Probably! He continues to not grasp the full extent of Japanese language. But he heard 'rain' in there, and saw the way Ginko gestured... So Joker is fairly certain this is right now, and he beams. He knew he would get it eventually, with a little bit of smashing words together and some stubbornness. "I know when it's going to rain!"

This... might be the most exciting news Ginko has heard in a while. Which isn't hard, since he isn't getting much in the way of news out here.

That excitement shows on Ginko's face, and he leans forward, over the side of the boat. The sudden motion makes him uncomfortably dizzy for a moment, but he just shakes himself before answering. "Seriously? So-- you can let me know?"

So that he can get every open container he has set up as fast as possible.

Whoa there, buddy. As Ginko pauses, visibly a little off-kilter, Joker pauses before drifting forward. His hand rises up from the water to settle along his jaw, slick and cool. He keeps it there for a moment, focused on Ginko's condition, before the serious look fades and he beams.

"Yes!" That's certainly easy enough.

For a moment, Ginko... wavers, caught between impulses to pull away from the unexpected contact and lean into it, let the cool surface of Joker's skin soak up the dry heat from his own. In the end, he settles for lifting his hand to rest over Joker's, giving a couple clumsy attempts at reassuring pats. "I'm-- alright."

Then his face brightens, as well, if only by a little. "Thanks."

If they get lucky, maybe he won't die out here, after all.

"Thanks~." Basic manner language seems to be something that's still eluding Joker right now, but he seems pleased enough with what's happened, and he drifts back lazily through the water. There hasn't been rain in a while, so he can't exactly help right now. Still.

"More fish?" He can get you more fish to help, Ginko.

Ginko sits carefully back in the boat again, watching his balance this time, and picks up another bit of squid to eat.

He nods, smiling gratefully at Joker. "That... might help. If it's not too much trouble." He doesn't want to make Joker feel like he's got to spend all his time feeding him like an oversized baby bird.

"More fish~." It doesn't seem like it's bothering Joker, at least, having to do this. He just beams, casually pleased at the idea. After a second, however, he glances at the sky and goes thoughtful. It only take him a moment or two before he looks back to Ginko and his hand spreads out.

"Big fish?"

"That... might be good. Not too big, though, I can only eat so much."

He doesn't exactly know the upper limits of Joker's hunting abilities, but, you know. Better safe than sorry when he absolutely does not have the resources to preserve fish right now.

Alright, so. He thinks he gets most of that, although the last sentence is a little tricky. Joker bobs back a tad, trying to bob up a little higher while clearly eyeing Ginko in a way that's clearly meant to gauge how much is "too big". After a second, he nods. "Yes!"

And with that, he disappears beneath the water once more.

This time, it takes a little while before he returns to that lonely boat bobbing along in the sea. To be exact, it takes at least a couple of hours, and, by that point, moonlight is the only light source Ginko has to rely on. At least, a light source that's free. Splashing heralds Joker's return, along with some fierce grunts shortly afterwards. From a distance, it's a little hard to make out what the hell that large dark shape is in the water that he's forcing to float... But, as Joker struggles to bring it closer, Ginko might realize-

It's a fucking shark.

A blue shark, to be exact. Every now and then, Joker seems to duck his head underneath the water again as if to check on something before surfacing to continue his work.

At least his departure gives Ginko a chance to finish off the last of that squid and wash off his tarp. He sits back once he's done and pulls the now-damp tarp over his head, keeping off the last of the sun.

Eventually, the sound of splashing gets his attention, and he pushes the tarp aside (not that he's really needed it for a while) to move back to the edge of the boat, and--

Oh.

Oh god.

Ginko gapes out over the water in disbelief, clutching the side of the boat with both hands.

"I-- are you kidding me?"

mermaid oh murmur into my ear

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the true way

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