merperson Jason Todd

When Garth asked Jason what phrases he wanted translated, the mer hunched down in the water and blew furious bubbles before huffing, “No.” Garth frowned. You already know how to say that. What other things do you need to be able to say to Bruce and Alfred? Of the speech, Bruce recognized his name and maybe Alfred’s. It made it feel like something was clawing inside his chest, knowing that he couldn’t communicate properly with this child living in his pool. Jason curled his lip back. I know human words. You really don’t. --- Or: Mer Jason's recovery from trafficking.

Jason has figured out that there are two groups of people: the "Heys" who keep him in a bathtub with too little water and subject him to unimaginable pain every time they pry scales from his body and the "Assholes" who buy the scales. So when he's taken from the Heys by some Asshole, he's not stupid enough to assume his situation will actually improve at all. All humans, after all, are terrible--especially Assholes who wear demon skin and don't quite grasp how lost Jason really is. (In which Jason misunderstands pretty much everything about humans and Bruce is an asshole...in the nicest way possible.)