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Techno hurried out of his vehicle, pushing past the crowds of people surrounding the boat. He was thankful that he kept his badge as part of the International Mythics Department in his van, made it easier to rush out the door to the site. He showed it to the local law enforcement, who quickly got out of his way. After all, the Fey backed up his organization as having authority beyond mortal governments and no one wanted to mess with that.
Ignoring the flashing of cameras that came with this part of his work, Techno approaches the fishers who caught the being he was called in for. Even before he steps onto the boat, he can hear the cries of fear from whatever it is.
That rules out Apotamkins and Gunakadeits, at least. Not that they would be found around here, both are from much farther North by Maine and Alaska respectively, but stranger things have happened. Especially with the breaking of the magic wall nearly fifty years ago.
“So, I heard you caught something in your nets that you didn’t mean to,” Techno likes to start with something that shows he doesn’t blame whoever made the report, especially if blame could be damning.
The man sighs in resignation and relief. “Yeah, we were pulling some of our larger nets that we use, and out comes this strange thing. Thought it was a dolphin at first, but it was green .”
Techno nods, not saying anything. Best to let the man talk.
“Started thrashin’ and screechin’ when we pulled it up, and I’m no expert, but it certainly seems like a mermaid.” Techno freezes at that. “Figured better to call it in than sendin’ it somewhere it’s not supposed to be.”
“I’d like to take a look, but if you’re right, you certainly did the right thing, and I’m going to need your help to move them,” Techno starts power walking to the boat, anxiety and excitement spiking.
Merpeople aren’t common, especially here, which means they could be sick or injured. Now that Techno is listening, it certainly sounds like screams for help. Wailing too.
“Of course, of course. Are there any… uh… letters I should be worried about in the future?” Techno is a little annoyed at the question, but the man’s concern is understandable. He can see that there are other people on the boat who fit the bill of questionably legal, which is why Techno avoids investigations when he can. A letter of a court hearing could cost him dearly.
“Unless I find evidence that you hurt them or caught them with malicious intent, no. These things happen, and based on our location and your story, it’s likely other factors that drove them into your net,” Techno reassures quickly, taking long strides up the gangplank. “I’m more concerned about them not being able to find their own food or being cast out of their pod, which would have caused them to risk getting caught in hopes of an easy meal.”
“The creature does look a bit thin,” a woman pipes up. “It looked hurt so I tried to bandage it or at least cut it free, but it tried to bite me. Poor thing.”
“Was probably after the fish then,” Techno looks around, not finding them. He’s starting to get worried about them drying out, damage to tails can be life-threatening for a mer. “Where…”
“This way,” the woman starts walking towards the bow of the ship.
Techno follows quickly and soon sees them.
They’re beautiful, with green scales with blue and yellow markings, long almost white hair that’s starting to curl as it drys, and tan skin. Likely male based on the shape of his spinal fin and Techno vaguely recognizes the species as being native to the Gulf of Mexico.
They’re also crying and bleeding.
Techno runs over and prays that his mermish isn’t too rusty. “Hush, I’m here to help, let me see you.”
“Don’t touch me! Let me go!” They scream in response, trying to escape Techno’s hands. He’s still tied up in the netting and can’t do much, so Techno doesn’t struggle to hold down his tail nearly as much as he should.
Techno’s heart sinks as he looks at the merperson’s tail. It’s scratched up, badly. Likely a fight lost. He’s also much too thin.
“It’s going to be okay, I have to move you to my transportation to help you. You’re starting to dry.” Techno tries to explain, but they don’t seem to even be listening.
“Please, please don’t, I don’t want to be tanked, PLEASE,” they practically sob, but Techno has to move him fast if he’s going to avoid any tail damage.
“I’m sorry, please trust me, you’re going to be okay,” he tried one last time before yelling to the others on the boat. “I need help getting them to my van! They've been hurt by other mer and are drying out!”
Techno pulls a tarp from his backpack, trying to ignore the pleas and cries from the mer. While he doubts these humans have hurt him, something has obviously happened before this that makes him terrified of humans.
He dumps a bucket of seawater down, then helps wrap the still netted merperson up. They’ve mostly quieted down, but are still crying.
It takes precious minutes to make a path towards his van, and even more to get an escort back to the facility he works at. He quickly hands over the contact information that the boat owner needs to be reimbursed for his time and the net that the Mer is currently trapped in and starts driving.
He barely blocks out the stuttered breaths and sobs of the mer behind him as he drives.
Dreamer is terrified, trying not to anger his captor anymore. He understands a bit of English, enough to know that he wasn’t intentionally caught, but he knows what happens to SongSwimmers who are brought to the land.
He lost his father to the land. His mother was much less kind after that.
He can feel the movement of the vehicle, the way the man who wrapped him in plastic takes turns sharp and fast. The man tried to comfort him and calm him down, but Dreamer can’t believe the words he said. He just can’t.
He jerks out of his thoughts when the car comes to a stop, shuddering as he hears him get out of the vehicle. He curls up as best he can, but between the tarp, netting, and his injuries he can’t move much.
The back doors pop open, showing the pink-haired man and two others. They are wearing the white coats.
Dreamer shudders.
He hears something about drying out and injuries, but his captor is talking much too fast to understand what’s going on. He feels weird, but he’s too scared to care about that.
“I’ve got you, you're going to be okay, we’re setting up a tank,” one of them reassures, or at least tries to. “Techno is going to take good care of you, okay?”
Dreamer just goes limp, letting them lug him through white hallways and into a room with a tank. He sees photos of the pink-haired man with other people, likely family. So Techno is the pink-haired man’s name. Dreamer guesses that if he’s going to ‘care for him’, that makes Techno his owner. And he’s already tried to attack the man.
Great. He’s totally going to get his spines taken off.
The world starts to drift out of focus as he is placed on a shallow bank, plastic keeping him half submerged. He can hear the call of the sea, but it’s faint. How would he even get back on his own? He’s not like Echos who can split her tail into something like legs.
He’s tanked. He’s tanked and is never going to escape.
He cries, and the tears he can feel on his face only make it worse.
The world goes dark as he gives up.
Techno cautiously enters his lab, fully expecting a screeching Mer or maybe a Mer in the process of splitting their tail into false legs, but instead gets silence. The mer is passed out, tear tracks on his face. Techno’s heart breaks just a little more.
He cautiously walks over to one of his rolling tables and places the medical supplies that Sam had given him. While Techno specialized in Marine Mythics, Sam was their Wooded Mythics person. They also had an Aerial and a Dimensional Mythics specialists, Ant and Red, who were dating. It was interesting to see where all their specialties intersected, but he digressed. Sam was in charge of inventory, so he was the one who went and got bandages and disinfectant while Ant and Red carried the Mer into Techno’s office.
He debated back and forth whether he should wake the mer up before cutting him free of the net, before deciding that if he woke up while Techno was cutting the net, things could go very badly very quickly. He tries to make his office seem less… clinical, but he doubts he succeeds. He slowly approaches the Mer, before trying to gently shake him awake.
It takes a minute for the Mer to wake up, but the moment he opens his eyes, the Mer is thrashing around, tangling the net even more.
“Hey, hey, you’re hurting yourself, please stop!” Techno almost grabs him but resists the urge. He doesn’t want to hurt him and he’s sure that grabbing the Mer will only freak them out more.
They seem to suddenly fall still staring at Techno. Techno may not be the greatest at reading body language, but even he can tell that they are terrified.
“I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me, I’M SORRY,” they wail, taking shuttering breaths. “Please don’t take my spines, I need them, I’ll be good.”
Techno’s heart breaks. “It’s okay, I’m not upset, I just want to cut the ropes off you. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Techno reaches slowly for the rescue knife, letting the Mer see his every movement. He makes sure that the knife touches his skin as little as possible.
They relax a little as more of the rope falls away. “Thank you,” he whispers.
“No problem. May I get your name? I’m Techno, but you can call me Technic,” Techno offers as he cuts another knot.
“Dreamer, but my mother said that humans would call me Dream,” at the mention of his mother, the spines on his ears lay flat.
“Do you know English? I’ll continue using Gulfsong if you prefer,” Techno hopes he’s not being invasive.
Dream hesitates before answering. “A little, I can understand it much better than I can speak it.” Techno hopes that Dream is coming to trust him because making it seem like you can’t understand your captor's language to eavesdrop is a powerful tool. And yet Dream gave it up.
“Okay. Can you tell me why you were in this net?” Techno finally gets the last of the net off, gathering the pieces up and dumping them on the floor to be taken care of later.
“Um, my, my pod was passing by in our cycle, but, um, I was left…” Dream trails off as he talks, before taking a shuddering breath and continuing. “I’m nothing but a reminder and a burden to most of my pod. I just wish I could have told Snapnapper goodbye. Or left George a message.” Dream won’t meet Techno’s eyes.
“I’m sorry. We can help you find them once you are all healed, if you would like,” Techno offers. There is always a chance that it wasn’t a unanimous decision and Dream could start his own pod. He seems like he misses Snapnapper and George .
Dream jerks up, using his hands so he can be at eye level with Techno “You’re not going to keep me here? I’m not going to get cut apart or used as decoration or Tanked?”
Techno nearly drops the antibiotic cream in his hands from shock. “Heeeeeeeehhhhhh???”
Dream keeps staring at him, not moving. Techno sputters as he tries to get his thoughts in order and translates said thoughts into Gulfsong.
“No! Those things are illegal, have been for a few decades now. Have we done something that makes you think that? Did someone on the boat say that?” this is bad, if Dream thinks that those things could still happen, then clearly the underground Mystic trade is expanding.
“...my dad was taken when I was young. We never saw him again.” Dream lets out a low whistle.
“I’m sorry. That never should have happened.” Techno does his best to whistle out a mourning note in solidarity, and Dream flashes him a small smile.
He finishes putting on the antibiotic cream in silence.
Time passes for Dreamer. He eventually gets moved out of Techno’s office into a bigger tank, one where he can interact with other Mers who are receiving treatment. He makes friends with a Lower Gulf Mer called Farfadox who speaks ChannelSong mostly, but they know enough of each other’s languages to form a friendship.
Dream finds out that Snapnapper had left their pod shortly after he was abandoned, and joined the same pod that Farfadox was a part of. He promised to bring Dreamer with him when he was released, so he could be reunited with Sapnap . Apparently, Sapnap decided that a name change was a good way to “cast off his old pod and their ways.”
“That’s good! I know you’ve been missing him, and I would be worried about you if you didn't have a pod when it’s time for you to leave,” Techno smiles, but it’s a sad smile.
Dreamer feels the same way.
He doesn’t want to leave. Well, he wants to go back to the ocean, and be with Sapnap , Farfadox , and this MafiaPod that they are a part of.
But he also doesn’t want to leave Techno. He wants Techno to come with.
Dreamer pretends he doesn’t know why. If he ignores it, it will go away, right? He won’t have to mourn something that never existed. It’s better that way.
“Yeah, it’s nice not having to hunt for my next meal though,” Dreamer laughs. “I’ll miss the services of Technic , chef extraordinaire.”
Techno rubs the back of his neck. “Well… we are actually thinking about taking a job further South, maybe do some more fieldwork. Sam wants to explore some new horizons and Ant and Velvet think it would be a good way to have a honeymoon on someone else’s dime.”
Dreamer surges out of the water, splashing Techno. “Really?! I mean, uh, that sounds like a good idea. A nice change of pace. Yeah.”
“Yep, besides, I uh, I would miss you Dream.” Techno blushes and turns around quickly. “But you got me all wet, I’m going to grab a towel.”
Dreamer laughs and sinks back under the water, rushing off to tell Farfadox the good news.
Maybe there is a chance for them.