ENCOUNTER: Stalled (9)

It had been a week since Yami had been transferred into this new cell. In many ways, he felt it was worse then his last one. It had taken only a few days to explore nearly all of the tank, and whilst it was much much bigger then his previous one, it still had limitations and cheap imitations. The fake things here were what frustrated him the most. Whilst some of the coral and plant life were real, they were nothing compared to the ones that grew in the wild ocean. He had discovered that if he dug deep enough into the sand, his claws would scrape against concrete. The tide here was also fake and repetitive, and never changed depending on the time of day unlike the real tide. Whilst there were places to hide in this tank, it didn't hide him well, he always felt exposed to some degree.

And then there was the fact that he was within mere INCHES from his beloved ocean.

But he was separated from it by a bit, thick glass wall.

The ultimate torture, to be surrounded by mere mockeries of his past home and a view of his prior freedom.


Yami now lay on the bottom, staring up at the rippling surface. He knew humans were watching him, but he didn't really care anymore.
His body was sore from his morning attempts to bash into the glass wall. Bruises on his tail had begun to form.
In the process, the white 'bandage' things had come off.

Another attempt failed.

He was stalled.

He narrowed his eyes and watched the light filter into the water. 'What if I can't get out?...'
The thought made him tense up. It wasn't the first time those phantom words had risen in his mind, but before it had been much easier to push them away. Now however, it seemed more bleak, and he didn't have the mental strength at the moment to fight it.

His thoughts turned to his pod, he'd been thinking about them since he had first awoken here, but now his heart ached more at the thought that he might not actually see them again.

'Yugi must be looking his mind worrying... I wonder if Joey is still picking fights with that other fireback...' The more his thoughts wondered, the more he missed them. He missed his friends... He missed clam hunting with Yugi despite it being too boring for the likes of him. He missed losing to Tea at seagull hunting, or sparring with Joey and laughing at Duke and Tristan's petty maid squabbles. He missed the security of his pod, the feeling of hunting together, the chirps of pups annoying their mothers to stay up past sunset...
And of course the evening lullabies the queens sung as night fell, each note echoing off the reef. Though it was meant to sooth their whelps, it inadvertently sent he and many others in the pod to sleep as well.

But now it was silence.


Yami's eyes closed and his frills went limp...

'I hate this place...'




"Hi Yami!"

Yami snapped awake as his name was called. He glanced around before seeing Mana's golden form glide over to him. "Watcha doing?" She chirped, eyes bright and curious. He flipped himse;f over and upright and faced towards her. He had gotten to know Mana fairly well during his first week here, and though he still knew next to nothing about her and why she acted so strangely, he had grown fairly comfortable with her presence. "Nothing... Just thinking." He replied, trying to hide his contempt for her home. "Why do you ask?..."

"No reason. It's just you seemed kinda..." She paused and kicked a pebble with her claws shyly. "... Lonely. Yeah, you look lonely. So I thought I'd cheer you up! I wanted to show you a secret place near the back of the tank, if that'll help."

Yami tilted his head. "Hiding place hm? I suppose I can be tempted to see it."

Mana perked up. "Great! It's really cool I promise, I hide lots of shiny stuff their anytime I find it." She then began swimming away, excitedly going off about it. "You can hear the humming of the machines on the other side of the rocks and it can be SUPER relaxing, I think you'd like it cause you always seem a bit tense, I may or may not have a couple of things stashed away in there but..."

Yami followed behind quietly, letting her go on and on about this hiding place, even though he had literally no interest in anything this man made phony reef had to offer. But he couldn't tell her that, it wasn't her fault.

Through his entire stay, Mana had been the only good thing he had seen here. Sure, she was a bit talkative and excitable, but that could easily be over looked. Whilst she hadn't asked him out right about himself, it was clear she was interested in his well being and Yami could appreciate that.

In many ways she reminded him of Yugi.


Except she was a pet.


Rather unfortunate, if they had met out in the ocean, things might have been different.

Yami sighed, his mood slowly lifting a bit. So things still looked bleak, his confidence a bit iffy and his escape was stalled.


At least he had some sort of good company here.
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Sorry for the long break in between, Shark week in all. (Good grief this year's shark week is awesome!)
Lots of idea's for mers thanks to shark week.

Yami's having a small lapse in confidence. Don't worry, he's not submitting, just showing a bit of weakness when the filthy humans aren't looking.


YuGiOh/Characters (c) Kazuki Takahashi

Mers/Mer Designs/Story/Art (c) Me