"You take scales as trophies?" Merwhumpee asks, bright eyes wandering around Poacher Whumper's hut.
Whumper sharpens a curved blade, "Ah no, only once, ya wee fry."
The walls are lined with a crude mosaic of merfolk scales.
Merwhumpee shrinks back in their net as Whumper approaches, "Only once?"
Kneeling close, Whumper begins to cut the net, "Aye. A scale each time you don' lissen to me."
Hey red I got fun whumpee idea for mermay this year :mermaid and sirens doing funny things with human objects from pirate ships orseashells,gemstones,pebbles and more
:0!!! You're right it is mermay! I completely forgot
Some whump prompts I've peddled off of this
Humans know that merfolk collect hoard precious gems, so they capture and torment a merwhumpee in the hopes of obtaining some treasure for themselves
A diver searching a wreck for expensive sunken items, becomes entrapped in the debris. Some merfolk come across them, but decide freeing them is last in their interests
Merfolk using sharpened shells or precious gems in place of blades/knives
Pirate whumpee being used as a bargaining chip in return for the treasure that their crew still held. Maybe the crew will have no choice but to give up their hard work. Maybe this is the ripe time for mutiny
Merfolk locking a human inside of an empty treasure chest
A merwhumpee becoming unknowingly cursed by ancient treasure that pirates had heisted
Merfolk experimenting with their finds on an unfortunate human
Mer Nate would be so much easier to restrain! Just get a meat hook through that tail and tangle his arms up in nets, to the point where it cuts off his circulation.
Ropes are much harder to untangle when wet, fishing line can cut into skin. A boat usually has plenty of hooks and weights.
Nereia swims as fast as she can with an injured tail. But she couldn’t think about that now. Or about the possibility of the blood attracting…something else.
She stumbles over in her swimming pattern, and trips down to the shallow ocean floor. She keeps going, her tail scraping along rough coral and forming another collection of cuts and bleeding. She can even feel some scales coming off, but she has to keep going. Or else the aberration will get her too…
-
At some point, Nereia falls unconscious. From blood loss, shock, or exhaustion from traveling for hours in excruciating pain…it’s not clear. But when the mermaid awakens, she doesn’t recognize where she is. She doesn’t even remember falling asleep.
She’s also on land.
Her lungs heave from a lack of use, but she’s breathing. She can feel the sand against her back, and as she shifts, the coarseness rubs against her injuries. She remembers the explosion, and the corpses, and the fear and urgent swimming.
Tears are streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks. She’s lost. Her eyes dart around frantically, trying to at least get some clue of which beach she may have washed up on. Not that she knew the geography of the Islands or Tolesca well; it was mostly out of instinct. Tropical palm trees, ocean as far as she can see, and no signs of civilization, at least where she was sitting. Perhaps it was a deserted island.
How long had she been unconscious? How far had she floated?
Should she even try to find her way back home?
She suddenly realizes how exposed she is; a bleeding mermaid with bright teal hair and purple fins in the middle of the beach. If there’s anyone on this island or around it, they’d have to notice her. Maybe she can use this position to her advantage.
Nereia groans as some sand lodges itself under her scales and rubs against a particularly deep cut. She doesn’t even want to look down at her tail right now, and catches the glimpse of deep blue skin around her shoulders that burns whenever she touches it. This must be one of those “sunburns” that her circle told her about. In a weak attempt to call for help, she chirps out in Aquan.
But no one comes.
-
Nereia has managed to crawl on her forearms to some shade, but that doesn’t stop her sun-deficient skin from roasting in the heat. Now her arms hurt even more, everything hurts. And she’s tired. At least this palm tree can grant her some relief, even though she winces as her sunburnt back rests against the trunk.
Just as she resigns to fall back asleep, she spots a dot over the horizon.
Adrenaline rushes through her exhausted body. “Hey! Help--Help me!” She chirps in her native language. “Help!”
She scoots closer to the shore, but collapses as her arms and tail are too sore. The dot inches closer. It’s a ship. Someone can see her.
Relief floods Nereia’s system, then a rush of anxiety. She’s never met land-dwellers before, only heard stories from the members of her circle who participated in the War or make regular trips to the surface. What if they don’t help her out of the centuries old-grudge that Islanders held against the Aquans? But the peace treaty had been signed years ago…no, she would be fine. The ship was coming this way; they had to help her.
When the ship finally makes its way to the shore, Nereia’s heart is hammering against her chest. A tall man in a weird hat disembarks and begins walking towards her, flanked by two others. The leader, she presumes, gives her a look of surprise. “Well, well, well. Look what the tide brought in…”
A feeling of dread pools in her gut. Nereia can’t understand his Alman, but she can tell that something isn’t right. She explains her situation to the strangers in her native language, her voice laced with panic “Please, my home…my home was attacked and I fled and washed up here. E-everything hurts and I don’t think I can swim, please, I just need some directions and maybe a place to stay that isn’t so…so bright, please help--”
The leader ignores her rambling and crouches in front of her, looking her up and down like a piece of meat. “It makes such cute noises, too.” The lackeys behind him chuckle in response, and Nereia shrinks into herself. Does…does he not understand her?
“...please…”
“Let’s get you somewhere safe, hm?”
The mermaid tilts her head, but still picks up on the tone of this stranger. She doesn’t feel safe. Nereia knows that she called out for their help…but she really doesn’t want to go anywhere with these land-dwellers. She scoots back until her back hits a palm tree’s trunk.
“Ah-ah-ah…where are you going, angelfish?” The leader shoots an pointed look to his friends and they close in on the mermaid. Nereia shakes her head and takes short, anxious breaths through her unused lungs. “I promise, me and my crew will take excellent care of you.”
She doesn’t trust them. They’re scaring her.
But she can do nothing as the strangers lift up her aching body, their fingers brushing against her fresh sunburns and a sharp pain shooting up her tail as it shifts.
She doesn’t want to go with these strangers. What was she going to do, stay here on the beach until she died? Try to swim again only to get even more lost? But going with these land-dwellers was starting to seem like a far worse fate.
She wants to go home. But there’s no home to go back to...not anymore.
-
Stem the Tide taglist: @annablogsposts @worstcasescenariolullaby @i-can-even-burn-salad @whither-wander-whump (let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!)
After mermaid Nereia was wounded in a freak accident, a wandering pirate crew found her washed up on the shore. The Captain promptly decided that the crew would take her in and keep her as treasure. Trapped in a wooden tub on a ship with cruel pirates who didn’t speak her language, she tries her best to adapt and avoid the brunt of her captors’ abuse.
After years of captivity, the ship is raided, and Nereia finds herself facing a new pirate crew. Her captor, Kharis, and their crew-mates seem kinder, and the new captain even speaks Nereia’s native Aquan! But even though she feels safe for the first time in years, Nereia can’t help but shake the feeling that the new pirates have their own ulterior motive for taking her in.
general series cw: lady whumpee, male whumper, multiple whumpers, morally grey caretaker, stranger caretaker, long-term captivity, pet whumpee, nonhuman characters, abuse & implied noncon touches
Part 1: Sink or Swim
Part 2: Communication
Canon drabbles in chronological order:
Nereia’s Captivity
Lost - Nereia is found by The Captain.
Training - The Captain “teaches” his new pet some basic Alman.
The Raid - The ship is raided.
ART & COMPANION MEDIA
Playlist: Songs that Inspired Stem the Tide
My Doodles:
"Turns out Captain Whumper was lying...”
Other Art:
Character Picrews
WORLDBUILDING
This series is set in my homebrew D&D setting: Clevaros. To see a glossary of relevant terms/locations or to just learn some more about my world, click here.
MISC
Taglist for chapters and canon drabbles!
Stem the Tide on AO3
Masterlist of all my writing!
(cool dividers & masterlist headers by @delishlydelightfuldividers)
