I Am So Happy To Be A Part Of This, And So Glad That You Liked My Idea @squad-724.

I am so happy to be a part of this, and so glad that you liked my idea @squad-724.

:""D Thank you <3

Behold! More mer batch! Part 1 out of 3

Crossshair’s first day in the Pabu Sea Sanctuary

Warning for blood and heavy skin burns

This time with a snippet provided by @pinetree-tbb who did an unbelievably fantastic job at writing this three parter!

Crosshair woke up slowly, taking a few deep breaths and letting the cool water flow through his gills. He felt weird, like something was missing. Did his brothers let him oversleep? He made a small move to straighten out his tail, a sudden jolt of pain waking him up instantly.

With a gasp he raised up, eyes open and watching the room around him. He wasn’t on the ship deck anymore, but it didn’t look like underneath it either.

No, the room was stationary and clean. The lights were all turned off, but a smell of antiseptic and medicine lingered in the air. Instead of wet wood he was curled up in a sort of small pool with a weird aftertaste to it, fresh instead of salty. The last thing he remembered clearly was Hunter reaching for him while the imperial humans tossed him overboard into the ocean, the face of the man who tortured him and took his brothers. He had to find them!

He pushed himself up on his skeletally thin arms that almost gave up under his weight to look around. The pond he was placed in was below the floor level, covered under a dome made of a construction similar to lobster trap, but much bigger. Crosshair narrowed his eyes and went underwater again, then he looked at himself. The net was gone and was replaced with bandages in all the places the nylon broke through his skin and scales. All the wounds got dressed, but because of the wet environment the blood was still flowing, although slowly. Mer blood clots much quicker than human.

It would have to do. With one wave of his tail he was at the wall of the pool and trying to haul himself up to reach the metal bars that covered his prison. It took him a few tries, but he was able to hang on one of his elbows and rest before trying to reach the locking mechanism. Unfortunately that’s when the doors to the room opened and the outside illuminated the room. Crosshair hissed, shielded his eyes from the sudden light, dropped back into the pond and retreated into the opposite side of the pond.

"Well look who’s up, Kix! He's awake!" A female voice rang out as she entered the room and looked through the metal bars, dim light burned now and Crosshair could see the shape of a human, distorted by the water. He flicked his tail and bared his teeth as a warning.

"I think he's in a bad mood." She said to the man coming up to her, much taller and wearing a white coat. "Let's leave him alone for a bit longer to get used to the medical pond, then we can see if we can communicate in some way." He noted and with that the humans walked out, leaving the room in the darkness once more.

If they think they can just keep him here, they have another thing coming! Crosshair waited for a while after they left, then went to the edge of the pond again. He pushed himself out of the water. With the same technique as the previous attempt he hung off of his good elbow and pushed the lock of the metal dome open. It took some effort but he was able to drag his whole tail up and through the newly opened hatch.

With a wet flop he landed on the cold ground and hissed in pain, then propped himself up on his once again bleeding arms and crawl-slithered to the door. He tried the handle but it refused to open. Frustrated, he scratched at the door frame, leaving behind a few marks. After a few deep breaths he looked around but there was nothing else in the room. He growled, flicking the tip of his tail in annoyance. He had to get out of there. But how?

The only ones that knew how to open the doors were- the humans! The same ones that had a weird obsession with fixing his wounds. He now had a plan.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Kix decided to come back in an hour, long enough for their new friend to get more comfortable with the pond and the room. He asked Phee to bring the soundboard, courtesy of the twin in providing sound samples of common phrases in the mer language for arrivals that did not know English. They hoped the eel friend did not come from afar, or the dialect could prove different enough for the tablet to become useless. He did not know of any pod, neither having a territory nor traveling through nearby, with similar features as the new patient.

However, all of his positive approach popped like a balloon when he turned on the lights of the emergency pool room, his horrified gasp making Riyo and Phee rush in too. The eel mer was floating unmoving on the surface of the water, face down.

“Oh no, is he?-” The pink haired woman didn’t get to finish her question before the doctor rushed towards the pool, the latch undone in one good yank and the man rushing to the mer. If it happened recently they still had the chance to help him.

His state was dire but non life threatening, did the starvation make the blood loss so much severe-

His colleague ran a step behind him, ready to assist. Phee stayed out while the two adults raised the patient out of the water, Kix lowering his head to listen for heartbeat.

Fast. Very fast. Same as breath. The eel mer wasn’t unconscious. He was waiting.

Before Kix could run the mer opened his eyes, and with a yelp the doctor was pushed underwater by his long, white tail. Bloodied water rushed into his nose and mouth.

As he choked, Riyo was faced with a snarling mer, blocking his leap towards her neck with her arm. With a strong shake he pushed her to the side and slithered towards the open latch of the pool.

"Don't- cough- let him out!" Kix called, Phee rushed the door, unfortunately not fast enough to outrun the mer, who pushed her to the ground and smashed his shoulder to fully open them. He let out a painful hiss but did not slow after pushing and crawl-slithered out of the room.

"Oisk!" Kix cursed and ran after him, Riyo close behind, grasping her bleeding arm. Phee jumped up to her feet and followed.

"Let's herd him to the Twins!" She called after them.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

He was out! It worked! Now he just had to get out of the building! Crosshair crawl-slithered as quickly as he could, biting down the groans which wanted to come out of him with every move. He didn't know where to go but he kept moving and hissing when someone got into his way. Crosshair heard his blood rushing in his ears and heart beating against his ribcage.

There! That must be the door to go outside! It was a glass door with two wings, fragile, so he threw himself at it trying to make it shatter. He growled and looked around for something heavy but when he turned around he saw the man from before in front of him, holding his hands up, coming slowly closer.

"Easy boy easy, we want to help you."

'Help? Yeah, not falling for that you fishhead!' Crosshair thought. He drew his shoulders up in a threatening manner and let out a deep slow hiss, flicking his tail in. He pushed against the glass behind him, trying to get it to open.

"Easy. Stay calm." The man whispered and came closer.

"I don't think he can understand you Kix." The short, pink haired woman beside him noted.

"Well, I hope he understands my tone and body language."

'Well you obviously don't!' Cross thought and slammed his tail against the glass, letting out another growl. The Kix guy took another step closer and Crosshair lashed out at him with his claws, which made him step back again.

"We have to get him secured before he hurts himself more." The dark skinned woman said, putting a hand on the man's shoulder. When his eyes moved to look at the gesture Crosshair spotted a chair to his left, so he slowly edged closer to it, without looking at it to give away his intention. He just stared down the man, the biggest danger in his current situation. When the chair was within reach he grabbed one of its legs and swung it behind him at the door, the glass shattering into a thousand tiny shards and rattling to the ground. Crosshair turned and rushed through the broken door, ignoring the pain as the pieces pierced his body.

"After him!" He heard the man call behind him but he kept crawling. The rocky concrete under him scrabbed up his hands and tail, and he felt the bandages around his body come loose. A quick look confirmed that his motions on the ground roughed up the bandages and made them tear apart. He had to get into the water. It was noon and the sun was burning from the peak of its travel across the sky, Crosshair running on the fumes of adrenaline, but he couldn’t give up now, he had to go back and find his brothers!

He sniffed the air, his nose filled with the metallic scent of his own blood, but underneath it he was able to smell the salty water of the ocean, in which direction he slithered towards.

Suddenly, a shape blocked his path, the man from the inside, this time a blanket in his hands. Crosshair made a sharp turn, avoiding the piece of cloth as it was thrown towards him, but not slowing down even for a moment, even as the burning concrete ripped a few of his scales. He made another dodge, this time to the left as the pink haired woman made her attempt at blinding him with her blanket.

He ignored the shout made by the man, sounding weirdly delighted, to finally see the shimmer of his destination, water! With a few more pushes forwards he reached the sand and then the blessed ocean. He was out!

FInally able to open his gills he took a deep inhale, letting the cold water flow through them as he swam further away from the humans.

Cross felt a sense of triumph, managing to escape from that place and darted through the currents, but then was abruptly stopped when he slammed into an invisible, no, glass, wall in front of him.

What?! No! No nO NO!!! He swam up to the surface, looking at the wall in disbelief. He turned around and saw the people from before at the beach and realized what they had done. Now it made sense what they wanted with the blankets! They shepherd him into this pond!

Crosshair growled deeply and looked back at the wall, he could easily jump over this. So he dived deeper and rushed upwards gaining speed. In his horror as he sprung out of the water he felt something grip his tail, instantly losing momentum for the jump. Crosshair slammed into the upper edge of the wall, crying out in pain. He tried to hold onto it, but slipped and fell back into the water. He looked around but could not find the reason for his failure of escape, so he quickly tried a second time, but he used up all of his strength he had in the first jump. He slammed into the wall, slipping back down, leaving claw marks on the clear surface. He tried another jump but the adrenaline that kept him going the past few minutes began to wear off, leaving him behind tired and exhausted.

As he slumped back into the water he just went limp and let himself sink. He watched as the surface became more distant and fogged with the slowly seeping blood from the wounds he reopened and obtained in the last few minutes. He looked at his hands, scratched up from the concrete ground and missing two claws which he must have ripped out while climbing. He watched his blood come out of his wounds, mixing with the water in tiny swirls. He was hurt, and tired, he didn't know what to do... He fought to keep his eyes open, but unconsciousness called to claim him...

No. Not here, not out in the open.

Slowly he flipped his tail to make himself turn around and look, spotting a few rocks at the bottom of the pond, in between the sand, corals and seaweed. He inspected it to see if there was enough space, then started to dig. Every move hurt, but he refused to stay out in the open like that. He made himself a hollow in the sand under the rocks and got in, and with his tail he pushed the overstanding sand back to the entrance to make it smaller. With his hand he shoved more ground up to close the entrance and his little shelter turned dark. Crosshair wrapped his long tail around himself and settled down. The hole wasn't big, but that made him feel safer... for now... The sand he laid on was soft, much softer than the sand in the open waters, so he burrowed a bit in with a few wiggles. Now, laying there in his burrow, Crosshair began feeling everything that hit him today. The pain of his wounds has doubled, each and every scab and missing scale sending jolts of stabbing pain. The blood finally stopped flowing when he stayed still, but now the sand got into the cuts caused by the net, and stung horrifically. He was scared. Alone, for the first time since his original pod abandoned him. He wanted Ninety Nine. And Hunter, Tech and Wrecker. He wanted to go back home to the bay. He wanted… to… sleep…

Part 2 coming soon

"Precautioned Recording"

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

( tissue warning, because I made myself cry writing this )

- late evening on Pabu, a day after the events on Tantiss -

[ sits up in the tree on Pabu, listening to Tech's recording again ]

- You will be there for him, right?

[ slight audible outrage ] Of course I will, he's my brother. Di'kut head he is but he's my brother. [ calmer ] But, come on, he won't come to me, he doesn't even really like me.

Oh he does. I even think he was the first one to like you when we rescued you.

[ softly ] calling me out ey?

Oisk.

No. Just watch him. He's not much of a talker but his body language speaks sentences.

...

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of reading him eventually. [ audible smile ]

Well, guess he did managed that eventually. [ smiles ]

Right... The recording is still going.

Oh, right. End supplemental.

[ short static noise ]

[ leanes back at the trunk, lowering the datapad in his lap, closing his eyes ]

[ another short static noise ]

... Second supplemental...

[ confused, looks at datapad again ]

[ slowly and hesitantly ] Right... If you are hearing this Crosshair, that means that you deserted the Empire and decided to come back to live with us...

Well, obviously that's the reason...

[ a bit mumbly ] But, I suppose there could me other ways that managed you to gain access to this file again, [ quickly ] but I doubt it.

[ takes datapad in "both hands", looks at it ]

The reason why you are listening to this recording again is probably because you are having another panic attack and we are not around to help you, though given the fact that the war is over now and we have a rather calm live here on Pabu, I suppose you just listened to it for old times sake and hear me ramble...

[ sit's up more, listening carefully ]

But I suppose the many people on Pabu might overwhelmed you a bit and you just need some alone time.

Or there is another reason why you listen to it, could be, I can't look into the future. [ sighes ] Gaah that's beside the point...

[ rusteling from the audiofeed, sounds of scratching (like scratching the back of the neck) Tech sighes again ]

What I want to tell you... what I fail at terribly to say [ scoffs slightly ]

Is... that we don't blame you... After everything...

I am not...

And I know you, I know that when you regret something that you will go down this... Self destructive hole, where you believe that you're not worth it, where you believe that you deserve to be punished.

Don't try to deny it. It happened more times than I want to admit... [ takes a breath ]

[ softly ] But it's not true. It's not, true Crosshair. You are worth it and you deserve to be happy and save. You deserve to be loved, wich I do, we all do brother.

[ begins to tear up ]

You are one of us... You are my little brother, whether you like to hear it or not. I'm not angry at you because of the things you've done, you... weren't really yourself... You were made believe things and wasn't able to see... well [ sarcastically ] the big picture...

[ takes a shaky breath, whisperes ] Tech...

I... I hope the reason why you are listening to this is just because you came home and pressed play for old times sake...

And/or you need to have some time alone... [ sighes ]

... Just... [ softly ] please, remember. That you can still talk to us. All of us. Even Omega, she would love to be around you, I just know it.

[ softly sobbing laugh ] You were right on this one...[ sniffs ]

And if you don't want to talk with any of us, then that is okay too. You can talk to Phee. She will listen and understand. She will give you advice when she can and would later on tell you that the conversation didn't happen.

She's a good person. Kind [ audible smile ] and nice to be around...

[ amused ] Someone's in love?

[ clears throat ] You can wipe that oisk eating grin off your face.

[ smiles, sadly laughes ]

... Please don't cut yourself off. We are all still here for you Crosshair. You are not alone anymore and will never be again...

I won't let it happen...

Talk to us and stay with us... You're gonna be okay...

I Love you Crosshair... We all do... And always will...

[ sounds of someone coming up the ramp of the Marauder in the distance ]

[ audible smile ] Tech, come on, food get's cold.

I'll be right there Omega.

Copy that [ runs off again ]

[ inhales deeply ]

[ chuckles softly ]

I... I hope you came back. And if you did...

Welcome home brother... [ audible smile ]

End second supplemental.

[ short static noise, recording ends ]

[ let's out sobbing gasp which he suppressed, sniffs, looks up into the stars ]

I am... I am home now... And I will stay...

[ tears ran down Cross's face but he smiles into the stars ]

I love you too brother... And I miss you- [ voice cracks at the end, sniffes ]

But- [ wipes nose with his wrist, sniffs ] I'm sure we'll meet again... [ smiles, wipes away tears ]

[ sad but happy laugh ]

Some day... [ inhales ]

Some day... we will all be together again... [ smiles into the star enlightened sky ]

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

┻━┻ ︵╰(°□°╰)

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!

Crosshair Mer Anon, 👋, just dropping in to see if you have any more art for us?

Also, is he out of that net yet?

Crosshair got a hand in getting out of the net from a fisherman that found him on the shore

This is gold xD

^w^ always happy to help

I have decided that in the centaur AU the elk, deer and other horned animals based taurs will have horns and antlers. I have made myself a 3D horns reference for the drawings to keep them consistent: have Crosshair and Mayday with their amazing crowns

The idea was pushed to the surface by @pinetree-tbb

A few one-shots I have written a while ago, where I recently finished the last chapter of it, for one of @summer-of-bad-batch week 10 prompt: Hugs

happy reading :D