-child of Poseidon -DAD IS BIG -is scared of humans and anxious about them, has heard many bad things -but is also interested in them -collects human stuff like Ariel but keeps it secret b/c lol hypocrite -flip flops on wanting to become one
-has met Dia and Takumi -Takumi saved his life when he got caught in a net -saved Dia's life when they were children and used to meet with her but was forced to forget her after nearly dying in a net going to see her. -has the dokis for them both
It's late when Choromatsu comes home. His cuts have dried and aren't bleeding anymore, but they're still visible so he's doing his best to sneak in and not be noticed.
The quicker he gets to bed and act like he's been in bed this whole time the easier it'll be to avoid having to explain where he's been. ]
[Poseidon has lived with having children long enough to not pitch a fit the moment one of them is gone for a bit longer than he'd have liked. They're all growing mers, and if he forced them all to stay home in their little reef all the time, what kind of parent would he be? But there are times when he really needs them to stay, especially when he needs to trek into the deep sea to work.
Which means, he'd have preferred they were all home before the sun set, but they weren't. The last one he would have expected to stay away hadn't returned, so unfortunately for Choromatsu, being sneaky isn't going to work this time. Not when dear ol' dad has been actively waiting for you to get home.
Just as the little green mer swims his way into the network of coral reefs that make up the home he and his other brothers stay in, a long, familiar shadow casts over the water above him as Poseidon slips around the edge of the largest part of the reef, looking up and over the edge of it down to Choromatsu.]
There you are! My little one, where have you been?
[ Once Choromatsu's cuts healed up he didn't waste any time going out to find his new "friends". In fact he spends most of his days now away from home, usually coming back very late. Over time it starts to become clear (in the moments that he is around) that his demeanor is starting to change. His brothers' jabs slide off his back more easily, he's a little less constantly wound up (though still gets riled up eventually), a lot more wistful... and more prone to swimming into things.
His brothers have already started talking. The change in demeanor was puzzling them for weeks until one of them finally suggested that maybe he had fallen for some mermaid... but most of their attempts to tail him were unsuccessful. If any of them had figured out the truth, they were certainly keeping their mouths shut about it.
He doesn't always go to see his friends though. He spends time in his grotto of treasures and hunts for new additions still (or pretty things to give his friends in exchange for their stuff). He's just home even less than he already was before.
Today he's found a little clearing of sand far from the reef but not too far from his grotto. He's lying on the sea floor on his belly, a bunch of shells, rocks and little baubles collected from ships spread in front of him. He was working on something but feels a little too frustrated to continue... so instead he's taking a break, picking "petals" off a flower like plant.
He's also singing to himself, but not a song he heard under the water. Some of the words he can't remember, so he hums them instead ]
You are the ocean's gray waves, Destined to seek life beyond the shore, Just out of reach... Yet the waters ever change, Flowing like time... Hmmm-mmmm...
[ Choromatsu isn't normally one to sing, even if all merfolk can, so it's a little peculiar for him even putting the song aside. He's not even paying attention to his surroundings either, completely zoning out. ]
[During the day when all of his sons were out and about in various parts of the ocean, Poseidon was never too concerned about their whereabouts so long as they returned before dark every evening. They learned rather early on that disobeying him wasn't exactly something that was recommended on repeat offenses, so he never had much to worry about as he did his daily tasks. This included traversing the sea to ensure that his citizens were content and well cared for, monitoring the ocean's ever changing currents, and checking up on problem areas when and where they arose.
It was to his surprise, then, that he hears the sound of one of his sons singing as he makes his rounds...a lone Choromatsu in the sand busily working on something, it looked like. And though it was usually impossible for Poseidon to sneak up on anyone due to his size, he never really had to try- he manages to get rather close while Choromatsu is singing to himself, a song that he doesn't actually recognize.
He speaks in his usual booming baritone once he's close enough to cast a shadow across his son's prone form.]
That is beautiful, son. Did you write it? I do not believe I have heard it before!
[They didn't really plan a meeting time after all that, and Takumi realized the problem with that soon after.
And just going back everyday was just asking for his family to notice. But luckily he had an excuse: training. He couldn't go that far every day, but a few times a week was manageable. And even if Choromatsu didn't return, practicing his footing on the loose sand was useful at least. That day he was practicing with his bow instead of a sword- taking shots at dangling targets hanging from a makeshift post he had planted, made of driftwood]
[ Choromatsu had promised his father that he'd stay around the reef until his cuts healed, so unfortunately he was homebound for much longer than he would have liked. Eventually though he's able to leave and he dutifully shows up every day, trying not to get caught and waiting as long as he can before he has to go home. Each time the gauntlets from his father in a nice little side bag around his shoulders.
It's the third day when it seems like his checking back might finally pay off.
He pokes his head out of water just a few feet away from the shore. He sucks a breath in, and finds himself freeze up... which is probably for the best if Takumi is training. So he ends up just swimming still and watching for the moment. ]
[As promised, Poseidon works tirelessly over the next few days to create precious jewels for Choromatsu's gift for his friend, Dia. When he means create, he means it quite literally...and it means a lot of energy to be expended on his part. Because of this, he waits until the very end of the day to work, spending a good chunk of the evening pouring what was left of his energy into making a single stone. And that just meant making it...it would take an entire day more to imbue each completed stone with a protection spell of his own design. By the time he's finished every evening, he only has the energy to tell his sons goodnight and collapse into his own grotto before having to wake up before the sun to do it all over again.
But for his third eldest son, he would do anything. For all of them he would, but Choromatsu had new friends that he refused to have made a bad impression on. He just hopes that this means that one day, Choromatsu will actually want his father to meet them. But after a little over a week passes, he finishes a collection of stones of almost every color from his own deep blue to purple, red, and green. He tucks them all carefully into a woven bag and sets off into the water to find Choromatsu, who will be relatively easy to spot with his green against the blue of the sea.
He didn't just have the stones to share, though. All of that time alone working gave him much more time than he usually had to think...and he thought about the conversation he had with Choromatsu. About love. He pondered what things for his sons might have been like if he had procured a lover...they probably would not even exist, now that he thought about it. But was it really the best thing he could have done?
[ His green tail may be easy to spot but for some reason Choromatsu is a little hard to find today. Thankfully not because he's out with his friends on the shore, but he's not in open water either.
Eventually Poseidon will find him though... coming out of some kind of tunnel and shutting the hole again with a giant rock blocking the entrance. Huh. He looks like he's trying to do it as discreetly as possible. ]
[ It's late, really late, but Choromatsu doesn't care, he's too happy. Dia and Takumi surprised him with a gift today, a necklace with a beautiful handblown glass pendant from the both of them. He had found all sorts of jewelry and glass underwater before, but it was all worn or scratched or broken, and definitely not as intricate. Something so pretty was given to him by the two people he loved and he couldn't be happier... so what if he'd lost track of time?
He's heading home, clutching the necklace in both hands, but he decides to stop at his secret grotto first. He loves this necklace and has to fight the urge to wear it everywhere, but because he loves it he knows he has to keep it someplace safe, like the rest of their gifts. Somewhere that no brother or father will hopefully ever find it... and that meant the grotto with the rest of his human things. So he slips in and looks through the shelves, the light from the moon still illuminating the inside through the hole at the top of the cave. ]
Hmm... where should I put it... next to the knife? No... the comb? Hmm, or maybe in a box...
[ But he finds himself unable to think and looking back down at it again... and then proceeds to lose his mind all over again, shouting at the top of his lungs ]
KYAAA! IT'S SO PRETTY! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW PRETTY IT IS! AND IT'S REALLY FROM THE SURFACE! THE SURFACE! AND THEY PICKED IT JUST FOR ME!!
Aaaahh, I can't take it anymore...!
[ he unfastens the shell necklace he always wears as hastily as he can, tossing it aside to the sand without a second thought and quickly puts on the glass one. ]
It's so.... it's so perfect! PERFECT!!
[ And before he knows it, he's laughing giddily to himself again, swimming and twirling around like a lovesick fool, transfixed with the way the pendant moves in the water with him, how the weight of it hits his chest...
He has no clue that the same hole that lights up his collection of human things is also letting his voice be heard from outside the grotto... ]
[His sons have gotten old enough that Poseidon lengthened their curfew some years ago. They might still be immature in ways, but he trusted them enough to return either before or just as the sea was getting too dark to find their way. Even if you knew your home like the back of your fins, finding it in the black ocean was near impossible unless you were Poseidon himself. And by night, everyone is accounted for as usual...except for one. And though it's been many years now since the last time Choromatsu didn't come home, Poseidon can't help but worry...but despite this, he gives his son the benefit of the doubt and waits.
And he waits.
And his brothers start to talk among themselves, wondering where the third eldest might have gone. Osomatsu, notably, says absolutely nothing, looking to be almost petrified with as much anxiety and fear as his father is. And it only takes one shared glance for Poseidon to have enough. He orders the others to stay in the reef, and he means it, before rushing out into the sea and immediately trying to put a lock on Choromatsu's location.
...except that he can't. He can sense five other little merfolk nearby...but the sixth is nowhere in the entire sea.
He just barely manages to stop himself from calling for his son verbally, not wanting to upset the others as he speeds off into the water, causing both sea life and non to part and move out of the god's way. Though he only searches for Choromatsu for ten minutes with no sign of him, it's enough to nearly send Poseidon himself to the surface to confirm the worst. Instead, out of seemingly nowhere, Choromatsu returns as a speck in the distance diving deeper and deeper still into the sea...one that Poseidon immediately tracks all the way back to his grotto.
He hears him long before he sees him, and his heart feels fit to burst with relief when he does. Just before he can make his way in, though, he hears him talking to himself. Then, yelling to himself.
The more Poseidon hears, the angrier he becomes. He trembles, his grip on his trident so hard that he can feel his gauntlets straightening beneath the pressure of his fists. And while the hole at the top of the cave is impossibly small for him to fit through, he discovers once he swims up there, it's not enough to stop him. It will never be enough.
Choromatsu will have only the warning of the moonlight being completely blocked above him for a fraction of a second before a voice pierces the tiny grotto with such a fierce bellow that he can feel it rock his body from the inside out, and the upper part of the grotto literally splits apart to let even more light in, revealing the source blocking the moon with his head and crown.]
[That night after Choromatsu and Poseidon's big fight was a hard one. None of the rest of his sons would dare approach him, not when they knew he was this mad. It got to the point where his shouting could be heard halfway across the sea, and even now the water continues to churn dangerously within his quarters. It lasts this way throughout the night as he doesn't sleep, simply sitting in there and stewing over it all.
By the time the sun rises, Poseidon's anger has fizzled into a deep seated sadness and disappointment over what Choromatsu had chosen to do. At the same time, though, he knows he could have handled it better...but could he be blamed, really? All those years of warning them, and Choromatsu of all of his sons meets with humans twice in his life. Claimed that he loved them. And, for the first time in raising them, he has no idea how to handle it. He figured that keeping him out of the ocean would do it by virtue of them not being able to meet again...but that also meant ostracizing his son. But if it took him months to get over it...then so be it.
Unfortunately for Poseidon, he doesn't get that long.
At some point during midday, Osomatsu eventually gets the nerve to come to his father...and he tells him that he can't find Choromatsu anywhere. He'd expected that; Choromatsu probably went back to the remains of his grotto. After instructing the eldest to stay back and keep the others company, he ensures him that he will find wherever he went off to before leaving home for the open sea. Instead of checking the grotto, not actually comfortable with confronting Choromatsu so soon after what happened, he decides to search the sea for his son's presence one last time.
...and he's. ......not there.
He's not anywhere.
And it isn't possible for him not to be.
Without thinking, Poseidon beats a path to the grotto, finding one side caved in while the rest is still intact. When he goes to search for his son, however, he's nowhere to be found. Even when he uses his trident to either break or lift and toss away fallen rocks, he doesn't see him. And when he searches for his presence again and he's still not found...that's when he really begins to panic.]
Choromatsu...
[He shoots out of the grotto and starts to swim for the shore, directly for the area where he felt him coming from yesterday.]
Choromatsu! Come to me right now!
Choromatsu!!!
[He doesn't get an answer. He swims to the shore, even breaks the surface to search...but he's nowhere. There's only one possible explanation for why he can't find him, and it makes Poseidon let out a bellow of frustration before he dives beneath the surface again and takes off in another direction, crying for Choromatsu to come to him when he's nowhere.
This goes on for three hours. Tirelessly, he searches massive swathes of ocean, looking for...some sign of his son. He couldn't possibly have gone too far thanks to his restriction on him, but there's no denying the fact that he can't sense him at all. Before Poseidon realizes where he even is, he's suddenly come upon a place he hasn't visited in a very long time. A lone island in the middle of the sea that seemingly has nothing on it. One that, with his entire body sagging from the exertion of his trek, he drags himself towards. Soon enough, Poseidon beaches himself on the island's shore, panting for breath as he surveys the immediate surroundings before letting his body sink into the sand a few feet.
He lets the gravity of reality sink into him, and it renders him immobile.]
[ No one ever comes to the island. Not anymore. Not even a poor shipwrecked victim or a pirate looking for a safe place to put their treasure. Only gulls... and the "goddess" of this island would know. Nothing escapes his notice... not here. The last time anyone was here was that one time 20 years ago...
So to sense someone now catches him by surprise. Did some poor soul wash up here? He can't tell from his lake, so he sets out to investigate in the form of a small white snake.
What he sees shocks him but he doesn't yet reveal himself ]
[ After the fight, Choromatsu swam back to the section of the reef he shared with his brothers. The others were still awake, waiting for him, but when they approached he told them all to "fuck off"... and for once they complied. Leaving him alone.
Choromatsu didn't go to bed. He sat at the table they usually shared meals at, and stayed there face down using his arms as a pillow for a very long time. But once he was sure everyone else was in bed, after he had spent a long time in thought, he gets up and begins to pack his belongings into a small bag. It's not a whole lot but it's at least the things he cherishes and thinks he needs. And then he slips away from the reef in the middle of the night.
He doesn't know yet how he'll do it, how he'll stay away from his father. He's sure the god has done something to keep him from shore, and he'd track him down no matter where he went so long as he stayed in the water. Running away from home was going to be difficult, but he couldn't stay there... he had to try. Maybe if he breached the surface and hitched a ride on a ship...
On the way though, he passes the grotto, and though he knows he shouldn't, he can't help taking a moment to go back there. He moves rocks out of the way, trying to find what he can to salvage, but in particular Takumi's knife, the first present he had received from the prince.
He finds it, but like most of his things it's been broken in some way and just seeing it causes him to break down crying once more.
That's when they appeared.
A pair of talking fish, circling him like predators and whispering sweet words to him. Oh you poor child, you poor sweet child, what a horrible thing to happen to you, whatever will you do? If only we could help you...
It... was fishy to say the least. Fish don't normally speak; their place was as pets, food or predators to avoid, and their words felt too honey soaked to be genuine. But all his attempts to leave were blocked as the trout thought aloud about who could help such a dear, sad child.
"Please just leave me alone--"
"Perhaps... the sea witch can."
And that was when Choromatsu realized their game.
As his father had said he knew better. He knew much better than to ever go to the sea witch. They had all encountered her as children and seen what she was capable of... even if she was adorable. Her magic was evil and he knew be...tter...
But the more they spoke to him the more he realized he had no other choice. No one else could help him and at this rate he was never going to see Dia or Takumi ever again...
"You could be together.... forever..."
And what reason did he have to trust his father anymore? Maybe he was wrong about her... Either way...
"...Take me to her."
He couldn't stay here.
And that's how he ended up here now following the fish in the near pitch blackness of the ocean to where the sea witch lived, entering her abode with a heavy feeling in his heart. ]
[It wasn't as often as it used to be that the sea witch got visitors in the dark abyss of the ocean she called home. Merfolk down on their luck would sometimes grow desperate enough to seek her help, but many had grown wise to her schemes...and many others it was too late for, as they all had suffered the price. Unfortunately for her, Poseidon generally kept the peace to the point where nobody could be that unhappy, at least not due to things under the sea king's control.
Be that as it may, she still let her pets roam the open ocean, luring back depressed merfolk of all kinds for her to sink her claws into. But what they brought back today...certainly was far beyond what she'd been expecting.
She hears Choromatsu before she sees him, though she doesn't immediately recognize his voice. She hadn't seen or really fraternized with Poseidon's children since they were young, obviously since he'd put a stop to her ever interacting with them very early on. She'd been gazing at herself in a large chunk of broken glass when her two trout messengers come swimming to her side, swimming in circles around her and whispering that they had brought someone in desperate need of her help.]
Oh, have you...? Come in!~
[She trills as she quickly pulls up her hair and tosses it over her shoulder, swimming up to one of the ledges in the rocks to perch so she can overlook as the mer swims inside. He'll find a rather foreboding place for sure...very dark and claustrophobic, nothing at all like the wide, brightly lit reef that he and his brothers live in. Perfect for a creature to dwell on the ocean's furthest bottom, effectively cut off from the rest of the citizens.]
[ It'd been a day already since Poseidon had visited Matsuno island. The goddess had already enlisted the help of the birds and had asked them to make haste... then it was just a waiting game. And Megami trying not to destroy himself with worry.
He was bracing himself to tell Poseidon they still knew nothing when a bunch of birds finally came back with news. And at first he was elated; they were much quicker than he had thought they'd be and had found him! But then...
Well he'd been spending the time since bracing himself for having to tell Poseidon the things he had learned instead... which may have been harder to prepare for. ]
[Poseidon had his own problems to deal with back in the sea while he agonized over waiting for news. Choromatsu's brothers were in a mixed state. At first they just joked about him being gone, as he expected they'd do, but...after the hours turned into a whole day, they really started to grow worried. Osomatsu had actually gotten himself in trouble with their father, having demanded that Poseidon let him go help search the sea for him, resulting in a lesser screaming match that ended with Osomatsu banished to their room and the rest of the brothers stunned by how upset their father was. They'd never seen him so angry or worked up before...and before any of them could make sense of it, he was leaving again to continue the search.
What he doesn't tell them is that he'd gone back to Matsuno island, surfacing on one of the island's shores with a massive wave following ahead of him that crashes up over the rocks when he pushes himself up onto land. The water has been becoming increasingly more treacherous as time has gone on, and right now is really no exception.
He stabs his trident into the sand, looking haggard with his hair down in waves all around his head and shoulders.]
[The first day Choromatsu had gone missing, Poseidon had come to Megami's island seeking his help. The second day, he learned that he'd become human and was now living with his human lovers on land. And on the third day, today...he returns to Megami's island about midday, having spend the better part of the morning working on other things. As to be expected, through his grief, his work for the ocean had gone a bit lax compared to normal. The sea itself was exceedingly treacherous, especially out in open waters. Mysteriously though, the waters remained calm all around the goddess' island, yet were visibly choppy in the distance.
When Poseidon comes by today, it's overcast. Possibly a side affect of Poseidon's own mood, but also possibly due to Zeus just having a bad day and wanting to take it out on the surface. Whatever the case, it's looking like it might rain soon. He decides to come up on a different side of the island, finding himself confronted with steep walls of rock that lead up to the volcano that erupted all those years ago. The rocks themselves seemed to be formed from magma that dumped into the sea, leaving huge caverns and caves just below the water's surface that Megami possibly didn't even know about.
Once Poseidon is at the island proper, he carefully adjusts a satchel he'd been carrying around his neck like a necklace before calling out in a voice loud enough for the whole island to hear.]
[ For lack of a better word, yes, you could describe his current state as awake. After he'd woken up alone after Poseidon had left, he managed to make it back to his lake and... hadn't left since. As much as he hated to admit it, being away from his lake was so long drained him badly and left him a little weak, so he had stayed there to recuperate and go over the previous day's event again.
...He kinda can't believe any of that happened.
It was while he was floating and still in a bit of a half awake stupor, that he hears Poseidon call for him.
It takes him a moment.
And then he's bounding out of the lake and slithering towards shore.
It's not long before Poseidon will see him, a little out of breath, still a little wet, leaf crown askew and not in full human form - he left his tail alone today. ]
[Usually, Osomatsu and his brothers were fine being left alone for the day. They preferred it, actually. But for the past three days, one of their brothers had been missing, and with their father leaving them alone and demanding they stay put at the reef...it was nerve wracking to say the least. The eldest had already gotten in trouble for trying to leave once, effectively grounded and refusing to even speak to Poseidon after that, leaving his count at two with sons not talking to him. You would think that would be enough to make Osomatsu actually stay put...but Poseidon stops by late in the evening, and even though Osomatsu can't see him and refuses to come out of their room, he can hear him.
His voice is stern and a touch frantic as he orders his children to remain where they are, explaining things as briefly as he can before leaving again. It understandably leaves the others all stirred up to the point where Osomatsu finally wanders out when he hears them talking about Choromatsu who is, somehow, back in the sea. He's in some sort of trouble...and now Poseidon is going to him.
But Osomatsu...he's not convinced that the sea king will be able to do anything. He's mad at him enough, but he clearly wasn't able to keep Choromatsu in the water to begin with, how could he help him now? In the end, he makes a split second decision without thinking about it: he tells Karamatsu that he's in charge, and then he leaves the reef before the others can stop him.
He leaves, and he follows the wake of his father all the way to Totoko's domain...but when he arrives only in time to peer through the ceiling of her cave to see what's happened, it's already too late. Poseidon...he's...
Powerless.
Back at Megami's island, he will notice at some point that the storm that Poseidon had caused had stopped. The clouds were still gathered overhead, but the water had become eerily still, almost glassy. Not even the wind could churn the water. And eventually, somewhere in that water among a cluster of rocks near the island's far edge, a red little mer clings to a rock and shivers as he tries to peer over at the island ahead...because he knows that the goddess has to be here, he has to be.
[ After Poseidon had left and Megami finished watching him off, the goddess had sought refuge from the rain under some trees nearby, refusing to let the ocean out of his sight. The way things had gone, he was far too worried to return to his lake until he knew for sure both Poseidon and wayward son were safe.
But the way the ocean had become now...
Something was wrong. And he knew it. He had watched the ocean since the day he had been put here by his father, and he'd never seen anything like this...
Inside, Megami was regretting not warning Poseidon to be safe... he should have said at least something but--
--And then he notices the red mer.
He freezes, then after a moment walks closer to the shore. He doesn't say anything or go to him yet but he's in clear view.
[When Poseidon had made it to Totoko's cave deep at the bottom of the ocean, he had already been too late. Choromatsu, his son who had chosen to become human to be with the humans he loved on the surface, was back in the sea once more, all of his human parts gone and replaced with what he once had. But something still...wasn't right about him. Even when he'd looked up to see his father charging Totoko's area, he couldn't call out to him. Poseidon had been in too much of a rage to wonder why at the time, but upon reflection...it wasn't hard to deduce.
Totoko had used every loop hole, every advantage she could to be in complete control. Choromatsu lost what he'd wished for, and now Totoko owned him, she crowed to the sea king as he demanded she let his son go. But oh she can't, for you see, he signed a contract. A contract that was binding, one that sold his very soul in exchange for the chance to be human forever. Except Choromatsu hadn't held up his end of the deal...thanks to some protesting from his partners, he'd been unable to seal his fate as a human, and now everything was going from bad to worse. And should Poseidon threaten Totoko harm, she could just as easily kill Choromatsu with no remorse. He belonged to her, after all.
"There might be something you could do for me," she had trilled to the distraught god as he gripped his trident with shaking hands, a perpetual hair's bredth from striking her down.
All Poseidon needed to do to free his son...was to trade his own soul for Choromatsu's.
......and without a second thought, he did.
In a frightfully short amount of time, the power swiftly changed hands. Poseidon somberly surrendered his trident to Totoko, and an instant later she'd turned it on Poseidon himself, blasting him with a spell that sapped every last bit of the sea king's power. It reduced him to...barely anything. Nothing. Just a strange, nondescript amorphous blob in the corner, unable to move and unable to speak.
Time passed slowly and fast for Poseidon after that. Minutes felt like years. All hope had been lost.
But then...somehow, Poseidon seemed to wake up. All of a sudden, he was back in the ocean, laying on the seabed as he stared up at blurred shapes he couldn't quite distinguish above him. He thought he could hear voices through the water, but it was hard to tell while he was still regaining his senses.]
[ Everything had happened so fast for Choromatsu. Coming back to the shore because he wanted to go home, just have the chance to see his dad again, waiting to turn back into a mer... and then his capture, Totoko explaining what he'd actually done, his dad...
His dad...
It'd all been his fault.
From there even now it was a blur. He'd managed to take Totoko's shell when she was preoccupied, take his voice back... he could tell that his partners had tried to chase after them, had done what they could to help... and then Osomatsu too even.
He remembers Totoko trying to sweet talk him. Maybe she realized what the knife Osomatsu had brought was capable of doing to her. He remembers being told he wasn't a little guppy anymore, who needs a dad like that anyway, let him suffer--
And then he remembers diving that knife deep into her heart.
Not once. Not even twice. He doesn't remember how many times. But it had been the final straw.
And now.
Well, now he was saying good bye.
He'd gone straight to the surface, made sure Dia and Takumi were okay, told them he loved them - finally what he had longed to say for three long days - and then just.
Sent them away.
"It'll be okay," he reassured. But there was no reason to believe he'd ever be able to see them again. They'd wait on the shore regardless, but he couldn't let them stay here on the open water.
He had to take care of something. And no matter how much he loved them... he also had to grow up a little.
He watched them once they'd begun to leave, dipping back under the water and waiting for the shadow of their boat to get farther and farther away. And then he looked at where his father now was, returned to his true form as if nothing had happened.
But he still knows what happened.
His heart aches with guilt. But it aches with something else too.
So finally he swims back to his father. He still keeps his distance, timid of what might happen now. He's still in the green yukata he put on this morning and it fees heavy in the water as it flows around him. ]
[Osomatsu had swam off with his little brother as quickly as he could, and would have to try to explain to him what was going on between all the other brothers dogpiling Choromatsu the moment he gets back to the reef. Meanwhile, Poseidon had left before really giving Choromatsu much of a chance to comprehend what was happening...something he would have to apologize for later.
With the power of the sea back under his command, he's able to use the currents to push him faster to Megami's island, even though he probably shouldn't be doing this so soon after regaining all of said energy. He swims so fast through the water that it beats against his face and nearly blinds him as he swims, but he knows where the island is. But it feels a lot farther away even as he makes his way towards it, bursting out of the water like a torpedo once he finally makes it to the distant land mass. He clambers up onto the shore, looking around frantically as he uses his trident like a crutch to physically pull himself out of the water.
Then, down on the far end of the beach, he sees him. Looking oh so very small just at the shoreline where the now alive waves lap against the bottom of his toga. Poseidon cries out, but no noise actually escapes him, just a hoarse exhalation of breath as he shoves himself back into the water so he can swim the last few yards over to Megami's fallen form, once again dragging himself up on the sand and immediately scooping him into his palm.]
[For the following weeks, Poseidon keeps his promise to Megami and visits him every day, or at least as often as his new abilities will allow. It turned out that while it didn't take a lot of energy to keep up, it was unpredictable and something he still hadn't entirely mastered tapping into. Three days into using them, and he'd spent an hour trapped on the beach of Megami's island as a human sized merperson, trying to figure out how to give himself legs again on top of being small. But things worked themselves out even with the difficulty, and life started to slowly go back to normal.
Now that Choromatsu was safe at home, he and the rest of his brothers started falling back into their usual routines. They had been very upset at first to be told that they couldn't go see Megami (Choromatsu more confused than anything), but after a week Poseidon allowed them to visit for the first time. Since Megami was still unable to leave his lake, Poseidon had carried each of his sons to the lake, one by one, until they could all visit for as long as they could stand the clear water of the lake. Poseidon, meanwhile, would nap in the corner of said lake after spending all of his energy playing taxi.
As another week passed and Megami found his strength restored, the children could see him at the edge of the shore and spend a lot more time than before, even though Poseidon still kept their strict nighttime curfew in check. Of course, that didn't mean they always listened...half the time they'd sneak out to see him anyway, or bring him presents, or something similar. Megami always told Poseidon about it though, so it was no secret.
But today, about a month later, Poseidon had wanted to see Megami on his own without his songs hanging off of him, so he left the reef for the island early while all the boys were still asleep...]
[ Usually Megami greets Poseidon at the shore now, either coming when he calls or already being there waiting. Today though Megami is nowhere in sight. Maybe he's still at the lake? It is pretty early...
...Strangely though there are... foot prints in the sand. Which might not seem so odd if not for the fact Megami sticks almost strictly to his snake tail form now... ]
[ it takes a long time for Megami to wake up. Longer than he himself might have originally thought in fact. It's not just the loss of the lake's powers (his father's power, he now realizes) that he has to adjust to, but also the salt water he failed to take into account. And so nearly another whole month passes that he spends soundly asleep.
Though his family need not worry too badly. His breathing and heartbeat stay constant, and he never becomes that sickly pale colour he was when Poseidon found him that night on the brink of death. Occassionally he even mumbles in his sleep, usually things about frogs, or being cold, or about Poseidon himself. Sometimes he even responds back if anyone tries to talk to him when he gets like that, but it's all nonsense and he never awakens.
One day though, his eyes finally reopen.
He blinks them a couple times, trying to readjust to how much darker the seafloor is, tries to figure out where he is, and when he doesn't right away he sits up immediately, heart racing as the events with Adranus as still fresh in his memory. But then he realizes he's still in water... and his heart eases once he notices all the little trinkets and shells surrounding him that could only have come from his sons. Even a brand new seashell crown lays softly next to where he'd been resting his head, waiting for him to don it once he woke up.
He smiles then, reaching for the crown and holding it close, not yet wearing it so he can admire the craftsmanship of his children fully and then hug it to his chest.
He's home. He's finally home.
But then... where was his beloved? Their boys...? ]
Poseidon...?
[ He calls out into the cavern, only realizing a moment too late that the sea king could be anywhere right now... ]
[When Megami wakes, he'll find that it's sometime during the middle of the day. Sunglight gently streams in through the ceiling, though it's definitely got a different hue compared to the way things are up on the surface. Inside Poseidon's room is quiet, probably deliberately so to let Megami rest peacefully. Outside, there are distant sounds of people talking, other mers perhaps...
Then, a little flash of color zips past the entrance, and then is seemingly gone. Then, about ten seconds later, it comes back. A young mer staring wide-eyed at the river goddess, his various shell jewelry being buffeted gently by the water. He doesn't say anything for a long time, just staring.
...then, without warning, he swims toward Megami as fast as his fins can carry him, throwing himself into Megami's arms with his own outstretched, seemingly heedless of the fact that he literally just woke up. He wraps his arms around his neck anyway, exclaiming loudly:]
Mom's awake!! Mom's awake!!!
[As if on cue, five other mers appear one by one, all clustered around the entrance like they're afraid to come in. Then, they all abruptly scatter, someone saying something about going to find Dad while Megami has to contend with Osomatsu clinging to him...and soon after a few other stragglers follow, like Jyushimatsu, and Karamatsu.]
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AU Deets
-child of Poseidon
-DAD IS BIG
-is scared of humans and anxious about them, has heard many bad things
-but is also interested in them
-collects human stuff like Ariel but keeps it secret b/c lol hypocrite
-flip flops on wanting to become one
-has met Dia and Takumi
-Takumi saved his life when he got caught in a net
-saved Dia's life when they were children and used to meet with her but was forced to forget her after nearly dying in a net going to see her.
-has the dokis for them both
For Poseidad
It's late when Choromatsu comes home. His cuts have dried and aren't bleeding anymore, but they're still visible so he's doing his best to sneak in and not be noticed.
The quicker he gets to bed and act like he's been in bed this whole time the easier it'll be to avoid having to explain where he's been. ]
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[Poseidon has lived with having children long enough to not pitch a fit the moment one of them is gone for a bit longer than he'd have liked. They're all growing mers, and if he forced them all to stay home in their little reef all the time, what kind of parent would he be? But there are times when he really needs them to stay, especially when he needs to trek into the deep sea to work.
Which means, he'd have preferred they were all home before the sun set, but they weren't. The last one he would have expected to stay away hadn't returned, so unfortunately for Choromatsu, being sneaky isn't going to work this time. Not when dear ol' dad has been actively waiting for you to get home.
Just as the little green mer swims his way into the network of coral reefs that make up the home he and his other brothers stay in, a long, familiar shadow casts over the water above him as Poseidon slips around the edge of the largest part of the reef, looking up and over the edge of it down to Choromatsu.]
There you are! My little one, where have you been?
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ANOTHER FOR DAD
His brothers have already started talking. The change in demeanor was puzzling them for weeks until one of them finally suggested that maybe he had fallen for some mermaid... but most of their attempts to tail him were unsuccessful. If any of them had figured out the truth, they were certainly keeping their mouths shut about it.
He doesn't always go to see his friends though. He spends time in his grotto of treasures and hunts for new additions still (or pretty things to give his friends in exchange for their stuff). He's just home even less than he already was before.
Today he's found a little clearing of sand far from the reef but not too far from his grotto. He's lying on the sea floor on his belly, a bunch of shells, rocks and little baubles collected from ships spread in front of him. He was working on something but feels a little too frustrated to continue... so instead he's taking a break, picking "petals" off a flower like plant.
He's also singing to himself, but not a song he heard under the water. Some of the words he can't remember, so he hums them instead ]
You are the ocean's gray waves,
Destined to seek life beyond the shore,
Just out of reach...
Yet the waters ever change,
Flowing like time...
Hmmm-mmmm...
[ Choromatsu isn't normally one to sing, even if all merfolk can, so it's a little peculiar for him even putting the song aside. He's not even paying attention to his surroundings either, completely zoning out. ]
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It was to his surprise, then, that he hears the sound of one of his sons singing as he makes his rounds...a lone Choromatsu in the sand busily working on something, it looked like. And though it was usually impossible for Poseidon to sneak up on anyone due to his size, he never really had to try- he manages to get rather close while Choromatsu is singing to himself, a song that he doesn't actually recognize.
He speaks in his usual booming baritone once he's close enough to cast a shadow across his son's prone form.]
That is beautiful, son. Did you write it? I do not believe I have heard it before!
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Meeting 2~
And just going back everyday was just asking for his family to notice. But luckily he had an excuse: training. He couldn't go that far every day, but a few times a week was manageable. And even if Choromatsu didn't return, practicing his footing on the loose sand was useful at least. That day he was practicing with his bow instead of a sword- taking shots at dangling targets hanging from a makeshift post he had planted, made of driftwood]
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It's the third day when it seems like his checking back might finally pay off.
He pokes his head out of water just a few feet away from the shore. He sucks a breath in, and finds himself freeze up... which is probably for the best if Takumi is training. So he ends up just swimming still and watching for the moment. ]
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Mers 3: the Mersening
[As promised, Poseidon works tirelessly over the next few days to create precious jewels for Choromatsu's gift for his friend, Dia. When he means create, he means it quite literally...and it means a lot of energy to be expended on his part. Because of this, he waits until the very end of the day to work, spending a good chunk of the evening pouring what was left of his energy into making a single stone. And that just meant making it...it would take an entire day more to imbue each completed stone with a protection spell of his own design. By the time he's finished every evening, he only has the energy to tell his sons goodnight and collapse into his own grotto before having to wake up before the sun to do it all over again.
But for his third eldest son, he would do anything. For all of them he would, but Choromatsu had new friends that he refused to have made a bad impression on. He just hopes that this means that one day, Choromatsu will actually want his father to meet them. But after a little over a week passes, he finishes a collection of stones of almost every color from his own deep blue to purple, red, and green. He tucks them all carefully into a woven bag and sets off into the water to find Choromatsu, who will be relatively easy to spot with his green against the blue of the sea.
He didn't just have the stones to share, though. All of that time alone working gave him much more time than he usually had to think...and he thought about the conversation he had with Choromatsu. About love. He pondered what things for his sons might have been like if he had procured a lover...they probably would not even exist, now that he thought about it. But was it really the best thing he could have done?
Regardless, he has much more to tell.]
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Eventually Poseidon will find him though... coming out of some kind of tunnel and shutting the hole again with a giant rock blocking the entrance. Huh. He looks like he's trying to do it as discreetly as possible. ]
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It's time for the squid to hit the fan :V
He's heading home, clutching the necklace in both hands, but he decides to stop at his secret grotto first. He loves this necklace and has to fight the urge to wear it everywhere, but because he loves it he knows he has to keep it someplace safe, like the rest of their gifts. Somewhere that no brother or father will hopefully ever find it... and that meant the grotto with the rest of his human things. So he slips in and looks through the shelves, the light from the moon still illuminating the inside through the hole at the top of the cave. ]
Hmm... where should I put it... next to the knife? No... the comb? Hmm, or maybe in a box...
[ But he finds himself unable to think and looking back down at it again... and then proceeds to lose his mind all over again, shouting at the top of his lungs ]
KYAAA! IT'S SO PRETTY! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW PRETTY IT IS! AND IT'S REALLY FROM THE SURFACE! THE SURFACE! AND THEY PICKED IT JUST FOR ME!!
Aaaahh, I can't take it anymore...!
[ he unfastens the shell necklace he always wears as hastily as he can, tossing it aside to the sand without a second thought and quickly puts on the glass one. ]
It's so.... it's so perfect! PERFECT!!
[ And before he knows it, he's laughing giddily to himself again, swimming and twirling around like a lovesick fool, transfixed with the way the pendant moves in the water with him, how the weight of it hits his chest...
He has no clue that the same hole that lights up his collection of human things is also letting his voice be heard from outside the grotto... ]
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[His sons have gotten old enough that Poseidon lengthened their curfew some years ago. They might still be immature in ways, but he trusted them enough to return either before or just as the sea was getting too dark to find their way. Even if you knew your home like the back of your fins, finding it in the black ocean was near impossible unless you were Poseidon himself. And by night, everyone is accounted for as usual...except for one. And though it's been many years now since the last time Choromatsu didn't come home, Poseidon can't help but worry...but despite this, he gives his son the benefit of the doubt and waits.
And he waits.
And his brothers start to talk among themselves, wondering where the third eldest might have gone. Osomatsu, notably, says absolutely nothing, looking to be almost petrified with as much anxiety and fear as his father is. And it only takes one shared glance for Poseidon to have enough. He orders the others to stay in the reef, and he means it, before rushing out into the sea and immediately trying to put a lock on Choromatsu's location.
...except that he can't. He can sense five other little merfolk nearby...but the sixth is nowhere in the entire sea.
He just barely manages to stop himself from calling for his son verbally, not wanting to upset the others as he speeds off into the water, causing both sea life and non to part and move out of the god's way. Though he only searches for Choromatsu for ten minutes with no sign of him, it's enough to nearly send Poseidon himself to the surface to confirm the worst. Instead, out of seemingly nowhere, Choromatsu returns as a speck in the distance diving deeper and deeper still into the sea...one that Poseidon immediately tracks all the way back to his grotto.
He hears him long before he sees him, and his heart feels fit to burst with relief when he does. Just before he can make his way in, though, he hears him talking to himself. Then, yelling to himself.
The more Poseidon hears, the angrier he becomes. He trembles, his grip on his trident so hard that he can feel his gauntlets straightening beneath the pressure of his fists. And while the hole at the top of the cave is impossibly small for him to fit through, he discovers once he swims up there, it's not enough to stop him. It will never be enough.
Choromatsu will have only the warning of the moonlight being completely blocked above him for a fraction of a second before a voice pierces the tiny grotto with such a fierce bellow that he can feel it rock his body from the inside out, and the upper part of the grotto literally splits apart to let even more light in, revealing the source blocking the moon with his head and crown.]
CHOROMATSU.
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god Im not gonna have enough Angry icons for this
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time to tell mom that dad fucked up
[That night after Choromatsu and Poseidon's big fight was a hard one. None of the rest of his sons would dare approach him, not when they knew he was this mad. It got to the point where his shouting could be heard halfway across the sea, and even now the water continues to churn dangerously within his quarters. It lasts this way throughout the night as he doesn't sleep, simply sitting in there and stewing over it all.
By the time the sun rises, Poseidon's anger has fizzled into a deep seated sadness and disappointment over what Choromatsu had chosen to do. At the same time, though, he knows he could have handled it better...but could he be blamed, really? All those years of warning them, and Choromatsu of all of his sons meets with humans twice in his life. Claimed that he loved them. And, for the first time in raising them, he has no idea how to handle it. He figured that keeping him out of the ocean would do it by virtue of them not being able to meet again...but that also meant ostracizing his son. But if it took him months to get over it...then so be it.
Unfortunately for Poseidon, he doesn't get that long.
At some point during midday, Osomatsu eventually gets the nerve to come to his father...and he tells him that he can't find Choromatsu anywhere. He'd expected that; Choromatsu probably went back to the remains of his grotto. After instructing the eldest to stay back and keep the others company, he ensures him that he will find wherever he went off to before leaving home for the open sea. Instead of checking the grotto, not actually comfortable with confronting Choromatsu so soon after what happened, he decides to search the sea for his son's presence one last time.
...and he's. ......not there.
He's not anywhere.
And it isn't possible for him not to be.
Without thinking, Poseidon beats a path to the grotto, finding one side caved in while the rest is still intact. When he goes to search for his son, however, he's nowhere to be found. Even when he uses his trident to either break or lift and toss away fallen rocks, he doesn't see him. And when he searches for his presence again and he's still not found...that's when he really begins to panic.]
Choromatsu...
[He shoots out of the grotto and starts to swim for the shore, directly for the area where he felt him coming from yesterday.]
Choromatsu! Come to me right now!
Choromatsu!!!
[He doesn't get an answer. He swims to the shore, even breaks the surface to search...but he's nowhere. There's only one possible explanation for why he can't find him, and it makes Poseidon let out a bellow of frustration before he dives beneath the surface again and takes off in another direction, crying for Choromatsu to come to him when he's nowhere.
This goes on for three hours. Tirelessly, he searches massive swathes of ocean, looking for...some sign of his son. He couldn't possibly have gone too far thanks to his restriction on him, but there's no denying the fact that he can't sense him at all. Before Poseidon realizes where he even is, he's suddenly come upon a place he hasn't visited in a very long time. A lone island in the middle of the sea that seemingly has nothing on it. One that, with his entire body sagging from the exertion of his trek, he drags himself towards. Soon enough, Poseidon beaches himself on the island's shore, panting for breath as he surveys the immediate surroundings before letting his body sink into the sand a few feet.
He lets the gravity of reality sink into him, and it renders him immobile.]
MOM IS HERE
So to sense someone now catches him by surprise. Did some poor soul wash up here? He can't tell from his lake, so he sets out to investigate in the form of a small white snake.
What he sees shocks him but he doesn't yet reveal himself ]
..Poseidon?
[ What is the sea god doing here again...? ]
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the stupid boy does the stupid thing
Choromatsu didn't go to bed. He sat at the table they usually shared meals at, and stayed there face down using his arms as a pillow for a very long time. But once he was sure everyone else was in bed, after he had spent a long time in thought, he gets up and begins to pack his belongings into a small bag. It's not a whole lot but it's at least the things he cherishes and thinks he needs. And then he slips away from the reef in the middle of the night.
He doesn't know yet how he'll do it, how he'll stay away from his father. He's sure the god has done something to keep him from shore, and he'd track him down no matter where he went so long as he stayed in the water. Running away from home was going to be difficult, but he couldn't stay there... he had to try. Maybe if he breached the surface and hitched a ride on a ship...
On the way though, he passes the grotto, and though he knows he shouldn't, he can't help taking a moment to go back there. He moves rocks out of the way, trying to find what he can to salvage, but in particular Takumi's knife, the first present he had received from the prince.
He finds it, but like most of his things it's been broken in some way and just seeing it causes him to break down crying once more.
That's when they appeared.
A pair of talking fish, circling him like predators and whispering sweet words to him. Oh you poor child, you poor sweet child, what a horrible thing to happen to you, whatever will you do? If only we could help you...
It... was fishy to say the least. Fish don't normally speak; their place was as pets, food or predators to avoid, and their words felt too honey soaked to be genuine. But all his attempts to leave were blocked as the trout thought aloud about who could help such a dear, sad child.
"Please just leave me alone--"
"Perhaps... the sea witch can."
And that was when Choromatsu realized their game.
As his father had said he knew better. He knew much better than to ever go to the sea witch. They had all encountered her as children and seen what she was capable of... even if she was adorable. Her magic was evil and he knew be...tter...
But the more they spoke to him the more he realized he had no other choice. No one else could help him and at this rate he was never going to see Dia or Takumi ever again...
"You could be together.... forever..."
And what reason did he have to trust his father anymore? Maybe he was wrong about her... Either way...
"...Take me to her."
He couldn't stay here.
And that's how he ended up here now following the fish in the near pitch blackness of the ocean to where the sea witch lived, entering her abode with a heavy feeling in his heart. ]
H...Hello?
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Be that as it may, she still let her pets roam the open ocean, luring back depressed merfolk of all kinds for her to sink her claws into. But what they brought back today...certainly was far beyond what she'd been expecting.
She hears Choromatsu before she sees him, though she doesn't immediately recognize his voice. She hadn't seen or really fraternized with Poseidon's children since they were young, obviously since he'd put a stop to her ever interacting with them very early on. She'd been gazing at herself in a large chunk of broken glass when her two trout messengers come swimming to her side, swimming in circles around her and whispering that they had brought someone in desperate need of her help.]
Oh, have you...? Come in!~
[She trills as she quickly pulls up her hair and tosses it over her shoulder, swimming up to one of the ledges in the rocks to perch so she can overlook as the mer swims inside. He'll find a rather foreboding place for sure...very dark and claustrophobic, nothing at all like the wide, brightly lit reef that he and his brothers live in. Perfect for a creature to dwell on the ocean's furthest bottom, effectively cut off from the rest of the citizens.]
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mom and dad keep being sad
He was bracing himself to tell Poseidon they still knew nothing when a bunch of birds finally came back with news. And at first he was elated; they were much quicker than he had thought they'd be and had found him! But then...
Well he'd been spending the time since bracing himself for having to tell Poseidon the things he had learned instead... which may have been harder to prepare for. ]
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What he doesn't tell them is that he'd gone back to Matsuno island, surfacing on one of the island's shores with a massive wave following ahead of him that crashes up over the rocks when he pushes himself up onto land. The water has been becoming increasingly more treacherous as time has gone on, and right now is really no exception.
He stabs his trident into the sand, looking haggard with his hair down in waves all around his head and shoulders.]
Megami! Are you here?
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MORE GAY DADS
When Poseidon comes by today, it's overcast. Possibly a side affect of Poseidon's own mood, but also possibly due to Zeus just having a bad day and wanting to take it out on the surface. Whatever the case, it's looking like it might rain soon. He decides to come up on a different side of the island, finding himself confronted with steep walls of rock that lead up to the volcano that erupted all those years ago. The rocks themselves seemed to be formed from magma that dumped into the sea, leaving huge caverns and caves just below the water's surface that Megami possibly didn't even know about.
Once Poseidon is at the island proper, he carefully adjusts a satchel he'd been carrying around his neck like a necklace before calling out in a voice loud enough for the whole island to hear.]
Megami! Are you awake?
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...He kinda can't believe any of that happened.
It was while he was floating and still in a bit of a half awake stupor, that he hears Poseidon call for him.
It takes him a moment.
And then he's bounding out of the lake and slithering towards shore.
It's not long before Poseidon will see him, a little out of breath, still a little wet, leaf crown askew and not in full human form - he left his tail alone today. ]
I-I'm awake...!!
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Time for Osomatsu to meet Mom
[Usually, Osomatsu and his brothers were fine being left alone for the day. They preferred it, actually. But for the past three days, one of their brothers had been missing, and with their father leaving them alone and demanding they stay put at the reef...it was nerve wracking to say the least. The eldest had already gotten in trouble for trying to leave once, effectively grounded and refusing to even speak to Poseidon after that, leaving his count at two with sons not talking to him. You would think that would be enough to make Osomatsu actually stay put...but Poseidon stops by late in the evening, and even though Osomatsu can't see him and refuses to come out of their room, he can hear him.
His voice is stern and a touch frantic as he orders his children to remain where they are, explaining things as briefly as he can before leaving again. It understandably leaves the others all stirred up to the point where Osomatsu finally wanders out when he hears them talking about Choromatsu who is, somehow, back in the sea. He's in some sort of trouble...and now Poseidon is going to him.
But Osomatsu...he's not convinced that the sea king will be able to do anything. He's mad at him enough, but he clearly wasn't able to keep Choromatsu in the water to begin with, how could he help him now? In the end, he makes a split second decision without thinking about it: he tells Karamatsu that he's in charge, and then he leaves the reef before the others can stop him.
He leaves, and he follows the wake of his father all the way to Totoko's domain...but when he arrives only in time to peer through the ceiling of her cave to see what's happened, it's already too late. Poseidon...he's...
Powerless.
Back at Megami's island, he will notice at some point that the storm that Poseidon had caused had stopped. The clouds were still gathered overhead, but the water had become eerily still, almost glassy. Not even the wind could churn the water. And eventually, somewhere in that water among a cluster of rocks near the island's far edge, a red little mer clings to a rock and shivers as he tries to peer over at the island ahead...because he knows that the goddess has to be here, he has to be.
Someone has to do something.]
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But the way the ocean had become now...
Something was wrong. And he knew it. He had watched the ocean since the day he had been put here by his father, and he'd never seen anything like this...
Inside, Megami was regretting not warning Poseidon to be safe... he should have said at least something but--
--And then he notices the red mer.
He freezes, then after a moment walks closer to the shore. He doesn't say anything or go to him yet but he's in clear view.
Isn't that...? ]
...Osomatsu?
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Rip in Takoyaki
[When Poseidon had made it to Totoko's cave deep at the bottom of the ocean, he had already been too late. Choromatsu, his son who had chosen to become human to be with the humans he loved on the surface, was back in the sea once more, all of his human parts gone and replaced with what he once had. But something still...wasn't right about him. Even when he'd looked up to see his father charging Totoko's area, he couldn't call out to him. Poseidon had been in too much of a rage to wonder why at the time, but upon reflection...it wasn't hard to deduce.
Totoko had used every loop hole, every advantage she could to be in complete control. Choromatsu lost what he'd wished for, and now Totoko owned him, she crowed to the sea king as he demanded she let his son go. But oh she can't, for you see, he signed a contract. A contract that was binding, one that sold his very soul in exchange for the chance to be human forever. Except Choromatsu hadn't held up his end of the deal...thanks to some protesting from his partners, he'd been unable to seal his fate as a human, and now everything was going from bad to worse. And should Poseidon threaten Totoko harm, she could just as easily kill Choromatsu with no remorse. He belonged to her, after all.
"There might be something you could do for me," she had trilled to the distraught god as he gripped his trident with shaking hands, a perpetual hair's bredth from striking her down.
All Poseidon needed to do to free his son...was to trade his own soul for Choromatsu's.
......and without a second thought, he did.
In a frightfully short amount of time, the power swiftly changed hands. Poseidon somberly surrendered his trident to Totoko, and an instant later she'd turned it on Poseidon himself, blasting him with a spell that sapped every last bit of the sea king's power. It reduced him to...barely anything. Nothing. Just a strange, nondescript amorphous blob in the corner, unable to move and unable to speak.
Time passed slowly and fast for Poseidon after that. Minutes felt like years. All hope had been lost.
But then...somehow, Poseidon seemed to wake up. All of a sudden, he was back in the ocean, laying on the seabed as he stared up at blurred shapes he couldn't quite distinguish above him. He thought he could hear voices through the water, but it was hard to tell while he was still regaining his senses.]
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His dad...
It'd all been his fault.
From there even now it was a blur. He'd managed to take Totoko's shell when she was preoccupied, take his voice back... he could tell that his partners had tried to chase after them, had done what they could to help... and then Osomatsu too even.
He remembers Totoko trying to sweet talk him. Maybe she realized what the knife Osomatsu had brought was capable of doing to her. He remembers being told he wasn't a little guppy anymore, who needs a dad like that anyway, let him suffer--
And then he remembers diving that knife deep into her heart.
Not once. Not even twice. He doesn't remember how many times. But it had been the final straw.
And now.
Well, now he was saying good bye.
He'd gone straight to the surface, made sure Dia and Takumi were okay, told them he loved them - finally what he had longed to say for three long days - and then just.
Sent them away.
"It'll be okay," he reassured. But there was no reason to believe he'd ever be able to see them again. They'd wait on the shore regardless, but he couldn't let them stay here on the open water.
He had to take care of something. And no matter how much he loved them... he also had to grow up a little.
He watched them once they'd begun to leave, dipping back under the water and waiting for the shadow of their boat to get farther and farther away. And then he looked at where his father now was, returned to his true form as if nothing had happened.
But he still knows what happened.
His heart aches with guilt. But it aches with something else too.
So finally he swims back to his father. He still keeps his distance, timid of what might happen now. He's still in the green yukata he put on this morning and it fees heavy in the water as it flows around him. ]
...Dad.
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Sad Dads part a million
With the power of the sea back under his command, he's able to use the currents to push him faster to Megami's island, even though he probably shouldn't be doing this so soon after regaining all of said energy. He swims so fast through the water that it beats against his face and nearly blinds him as he swims, but he knows where the island is. But it feels a lot farther away even as he makes his way towards it, bursting out of the water like a torpedo once he finally makes it to the distant land mass. He clambers up onto the shore, looking around frantically as he uses his trident like a crutch to physically pull himself out of the water.
Then, down on the far end of the beach, he sees him. Looking oh so very small just at the shoreline where the now alive waves lap against the bottom of his toga. Poseidon cries out, but no noise actually escapes him, just a hoarse exhalation of breath as he shoves himself back into the water so he can swim the last few yards over to Megami's fallen form, once again dragging himself up on the sand and immediately scooping him into his palm.]
M..Megami..!
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Po...seidon...?
[ He's quiet and pale. Very pale. But he manages a small smile regardless. ]
Thank goodness... you're all right...
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MORE SAD DADS: the Sadadening
Now that Choromatsu was safe at home, he and the rest of his brothers started falling back into their usual routines. They had been very upset at first to be told that they couldn't go see Megami (Choromatsu more confused than anything), but after a week Poseidon allowed them to visit for the first time. Since Megami was still unable to leave his lake, Poseidon had carried each of his sons to the lake, one by one, until they could all visit for as long as they could stand the clear water of the lake. Poseidon, meanwhile, would nap in the corner of said lake after spending all of his energy playing taxi.
As another week passed and Megami found his strength restored, the children could see him at the edge of the shore and spend a lot more time than before, even though Poseidon still kept their strict nighttime curfew in check. Of course, that didn't mean they always listened...half the time they'd sneak out to see him anyway, or bring him presents, or something similar. Megami always told Poseidon about it though, so it was no secret.
But today, about a month later, Poseidon had wanted to see Megami on his own without his songs hanging off of him, so he left the reef for the island early while all the boys were still asleep...]
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...Strangely though there are... foot prints in the sand. Which might not seem so odd if not for the fact Megami sticks almost strictly to his snake tail form now... ]
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gotta use these new icons somewhere
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Though his family need not worry too badly. His breathing and heartbeat stay constant, and he never becomes that sickly pale colour he was when Poseidon found him that night on the brink of death. Occassionally he even mumbles in his sleep, usually things about frogs, or being cold, or about Poseidon himself. Sometimes he even responds back if anyone tries to talk to him when he gets like that, but it's all nonsense and he never awakens.
One day though, his eyes finally reopen.
He blinks them a couple times, trying to readjust to how much darker the seafloor is, tries to figure out where he is, and when he doesn't right away he sits up immediately, heart racing as the events with Adranus as still fresh in his memory. But then he realizes he's still in water... and his heart eases once he notices all the little trinkets and shells surrounding him that could only have come from his sons. Even a brand new seashell crown lays softly next to where he'd been resting his head, waiting for him to don it once he woke up.
He smiles then, reaching for the crown and holding it close, not yet wearing it so he can admire the craftsmanship of his children fully and then hug it to his chest.
He's home. He's finally home.
But then... where was his beloved? Their boys...? ]
Poseidon...?
[ He calls out into the cavern, only realizing a moment too late that the sea king could be anywhere right now... ]
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Then, a little flash of color zips past the entrance, and then is seemingly gone. Then, about ten seconds later, it comes back. A young mer staring wide-eyed at the river goddess, his various shell jewelry being buffeted gently by the water. He doesn't say anything for a long time, just staring.
...then, without warning, he swims toward Megami as fast as his fins can carry him, throwing himself into Megami's arms with his own outstretched, seemingly heedless of the fact that he literally just woke up. He wraps his arms around his neck anyway, exclaiming loudly:]
Mom's awake!! Mom's awake!!!
[As if on cue, five other mers appear one by one, all clustered around the entrance like they're afraid to come in. Then, they all abruptly scatter, someone saying something about going to find Dad while Megami has to contend with Osomatsu clinging to him...and soon after a few other stragglers follow, like Jyushimatsu, and Karamatsu.]
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