#the itty bitty 9-year-old traumatized one

[xx-all-purpose-nerd-xx]

What I need from Batman 2:

Dick Grayson

That is all, goodbye.

[i-love-sweet-william]

Joyce is too comfortable being Ready to Kill

anyway. maybe to make up for being the last one to find out about Mer Shit in the clone au, there are a fuck ton of mini Joyce-centric aus, with Wills of various sizes

(this was gonna be part of a set but I decided to leave Joyce separate so I could Go Off on a few of her aus)

A: in which Joyce is a lab worker and the only one to treat Will like an actual sentient being.

this Will is about 9-10 years old. he's relatively large at over a meter long, and he can't talk (rays don't have vocal cords)

Brenner only has a select few working with the living myth he captured, and of those few, Joyce is the only one that actually like.....cares when they're hurting or scaring Will. she isn't afraid to voice Complaints but Brenner won't actually change any of his plans

the lab made these little rubber "gloves" that go over his arms so he can't shock them when he's being tested/measured/etc, but they take them off when he's just chillin in his "tank" (it's practically a pool). Joyce is the only one that handles him without the gloves on. his tank has a slope so he can crawl out of the water if he wants, so Joyce sometimes sits in the shallow end, with her legs submerged enough that Will can easily swim over them/around her and enjoy his pets and head pats.

he gently headbutts her like a clingy cat.....sometimes he puts his little hands on her hands........if he falls asleep on her legs she is Legally Obligated to stay there until he wakes up. it's like Joyce is his fuckin...emotional support animal for after a traumatic day of bright lights and needles and weird sounds and all that shit

could Brenner fire/transfer Joyce to break that bond? yes. HOWEVER (like in clone au) he wants to record/study Will's interactions, so he keeps Joyce on. his mistake. Joyce 293738% breaks Will out once they have enough communication to scrape by (probably with Bob's help) and after a short period of time hiding, they take him back to the ocean. at which point, Will won't swim away

if I want it to end quick and angsty, I have Joyce successfully convince him to leave and Will just lives the rest of his mer life knowing he got abducted by aliens. if I want some more longterm shit, I have Will able to get legs and go through the usual "mer trying to Human" comedy routine

B: in which Joyce is just a helpful person that picks up the beach...and finds a son in the sand.

this Will is a couple years old. he's only about the length of her hand, and also can't talk

Joyce often picks up the beach, partially just because she's a good person and partially for the pennies she can collect for the recyclable shit. anyway today she found this weird little stuffed water toy. she picks it up by the tail to get a closer look but almost drops him upon seeing his itty bitty heartbeat or shallow breath. she's like oh shit it's alive! rushes over to the water to sorta splash/submerge him and quietly panicking like wake up buddy!! but, as always, the bab stays passed tf out so the human can take it home (teen/adult half mers on the other hand....I let those wake up. for the shock factor. and/or angst.)

she puts him in a spare plastic bag like a little prize goldfish and moves him to a pitcher/jar when she gets home (so it's clear and he'll be able to see out when he wakes up). she basically lives on the shore so it's no trouble to get him sand and little plants and whatever, and she could refill his container with fresh ocean water every day if she wanted, but this Will doesn't stick with her long enough for all that

she shows Jonathan as soon as he's back from preschool/kindergarten and is so fuckin excited and Jonathan's like....what is it? what's the surprise? and tries coming up with guesses. but finding a baby mer on the beach is nowhere near the realm of possible guesses, so when he does see the happy fish in the jar, Jonathan's first thought is "I wanted a dog tho..." (but he gets over it real quick and is just as hype to meet the new fish friend)

unfortunately it becomes clear relatively quickly that Joyce doesn't have the time or resources to learn how to take care of him (and Jonathan can't read enough to help study even if they Did have those resources), so now that he's awake and alert they take him back out to the ocean. he doesn't swim away right away tho, and doesn't seem to understand being waved goodbye.

eventually, by repeatedly pointing at the sun and moving her finger across the sky, Joyce thinks she gets him to vaguely understand the idea that they'll come back tomorrow. Will copies her movements with his tiny little flappy arms and it's so fucking blessed. the next time they wave goodbye he does it back before nyooming off to find some food

C: in which Will just sticks to Joyce for the free ride and gets a found family out of the deal.

this Will is literally weeks/months old. he's even fucking smaller than the last, like barely the size of her palm, but he can get legs and learn to talk

baby rays (pups) don't stick with their mom after being born, they just. get born and fuck off into the ocean void. so this Will doesn't have a family and shit. he's been floating around on his own and is too outgoing to care about the dangers of humans. he doesn't keep his distance and this time he gets a little caught in Joyce's hair. he's so light that she doesn't even notice him clinging and climbing after she gets out of the water and heads inside. she'll only notice after getting a glimpse of herself in a mirror and seeing what is definitely not a hairclip stuck to her head and almost losing her absolute shit. if she makes a Sound, it probably scares Will into almost falling off

much stress later, Will is chillin on her kitchen table, hands pressed up against a big plastic tupperware and fucking Beaming so innocently and stupidly, he has no idea how easily he could've died if he fell off Joyce or if she thought he was a bug to crush. while Joyce is trying to calm the fuck down, maybe pacing or just trying to convince herself she's not hallucinating a tiny fish person, Will just. pulls himself up over the edge of his container and plops onto the counter. by the time Joyce finally looks at him again to convince herself that he either is or isn't real, he's already dried out enough for legs and Joyce has to redo all her mental work

then he distracts her from the panic with his cute little face😊 and she sorta kneels by the table to look closer. and he crawls/stumbles toward her since he's never used his legs before. and just....yeah this is real. this is real. holy fuck.

anyway, skipping ahead, the most important part about this au is that. eventually Joyce/Jonathan builds him a little tiny castle byers out of twigs and shit....but even more importantly........it has a MOAT. he can SWIM IN THAT SHIT. his main space is probably made out of a big flat storage container, so if he climbs over the side it isn't a very far fall (and also it's easy to relocate as needed). some sand and dirt and whatever for the land, some plastic to keep the moat contained, some twigs and popcicle sticks and whatever for building little props......it's so good. if they want, they can even make it like a table "garden/pond" type thing, maybe get some grass and flowers in there....if they put it outside in the warmer months, he can have little bug friends or some shit............

he does get bigger eventually, but he grows slowly enough that it's not much of an issue to expand/rebuild his things when needed, but when he Does get too big to have his little storage box castle, they rebuild a proper one that's big enough that Joyce and Jonathan can fit inside too, and Will just gradually grows into it (probably keeps his old one on display in there like a doll house)