NOTE: This story is not set in stone, and changes a lot. There is no one plot or canon.

Setting

The ocean is a highly dangerous place, filled with lethal creatures known as merfolk. The mermen are large, powerful creatures who hunt fishermen for sport, ramming into the hulls of smaller vessels until they capsize, or leaping up to snatch a sailor leaning too far over the edge of the railing. The mermaids are magical songstresses with alluring voices and captivating charm, enchanting sailors and causing their vessels to crash against the rocks. Even the most peaceful of fishing vessels is accompanied by at least one merfolk hunter to keep them safe.

"The Mer Prince"

Leo is very inquisitive by nature. This often causes him to stick his nose where it doesn't belong. He often gets too close to fishing boats and falls into their nets, or peers too far into a drifting metal tube and gets stuck in its shaft. This often results in him getting pulled up by humans. Leo is an oddity to humans. He is clearly a merman, although he is much leaner and more petite than any other merman that has been documented. Plus, his unique spines and markings are different from the usual dull gray or blue colors of mermen. This has led to speculation that Leo is a mer prince, some sort of nobleman in merfolk society. His physique must be due to the fact that he has no need to fight, and his much less aggressive nature must give him clarity of mind to make decisions on behalf of his people. In reality, this is not at all true. The real reason most mermen are blue or gray is simply because those are the types of mermen that frequent the upper layers of the sea. Merfolk of more variety are always found in the depths, where camouflaguing in the blue water is less necessary. And the reason Leo is seen as weaker and less aggressive than other merfolk is simply because the non-aggressive merfolk do not make contact with humans.

Captivity storyline

When Leo is pulled from the water by fishermen, he is usually detained in fishing containers and sold on the shore to circuses, aquariums, or other such showmen. He spends some time in a cramped tank being flaunted to hundreds of humans before Prof. Casey, marine biologist, hears about a strange merfolk in captivity and comes to see him. She buys him off his current captor and brings him to her research facility, with large pools for him to swim in and well-maintained facilities. She and her bodyguard Seahound slowly gain his trust and develop a friendship with him that helps further Casey's research on merfolk. After some time passes, Leo's friend, Anna, eventually comes up on land to track him down, causing mass panic, as merfolk have never grown legs and come onto shore before. Casey manages to get a hold of her before she is killed, and takes her back to the facility to be reunited with Leo. She is quite aggressive at first and is much harder to win over.

Washed up storyline

Sometimes Leo gets caught in a piece of trash - either tangled net or wire, a piece of tube, etc. and ends up drifting, unable to eat or fend for himself, until he is either pulled up by Prof. Casey's research boat or washes ashore and is discovered by Prof. Casey. In both cases, Seahound, who works as Casey' bodyguard against merfolk, wants to kill him while he is vulnerable, but Casey cuts him free. Afraid and confused, Leo panics and lashes out with the last of his strength at the people surrounding him until he is knocked unconscious by Seahound. When he comes to, he finds the people who now hold him captive are guarding him from a close but cautious distance. Casey comes in and communicates to him through a painstaking game of charades that Seahound was inflicted by his venom and they've been unable to make an antidote. Once he realizes what he did, Leo gives them his saliva to heal her. He spends the next few days with them as they slowly gain each other's trust while he regains his strength from fish that they feed him and rest in their fish tank. Once he is rested enough, Casey releases him back to the ocean, despite her crew wanting to keep him detained.