The world really changed in the few hundred years since the Global Climate Meltdown. It was hard to look at history textbooks, and see things that Arthur would never be able to know. He had been born on the remaining lands in Europe, in British controlled territory. He had moved to the coastline, before he traveled to the United States, and though it was dangerous, his new home was also generally more profitable than working further inland. Life was okay- not great, but okay- and just barely so.
Arthur was a typical worker - he was a fisherman. It wasn't /bad/ work, nor tedious as it had been years ago... in fact; it was rather easy with all the new gadgets. But Arthur still preferred the relaxing tempo of old-style fishing, and on his days off made sure to take advantage of the sea and the docks.
He was fishing one day, aimless over the waters of what had once been a city, and all of a sudden, a head popped up on the side of his boat, with a headful of soaking wet blonde hair.
It wasn't that working in the States or on the Coast was dangerous- not the land portion of it, anyway. When humanity was faced with rising oceans, a new species of enemy rose to the surface. Merpeople. Many humans knew how they and their kin would survive, even in the future- their predication about the world meant that they would return to the water. And so, they bred with the creatures below the surface all this time.
Arthur knew these people, the crossbreeds, these mutts, were heartless monsters, as were the mer themselves. Hence the surprise and horror upon actually seeing one with his own two eyes, shaking its hair out and laughing. Why was it laughing? Was it going to eat him?
It turned towards him and looked surprised, before waving. "Hi!" He exclaimed, giving a toothy smile, Arthur growing cold at the sight of those teeth, sharp and deadly, able to break bone in a single bite. "Are you a human?"
"U-uh…I?" He nodded. "Yeah, I am… and you're…?" He coughed.
The mutt smiled at him, seeming to feign genuine kindness and sincerity. "Well, I thought that would be fairly obvious. I'm a merman. Well…" He hummed. "Not yet…I'm only an F2." The merman in front of him lifted one foot out of the water, but instead of toes, he had a long elongated fin. "But! I'm Alfred F. Jones!" He grinned, kindly enough. "I'm jus' looking for food! Humans seem to have it a lot!" He laughed, and Arthur glared at this "Alfred."
"There's no food for you here." He said, irritable. "I'm certain you get plenty, so leave me be, will you?" Arthur grumbled, and Alfred only laughed at him.
"Man! You're a feisty one arentcha?" He laughed again, and nodded. "Right, right. You know that I cooooould help you with your net?" He seemed so annoyingly happy, and that put Arthur on edge.
"Go away." Arthur said, ignoring the twist in his gut when the easy smile left this golden boy's face, and he nodded, slipping below the surface and seemingly disappearing.
Arthur went back to boating, trying to get away from where he had encountered this merman, before he settled down about a mile away and got to fishing. He saw something large in the water, and assumed it was maybe a swordfish, perhaps a seal or something else, and licked his lips at the thought of proper meat, and so, harpooned it straight through.
The line jerked, and all of a sudden, the merman from earlier burst through the surface, screaming like a lunatic, writhing and gripping the harpoon with fear and confusion.
Arthur stared in shock while the merman was presumably dying from it, and so Arthur finally jumped into action when horrified and scared blue eyes met him, clearly begging for this to not be happening.
And Arthur pulled him aboard his ship despite his struggling, the merman's crotch covered with a pair of skin-tight shorts, the harpoon sticking straight through his leg, the man crying out in a combination of shock, terror, and agony. Arthur held him down with his foot on the merman's stomach, and pulled out the harpoon, making blood gush and Alfred scream.
However, instead of lifting it up to stab him again, like Alfred had prepared for, closing his eyes and fisting his hands near his face, the human threw it aside, and slapped on a bandage, and rolled Alfred around it, bandaging the wound and applying pressure to it, stopping the bleeding still with human tech.
Arthur looked at him with worry, uncertain what the merman would do now that he was safe.
But as it turned out, he did nothing- it cowered in fright, afraid of him, the one who had put him in serious danger and gotten him out of it. Bright blue eyes stared without actually looking at anything around him.
"Ah…your name was…. Alfred, right?" Arthur said, trying to catch his attention and avoid looking at his utterly buff body, his abs ripped to shreds. Arthur had to resist swooning at the sight of his muscles moving fluidly as the merman sat up, blinking rapidly as he realized he wasn't dying- he was mostly fine, no longer bleeding out.
"W-what the hell?" He asked in a voice quiet from sudden fright. "You…you like, fu…fucking!" He gasped. "You harpooned me!" He yelled at the human, regaining some of his voice as he attempted to stand in his (unfortunately, righteous) anger, Arthur stepping back suddenly, but Alfred fell back down as he gasped in pain, gripping his injured leg. "Shit…you…. fucking…shit." He gave up trying to explain himself, quietly laying on his side in shock, blinking as he curled up.
"Ah…well." Arthur coughed. "I had told you not to follow, and I, uh, assumed that you were a large fish, perhaps a dolphin or something else of the like." At least he had the decency to feel bad about injuring this merman, an F2. Most humans would have killed him then and there. Meat was meat, after all…
Except, the merman was staring at Arthur with distinct disdain, and fright that was beyond the typical animalistic instinct. He was human enough to be offended, and able to feel fear, and anger, and upset. And Arthur couldn't kill him. That was why Arthur had bandaged the monster rather than stab it through the middle with his harpoon.
He wondered if that was the right choice, as Alfred slowly attempted to sit up again.
The merman winced as he held his leg, looking up to Arthur with a face that clearly begrudged him for having injured him like this.
"If you were going to stab me, at least have the decency to kill me in the first go." Alfred muttered, gritting his teeth in pain.
Arthur frowned, not liking Alfred's ungratefulness. "Pardon? I just saved your life, ingrate." He muttered.
Alfred's eyes widened comically. "Saved? You fucking harpooned me! I'm dead the moment I get back in the water! You don't think that other large predators won't go, mm, yum, tasty snack?" He laughed, clearly a bit unhinged, but rightfully so. "But sure, I'm ungrateful!" He laid back down, breathing hard. "Fuck. That's nuts, human."
"…. Arthur." The man admitted. "My name is Arthur." The human looked the merman straight into frightened blue eyes. "And, I'm not going to dump you back in the water like that." He timidly revealed. "I didn't mean to harpoon, uh, you." He smiled, nervous as the merman made a face at him, and Arthur gulped. "I'm sorry that I did."
Alfred looked at him strangely, before he laughed a bit. "Damn. Alright." He shook his head, trying to collect himself. "Alright. Alright. Arthur, then." He murmured, shakily trying to stand, and balancing himself on the railing of Arthur's ship. "Damn. It would be hard enough to stand even if I wasn't injured." He muttered, referring undoubtedly to his lack of experience with walking.
"I…I won't make you go back in the water, if that is what you were worried about." Arthur continued now that the merman had seemingly calmed down. "I-I'm perfectly open to the idea of being your host until such time comes that you may swim again without fear of being eaten." Arthur smiled a bit. "I mean, if that's okay with you…I don't want to uh, frighten you." He nodded, hoping he had made his point.
Alfred blinked, and nodded, albeit reluctantly, before laying back down. "Alright…I…I mean, sure." He agreed quietly. "Thanks…."
Arthur nodded. "Come on then, we should at least get you marginally more comfortable than my deck." He said, awkward that he now had a literal human-merman hybrid on his ship. An F2, only two generations away from a full human…the feeling was strange, and accentuated by the fact that he had nearly killed him.
Alfred nodded, with some distrust as he stood, and Arthur helped support him as they went over to a seating area on the fishing boat. "Stay here." Arthur instructed. "I'll need to move you down into the cabin once we get to shore….but for now, you can sit out here."
The hybrid nodded, looking out onto the horizon of the ocean wistfully. "Sure." He muttered. "Yeah, I suppose I'll stay here…"
And Arthur left him there, the merman sitting on the seats, soaking his cushions and closing his eyes to rest. Arthur noticed after a bit that the man with fins for feet had ultimately fallen asleep.
XXXXX
Alfred woke when he realized that the boat was no longer being steered, and was careening wildly. "Shit!" He shouted, listening to the songs of sirens around him, and realized Arthur- the human who this ship belonged to- was in the thrall of them. Alfred jumped to his feet; shouting in the mer language for them to stop, stop, trying to regain control of the ship.
Thankfully, the sirens stopped, leaving Arthur be as they directed their clicking and musical language to Alfred, questioning why he was on board the human ship.
"Ugh. This stupid human shot me." He explained. "Sorry. I'll get him out of here." Alfred said, leaning over the side. "He offered me a place to heal, I'm very sorry." Alfred said, apologetically, letting the enthralled human cling to him dumbly as he attracted him with his language.
The sirens nodded, and dove beneath the waters as Alfred gripped Arthur, taking him to the wheel and sitting him down, before he turned the ship away from the shores-which, upon closer examination, were the nurseries. No wonder Arthur had been treated as a threat so quickly. He had been fishing in the nursing grounds.
Alfred snickered. "Man. I can only imagine what kinda hell you'd be in right now if you'd have killed me earlier." He snorted at the thought, and started to boat away, sighing quietly as he looked back to the place where he had spent a part of his life growing up.
It wasn't even before Arthur awoke from his entrancement, that Alfred's life somehow got worse.
"Alfred!" He heard a familiar voice calling to him, and the merman whipped his head at the sound. It was his half-brother.
"Matthew!" He shouted back to him. "Jesus, Matt! You shouldn't be out here!"
The little merman was swimming furiously in attempt to keep pace with the ship, however, the little merchild had no chance in actually catching him. ..but he had no chance of survival if he didn't.
The boy was barely old enough to swim! He couldn't survive out here, not when he was this young. The merchild couldn't even speak yet! Last Alfred had seen him, the boy had been newly born of his mother's mermaids purse. And it had only been a little while since that time, so Alfred wouldn't be entirely surprised if Matthew only knew his name and a few basic words in their language, explaining why his calls didn't arouse Arthur's attention.
Alfred stopped the boat, and jumped in the water, hoping that nothing would kill him as he swam over to where the young merchild struggled to keep afloat in the open water. Alfred quickly got to him, and wrapped an arm around his tiny torso, the boy's small hands gripping Alfred's necklace, making Alfred laugh a bit. "Oh, you." He said, nuzzling the small tuft of blonde hair on the boy's head. "You're not able to go back now! I'll have to watch you!" He held him close, gently hugging him, letting the boy's tail rub against Alfred's belly with affection. "C'mon. I'll find a way to care for you…I promise."
The boy looked to Alfred with big purple eyes, gently clicking Alfred's name in their shared language, and Alfred chuckled. "You're already following after mom." He said, climbing on board the ship with one arm and his legs, as best he could anyway. It was a bit of a struggle, but soon enough, Alfred was panting on board the ship with Matthew, his F5 half brother, who was now looking around the human vessel with too much curiosity for his own good. Alfred laughed, and got up, still holding the tot close to him.
"We'll take care of each other, right Matt?" Alfred asked him as he held the boy, dropping a bucket into the water to fill it with water.
"Yes!" Matthew chirped joyfully, clearly happy at having someone he recognized around him again, someone he knew and would care for him.
"Thata boy!" Alfred laughed, taking to the steering wheel area, where Arthur laid, still entranced, and plopped the bucket with the F5 child in it down to the floor, and ensuring it wouldn't tip over before he went back to the wheel, going back to getting them the fuck outta dodge.
The sirens who guarded the nursery wouldn't miss Matthew, Alfred suspected. That was because merchildren who left never returned- if they did, they would be killed. It was more of a mechanism to ensure that merchildren who outgrew the nursery wouldn't return to loaf around, but it killed plenty of overly curious merchildren all the same.
Alfred didn't mind it though. He liked this connection to his mysterious mother, even though Matt was only a half-sibling.
"Yeah…we'll take care of each other." Alfred murmured, gripping the wheel a bit tighter as he directed them to safer waters to wait for Arthur's reawakening.
XXXXX
A/N: Me: guiltlessly posts another AU. Sorry guys. I love this au…..interesting pseudo mer science!
The whole F2 + F5 things are things to tell u how many generations they are away from the species they descended from. As time goes on, u will come to understand why some huamsn are having interspecies sex, and others aren't.
Alfred is an f2. He descends from an F1, his father, and a full-blooded mermaid, his mom. He didn't come from two F1s b/c most interspecies female mer hybrids are infertile! This is according to Haldane's rule of genetics, altho I kinda switched it so that the males (w/ heterochromatic genes) are the fertile ones b/c I wanted Alfred to be able to reproduce!
Which will of course be important later!
Matthew is an F5; he's 5 generations from full human, descended from an F4 male and a full-blooded mermaid, who is also Alfred's mom! Matthew's generation, the F5 will be the first generation that can mate w/ each other, since the F5 females will be fertile as well!
Imma just say that there are basically 7 generations gaping humans and Merpeople, so there! The tail is only a trait in F4 + beyond for certain, but certain F3's can inherit one. Mostly tho, the tail isn't fully formed and most F3s born w/ one don't survive long since they cannot swim well enough with it. Alfred has fin-like feet, and gills he can use for short amounts of time (Up to two hours!) He can hold his breath for similar lengths of time, so if he wanted to stay underwater for as long as he could, he could probably go 6-7 hours in total.
Matthew, on the other hand, as an adult, will have a fully-functioning set of gills and lungs, meaning he can breathe for an indefinite amount of time both in and out of the water. However, he's only a few months old!
On that, I suspect that Merpeople + particularly the hybrids would have a cross between human development and mer development. Like most other species, Merpeople don't need very long to develop fully, but they still take a good deal of time (having large brains like humans, but not quite as large as ours so as to have a shortened development period) hybrids who are closer to humans take longer to develop as a fetus and longer to develop after being born, and the closer they get to mer, the faster they are born and mature. Matthew, being closer to mer than human, is already talking some even though he's only been born very recently!
Enough of my blabbering about the potential genetics/traits of the Merpeople and mer/human hybrids. Thanks for reading, and I hope u enjoyed it!