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internalsealpanic · 3 years

Text

Sealing the Deal part 1

Summary: Always, always be nice to sea creatures but never ever accept their pelt.

A/n: A fic I’ve been meaning to write since forever. My contribution to mermay.

warning: Disgusting fluff and bad decisions

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part 2

You look like you're gonna die from boredom in your little fishing boat.

Dick rolls over to where Jason was sprawled and used his momentum to push the larger seal into the water. Jason gives an undignified squawk of outrage. Dick just preens and looks smug.

You cup your hand over your mouth as you begin to laugh.

Jason glares even harder at Dick. Dick... couldn't care even less if he tried. All he can focus on is the wrinkle in the corners of your eyes. They'd been gone for so long these past few months. It felt like the first ray of sun after a long storm.

Dick claps his fins in excitement even as Jason snuffs and rolls his eyes. You clap in return but accidentally drop your fishing pole into the sea. Reaching for it, you fall into the water. Dick feels a little bad for laughing but you manage to get yourself back up into the boat safely. You sigh in defeat as your fishing pole drifts away. Dick notices for the first time that your face has grown gaunt from the last few weeks. Are you eating enough? Are you even taking care of yourself? Dick swims over to your boat as it rocks back and forth on the waves. He hops in easily and plops onto your stomach. You laugh and pet his head. It was a weak laugh so he croons at you in question.

“Sorry pup, I don’t have any food for you today. I mean I don’t even have any for me.” Despite the sweet timbre of your voice, Dick can still taste the bitter hopelessness in the statement.

He nuzzles his face into your chest. He can feel just how thin you’ve gotten. He has to do something about this.

To say Dick had been afraid of humans would be a monumental understatement. It had been around 200 years since humans had left the island and the first thing they did when they came back was hunt down selkies. Dick's parents had been two of the unlucky few who'd been hunted down.

So when Dick found himself stranded onshore because of a fin tangled in a fishing line, he thought he was a goner. And when he saw you approaching; well, he still thought he was fucked but he thought you'd at least be nicer than the adults.

Maybe if he acts cute enough you'll spare him.

Dick whimpered and he gave you the big innocent look.

You shushed him harshly. Dick flinched then you flinched and muttered apologies.

You approached him slowly. You looked around before crouching and fiddling with the line Dick had managed to get himself caught in. Carefully, you began to disentangle him. It hurt, especially when you took the hook out, but once he was free. He clapped and trilled before you shushed him again.

Dick thought that it was all over and he could just roll back into the sea until you scoop him up and swaddle him in your shirt.

After 10 minutes of your father screaming at you, he agreed to treat Dick who knew better than to snap at him. Your father was kind with gentle hands. He worked on Dick while you fed him fish. It wasn't the best fish but Dick can't complain.

After an hour or so, Dick started to wriggle and you pull him closer to your chest.

"Dad, can we keep him for a few days? He might still be sick." You plead with big eyes.

Your father glared at you then sighed. "No more than two. His wounds just need to close up, understand?"

You squealed a little. Hugging Dick tighter, you thanked your father before scampering off to find you a basin to put Dick in. You, thankfully, had the good sense to fill it with lukewarm water.

Dick lived like a king in those two days. You fed him a lot of fish much to your dad's exasperation. You kept him warm. You even read to him and sang songs to him.

Dick wanted to stay but he missed Bruce, Alfred, Damian, and maybe that new kid Jason.

On the fourth day (one of the wounds was deeper than expected), Dick was released back into the sea but he never did manage to stay away after that

Dick sets the odd little trinket down in front of Jason's sleeping form. It was something you'd caught in your net days before along with the meager amount of fish you'd managed to net. You'd busied yourself with it for days before throwing it out. Dick wasn't sure what it was; all he knew was that it was something Jason would like.

He waits semi patiently for Jason to notice it, nudging it forward a little until it touches Jason's snout and the larger seal is forced to pay attention to Dick.

"I know when I'm being bribed, Dickface." Jason says, glaring.

Dick volleys it with a wide-eyed hopeful look. He nudges the little trinket forward again. This time, instead of ignoring him, Jason rises to his full height, teeth bared. This... does not faze Dick.

"C'mon Jaaaaaaay," Dick says as if the prolonging of syllables would whittle down Jason's irritation. Jason suspects if he were less inclined to tell Dick to fuck off, it would have worked. Probably. But as it stands, Dick is responsible for ruining a very good, very rare nap for Jason and so he's on the shit list and has lost any favor privileges until further notice.

"I said no. Go away or ask Bruce."

"But Jaaaaaaay, it's just a teensy tiny favor. It won't even take an hour. Not with your skill at least."

"That kind of flattery may work on Harper and it may even work on West but I'm not an idiot about to get involved with whatever shenanigans you have planned with the human."

Dick lets out a long-suffering sigh. Jason isn't stupid enough to think that Dick has actually given up. No, the stubborn little fuck is worse than a barnacle. "You've left me no choice-"

"I have given you plenty of choices. Most of them involve minding your own goddamn business." Jason says with a little snuff.

"-I'm calling it in."

Jason narrows his eyes at Dick.

"Don't you dare. That was 5 years ago."

Dick smiles, evilly. "Unless you want the rest of the family to know about-"

"Fine! What do you want?"

Dick looks smug. Jason wants to bite his face off.

"I need you to help me catch fish."

Jason looks at him, incredulous. "Did you hit your head or something?"

"Not recently. Look, I just need you to help me catch fish for the human." Dick explains like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Contrary to what Dick seems to think, Jason really isn't concerned with the one human on the island. Most of the selkies on the island have barely even interacted with you outside of staring at you.

"You're insane."

"I think we reserve that term for Bruce."

Jason raises his head from the ground. "You're not wrong."

You think you hear the light pitter-patter of raindrops. You sigh. You would be lying if you say you aren't the least bit thankful for the excuse to stay indoors today. You... don't exactly like foraging for food. You had avoided it for as long as you had food in the lighthouse. You thought it would at least last you 'til the ships came in but whatever is going on in the mainland has kept the ships from your shores. You don't mind. You never did find the sailors all that pleasant on the rare occasions that you did have to interact with them.

You like your island the way it is but... you're not exactly the most skilled at hunting... or fishing. You have no idea how your father did it. You chucked it up to the miracles of loaves and fishes. You miss him.

You curl around your pillow in a vain attempt to chase the wakefulness away but the sun in your eyes was too bright. You flutter your eyes open. The sun had the audacity to be there. Still the splushing sound continued.

You strain your ears to listen, trying to make heads or tails of it. It was a squishy sound, the sound of putty hitting stone over and over again. You scramble to the front door. In hindsight, you probably should have grabbed a weapon before running towards the strange sound.

Opening the door, you're greeted with the sight of a familiar seal caught red-handed with a fish in his mouth.

You stare at each other for a long moment before your eyes wander down to a pile of fish. A large amount of fish. Laughter rolls from your lips, musical and manic as you bury your face in your hands.

You think the seal furrows his brow at you, dropping the fish in its mouth before plopping towards you. Plop. Plop. Plop. He looks at you with big dark eyes. Your mouth twitches between curling down into a frown and a smile that spread across your face. On one hand, you are confused. On the other hand, you were gonna be able eat some meat.

A concerned croon comes from the pup and your face decides that it would rather smile at the moment. You throw your arms around him, not at all caring about the seawater getting on your nightclothes.

"Thank you." You whisper and the seal answers with a happy trill.

Dick is over the moon.

He can't even help how loud his trills get. It's ok you don't seem to mind either. He's just happy that you get to eat now.... but you don't.

Dick's a little frustrated when you don't immediately start digging in. Instead, you go back inside your home, swear, shout in delight then come back out with a basin and a jar of white powder. You then run around to fill the basin with seawater then add what Dick finds out is salt into the seawater.

Dick is... concerned.

You go back inside the house. When you come out again, you have a knife in your hand. Dick waddles back a bit. He knows you won't hurt him but it's a habit. You develop these kinds of habits around Bruce.

You settle yourself onto the ground cross-legged and grab a fish. Dick looks on with mild curiosity. You begin to dismember the fish by cutting off it's head, cutting it up in the middle then removing the bones and stomach. That kind of makes sense, Dick thinks. The bones are kind of annoying. Dick nods his head agreeably until you toss the fish into the basin.

Dick looks on in utter confusion as you repeat the process with most of the fish he's brought you.

You turn to him looking equally befuddled before your eyes soften. You look sheepish. "Sorry pup, I can't eat all of this today so I'm salting them so I can eat them the next few..." You count the fish in the basin. "... weeks."

Dick tilts his head but doesn't say anything. You really should just eat more. Dick can get you more if you need it. You just need to ask but you seem content with what you're doing.

Dick is about to rest his head on your lap when you shoot up and scuttle back inside. You return with a line and a smile. Dick watches you string the fish up like laundry. He could probably help you but he has no clue if he should. Just eat the fish damn it.

Finally after what felt like forever, you start preparing the fish and actually eat. You offer Dick some and Dick has to admit cooking the fish does taste odd but not unpleasant. It's totally different from eating it raw (the better way) but it's not horrible. Or maybe it just tastes good because you've got the biggest grin on your face while eating.

Maybe.

Probably, Dick thinks as he munches on his fish, pressed to your side.

___

You sing at the top of your voice. It's a cheerful song but Dick can't quite make out the words. He knows it's human but he's not quite familiar with it. The tune is nice though. Dick rests his head on your lap closing his eyes.

He croons happily when you being to pet him.

You stop midway through the song dissolving into a fit, of what Dick can only describe as, giggles snorts. It was a despicably adorable sound that was engineered to make Dick feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

He looks up at you with big curious black eyes. He's not complaining but he hasn't heard you laugh this much before and he may or may not want to know how to make you laugh like this again.

When you don't answer his questioning gaze, Dick nudges against your chest. Your shoulders are still shaking but you manage to stop laughing for a moment.

"Sorry pup," you say wiping a tear from your eye, "I must look crazy to you. "

A little but not as bad as Bruce, Dick thinks. Bruce thinks you humans still don't know there are selkies on the island. Dick snorts at the idea. Everyone knows that all you humans know about selkies. That's why those men keep coming here trying to trap them.

You squish his face affectionately with your hands. "My dad taught me that song and I just realized..." Your mouth turns into a curved line of held back laughter. "...It's a sea shanty about missing being between a woman's legs." The last few words come out more as giggles than proper syllables but Dick can't enjoy that because he can feel his face warm up from the thought. He hides his face in his flippers.

You squeal, absolutely delighted with his mortification. Smiling down at him, you say: "Yanno pup, sometimes I think you understand me."

Thought process-wise, no.

Dick snuggles up to you again, blowing air out of his nose to voice his ascent. You can't just say things like that but again, you just simply seem amused by his suffering when you bend down to press a kiss to the top of his head.

Dick looks up when you pull away. No! Give him more!

Dick stretches up to return the favor, having to partially climb on your lap but only managing to boop your nose with his snout. You nuzzle your nose against his and Dick makes the happiest noise in the back of his throat.

Sometimes after wandering around you had a habit of falling asleep on the shore which Dick thought was fine until he found out that you couldn't swim. Dick being the only with brains in this duo always nudges you awake when the tide starts getting too close. Dick doubts the lapping water will wake you up before sweeping you away. After all, you managed to sleep through Tim, Kon, and Bart's rock piling contest on top of you. Dick shooed them away but even after cleaning up, you didn't wake up.

Dick sees the sailors on the shore and nudges you. You... don't even blink. You hum, content to bask in the sun as you wrap your arms around Dick. Dick huffs. He likes this but he really would prefer it if you move. Dick considers slipping from your grip and grabbing a fish to slap you with like last time.

Dick cranes his head to look at the ship again. It was far too close now, too close for you to get away without being seen by the sailors.

Dick turns you back over to your back and proceeds to body slam you with all his blubber. He winces when you make a choked noise. Dick can give you apology fish later.

"Pup, what the fuck?"

You see the ship. Your eyes widen then flicker to his injured fin. Dick had injured it when he’d been swimming by the docks and got caught in one of the old traps. You’ve done your best to help it heal but you only know so much. You’re still reading up on herbs in case it happens again.

You try in vain to push him off but he's a big loveable sack of blubber and he refuses to move. “C’mon pup, you need to move. They’ll try to catch you if they see you.” You grunt but the sack of blubber refuses to move.

You and Dick stay still as the ship draws near, neither of your chests rises or fall as the ship rocks back and forth.

The ship passes and you let your head fall back with a sigh.

Dick nuzzles his snout against your face, his whiskers tickling your face. You giggle and try to push him off. It’s useless so you let him stay there.

You both decide to take a nap on the shore with Dick huffing in your face once in a while as he snores.

You curl up on the floor in front of the fire, watching the embers flicker, flash, and fade. It's the best thing you can do to calm your fraying nerves. The storm rages outside violently as if it was trying to tear the lighthouse down brick by brick. The whole building shakes with another boom of thunder. You close your eyes and burrow under the thick blanket.

In the back of your mind, your father is chuckling. The absence of a hand on your head is disconcerting. You remind yourself that it won't come, that you'll have to learn to weather the storm alone. You sigh then tighten the blanket around you.

Tok. Tok. Tok.

You blink. The fire was dying. When had you fallen asleep?

Tok, tok, tok.

Blinking, you rub the sleep from your eyes, but the haze doesn’t lift, only growing as you watch the firelight.

Tok tok tok.

You shoot up and barrel towards the door with the frantic knocking growing louder and louder as your feet pound against the stone floor.

You run into the door in your haste. The loud thud of your body against the door causes the frantic knocks to turn into muffled shouting.

Prying yourself from the door, you open it and you don't know what you expected but this wasn't it.

Standing in front of you was a man soaked like a wet rat. You blink in confusion before pulling him inside. You run to grab him a blanket. Wait. You should probably get him a towel. No, wait. You should have gotten his name first. Fuck.

You shuffle back into the room with a towel, spare clothes, and an extra blanket. You.. what can generously be called a heart attack.

For the first time, in the soft glow of the fire, you can fully admire your guest. Not see, admire because there was a lot to admire.

The light of the fire flicking over the planes of his chest, with a light dusting of chest hair, the amber glow highlighting all the muscles of his body, framing the ripples of his toned figure. Swallowing any good sense you have, you watch the rainwater turn golden as it drips down his perfectly bronzed skin. The water cuts through valleys of muscle that could have only been handcrafted by gods. Your eyes follow the flow until... Oh.

You flush furiously, your face glowing brighter than the fire. He's- He's- Oh my god, he's naked.

You reign your eyes in. Ok, you let it linger down there a bit. Not long enough for your guest to notice. You concentrate on his face which wasn't hard to do. The man pushes his raven hair out of his face letting you fully appreciate his face. In keeping with his body, his fine boned face looked like Pygmalion himself spent hours shaping it, not satisfied until he's made the perfect face. It's handsome in an adorable way. Not intimidating. It's the kind of face you'd like to pepper with kisses. You try not to focus on his lips in case of any sinful thoughts. You just met the man. The only thing you will note is that yes, his lips do look absolutely kissable and it aggravates you.

The most striking feature however are his deep blue eyes. The kind of deep that you feel like you could drown in. The kind of depth that looked too pretty to agonize over the fact that your lungs are burning. You stare, trying to carve a perfect replica of those eyes into your mind. Those eyes... that are currently staring at you... as he steps closer... at an alarming speed.

You hold the stack of fabric in front of you like a shield. Your guest stops, looking at the stack. His face goes from concern to confusion to blinding enthusiasm. He was probably freezing.

A smile spreads on his face, the cutest dimples you've ever seen forming on his cheeks, as he accepts the stack. He thanks you and your heart leaps from your chest. Whatever chill you were experiencing from the storm was completely gone. You turn away from him, rubbing the back of your neck and mumbling a halfway point between 'no problem' and 'you're welcome'. You hope it came out as 'no welcome' instead of 'your problem'.

The man snorts and you are pretty sure which one came out. To save yourself the embarrassment, you walk to the kitchen and start preparing tea. The man thankfully occupies himself by looking at the assortment of knick-knacks you've hoarded gathered over the years. It gives you ample time to breathe.

"Do you like sugar in your tea?"

The man nods enthusiastically. You can't help but smile a little.

You sit next to him in front of the fireplace as you hand him his mug. He leans his head against your shoulder. You can feel his body radiating a comforting heat.

You two sit in silence, sipping tea and watching the fire flicker. You wanna scold him for slurping his tea. You're not exactly his mother. You don't even know his name.

You turn to him, face scrunched and about to ask him for his name when he surges forward. His lips brush against your lips as he nudges his nose against yours. You fall backward in shock and the stranger falls on top of you, his eyes still glowing bright and cool against the amber light.

There's a thrill working up your spine or is it fear? You squeeze your eyes shut and throw your arms over your face.

"Please don't hurt me." You plead barely above a whisper.

You feel the body above you lower itself on top of you. He chuckles and shakes his head. "(Y/n), you're being silly."

You open your eyes. The man is laying his body on top of you keeping you pinned down and he's... pouting at you?

"I- I don't know who you are. You can take what you want but please don't hurt me."

The pout deepens into a frown.

"(Y/n), I'm not gonna hurt you. Don't you recognize me?"

You blink. You would definitely remember someone this eye-catching. "You always sing that sea shanty to me. The one about the sailor who misses his wife's..." The stranger flushes and makes a hand gesture. Your face scrunches again. The only person you've sung that to aside from your dad is...

"Pup?!"

His frown morphs back into a pout. "I'm not even that little."

You squish his face with your hands before you let your mind wander. You think back to the scars crisscrossing his limbs and chest. "How is this possible?"

He laughs, prying your hands from his face. "I'm a selkie," He says as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "My name is also Dick, not pup."

You stare up at him wide-eyed and stupefied. Dick snuggles against you like he always does. Somehow snuggling you in this form is better. He can hold you closer like this. You run your hand through his hair, fingers lacing through the tangles in his hair. He lets out an excited trill.

Dick might just be in heaven right now.

"I dunno how but you're somehow even prettier when I look at you in this form," Dick breathes contently. "I'm so lucky to have such a pretty wife."

You stiffen. Dick looks up at you and the confusion in your face wrenches a knife in his heart. He swallows. "That is what you meant with this, right?" Dick asks, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

Your mouth turns into various shapes trying to piece together a coherent response. It settles on the simplest one. "No."

Dick looks stricken like you'd taken a club to his head.

You reel back. "I just- I- I thought you were cold and you-"

Dick's heartaches. It's a dull ache. He thought this kind of thing would be sharp like having a hook pierce your heart.

His insides twist as he peels of you.

Your stomach sinks as you feel the cold fill your body once more. You don’t want him to go. The thought of being alone right now makes your stomach curdle. Your hands grip his shirt without meaning to. The look on his face hurts but the idea of him leaving felt unbearable. You know it's selfish but here you are begging him not to leave.

"Dick, I'm sorry... I didn't know... I-"

Thunder booms. You squeak and bury your face in his chest. You can't stand storms.

Dick smiles down at you softly. It's still pained but it's bearable.

He lays on his side and pulls you closer. He slots your face into his neck. You're still shivering even when he uses his body to shield you from the rest of the world.

You whisper another apology.

Dick shushes you, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

The sunlight floods into the room like it does every morning but the room is still cold. Your mind works to understand what's wrong with this picture. Your hand pads beside you. The space next to you is empty save for the blanket left behind.

You sniffle, gripping the sheet in your hand. You messed up, you think, pulling it to your face. For the first time in months, the tears come easily. You lay there all day because the tears won't stop.

"If you sigh one more time, I am going to rip your throat out." Jason growls not bothering to open his eyes. Why would he? Dick has been flat and mopey for the past two weeks and Jason is really starting to miss his hyperactivity.

Dick lets out another mopey sigh. Jason. Is. Going. To. Scream.

"Can't you be depressing in Roy's direction? Or Bruce's?"

Dick sighs even louder at the mention of Bruce and Jason, for once, is considering murder or at least maiming.

"She doesn't love me back."Dick sniffles and Jason really should have known this had something to do with you.

He turns to Dick. "I'm going to regret asking but how do you know that?" The sooner he sorts Dick out, the sooner he gets to sleep. "Did she tell you to go away and never come back?"

"Well no-"

It's Jason's turn to sigh. "You fucking moron, What did she even say?"

"She said she didn't know." Dick lowers his head to the sand and Jason wants to slap him with his tail.

Jason is now fully awake and very ready to throttle Dick. Or he's just cranky. "Are you telling me Bruce was right?! This day just keeps getting worse."

Something seems to click in Dick's brain. "Oh, crap Bruce is right." He mutters stupidly.

Jason will take whatever consolation he can get out of this. "She probably thought you were just some random pervert flashing her then." Jason snickers. It's petty and childish but so is interrupting a well-deserved nap.

"What?"

Jason lets out an exasperated huff through his snout. He twists his body to look at Dick with minimal effort to lift his head. "Let's see, you turned up naked at her door and then you called her your wife and nearly kissed her in what? The space of 15 minutes?"

"I got confused." Dick sputters.

"Geez, I thought West was bad but you're just a disaster," Jason chuckles, "Oh! And you made the brilliant decision to leave without explanation," Jason is having far too much fun rubbing salt in the wound. "She probably feels terrible”.

"Are you guilt-tripping me?"

"Is it working?"

"What-" Dick growls. "Well, what do you want me to do?"

"Hmmmmm, have you tried talking? Yanno the thing Bruce never does. But seriously, I can’t believe you call her your wife and then abandon her." Jason shakes his head. "And you have the audacity to call yourself the smart one."

Dick strips out of his skin and begins running towards the lighthouse... naked.

Jason debates on letting him.... he probably shouldn't.

"Dickface!" Jason calls out.

Dick doesn't stop, face crumpled in determination and his little Richard swinging wildly as he walks.

Jason is gonna die of second-hand embarrassment.

"DICKFACE!"

"What?!" Dick asks turning around his hands on his hips. Like usual, his hip tilts to the side and his foot taps as he waits expectantly for Jason to gather a mildly coherent response.

"Your little Richard..." Jason says pointing with his fin.

Dick looks down and the look of mortification on his face is satisfactory. ".... Right. Shit."

"Just steal some from her laundry."

"But she'll be pissed."

"Ok, so you would rather flash her then?"

Dick sighs and this time Jason doesn't have the urge to throttle him only because Dick is already beating his own ego into a pulp. "I hate it when you make sense."

Jason raises a brow, setting his head back down to the warm sand. "I always make sense."

Dick just cackles in response as he heads to the lighthouse.

Dick shifts his weight on the balls of his feet. He feels sick like he'd eaten one of those pickled fish you made him one time. Maybe this was a bad idea. Why did he even listen to Jason? He flips onto his hands and begins to pace. His stomach feels like it's being tossed violently by ocean currents. It feels like a shapeless lump sitting in the pit of his abdomen. Maybe you're out or maybe you never wanna see him again.

Your face had been so blown wide with shock when he had called you wife that it looked almost foreign like the suggestion had been so audacious that your face had to reconstruct itself to accommodate the shock.

Dick puts a hand to his face trying to stem the flow of thought. He was such an idiot. Why did he assume you would love him like that and why did he just leave you? Dick closes his eyes and breathes. He'll knock just once more then leave if you don't answer.

Tok. Tok. Tok.

The knocks register just above a whisper. He thinks you don't hear it.

He lets out a breath and walks away. This was stupid. He should never have come back.

Jason was right. Fuck. Dick buries his face as he walks away.

Distantly, Dick hears the squeak of rusty hinges but it's lost in the tempest of thoughts plaguing his mind, in all the little hurts from that night.

"Pup?" The sound of your voice is followed by the pounding of your feet against stand. Dick's careening to the ground before he knows it as your body collides with his.

"Pup," you sniffle into his shirt, "it is you."

Dick twist in your grip so he's facing you. Your face is buried in his shirt. He strokes your hair, wrapping an arm around you, holding you tight. "Of course, it’s me. Who else would bug you at this hour?"

Dick feels his shirt grow warm. You mumble an apology.

You look up to face Dick with half your face still buried in his shirt. You've clearly been crying based on how red and puffy your eyes are. Dick's stomach churns at the dark circles under your eyes. He feels guilt stab him in the gut. All of that combined with your generally disheveled appearance. Dick can just tell that you haven't slept well the last few days.

"Let's go inside and talk." You say, peeling yourself off of him.

Dick shakes his head, not loosening his grip on your midsection. "Let's walk around you look like you need some sun."

You flushed and put a hand to your cheek. "Do I look that bad?" You ask absently, a shy smile creeping into your features.

Dick smiles at you and pushes your hair out of your face. "Never but the weather is sunny for once and we both need some air."

"So you really didn't know that the island was filled with selkies?" Dick asks, adjusting the infernal scarf you had forced him into. He insisted that he didn't need it. He could just cuddle up to you for warmth but you were equally stubborn about him wearing a coat and the wool monstrosity strangling him.

Your face scrunches up in confusion." I- I don't even know what that is."

Dick stops.

You slow down upon realizing he wasn't by your side anymore. "You... don't know what a selkie is?" He asks, his face the definition of dumbstruck.

You shrink into your coat." My dad wasn't interested in things like that," you shrug, "I dunno much about..." Your hand twists in a circle, reaching for the right words.

Dick tilts his head. That made sense. "You thought we were all just seals?"

You nod slowly, looking like you wanna shrivel up.

Dick starts laughing and you look like you're a second away from throwing yourself into the water.

"I'm sorry," he says, flailing. He's screwing this up again. He breathes to collect himself. "I just thought it's funny that we all thought my dad was wrong about you guys not knowing."

You rub the back of your neck. "Most of us mainlanders don't really believe in magic, yanno? It's just such a foreign concept. Kind of hard to wrap my head around it."

"I get that." The smile on his face makes your gut twist. You fiddle with your hands.

"So what are selkies?"

Dick tilts his head, not exactly sure of how to word it because how do you explain something that's been obvious to you since you can remember to someone who just found out about it a few weeks ago?

"We're fae, I guess-" Your face twists in confusion.

Dick needs to backtrack. "We're fae..." This is hard. "We have this human form and we have our seal forms. We switch between them using our pelt."

Your brow knits in confusion. "Which one is your true form then?"

Dick wraps his arm around your waist and holds you closer as you walk along the cliff tops. He hums as he thinks. "Both?"

You look up at him with a weary smile. “That makes sense in a way.” You hum. Swallowing thickly, you fiddle with your hands. "So what was with the... um..." You clear your throat. "What was with the wife thing?"

Dick’s mouth dries. “Well... when we want to ask someone to be our mate... we- we kind of give them our pelt and I thought it translated to human clothes…” He stammers out dumbly.

“Oh...oh!” Your eyes widen into a look of horror. You open and close your mouth trying to form words. “Dick, I didn’t realize , that must have - I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“Please don’t apologize,” Dick says and presses his lips to the top of your head. His lips are warm and comforting. “I’ve spent so long in love with you my brain just didn’t...” Dick’s mouth twists. “It just didn’t do what it was supposed to.”

You would definitely laugh at that last part but you’re still seeing stars from the startling confession he just hit you with. You snuggle tighter into his embrace as you look over the sea. You don’t know how to respond. You really don’t and it frustrates you. It was all just a lot to take in all at once like you’d been tossed into the sea and you’re flailing and grasping at water.

But if nothing else, you’re at least glad that Dick is still talking to you.

“If you don't mind…” Dick says carefully, the look in his eyes determined. “Would it be alright if I try and pursue you properly?” Dick braces for a no. He’s not dumb enough to be hopeful twice but he needs to ask.

Inevitably, you freeze. You pull his arm closer to your chest. Swallowing, you ask: “you mean like a human courtship?”

He nods closing his eyes. “Yes, I want to court you.” He coughs clearing his throat.

You’re silent for what felt like the longest 30 seconds of Dick’s life. Dick cracks one eye to see you fiddling with your hair. “Uh Dick, there’s this one problem that might make that difficult…” Dick raises a brow. It wasn’t an outright rejection but it wasn’t an answer.

“I don't know how that works either.” You laugh nervously, burying your face in his arm.

“Good - then we don’t know if I’m doing it badly.” Dick beams with a blinding smile.

You twist to look at him, the corners of your mouth twitching. “That sounds like cheating.”

Dick snorts, “would you rather I court you the selkie way?”

“I mean it depends. What's the selkie way?”

“Fish.”

Dick startles when you let out a loud bark of laughter. “Fish? You’ve already done that so many times.” You giggle. Dick tries to wrangle his mind away from the fact that he can feel your lips through the thin fabric of the sweater.

“I thought it worked.” Dick sighs. He really did, but alas, miscommunication is a cruel mistress.

You lower your gaze trying to concentrate on the fraying needlework of his sweater. “Maybe it has.” You mumble low enough for a human not to hear. How unfortunate it is then that you’re dealing with a selkie.

Dick is beaming when you look up again. He nuzzles his face against yours. Dick is once again insanely, stupidly, incredibly happy.

__________________________________________________________________________

Because neither of you knew what you were doing, Dick's attempts to court you ranged from ridiculous (a literal mountain of fish that you ended up drying, giving away to the other seals, and selling to passing ships.) to ridiculously sweet (finding you handful of pearls). Dick nudged a little shell overflowing with pearls and looked up at you with liquid eyes. He could have gotten you pebbles and it would have been endearing.

It wasn't always gifts though.

Sometimes Dick would just sit quietly with you on the beach, snuggling against your leg as you scratched his stomach. You love the ways his squish vibrated as he purred.

When summer passed and it became unbearable to watch the stars outside, Dick sometimes spent nights in your lighthouse, wrapped up in your sheets or wrapped around you. It was nice having him around the house even if he was kind of a slob. You love him but he is a mess.

You made the mistake of introducing him to tea cakes and got him addicted to November Cakes specifically. As it turns out, your cute pest has a sweet tooth and will nuzzle you into submission just for another bite.

If you ever doubted that Dick was evil before, you now have proof.

During the winter, Dick insisted on staying in the lighthouse to keep you warm. You wanted to point out that you had a fireplace for a reason but it was so hard to turn down hugs from him.

And because you hadn't had the heart to clean out your father's room yet and Dick clearly preferred it, you let Dick sleep next to you on your cot. You felt a bit bad but Dick was just so happy with the arrangement that you didn't want to make him go away. Besides, it was nice to wake up to his sleeping face in the morning, all sleep rumpled and drooling.

__________________________________________________________________________

"Hey Jay, do you have a book on selkies?" Dick asks, caterpillaring on the rock Jason is sunbathing on.

Jason takes the opportunity to roll down the rock and knock Dick into the sea before saying: "No." It shall be put on record that there are no drama queens in the Wayne family.

Dick shakes off the seawater, big puppy eyes staring at Jason.

Jason glares at him. He can't even let Jason have a second of smugness. "Ask Selina."

No one really knows where Selina came from or why she stayed (well, they had their suspicions), but if you need something you can't find easily, your best bet was to ask her and hope she doesn't ask you to do anything ridiculously hard.

Dick hasn't had first hand experience but from what Bruce tells him, they're mostly silly things like recite poems or do a flip. He could do both those things. Well, depending on the poem. He gets tongue twisted sometimes. Hmmm, maybe he should ask if he can avoid tongue twisters so he won't bite his tongue.

Sloughing off his coat, Dick walks towards the glowing cauldron.

"Still no clothes pup? You're going to give a poor girl a heart attack." Selina tsked, reappearing from one of the other cave entrances with a handful of things Dick can't recognize.

"Oh... I- I'm still not used to it." He says sheepishly.

Selina chuckles, dumping the handful of what Dick can assume is plant debris into the cauldron while before dusting her hands off.

Dick stares at the thick vat. A bubble rises and bursts emitting what sounded like a human voice. "What is that? Should I be worried?"

"Oh no, no, this? This is just a little soup for colds."

"It screamed."

"All soups scream."

"I- anyway, I came here to ask if you have a book on selkies."

Selina tilts her head to the side. "I believe I do-"

"Great!"

"Buuuut..."

Of course, the price.

"I brought pearls and some seashells." He says hopefully.

The angle of her head does not change. Though from the gleam in her eyes, she's clearly interested.

"Tell me why you need the book."

Dick's thoughts halt. Should he tell Selina about you? His eyes dart to the boiling cauldron. "... Why do you need to know?"

Selina flourishes her hand. The book appears out of thin air."Do you want the book or not, pup?"

Dick's nerves pinch. Why does everyone call him that? "I need it to teach someone Selkie customs." He manages.

"Oh! The little lighthouse keeper!"

"You know her?"

Selina shrugs. "Do you really think I wouldn't know something going on about the islands nearby?" She pinches his cheek. "Oh little pup, I know about your little crush. You spend more time on land than you do in the sea these days. Dami's been all huffy about it."

He has.

"I've told you my reason." Dick says holding his hand out.

"Hnnnn, you have I suppose." Selina sighs.

Dick takes the book, putting it into a waterproof pouch before gingerly putting his pelt back on. He happily caterpillars out of the cave with the pouch in his mouth. He really hopes you'll like this.

You really should just fix up another cot for Dick at this point and maybe buy him a set of clothes when you go to town.

"It's too cold to sleep outside." Dick whines, flattening himself against you on the bed.

You lift your book to look at him. Dick just gives you that wide-eyed look when he wants something. You roll your eyes, letting him snuggle up to you. "Dick, it is obviously summer and you're like 40% blubber." You snort.

Dick pouts. "You're still gonna let me sleep here."

You scrunch your face up and sigh. "I can't exactly let you brace the summer cold, can I?" You say, running a hand through his hair.

"Eeeeeexactly." Dick says happily as snuggles into you tightly. He nuzzles his face into your neck wrapping his arms around your waist. You hum helplessly, curling into his embrace.

"See." Dick trills with a happy grin.

"Are you going to be smug about it all night?" You huff, throwing a blanket over the two of you.

"No," he says, "you assume I can't keep being smug 'til sunrise."

"Dork," you snicker, setting the book down. It was a book on selkie traditions that Dick had gotten you a few days ago. You devoured it the same night but you're reading it again and subtly testing things while Dick was invading your house. You hum, running your hand through his hair, fingernails lightly scraping against his scalp. Dick purrs against your chest. "There was a one eyed seal on the beach the other day. He was a grumpy fellow but kind of cute. Seals really are a sleepy lot. The big lug started snoozing on my lap after like 5 minutes."

Dick tense under your touch. He looks up at you seriously.

"That was a selkie." Dick deadpans.

You stop your rambling. "What?!"

"That grumpy one-eyed seal was a selkie." He repeats carefully.

Your breath stutters. "Are all of the seals on this island selkies? ALL OF THEM?" Dick is pretty sure your eyes are mounting an escape.

"All of them, darling." Dick nods.

"Oh." You are so screwed. "Do you guys all talk to each other?!" You shouldn't have told that seal about your little crush. You want the mattress to swallow you up.

"Yes? Should I be concerned?" Dick asks, lifting his head.

"No! No reason!" You squeal, shaking your head.

Dick pouts at you with suspicion. It occurs to you with some amusement that Dick is actually glaring. You wisely decide to sidestep the conversation.

"You guys love taking naps on people, huh?" You say, absently twining your fingers into Dick's hair. He settles his head against your chest. "That's just cus we like you." He hums.

A snort rips out of you. "You're just biased."

Dick looks up at you seriously again. "We selkies like pretty things like any fae." Dick says, wrapping his arms around you more tightly. He's being petty but Dick has always been protective of you and he isn't about to stop now. Besides... he doesn't want anyone stealing you away.

You frown at him. "Dick, there are far prettier things on this island and sweet talking won’t magically make November cakes appear." You huff, kissing the top of his head before picking up the book and using it to hide the smile shaping your lips.

You feel Dick pick himself up off of you. You peek over your book to watch Dick. He scoots closer to your face until the only thing separating you is the far too thin book in your hands.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"No." You say. You don't mean it but it's the easiest thing to conjure up when Dick is this close. Your lips prickle from imagining Dick's lips against yours.

You weren't paying attention. Dick has apparently been going on a two-minute diatribe on how pretty you are and in that two minutes, Dick has managed to scoot even closer. He gently takes the book out of your hands to make sure you're paying attention. He fails to take into account the fact that his face is in fact distracting. Your eyes zero in on his very plush and very kissable lips. If you just lean forward a fraction, you could...

Your lips feel warm and soft against Dick's, the rest of his diatribe dying in the back of his throat as his eyes flutter shut. His mind might just be melting out of his ears because the only thing he can think about is how soft you are and how perfectly your lips fit against his.

"I'm sorry." You whisper shyly. You should be sorry, Dick thinks. Who told you to pull away?

You touch your fingers to your lips. Fuck, what did you just do?

"You can do it again." Please, he almost adds.

You lick your lips. Dick perks up and leans closer. His heart is going to leap out of his chest. You lean closer. Dick can feel his heart pounding against his rib cage.

You kiss Dick on the nose and pull away, hiding your lips behind your hand as you snicker. Dick scrunches his nose and blows air out of it.

"You know perfectly well what I meant." He huffs.

You lean back into your pillow, grinning at him. "I have absolutely no clue what you're on about." You say slowly, smug.

"Let me remind you then,"A grin takes over his face. Dick leans in, pressing his lips against yours. You exchange breaths as you drink in the feeling of each other's lips. Dick caresses your sides. He feels you shiver and he smiles into your lips. "That ring any bells?"

"Not really..." You say, flickering your eyes to him. "But if you try again... it might."

"Oh sweetheart, I can keep reminding you all night." Dick chuckles, winking.

Covering your face, you attempt to hide your embarrassment. You hate how easily he flusters you. "You can't just say stuff like that." You whimper.

"Why not? I'm supposed to be courting you and that includes buttering you up," Dick says, nuzzling your cheek. You're just too cute. Dick gently pries your hands away from your face. "Don't hide your face from me, Honey."

"Oh god, you're making me regret letting you court me."

"Never."

______________________________________________________________________

Dick's eyes are struggling to remain open as he watches the fire. He burrows further into the thick comforter you'd given him. It's not quite as warm as his pelt but the fabric is puffy and it has a sweet smell that makes his head swim.

Dick angles his head slightly to watch you. You've been toiling for hours and refuse to tell Dick what it is. Your back is still hunched over with your foot bouncing on the floor. Dick lets his eyes flutter shut, listening to the sound of your shuffling tools.

You glance down at the adorable mess dozing off on your sofa. You gently move his hair out of his face. He swats at you sleepily, face scrunched even as he sleeps. You sincerely wish you had Damian's talent for art or that you had one of those cameras. You really wish you could keep a picture of Dick's sleepy face. It's the cutest thing in the world.

"Hey Dickie," you whisper.

"Hmmmmm?" He groans.

"Could you hand me your pelt?"

"Sure," he moans, blindly padding around for it. You snort as he nearly falls off the sofa. After groping nearly every surface, he finally finds the pelt. "here you-"

The fur brushes your fingertips before Dick stops. Dick shoots up, nearly clipping your nose with his forehead. He's looking at you fully awake, drool still hanging off the corner of his lips."Are you sure?!"

"Hand it over coward." You smile gently at him. You try your best to fight off the excitement bubbling in your veins.

Dick is off the couch, his own excitement barely contained as his whole body vibrates with happiness. He sits up. You hold out your hand but instead of handing you his pelt, Dick drapes it over you like a wedding veil. It's thick and warm to the touch. You let your hands brush over the silken fur. You can feel magic thrumming from it. It feels like a minute current of electricity but it doesn't flow linearly. It ebbs and flows as it pleases, pulsing beneath your fingers. You burrow yourself in it.

Something warm spills in Dick's chest as he sees you wrapped up in his pelt. Dick kisses your nose. "You have now been wifed."

You twitch your nose. "You missed."

"Nope. Don't think so. Buuuuut if you show me where you want me to kiss you..."

You roll your eyes and surge forward, pressing your lips to his. Dick smiles into it, pulling you close and savoring the sensation of your lips melding together. He makes a happy trilling noise while you laugh against his lips.

"That clear enough, Dickie?" You ask, pressing your forehead against his.

"Yeah, I think I got it, wifey."

__________________________________________________________

THANKS FOR READING

Tag list: @batarella, @anothertimdrakestan, @lucy-roo, @multifandomgirl-us, @idkmanicantenglish , @birdy-bat-writes, @boosyboo9206, @americasmarauders , @l-inkage, @arestorationofbalance , @cloudie-skay, @wunderstell @hyp-oh-critical @glorified-red @ marshmallow12435 @vvipgot7be @jadedhillon

#dick grayson x reader #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson x you #dick grayson #dorks #seals #selkie x reader #selkie au

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love-and-monsters · 3 years

Text

Vampire Squid Octomer

GN reader X M monster, 6,943 words

Happy Mermay everybody! In celebration of this wonderful time of year, here's a story about a human breaking out of containment with a octomer and some telepathic chicanery.

Your stomach rolled slowly, like a ship tossed in an ocean. The floor was, you were pretty sure, stable, but your head was spinning. As tentatively as you could, you planted your hands underneath you and sat up.

The room was pitch black. Closing and opening your eyes made no difference. You kept one of your hands on the wall as you clambered unsteadily to your feet. Keeping in contact with the wall, you paced around the perimeter of the room.

It was small, barely more than four by four feet. Even the ceiling was close to your head. You weren’t in danger of hitting your head on it, but you couldn’t extend your arms over your head either.

Where were you? You tried to go back through your memories, but they seemed distorted and uncertain. You had been… outside? Walking by the sea? And then… Nothing. You didn’t remember getting drugged or hit by something or blacking out. One minute you were walking on the beach, the next minute you were waking up in a pitch black, tiny room.

It felt like a cage more than a room. You did another pass around it, running your fingers along the walls. They were perfectly smooth, expect for a thin seam that outlined the shape of a door. It was too thin to get your fingers into, and you couldn’t feel any hinges or latches. There was no way to get out.

You were also wearing a skintight wetsuit, one that only really covered your torso. You hadn’t been wearing it before you blacked out. The idea of someone having to strip you down and shove your limp body into it was unsettling, to say the least.

The cage rattled. You stumbled and fell on your butt as the entire thing jerked, swaying back and forth. It swayed precariously, like it was dangling on a single tether. You could feel the cage lifting into the air.

“Hey!” Your voice came out oddly rusty. God, your mouth was dry. How long had you been out? “Hey! Let me out!”

Your voice didn’t carry and you didn’t have much hope that anyone was listening. If you were in this cage, it was probably because someone wanted you there. Still, you slammed your fists against the walls. They were unyielding. The cage swayed again, sending you sliding to the other side. It felt like it was suspended from a crane. Your mind pulled up images of crates being stacked on cargo ships. Were you being shipped?

The cage dropped. Your stomach leapt into your throat as it plunged. For a split second, your terrified mind wondered if you were on some horrifying version of the tower of terror. Then you hit the water.

It was water the cage landed in. You could hear the splash and felt the slight bob of the cage before it drifted downward far more slowly.

The box must have been sealed against water because you saw none of it leaking in through the seam. If it was watertight, it was likely airtight as well. You tried to slow your panicked breathing. You needed to conserve air and you needed to get out before you sank too deep to make it back to the surface.

You slammed one of your feet into the wall. Again and again, you struck, trying to focus on the little cracks of the doorway.

There was a faint noise, a sort of sucking pop, then thin jets of water spurted in through the crack. The seal was broken! You slammed your shoulder against the door, but it only made a metallic clang. Your shoulder throbbed. You threw your weight against it again, but the door was unyielding. Already, you were splashing about in the water of the floor. It made your feet skid. The water was brutally cold. Already, you were having trouble feeling your toes.

Growing more desperate, you slammed your shoulder against the door again and again. The seal budged more, sending more thin streams of water flowing into the box. Water sloshed around your calves. It was approaching your knees. Your teeth chattered. Still, the door refused to budge. If there was a piece of metal blocking the door, you were never going to get out. Regardless, you slammed your shoulder against the door again and again. You had to try.

Something slammed back.

You staggered, falling again. The cold water shocked you into stillness as something on the outside slammed again and again. The door shuddered. More spouts of water appeared on the seam. The water inside your cage rose faster. Already, it was at your waist.

Another slam. The door jerked and, with an almighty pop, the seal fractured. Water gushed in, pumping through the doorway. Stumbling to your feet, you slammed your body against the door once more.

There was a pop once more and the door shifted. A wave of water dumped over you. The shock made your muscles seize, but you ignored it. You needed to get out, you needed to get out!

Blinded by the saltwater stinging your eyes, you kicked once more at the door. It jostled aside, leaving a hole just big enough for you to squeeze your way through. Just as your cage was fully submerged, you slipped out into the open water.

And then something grabbed you.

For a moment, you thought it was an octopus, or some other tentacled sea creature. Thick, muscular tentacles wrapped around your waist and legs, the suckers popping against your skin. Filaments brushed against your skin, tickling and making your flesh crawl. You thrust out your hands, fingers too stiff to even grip the tentacles, much less untangle them. The grip tightened. Already, your lungs were screaming for air, but the creature had you and it was going to drag you into the depths to drown you and pick your soft meat apart with its beak-

And then hands settled at your waist.

You started. Even if you couldn’t see them, you knew the feel of human hands and fingers. One hand shifted upward, taking a firm hold of your arm. The tentacles unwound from your leg, though you could still feel them brushing against your skin.

The hand on your arm squeezed tighter and then it was hauling you up at quite a quick pace. Or, was it hauling you up? You had no way to tell which direction it was pulling you in. Perhaps it was dragging you deeper, pulling you into the depths and drowning you.

Your lungs were screaming for air. It didn’t matter which direction you were going. If you didn’t get there soon, you were going to start compulsively gulping water into your lungs. Furiously, you started to kick, trying to swim in the direction you were being pulled in. You were just going to have to hope it was trying to save your life.

Your head broke the surface of the water. You had a split second of overwhelming, blissful relief, then the top of your head slammed into a hard metal wall.

Stunned, you dropped back into the water. Stars blinked behind your eyelids. You’d been moving at a fairly quick pace when you’d emerged from the water, so you’d slammed into the metal at speed. Dim, dazed thoughts drifted through your mind. What was happening? Where were you? Your lungs burned. You needed to breathe. You moved to inhale-

Your head broke the surface of the water. One hand was wrapped around your waist. The other was holding onto the back of your head, pulling your head back so you could breathe without bonking your head on the metal above you. You gasped and gulped air. You could still feel the tentacles brushing against your legs, but that was a secondary concern to just stopping the awful burning in your lungs.

As you were struggling to breathe, you felt something nuzzling at the back of your head, right where you’d smacked it. It felt like nuzzling, anyway, though you couldn’t see what was touching you. You could feel something snuffling at your hair, nosing at you. The tentacles in the water wrapped around your legs again, holding you still.

Now that you were breathing again, your concern shifted to the thing that was holding you. It had human hands, a human face, and tentacles like an octopus. Some sort of merperson? Octomer, were they called?

The creature released your head. You felt the tentacles on your leg release as well, drifting away from you. Slowly, you lowered your head, moving tentatively to avoid hitting it again. You tried to peer into the water, but there was no light in the tank. You couldn’t see anything.

Something splashed next to you. The water grew choppier, like something else had broken the surface. Before you could move to investigate, a pale blue light blossomed from next to you.

There was a person in the water next to you. They were terribly pale, almost ghostly, though that may have been a trick of the blue light that gleamed from patches on his skin. The glowing blue lights glowed under his eyes and across his forehead, following the bone structure of his face. Only his head showed above the water, his eyes glittering in the light that he gave off.

“Hello,” you said. Your voice was raspy and weak, and you sputtered as little waves of salty water flowed into your mouth. “Can- can you tell me where I am?”

The octomer stared at you. Something brushed against your leg and you went still. Did it speak English? Maybe not. Probably not. Why would an undersea creature speak English? It seemed to be more interested in looking at you than helping you do anything. Cautiously, you drifted back away from it. It followed you, though it kept a certain amount of distance between you.

You had only been floating back a few feet when your back struck a wall. You stopped, sputtering. The octomer drifted closer, blinking its large, inky-black eyes at you.

Arms stretched out, you drifted from side to side, trying to touch the walls. By your best estimate, the container was at least ten feet across, probably ten square feet, though it was far deeper. It was a cage. You had escaped from a cage into another cage.

Despair rose in you in a terrible tidal wave. Your limbs felt too heavy to keep yourself up anymore. This cage was much bigger, much stronger, and full of water. Already, you could feel your limbs going numb and heavy with cold. You couldn’t escape and you couldn’t keep swimming forever. Eventually, you would drown.

Sobs burst out of your chest. It was stupid to cry, it used up energy and air you didn’t have, but you couldn’t stop yourself. The octomer drifted away from you, eyes wide. You kicked your legs furiously, but you could already feel yourself starting to drift underwater. Your chest burned, but your legs hurt from trying to keep yourself above the water.

The light dimmed. The octomer had darted under the water. Had it lost interest? Or was it just waiting for you to drown so it could easily pick apart your corpse?

Hands touched your waist. They were firm, strong, and they hoisted you effortlessly out of the water. The octomer’s head appeared in the water next to you, dark eyes blinking up at you. Its filament hair drifted against your skin, tickling faintly.

You sagged in relief. The octomer’s hands kept your head above the water, even when you stopped kicking. Your entire body felt heavy. Where you weren’t numb, you were in pain. Muscle cramps seized through your legs, and the tingling pain of cold was burning at your fingers and toes. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt, but you were still alive and you were breathing.

The octomer abruptly leaned forward and nuzzled its face against your stomach. You froze. The way it was holding you meant that its head was roughly level with your torso, and it was simply nuzzling and sniffing the area that was easiest for it to reach. The touch was… curious? It didn’t seem to be trying to do anything to you. It was just nuzzling.

You shivered. The creature pulled its head back, eyes wide as it stared up at you. The lights along its body pulsed, dimming and brightening in a rhythmic pattern. It seemed to be assessing you. Perhaps it was trying to figure out if you were going to attack it. You shivered again. It was so cold. Even if you were no longer in danger of drowning, you were in desperate danger of getting hypothermia.

When it realized that you weren’t going to attack it, the creature leaned back in to nuzzle you again. The tentacles wrapped around your legs again, suckers popping against you skin. The long filaments of its hair wreathed outward, touching every bit of exposed skin they could find. You held as still as possible. The creature didn’t seem to want to hurt you. Maybe it was better to just let it explore.

The filaments touched their way across your face. You closed your eyes as they twitched around your eyelids. Gradually, the filaments settled, though they were still resting on you. There was a faint buzzing sensation, like they were mildly electrified. The hair on the back of your neck stood up.

There was a sudden, unpleasant feeling in the back of your mind. Something was rifling through your memories like it was going through a filing cabinet. You could feel it, rustling around in the back of your head.

Just as you noticed this, the rifling thing turned its attention to you. A wave of calm flowed from the presence, giving you the impression of someone walking toward you with their hands up. The octomer’s hands shifted against your head as it nuzzled you again.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Your voice echoed a little in the confines of the container. “You’re doing this?”

You had no idea if the octomer could understand you, but the nuzzling at your stomach stopped. The presence in your mind kept sending out waves of peace toward you, but you could feel an underlying sense of curiosity. Tentatively, you closed your eyes and focused on the presence.

There was one curious moment where your mind approached the other one, then, like two drops sliding together, you merged.

Everything was confusing for a long moment. A blur of colors and sounds rushed through your mind, flickering too fast for you to latch onto. Flashes of feelings and fragmented ideas tore at your mind. Swimming through blue water, tangling in a great web, being hauled up and dragged into a cage, prodded and poked, and the hunger. A great, yawning hunger that grew and grew and was unsatisfied by any of the fish or feed the captors shoved into the cage.

A heavy sensation formed in the pit of your stomach. A few other memories surfaced from the other mind related to the hunger- great fangs, red blood gushing out in the water, slurping and drinking and… Cold terror shocked through you. A man in a white coat bleeding into the water and drinking and drinking deeply of the rich red liquid until it filled the great maw inside.

Blood. This creature drank blood. And you were trapped with it.

Your first instinct was to try to fight off the creature. But the fact that it was holding you made you pause and take stock of the situation again. It hadn’t tried to eat you yet, even though you could feel the burn of hunger in the back of its mind. It was still supporting you above the water. And the tone of its thoughts seemed far more curious than aggressive. Tentatively, you reached out with your own mind.

Your attempts to do so were fumbling. Clearly this creature was far more adept with telepathy than you were. But as you struggled to reach out, you felt a returning rush of delight. The creature’s mind surged around yours, interested and eager about your attempts to reach back.

The telepathic communication was both rudimentary and somehow far more complex than using words. It took you a few tries, but you managed to communicate how you’d ended up trapped in a cage. The creature’s mind hummed with sympathy, showing you its similar story. It also communicated, however vaguely, that you were safe from it. Images of the scientists were always tinged with red anger, but as it showed you an image of yourself, the tone shifted to curiosity and interest. It was even tinged with affection, the sort of way you would think about something cute.

Water sputtered into your mouth. You coughed frantically, kicking your legs. They were so heavy, so tired. Everything below your knees was numb. A flutter of concern pressed against your mind. The creature shifted, lifting you further out of the water. Apparently, holding you up was starting to tire it out too.

Despite your relief that the creature with you was on your side and not going to eat you, it didn’t change the situation you were in. Even with help, you couldn’t stay above the water forever, and it was cold enough that you were going to get hypothermia and die anyway. How long could the pair of you hold on?

The creature rested its head against you again, making soft, mewling noises. A flicker of protectiveness moved through its mind, along with anger. It took a moment for you to follow the direction of its thoughts. The creature was angry that the scientists were trying to sacrifice you to it, angry that they thought it would be so cruel.

You reached out carefully with your mind again. This time, you focused heavily on only one thought: escape. How do we get out?

A flurry of uncertain thoughts came back along the connection to you. Sometimes the scientists came into the tank or opened it up to run tests, but there were always too many of them to try and escape through.

You pressed for more information. The scientists. Where did they come from?

Up. Above. You extended your numb fingers to brush them along the wall a couple of inches from your face. The ceiling was removeable. That made sense. It was likely locked, though, or at least too heavy to move on your own.

You considered your options for a moment. All right. You couldn’t open the cage on your own. But you did have one advantage: the scientists threw you in the cage as food. Which meant they were expecting you to be dead. There had to be a way to use that to your advantage.

You asked the creature when the scientists were coming back. Soon, apparently. The creature sent back images of it eating, then the scientists coming back not too long after.

“Then we need to be ready,” you said out loud. Slowly, carefully, you outlined your plan to the creature. It was difficult to do so while also keeping your jangling nerves from startling it Luckily, the creature was accepting and quick-witted enough to understand and accept your plan.

You floated at the top of the tank. It was less convincing because you had to float face-up instead of face-down, but you had to hope that the scientists wouldn’t be suspicious. And you only needed them to be fooled from a distance.

The creature bumped at you from under the water. You could feel his (it felt weird to keep referring to him as it, and his mind had indicated male) worry bubbling at the back of your mind, making a pit of anxiety twist in your own stomach. He kept nudging worriedly at you, hovering only inches away. Eventually, you had to tell him to swim away, lest he look suspicious when the tank got opened. You could feel him pouting in the back of your mind as he obliged.

It took all your willpower not to open your eyes when you heard the scrape and groan of metal being shifted. You made yourself go as limp as possible. You just needed to look dead. Hopefully the hypothermia you were experiencing would assist in that.

Light shone against your closed eyelids. Water lapped at your ears, but beyond that, you could hear the murmuring of voices.

“Didn’t eat the solids, I guess,” a rough, masculine voice said from somewhere above you. “Hal, you owe me twenty bucks.”

“Fish out the body, first. Maybe he took a few nibbles.” There was a splashing noise and something metal poked your side. Worry fluttered in the back of your mind, almost frantic. The creature swam toward you. You warned him off, but he was only barely held at bay by your warning.

The hook caught around your waist. You remained as still and limp as possible as you were hauled up on some kind of observation platform.

“Hey, hold on,” a third voice said. “I think this one’s still breathing-”

Okay, time to go. You launched yourself up, seizing the man around his neck with your elbow. You weren’t much of a fighter, admittedly, but you had the advantage of surprise and a slippery working platform. You managed to knock him off balance and dunk him into the water.

He sputtered, scrambling frantically. Blue lights illuminated the water around him as the creature surged upward. The other two scientists scrambled, trying to get a hold of you. Luckily, one of them was clearly off-balance and you managed to dodge him. The other one seized your arm, twisting it around. There was a pressure on your shoulder as he jerked it, threatening to pop it out.

Furiously, you twisted at him. You couldn’t remember any of the fighting and self-defense techniques that you had seen on the internet, but you didn’t care. You just lunged at him, clawing and snapping your teeth and just trying to hurt in any way you could. The man yanked your arm more severely and something tore. Screaming pain lanced across your shoulder, up your neck, and down your chest.

The other scientist screamed. The one holding you twisted to look and his grip loosened in shock.

The creatures had managed to clamber out of the tank while the scientists were distracted. It was bigger than you’d realized. Even its human part seemed unusually large, but the surging tentacles that made up its lower half took up a great deal of the platform. One of them slammed into the scientist not holding you, pressing him into a wall. The creature barely paid him any mind. Instead, the creature’s attention was fixed on the scientist holding you.

Out of the water, clearly visible, the creature’s sharp, bony features were thrown into a strange relief. His upper body was skinny, though his tentacles looked powerful and muscular. The long filaments that covered his head like hair shifted and twitched, raising like a halo. Dark eyes glittered in his face, reflecting his bioluminescence. And his teeth… they were all sharp, like a slightly narrower version of a shark’s tooth.

The scientist dropped you. Trying not to land on your injured arm made for an awkward fall, where you smacked your chin on the ground instead. The metallic taste of blood filled your mouth.

A tentacle reached over your head and, with a violent motion, sent the scientist who had been holding you tumbling into the water. The creature bent over you, making soft, trilling vocalizations. His filaments tickled over your skin, worry bubbling up from his mind.

“I’m fine,” you said. “Oh, oww…” The worry pressed against your mind with more intensity. The creature took a gentle hold of your arm, probing lightly at it. His mind reflected your pain, adding sorrow and concern to the mixture. “It doesn’t feel good,” you reassured him, “but I can manage it. Ugh.”

The creature kept making soft, worried noises as it helped you to your feet. “We need to find a way out,” you said, trying to focus your mind around the pain.

The little sounds of concern became more intense. The creature butted his head against your good shoulder, nuzzling you furiously. You absently patted his head as you looked around the room. None of the scientists had managed to raise the alarms. Everything was still and silent. Ahead of you, there was a heavy metal door. Slowly, you approached it.

The creature followed you as you stopped in front of the door. Taking a deep breath, you put your good shoulder to the door, turned the doorknob, and shoved.

The door slid open more easily than you were expecting. The hall beyond smelled faintly moldy. Puddles of damp covered the floor. You lifted your hand to your nose. “Ew.”

It seemed like you were in some kind of cave. Everything was uneven stone. There were only a few lights scattered throughout the hallway, so you relied mostly on the glimmering light of the creature crawling along next to you.

An unsettled feeling was starting in your stomach. This wasn’t some kind of military-grade lab. It was made to sort of look like it, but the cracks were there. It was made by someone with money, but not enough money to make it all official.

Poachers or smugglers. Some group selling endangered creatures for money. Which meant the creature beside you was either rare, endangered, or both. And you were technically robbing people who would probably be able to make your life a living hell.

You were so lost in that thought, you didn’t notice when the creature stopped dead, back going stiff. You paused and took a few steps backward. “What’s wrong?”

The creature’s mind touched yours again. You got a vague sense of salt and ocean air, the rush of waves. “The ocean is nearby?” The creature made a soft, trilling noise. He scanned the wall for a moment, then pointed up toward the ceiling. There was a small opening in the wall, faint beams of white light streaming through.

Images of swimming, sliding free through the water hit your mind with such force it almost bowled you over. The creature reached out with his tentacles and started to heave his body up toward the opening.

There was no way you were going to be able to climb up and follow him. When he realized you weren’t following him, he turned to look back at you. Concern fluttered against your mind.

“I can’t climb like you can,” you said. “Especially not with my arm. I can keep going. There must be some other way out.”

The creature tilted his head at you, still partially hanging off the wall. Two of his tentacles detached from the wall and slithered around your waist. You could feel the muscular strength rippling through him, but the grip on you was gentle. The creature’s mind pressed against yours soothingly as he pulled you in close to his body. Swiftly, he turned and pulled himself through the hole, taking you with him.

The hole was barely big enough for the two of you to fit through together. Stone scraped against your arm, one particularly sharp one cutting a thin slice through your skin. Your physical proximity to him seemed to be enhancing whatever connection had been established between you. You could feel faint prickles of discomfort against your skin where he was scraping against the stone. There were even odd phantom pains whenever stone pressed against his tentacles.

After a few moments of careful wriggling, the creature heaved himself out of the tunnel and onto an outcropping of rock.

You looked around. The location was unrecognizable to you. Sea spray filled the air along with the crash of the waves. You were seated on top of some kind of rock formation at the edge of a beach. The open ocean stretched out in front of you.

“Hurry,” you said, nudging him toward the water. “You need to go. Get away!”

The creature made an anxious mewling noise and twisted back toward you. He butted his head against your chin like an affectionate cat. Worry fluttered against your mind once more.

“I’ll be okay. I’ll be fine! I can get down to the beach and-” You stopped. What were you going to do? Where were you? How far away was civilization? Your shoulder throbbed again, reminding you of your injured state. The people who had captured the octomer were going to be looking for you. How long did you have until they found you?

The creature mewled once more. His tentacles twisted around you, coiling around your waist and your legs. The worry pressed against your mind again, this time far stronger. “You can’t take me with you,” you said. “I can’t breathe under water, I’m hurt, I-”

The tone of his mind against yours shifted. You trailed off. His eyes had shifted from your face down to your stinging arm. Blood welled up from the shallow cut and slid in warm dribbles down your forearm. And as he watched it, the thoughts against yours took on a tone of hunger. That great, gnawing emptiness inside him was rising.

Fear jolted through you and through your connection. The creature blinked once, twice, then the hunger was fiercely restrained. You could feel him fighting against it through the bond. He dropped low to the rock, making soft, soothing noises.

“You need to go,” you said. “Hurry.” You pushed against his mind again. He pushed back. His thoughts whirled against yours, trying to sort out some kind of a solution. You had a hard time sorting out any specific thoughts, since his mind was moving so fast, but you noticed when he settled on a path. With a new determination, he leaned toward you, one arm extended. His mind projected soothing, gentle thoughts into your own. Trust me. Listen to me. I will help you. Just go with what I am asking for.

You had only just allowed your feeling of acceptance to come forward when he took hold of your arm. His fingers were tight on your wrist, though not uncomfortably so. The soothing feeling pressed against your mind as he lowered his head to your arm. He sniffed at the rivulets of blood that were seeping from your skin. Then his mouth opened and a long, slithering tongue emerged.

The tongue slipped down and lapped at your arm a few times. It was slightly rough, not barbed, like a cat’s tongue, but distinctly textured. There was almost no pain, just a faintly uncomfortable prickling. As his tongue ran over your arm, the blood stopped weeping. By the third lick, the cut was nothing more than a faintly pink slice in your arm.

You pressed at it as he leaned back, tongue slithering back into his mouth. There was no more pain. The wound was gone, as if it had never been there. “Ooh,” you muttered. “I can see why they tried to poach you. That’s a handy skill.”

The creature slithered closer to you and bumped his head against your shoulder. The hunger in the back of his mind had faded, if only slightly. “You still need to go,” you told him. “Hurry. You healed me. I’ll be fine.”

The creature sent back an image of your shoulder. You sucked in a breath. You hadn’t been looking at it, but apparently it was starting to swell and turn a nasty purply shade. “Don’t suppose you can do anything about that?” The creature sent you a complicated series of images and emotions that boiled down to the idea that he couldn’t do anything if it wasn’t an open wound. “Rats.” You glanced back toward shore. “Well, it won’t stop me from running. I’ll just have to move fast, try to get to the nearest town. Hopefully I’ll be safe there.”

Worry pressed against your mind with more force. The creature made a high keening noise, nuzzling close to you. You absently stroked his head. The filaments that made up his hair wrapped around your fingers. “It’ll be all right. They’ll probably want to go after you first. Which is why you need to go!” You gave him a shove with your good arm. He slid back a little way on the rock before pulling himself closer to you.

The creature considered you for a moment longer, then he reached for you. His hands came down on either side of your face. His thoughts sent soothing messages to you before he leaned in and pressed his lips to yours.

His filament hair twined forward, wrapping around your head. You were barely paying attention to that, though. His mouth was working against yours, his tongue tracing against your lips. The more he touched you, the more his thoughts slipped into your mind. Feelings of pleasure and concern and comfort mixed together until you couldn’t remember exactly where he ended and you started. Your thoughts just merged. There was no thinking about running or safety. There was just the Experience, the Moment where you were together and kissing.

The creature pulled back. You blinked. There was a moment of raw, cold emptiness in your mind, a hole where his presence had been seconds earlier. Your own mind adjusted after a moment, filling the gaps, but there was still an odd sense of loneliness. For a just a moment, you had been… understood. Known. And cared for. Losing that was disorienting.

Chirping quietly, the creature nuzzled his face into the crook of your shoulder. The touch made you jump. His mind reappeared in yours, pressing gently against yours for a moment, like a goodbye, then he twisted away from you. There was a splash and a spray of seawater as he slipped beneath the waves. For a moment, you saw brightly-colored tentacles flash by just under the surface of the water. Then he was gone.

You waited for a few moments longer, staring out into the ocean. Nerves jangled wildly in your mind, but there was an odd, alien sense of peace as well. Of course. He was safe. You would Know if he wasn’t.

It was a weird sense of certainty, but its weirdness didn’t diminish the feeling that you would know if he was hurt. The confidence buoyed your spirits. You turned and picked your way carefully across the rocks until you made it to shore.

As it turned out, you were quite a ways from civilization. The sun was setting when you came across a tiny, rustic-looking town. Fortunately, someone stumbling into town absolutely soaked and rumpled-looking in a wetsuit garnered enough concern from the locals to get you a bed for the night.

Apparently, if you lived in a tiny town on a relatively rural stretch of coastline, a shivering person with no provisions but a wetsuit wasn’t entirely weird. You managed to spin some story about walking along a cliff and accidentally falling into the ocean, losing your bag of possessions in the process. No one seemed to question it. The next morning, you were provided with clothes and a ticket home on the closest train.

The next few days were a rush of both trying to get all your lost objects back, mostly your phone and your wallet, and being overly suspicious of every person you didn’t recognize. You weren’t sure how much effort was going to go into finding you, or if they even cared. You considered going to the police, but you weren’t even sure what you would say. That you’d been kidnapped and almost fed to a merman? You didn’t have any identifying details. In the end, you decided to just keep your head down.

It worked, or at least, it seemed to. After a week, you were no longer jumping at shadows, and you had gotten a handle on all your important documents enough for that stress to be diminished.

Of course, that was when something else started happening.

Your emotions were going absolutely haywire. Initially, you thought it might be something to do with the stress of being kidnapped, but it didn’t feel like a stress response. Instead, you would get strange bursts of happiness out of nowhere, or odd surges of melancholy. The emotions were never congruent with the situation, and had no discernable triggers. They just simply appeared in your mind, as overwhelming as if they were in response to something.

Before bed was the worst. Every time you drifted off to sleep, your mind was full of the sound of crashing waves, the feeling of drifting through the waves, and the strange surges of emotions that were definitely not your own.

As the emotions grew stronger, so did a sense of calling in your mind. It tugged your feet when you weren’t paying attention to where you were walking. You woke every morning with a sense of longing at your heart. Come. Come! Find me. I miss you. The thoughts echoed in your mind louder and louder until they drowned out your own thoughts.

Driven by the calling in your mind, you headed down to the shore. Nerves pricked along your back as you walked along the beach. This was where you’d been kidnapped last time. But the feeling of safety surged through your mind, so you headed down toward the edge of the beach regardless. By the time your feet touched the water, you had entirely stopped trying to keep yourself above the waves of emotion that lapped against your mind. Your body was pulled into the waves, automatically following the pull.

You had always been a reasonably strong swimmer. Within a few minutes, you were out in water high enough to cover your whole body. The calling took on an excited tone, like an eager puppy. Come! I am here! Come!

Something slammed into you from underneath the water. Strong arms wrapped around you first, followed by a tangle of sucking tentacles. A head pressed into the crook of your neck.

The joy that flooded through your mind was almost the emotional equivalent of a bomb going off. It was stunning, rendering you insensate to anything else. If the creature hadn’t been holding you up at the surface, you probably would have forgotten to breathe.

“It’s you!” you yelped, startled. The creature nuzzled at you, making excited chirping noises. “You’re… you’re here! Why?”

Ideas and images flooded your mind, overwhelming until the creature calmed his mind enough to give you a coherent story. Missed you. Worried. The creature showed you an image of his body and your body. There was a bright line connecting them.

Comprehension flooded you. “When we kissed. That we you connecting our minds?”

Needed to make sure you were safe. The creature butted his head against you again. Safe! Safe. Both safe.

You ran your hand over his head. His filament-hair twisted and tangled around your fingers. “You haven’t seen the people who trapped you again?”

He gave a rapid shake of his head. The filament-hair swirled around him in a long mane. “That’s good.” You looked out into the sea, at the endless blue waves that faded into the horizon. “Are you… do you have somewhere to go? Family or friends?”

The answer popped into your mind within seconds. No. You got vague images of family, but he had separated from them before he had been captured. There was a pause, vague concepts tickling at your mind. The creature seemed to be trying to communicate something complex. You took a deep breath, relaxed, and opened your mind.

The images that came to you were complicated, overlapping, and not in any precise order. You had to take a minute to sort it out in your mind. There were images of creatures like him tangling their tentacles together, swirling in odd dances. The same shining connection he had showed you between you and him gleamed between the two bodies.

There were more images of the creatures swirling together, then some images that definitely made you blush. The creature showed them to you perfectly matter-of-fact, perfectly nonchalant, though you felt its curiosity at your embarrassment. The connection was still there between the two creatures in every image he showed to you. The connection was important. It was something he was trying to convey to you. His tentacles wrapped around your legs, clinging tightly.

“Oh!” Something clicked in your head. The connection. The way he was rubbing against you. The images he was showing you. “This is… that’s… you do that for your mates?”

You felt his joy at your conclusion. Yes! Yes. Mine. Under his affection, you sensed a slight streak of possessiveness. He nuzzled against you, lips tugging delicately at your skin.

Perhaps you should have been surprised or reluctant. But you weren’t. You could feel his affection surrounding your mind like a hug. Your minds touched, mingled. Already, you knew him better than you knew anyone else. Almost better than you knew yourself. And he knew you in the same way. And he loved everything he knew, a deep, abiding caring that filled your entire body from your head to your toes. You wrapped yourself around him as he supported your head above the water.

His tentacles wrapped around you, tugging your body against his. The connection between your minds, already fuzzy, blurred into nonexistence. There were two bodies working against each other, but only one mind, humming with heat and love and joy.

#exophilia #mermay2021 #merman #merman boyfriend #monster boyfriend #monster lover #mermaid #merfolk #merman lover

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marianarira · 3 years

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How Art Challenges Made Me a Better Artist

(Watch the YouTube video!)

There are tons of different art challenges; I think there's a popular challenge every month—Inktober, plain airpril, creatuanuary, huevember, mermay, to name a few. Usually, influencer artists start a challenge with a hashtag. And it spreads throughout the community.

Participating in art challenges has become almost a norm, especially in recent years. And there are benefits in doing so:

You become part of the artists' community.

If your work is good enough, you can have exposure and grow your audience.

You can experiment and try new things.

And last but not least, you have fun.

They are also supposed to encourage people to draw every day and become better artists by improving their skills. (I'm not sure about this one, but I'll get back to it later.)

On the opposite side, I've seen artists, even professional ones, resist participating in these hashtag art challenges. So let's look at the disadvantages:

There's pressure to draw every day, and if you skip one, then there's a feeling of failure.

There's also a direct comparison with amazing artists, and for some of us, that can be discouraging.

Another negative I've seen recently is the obsession with getting followers and growing an audience. Of course, I understand the interest in that; we all want an audience. Still, I've seen artists, beginners especially, focusing on the followers more than on their drawing skills.

I think the most significant disadvantage, and this is something that happens to me, so I know this by experience. Is that, I would prepare myself to draw daily for one month. I would accomplish the 30 or 31 drawings and be happy with my results, but then, when the challenge was over, I wouldn't draw. Instead of being constant with my practice and growth, I would grind during that particular month and never grind the same for the rest of the year. I was treating drawing as a sprint when it's a marathon.

Looking at the "improving your skills" benefit and the disadvantages. I think there are better ways to improve and be a better artist. Don't get me wrong, the act alone of drawing every day will make you progress. It's just that I don't think these particular challenges are very beginner-friendly.

Introduciiiiing the "Make Your Own Personal Challenge"... Challenge!

Anybody can create their own challenge, and you can choose to share or not your results on social media. You don't need to be a professional artist, you don't need to be popular, and your challenge can be whatever you want. For example, look at this Haikyuu themed challenge. So just like you can make a challenge to satisfy your love for an IP and draw fan-arts during a month. You can also make a personal challenge to focus on improving what you want and need.

That's what I did on my Drawing Leveling Up challenge. I don't intend for other artists to follow it. It doesn't have a theme; it's not a hashtag with prompts. When I started it, I had no idea where it was going. If you see the videos, you'll notice that I change my mind from one day to the next. I just wanted to improve my anatomy drawing, and I wanted to do it as fast as possible. Committing to a challenge was the best way I found to force myself to study daily.

I want to show you the challenge an animator did: zoray99 on Instagram. They uploaded a daily animation exercise throughout a whole year. It was rough, focused on learning and improving. Look how simple this day's animation is, they wanted to really understand what was happening here. Doing that for a whole year is impressive, and I'm guessing Zoray feels satisfied with the achievement, but more importantly, how much they learned.

So if you're a beginner artist and the well-known hashtag art challenges overwhelm you, you can create your challenge to improve at your own pace. You only have to set up doable boundaries:

The first you need is a time limit; this is important because the ending and objective are not clear without a time limit, affecting your commitment and confidence. For a daily challenge, a month would be ideal. But you can also choose to draw every other day instead of daily. You can also say something like, "I'll draw daily on this sketchbook with a 15-minute time limit until I finish it." Those boundaries are helpful because maybe you don't have a lot of time to spend on drawing.

Another useful boundary is a prompt list. Sometimes we spend more time thinking about what to draw than drawing. If you want to evolve as an artist, I recommend following a book and study from it. Or you can focus on a specific study subject you want to improve, like "sketching backgrounds for 15 days".

Another thing is that, for hashtag challenges, most of us try to make finished illustrations with ink and color and everything. So you can also determine how far you want to go with each drawing, simple sketches, ink, and painting? You decide.

My personal challenge's boundaries were: drawing daily for 30 days following the lessons and tutorials of artists on youtube. That way, I didn't have to think about what to draw, the "prompts" were their videos, and also, my sketches didn't even need to be clean. This challenge's purpose was to study.

The best part is that you control your challenge and improvement. If there are things you struggle with, you can repeat and practice them more. You can also slowly increase the difficulty. That's what I did when I implemented the animated anatomy studies.

With a personal challenge, you can focus on self-growth. And leave the hashtag challenges to have fun, experiment, and be part of the community.

Ok, but does making a personal challenge help you improve? Mine finished on May 30. Am I a better artist now?

To measure my drawing improvement, I made some life drawing exercises in "class" format, and then without a time limit, I drew some poses from my imagination. Comparing them to day 11 and day 16 of my challenge, I think I improved a little, drawing-wise speaking.

The biggest difference is not in my skills, though. It's in my mindset. I feel the challenge made me feel better while drawing. I feel less stressed and with more confidence. I am still doing the anatomy animations I started on day 21, even though the daily challenge ended. So it also gave me the boost I needed to keep grinding forward. Like a marathon, not a sprint. And that's what matters the most.

If you feel artistically stuck, or you're not enjoying drawing as much as you once did, or you want to polish your skills or learn something new, you can make a personal challenge and focus it on self-improvement. It's hugely motivating for other artists and me to see someone challenging themself, and coming out better.

#script #youtube video #art challenge #artists on tumblr #art improvement

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angelicyoongie · 4 years

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the crimson shell

— pairing: jungkook x f!reader — genre: mermaid au, yandere au — w.c: 1.9k — warnings: mild stalking, near drowning, mentions of eating humans — notes: just wanted to contribute something to mermay! this is also my first time attempting to do anything in the realms of yandere (and mermaids!), so pls be nice lol. in this universe everyone is referred to as a mermaid, no matter what gender they are. this will most likely be a two or three part series with jk growing more and more obsessed as he gets y/n into his scaly clutches :)

Part I / II / III / IIII

— summary: you had always found comfort in being at the beach, often spending hours just watching the waves lap against the shore. but unbeknowst to you – something had been watching you back.

You inhale deeply, enjoying the salty smell that so uniquely belongs to the ocean. The last rays of sun are slowly disappearing behind the horizon, painting the skies and the waves in hues of deep pink and purple. You’re going to miss this view.

You sigh, running your fingers through the coarse sand as you let the gentle breeze caress your face. You’ve been looking forward to this for years, but now that your departure is so imminent, it feels more scary than liberating. The time has come to finally leave your home behind, and you feel a pang of regret as you realize you might not see your friends or family for a very long time to come.

Years of saving up your measly paychecks have finally paid off, and you’re setting sail for an island you’ve been hearing constant murmurs about for the last few months. Originally, you were only going to travel to the next kingdom over, hoping to find more suitable work there to help your parents stay afloat. But the talk of the mystery island abundant with riches piped your interest more than you would like to admit – and you’ve never been one to shy away from adventure.

However, you weren’t stupid enough to just blindly trust the rumours milling around your little town. In fact, you wholeheartedly believed it to be a scam until a familiar face suddenly turned up in the town square only a few weeks ago.

You hadn’t seen Jimin ever since he set sail for the unknown six months ago; and so everyone, including yourself, had presumed that your talkative neighbour had met an ill fate, and was floating at the bottom of the sea. You realized you couldn’t have been more wrong when Jimin returned with riches you never expected you would ever lay eyes on, his whole body adorned with various diamonds and gold chains.

It was Jimin who had urged you to seek out the same island, saying he barely even took a handful of all the treasures that were there. He had warned you about a price that would need to be paid, but you weren’t all that concerned. If a sea witch wanted your first born, then fine, you weren’t too keen on children anyway.

You busy yourself with drawing patterns in the sand, lost in your own thoughts as you try to remember your little mental checklist of all the things you wanted to see before you left tomorrow morning. You’re pretty sure this beach was the last one. It’s not much; just a short stretch of sand at the edge of the hill leading up to your family’s cottage, but it has always felt like home.

You come here every evening without fail, using the time to relax and breathe. The last month has felt a little different though, even if you don’t like to admit it. You’ve always stayed on the beach quite late, there’s nothing you know of that can rival the starry sky that appears once the sun had set. But lately, you’ve found yourself retreating back up the hill before the night could fully greet you.

It feels like you’re being watched.

It’s silly of course, considering the only thing in front of you is the quiet ocean. You would have noticed if there was something there, but still, you can’t seem to shake the feeling that something is out there – observing you.

It always happens so suddenly; one second you’ll be merely enjoying the view, and in the next, a sense of dread would knock into you so hard it left you breathless. It would make your neck feel tight, as if someone was gripping your skin, and the hair on your arms would rise in alarm.

Even just the memory is enough to give you goosebumps, and you let out an annoyed huff at how easily you seem to be able to scare yourself. You dust the sand off your hands before you rub them up and down your arms, trying to calm down the twinge of anxiety that’s slowly spreading through your body.

You don’t want to remember your last night here as something uncomfortable, so you let your gaze sweep over the beach one last time.

Something catches your eye just as you’re about to turn. Something red is ebbing and flowing along with the waves, and you hesitantly step forward until you can see it clearer. It’s nothing more than a pretty shell, but you’ve never seen that tone of red before. You snatch it up from the water before the tide can pull it out, slowly turning it back and forth to study it. The last sliver of light seems to catch on to it just right, giving the red a gorgeous golden shimmer.

You let out a low gasp of wonder, trailing your fingers along the scalloped pattern. It’s stunning, and you can’t help but think that it’s the beach’s way of saying its last goodbye. Maybe it was giving you a parting gift.

You clutch the shell gently in your hand, a soft ‘thank you’ slipping past your lips as you watch the ocean fondly. You notice a few sudden ripples in the quiet sea a little further out from the beach, but it has started to grow so dark that it’s impossible to make out anything below the soft waves. Chalking it up to just being fish, you shrug it off, finally turning on your heel to walk back up the hill to your family’s little cottage.

You’ve officially been on the sea for a week, and you’ve already grown tired. The small group of fellow villagers that you left with have already started getting on your nerves, and you’re not sure how you’re going to make it all the way to the island and back without going insane. Jimin said you would need to travel north for about two weeks, so you try to find solace in the fact that you’re halfway there already.

The journey so far has been pretty smooth, but the dark clouds on the horizon seem to be rolling towards you at an alarming speed. You dig into the pocket of your trousers, finding comfort in running your fingers along the shell you found on your beach. You can only hope it serves as a token of good luck, because the storm heading straight for you really doesn’t look good at all.

It feels like you only blink before the rain is pelting down against the ship, harsh waves tossing the wooden boat back and forth to its whims. You’re clinging on the side with all of your might, but the floor has turned wet and slippery, and it makes it even harder to stay on board with all the vicious tossing and turning.

You feel the electricity before it hits, the static making your hair stand up straight right before a bolt of lightning slams into the mast. You can barely hear the loud creak of wood over the screams from the other travellers, you gaze transfixed on the large wooden pole as it starts tipping.

You’re frozen in place; all of your muscles locking up in terror as you realize the mast is coming straight at you. You’ll be crushed in you don’t move, but you can’t. You close your eyes instinctively as the looming shadow rushes towards you, harshly sucking in one last breath of air. You feel the ship lurch, and your fingers slip from the bars you were clinging to as you’re tossed overboard.

A blanket of silence wraps around you the moment you hit the water, all of the screaming and creaking of wood suddenly ceasing as the cold liquid mercilessly drags you downwards. You can see the shadow of the ship growing smaller and smaller, your last breath escaping you as it bubbles up towards the surface.

You flail your hands desperately, your body too low on air to properly function. Swim, swim, swim! Your mind is screaming, but your heart has already accepted the rush of water filling your lungs, and the heavy feeling in your bones.

Your vision grows hazy, the blues and greys of the ocean blurring together. A streak of red suddenly breezes by your line of sight, but your tired brain only managing to provide you with the fleeting thought of fish? before the exhaustion truly sets in. You can hear a low series of muddled clicking noises all around you, but it only seems to make you even more drowsy.

Sleep, a deep voice whispers in the back of your mind. And slowly but surely, all of the mixed colours fade into nothingness.

It wasn’t that hard for the mermaid to steer your ship in the wrong direction. The ship was in his waters, under his control, and the storm that suddenly picked up in the northeast presented itself like the perfect opportunity.

He had been trailing after your ship ever since it left the dock, making sure he could strike at the right moment. He couldn’t believe the weird creature he had been watching for months was finally coming willingly to him, but it was only right considering you had accepted his courting gift.

And now, as you were sinking to the bottom of the sea, you were finally his. The mermaid circled you excitedly at a distance as your limbs flailed around underwater. He tried to tell you to calm down – that the fight against his ocean was futile – but you just wouldn’t stop trying.

The mermaid bristled in annoyance, his crimson tail cutting through the sea harshly as he watched the stupid creature fight a losing battle. He needed to take it home now, before his brothers could realize it was here.

Finally, your body stopped moving. The mermaid quickly closed in, strong arms wrapping around your torso as he stared into your unfocused eyes. While he didn’t exactly know what you were, and why you had one limb too many, he had at least gathered enough information to understand that you needed to breathe in that pesky air in order to survive.

He pushed up, letting the currents easily carry him up towards the surface. Of course, he made sure to emerge far from the sinking ship. While the gurgling screams usually were music to his ears – he couldn’t keep you too close to the food. His brothers would be here in no time to feast, and he couldn’t let his new pet be swallowed up before he even had a chance to play with it.

The creature sucked in a shuddering breath as oxygen finally flowed through its veins again. It didn’t take long before all his precious water was being expelled from the creature’s lungs, the mermaid watching in displeasure as it was replaced with that wretched air instead. It just seemed so .. inconvenient.

You didn’t wake however, the near drowning having swept away all of your energy. The mermaid threw one last look towards the remains of the ship, thin lips curling into a pout as the gurgling was replaced by bloody shrieks. He was hungry too, but it seemed like it would have to wait until his pet was out of harm’s way.

Well, at least until it was out of his brothers’ way. The mermaid didn’t like making promises he wasn’t certain he could keep.

#mermaid bts #mermaid au #mermaid jungkook #jungkook x reader #yandere bts #yandere au #yandere jungkook #jungkook au #bts au #bts fanfic #bts #yandere x reader

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cluelesspigeons · 3 years

Text

The prompt for this one was ‘flood’ from @drarrymicrofic

It’s still mermay, so I’m still allowed to post another mermaid!au. Also, this turned out far longer than I intended... woops!!

Word count: 914

Drarry microfic: flood

Cw: mentions of human sacrifice (but not really and nothing graphic)

The people called it The Flood.

It happened every 19 years.

It was a simple agreement between them and the villagers: a sacrifice in return for keeping the small village safe from any harm.

And every 19 years, they would wait on the rocky shores of the island, their scales the only colour against the dull grey of the stones and the water.

Harry knew it was time. When he had awoken that morning, he had known.

So he wasn’t really surprised when two men of the village came barging into the small cottage he had managed to build for himself not long after he turned of age. He wasn’t surprised when they hard-handedly took him outside, not leaving him any time to say goodbye to Flo, the old stray dog he had found a few weeks earlier.

However, he didn’t put up a fight. It would be a futile attempt, anyways. He couldn’t escape what was about to happen. He had been chosen for a reason. He was the village’s only hope of survival.

The mayor greeted him on the rocky shore, her eyes soft and apologetic. Harry had always been rather fond of her.

As Harry stopped in front of her, she put a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I’m glad you chose to come willingly, Harry. It makes this whole situation easier for everyone.” She smiled, or at least she tried to. Harry could easily see the pain shimmering behind her spectacles.

“It’s not like I have much of a choice”, Harry said, shrugging.

The mayor sighed and squeezed his shoulder again. “You and I both know I wish things could have been different.”

I know”, Harry smiled softly, “I know it’s because I’m the Chosen One.”

Rolling her eyes, the mayor shook her head. “I can’t say I’m going to miss your ‘brilliant’ sense of sarcasm.”

Harry chuckled. “You love my jokes, Minnie.”

“Yes”, she whispered resignedly, “I do.”

Before Harry could answer, she turned away from him to face the ocean, her hand falling from his shoulder as she did so.

“By giving you this young man, we thank you for all you do to keep our village safe!” Her voice echoed over the surface of the water.

Nothing happened.

Confused, Harry watched as the mayor nodded her head and started to walk away. “Goodbye, Harry,” she said as she looked back over her shoulder, “You will be missed dearly.”

Harry swore he saw a tear running down her cheek when she turned back around and strode to the village, leaving him standing alone on the dark and suspiciously empty rocks.

Weren’t they supposed to turn up now? Weren’t they supposed to come collect him? Why weren’t they coming to get him?

The sudden splash of water against the rocks made Harry turn around.

And there… only a few feet away from him, sat one of the most stunning creatures he had ever had the blessing of laying his eyes upon.

The Siren in front of him looked like pure silver, with long, white, almost translucent hair adorned with pearls and shells. Glistening skin that slowly merged into the silver scales of a long tail.

Harry had heard stories before, about the creatures’ beauty and the dangers they could inflict with their Song. Many people in the village even claimed to have seen one.

But no story could ever describe anything as breathtakingly gorgeous as this.

Curious silver eyes looked at him. “Do not be afraid, young human”, the Siren spoke, their voice melodious and soft. “You will not be drowned today.”

Harry squared his shoulders and righted his back. “I’m not… I’m not afraid of you.”

The Siren smiled, revealing a row of sharp teeth. “Of course not, you would have been long gone if you were.”

Frowning, Harry took a step closer, before realising he probably shouldn’t. Though, the Siren didn’t seem to mind. “I don’t understand”, he said, “aren’t I supposed to be ‘sacrificed’?”

“Yes, and you will be, young human. But I have not chosen to drown you.”

“I’m still not sure I understand what you’re talking about.”

The Siren chuckled, shaking their head. And something… something in Harry told him he could trust them. A strange feeling in his chest told him he could trust the oddly charming creature in front of him.

“I want you to join us”, the Siren said softly, “I want you to become one of us.”

“One of you… you mean…?”

The Siren nodded.

“Okay, but why…?”

Frowning, the Siren tilted their head. “Why wouldn’t I? Your beauty is too valuable, too precious for the ocean to just wash it away.”

“You… you think I’m beautiful?” Harry asked, bewildered. Nobody had ever told him that. Nobody had ever cared enough to say something so… nice. He could feel his cheeks warming.

“Of course”, the Siren said, confusion lacing their voice, “why would I lie?”

And that was all it took for Harry to give in. He crouched down in front of the Siren’s bemused face, his knees scraping the rough stones.

“Take me”, he said, no, begged, “please, take me away from here.”

The Siren reached up to cup Harry’s cheek. Their hand felt cold against his burning skin.

“You have to promise me one thing, though”, Harry whispered, his eyes closed as their foreheads rested together.

“And what would that be, young human?”

“Please… never leave my side. I… I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

Read it on ao3

Prompt from 14th of May 2021

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#drarry #writing #my writing #drarrymicrofic #harry potter #draco malfoy #draco x harry #harry x draco #flood #mermay #mermaid!au #mermaid!draco #siren!draco #cw: human sacrifice but not really #this is too long to be a microfic #woops #also on ao3

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dapandapod · 3 years

Text

Sing with me

This one is for @jaskierswolf, my last entry for mermay!

Please enjoy some Jaskier x Mer!Valdo with some fairytale feels to it. Thank you a billion to @kuripon for being my beta! (go give her fics a read too, they are amazing)

Here on Ao3. Please enjoy.

Lettenhove is beautiful in spring. Buds breaking into leaves, flowers forcing their way out of the frozen ground, the sky clear and blue. Jaskier loves it, and he wishes he could be out and enjoy it. But here he sits, listening to his tutor going on about the great wars of the continent. He used to be interested, but his new tutor is a right bore. He is never allowed to ask questions, or move about. And Jaskier is nine, he wants to move a lot.

What makes it better though, is the view. The room the tutor claimed for their studies has a view of the bay below. It lies undisturbed, the harbor being built in safer water with far less protruding rocks. If Jaskier focuses really hard, he can hear singing from down there.

He shuts his eyes real hard, ignoring the howling wind, ignoring his whining tutor, and focuses on the splash of waves and rich voices harmonizing along the cliffs, bouncing off the stone. It earns him a slap on the wrists most times he is caught, but it is worth it. Sometimes he sneaks into the classroom after bedtime. He sits down in the alcove in front of the window and opens it. Propped up on his elbows, he looks down below, the height making the underside of his feet tickle, and the wind is blowing gently in his bangs. More than once he falls asleep there, lulled by the singing below and the splashing of waves.

One day he will go down there and meet them. The sirens.

Jaskier gets a new tutor. She is younger, brighter than the last one, and she smells like the sea. Her eyes are the deep grey of angry skies and her smile as soft as seaweed. He likes her a lot. She teaches him to sing, and the lilt of her voice reminds him of those below, those hiding in the crashing waves. She teaches him the ways with a lyre, and she lets him ask every question that pops into his mind.

But something goes wrong. He isn’t sure what happens, but one day after their studies, she kisses his forehead and bids him goodbye. “It was nice knowing you, little Julian,” she whispers, like it is a secret. “Come visit us some time.”

The day after, a stern, thick man takes her place. The man frowns when he sees the lyre, decorated with seashells, but lets him keep it and doesn’t tell his father.

And when night falls, Jaskier creeps back into the classroom. Elbows propped against the window, he sings. He knows their songs now, their words, and he knows she is down there.

Jaskier is thirteen when he braves it for the first time. The climb down there is steep, loose rocks and wet grass under his feet keeping his heart in his throat.

But he wants to meet them before he leaves. He has been accepted to Oxenfurt for his studies, and he is leaving before his fourteenth birthday. He stumbles and falls on his butt, sliding down a few paces before he finds his feet again, scraping his knee. It stings, and the leg of his trousers is ripped, but he keeps going.

It's not until he stands, watching the water churn among the rocks, that Jaskier allows himself to breathe. Small droplets of salt water hit his cheek, his nose, and he blinks. They watch him, as he watches them. Jaskier can see them in the middle of the bay, settled on the rocks sticking out of the water. None look like the other. One's skin is rich gold, another a deep brown. Another is pale white, shimmering like a pearl. Their hair is sticking to their bodies, long and dark. Only two of them seem to favour a shorter hairstyle. Not all of them even have fish tails.

Jaskier takes a tentative step closer to the water, knowing full well he will die if he falls in. Maybe he will die anyway. All of the stories he has been told about sirens end with humans dying.

But they came to him. She kissed his forehead and sang him good night.

He won’t believe it.

One siren dives beneath the surface, her tail green and red. He waits for her to approach, and when she is close enough, he recognizes her. Her eyes are still the color of angry skies and her smile is still as soft as seaweed. She greets him with warmth, and bids him sit.

They sing together, and it takes all of his concentration to remember the words. It’s been years, after all, but he falls back into it easily enough. The others join them after a while, their curiosity peaked by a boy by the sea, learning their language. Those with legs come sit with him, and he blushes at their nakedness when their bodies are revealed.

That summer, for every night he is able, he sneaks down to the bay. He learns their names and their singsong way of talking. When he tells her about the lyre, how he has it hidden from his father, she is delighted. She teaches him more about music than any tutor he has ever had ever, and her way of telling stories is like poetry.

When fall comes and Jaskier is put in a carriage to Oxenfurt, he doesn’t cry. He has needled from his mother and older sister that they have the song there too. It may be in a different form, but he has sworn to her to bring it home to them.

Jaskier is seventeen when he meets Valdo Marx.

That boy is like no other in Oxenfurt. He is wild, rude, funny and absolutely beautiful. He sprays himself with thick and expensive perfume, but Jaskier smells it on him anyway.

The sea.

Valdo's hair is thick and dark, just like theirs. Jaskier watches him in the lazy hours in the morning when they sit in the library. If a ray of sun hits him just right, there is a vague shimmer to his skin.

Jaskier knows.

And he is besotted.

But approaching Valdo Marx is harder than anything he has ever done. Their ways of singing are much alike, and Valdo takes great offence at that. Where Jaskier tries a tentative smile, Valdo sneers. Scoffs, mocks and pushes him away.

Jaskier doesn’t understand it, but he accepts it. If their rivalry is all he can get, he will take it. So it's song duels, poetry battles, drinking games, anything to get his attention. Valdo keeps the act up, but sometimes when they part, Jaskier thinks he can see the hint of a smile.

The water near Oxenfurt is so very unlike the water at home. It is calmer, for one, and the water is so very clear.. Jaskier likes to go down there in the early mornings. He avoids the harbor as it is a busy and dangerous place at times, and these nights he wants peace.

He longs for them. His friends. People call him songbird, but no, that’s not it. Jaskier follows the beach and when the weather allows he takes his shoes off. At home it was dangerous to step into the water, but here the waves lap at his feet, hiding them under a thin layer of sand. It is harder to find a good place to sit, so he is far from town when he reaches his chosen spot. He leans back against a tree, watching the sun slowly rise above the water. Gulls cry over him and dive into the water for breakfast.

Jaskier likes to sing here.

Not as he does in school, nowhere near that. Here he sings in their language, far from prying ears. No one sings with him, but that is alright. It’s been years since he went back there. He probably won’t ever go back there again.

His father is not a kind man.

Jaskier sings his sorrows away. It feels like he is calling to them, a lonely cry over the waves, asking for someone, anyone to join him. It would be nice if Valdo sang with him. Maybe, if he is patient, he will win him over.

Things change when Jaskier gets in a fight. He didn’t mean to, he is shit at fighting and the sight of blood makes his head spin, but here they are. And he is losing too.

A fist slams into his ribs, making him bend awkwardly around the pain. Jaskier grunts, but straightens up, or at least he tries to. His feet are kicked from under him, and next thing he knows, feet are raining down on him.

They kick his hip, his already aching ribs, his shoulder, his fingers.

Jaskier doesn’t see Valdo in the tavern. Doesn’t notice those ocean eyes on him, his silence and his observance.

Only when the blows stop, and Valdo is taking a swing at the offender does he notice. Turns out Valdo is bad at fighting too, and they run from the pub together, bruised and swearing. They stop in an alley, hidden far enough away from the street, catching their breath. Only when they are sure they are not being pursued does the laughing start. More like giggling, actually. Neither is completely sober, adrenaline rushing through their veins, and the sheer absurdity of it all has them hiccuping and wheezing, leaning against the wall for support.

“Why the fuck would you pick a fight with that guy?!” Valdo wheezes, wiping tears from his cheeks. “He was huge!”

"He was being an asshole!” Jaskier defends himself, but he agrees. Maybe not his brightest idea. They sink down against the wall, catching their breath. The ground is a little muddy, but his trousers are already dirty, so it doesn’t matter.

When they sit side by side, Jaskier watches Valdo’s profile in the semi-darkness. He doesn’t usually get to see him up close, and with the light spilling from a window somewhere above them. Valdo is beautiful. And in this low light, Jaskier can see the hint of scales again. He knows Valdo is probably wearing a glamour, so he isn’t supposed to be able to see it. Valdo looks back at him, eyes still glittering with humour.

“What?” He asks.

“Thank you. For helping me.”

Valdo looks at him searchingly for a long moment. Then he nods, as if he has made up his mind.

“You are welcome.”

They sit in silence for another few moments, letting the buzz of Oxenfurt nightlife surround them. Jaskier is looking up over the rooftops, trying to see the stars, when Valdo speaks again.

“You know what I am, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“You sing like we do.”

“I do.”

“Why?”

Now it is Jaskier who turns his head and finds Valdo watching him. He blinks fast a few times, trying to chase away the flutters that rise in him.

“One of my tutors came from the sea. My father didn’t like her, so she didn't stay, but we found each other again. She taught me songs and words and stories.”

Jaskier can’t tear his eyes away, watching Valdo watching him.

It is a strange sensation, having Valdo’s attention like this.

“Is this why you keep going to the water to sing?” Valdo asks, surprising him. It must show on his face, because he smiles gently at him, and Jaskier feels like he could melt.

“I hear you sometimes. When I’m out swimming.”

Jaskier has to swallow hard before he can reply. He would love to see Valdo in the water. He remembers how graceful they are back home, how they moved in the water, strong muscles playing under the skin.

“It is,” Jaskier confirms when he has himself under control. “I miss them.”

“I don’t know where my family is,” Valdo says after a while. “I left to come here. But I will find them again. Some day.”

Jaskier stares at his boots for a moment. He wants to ask, he wants to ask so badly. He is a little afraid to do it, seeing that they just got on speaking terms.

“Would you uh…”

Valdo is still watching him as if he is trying to figure him out.

“Would you sing with me some time?”

There. He said it.

Valdo opens his mouth. Closes it. Tilts his head.

“Do you know what it means to sing together?”

Jaskier shakes his head. He doesn’t. But it always meant a lot to him, and Valdo holds a special place in his heart. He wonders how their voices would sound together.

“It means belonging. Is this what you are asking of me? To belong?”

Oh.

Oh, that puts warmth in Jaskiers heart. To have found belonging with his people in the waves, to be accepted, chosen and loved.

And it flusters him greatly that he is now asking the same of Valdo.

Because he is, he realizes. He would like that very much.

“If you’d like. Some day. I’m not asking for it now. I just… I would love to see you in the water sometime.”

Valdo doesn’t reply. He stands up, dusts off his trousers.

“We’ll see. Maybe.”

Then he stretches out a hand to help Jaskier up.

Valdo's hand in his is soft, warm, firm. When they are both on their feet, Valdo doesn’t let go of his hand immediately.

“I think I can see what they saw in you,” Valdo says slowly. Jaskier doesn’t really understand what he means, but he loves it all the same. They make their way slowly across town, following the ebb and flow of its inhabitants. Valdo is still holding his hand.

It takes months, years for Jaskier to see Valdo swim. His tail shares the color of seaweed, scales sparkling in the evening sun when he breaches the surface. Jaskier watches from the bay, far away from prying eyes. Valdo is every bit as magnificent as he thought he would be. Their journey here was long. A tentative friendship growing and growing. They still have their rivalry, are still at each other's throats most of the time.

But tonight, when Valdo offers to bring him to the sea, Jaskier know that too is about to change. Jaskier is wading out into the water, and Valdo swims to meet him. When the water comes to his chest, Valdo wraps his arms around him. It is cold, but Valdo pulls him in close and pushes their foreheads together.

“Will you sing with me?” Valdo asks, stealing Jaskier's breath away.

“Yes.”

#mermay #mermay 2021 #valskier #valdo x jaskier #mer!valdo #sirens #the witcher #the witcher au #julian alfred pankratz #oxenfurt #lettenhove #dapanda writes #i am so tired #i don't know how to tag anymore

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