The Heart of the Ocean [Mira-Charma13 & Cyberblue Ligthning]
 

Examining another piece of coral that his colleagues has brought from their field study of the ocean, Ambrose Liu could see that that the coral was dead since most of its cells showed evidence of contamination. Ambrose took his attention off of the small piece to examine a larger piece of the same coral. Snapping on a pair of rubber gloves, Ambrose picked it up, the middle of his face scrunching in disgust when brown gunk oozed out of the dead polyp as he raised it up. Well it wasn't surprising since this came from a polluted part of the ocean that had recently gotten an oil spill. At least that part of it was cleaned of it now, but his team were still needed to see if any of the animals and plant life in the ocean had been affected by the contamination or poisoned by it. Looking at the other specimens of coral, Ambrose saw that some would need some coral transplants for it recover.

"Well, Liu. How's the examination going?" Startled a little by the sudden noise in the silent room, the black-haired male turned to see that it was his superior, Professor Adrian Andrews that he was working under. Pushing his steel-gray glasses up the bridge of his nose Ambrose responded accordingly to older male. "The examination is going smoothly. Most of the coral specimens here suggest that the a transplant of healthy coral would allow the reef to recover from the poisoning." Professor Andrews, nodded and smiled, placing a hand on his aide's shoulder.

"That's good, we'll get to it tomorrow morning. I have one more task for you before we can call it quits today." Giving a pair keys in the aide's hand, Professor Andrews continued. "Whilst my colleagues and I will contact other marine biologists to arrange for some healthy coral samples to be sent for the transplants, I want you to go out on the Sand Crawler to grab the netting that we left overnight and examine the of the fish for poisoning or contamination." Ambrose mentally wanted to palm his face in frustration, but managed to control it, nodding and accepting the assignment gracefully. Getting up, Ambrose looked out the window to see that it was a little windy, so Ambrose went to grab his coat before exiting the facility. "Of course sir."


After the bumpy ride to the other side of the beach, Ambrose was currently trying to lug the netting up towards the shore but it was proving to be a difficult task. Grunting in both frustration and anger, Ambrose tried a little harder to lug but it wouldn't budge. 'Okay one more time. One... two... three and PULL!' At three, Ambrose pulled harder than before summoning every bit of his strength, which ended up with him having a face full of damp sand. Dusting it off his face and clothes, and spitting out any sand in his mouth, Ambrose looked to see what made the net so heavy. However, what his eyes widen in shock and made Ambrose did a double take. "What the?!"

It wasn't a shark, like Ambrose previously thought it was. In fact it didn't look like a fish at all. It was a human and he or she looked alive, not bloated and pale like drowned corpses were said to appear to be. 'Please God, Buddha, or whatever it is up there, let it be a corpse and not my eyes playing tricks on me...' The normally stoic atheist thought, panicking a little as he approached the figure, trepidation in his little steps and body tense to defend himself, in case it was some escapee from a jail nearby.

The normally blank faced Ambrose Liu, was experiencing all sorts of emotions under the slow setting sun.

Now normally, nothing surprises Ambrose. He prided himself in that. But when the 'corpse' shifted revealing VERY non human limbs. Taking off his glasses to give it a good wipe on his cotton vest, and rubbing any excess sand out of his eyes for good measure, Ambrose was now sure he wasn't dreaming. 'Great, I have a merperson on my hands, along with some fish to examine.' Ambrose pinched the bridge of his nose as got onto the trailer that he had fallen off from when dragging the netting onto the trailer for sorting. Closing the trailer's gate, Ambrose began to take the fish and place them in the tanks of clean ocean water for them survive for examination. When the last of the fish were inside the tanks, Ambrose looked at the merman, in confusion. How the heck was he going to keep the merperson alive? Was it even alive for that matter? Did the human half of the merperson have the same circulatory system for him to check for a pulse? Ambrose did not know. Ambrose quickly deciding to press his head against the bony-looking chest to see if he could hear any breathing and possibly a heart beat.

There was one but it was faint.

Sighing loudly in frustration the aide decided to place the merperson into the bigger tank that was reserved for bigger fish and get to the laboratory before he decided anything else. Scooping the, surprisingly, light body and placed the merperson into the tank, only it was rather comical since the tank was much to small for the body the, only the mid section of the merperson's body was submerged with his --since it was clear he was male from the Adam's Apple and the lack of breasts-- arms, head and parts of his tail hanging over the tank's edge.

Staring at the male, Ambrose noticed that upon closer inspection, that there was greasy films of oil, from the oil spill several weeks ago, on the fin parts of the body and the human half of the merperson looked rather... sickly looking. As though he hadn't had anything to eat as of late. Feeling rather sorry for the pathetic and frail looking creature, Ambrose decided that before he could examine any other specimens, Ambrose needed to see if he could nurse the mythical creature to full health. Only to sate his curiosity though, not because Ambrose found the mythical creature quite cute despite the sickly appearance. Mentally slapping himself for thinking such things, Ambrose quickly decided that his home would be more sufficient to hold the creature, since he had an outdoor swimming pool that he hardly ever used.

'Not only that,' Ambrose thought to himself as hopped out of the trailer to secure the cargo in the trailer tightly as to prevent any of it falling over, with a number of harnesses. 'I'd much rather fall asleep in my bed than at the labs. Too white and eerie there.' Getting into the Sand Crawler, which to him was just a big bike that he saw life savers use for rescues, he ignited the engine and began driving toward his home which was in the opposite direction of the labs but was nearby this beach here. Hearing some static, Ambrose automatically turned the walkie talkie on, only to hear his superiors concerned voice and many others.

"Ambrose! Where are you? Are you okay? Over." Ambrose could've swore that he heard some panicked voices of his colleagues over the status of the Sand Crawler. Idiots. He had to admit sometimes his colleagues were just like the males he knew when he was a teenager when it came to 'toys' or 'gadgets'. As his mother and sister used to say 'Boys will have their toys.'

"I'm heading home to do my assignment there, since I'm a bit far from the labs. If that's all right with you, sir? Over." A sigh could be heard on Professor Andrews' part anyway. "Good, I was worried that you had drowned or something. What was taking you? Over." Ambrose panicked a bit as he raked his brain for a plausible and realistic sounding excuse than. 'Oh I found a merman! And I was in awe of him since I always thought merfolk didn't exist.' Rounding a corner, to which there was a shallow ramp of sorts, Ambrose turned to make sure the water in the tanks were still inside the tanks. They were except for the mer creature's, but Ambrose was glad that the harnesses he used were securing the tanks tightly to the trailer.

"Erm... I had a fearful encounter with a beached shark." Ambrose replied making sure he sounded scared and shaken by the encounter. "I'm not hurt or anything! I think it's one of the suicidal ones, since it didn't put that much of a fight. Over."

"Ah I see. Not fond of sharks are you?" Ambrose could see the smile on the old man's face now. "Well then, I hope you don't take all night with the specimens. I expect my aide to be in top form tomorrow, so take you time. I'll be expecting you at noon. Goodnight. Over." Hearing the walkie talkie shut off, Ambrose turned his off and continued his way towards his home.

Once he parked the Sand Crawler in the garage (since his car was at the lab), Ambrose closed the garage door remotely, before unsnapping the harnesses off of the trailer hooks as the tanks were now on flat land and had no chance of falling. Opening the trailer tail gate, Ambrose climbed up the trailer to scoop the mer creature to his bathroom. Placing the creature gently into the ceramic tub, Ambrose plugged the tub up before turning both the hot and cold water taps to let the water run. Adjusting the water accordingly until it was lukewarm, Ambrose watch the tub fill up plunging the tail under the slowly rising water. Using the water, and a clean hand towel, Ambrose began to clean the fins, where the merperson 'ears' should have been, of the oily film of the oil spill.

[[OOC: Goodness, I had a hard time trying to compete with your post and have an idea. I hope this is adequate Mira-Charma13. @[email protected]]]

((Don't worry, mine won't all be that long. That was just my excited intro post. :3 Feel free to shorten yours--I don't mind.))


Arcturus' eyes were just beginning to focus again when he noticed what looked like two thick columns of coral in front of him. ...No...wait...he was on land...on a boat, maybe...legs?! A human! Panic began to set in again and even though the slender merman was weak, a rattling, threatening sort of growl made its way out of his throat as the human approached. The siren was paralyzed with fear as the human bent over him, pressing his head slightly against his chest. ...Oh...checking if he was alive?

He struggled slightly when the human hooked his arms up under him and scooped him up, obviously thinking that something terrible was going to happen to him. But he didn't struggle...he was completely still. He was used to being underwater, and he found it harder to move on land. He had to try and conserve what little energy he had if he was going to make it through this harrowing ordeal.

The human lowered him down into...water? Water! Arcturus' frightened senses kicked in, and for a moment, he splashed around in the water, trying to find an escape route so he could flee from the human. It was only after a few seconds did he realize that he hadn't been dropped back into the ocean...he was in what looked like a tiny, makeshift ocean that could barely fit him. His heart sinking, the merman made a small, pathetic whimpering sound in the back of his throat and squeezed his eyes shut. He was suddenly wracked with a fit of hoarse, hacking coughs, which lasted for just a few minutes.

He fell into a sort of daze while the human traveled, using his strange machine to take them away from the ocean and onto land instead. Arcturus was trying to block out the sounds coming from around him in the hopes that he would calm down. Being panicked, he knew, wasn't good for him right now. He was in a dire state of health. He couldn't help jumping slightly when he heard the human's walkie-talkie. Such things didn't exist in his world. His English was rusty, but he was able to understand the conversation going on between the human and another voice...probably another human.

Arcturus was silent as the human drove along home. He was trying to conserve energy until he could find a way to escape the evil creature's clutches. He was brought out of that restful sort of daze when suddenly, the human grabbed him again, hoisting him up and out of the water. A watery, sad sort of sound made its way out of his throat and he latched onto the human's arm with his fingers tightly, his eyes squeezed shut. He made another surprised sound when he felt his body being lowered again, and he opened his eyes, pressing himself against the opposite side of the tub and as far away from the human as possible.

As the tub filled up, the merman found himself relaxing more and more...this human...he wasn't killing him...he wasn't trying to eat him. He was...cleaning him? Arcturus watched with wary eyes as the human began to clean the sticky, grimy substance off of him with a soft cloth. ...A friendly human? Was it even possible? The little siren's wariness was slowly turning to fascination and curiosity...

Face scrunching in disgust as the blackish brown gunk that was he was wiping off the fin, Ambrose had to use some mild soap to get the oily film off before proceeding to clean the rest of the gunk off of the merperson's fins. 'Is this the impact of the recent oil spill? God damn it, we're going to have a hard time restoring that part of the ocean and reef.' Ambrose thought to himself as cleared the rest of the gunk off of the male's fins.

Taking a good look at the frail creature before him since the first impression, Ambrose could finally see that his previous assumptions were correct. The light weight he was carrying was contributed mainly because of the creature hadn't been eating for awhile, if the bony appearance didn't suggest otherwise. He was rather pale looking even by human standards, so the creature's health could have been compromised from the spill.

Looking at the creature before him and seeing the apprehension in his eyes, Ambrose sighed quietly before rising and padding over to basin. Washing the hand towel once again, Ambrose opened the set of drawers underneath to grab some more hand towels, then made his way over to the tub placing the dry towels on the corner of the ceramic tub and handing the wet one to the merperson before him.

"I'm not sure if you can understand me," Ambrose began, "But since you seem to be uncomfortable with my being here, could you please clean yourself? I'll come by later on to give you something to eat, okay?" Ambrose stated, waiting for the merperson to show that he understood. He could get some work done if he let the creature to his own devices and possible get the pool outside set up for the merperson recuperation.