Mer!141 a mix of different Mer types but a pod none the less. All placed in a wildlife sanctuary because of injuries but now can’t be released. They were all close, close as pod mates could get till they got a new injured Mer in their pod. You were a skittish thing a smaller breed too. You were place in the pod to try and get you used to others the workers knew their oldest Mer Price, he was a good foster parent type to the other Mers they had at the sanctuary so why would it be different with you? And it wasn’t different for a while, Price would float with you on him chest like he would with a baby Mer and catch food for you since you couldn’t swim that well with your injuries.

cw: poly 141 adjacent. Mer!Ghost x Soap x Gaz. Mer!Ghost with underdeveloped instincts and Mer!NikPrice x mer!ghost too? Fluff! (Maybe probably multiple parts idk). Genuinely don't know what this is other than two idiots in love and their pining mer admirer.

The first nest Ghost made for them dissolved before their boat even crested the horizon.

He'd worked at it for the better part of an hour, weaving the bubbles the way he'd seen done a couple time, pressing them together with careful, deliberate exhales. When he finally surfaced to check, it looked... fine. He thought it looked fine. It was small, maybe, but fine.

It was gone by the time the Bravo came into view, Soap's laugh carrying across the water before the boat did.

Ghost sank back below the surface and ignored his pod mates and refused to eat until he could try again.

He tried again three days later, a smaller one. More careful. The bubbles kept slipping loose from each other, drifting apart in lazy spirals while he watched with clenched teeth.

Nikolai found him like that, hovering over the wreckage of his third attempt, which had lasted approximately four minutes.

He didn't say anything. Just called for Price with a click of his tongue.

Price came, took one long look, and made a short little chirp of a laugh.

"What," Ghost said flatly.

"Nothing," Price said. He exchanged a look with Nikolai that Ghost chose not to acknowledge. Then Price lowered himself down to Ghost's level, smoothed back his hair, and said, "Right. Watch."

It was embarrassing, was what it was, being taught like a pup by his pod mates. Nik on one side of him showing him the correct pressure, the way you had to mean it from the chest and not just the throat, and Price on the other demonstrating the weave with practiced ease, the bubbles catching and holding like they were glad to.

"You're rushing," Nik said, gently. "You want it to last, yes? So you don't rush."

Ghost did not point out that he'd been trying for eleven days. Trying desperately so that the two-leggeds he's seen fishing in the waters finally stay longer. And maybe notice his efforts.

The nest he made that evening wasn't impressive. It was still small. But it held through the night, and it was still there, glimmering in the sunrise, when the Bravo came in with the morning.

Soap leaned over the side of the boat and spotted it. He was quiet for a moment, which was unusual enough that Kyle looked up from the line he was working.

"Kyle."

"Mm."

"There's a bubble nest."

Kyle set the line down and came to look. It was small, modest, really, but unmistakably deliberate. He frowned at it, then at the water around them, calm and unhelpful.

"Bit early for that," he said.

"That's what I'm thinking." Soap straightened up, scanning the surface. "We've only ever seen the three of them out this way. The bonded pair and—"

"The big quiet one."

"Aye." Soap's frown deepened, curious consideration. "Didn't think he was unmated. Just assumed he was part of their pod somehow."

Kyle looked at the nest again. Already beginning to lose its shape at the edges. "Maybe it's not his."

"There's that group further east," Soap said, nodding slowly. "Could be one of them ranging out."

"Must be." Kyle picked his line back up. "Early in the season for it but stranger things."

Soap took one last look at the little nest, already half-dissolved, and shrugged. "Aye. Stranger things."

Previous: Preface

TW: Mentions of assault, blood, injury and scientific experimentation of humanoid creatures.

________________________

It was nearing dusk when the little schooner finally puttered into obscurity - no other boats in sight as far as the eye could see in all directions, and land was, at this point, a simple figment of imagination. They had been motoring forward since dawn, and now, just over thirteen hours later, the captain and his crew were absolutely sapped.

Two of the men, at their captain's orders, wheeled over their cargo to the side of the boat, leading the schooner to tip slightly to the side. The men cleared off the clutter on top of the container - a disguise if someone had met them before they had reached their destination, piles of boxes, hooks, bait and rods were cleared to the side and the spare sail that had acted as veil, was removed deftly and flung to the side.

The captain, a stout man, fumbled with his keys before unlatching the padlock and letting in a rush of air to the contents of the container. The captain tentatively peered inside, but seeing that the creature continued to lay unconscious, though, - most probably dead, or at the very least near death - he hummed to himself lazily.

It was a pretty little thing, or at least it used to, and it had certainly been quite useful to study, but now, his toy broken beyond repair, it was time to dispose of it, in the most convenient way possible. He unlatched the side of the box, letting one of the long walls drop down and allowing the blood tinged water to spill out and into the ocean, the creature following shortly after, the water pushing it out and down into the black depths. 

He only let his crew a final moment of reprise before ordering everything to be placed exactly as it had been before and charting a course back to the mainland.

The creature was, as one of the men said to another, out of sight and therefore out of mind. The body would surely fit in with the others of the same species on the ocean floor and their actions would therefore never be traced back to them - and it was easier than burning the thing, lest a scale remain and cause people to start asking questions.

~~~~

As the body slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean, it left a slow trail of blood behind it, tainting the water above it a sickly pale pink. Luckily, no creature reached for the body, the sharp scent of chemicals leading them to swim away rather than closer to inspect the oddity. 

However, not all creatures were repulsed, once the body was almost at the bottom of the ocean - where light was hard to come by - a ghostlike creature steadily approached the body with lightly veiled curiosity.

When he got a better view, he swam closer and after a moment tugged the body closer to him, noting the dull colorless sickly scales and the wounds littering it’s - his - body.

The ghost brought the man closer to his chest and after adjusting his new charge in his arms, took off back towards his den.

He wasn’t sure why, but something seemed to be calling for him to care for the man, to protect and heal his bruised and bloodied skin and brighten his scales to see their true color.

It was only a couple of minutes before he reached his den and he slipped past the barrier easily, before laying the man in a soft nest of collected human scraps; pieces of cloth and delicate seaweed latticework which made the nest homey and comfortable.

The ghost went and gathered his things from the shelves, keen eyes seeing easily in the dark. He slathered on a thick healing balm and then wrapped the wound up, quickly but effectively, with clean, thick strips of seaweed.

As he pulled away he finally noticed a plastic human cuff tightly wound around the man’s wrist. The ghost peered closer until he could read the black, uniforme writing spelling out: S141-OAP.

The ghost leaned back, he knew he was getting himself into something when he took the little merman back with him, but he had thought that he might be more use than problem to him - but now, maybe the baggage that this little thing was bringing along with him was more effort than what he would receive in compensation.

Ah, well, he wasn’t so cruel that he would toss out the bloke now, he would wait till he woke and if he was agreeable to work for him, perhaps he could stay a bit longer, if not, there was a door and he could get the hell out.