can be found at findangoh where i'm high on a more eclectic brand of nonsense but this is my Orm focused blog and i mostly resemble about my fic The Tides Know Our Names. that's what's happening here. yeah, saw Aquaman, this is where I am now. I went there. it's happening. might reblog other assorted Aquaman things but right now it's gonna be king orm.
Summary: -takes place after the movie- Orm is working with Arthur to try to help Atlantis move forward when Elara has a vision of his death. As part of an order of Atlanteans dating back to the reign of King Atlan known as Tidewatchers, it is her duty to warn the king of her vision. Predicting and reading the future through the tides of fate has never been easy but Elara is in for the challenge of a lifetime working with her former king to save his life.
part 1/?
Word Count: 817
Warnings: violence and a vision of a major character death
chapter two / Read on Ao3
AUTHOR'S NOTE: as a lot of you know, I originally wrote this as a Reader/Orm fic but, with some help, I chose to rework this fic so that it features an OC instead of Y/N. Because this story is blossoming to be much longer than I'd anticipated, I feel like being an OC fic is better in the long run. All chapters now feature her and will continue to do so for the duration of this fic. The original version has been marked as private and discontinued. I have now uploaded the reworked versions of the first 6 chapters with Elara instead of Y/N.
I'm hoping you all understand this change and I thank you all for bearing with me. I also worked to polish up these existing chapter and tighten up my prose. The story itself is the same, just the main character is shifted. Thank you guys for your patience.
Full summary: In the wake of King Orm's defeat at the hands of Arthur, the new king of Atlantis thought it might be best to leave his brother in confinement until things calmed down. While Orm had been doing what he thought was best, and others like Nereus had agreed with him, he had still won the hatred of several of the tribes in the process for his actions prior to his dethroning. Even so, Arthur was the first to admit he was inexperienced in the many duties of being king and all of the accompanying politics that come with it. That being the case, he wasn’t foolish enough to not realize that Orm, experienced as he is at ruling Atlantis, would be an invaluable asset.
Orm, was far from the only help in this department. Mera, of course, was his most trusted adviser in how to play the dance of kingdoms and his mother was happy to give him whatever help he asked for. It was also true though that his mother had effectively been out of the game for the last twenty some years and he believed she deserved to have a happy life with his father. Orm may have come close to bringing all of Atlantis to war with itself and then against the surface world, but before that, he’d lived and breathed the prosperity of Atlantis and knew the inner workings better than anyone. Most of the people especially of his own city still think he had the right idea. And compared with the iron rule of his father before him, Orm was a just and good king.
So, true to his word, Arthur had a chat with Orm when things had stabilized a bit. To say things went smoothly at first between them might be overly optimistic but at least they weren’t actively at each other’s throats. Orm had his resentments, sure, but Atlanna had helped bridge the gap between them. She realized she couldn’t fix all the hurt her absence had done to her sons but she helped show how much she loved them and that, despite his father’s toxic influence, Orm was a good man and she was proud of him. Eventually, the two could talk easier and Orm, perhaps grudgingly at first is willing to offer advice.
As time went on, Orm’s confinement lessened, he was allowed around the palace under supervision from Arthur or Atlanna or Vulko. He may have wanted his throne back but he realized that he’d lost, and on some level didn’t want to disappoint his mother. Unfortunately, other parties were less content with his small freedoms.
-
Elara started each morning in a state of deep meditation. She’d found it easier to begin her study of the waves while still mostly asleep. That way she was too tired for any preconceived notions to muddle things up and get in the way of clear sight.
The way of the Tidewatchers was an art, a gift, a blessing and real tricky pain in the butt and as such, it required due focus. Elara liked to allow the proper time each day to really hone in on what the ocean would tell her so she usually started each day with an initial search through the tides and then returned throughout the day to really parse through what patterns she uncovered amidst her other duties as a Tidewatcher.
This morning was not usual in the slightest. As soon as her hands grazed the surface of the pool she used for scrying, an almost electric shock ran up her whole body, raising her hair on end. This was no mere image, but a vision and it was clear, clearer than anything she’d ever seen.
King Orm was being escorted down a hall in the royal palace by Vulko and two other guards then suddenly there was a commotion at the other end of the hall. She couldn’t see who it was but could feel their anger radiating back through the tides to her.
A blast, Vulko was thrown free, the guards disoriented and scattered, and then a blade sharpened with hatred pierced Orm’s heart. The vision was fading, and Elara tried to grasp onto the slivers of it before they receded. The glimpses flashed and faded barely fast enough to absorb: Arthur bursting in with a roar, Orm not breathing, someone was yelling and then beautiful ocean blue eyes going dim.
She pulled her hands from the pool as if she’d been scorched. But she could still hear the yelling when with a start, she realized the shouts were hers. Her throat burned as a shaking settled over her whole being.
In all of her years of watching, Elara had never seen anything that clear, that vivid. She had always been better at broader patterns, at interpreting hints into a bigger picture. She’d never felt anything like that. There was no misinterpreting this- Orm was going to die and she knew she was meant to stop it.
Author's Note: okay that’s it for now! again, this is just a sort of teaser. My way of testing the waters. I had this idea for the Tidewatchers and I just had to run with it. Let me know what you think!
Concept art of Ocean Master in Aquaman (2018) by Victor Martinez
In this concept art, Atlanteans used water holograms “hydrograms” using bioluminescence to create images and used the manipulation of water to make three-dimensional interfaces + images
Scene: Atlanna asks you to take Orm out to get human clothes and run some errands. (but she secretly ships it and spies on the day)
Inspired by the flower scene. I just put myself in there but imagine its you, your OC, or your fav pairing <3
also, in case you can’t read my handwriting (I’m so sorry I know its bad lol)
1:
Orm: Your surface-dweller garments make no sense, it’s terrible armor.
You: It’s not supposed to be armor. It’s just supposed to be comfortable.
in the background: Thomas: Atlanna….this is a bad idea.
in the background: Atlanna: shhhh!
2: You: So they also wanted you to get a phone…and Atlanna wanted a bottle of wine
3: Orm: These are those snacks Mera told me about. You:??!??!?
4: You: Those are flowers, Orm. They’re not for eating…
5: You: You’re supposed to give them for special occasions, or to someone you care for.
If you’re afraid to leave a review/comment because you think it’ll sound stupid, don’t be. Just leave an incoherent reply in all caps. We love that shit.
You know, something that just blows my mind about Aquaman is how Arthur’s dad first encounters his mom.
An exotic, sexually mature woman in a soaking wet, skin-tight outfit falls at his doorstep, injured and unconscious. Completely helpless. Decades of science fiction tropes dictate that at some point while he rescues her, he will be tempted by her beauty.
Maybe he has to examine an intimate area as he checks her injuries and bandages her. Or perhaps a bit of her outfit falls away as he’s moving her to safety. But ultimately, despite all of this temptation, he refuses to take advantage of her. This moment is to show the audience that he is a nice, honorable guy.
But in Aquaman…that never happens. He finds her on the shore in the rain, and then next thing we see she’s on his couch, bandaged up and covered with a blanket. No gratuitous shots of her being stripped while unconscious, no drawn-out manhandling or accidental gropings. Just, bam. She’s there. And the story progresses.
This is significant to me for a couple of reasons:
1. A movie, specifically a SCIENCE FICTION movie, refused an opportunity to sexualize a beautiful, unconscious woman being rescued by a man. Which is something that’s a lot more uncommon than it should be in media.
2. The movie does not highlight refusing to take advantage of an unconscious woman as something a “nice guy” does. In fact, it doesn’t highlight it AT ALL. From the movie’s point of view, not taking advantage of an unconscious woman is not honorable or noteworthy in any way. It’s EXPECTED. It is BASE-LEVEL decency.
He wasn’t nice because he refused to grope her. He was nice because he took an armed stranger from the OCEAN into his home, gave her back her weapon before he even knew he could trust her, and didn’t tell her to get the hell out as soon as she ate his fish.
A man who doesn’t take advantage of unconscious women is as honorable as a man who doesn’t kick dogs, or a man who doesn’t torture cats. That is to say, as honorable as every single other halfway decent person on the planet. Not committing sexual assault is not a commendable thing, it is the BARE MINIMUM STANDARD any human should be held to. Right up there with not setting cars on fire and not shitting on your neighbor’s dinner table.
