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vivitheanimaxen · 5 months

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To be completely honest, Martyn wasn't too excited about the idea of leaving Jimmy alone with their guest overnight. Not after the firecracker of a mer had almost killed him.

Even though Jimmy was normally the one who got the mer they rescued to chill the heck out, they'd never had one as openly aggressive as Firecracker. Sure, they'd had aggressive mer before, but normally they only postured instead of outright attacking them.

But then again, most of the mer they handled were either still injured, or young enough that they trusted Jimmy easily.

Scott had gone to check on them, and Jimmy had insisted on not leaving their guest to wake up alone. From what Scott had explained to him, Martyn could almost understand the mer's reactions.

Apparently he'd thought that Martyn had killed the man he'd dropped while rescuing Firecracker. The red mer had gotten himself attached to the marine rescue workers, which wasn't that surprising. Mer tended to 'pod-bond' with anything that gave them enough attention. They were surprisingly human, that way.

Martyn was at least glad that Lizzie was going to be here soon, so she could check Scott's bites. If her messages were anything to go by, she'd be here around noon tomorrow.

But for now, Martyn needed some sleep.

He woke up with the sun that morning, as was his body's cursed habit. He had too much to check up on to let himself have a lie in, so up Martyn got.

First off, he went to check on Jimmy, who'd spent the night in the pool with their guest. The two of them were still asleep, by what Martyn could see, curled up like he often found Joel and Jimmy whenever the former visited with Lizzie. Hopefully adding a new mer into the mix wouldn't trigger another fight.

Then Martyn had to go make breakfast, and make sure that the guest room was presentable. After that he checked his messages, making sure there weren't any other mer that they'd need to go find.

Thankfully it didn't look like it.

Lizzie sent him a text telling him they were ahead of schedule, and that she and Joel would be there in about two hours.

Welp, time to go get make sure Jimmy and Firecracker were awake. He wanted to make sure he got food into them before Lizzie and Joel got here. Cause heaven knew that Jimmy would forget to eat, and Martyn didn't want to deal with a hangry mer.

When he stepped out to the covered pool, he was almost surprised to hear an actual civil sounding conversation going on. The two mer were talking, the whistles carrying up to Martyn.

He couldn't completely understand it, but most of it seemed to be the new mer telling Jimmy about-- a rock?

Well, Martyn was sure Jimmy would tell him later if it was anything important.

Martyn used his own whistle to get their attention, it was one that Jimmy had taught him. Jim said it meant something like: "Hey, over here!" but it usually ended up making both Scott and Jimmy snicker at him when he used it to get their attention. But hey, it worked better than just yelling at them when they were in the water.

The conversation in mer stopped, and a moment later, Jimmy popped up out of the water.

"Hey Martyn." He grinned, giving a little wave.

"Have you eaten yet today?" Martyn asked, walking over to crouch at the edge of the pool. Jimmy's grin turning sheepish told him everything he needed to know, "I'll bring you two some food. If you can get him to come up and eat it, that is."

"Sounds good." Jimmy nodded, before perking up a bit, "Oh! I got his name, by the way. It's--" Jimmy vocalized a mer name that Martyn couldn't hope to repeat-- "But he says his 'human name' is Tango. That's what his friends at the marine rescue called him, at least."

"Alright. Tango it is, then." Martyn returned the nod, "Oh, and Lizzie said she's on her way. She and Joel will be here in about two hours, if the traffic holds out okay."

Martyn couldn't help but smile at the happy little wiggle Jimmy did when Joel's name came up. It really was a shame they didn't get to hang out more often.

Martyn talked with Jimmy for a little bit longer, apparently Tango had chilled the heck out once he'd gotten some cuddles and spent some time with Jimmy-- which was kinda weird if you asked him but Jim said it was a mer thing and who was Martyn to argue on that front.

Speaking of Tango, the other mer seemed to be watching them from the depths of the pool. He wasn't holding an aggressive stance, it seemed more curious than anything. Maybe spending some time talking to Jimmy was all he needed. Hm.

It wasn't long before Martyn's legs started to hurt from him being crouched for so long, so he stood up and stretched, "Let me go grab some food and I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay." Jimmy echoed, watching as Martyn walked back inside.

It was practically routine for Martyn to grab a bunch of food for Jimmy and Tango, waving hi to Scott where he was working on his own laptop, updating him on the situation, and walking back out to the pool. It surprised him to see that Jimmy had actually gotten Tango to surface. The mer was staring at him with his red eyes narrowed, fins pinned back in annoyance.

It was moments like these that made Martyn wish he was more fluent in mer. The language barrier was a rough one, that was for sure.

The rest of the day went pretty well, all things considered, at least-- until Lizzie and Joel arrived. Joel was the one to clock Scott's injuries first, wrinkling his nose and opening his mouth to get a better taste of the air.

"Is that-- blood? Which one of you is hurt?" Joel narrowed his eyes at Scott, noticing the bandages on his arm, "Scott what happened?"

"Tango bit me. A couple times, actually." Scott shrugged.

"Tango?" Lizzie asked, tipping her head.

"That's the name of the mer we picked up a couple days ago." Martyn explained. "He's-- kind of an jumpy one, that's for sure."

"Jumpy is one way to put it. The twerp almost murdered Martyn." Scott huffed.

Martyn face-palmed, letting out a sigh. This is just what he didn’t want. They didn’t need any more fights. And if Martyn knew Joel, the next words out of his mouth would be--

"Did he hurt Jimmy too?"

"No. Jimmy is fine. He's out in the pool right--" Martyn didn't have time to even finish his sentence before Joel was throwing off the blanket covering his tail and the T-shirt he'd been wearing, wheeling his chair through the house and over to the back door.

Martyn sighed, running a hand through his hair before he moved to follow. "Lizzie, why don't you check Scott over first, and then come out to look at Tango when you're done?"

It would be bad enough with Joel getting overprotective of Jimmy and himself. If Lizzie was out there while this happened?? Martyn hadn't yet seen what a real fight between two competent adult mer looked like, and he never wanted to.

If nothing else, this would be interesting.

#team rancher #team rancher au #martyn itlw #ldshadowlady #joel smallishbeans #scott smajor #tangotek #jimmy solidarity #dont mind me #viviwrites #emberfish au #unfortunately i was an idiot and managed to lose like. the first 200 words or so of this one. by falling asleep on my laptop.#but hey we rewrite things!#anyway #i hope that Joel doesn't fight Tango.#He's had a hard enough time already.#but who knows. meeting another mer who's in a pod with a human might piss tango off more.#like. hypocrites much?

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vivitheanimaxen · 6 months

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Tango hadn't had this much physical contact with another mer since he'd gotten separated from his pod.

He was pinned against the cold wall of the pool, Jimmy pressed against him and holding him pinned. Everything was just too much, at the moment. He squeezed his eyes shut, just focused on the water pumping over his gills as his heartrate started to finally slow down.

Okay, back up a bit, how did Tango manage to get himself in this situation?

In all truth, he wasn't entirely sure. He'd been swimming around the pool, trying to get used to the way his ripped fins changed his maneuverability, going as fast as he dared in the enclosed space-- probably faster than was advisable.

It was an anxious tick of his, pacing back and forth when he was attempting to work something out. It helped when the problem was something he could inspect with his hands and where another perspective was incredibly helpful. Not so much when the danger was unseen, unheard, and completely out of his control. At least he could pace, here, rather than being stuck in an empty tidepool not much bigger than two body lengths across.

He'd been talking out loud to himself-- just gibberish, really, thinking out loud as he worked the stiffness out of his muscles. Anything to distract from the eerie quiet. The water being this quiet never meant anything good. He was going to go insane if he had to sit here in silence, just waiting to be ambushed. And him being loud wasn't helping. the sorts of predators that made the sea go quiet were the ones you needed to be quiet to avoid.

He felt like he was going mad anyway. There weren't any predators here, not the type that sound would do anything more to attract. But he simply couldn't bring himself to shut up. It was easier to just keep chattering away to himself, because then maybe he would actually have somewhere to point the pent-up jittery sort of borderline panic that was making his scales itch. Maybe then there would be a physical threat to sink his fangs into, instead of this growing dread and certainty that his pod was dead again.

He'd lost his first pod to a silence like this.

Tango hated silence.

It only took a half a second of distraction for Tango to lose focus on his careful balance of speed and water pressure and the way his fins dragged to slow him down for the turn and-- there was movement, something was above the water.

Thwack--

Well, that hurt. Tango shook his head, at least he'd had the awareness to twist, hitting the wall with his back instead of with his head or shoulder or anything that would've snapped with the wrong amount of pressure.

Then there were bodies in the water, humans surrounding him where he lay on the shallow bottom, a mer circling around behind him for the kill--

It was a split-second decision, and a lucky glance of blond hair versus blue that let him tackle the human into the water and take him hostage.

The other two had gills, but this one didn't.

Once he had his back to the wall and the held in front of him like a shield, the other two kept their distance.

It was Jimmy, the mer he'd yelled at before, and the blue-haired half-thing that'd helped steal Tango and maybe-kill Impulse.

The human he was holding hostage was the one who'd maybe-killed Impulse. In that moment, he was incredibly tempted to bleed the human out right here and now. He was a threat.

"Woah-- woah!! just calm down. we can talk about this, right?" Jimmy had his hands out in a placating gesture, "Just-- let Martyn go, alright? He's done nothing to hurt you, mate--"

"Oh? Why don't you ask him about what happened to my human?" Tango snapped, tightening his grip.

"Don't--! You're gonna hurt him--" Jimmy pinned his fins back in a show of submission, backing off.

But the other one was trying to edge around to the side of him. Tango bared his fangs in response, twisting to face him too, "You stay right there-- don't come any closer--"

The half-thing put up his hands, "Let him go, we're not goin-ta hurt you."

"Tell that to the human you killed--" Tango snarled, flaring his fins in threat, "You killed my human, it's only fair that I get to kill yours."

"Killed--" Jimmy twisted to look at the half-thing, "Scott, did you guys kill somebody?"

"No. No, we didn't kill him. We put him to sleep, that's all." The half-thing-- Scott-- shook his head, "Let Martyn go before you hurt him."

They-- hadn't killed Impulse? Oh. That changed a couple things. Maybe. If Impulse was okay.

A moment before Tango was going to let the human go, something sharp bit him in the arm.

Tango recoiled with a shout, shoving Martyn away.

He got tackled a moment later by Scott, everything starting to go out of focus.

They were all liars. All three of them. Liars and cheats and Tango wasn't going to let them get away with this--

He snapped at Scott, managing to get at least one or two solid bites in before the half-thing could really react. A moment later, Jimmy slammed into the two of them, knocking Tango's head spinning and taking the opportunity to pull them apart.

Tango twisted in his grip, shrieking in anger as he attempted to get his fangs into Jimmy too. He wasn't able to get around to anywhere he could do any damage. A moment later, Jimmy shoved him against the wall.

And that's how Tango found himself in this situation.

He gave a half-hearted flick of his tail, flexing against Jimmy's grip. Tango didn't really want him to let go, but he didn't want to just-- give up.

"Alright. Listen here, you." Jimmy hissed into his ear, "You need to hold your seahorses and actually listen for once, instead of just fighting us all the time. Now. Are you done? or are you going to keep trying to bite me?"

Tango shuddered, letting himself go limp as he tipped his head towards the wall. His mouth felt thick and clumsy and stuffed full of pebbles as he answered, "I'm done. . ."

"Moon and stars above, was that really so hard?" Jimmy asked, not letting Tango go, but loosening the death grip on his arms.

Everything was fuzzy, like the way it'd been when he first woken up here. Whatever it was that'd bitten him was nasty. Nastier than the time Etho had accidentally gotten Tango with his spines.

Jimmy did eventually let go of Tango, after Scott had gone back up to the surface to check on the human. Tango still had to lean against the wall, though. He didn't like his chances of staying upright with the way everything seemed tipped ever so slightly to the left.

He had to admit that he was sad about Jimmy swimming off to also check on his human after a little while longer. Even though Martyn hadn't actually killed impulse, Tango couldn't bring himself to feel guilty about almost drowning the man.

Sue him for being homesick, but Tango couldn't help but want the other mer around.

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vivitheanimaxen · 5 months

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Jimmy hoisted himself onto the edge of the pool, keeping half an eye on the fiery mer laying where Jimmy had left him. Martyn was still laying an arms-reach away from the edge of the water, soaking wet and chest heaving.

Jimmy was just thankful that he was still breathing.

With what the other mer had been yelling about, Jimmy was all too aware just how close Martyn had come to being murdered right in front of him.

He felt guilty for not pushing harder to come back out here alone. If the other mer hadn't seen Scott or Martyn until after Jimmy had made friends with him, then this probably wouldn't have happened.

"Martyn. . . ?" Jimmy questioned, reaching out with a dripping hand to nudge his leg, "Are you-- are you gonna be okay?"

It took a moment, but Martyn pushed himself up to a sitting position, letting out another stream of coughs, "Yeah-- yeah. I'll be okay."

Jimmy glanced back down at the red mer at the bottom of the pool. He still hadn't moved, beyond his fins twitching every now and again. Jimmy knew that the sedatives Martyn had used were strong, but--

He just wished that none of this would have happened this way.

"You-- uhm. I don't think that you getting in the water was a very smart idea. . ."

"In hindsight? Yeah." Martyn took a deep breath, suppressing a cough, "That was probably the dumbest thing i could've done."

Scott walked out of the house a moment later with a small stack of towels, and their first aid kit. He set them down on one of the pool chairs nearby the door, before walking over to help Martyn to his feet and over.

Jimmy just watched from the edge of the pool as Scott sat Martyn down, draping a towel around his shoulders.

"Jimmy, did he manage to bite you too?" Scott called, turning to look over at him.

"No." Jimmy shook his head, "He didn't get me. He tried, though."

"Alright. Good." Scott gave a little nod of his head, before turning back to his own bites.

The mer had given Scott quite the thrashing, it looked like. Jimmy had still been able to taste the blood in the water, before he'd come up to check on Martyn.

But they looked like they were fine. And Jimmy didn't like the thought of what might happen if they left their guest alone again.

Jimmy hadn't been able to figure out everything that the mer had been chattering about, but from what he knew about his own kind, and how the mer had reacted to Martyn and Scott, and the bits and pieces Jimmy picked up-- well. Let's just say that it didn't seem pretty. He'd been chirruping a child's call, mostly. One that Jimmy himself had yelled himself hoarse with, when he'd been freshly stolen.

Jimmy might've been taken from his pod young, but it seemed like the opposite had happened to this mer. Maybe. He obviously had a different pod now, because of what he'd said about not telling the humans at the marine rescue about them. And it wasn't uncommon for mer to change pods without anything bad happening.

But--

It didn't feel right to leave him alone.

Not now, not after what had just happened. Not after Jimmy could see just how quickly things had spiraled out of control.

Jimmy could understand. The other mer had not only been hurt in that nasty storm, but he'd also been stolen by humans and from what Martyn said, he'd been stuck in a tiny little shallow pool barely big enough to stretch out in! And then, once he'd gotten attached to those humans, Jimmy's pod had come in and took them and the mer had thought they'd killed someone.

It was an overreaction, what the mer had done, but it was an understandable one. Jimmy would probably have done the same, if their positions were switched.

Jimmy slipped back into the water. Right now the best thing he could do was make sure the mer was okay too, because he didn't have anyone looking out for him and also Jimmy sort of wanted to make sure that the splint hadn't come loose. From what Jimmy had seen, the cuts in the other mer's fins hadn't impacted his ability to swim. at least, not in this size of a pool. Lizzie would be able to tell better, once she got here.

Jimmy spread his sails as he got close, drifting above the mer, "Hey, uhm. . ."

Gosh he didn't want to just manhandle the mer to check on the splint but he didn't know how to ask.

The mer flinched, curling into himself as he glanced up at Jimmy. It was almost fascinating, how quickly his mood could change-- where before he was all puffed up and posturing, now he was doing the exact opposite.

Then again, he was sorta drugged right now.

Jimmy suppressed a shudder of regret, settling himself on the tiles next to the mer, "I just wanted-- can I touch you? I need to check the splint."

To Jimmy's surprise, the mer shifted closer, holding out his injured hand to Jimmy. Which, after a quick check to make sure everything was still in place, Jimmy let go of. But when he went to scoot back, to give the mer a bit of space, it was answered by a soft whine.

It wasn't really words? The closest thing it meant was "don't go." So Jimmy moved back, surprised to have the mer press his tail gently against Jimmy's.

Oh, poor thing. He was probably so touch starved, Jimmy knew firsthand how important physical contact was to mer.

"Oh, c'mere. . ." Jimmy warbled, pulling the mer against him in a hug and draping his tail over the other mer's. It wasn't a surprise to him when the other mer reciprocated, tucking his head against Jimmy's chest and curling his tail around Jimmy's.

Surely this would help calm him down. Whenever Jimmy got too stressed, he always felt better after some cuddles.

It didn't take long for the mer to fall asleep on Jimmy, but that was probably more from the sedatives than Jimmy himself.

It wasn't until Jimmy was running his hand through the sleeping mer's hair that he realized he hadn't told Martyn or Scott that he was gonna spend some time down here with their guest. Oh well. If they really wanted to know, Scott would come down to talk to him.

Looking down at the mer, Jimmy also realized that they still didn't know his name. Maybe he'd be able to get it from the mer when he woke up.

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vivitheanimaxen · 7 months

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Zedaph was ever so fascinated with the mer that Impulse had found washed up on the beach near their house. How couldn't he be? Science knew more about space then the depths of the ocean, after all. It almost wasn't surprising to find out that merpeople were real.

It might have been a touch of medical malpractice to hop him up on painkillers meant for dolphins, but it wasn't like Zedaph had any painkillers for merpeople lying around, and with the sheer amount of lacerations and the broken wrist and the bruised and possibly broken ribs, he had to give the mer something or it would have most definitely been medical malpractice. And extremely cruel.

Zedaph might be a bit of an unethical scientist, but he wasn't cruel.

The first time he saw the mer, it had been when Skizz had torn him away from his lab down to one of the smaller rehab rooms that was normally reserved for overflow patients because of how out of the way it normally was. Skizz hadn't said much more that there was a 'really hurt animal' and that he'd need a rescue kit and how was Zedaph supposed to say no? It had been too quick for him to realize that there really should have been a team already on this cause technically Zedaph was off duty right now, but sometimes more than one animal came in, especially when the storms had been bad.

Impulse had been waist deep in the pool, bloody water lapping up over the tiles. For a moment, Zedaph hadn't been able to see the other figure in the water with Impulse, and his body had flushed cold with the thought of all that blood belonging to Impulse--

And then he saw the tail fluke break the surface. Impulse had a hold on the thing in a catch pole, keeping it submerged and away from himself as it struggled. That wasn't good. It might hurt itself, or Impulse.

Zed dropped to his knees at the edge of the pool, opening up the medical kit, "Impulse, what happened? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, no, it's just the--" Impulse cut off as the mer thrashed again, drawing Zedaph's eyes.

He had to pause for the precious moments it took him to look at what was in front of him. To really look. It was hard to see in the reddish water, almost impossible to tell where the scarlet of blood ended and where the ruby of scales began. But-- he could see the eyes as red as fire coral, full of what could only be fear, and the torn up gills working overtime along it's neck and chest. He could see the blond hair, matted with seaweed and sand, and--

"I found him washed up, all tangled in a fishing net. He's cut up in a lot of places and I think his right wrist is broken. I-- You can fix it, right?"

"I-- yeah. Maybe." Zedaph shook himself, "We need to stop the bleeding first. Skizz, can you help Impulse wrangle?"

Zed sorted through the thankfully well organized box of supplies, pulling out a suture set and waterproof bandages and-- after a moment-- a dose of painkillers. He'd thankfully grabbed a dolphin kit, and the merperson looked to be about the size of one. Zedaph didn't know if he was a conscious breather like one either, so dolphin meds it was. Until Zed knew more about him, at least.

It was a very tense job, sewing up the worst of the cuts in the merperson's skin and sticking bandages over the rest of the cuts and splinting his wrist. Zedaph would do a much more thorough examination of him once the painkillers kicked in and they'd all had a long moment to calm down and once the worst of the danger was passed.

Zedaph also wanted to wait and let the water clear of blood, for everyone's benefit. He knew some marine creatures got more aggressive if there was blood in the water. And all that muck in the water couldn't be helping the creature's ability to breathe. But Impulse had said he'd been able to breathe air too? Even though he had gills.

Again, this would require more observation to figure out.

The third time Zedaph had to do an examination of the mercreature, the three of them were there-- Impulse, Skizz, and himself. He was incredibly grateful for that fact-- and for Skizz's reflexes-- When the mer lunged at them with a snap and almost took a couple of Zedaph's fingers off. The only thing that'd stopped a bloody end for Zedaph's hand was a catch pole shoved between the mer and his tasty tasty flesh.

Zedaph had inspected the bite mark later. He'd seen the other one that the mer had mangled, but it was another thing entirely to see it happen right in front of him. The pole was made of stuff strong enough to survive a crocodile's bite, and yet--

Lets just say that it wasn't reusable after that examination.

Fascinating indeed.

#zedaph #tangotek #team zits #team zits au #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #this one is pretty early in the timeline #but i simply couldn't help myself #merman au #medical care #injury tw #stitches tw #miscommunication #language barrier

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vivitheanimaxen · 7 months

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Emberfish AU Masterpost

ight, since I was asked, here's the masterpost for the merdude!Tango au.

Scraplets are grouped into 'arcs' and listed in rough chronological order. Some of them overlap, in that case they are in order of first posted. After that are the misc posts with enough worldbuilding to qualify being put on here.

If you want more worldbuilding or have any questions, just ask! I love answering asks <3 they fuel my brainrot for this au as well.

Update:

This au has now (mostly) been cross-posted to ao3! It's still messy, and these ficlets will continue to be posted to tumblr first, and then updated on ao3. Probably in batches when i get a round tuit.

the ao3 fics can be found here!

Prologue Arc

Tango's POV - meeting his new pod

Rescued Arc

Tango's POV - etho isn't the only washed up one

Impulse's POV - marine rescues take mer, right?

Zedaph's POV - first impressions

Impulse's POV - the infamous pole incident

Skizz's POV - temper temper

Tango's POV - wordz r hard

Kidnapped Arc

Tango's POV - grand theft mer

Jimmy's POV - new mer who dis?

Skizz's POV - HE SAID THE THING--

Tango's POV - a new place 2 electric boogaloo

Martyn's POV - don't get in the water if you don't have gills. idiot.

Tango's POV - please stop fighting i am BEGGING you-

Jimmy's POV - welp. everyone is still alive. so far.

Martyn's POV - you would think that they would be done fighting by now, wouldn't you?

Jimmy's POV - I sure hope this is the last fight

Martyn's POV - Things are looking up now

Those Left Behind Arc

Etho's POV - this might be a problem. . . for team siz, anyway.

Impulse's POV - i told you it might be a problem

Etho's POV - miscommunication sure is a b*tch, huh?

Tango's POV - a first foray into the au

(^^^This one is technically not canon, i was simply trying stuff out)

Misc posts:

vesper ask - mer & mimicry

kimi ask - about team zits

kimi ask - Doc & the hivemind

kimi ask - the pod™️

vague plot things

kimi ask - the pod™️ is looking

kimi ask - siz might be in trouble

kimi ask - siz + pod dynamics

kimi ask - ranchers dynamic

more plot things! introducing: Joel and Lizzie!

b ask - more about grian, pearl, and joel

b ask - Etho's backstory :]

klm-zoflorr ask - more about pod dynamics!

b ask - how martyn found tango

b ask - more about bdubs!

worldbuilding, ramblin about Joel

#dont mind me #masterpost!#emberfish au #team rancher au #team zits au #merman au #team rancher #team zits #tangotek au #tangotek #impulsesv #zedaph #skizzleman #jimmy solidarity #martyn itlw #ethoslab #bdouble0 #joel smallishbeans #lizzie ldshadowlady

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vivitheanimaxen · 5 months

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Impulse didn't quite know why he'd originally gone down to the beach with Skizz after their shifts at work, but he'd heard the whistles as soon as they'd stepped out onto the sand.

They sounded eerily like Tango, when their mer friend was curious about something they'd brought him. Impulse put a finger to his lips, motioning for Skizz to stay quiet. He didn't want to scare whatever it was away.

They made their way out onto the jetty of rock, Skizz using his phone to light their way, until Impulse saw it.

It was another merperson. It had to be.

Impulse couldn't see much more than the outline of a head and shoulders. He could tell their hair was white, with the way the moonlight bounced off of it, and he could see-- spines, maybe?

Whatever it was, they seemed to be looking for something, calling out with whistles and clicks now and again. Was there more than one? Tango was always more vocal when someone else was around.

Impulse's gaze was drawn away by Skizz crouching next to him, moving to shine the light over the water, "It's gotta be another merdude like Tango. Right?"

"Shhh-- Skizz, you gotta turn off the light or you're gonna scare it away--" Impulse reached out for the phone, hoping to point it away from the mer.

"Ugh, fine. But it's you're own fault if you trip and fall into the water and drown." Skizz huffed softly, putting his phone back into his pocket.

Impulse saw the mer flinch, disappearing with another high-pitched whistle.

"Skizz--" Impulse huffed, disappointed.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Skizz huffed right back, before pointing out at something in the dark, tapping Impulse repeatedly on the leg, "Look! look look look look look-- there's another one!"

Impulse twisted, and sure enough, there was a different head poking up from the water.

But before he could do anything else, there was a splash and a flurry of movement, and there was nothing left except ripples.

He carefully scanned the gentle waves, looking for any more movement.

"I wasn't seeing things, right? There's two merpeople down there." Skizz stood up, folding his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, I saw them too. They know we're here though." Impulse frowned, edging further out onto the rocks. "I didn't see where they went. Can you?"

"No dude, they've completely disappeared!"

Impulse sighed. On one hand, it was probably a good thing that the mer were so wary of them, but on the other hand, Impulse was hoping to get some more information about where Tango might've been taken. Odds were, these were just random mer who'd gotten washed in on the tide. But hey, they might get lucky.

"I've got a recording of Tango on my phone from before he started talking." Skizz pulled his phone back out, flipping to his photos, "Maybe we can get them to come up?"

"That might work. Just be careful."

Skizz hit play, and there was an almost instantaneous reaction from the mer, an answering call coming from the darkness off the side of the jetty.

Impulse crouched, trying to see if they could get closer to the water, instead of being up on the rocks like they were. He pulled out his keys, because he had a flashlight on those and also he still hadn't gotten a new phone yet. Impulse used the light to see where he was going as he slid down to a shelf that was probably covered at high tide.

There was another series of chirps and warbles, and Impulse could see the vague shapes bobbing up and down at the edge of the sea.

Skizz shuffled down after him, and Impulse gave him a steadying hand as he looked over to where the figures were.

There were two of them, but it was hard to see anything but vague outlines in the dark. Impulse didn't want to turn his flashlight back on-- he didn't want to startle them any more than they probably were.

Skizz, apparently, had no such reservations, turning on his flashlight and shining it right in the mers' faces. Great going Skizz.

They were undoubtably the same kind of creature that Tango was. The one with white hair had a woven band holding it away from their face, and because of the light, Impulse could see the red-black heterochromia. A scar cut over their left eye-- the red one-- and instead of ear-fins like Tango, they looked like they had a frill of spines framing their head. Strangely enough, he looked like he was wearing some sort of ninja mask, with one webbed hand pressed over his mouth. Impulse could also see striped, spiney fins running down his arms. In fact, the mer was so still that the only movement Impulse could see was those spines flexing.

The second one had flinched away from the sudden flash of light, drawing Impulse's gaze away. He had dark hair, and big, dark eyes almost too large for his face. While the first mer seemed to be covered in spines and stripes, this one seemed to be coated in algae? He'd brought his hands up to shield his face from the light with an offended squawk, and all up his arms was covered in-- it had to be some sort of moss or algae or something, because it certainly wasn't scales. He looked so confused, almost like a kicked puppy.

"Hey-- hey, do you guys understand English?" Skizz asked, shifting closer.

Impulse pushed the light down, "Stop it, you're scaring them. How would you like to be flashed like that?"

"Do you wanna get pulled into the water cause we can't see where they are?" Skizz countered, "You know how jumpy Tango was at the start--"

"Speaking of, you can turn off the video now, I think. That one looks so confused." Impulse gestured over to the green mer, "I don't think mer have phones in the ocean, do you?"

"Right. Uhm. Hold on one second--" Skizz flicked off the video of Tango, and it was like a spell had been broken.

The spined mer lunged at Skizz with a violent hiss and a rattle of spines, coming at least halfway out of the water. Skizz tripped backwards, dropping his phone onto the rocks.

Impulse wished he had a pole or something to get between themselves and the mer, because those spines looked nasty.

"Woah woah woah hey--!" Skizz shouted, scrambling backwards. The mer's spines just barely missed his feet as he yanked them back.

Impulse had managed to retreat back up the rocks, getting out of reach before the mer could try to attack him too, "Hey-- woah calm down! We're friends. Friends--"

Impulse stayed put as the mer proceeded to talk at each other, clicking and chirping and whistling so fast that Impulse couldn't even hope to keep up, even if he did understand them.

The mer disappeared under the water, the green one pulling his friend down and out of sight. Skizz took the oppurtunity to snatch up his phone from where it'd fallen.

"Oh hey, it didn't break."

"Skizz-- get back here! Just because Tango's not venomous doesn't mean that these mer aren't!" Impulse shifted back so Skizz could climb back up too.

"I don't think they're going to come back up, dipple-dop." Skizz protested, but he backed away from the water anyway, "And I don't think they like us."

"Yah think?"

The only thing to be heard for a long moment was the lapping of water against the rocks. Impulse took a deep breath, waiting to see if the mer would reappear.

"Yeah, looks like they're gone. . ." Skizz muttered, "I know you miss Tango, I miss him as much as you do buddy, but these guys are wild. They probably think we're going to hurt them."

Impulse let out a sigh, "Yeah. . . I bet they don't understand what we're saying."

Skizz was proven wrong a moment later when both mer surfaced again, the spiney one rising head and shoulders above the water, while the other barely poked their eyes and ears out. They were further out than before, well away from the rocks.

"Oh, hello." Skizz sat forward, "They've gotta want something, right? They'd have run off otherwise."

Impulse was the next one to be proven wrong, when one of the mer called out in heavily accented English.

"How do you have that recording? Where is our--?"The next word was a warble-- "Where is--" That was the one series of clicks and whistle which Impulse recognized. It was one Tango had repeated to them countless times, trying to get them to say it right-- Tango's name.

What were the odds indeed?

#impulsesv #skizzleman #ethoslab #bdubbleo100 #bdubs #team zits au #team zits #miscommunication #language barrier #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #for once im not posting this at 3 am lol #anyway. i hope etho is doing alright #i haven't decided yet if etho just LOOKS like he's wearing a mask via markings #or if he actually is #hermitfic

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vivitheanimaxen · 7 months

Text

Tango really needed to stop waking up in strange new places. At least he didn't seem to be beaten black and blue this time. Or maybe the jerks who'd kidnapped him weren't as rough as the pounding surf.

His head was still all fuzzy, but he wasn't dizzy or nauseous and he was lying on the floor of some sort of tidepool. Maybe? it wasn't sandy. And he was underwater. Probably. Tango couldn't help but let out a soft warble as he rubbed at his face, squinting up at the surface.

The water was deeper then where Impulse and Skizz and Zedaph had been keeping him, maybe two body-lengths deep, instead of only half of one. The ground sloped up off to the far end of the tidepool, with a shelf that made up a large part of the height. Tango twisted over to lay on his front for the time being, hopefully his dorsal fin hadn't gone to sleep.

There were other people, at the shallow end of the pool. He could see a-- a yellow and blue mer's tail, but only part of it. The angle was wrong, and they must've been sitting on the edge, like Tango often did when he would talk with his humans--

Impulse would be fine. Probably. Right? Impulse had to be fine, otherwise he was going to drown the humans who'd done that and taken him away and-- Well it wouldn't be pretty.

Tango couldn't see who the humans were-- that the yellow mer was talking to-- everything was too fuzzy around the edges still, and the distortion of the water just made them two blobs of color. Well, as long as they weren't going to be paying any attention to him, then he would simply curl up and--

They'd even changed the splint on his wrist. Why would they do that?? Tango huffed out a mouthful of bubbles, frustrated to no end but not really having the energy to get properly mad about it right now.

So instead he just curled up on his side, watching the yellow mer and the blobs above the water and wondering how long it would take them to realize that he was awake.

Turns out, Tango managed to doze off before they noticed that he'd woken up. He only knew this because he startled back awake when he felt movement in the water.

Well, it certainly burned away the last of the drowsy fog clinging to every bit of him.

And it certainly let the other mer know he was awake.

"Oh, hey--"

Tango jerked, twisting around to face the voice, almost toppling over. It was the mer he'd seen earlier, staring at him with bright blue eyes.

"I'm glad you're awake. How're you feeling?" The mer pushed off the shelf where he'd paused, drifting down to Tango.

"Who are you." Tango narrowed his eyes, coiling his tail underneath himself. It would probably be a bad idea to try and take them in an outright fight, but Tango was quick, and the tidepool here was much much larger than the other one. He'd be able to maneuver better.

"My name's Jimmy. It's-- uhm." Jimmy flicked his tail, settling on the tiles a little ways away from Tango, "There's probably been a misunderstanding, yeah? You're safe here, nobody's gonna hurt you. What's your name?"

Tango let out another mouthful of bubbles, "Did the humans steal you too? Where are we?"

"We're at a house, a safehouse-- the ocean is about fifty or so meters that-a-ways--" Jimmy pointed in what Tango assumed was the ocean, "I wasn't stolen-- well. I was stolen but that was like years and years and years ago, but no. The human here is nice, and so is Scott. They're my pod, they're here to help."

Tango blinked, a little put off by just how relaxed Jimmy was. He believed what he was saying, but that didn't mean Tango did.

It-- wasn't that Jimmy had a human in his pod, because admittedly, Tango had started to consider Impulse and Zedaph and Skizz a part of his pod, if only for the fact that they had been the only way for him to get food, and medicine, and companionship--

Well, now that he thought about it, considering those three as part of his pod probably wasn't a good thing. His pod would call him crazy, surely.

"You-- thought I was in danger. . . ?" Tango frowned, "With the other humans-- is that why yours stole me? They thought I was in danger?"

"You're hurt! And they were keeping you in such a small pool--" Jimmy was mirroring his frown now, "Didn't they take you from the sea in the first place?"

"No! No-- I mean, yes, they took me-- but there was a storm. I got separated from my pod and caught in a fishing net, and Impulse found me on the shore. I would have died if it wasn't for them!"

Jimmy let out a puff of bubbles, "They wouldn't have let you go. Humans don't let mer go."

"So you're here against your will too?"

"No!! No. If I wanted to I could leave. I can leave any time I want--"

"Then how do you know that my humans wouldn't have let me go?" Tango was posturing now, he knew that he was, all puffed up and fins out wide and Jimmy was reacting in kind, even if the other mer wasn't aware of it.

"Because they don't!! Look at you, you're practically all healed already and yet they still had you in that dumb little fishbowl."

"I'm not stupid. There's a reason i didn't tell them about my pod." Tango bared his fangs, trying to get Jimmy to back down, "They hadn't put me back yet because my wrist is still broken and a lone mer who can't hunt or defend themselves is a dead mer. They didn't want me to end up dead--!"

Jimmy threw up his hands in frustration, "Fine, whatever. You don't have to get so snippy about it. It doesn't matter anyway, it's not like you're going to ever see them again. We'll stick you back in the sea tomorrow and you'll never see any of us again if that's what you really want."

Jimmy's words hit Tango like a slap to the face. He turned away, pinning his frill back and ignoring Jimmy as the other mer swam back up to the shallow end of the pool.

Tango didn't move until the water had stilled again. But when he did, he couldn't see Jimmy anywhere. Even when he'd mustered up his courage to poke his head above the water, Jimmy wasn't to be seen. Had he dragged himself off somewhere? Tango didn't know, and he almost didn't care. He mostly didn't care.

They'd taken him from his humans, without asking if he was in danger or needed help! They'd maybe killed Impulse! And now he'd pissed off the first mer he'd seen in what felt like moons.

Great. Nice going Tango, your temper sure has come in handy once again.

#tango tek #jimmy solidarity #team rancher #team rancher fanfic #team rancher au #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #misunderstandings #tw sedatives #finally the ranchers get to meet!#wait--#wait no--#why are you fighting--

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vivitheanimaxen · 7 months

Text

Jimmy perked up when he heard familiar voices. They were back!! Scott and Martyn were back! He hauled himself out of the water to sit on the edge of their covered outdoor pool, neck craned for any glimpse of his pod.

They'd left only hours before, but Jimmy always got worried whenever they went on their little 'extraction missions'. He wasn't sure if the fact that this one was so close to their little home base was a good or a bad thing. But they'd both reassured him that this was only some marine rescue, and not the Evo.

Thank the moon and tides it wasn't the Evo.

Martyn was first to enter, the mer they'd gone to get slung over his shoulder.

Jimmy couldn't take his eyes away from the new mer.

He'd been young, when Evo had snatched him from the ocean, so Jimmy had never had the luxury of meeting many other mer. It never ceased to take his breath away, each new glimpse of one of his own.

This mer was particularly pretty, and as Jimmy helped Martyn and Scott lower him into the pool, he couldn't help but drink in the bright red scales and the blonde hair-- just like his own!

Jimmy was sure that Scott and Martyn were probably talking, but he'd thoroughly tuned them out while he studied the new mer. The moment that he hit the water, his fins unfurled from along his tail, and Jimmy couldn't help but compare him to fire.

Jimmy knew that couldn't be it, not really, because fire was a human thing and no mer (except for him, probably) was familiar with what it looked like. Hopefully. But he couldn't help but thinking about the new mer that way. Each of his scales was edged in gold, and every fin was translucent, yellow to red and layered along his tail. There were a similar line of fins trailing down his back, each one their own little tongue of flame. His hands were webbed, the black creeping up his forearms and another set of fins trailing from them, almost like Scott's.

He didn't look like a fighter, lacking any spines that would act as weapons, but Jimmy could tell by the shape of his fins that he was built for both speed and tight, quick maneuvers, with how tightly his fins laid to his scales.

He was also covered in scars. Most of them looked fresh-- thin, silvery and wrapped around his arms and body and neck. Those would probably fade with time. But some of his fins were shredded in places they probably shouldn't be, and that would take much longer to completely heal, if it did at all. There was also splint on his wrist, which looked like Martyn's handywork.

Had they broken his wrist??

Jimmy certainly hoped not.

It took Scott grabbing one of his sails and tugging to tear his attention away from the mer.

"Jimmy, leave him. He's gonna be out for another hour at least, you can stare at him as long as you want in a minute. We need to talk." Scott pointed up to the surface where Martyn was still by the edge of the pool.

"Fine, fine." Jimmy stole one last glance at the fiery mer where he was laying on the bottom, before floating back up to the surface to talk with Scott and Martyn.

He'd be able to chat with their new friend once he woke up. Jimmy would have to be here anyway, Mer tended to trust their fellow mer over the strange half-human and human who hauled them to an unfamiliar place. And Jimmy would hate for any misunderstandings to happen and get anyone hurt.

#jimmy solidarity #team rancher #scott smajor #martyn itlw #tangotek #dont mind me #viviwrites #emberfish au #team rancher au #team rancher fanfiction #threadfic #injury mention #yall get to eat good today #i simply have brainrot #whoops #and once again i beg for asks about this au

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vivitheanimaxen · 4 months

Text

Jimmy didn't really expect to have to get in between Joel and Tango the moment they laid eyes on each other, but-- well.

He wasn't surprised.

Jimmy had been chatting with Tango up at the surface, after they'd eaten and Jimmy had taken the plates back inside. Tango was absolutely fascinated by the wheelchair, but unwilling to try and haul himself up into it to really see how it worked. Jimmy had to admit he must look at least a little undignified as he wiggled up into the seat, but normally the only ones to see him were people he didn't care about looking silly in front of.

Not that he cared about looking silly in front of Tango. Nope.

Anyway. He'd slipped back down to the ground, pulling the chair close so Tango could inspect it. Tango had actually hoisted himself up onto the edge of the pool. Jimmy saw it as progress. A curious mer was one less likely to lash out.

Jimmy perked up his ear fins at the sound of Martyn's voice coming from the house, maybe Lizzie and Joel were here?

Yep, there was Joel's voice.

"Joel-- Joel wait--" Martyn caught the back of Joel's wheelchair, stopping it from tipping into the water-- a moment too late to stop Joel himself from slipping down out of it.

Tango had disappeared from the edge the moment Joel and Martyn had appeared from out of the house.

Jimmy had thought that Joel was going to tackle him-- after all, Joel was definitely one to pin Jimmy down as his way to say hello. But nope.

In a flash of bubbles and a twist of fins, Joel was on top of Tango. Neither seemed to be getting the upper hand, but if Joel was really trying to hurt Tango, there would have been blood in the water--

Jimmy spoke too soon.

"Hey-- hey hey hey hey!!" Jimmy whistled sharply, knocking into the writhing pair of mer, pushing Joel off of Tango and spreading his sails to block the line of sight, "Joel-- both of you-- calm down-!"

Joel let himself drift back, and Jimmy glanced back to see Tango push himself up off the tiles, his colors fired up dark. Great. Tango was the one bleeding, red lazily billowing from along his gills.

"I didn't--" Joel had his mouth open, surely he could taste the blood in the water, "Jimmy I didn't mean to hurt him--"

"Didn't mean to?" Tango chirped, pressing a hand to his torn gills, "You don't get to just say sorry after attacking me, jellyfish-for-brains."

"I said, both of you, calm down--" Jimmy twisted, keeping between them. It was getting to be way too often that Jimmy had to take charge like this. At least Joel was listening. "Joel, go tell Martyn to get Lizzie, I'll help Tango up so she can look at him."

Joel darted away, so Jimmy turned back to Tango, reaching out to grab him.

"No-- no." Tango bared his fangs, shifting back away from Jimmy's reach, "I'm not going anywhere near your humans."

"Tango, please. You're hurt, they can help." Jimmy pleaded, holding his hand out and letting himself sink lower in the water so he wasn't floating over Tango. He was doing his best to seem non-threatening. He needed Tango to trust him, to accept their help. "And I don't think Martyn is going to feel comfortable with putting you back in the ocean unless he's sure you're healed. That's what Lizzie is here for. She's a healer, and she knows how to help mer."

Tango just sat there, blood still seeping into the water from under his hand.

Jimmy hadn't gotten a good look at what'd happened, but it probably wasn't on purpose. Not with how quick Joel backed off. Jimmy knew that Joel's plating was rough in places, but normally his podmate could keep it from doing any damage when they were wrestling. But Tango had thought it was a proper attack.

Tango still didn't trust them.

Jimmy let out a mouthful of bubbles. Even if he promised that he wouldn't be hurt, Tango likely still wouldn't believe him, and even if Jimmy had been able to overpower Tango before-- that had onl been after the other mer had been stung by sedatives. Jimmy could probably get close enough to sting him again, if Martyn had more. It'd be easy to corner him with Joel's help. The pool wasn't that big, and with the way Tango pushed himself further from Jimmy, he knew it too.

"Look. I want you to be able to go home as much as you do. But the others won't let you if you can't survive out there on our own." Jimmy tried, "And if your gills heal wrong. . ."

Tango pinned his fins close and turned away.

Hopefully he'd allow them to help.

It took longer than Jimmy would've liked, for Tango to reach out and take Jimmy's hand, allowing him to pull Tango up to the surface o the pool where the others were waiting. Joel was back in his wheelchair, over by the door leading back into the house, with a medical kit in his lap. Lizzie and Martyn were waiting by the edge of the water, out of lunging range, but still close enough to watch what'd been happening.

"Tango, meet Lizzie." Jimmy said, gesturing over to her, before switching to English as he swam to the edge of the pool closest to them, leading Tango by the hand, "Lizzie, this is Tango."

#jimmy solidarity #tango tek #joel smallishbeans #team rancher #team rancher au #team rancher fanfic #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #have some emberfish #as a treat #maybe one day i'll come back and make this a proper longfic.#rewriting it and everything.#i'd wanna finish Dragonfrost or voiceless or one of my other longfics first though.#hermitfic

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vivitheanimaxen · 5 months

Text

It had been almost a full moon cycle, and there was no sign of Tango anywhere.

Etho wouldn't say it out loud, but he was starting to get really worried. He knew better than anyone just how dangerous ocean currents could get in a storm, and how unpredictable they could end up being. Etho himself had been thrown into a crevasse he'd never seen before, which was great luck.

It meant that there wasn't a chance of him getting beached again. Etho made a habit of knowing which direction the shore was at all times, because land meant humans, and humans meant nothing good.

It hadn't taken long for Etho to get back to the valley where Doc's pod was set up, and beyond some minor scrapes and bruising, he'd gotten out of the whole incident pretty well off. Bdubs showed up a few days after him, cut up and missing a few scales, but not much worse for wear either.

And then a quarter-moon went by without Tango showing up. There wer no signs of him, period. Because of their connections through Doc and a few of the other big pods in the area, it was hard for a mer as distinctive looking as Tango to drop completely out of the ocean.

The only way for that to happen was if he'd been hurt bad enough to where he couldn't swim, or he'd been trapped somewhere he couldn't get out of.

That, or he'd been beached.

After a half-moon, Etho suspected that Tango was dead. Or worse.

Hopefully he was dead.

The hivemind had been able to track the storm that had caught Etho's pod off guard.

As it turns out, a large stationary pod in a very distinct location was a very good rendezvous point. The hivemind eventually got their hands on every rumor and scrap of news that made it's way through this part of the ocean.

The storm had swept inland, through a section of sea that was little more than sandbank after sandbank before it ran straight into the shore. It was seeming more and more like Tango had been beached.

Bdubs was insisting that they go looking for him.

Etho couldn't help but be hesitant about what they might find.

In the end, Etho gave in to Bdubs' desires, and they gathered what they needed to go searching. Etho made sure to pack a wide variety of medicines, things to fight an infection, even materials to splint a broken bone. He didn't know how badly Tango might've been hurt-- but it wasn't any question that he was.

And with a series of directions from the hivemind, they were off.

It was a tense quarter-moon for Etho, that was for sure. He hated being this close to land. Etho insisted on giving the human settlements right on the water a wide berth, so it took even longer for them to make any ground.

Etho didn't know what to expect or if they would find any signs of Tango at all.

Bdubs seemed convinced that they would find something.

Etho couldn't decide if finding Tango's scales on that jetty was a good thing or a bad thing.

They'd sheltered in a cove for the day, wanting to get out from under the pounding waves. Bdubs had found a sheltered spot where the waves wouldn't push them right up onto the sand. It was a place that formed a little eddy, where the debris was built up. There was a lot of seaweed and driftwood and human trash caught there.

It had been a flash of sun off some of that human trash that made Etho look closer.

It wasn't human trash at all-- and there were broken scales caught up in the mess. That was mer gear-- pouches and belts made from woven kelp and grasses, even some tools made from shell and flint. After looking closer, Etho's heart dropped out of his chest.

This was Tango's gear, those were Tango's scales, and someone-- or something-- had cut them off. Etho had never heard Bdubs as quiet as he was while they were picking through the mess, and he would probably never hear Bdubs that quiet again.

But the thing that really signed Tango's death sentence was the shredded sections of fishing net tangled in with his gear. And with how clean those cuts were?

Etho dropped what he was holding like it had burnt him. He turned away, squeezing his eyes shut against the dawning horror.

Humans had gotten to Tango. A fate worse than death.

"Etho?" Bdubs drifted closer, "Etho, are you-- are you okay?"

Etho couldn't respond, focused as he was on the water pumping over his gills and the flexing of his spines. The last thing he needed was to stick Bdubs right now. The hivemind had helped him to mix an antidote of sorts for his venom, after he'd accidentally gotten Tango once, but it still wasn't fun to experience.

And this close to a human road? Where they could be spotted if they weren't careful? It would be a death sentence for both of them.

"Hey. Hey-- Etho look at me--" Bdubs took Etho's face carefully in his hands, tipping his face up so their gazes met, "Whatever happened to Tango, we'll find him, alright?"

Etho hugged himself tighter, pressing his spines flat, "The humans got him, Bdubs. That's-- the cuts in his gear? In the netting? It's too clean to be anything but humans. Or another mer, but mer wouldn't cut off another mer's gear and discard it like trash."

"We'll still find him, Etho. Right? We've got to."

Etho puffed out a mouthful of bubbles, trying not to show the despair coating his every thought, "Sure, Bdubs."

"We can comb this place for any clues, I'm sure the humans would have left something." Bdubs gently laced his fingers into Etho's, pulling him away from the rocks, "Let's find a spot to sleep, it's almost noon and we've been up all night. We can come back after dark, all the humans will be asleep and we'll be able to search everything in peace."

Etho nodded, letting Bdubs lead him away. There was nothing they could do. Not right now, when the threat of being seen by humans was so great.

So, they found a sheltered place to hide, and Bdubs left Etho there while he went on a quick hunt. They'd brought food with them, rations that would last for days yet, but they needed to save that for when they found Tango. And right now, Etho was in no state of mind to be hunting.

Bdubs returned maybe an hour later, bringing with him a couple fish and a bundle of edible seaweed, pulled straight from the silt.

Etho ate what he could stomach-- which wasn't much-- and then curled up with Bdubs to hopefully get some rest.

They went back to the beach in the evening.

The tide was low, leaving numerous tidepools along the edges of the jetty where they'd found Tango's gear. Etho and Bdubs combed the beach like a pair of basking sharks, looking for any more signs that Tango had been there. They only came up with more meaningless debris and a few more of Tango's scales.

It was a testament to how distracted Etho was, that the humans had managed to get so close without him noticing. They were practically right in top of him, out on the rocks of the jetty.

"Shhh-- Skizz, you gotta turn off the light or you're gonna scare it away--"

"Ugh, fine. But it's you're own fault if you trip and fall into the water and drown."

Ironically, it'd been the sound of their voices that had alerted Etho to the human's presence, not the dim light they were using to navigate. He immediately took advantage of the light clicking off to dart into the shadows of the rock, whistling a desperate warning to Bdubs.

Also ironically, Bdubs didn't take the warning as a sign to hide. In fact, he popped his head above the water to get a better look.

Etho made a split-second decision, tackling Bdubs back down into the shadows where they could both stay safe and hidden, but it was too late. They'd surely been seen. Both of them.

"Why did you do that? Those might be the humans that took Tango!" Bdubs protested, squirming against Etho's grip.

"That's exactly why, Bdubs." Etho hissed, his eyes peeled for any sort of movement from the humans, "They might try to take us too--"

"Alright, fine. But we should still see if they have anything of Tango's."

"We are not attacking a group of humans. There's only two of us."

"There's only two of them too! We could take them. Especially if I can get them into the water."

"They aren't going to be lured in like fish, Bdubs, and there might be more of them." Etho frowned, letting go of his pod-mate, "But I might be able to get them into the water. But you've gotta stay right here. And stay hidden. Got that?"

Bdubs nodded. Etho could tell he wanted to ask more questions, but as long as he would stay put, Etho would answer all of them. Later.

Etho carefully poked his head above the water to listen, trying to gather more information on what was going on.

"I wasn't seeing things, right? There's two merpeople down there."

"Yeah, I saw them too. They know we're here though. I didn't see where they went. Can you?"

"No dude, they've completely disappeared!"

Good. They were hidden well enough.

"I've got a recording of tango on my phone from before he started talking. Maybe we can get them to come up?"

"That might work. Just be careful."

Etho had been preparing to call back to the humans in their own language, hoping to mimic the sound of one in trouble to get them close enough to pull into the sea with them, when he heard it.

That was Tango's voice. Calling out for him and Bdubs.

Etho choked on air, unable to help his own answering cry before he bit down on his hand to stop himself. No. It was a trick. Etho knew what a recording was. He'd seen them before, heard them before.

The voice was slurred and in pain, and flat in a way that only recordings could be, but it was unmistakably Tango.

The humans were trying to catch him and Bdubs too. That was the only reason they'd do this.

And the worst part was, it might actually work.

Their reaction to his call was immediate, the scuffling of human feet on rock coming closer to them. Etho couldn't focus, not with Tango's voice in his ears. He couldn't bring himself to duck away, to avoid being seen.

Bdubs popped up beside him a moment later, his fellow mer scanning the rocks for any sign of their missing podmate, "Etho-- What? Do they have Tango with them? I can hear him--"

Etho shook his head, fangs still buried in his hand to prevent himself from calling Tango's name, paralyzed as the pair of humans slid down the rocks down to where the tidal pools were, mere feet away from him and Bdubs.

Etho couldn't do anything but watch as he brought a fate worse than death down on the head of his last remaining podmate.

#ethoslab #bdubs #impulsesv #skizzleman #angst #minor self harm #panic attack #aka Etho has a trauma response #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #yall get a treat #it was time for a different perspective methinks #and I enjoy writing for Etho #we're totally not procrastinating my original story that i should be writing #its fiiiiiiiiiiiine #hermitfic

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vivitheanimaxen · 6 months

Text

This was certainly something new.

Martyn watched their new arrival from the kitchen table, having pulled up the camera feed on his laptop. Jimmy and Scott were on the other side of the counter, attempting to fix up some semblance of a meal. Really, Scott was teasing Jimmy about how cute their new arrival was, while the mer made increasingly offended protests.

But it was taking Jimmy's mind off of the fight. If you could really call it that.

Martyn had been watching the whole thing through the cameras set up in the corners of the screened-in pool, and while there thankfully hadn't been any obvious scuffles or physical violence-- one of the last mers they'd snatched away from captivity had reacted quite poorly, leaving Jim with yet another scar-- the mer had yelled at Jimmy. It'd left him quite downtrodden, and doubting whether or not they'd been right to take action this time.

They'd decided to give everyone some time to cool off, and Martyn would go down with Jim. Bless him, but Jimmy wasn't the best at explaining things or holding his ground or-- well-- he was softhearted, despite everything he'd been through.

But for now, Martyn just watched as the mer did laps around the pool, probably stretching his fins properly for the first time in weeks.

It'd pissed Martyn off, seeing the little pond the marine rescue had put him in. At least they'd tended to his injures, and fed him. Martyn and Scott had done a cursory examination, to make sure there wasn't anything that needed immediate treatment or microchips or anything of the like. Lizzie would be dropping by to give a more expert opinion, especially about the broken wrist. It'd looked mostly healed, but Martyn wanted a professional to clear it before they thought about letting the mer back out into the open ocean.

He really was gorgeous, not to mention incredibly quick and nimble. Martyn had never seen a mer who looked so much like fire before. It was one thing to know that mer could look so different from each other; it was another thing entirely to see the diversity yourself.

The mer had refused to share his name with Jimmy, so Martyn had taken to calling him 'Firecracker' in his head. Just until they could get the mer's actual name. With the way he'd attacked Scott and lunged at Martyn when they'd been retrieving him-- and then picked an argument with Jimmy the moment he woke up? It fit well enough for the time being.

Martyn looked up when Scott set a plate of food down in front of him, closing the laptop with a soft 'snap.'

"Any changes?" Scott asked, turning to grab the glasses of water from the counter as Jimmy pushed his wheelchair up to the table.

It wasn't a perfect solution to Jimmy's limitations up here on land, but they made things work. At least it let the mer have some semblance of dignity and a great deal of autonomy, rather than having to get lugged around like a sack of potatoes everywhere.

"No. Not unless you count doing laps in the pool a change." Martyn moved the computer out of the way, "After we eat I'll take him some food, maybe try and get his name, or the names and descriptions of his pod members so we can start looking for them. If this mer ended up getting beached from a storm, who knows where his pod ended up."

"I dunno Martyn. He attacked you guys, right?" Jimmy's gaze flicked to the bandages on Scott's shoulder, before it went back to Martyn, "Maybe I should take him the food, he didn't hurt me. I don't know what he might do if you guys go in there."

"He's gonna have to get used to our faces at some point." Scott rolled his eyes, "I'll come with, and we'll bring some sedatives, just in case. At the very least, he might get bored enough to talk to us."

And that was that. Jimmy still insisted on coming too, and really, two people with gills were better than one if Firecracker did get hostile.

Martyn checked the cameras before the went out, wanting to know what the mer was doing before they tried talking to him.

He was still doing laps.

If Martyn didn't know better, Firecracker looked--- anxious? It reminded him of Jimmy, back when they'd first met, when Evo had first put him on Project Glaucus. The endless looping-- it set Martyn on edge. This was more then just stretching fins after being kept in a small recovery pool. It was something desperate.

But they still needed more information. And Firecracker needed food, if he was going to keep swimming in circles like that.

Martyn's suspicions were right.

When they walked out to the pool, the mer was talking to himself. Martyn couldn't understand any of it beyond the desperate tone. He struggled with understanding merspeak when it was anything beyond some of the more basic whistles. This was slurred beyond comprehension to his ears. But the concerned look Scott and Jimmy exchanged clued him in to anything else he needed to know.

Mer were anything but solitary, Matyn had seen firsthand what sort of a toll isolation took on them.

Martyn winced, as the chittering suddenly changed into a sharp screech-- before it went quiet. The mer had overshot, and walloped himself against the wall of the pool like a falcon into glass.

Oh shoot.

Thankfully-- if you could be thankful about someone knocking the sense out of themselves-- Firecracker had hit himself against the shallow end of the pool, where it was only up to Martyn's waist.

Scott crouched on the edge with Marytn, while Jimmy unbuckled from his wheelchair and slipped down to the edge of the pool, then in. The way the mer didn't respond to the disturbance of the water worried Martyn. So-- probably pretty unwisely-- he also slipped into the water when Scott did.

Hindsight was twenty-twenty, really.

Looking back, Martyn had seen the mer shake off the hit, and instantaneous flare of fins not even a second later when he realized who was in the water surrounding him. It wasn't the smartest idea to corner a disorientated and aggressive mer. He'd shoved off the wall in an explosion of movement-- straight at Martyn.

Martyn was just glad that he'd had some semblance of breath control training, and the clarity of mind to get a full lungful of air before he'd gotten yanked under.

What happened next was a flurry of mer-speak and bubbles, as he was dragged to the deepest corner of the pool, a pissed off and posturing mer holding him hostage in a headlock with one arm twisted so far up behind his back that it wouldn't take much more than one bad jostle to pop it out of it's socket.

Martyn was simply focused on holding his breath and trying to control his heartrate. The last thing he needed right now was to start drowning.

Oh, and he was slowly moving his free arm down to where there was an injector tucked into his waistband for easy access. He trusted Scott and Jimmy to keep the mer from ripping his throat out or noticing what he was doing.

It seemed like an hour passed, before Martyn felt the mer's grip loosen on his arm enough for him to dare retaliate.

Both the injector and his breath were knocked away from Martyn in the same moment, the later coming out in a rush of bubbles as Jimmy yanked Martyn away from Firecracker and up to the surface. Martyn saw a flash of blue as Scott tackled the other mer, keeping him from pursuing.

Martyn felt like he coughed up half the pool's contents-- and swallowed the rest of it-- by the time he'd caught his breath.

There was blood in the water.

He evidentially hadn't managed to get the full dose of sedatives into the mer, as he was still fighting against both Jimmy and Scott. All he could hear was an unholy shrieking, overlaid with other merspeak as the thrashing started to slow and Martyn could parse more of what was going on.

Jimmy was the one pinning the mer this time, canary yellow scales pressed to bright red as Jimmy held him shoved against the wall. Scott was the one bleeding. Again.

Martyn still couldn't understand what was being said.

It was quite frustrating, actually, being unable to know what was going on. Merspeak didn't travel too well from water to air, and Martyn was only semi-fluent. He'd never had to learn what those particular whistles meant, cause he'd never needed to before now.

But it looked like the situation was being handled at least. Martyn let himself flop back down to the concrete, a good arms-length from the pool so he couldn't be dragged back in easily. Everything else could be handled in a minute.

Right now he just needed a moment to breathe.

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vivitheanimaxen · 5 months

Text

Even when he went home that night, Impulse couldn't stop thinking about the mer he'd found.

It was one thing to find him washed up on the beach just outside, but it was another entirely to try and think about what the next while would look like, taking care of the merdude.

Zedaph was still at the rescue, and would be until either he or Skizz could get back. Impulse didn't want to chance anyone else finding out about the literal merman sitting in one of the recovery pools. They'd have to tell Xisuma eventually, probably sooner than Impulse might like to, but, well.

He didn't know what might happen if the rest of the rescue caught word of this, let alone the internet.

Impulse sighed, running a hand through his hair. Who knew that following Skizz down to the beach that fated dayyears ago would lead to-- well. This.

Either way, he needed to clean up, get some food, and then get some sleep. Zed wasn't a stranger to pulling all-nighters, so it wasn't odd for him to stay at the rescue, but still. Impulse wouldn't quite be able to breathe easy until he could see the mercreature again.

In the morning, Impulse grabbed a green tea for Zedaph on his way back to the rescue, handing it off with a bagel to the man as they 'swapped shifts'.

"Anything change during the night?" Impulse asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Nope. You should probably bring it some food though. Try fish, maybe? I bet it'd take that." Zedaph shrugged, taking a sip of his tea, "I'd use tongs though, wouldn't want those fangs to take a bite out of you."

"I'll be careful, Zed, don't worry." Impulse shook his head, "You should go get some sleep."

"Yep. Gotta finish up first, then it's off to bed with me."

"You better." Impulse called over his shoulder as he stepped out, going to grab a pair of tongs and some food for the merdude.

When he stepped into the recovery room, what Impulse found made him pause. Well-- it was more what he was hearing. The mer was chirping. It wasn't s loud that it could be heard outside of the room, but it certainly filled it, bouncing off the hard surfaces. To Impulse it sounded like a slurred mix of a dying fire alarm on fast forward and a baby dolphin calling for help.

Impulse stepped up to the edge of the pool, setting the pail down as he took in the sight.

The mer was curled up the best he could with all the bandages and the cast on his wrist, warbling. His eyes were glazed over, seemingly staring at nothing. His fins were all pinned tight to his body, like he was trying to hide.

The last thing Impulse wanted to do was startle an injured sea creature with fangs that looked like they could bite someone's finger clean off. So, he grabbed a catch pole from over against the wall, and dipped the end into the water next to the merman, nudging it against his tail.

Impulse was instantly glad that he hadn't stuck his hand into the water.

The mer lunged-- grabbing the pole with a screech and a splash and almost yanking it out of Impulse's hands.

He pulled it from the water a moment later, once the mer let go.

Impulse's jaw just about hit the floor, once he saw the bite marks. This particular brand of pole was made to withstand a bite from a shark. But now it was--

If that had been Impulse's hand, he would have just lost at least a couple fingers.

At least.

He was going to have to show this to Zedaph.

Well then. At least he had gotten the mer's attention, it was practically glaring at him now. Was that-- hissing? It was hard to tell with the distortion from water to air, but the way that tail was coiled--

The mer looked like a snake ready to strike.

Maybe feeding it would help with the situation? Impulse took the tongs and grabbed a fish from his bucket, slowly offering it until the fish touched the surface of the water. The mer's eyes narrowed, watching. It's mouth parted slightly-- was it able to smell it in the water? It wasn't reaching up to grab it.

So, Impulse gave the fish a little shake, before dropping it. And just in time, too.

Again, the mer lunged, snatching up the offending object. Impulse watched as it bit down on the fish, before seeming to realize that it was food.

Impulse let the mer eat for a moment, before dropping another fish into the pool. This was progress, at least. If it was eating, that meant it had a chance.

#team zits au #team zits #impulsesv #zedaph #tangotek #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #we're goin back in time a touch with this one #gotta fill out the story more methinks #also i dont think i've shown WHEN Tango bit through a pole.#miscommunication #dehumanisation tw #dehumanizing language #not on purpose though #Impulse doesn't know Tango is sentient after all #they just think he's like a dolphin #hermitfic

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vivitheanimaxen · 9 months

Text

Prompt: “Has anyone ever told you that your anger is disproportionate to your size?”

Skizz felt bad for the merdude, he really did. The poor guy, stuck in basically a fishbowl while he healed. They were all doing their best for him, Skizz and Impulse and Zedaph, but they couldn't be there every second of every day.

It didn't take a genius to see that he was bored. Skizz didn't know just how sentient the merman was, but dolphins were wicked smart, and there was just-- something about the way that he watched them whenever they were in the room.

Between Impulse and Skizz, the two of them had enough weight at the rescue to throw around (and enough excuses) to keep anyone else out of the recovery room where they'd stuck the mer. It was a good thing that Xisuma trusted them. And that they'd been able to buy themselves enough time to breathe, before they had to think about maybe telling X, let alone the rest of the rescue. Thankfully, they could probably get away with only telling Xisuma, beyond the trio who'd been involved with the direct rescue of the merman.

When Impulse had first called Skizz, that morning after the storm, he hadn't expected to end up with a wounded creature straight out of mythology in a glorified fishbowl. Impulse had managed to get most of the net off of the merman before Skizz had shown up with his truck to haul the mer's tail down to the rescue center to cut him the rest of the way free. It'd been almost horrifying, synthetic mesh wrapped in and around gills and fins so thin in places he was afraid to even touch them. It'd been hard to tell where the red of scales ended and the red of blood had began. And Skizz had seen the marks where the net had even been wrapped around the mer's neck.

Even now, days afterwards, Skizz could still see the healing cuts.

He was currently watching the mer, ready to jump in with a catch pole if he lunged at Zedaph while his bandages were being changed. Really, the merdude just seemed confused, squirming like he was and vocalizing with every touch. Which made sense, Zedaph had been giving him as high a dose of painkillers as felt comfortable giving. The dude must be loopy. But at least he was more bark than bite. At least now. It had taken a couple days of careful interactions and protective equipment for the mer to realize that he wasn't going to be hurt. Skizz had been the one to inspect the catch pole he'd practically bitten in half.

The mer looked so much bigger in the water, with the way his fins drifted, almost like tongues of flame, with how the red faded to yellow-white. It was hard to put the mental image of the mer in the bed of Skizz's truck, wrapped in wet towels and not really longer than Skizz himself was tall, together with the visual of him with all his fins spread out like an oversized beta, half-heartedly protesting Zed's careful handling as each injury was looked over and more painkillers administered.

Skizz stayed behind, even as Zed finished cleaning up his equipment and left the room. He had some chores still left to do in here, and he didn't really want to leave the merman alone all by himself.

Skizz tried not to be super obvious in all his glancing over to the mer, as he mopped the floor. He'd come up to the surface of the water, leaning his forearms (although he was still favoring his splinted wrist) on the side of the pool as he watched Skizz push the mop around. It was hard to forget that he was there.

The thing that made Skizz pause, however, was the whistles. Skizz hadn't realized, but he'd been humming a song under his breath as he mopped, which made sense. Skizz hating working in such a quiet room. But when the merman started whistling back at him, mimicking the melody, it made Skizz do a double take.

It didn't take long for them to start a little game of call and response, a cheeky little smirk tugging at the corner of the merman's mouth as he added lilts that weren't possible with a human set of vocal chords. That was the first smile Skizz had seen on his face, and for some reason, it just made him burst out laughing.

And to his surprise, the merman's face immediately dropped into a scowl, his fins and scales flushing darker, and even turning a little bit bluish in spots. The mer ducked back into the pool of water with a little splash, having pushed off the side. He'd practically puffed up like an irritated cat.

"Sorry! Sorry, I'm not laughing at you, spitefire." Skizz tried, still a little bit giggly. He set the mop against the bucket from where he'd been leaning on it, walking over to the edge of the pool and crouching down. “It's just-- has anyone ever told you that your temper is disproportionate to your size?”

He got a face full of salty water in response.

#dont mind me #viviwrites #emberfish au #hermitcraft au #skizzleman #tango tek #zedaph #team zits au #this is sorta early on #I think? maybe a week after Tango was found #color changing tango my beloved

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vivitheanimaxen · 3 months

Text

It was times like these that Martyn was glad for Jimmy's ability to deescalate a fight.

Of course, as Joel had tried to explain in his own defense, it wasn't meant to be an actual fight. Joel had just wanted to make sure Tango wouldn't take his fangs to anyone else. Mostly Lizzie. But Tango had been quicker than he'd expected, twisting in a way that made Joel's pounce draw blood.

Gee, it was almost like getting rushed by someone you didn't know when you're in what you see as a hostile environment would make you react like you're going to get hurt.

Martyn had thwapped Joel on the back of the head for that one.

The ridges on Joel's arms had managed to catch on Tango's gills. Martyn had already been concerned about them, with the scars already crisscrossing Tango's neck and chest.

Martyn just watched, as Jimmy introduced Lizzie and Tango, translating for them and sitting next to Tango after the two mer had gotten out of the water. It wasn't lost on Martyn that Jimmy had somehow managed to coax Tango all the way out of the pool, but he'd also put himself between Tango and the water, with part of his fluke overlapping Tango's. Jimmy was in the perfect spot to both keep Tango from hurting anyone if things went wrong, and to keep Tango from darting off to where they couldn't get at him without a fight.

It was certainly clever, Martyn would give Jimmy that.

Tango was uncomfortable with the situation, pressing into Jimmy's side like that would get him any further away from Lizzie as she treated the torn gills and gave him a check up. Jimmy kept on translator duty, repeating questions and answers and instructions. It seemed like Tango knew bits and pieces of English, and the two mer were talking beyond just the questions and answers from Lizzie, as far as Martyn could tell. If it was Martyn, he wouldn't have the patience to do what Lizzie was. But that's why Lizzie was the one with the medical expertise.

Martyn had backed off, and was making sure Joel kept his distance too. Scott was still inside, having been looked over by Lizzie already and really wanting nothing to do with the situation happening outside. Martyn couldn't blame him, not really.

Tango looked a lot smaller out of the water, that was for sure. His multiple sets of fins made up a lot of his presence, and they all folded close to his body when he was up on the surface. His scales were still flushed dark and vibrant, and Martyn was finally able to get a good look at Tango when he was all 'fired up'. His colors had even gone bluish at the base of each fin, making them look like little candle flames. Whatever it was for, it was certainly pretty.

The situation seemed to be handled, at least.

Lizzie had treated the fresh cuts along Tango's gills, and checked over his splinted wrist. It was close to being healed, but she wanted to leave the splint on longer to protect it from any sort of-- sudden jostling. Then she'd moved to examining Tango's fins, much to his discomfort. There were a few of his fins that'd been torn to shreds by the netting, but Tango had insisted that it wasn't impacting his ability to swim.

Lizzie insisted on making sure nothing had healed wrong, and was looking them over anyway, running her hands carefully along each fin. Tango kept twitching, half-tugging his fins out of Lizzie's hands.

It was sorta awkward to watch, if you asked Martyn. So he walked back inside. He trusted Jimmy to be able to keep things civil. And Lizzie had sedatives if Tango turned hostile. They'd be fine.

#martyn itlw #tangotek #jimmy solidarity #lizzie ldshadowlady #joel smallishbeans #team rancher #team rancher au #viviwrites #emberfish au #dont mind me #Things are finally calming down.#WOOOO #maybe we will finally get some peace lol #hermitfic

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vivitheanimaxen · 5 months

Note

Could you talk more about Emberfish AU Grian? You mentioned Joel might know him, and that he is siblings with Jimmy and Pearl.

Also, does Jimmy get a reunion with Siblings through Joel, or does just Joel coincidentally know both of them and hasn't put 2+2 together yet?

-b (not Kimi Anon)

Oh hi! Of course i can talk more about Emberfish!Grian.

What I currently have for him rn is that he grew up in a family pod with Pearl and Jimmy, but he is a few years older than Jimmy.

Pearl is the oldest, and only a half-sibling. Different dad, same mother. Pearl's dad got got by a predator when Pearl was smol and her mom moved on. Pearl was never treated as different from her siblings, so to them it didn't matter.

When Grian got old enough, he and Pearl left to move on like one does, and they left Jimmy behind, cause he was still sorta small. Jimmy was small as a child, not so much now after he's an adult (the boi is vv lonk), but it took a bit for him to hit that growth spurt so he was a little bit behind other mer kids his age. And it wasn't long after Grian and Pearl left that Jimmy got yoinked. Grian and Pearl found out more than a year later, when they went to visit their old family pod and see if Jimmy was big enough and wanted to come with them. It was sad, but they don't know what really happened, they just think Jimmy got murdered by a shark or smthn.

Grian and Pearl joined small pod of teen mers, like most mer do at that age, and I'm pretty sure this is where they met Joel. Joel left that pod before he got injured and met Lizzie, and subsequently, Jimmy.

Joel has no idea that Grian and Jimmy and Pearl are siblings. It hasn't even occurred to him that that might be the case. Mer are diverse enough in fin pattern and shape and color that its honestly uncommon for siblings to have a lot of similar mer traits-- they tend to adapt to their environment while growing up and often get most of those unique traits during puberty. So sometimes mer that are completely unrelated end up with very similar tails or colorings, and sometimes mer that are twins end up looking nothing alike. The human features tend to look similar, but Pearl took after her dad, Grian took after his dad, and Jimmy looks a lot like their mom.

He hadn't talked to Grian or Pearl for a while before he met Jimmy, and while it is a little odd that he's met three different mer with similar fin patterns, they look different enough at first glance to not scream 'SIBLINGS'. Plus Joel has met so many mer over the years that he's seen other mer with similar fins and colors to the 'skybling trio' that it sorta isn't a thing he's think about.

Teen mer pods aren't very stable, they tend to be smaller and they fluctuate a lot as different mer leave and settle down in a friend or family pod as adults or run across others and join up for a season or two.

In the current day, Grian is a mer who likes to hang out near the shore because he likes human things. Shinies. He's part of a small pod of friends consisting of Pearl, Scar, Cub, and maybe a few others.

Grian also has a human friend he likes to harass. A mechanical engineering student named Mumbo :]

(Aka Grian saved Mumbo after the spoon got stuck out in the ocean while testing a contraption. His boat was a glorified raft, and Mumbo forgot to charge his phone, so it died. And then Mumbo did what any guy would do and made friends with Grian.)

His pod doesn't really approve of Grian having a human friend, but Cub is just as fascinated with humans, Pearl thinks Mumbo is friend-shaped and harmless, and Scar likes messing with Mumbo just as much as Grian does. And they're safe enough about not being seen by anyone else and Mumbo is smart enough to not say anything.

So it was basically the 'I'll allow it because he looks very polite' meme.

#vivianswers #Anonymous #Anon b #emberfish asks #emberfish au #grian #pearlescent moon #jimmy solidarity #mumbo jumbo #cubfan135 #gtwscar #merman au #mermaid au

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vivitheanimaxen · 8 months

Text

It had been an ordinary day

Or, as ordinary as a day could be, when Tango was bored in his little white tidepool.

He'd been talking with Impulse, or, as much as his stilted English could be counted as talking. Tango had been doing his best, but the language came slowly to him beyond just the basics. It was frustrating to no end. And he still didn't know the word for bored.

A whistle caught his attention, jerking Tango's gaze up and away from Impulse. Someone new had slipped in through the 'door' to the 'room'. Then a second someone followed close behind. Tango sank lower in the water, glancing at Impulse for some sort of cue as to what was going on.

Impulse stood, turning to face the newcomers, and from what English Tango could understand, was demanding who they were and how they'd gotten in here.

Instead of answering Impulse, the second man, the one with blue hair-- did humans normally have blue hair?-- hissed at the first in perfect mer, "You handle the human."

The first man responded by rushing Impulse, grabbing him and dropping the both of them to the ground. Tango darted to the other side of the tidepool, pressing himself to the bottom. What Tango didn't expect was for the blue haired man to simply jump into the tidepool with Tango, translucent blue and white fins drifting free from his arms and legs as he darted over.

Tango's shock allowed the not-human-but-definitely-not-a-mer person to corner him, grabbing him by the arms and attempting to pull him up to the surface.

Nope, not having that. Nope. Tango grabbed back, wrapping his tail around the not-human and forcing them both back under the water. Tango had the strength advantage here, and surely the not-human would run out of air-- oh, he had gills. Tango saw them open, and then he felt kinda stupid for trying to drown someone with gills.

"Just chill out, would you? We're trying to help!" He chirped, legs kicking to get free.

"Trying to help? Right, like I'm gonna believe that. You're the one who attacked us first!" Tango tightened his grip, baring his fangs in return. It was mostly bluster, he didn’t like fighting, and he wasn't good at it. Give him good terrain and an hour to prepare, and sure, Tango could take a lot of things in a fight, but here? Now? Taken by surprise? That was Etho's purview, most of the time.

"Martyn?? Are you done with the human up there?" The man called, twisting in Tango’s grip and somehow managing to get him in a headlock, "I could use a little help!"

Tango thrashed as a second pair of hands grabbed the end of Tango's tail and hauled the two of them up out of the water. It was a jolt as Tango's system was forced to go from breathing water to air. The blue-haired person still had him in a headlock, sitting on Tango's shoulders now that Tango's tail had been wrenched off.

Tango hardly got a glimpse of Impulse on the ground, not moving, before his view was blocked.

Oh stars in the sky. Had they killed him??

"What did you do??" Tango demanded with a snarl, twisting, desperate to get any sort of leverage in this situation where he really had no leverage and no way to get any.

He was getting tired fast, not to mention how out of breath he was. This was a very very very bad situation for Tango, that was for sure.

It didn't help that he couldn't understand what the blond human was saying, but hey, Tango managed to get his fangs into the guy holding him in a headlock. They'd probably been trying to avoid that, going by the way that he had been put in a hold that mostly controlled his bitty bits. Mostly.

With a swear, the headlock loosened, and Tango jerked away, spitting out a mouthful of blood and snarling again. He tried to lunge at the other intruder, but that utter eel had managed to plant himself on the small of Tango's back, right where he couldn't whip around and get at him.

And, surprise, he'd managed to get a hold of Tango's wrists. Great. There was nothing he could do now. And the adrenaline was starting to wear off.

Tango glared at the one with blue hair, daring him to get any closer. Tango could still bite, and most certainly would, given the chance.

He couldn't understand the English, with how fast it was, and all the words sounded ever so slightly to the left. And that just pissed Tango off more. He hated feeling this helpless.

"I'm fine, just stick him already so we can get out of here."

The last thing Tango could remember was the sound of his yelp as a sharp sting bit between his scales, and the world started to fade away to nothing.

#dont mind me #emberfish au #scraplets #tango tek #impulsesv #martyn itlw #scott smajor #blood mention #they are fighting. whoops

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