Summary: @hanji-is-life more merman!Bakugo and so I shall provide! I was hoping to get this out much earlier, back in may because MerMay but better late than never I suppose! You, a marine biologist, take a scuba dive to see the local fauna off coast and you find more than you ever could've bargained for...
Word Count: 1.5.
Warnings: None but minor curses, mentions of the ocean, an illusion of drowning. Viewer discretion is advised at least.
How did you manage this?
You hadn't walked on the beach, much less roll around in the coarse substance. So how did it manage to get into your pockets? This was a new jacket so how?
A short walk from the parking garage to the pier was all it was, no beach travel involved yet it had wormed its way into your pockets, in between your toes and nearly everywhere else.
Your team chuckles at your discomfort finding your squirming the funniest thing on the planet as they loaded up the sizable vessel for the day on the water. For the past several weeks you had been cooped up in a lab studying the samples others brought to you but now you were given the green light to head out into the field yourself. Your goal for the day was to gather samples, check on the status of the coral nursery, and a checklist of other menial tasks. A full plate all things considered, much better than getting a migraine staring through a microscope at sea water until you either give up or get sent home.
Waves battered against the hull of the boat while you and your fellow colleagues suit up in scuba gear. The goal wasn't to go to the bottom of the ocean, far from it, fifteen meters was the maximum for today so simple snorkeling hear wouldn't cut it. You didn't get your diving certifications to be stuck in a lab. The salt spray refreshing against your skin for the few seconds it was vulnerable while you changed from your outfit into the designated wetsuit. Not the full suit that covered your body from head-to-toe, just a body one to keep your core warm when your swimsuit didn't offer much protection.
The boat came to a stop right around where the GPS locator dinged where the nursery site was and the captain gave everyone a thumbs up as you and your fellows attached their fins, tanks, SPG's and all the other necessary equipment. One-by-one each of them held their regulators to their mouths and fell back into the blue ocean below until it was your own, to which you received a wink instead while everything turned upside down.
Ten, twenty, thirty, a hundred. Regardless of how many dives you've had you'll never get over the beauty of the reefs. Each time serving something new, change was ever present in your line of work. Never seeing the same specimens twice to witnessing a rare species and everything in between. The sunshine overhead casting glittering ripples on the sandy floor, catching your eye on the schools of fish that swam by as their scales gleamed in different patterns. This was the closest feeling you had ever come to your childhood dream of becoming a mermaid. When you wished on your birthday candles and shooting stars to holding your breath underneath tub water in hopes gills would magically appear. That's what started this career. Maybe it was a long forgotten portion of your evolved brain from life's time in the ocean but you felt at home, a familiar sense of belonging that you didn't have on dry land. This was where you were meant to be but sadly your wishes had never come true and you were cursed to remain a land-dwelling mammal.
The beeping in your ears ripped you from your fantastical daydreams to remind you of the harsh reality. This is as close as you were going to get but that wasn't so bad, it was better having a little than nothing at all. Looking at the gauge meter it showed that you have roughly an hour left of oxygen which meant you had been in the water for an hour already. How time flies when you're having fun, absorbed in your daydreams, and checking on coral and taking samples.
"Hey, could we switch our tanks out without getting oxygen narcosis or are we screwed in that department?" Your voice came over the radio built in the full face masks everyone in the diving team used no doubt scaring those who were lost in thought as you just were.
"Y/N...do you really want to stay out here longer? Shitting Christ, you should be glad you're out here in the first place!" The captain's voice responded from the safety of the boat. "Now get your asses back up here n' we'll head on ba-...what was that?"
"What was what?"
A chorus of responses chimed in immediately after, some crackling from the distance they were from the source and others sounding as if they were a foot away.
"Nothing, never mind, must've been a Manta Ray. Forget about it. Just get your shit and come back, I'm gettin' hungry and its close to lunchtime so hurry up." The static cut off as he put down the radio and looked out into the churning ocean. The massive shadow he had just seen passing by the boat putting him on alert, he didn't want to witness any reef shark's feeding frenzy.
"We can come back tomorrow, Y/N. Nothing's stopping us from that, right?" Another voice, one of your favorite colleagues suggested. That was right, you were there and your boss hadn't explicitly said that this was a one time thing. Another visit would do some good to see if the biometrics have changed in a span of twenty-four hours.
"Alright, okay, we'll come back later for a differential test."
The group had a collective sigh of relief. You were notorious for loving the ocean to such a degree you'd do anything to stay in a while longer, they were all content with leaving now and coming back later if it meant they wouldn't see your sad pouting all the way back to the van. Picking up their equipment and vials everyone began swimming back to the boat now most of them making small talk and discussing their plans for the weekend while you were once again lost in your thoughts.
Something impossibly dark darted through your vision. Blocking out the beautiful view of the turquoise water and colorful life like an angry, ominous storm cloud. A blanket of blindness shrouding all light for a moment but it felt like an eternity as dread sunk in the pit of your stomach, anchoring you to the spot. The warm water now felt cold, goosebumps running up your bare arms and thighs like pinpricks. The heart that had been so calm in the home of your ribcage now pushing adrenaline through your bloodstream, adjusting to a state you weren't acting on. Fear. That wasn't a Manta Ray or a comically large Stingray that was something else entirely. A predator that crashed against the fragile cage of safety, security and believing you were untouchable in shallow depths.
You were reminded of the psychologically scarring and irrational fear of one's ankles being grabbed particularly in the ocean by a shark, the part of your lizard brain firing signals all across your synapses to detach the leg. If only. A fair trade, being left alone at the price of a limb but unfortunately humans couldn't detach or regrow whatever they lost.
That fear was horrifically evoked when something far more firm than a limp leaf of seaweed wrapped around your ankle. Slimey, cold as death and tipped with five sharp points. Reminiscent of a hand, a very large hand. Expanding across your bare skin like a calloused cuff that threatened to break the skin, sink into the meat and tear your foot off entirely. However, that didn't seem to be happening. No cloud of your own blood instead the safety of the boat got further and further away, turning into a speck barely seen in the shallow water.
"Wait, wait no! What the fuck?! Let go! What the hell?" When your brain managed to get over its fear and shock of the situation your fight-or-flight instincts kicked into high gear and your body began to thrash around against the hold. If it was a shark hitting it in the snout and eyes was imperative to get it to release but what if it wasn't? What else could possibly have your leg in its grip with a goal of pulling you away from the boat?
A flurry of indistinguishable voices and noises came over the radio. From yelps, screams and to curses but the thudding in your ears and the furious splashes drowned them all out, everything became topsy turvy, what was the bottom of the ocean and what was the surface became an abstract concept. The primal urge to escape was ripped away when the respirator giving you oxygen was unceremoniously and harshly ripped from your mouth, the hand that had done it orange and black. The water was salty, like you had dumped an entire container of table salt into your mouth and you washed it down with a sip of water. It was invasive, slipping down your throat into your lungs as they tried to gulp air instead. The more you inhaled the harder it was to move. Your limbs becoming as heavy as cement bricks. Unconsciousness began to consume everything, your body down to your mind. The eerie sensation of falling was the last thing before everything faded to black...
In a sunken temple to Nehalennia, dolphins uncover a long-forgotten offering of a torq, and the spirits of seagulls remember the days when this place of worship was on the surface...
Nehalennia is a goddess of uncertain origin -- possibly Continental Celtic or Germanic -- whose worship centered around Zealand in the modern-day Netherlands. She was popular among fishers, merchants, tradespeople, and many other individuals, as attested by numerous votive offerings dating from the Roman era. A lovely temple to her was reconstructed in the last century, and that is what this temple in this image is based off. Torqs are type of necklace common to many historical peoples in the region, including the Gauls.
Whistling softly to himself as the hot sun beats down on the lush green of the park around him, Muzen happily sinks his knees into the mud as his gloved fingers wrestle with a particularly prickly, aggressive bush that was casting the surrounding plants in so much shade, it was killing them off! It’s not Muzen’s favourite job to be a heavy pruner, but he’s got his sheers in and he’s cutting away merrily. The insects buzz around him happily as they always do, from the bumble bees dipping into pollen rich flowers and caterpillars inching their way, camouflaged across green stems, all of it creating a happy hubbub of life cycle around him that Muzen loved so much about this park.
Having hacked off limbs from the bush, the grounds keeper gathers them all up ready to be disposed of and starts to stomp his way back towards his ‘office’, or hut not far away, when he hears it. A tiny, weak cry for help. It wasn’t in a language that most could understand, it was more like a shared connection, and it has him dropping his twigs and branches with a gasp. He knows the frightful cry of a honey bee anywhere! Not just any bee, one of his bees. His travelling companions from the mortal world, the beginnings of his farm!
It isn’t long before he finds the source, as a drenched, fat, fluffy bumble sits slowly drowning on the surface of the lake. It’s wings pathetically twitching, but too drenched to do a thing to save itself. “D-Don’t worry! I’m coming-!” Muzen shouts and before he’s even really thought about his own inadequacies in water, the god is kicking of his wellington boots and striding down into the rushes of the lack. “Cold!” He gasps to himself as he wades in deeper, and quickly his choice of clothing becomes apparently a hindrance. The denim of his dungarees when wet become increasingly heavy, as he continues to wade deeper, up his thighs and a quick squeak as he gets to the crotch. That is cold!
Finally reaching the bee, now up past his middle, Muzen scoops it up into his hand and feels the patter of tiny wings in his palm. Now he can relax, or so he thinks, as his hips jut forward with a current, and he realises, he’s stuck! Quickly he tries to turn, but each step has his feet slipping on pebbled river bed, and the current sucks him out deeper, until the cold water is lapping at his chin! Now he’s splashing more, hand holding the bee still lifted high, as his other tries to wade and propel himself back, but he can’t fight the current. With another slip of his foot his face is under, leaving him to gasp loudly as he pushes back up again and starts to swim! Or as close as he can, because like his bee friends, he can’t deal with water either!
Straight up on my 18th birthday I jumped out of a plane and loved it. I love ferris wheels, I love roller coasters, I want to go bungee jumping and hang gliding one day.
But get me near any water higher than my knees and i'm full on gonna say Fuck you and run away.
