#mersupials

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I'm Kay. I'm a fanfic writer, zine moderator and creator of fine alternate universes. I'm currently in the Batman fandom and like putting characters into fantastical situations.

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The New Gods [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

The Seats of Stars [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

The Itty Bitties [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

Mersupials [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

Vivisection of a Surgeon [@vivisection-of-a-surgeon-comic] [AO3 link]

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The Demon in the Details [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

The Linsang Tim AU [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

Abominations [tumblr tag link] [AO3 link]

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Bruce has to push Dick's big, dumb head away and maybe nip him if he tries too much. It's sad, but there comes a day where Dick goes out of the pouch and never goes back in.

Hi!

So I think the mers solidly see Clark as “one of the pod” and essentially part of their family. I don’t remember where I talked about mer social structure, but I believe I’ve said that male Mers tend to raise their children communally.

In the wild, mer pods generally take three forms: male familial pods, female temporal pods, or male-female coupling pods. Male familial pods are the most common and often have the most individuals together. They are formed of multiple males with their pups and are multi-generational. Male pods are very strongly bonded and male Mers are often born into a pod which they do not leave their entire life. Females of the species are usually raised in male familial pods but almost always leave to go solo.

Occasionally females form pairs or small pods called female temporal pods, but they tend to be more fleeting or made for a purpose, such as hunting large prey. As the name suggests, these pods are temporary and rarely get above five individuals due to the aggressive nature of females. There have been many documented cases of female temporal pods ending due to in-fighting or even killing of other pod members, an instance that is exceedingly rare in male familial pods.

Male-female coupling pods form when an adult male and adult female live together in a lone couple. These tend to be a forced arrangement by the female onto the male. They can arise through circumstance such as a sister and brother hunting together, but most likely it is a forced arrangement where a male was seperated from a familial pod to breed with a female and care solely for her pups. It is not particularly uncommon and often is the reason why new pods forms, though the male is often extremely distressed by the arrangement and may try to return to a familial pod.

Males instinctively form pods because it provides an advantage in raising children and protection against females who could try to come in and kill pups to make room for their own or steal a mate from the pod. With multiple adults in a pod, males can spread the duties of childcare and are well-documented to frequently pass their pups into the pouches of related and unrelated males. This is also a strategy against infanticide by females as instantly frees up a pouch without the death of a pup or can confuse a female regarding their relatedness to a pup. Females do not kill their own children and they are much less likely to kill any pups at all if they are not sure what male is currently pouching their young. Pod members also provide protection against separation or the killing of pups as they can gang up on a lone female.

So, this is a long way to say that Bruce is basically hardwired to form pods, especially in stressful situations because pod = safety in the mer brain. This is only heightened when he has multiple pups and there’s more paternal pressure on him with his limited pouch space. Even though Clark is a different species, Bruce was raised by humans and sees them as equals so he wouldn’t hesitate to apply pod status to one. If anything, he’s probably really pissed that Clark never puts the pups in his pouch and Bruce has to do all the work, like wth Clark is supposed to be helping him out here.

Like as female? I would guess so yes! Though his name is Dick which is very... male.

But! Male and females don't have a ton of species dimorphism in the HTTYM-verse.

Males are larger, mainly to provide better protection for their young and because their tails need to accommodate a pouch. Females are smaller, slimmer and often have a lot for scarring from fights. Females are also almost always living on their own, while males tend to form a pod. Male mer tails tend to be wider and they have the pouch seam, whereas female mer tails are slimmer. However, the difference between their tails isn't so great that untrained eyes can tell. Because female mers are often aggressive towards pups that aren't their own and may try to kill the pup a male is pouching to make room for her own, male mers have an incentive to hide their pups inside their pouches and keep it looking as normal as possible.

Female mers also do not have any form of breasts like human females do. Neither males or females have nipples visible on their chests. Males have a single nipple inside of their pouch, which the mer pup will suckle on until they are weaned. This is also one of the reasons that twins are extremely rare for mers. There's only one pouch and one nipple, so dad really only has room for one. In the rare instances were twins do occur, the dad would need to transfer the pup over to another male with an empty pouch who is willing to pouch them.

This is a very specific question, but I do think it’s possible. I don’t think a dad would try any resuscitation though.

Mers hatch from leathery egg sacs and should go right into dad’s pouch. The egg doesn’t really crack, and it’s more like it’s dissolved around them and they squiggle out of of. Mers are extremely delicate in this freshly hatched stage and *cannot* be taken out of the pouch or exposed to an external environment. Mer pups are pretty embryonic at this stage and have a lot of cooking to go. They don’t have fully developed eyes. They can’t swim. They don’t have much of their senses. They need to say in their enclosed pouch bath for at least a week or two before they are strong enough to be taken out and even then is risky because of potential infection. Really, they shouldn’t be coming out for another couple months, but sometimes males can pass them between each other.

It’s really a miracle that Tim survived at all. His survival is probably a combination of mom being forced to hold him for too long and his caretakers immediately putting him into a small tank which acted as a pseudo-pouch in his most delicate days. But even then, Tim should have probably died because of imperfections in the environment and the lack of milk once he had absorbed all of his egg sac. It was a perfect combination of circumstances that Bruce got him in time and that Bruce was already pouching, meaning he was fully prepped to take on a baby.