Follow Your Passion: A Seamless Tumblr Journey
Mer JL au:
Aurthur: Yellowtail amberjack. (it’s a king fish and I thought that was funny.)
Diana: Amazon molly. (Do I really need to explain myself? Although ignore the size, I like to imagine Diana as buff. Insert thumbs up emoji.)
Hi! Author’s note, thank you for all your support for the first part of his I did! It really motivated me to continue with this project instead of just giving it up.as per usual, pleas PM me if you want to be added to the tagged list, if you have any ideas about the story or want me to incorporate any specific aspects or neglected characters, just let me know in the comments and ill add them.
Every part I think I’m just going to try to add two more species of Mer, like I did in the first part. The first part will be linked under the people who asked to be tagged, if you want to be tagged PM me.
Tagged:
@ancientdreams-in-a-modernland
Part one linked: Clark finds himself a friend. Bruce finds himself a meal ticket.
Part three linked: Bruce shows off his pup and Clark learns to communicate.
chapter four: Clark finds the family. Bruce needs a nap.
Enjoy the story!
“He isn’t happy with you. You missed the whole meeting.” Diana sighed, “we were discussing the trenches situation, the trench creatures are starting to come higher then normal. He’s still pissed you missed it though. What were you even doing?”
Clark looked over at Diana, crossing his arms with a huff looking to the reefs surface.
“I told you. I went to find the Mer who we’ve been getting reports about, and he slipped away. Before I even got there, and its dose take time to scout the whole area you know?”
Diana looked at him, eyes narrowing as she stopped in her tracks, sitting on a piece of coral glaring at him accusingly. Clark shifted his eyes, now slightly wringing his hands as he met the others glare.
“Uh, Diana- “
“How do you know it’s a Mer? How do you know it’s a guy Mer? You said it had slipped away before you got there.”
Clark cursed internally, eyes widening a fraction and lips slightly pursing before he schooled his expression and tried to produce a lie on the spot.
“Just an assumption on the gender, and I guessed it was a Mer because I found a shark carcass. It didn’t just leave teeth marks, it left claw marks, but only in places where it would matter. I really shouldn’t bring my assumptions into a serious conversation, thank you for catching me on that.”
He said, trying to derail her with the thanks instead of her analysing the fact that none of that information on his assumption was on his mission report.
“Huh,” Dianna said. Clark answered that too fast, there was too much reasoning with that. If he had just told her, it was an assumption, she would’ve understood and let it go. But he kept rambling about it, that was quite suspicious. Her eyes flicked to the faint scratches on his arms he had attempted to hide wrapping his arm up in seaweed.
‘Idiot probably lost,’ she mused in her head. ‘Embarrassed he went alone no doubt, and lying to cover up he couldn’t manage it alone. No point in embarrassing him, but this is vital information…’
“Anyway,” she started again, giving him a smile as she started swimming again, Clark visibly relaxed as he followed.
“You should add all that to your mission report.”
Clark looked at her, confused. Before nervously chuckling with a sheepish look. “But, Diana, it’s just an assumption. I don’t want to be wrong- “
Diana gave him a sharp look. She cared about him, but the lie was disrespect she wouldn’t take.
“I trust your judgement, Clark.” She said, voice steadily firm. “Write it, you’ve never been wrong about an assumption before.”
She was giving him a clear disapproving parent stare, one that made him adjust the seaweed covering his arms as he tried to give a normal grin.
“Thanks Di, your too good to me.”
“I know.”
The rest of the swim back was relatively normal after the tension dissipated. Clark was glad, thinking he got away with it. Meanwhile, Diana was concerned. Considering her assumption on why Clark lied, she started to worry that if Clark was this embarrassed, or worried, to talk about the black scaled creature, it must be terrifying. But she wasn’t going to bring it up. Yet. Not unless it becomes a serious concern.
She dropped Clark off at home, who swum inside his apartment and sighed as he flopped down on his couch. (slab of stone and coral). He looked to the ceiling, wondering. Wondering if he’d see Bruce again. And he did, next time he was at the reef.
after a few days Clark was assigned to reef patrol again, not before getting vigorously scolded by Arthur, as Hal filmed it, and barry watched. He was picking at the coral as he swum by, not noticing the pair of blue eyes stare at him from under a piece of coral. Nor the black scaled figure following him as he went, keeping to the shadows.
Clark did however see when Bruce flashed his scales at him, in the pattern of:
“ . _ . . ~ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ ~ _ . _ “. (Ignore the strange swirly dash, its hard trying to write morse code D:)
Clark tilted his head but swam over to him, quite happy to see the other again. He was made to keep his distance with a defensive flash, but it was slightly closer than last time. So, Clark counted that as a win.
“Well, hi! Glad to see your back Bruce.” Clark said, offering his hand to Bruce. Bruce, who got startled by the hand a bit too close for comfort, but Clark’s hand defensively. Clark hissed, but he didn’t pull off him instantly, instead opting to let Bruce let go. If the other was clearly agitated, and definitely did not speak a lick of English, t was a bad idea to panic then make him panic. He didn’t manage to hold the wince that escaped him when the teeth sunk into his hand though. Bruce looked up at him, then back his hand tilting his head. When Clark didn’t panic, he released his bite, and backed away a few feet, staring back at Clark.
Clark saw him back off slightly and was quick to try reassure him.
“Hey- no hey its ok! I’m not hurt, just a bite. I’ve definitely had worse.”
As the blood seeped from Clark’s hand, it got into the water. Bruce sniffed at it, before looking back to Clark. Flashing his scales again.
“ . . _ . ~ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ ~ _ . . “
Clark watched him sniff the air, before humming and tilting his head. He wasn’t sure what the other meant, but it was clear he wanted something. “What?” he asked, confused at the random flashes jut displayed to him. Bruces face scrunched up, sensing the other had no clue what he had wanted.
“ . . _ . ~ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ ~ _ . . “
He tried to flash more pointedly, huffing when Clark looked just as lost as before. He jabbed a finger to the reef, eyes falling on a lionfish. He gestured to it pointedly, then looking back at Clark and flashing again. Same word.
“ . . _ . ~ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ ~ _ . . “
Clarks eyes followed his gesture to the food before it clicked in his head. “oh! Your hungry?” He asked, then smiling again. He swum to the reef and plucked a few lionfish from it before swimming back. Bruce had sat himself on a piece of coral, black scales contrasting greatly with the vibrant coral under him. Clark handed him one tentatively, relived when Bruce took it and begun to eat.
“Sooooo, that flashing means you want food huh?” Clark observed, not surprised when he didn’t get a response. “And that flashing was different then when you wanted my attention. The other one was something else, that one means food- could I write this down?”
Clark asked, pulling out his JL pad and going over to the space where he could keep personal notes. He looked at the other, who was still eating. Bruce was ignoring him in favour of his food at the moment, happily munching on the lionfish, pulling out the spindles. Clark waited for him to be finished with that one, before getting his attention. He pointed to the fish and looked back at Bruce, then gesturing to his tail.
“Can you show me the sequence of flashes for food?”
Bruce had no clue what he was talking about, but he did pick up that when he communicated with Clark, he seemed to refer to the communication as flashes. Confused, and feeling slightly patronised, Bruce flashed his tail again in the: “ . . _ . ~ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ ~ _ . . “. sequence, going slower. To Bruce, going slower was a kind of sarcastic act, mocking Clark for needing him to re-do it. Clark had no idea of Bruces mindset, smiling at him while thinking the slow flashes were for his benefit. He wrote down the flashes and what they meant.
[Clarks Notes:]
[ how to communicate with new friend. Doesn’t speak English.]
[I call him Bruce. I don’t know his name.]
[ “ . . _ . ~ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ ~ _ . . “. means food when he flashes like that.]
Clark put his pad down, looking back at Bruce with a smile before handing him another fish. Bruce had no idea Clark was infatuated with him. Or maybe he did. Bruce was fine with Clark’s existence as long as he kept bringing him food. This fish was tastier than fish from the trenches, and there wasn’t many fish down there at all. So, Bruce was happy to keep coming back here and get his fish while Clark took notes on him. Stupid reef mer.
Bruce gave him a look when Clark reached out but let him touch the scales on his tail. Even if begrudgingly. Clark ran his hand over the strange textured scales, moving his head slightly to see the slight purple sheen of his scales. It made the light that rippled through the ocean water slightly purple. But what was most stunning was the way they felt. They were soft but they got harder when Clark put any semblance of pressure on them. They were cool and metallic, probably made to withstand high water pressures.
He was about to speak when his pad went off with an emergency, beeping loudly. That startled Bruce and pulled away, staring at the pad for a solid second before taking off back to the darker part of the reef. Clark reached out, about to stop him but he was already long gone. He groaned, glaring at the pad on his wrist as he muted it, “Great,” he muttered, starting to swim back to base. “Just great. This better be good.”
Mer au JL:
(Btw they haven’t met Bruce yet, Superbat centric.)
Open to any suggestions about others but have only planned Bruce and Clark’s species.
Bruce: Flashlight fish mer. Google those fish, their cuties.
Clark: Humphead Maori Wrasse Mer. Ok. I know the fish is ugly, but it’s large, a reef fish, its colours are beautiful, and the tail type is what I’m looking for. If you goggle it, I pray for your very soul. Don’t focus on its head to hard.
———————————————————————
“Clark, you’re going to miss the meeting.” Arthur said, sighing in exasperation and looking to the other Mer, who didn’t seem to care at the moment.
Clark sighed, looking over his shoulder as he kept his body facing the reef.
“Ok, I get it. But I’ll be there! I just need to check this out first, we’ve had no idea what this is, but someone’s spotted the black thing, can I At least scout it out? Kay, thanks, bye Arthur!”
Clark finished, not letting Arthur start and darted down into the brush anyway.
“Clark! Come back- Jesus.” Arthur mutters, going on about something like ‘arrogant prick’ before going off to Atlantis to take care of himself before the meeting.
Clark swam through the reef, looking to the pad on which the location of the last sighting of the entity was found.
A few weeks ago, they had started getting reports of a big entity swimming around the reef, long, but people have only reported glimpses of black scales with an iridescent purple and blue sheen.
But every time they came to check it out the thing had just disappeared. But Clark got this notification less than an hour ago, he had time to explore.
And he’d been looking for this for a very long time.
He got to the sight of the reef and begin to scout out the area. It was in the darker parts of the reef, close to where the trenches were. Arthur had said that going down there was basically suicide, and that’s why most mer’s steered away from it.
He smelt the faint scent of blood in the water and followed it, till he saw that flash of black with the small purple shimmer the water reflected around it. Clark stiffens and takes a breath, before slowly and silently inching out from behind the coral to see what it was. He didn’t expect it to be another Mer.
Most mer’s didn’t have dark scales. Well, reef mer’s. It normally went darker scales the deeper they went. But Clark had never seen black scales before. A soft breath left his mouth in the sound of a ‘hah.’
The other Mer clearly heard him and whipped around, blue eyes focusing on blue. The other had short black hair and pale skin, blood on his chin from his meal. A whole ass shark lay behind him, Clark chuckled nervously.
“Uh- you’ve got a little, something, on your chin right there?”
The other instantly spooked and took off, fleeing at speeds Clark hadn’t seen in a long time, with deliberation that was a little startling. Clark gave chase, weaving through the colourful coral blurring as the two passed.
“Stop running!” Clark shouted, trying to reach him.
The other Mer dipped under a pice of coral and speeding to the other side of it. It was a small opening Clark definitely couldn’t for through, he swam above it and looked from above, trying to find the exit to the crevice in which the other went through.
He saw the other start to emerge and waited till he was put to swim down and pin him to the reef bed.
The other was very startled when he felt the grab, and threw his body weight back against Clark, turning and managing to throw him half off. Clark grabbed him in a sort of headlock and the other wrapped his tail around Clark, the appendage trapping Clark as the other Mer threw him, then grabbing his neck with a gasp.
Clark rolled over and back to his bearings, looking at the Mer in front of him. He tried to put his hand up in a sort of placation, attempting to calm the other.
“Hey, hey. I’m not going to hurt you; I’m just here to- “
What was he here to do really. It was mostly his job to now take this one somewhere and find out his agenda. If he had one. It really didn’t matter what he said, actually. It was quite clear the other had no idea what he was saying.
“Wait- what’s your name?” Clark asked the other, swimming closer. The other met tried to back up, but his back hit the coral, and he just stared fowrd at Clark. The other mer attempted to scare Clark off him by flashing his scales, in a sort of warning. Clark was entranced on the other hand. He had never seen a Mer do anything like that before, and it fascinated him.
“Woah, how did you do that?” He asked, swimming closer and reaching for the others fin mindlessly. In which he then got slapped across the face by his tail fin. Clark paused, then looked at him sheepishly.
“Probably deserved that, huh?”
Clark hummed, then gently grabbed a lionfish out of the reef. He had interrupted the others meal, and they were an invasive species here anyways. He wasn’t sure if the other would go for it, but when he stretched his hand out in offering it was very hesitantly grabbed the fish as teeth sharper then Clark had seen in a long time tore through the fishes’ scales.
And he couldn’t help but be morbidly fascinated.
“You have no clue what I’m saying, huh?” he mumbled, going to sit next to the eating Mer but got a glare. He inched away till the glares topped. He ended up sitting a good three feet away.
“I’m going to call you Bruce. You can’t understand me either way, I’m Clark.”
Bruce looked up at him, black hair floating slightly around his head like a dark ink crown, contrasting so very much with his pale skin. Eyes bluer than the water itself met Clarks as he tilted his head, pearly black scales glinting as he flicked his tail in mild intrigue.
Clark seemed quite pleased when Bruce’s gaze fell on him in the least hostile way it had in a while. He nodded, pointing to himself.
“Mhm. I’m Clark.” He said, grinning, he pointed to Bruce, who twitched as his face scrunched up slightly. “and I’m calling you Bruce till you figure out how to communicate your real name to me.”
Bruce decided to ignore him for the moment, teeth ripping back into the fish’s flesh as he ate, ever really keeping one eye off Clark. When the meat had been stripped off its bones he paused, then looked to Clark as if offended. He stared at the other, as if expecting something.
Clark, upon realising he was probably still hungry, smiled and went to grab another fish, seemingly unbothered by the nonverbal order he was given. He yanked it out of a hole in the coral and swam up to Bruce, offering out his hand for him to grab it again. Bruce snatched it without hesitation this time, teeth sinking back into the food. After a while of snacking, he looked at Clark, and when Bruce saw it was getting dark, he slinked away before Clark could catch him, into the darkness. The only thing he saw was the outline of the body that belonged to Bruce stop, and flash. As if a belligerent thanks. And Clark didn’t give chase. He had a feeling he’d be seeing the strange Mer again very soon.
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!!!
Holy fucking shit he missed the meeting-
thanks for the read! next part is out, heres the link:
Chapter Two: Clark almost gets caught. Bruce tries to communicate with him.
Part three linked: Bruce shows off his pup and Clark learns to communicate.
chapter four: Clark finds the family. Bruce needs a nap.