Chapter 59: Familiar Parting
Adam slowly lowers his arm down after Merrick dives into the sea. He watches as he can see the instant transition from below the heavily distorted view of his lover under the surface. The merman's image swims forward and deep, disappearing into the dark waters below.
"... Please be safe..." Adam muttered as he let his arm down. He turned around, and went away. He goes back into the house, and picks up the charger for his laptop, before pausing. He looks out to the night outside, and then into the darkness of his room. After a few minutes of hesitation, he takes a moment to throw his charger into his room, and turned back around to put on his leather jacket.
He picked up his helmet, and his keys, before exiting his house.
~~~
Merrick hangs onto the Capricorn as they moved threw the open ocean. He takes many deep, purposeful breaths of cold sea as they move, half thankful to be back where he belongs, and still half terrified of this whole Kenovani Pod thing turning out to be a cruel turn of events.
He looked aside, and discovered that he and the Capricorn are moving at alarming speeds! Merrick looks to the wavering surface, to the mysterious sea floor, or to a few hammerhead sharks moving on their own devices, and he seems to be moving a lot faster than he feels - he doesn't feel like they're zooming through the water like a torpedo, but everything seems to be blurring right beside him.
It seems the Capricorn's voyage is tampering with his own sense of time. This only makes his insides squirm even more with anxiety, almost as if he's being rushed to his doom.
~~~
Adam flashes his membership card to Steve the bouncer at the Dream Waltz, before entering. He sighs as he enters the bustling club, groaning from the jumpy and cheerful musical number with a few sexy dancers performing on stage, before sitting himself down at the bar.
"Hey man." Jamal says as he looks at Adam from the other side of the bar, looking so glum and depressed. "You ok?" Adam just sighed and shook his head and put his arms on the bar, "Merrick left, huh?" Adam nodded, "Anything I can git'cha anything?"
"Just a Cosmo, please..." Adam mumbled.
"Aight, man." Jamal pushed away from the bar, and went to work to mixing his drink.
"Oh hey, Adam!" Came a newer voice. Adam turns his head to see Jerry, the manager of the Dream Waltz come up to him, "How're doing, buddy?"
"I've been better..." Adam groaned.
"Oh, well you feel like making a few extra bucks?"
"That depends. What did you have in mind?"
"The next performance fell through, and we have a half-an-hour gap after this number. The stage is yours if you feel like getting up there." Normally, when there's a gap where no performers are scheduled for certain times, the stage is available for customers to do some karaoke, "Just thought I'd offer since you're a regular part-timer here now."
Jamal placed the magenta, feminine cocktail before Adam. "It's ok if you do a sad song if you're still depressed," Jerry said, "The people love a bleeding heart." Adam paused as he looked at the sweet drink, before pinching the narrow neck of the glass, and downed it in a single gulp. After putting the Cosmo glass on the bar, he also slapped a $10 on to the counter.
"No thanks..." Adam said before he turns, and pushes his way into the crowd.
"Is uh..." Jerry said, "Everything ok with him? He's been really down since I hired him."
"His boyfriend has to leave fo'while." Jamal said, "Guy's like this for bout a week when his bo has to go away."
"Ah, I see..."
~~~
Merrick holds tightly to the Capricorn as they sail through the water. His hearts pounds harshly as they proceed, unable to remember just how long they've been going, or pay much mind as to how fast or slow they're moving.
As they kept going, he can only signal ahead until he began to sense the presence of other beings. He keeps his eyes forward as he and the Capricorn approached a nonspecific mass of signals and voices. He can't seem to get any kind of focus for the small group sounds as he came closer and closer to them.
Merrick's keen eyes began to spot a handful of different colored merfolk. He first spotted a black and white orca mermaid, and this his eyes shifted to a hammerhead shark merman, and silver and white naga slithering in the water. He sent another quiet signal, and immediately heard a sense of many different species at once.
In moments, the Capricorn came to a slow stop nearing the diverse school of merfolk, allowing Merrick to see a pod that is barely half as big as his original pod. His eyes lock on to a black symbol on a crab mermaid that uses a constructed fan maid of sails to help her swim with the rest of the pod, and a black symbol on a paluga whale merman, who seems to be draped in an icy aura to help cope with his need for chilled temperatures.
A large, flakey and flamboyant lionfish Noita swims along a shorter lionfish mermaid with a hard, spiny scalp and thick armored arms by her side, while a deep blue Holsien merman with thick, heavy limbs that are heavily adorned with naturally thick plates of armor on his flesh, adorned with rather large shark teeth tied around his head, while holding his trident. Both bulging biceps and mighty thighs are wrapped with a tight tether with many welded sea glass beads, swimming beside a very small version of himself with wing-like lion fins on his arms, also carrying a short trident.
One by one, the members of this strange pod turned as Merrick and the Capricorn approached them. Samudra turns his head, and smiles as he sees the blue and pearl Piscien ride upon his old friend's back, hardly recognizing him in his true form.
"Kenovani, halt!" He called out. The pod as a whole stops, with a few of the other members drifting along to gather. Samudra turns half way so his body is facing the gap between the pod and Merrick as the Capricorn swims away from him, "My Brothers and Sisters. Another lost one of the Laws has come to join the fold." Merrick looks upon the eyes of the Kenovani.
Samudra swims to Merrick side, and puts his hardened hands on his shoulders, "I am very proud to welcome our new Brother: Merrick of the Piscien Merfolk." He announced as the Kenovani looks at their newest addition, a few of them noting how stone-faced, dignified, and firm Merrick presents himself - just as Kaiken has always taught him.
"Banished for the crime of Forbidden Love, Merrick has taken refuge to the land to be with his human mate!" Samudra continued, "Please do all you can to make him feel welcome." Merrick gave a short bow - a formality he picked up from Yuri's customs.
Moments later, Samudra guided Merrick to the lionfish mermaid of the pod with a dot surrounded by pointy triangles on the lower half of the black circles, right on her chest, "Merrick, this is my mate, Noita Vanora," Samudra introduced, "She is the one who shall determine when you will be able to return to the land."
"Oh no..." The Noita's face broke in immediate concern, "You, how are you," She stops as she comes in close, causing Merrick to flinch a little, "You are not well! Not well at all!"
"Yes... I know." Merrick says as she put her hands on his sides, circling him with quick moves.
Syrinx peers around, and sees the blue merman. Her eyes narrow as she can feel a distinct feeling... Almost like she's met him before. Her eyes spot the decorative heart tattoo on his upper back. So there's his symbol, but there's something about this one...
"Your scales are drifting right off of your body!" Vanora says, almost looking terrified as the tiny, thin discs just came right off, "How long have you been on the land? Without coming to the sea??"
"Almost 3 years..."
Everyone in the pod gasps and stared at him.
"3 years?!" Vanora looks at him with estranged eyes of surprise, "And you are alive?!"
"He is mated to a human, Vanora." Samudra said with his thick, heavy hands on Merrick's shouldes, "From what I have been told, they have been together for 8 years. And it has been 3 years since he was banished."
"And in all this time, you NEVER came to the ocean?!" Vanora exclaimed, "I understand the dark myth of the Capricorn, but 3 years?! How did you survive?!"
"He is a Triton, Vanora." Samudra says. The pod mumbles amongst themselves, as a wave of understand came upon Vanora, "He was the Adra before his exile. He endured much suffering living upon the ground."
Vanora's eyes looked into Merrick's eyes Piscien to Piscien, as she takes a moment to sample the sight of his soul. She gasps a little as she reads his aura with her blessed eyes, "Oh my... He has endured a lot more than that..."
~~~
Adam walks along the docks, his headphones in his ears, listening to A Fleeting Dream from Final Fantasy X on loop. He walks slowly, deliberately just taking it slow as he looks down on the sandy old planks.
Somehow, he feels as if he's taking this better than usual, at least to how it was back in the old days. At this point, he'd usually still be facedown in his bed, just mulling away the time. He was about to do just that a while ago, before he decided he didn't want to just wallow in his dark room like usual. He thought he wanted to hang out in the club, but sipping drinks just doesn't feel that appealing right now.
He wants to do something, but he just doesn't know what.
Adam goes to a railing on the dock, and leans down on it with his arms. He looks down upon the noisy surface of the water, his instincts casually informing him of a particular large fish way down below... His eyes focus in the surface, estimating that it's probably a Grouper. Even if he felt like fishing, there's no way he could pull a big damn fish like that up on the dock.
He looks up at the moon while the breezes blow around him and through his short, brown hair. The calm, dramatic, melancholy music in his iPod plays through as he looks up at he almost full moon. Either the previous night, or maybe tomorrow, mermaids all over the world will be coming up to the surface to sing to it. He'd like to see that again, it was really entertaining the first time, when Merrick decided to come to his house for the first time.
Adam sighed as he looked back down.
Merrick has made so many changes... He made his own ultimate sacrifice just to be with him - as far as his pod goes, Merrick could've stayed a lot longer, had he not chose to reveal his love for Adam, but that would also mean that he would never see him again, at least not for years, maybe even decades, before his pod banished him for not finding a Noita, if that's how it works. And even then, he had broken up with Adam, and that would invite a lot of more hurt and doubt. And keeping on land all this time was killing him too, slowly and painfully, and he led it on like it was nothing.
Adam can't help but feel like he could've been a better lover to Merrick...
