Sea Star - Orm Marius

Amnesty Bay, Maine - 2022

A lot had happened in four years.

Arthur was King of Atlantis now, Mera his wife and Queen, and now they had an adorable son. Claudia still wasn't sure about having kids of her own someday, but Arthur Jr. (of course Arthur had named his son after himself, just of course) was sure a little bundle of joy.

As for her, she was still living on the boat, gladly a part of the Curry clan. 

And now, the world was even crazier than it had been before.

Freak weather, wild storms, hot where it was meant to be cold and cold where it was meant to be hot. She'd had to put her diving and photography on hold for safety reasons, which wasn't at all ideal because if she couldn't produce photos she wasn't going to make any money. Arthur offered to help her out financially, you know, cause he was a big rich king now, and while grateful for the offer she didn't want to take his money. 

This all was a recent development,  one that seemed to have come out of nowhere, and one that didn't seem to be changing for the better any time soon. If anything, it was getting worse.      

"It's crazy out there," Arthur reported after returning from Atlantis. Both the Surface and the sea were suffering.

"What's Atlantis thinking of doing?"

"Well I want to combine our resources with those of the Surface, try to work this out, but I'm the only one who wants to collaborate. The Council either wants to annihilate the Surface - their word choice, not mine - or have nothing at all to do with it. But mostly annihilate it."

"Not to bring this up, but if there's this whole Council thing, they were there when your brother was King, and they clearly let him do all kinds of crazy stuff, so you'd think they'd be open to your ideas."

"They only let him get away with it all because their values aligned. They just want to fix Atlantis's problems."

"But it's not just Atlantis's problem."

"Exactly."

"Yeah but you're also King, so don't let them push you around. Show 'em who's boss. Either that or I'll go tell them myself. They sound like bullies." And they all knew how she handled bullies. 

Arthur snorted with laughter.  "I would like to see you swim down there and give them a piece of your mind. Thanks, Squirt."

"Hey, anytime."

The pals were quiet for some time. Claudia eventually broke the silence. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

He shook his head in defeat. "Not yet."

-----------------------------------------

A few days later found Claudia below decks working on some old photos - since she couldn't take new ones, at least not undersea ones - when a loud thud!  came from above. She guessed it was Arthur, as he had a tendency to just show up, to swim by and leap up onto the deck. 

"Hey Claudie! Permission to come aboard?"

Yup, definitely Arthur. This was followed by a second thud!  and she guessed it was both Arthur and Mera, or his mom.

So she got quite the shock when she saw Arthur, in a flashy blue suit, along with another guy. A very hairy - and very shirtless - guy. 

"The hell are you wearing?" she demanded. 

"New stealth suit. It's really tight."

"Yeah I can see that."

He turned to the hairy guy. "Bro, you remember Claudia."

"Do not call me 'Bro.'"

"Well you didn't like 'Brother.'"

"I don't like either, so put a hook in it."

"Wait, wait," Claudia cut in while Arthur poked his tongue out in response.  "This is your brother? I didn't even recognize him." She eyed the two more closely. "Well, you actually look related now." Thanks to the long hair and beards now sported by both. "And isn't he supposed to be in prison? Is this just a disguise?"

"Supposed to be," agreed Arthur. "In prison that is. But I had to bust him out."

"Why?"

"We think we've figured out the whole world shitting itself deal. We can't go back to Atlantis cause of Loki here but we need to sort ourselves out. Mind if we crash here for a little while?"

This was all happening very fast.  "Give it to me one more time, but slower this time."

And so Arthur filled her in on David Kane, or Manta, the stolen orichalcum which seemed to be causing the planetary dysfunction, and how he had to bust Orm out of prison off the record to avoid any breaking of alliances. It all sounded very complicated. 

He looked at his brother. "Yo Claudie, do you have a razor or something?"

"Not for facial hair." They would have to make do.

Arthur had the foresight to bring a change of clothes for himself and for Orm: a pair of pants, button-up shirt and boots for himself, and a wetsuit for Orm.

As she was passing by the bathroom with dirty towels for the hampers - the boys had used all her clean towels - she heard a curse. She looked to see Orm standing before the mirror, dull razor in hand, trying - and failing by the looks of things - to shave off his beard.

She stood there watching him suffer before tossing the towels on the floor and stepping forward. "Here, the lighting sucks in here I know, but you don't want to cut yourself." 

He drew the razor away and out of her reach - which wasn't very hard because he towered over her just like Arthur did.  "Last time you came at me, and now you expect me to hand over a weapon?"

"So you do remember."

"I do."

"And I'd hardly call that a weapon but yeah. Last time I was angry, this time I'm feeling helpful." She figured he didn't usually use a drug store razor to shave.  "Besides, it was killing me watching you."

The beard was thick and shaggy, and so it took a lot for it to be gone. But she held his chin and jaw steady and, as carefully as she could, shaved it off. 

"And now for the hair," she said, setting the razor on the counter. The floor was now covered in hair - these boys really made a mess of her place.

"That I can do on my own," he insisted.  "My pride has already been wounded enough today."

"It's okay to ask for help," she told him. 

"Not where I come from. I was always taught if you want something done you must do it yourself. It is weak to rely on anyone else."

She left him to it after that. 

"So what's your next step?" she asked Arthur.

"Baby Bro says he has a contact who might be able to help us locate Manta."

She nodded. "I'm coming with you."

He blinked back.  "No-"

"Yes. Arthur, you've got enough to focus on without having to worry about being stabbed in the back - literally and/or figuratively - by him. I can handle him. I've had a lot of experience dealing with little brothers." He had to give her that. "You focus on Manta, and I'll focus on him."

"Claudie, I really appreciate the help and all, but you're forgetting one tiny little detail: we're going under the sea and you can't breathe water."

(Thank you all so much for the positive response to this story so far! :) It has the most work to do out of all (yes, all) of my Orm stories, but hopefully those can keep you all satisfied while I'm working on this one! 

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))