#sharkmer

Name: Jacquie Keita ~ Birthday: August 14th ~ Age: 22 ~ Hair Color: Black (Dyed white) ~ Eye Color: Golden Brown ~ Gender: Female ~ Height: 5” 4’

Appearance ~ Jacquie has an athletic build with lean arms and legs, as well as a smooth stomach, due to years of swimming in the open ocean. She has light taupe skin, golden eyes although her long lashes make her irises appear darker than they truly are, and long dreaded hair which she has bleached white several times. The roots, however, are grown out and Jacquie hasn’t made landfall to pick up the supplies to dye it back. ~ Due to the fact she lives as a nomad on the open sea, Jacquie isn’t overly worried about her clothes. Most outfits contain sweats and sport bras, or cotton t-shirts with athletic brands printed across the fronts. She owns more bathing suits and items to exist in the water than anything, and she has zero shame in it.

~ Into The Deep ~

~ Jacquie had been traveling the ocean for years - first on a little dingy she’d bought for next nothing and nearly drowned in before she could leave the waves around the lagoon, then on a small house boat that was better suited for a lake than the ocean but it worked near the shorelines . . . so long as there were no storms. It had capsized near France and left her stranded for months until she’d been able to put the money together to purchase her next boat - and now, finally, she owned the 49 foot crossover house-ship swaying beneath her feet. The fact it was a crossover was important, because it allowed for her life style on the open ocean, and kept her safe.

~ She worked as a marine biologist, specializing in marine life and environment. She traveled the world, studying the habitats of all kinds of fish, looking for new breeds or kinds of ocean plant life, and the house-ship was a large, sturdy vessel. It was just under fifty foot long, and if Jacquie was being honest, most of the ship was used as space for her labs and research room, although she had sectioned an area off for herself. On the deck was the cockpit, where she could steer the ship, and it connected to the kitchen/dining room. Connecting that room and a small section of the floor below was a spiral staircase that would lead to the living/bedroom and a small door off to the side led the restroom. There was a lifeboat tied to the starboard, and a large glass tank on the port, where she could keep any fish or creatures she caught, if only temporarily to tag the fish for research, or care for them if they were sick or injured.

~ Sighing, Jacquie stared out over the waves, chest aching as she took in the sight of the bleached white corals that surrounded her ship; a bright bolt of lightening streaked across the sky and for the first time Jacquie noted the sent of ozone in the air. The storm was getting closer and she wasn’t prepared at all. She wasn’t going to make it to the shore before it hit - she could already see the wall of dark storm clouds rushing towards her - and the idea of riding out a violent Japanese ocean storm made her stomach churn. She had never been a fan of storms before, but now that she had lived on the ocean for so long, she understood just how dangerous they could be.

~ Jacquie had sailed around the world twice. She’d visited nearly every beach-line there was to see. Twice. But never had Jacquie seen a storm like this. There was rain, but it wasn’t very hard, like you would see near India, and that nearly cost Jacquie her life. It wasn’t such a bad storm, after all. It wasn’t until she was running across the deck, the lifeboat hanging at a strange angle from its davits that worry really began to creep into her chest. She was having to push herself up the side of the boat as she ran the deck - the ship was listing towards port and she couldn’t figure out WHY, and when she glanced over the edge of the railing she realized the drop wasn’t sheer any longer. She could see the ship’s great white side, and the angle made her stomach drop.

~ The ship was listing badly, and it wasn’t level from the back to the front either, a noticeable incline going from bow to stern. The ship was sinking, and Jacquie couldn’t do anything to stop it. She didn’t know how, or even why, but the ship was going to go down, and if she didn’t do something, she was going to be going down with it. Looking overboard she saw the sea was rising, getting close, the waves nearly rushing over the deck with every swell. She wasn’t sure where the reef was any longer - maybe she had hit it and that was why the ship was sinking. Or maybe she had drifted out and away and she was about to plunge down into the depths below.

~ Her morbid thoughts where cut short when a flash of lighting streaked across the sky, illuminating the world around her like midday for a moment. And there, nearly thirty feet above her ship, was a massive wave. It wasn’t the wave that brought her up short, however, although that was terrifying enough in and of itself. It was the distinctly sharp shadow drifting through the wave, a shadow that screamed shark at every one of her senses from the slope of its tail-fins, to the size and shape. The only problem was that there seemed to be a very angry, very human man attached to the front of the shark, staring down at her through narrowed eyes.

~ She never even saw the second wave seeping over the deck of her ship, but she was pretty sure it - he - did, because his eyes went wide a moment before it hit her. She felt the bite of the cold water as it knocked her feet from under her and sent her across the slick wooden floor. Her back hit the railing, and for a moment she thought she was okay, but then the wood cracked as a third wave crashed into the boat and the once solid wood against her back fragmented into the storm, leaving her with nothing to stop her from falling into the churning ocean below.

~ The water was terrifying. It surrounded her like a blanket, made it impossible for her to find the surface, made it impossible for her to think. She screamed when her head broke the surface, panicked coursing through her blood like a drug. She couldn’t see past the salt water burning her eyes, couldn’t breath past the liquid rushing over her again and again. The ocean had never scared her before but now, now it was something different. Black and icy and filled with rage, and there, only fifteen feet way, Jacquie spotted a dark triangle slicing through the water as another flash of lightning illuminated the world once more.

~ The shark. Her second scream was drowned out by a roll of thunder, but lightning accompanied it and she was able to see the shark drifting closer, a ten foot swell of inky darkness that made her muscles scream for her to do something - anything. The water was too cold, though, and it hurt to move her muscles beyond what was keeping her head above the water, and she couldn’t see the ship - where was the ship???

~ The shark was flung away with the next wave, or it went underwater, she wasn’t sure, and the next drug Jacquie away as well. A floating top spinning atop the surface of the water. It felt as if the waves were fighting over her, jerking her this way and that as she desperately attempted to keep her head above the water. She kept going under, and she couldn’t tell which way the surface was until she would burst into the air, lungs sucking in air until she was forced under again. The cold of the water was quickly numbing her arms and legs and it was becoming harder to keep her head above water. In the distance beneath the water she could see the flickering lights of her ship sinking into the darkness, and the realization that she was now stranded in the middle of the ocean, with no ship, no flotation device, nothing to keep her alive against the forces of nature steeping over her like cold tea. Or maybe it was the water, which had closed over her head, and she was too tired, too exhausted to continue kicking her legs or sweep her arms. She could clearly see the world around her, a darkness that seemed the filter gray light to show the shape of the waves as they swelled above her, the bubbles as they foamed across her limbs, her hair listing through the current like eels. It was peaceful.

~ What was not peaceful was the feeling of something hard, like an invisible rock, slamming into her. It hit her across the chest, slamming the air from her lungs in a whoosh. The world began to fade to a true black as she watched the thick cloud of silver bubbles drift away, and water began to flood her mouth and throat, chocking her. There was something else too, something thick, and slimy, and oddly rubbery, and it was forced into her mouth until she had no choice to swallow - swallow or choke on the strange lump as the darkness completely obscured her vision and her senses failed her . . .

~ Jacquie slept. And while she slept, she dreamed. Blurred wanderings through blindingly bright memories of the sun above the ocean, winds so calm the clouds didn’t move and the water sat as still as a mirror, her mother and father’s face, the ocean teaming with life around her. A mirage of memories, each brighter than the last until there was nothing but a wash of white -

~ The sun woke Jacquie. It was the wash of white, blinding in the clear, cloudless sky above her, which showed no signs of the storm before. The water was clear and vibrant, lapping gently at the sandbar that she rested against, and as far as she could see the reef grew brilliantly, like a snow capped wonder. She couldn’t remember making it to the shore, couldn’t remember finding shelter on a swatch of sand, and the longer she looked, the more she felt as if something were very wrong. She was propped against a large pile of seaweed and kelp as if she had been purposefully laid out, and the sandbar didn’t rise far enough from the water - she was submerged well to her navel. She should have been able to see the islands. Should have been able to see the formations of the bleached coral beds that showed her location but, instead, she saw nothing but water and sky. Even when she clambered to her feet and craned her neck this way and that, she didn’t spot anything that gave her any indication as to where she was at all. The reef surrounding her didn’t match anything she had seen before, despite the familiar bleached corals.

~ Suddenly, something brushed against her leg, making a tingle run up her spine. She thought, for a moment, that it might have been a fish, but when she glanced down she didn’t see anything. Then she felt it again, the slightest tingle against her leg, almost a tickle. And then it grabbed her. Jacquie screamed, jerking her leg away as hard and fast as she possible could, but that only served to send her flailing into the water. And that’s when she saw it. The grey-white triangle sticking straight up in the water - the fin of a black tipped reef shark, the same shark she had seen in the storm, the one that hadn’t seemed . . . right. And as she stared in horror, the fin turned in the water, and then sped towards her, moving steady and straight as an arrow.

~  Jacquie, despite all her knowledge, began to thrash in the water, trying to swim away. She was panicking, wanting to put as much distance between the shark and herself as she possible could, and when it seemed to swim right past her, she nearly calmed. Had it decided she would be too much of a hassle? But then it began to turn, streaming towards her in a wide arc. Circling. The shark moved in closer, the circle growing smaller and smaller each time it made a pass around her, and she didn’t know what to do. The rocks she had been propped against wouldn’t protect her well from the shark, and they didn’t come high enough out of the water to ensure it wouldn’t be able to get to her even if she climbed atop them. The Shark swam around her in a tight circle, close enough the the swishing tail sent waves over her stomach, and she could see him clearly for the first time since he’d begun circling. And just like the night before, there was something . . . misshapen about the shark. Its head wasn’t shaped all wrong, and then, when it turned again, she saw why it was misshapen and the shock nearly made her collapse. Her brain hadn’t been playing tricks on her the previous night. The shark within the wave had been looking down her through narrowed eyes, because the shark didn’t have a head. It’s upper body extended and shifted until instead of the hard grey scales of the shark, the surface was smooth, pale skin. Abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms - these appeared darker, nearly like the tail - and a head of messy blonde hair that looked spiky, even under the water. He was staring up at her, eyebrows narrowed, a strange sort of noise emanating from the water as it circled. It was a low, growling sound, nearly musical, beautiful and . . . somehow sad. It nearly sounded like a whale, and if it wasn’t for the fact she were sitting in the water, watching the shark - merman - mershark? - move closer. His narrowed, red eyes sparkled in the sunlight as it filtered through the water, and his skin gave off a silvery glow.

~ He rose from the water then, his arms propping his head and shoulders above the small waves as his eyes found hers and stared hard. He made a soft sort of noise, something between a purr and a growl and behind his lips, Jacquie could see the pointed tips of his teeth.

~ “Stay away from me!”

~ The mershark paused, his teeth bared at the sharp tone of her voice, and Jacquie took his surprise and ran with it - literally. She was on her feet and already several steps away before the mershark seemed to realize what she was doing, but when he did he was on her in a moment, his arms wrapping around both her legs at the calf, sending her crashing into the water. They wrestled for a moment, and the mershark snarled, his teeth bared into a angry grimace as he attempted to wrestle her under his frame. He won, if only because of his size and weight, and Jacquie panicked as he pinned her beneath the water, his face inches away from hers. She sealed her lips, trapping the last reserves of oxygen she had left as she desperately tried to buck the mershark from her. He wasn’t bothered by her movements, though, and he merely stared down at her with a grim sort of purpose. He was going to drown her. She was going to drown, he was going to drown her - holy fuck was he going to eat her - and then she couldn’t hold her breath any longer. She gasped, flooding her mouth with water, and a flashback of the storm swept over her so violently she thought she could feel the churning of the water around her. But there was something strange, something about the way the water seemed to flow from her nose, and out her mouth. She was . . . she was breathing. She was breathing underwater.

~ The mershark laughed then, and Jacquie could hear it. She heard it like it was carried on a cool summer breeze, dark and full of gravel, and it filled the water around her like a living, breathing thing.

~ “Holy fuck.”

~ The mershark throws back his head and laughs again, his long fingers squeezing her shoulders tightly. “I knew you were a great pick. You’re gonna be so fucking good.” He moved then, dragging her with him effortlessly as he swam through the water, the current hardly seeming to effect his direction at all. She fought, tired to pull away, but the mershark only pulled her closer, tsking at her struggles. “Stop moving would ya? It’s getting annoying.” He growled in her ear, and there was something to his tone of voice that made her go still. He wasn’t asking. He pulled her down, past the reef, until they arrived at the dark entrance of a cave that seemed to be built into the side of the sandbar. He wasted no time speaking, instead he opted to throw her on a pile of soft sponges laid across the bottom, causing her to bounce lightly in the water as he began to flint about, grabbing this and that as he swam around the cave. There was a multitude of items that screams of being from the surface and some of it - a lot of it, Jacquie realized with a start - seemed to have come from her boat.

~ To Jacquie it seemed as if he were circling her once more as he continued to move between one set of shelving and the next, and his words early only served to strength her thoughts of him eating her, so when he approached her side and reached towards her she nearly screamed. He didn’t, however, eat her. He did yank her forward when she refused to give him the arm he motioned for, his hands rough on her delicate skin as he slid heavy gold bands over her wrists. Arm bands followed, as well as several heavy necklaces that weighed Jacquie down and forced her to stay at the ocean floor verses floating upwards at the slightest current. He wasn’t finished until she was covered with more jewelry than she had seen in her lifetime and the weight of it pressed uncomfortably into her skin.

~ “It’s too much.” Jacquie said softly, already removing several layers of the necklaces that had been thrown over her head. “Too heavy.”

~ The mershark growled low, but he didn’t move to stop her until she was wearing only a few necklaces and other shining jewelry pieces. He did, however, propel himself forward and curl his body around hers like a puppy, his head pressed into her side while his tail wrapped around her waist, a more effective lock to keep her in place than if he had tied her to one of the rocks that made up the cave.

~ “Bakugou.” Jacquie stared and the mershark sighed. “Bakugou.” “I . . . I don’t -” “What, are you one of the stupid humans?” The mershark bit out harshly. “M’name is Bakugou.” “Oh.”

~ “Fuckin’ hell, what is your name?”

~ “J - Jacquie.” It was strange talking underwater. Everything sounded vaguely muffled, but not at the same time, and every time she inhaled it felt as if she were swallowing jello and feeling it ooze from her nose. “My name . . . my name is Jacquie.”