#aquarium au placeholder tag

[windupnamazu]

walking around on those—what do you call 'em?

ffxivwrite2023 #18: fish out of water a person away from their usual environment or activities.

Lunya/G'raha and @hqmillioncorn's Cherrypit and Babycorn. Aquarium AU. 740wc. ⮞ Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they're just trying to leave their workplace so they can go on a date but you're like six and too cute to ignore—

G'raha pushed himself off the wall outside the staff room entrance when Lunya emerged, her still-damp hair deftly pulled into a high ponytail and glowing with the satisfaction of a good day at work. He waited until she finished rummaging through her purse before he spoke up.

"Great work today, Lunya," he said, unable and unwilling to disguise his affection for her in his voice, and when Lunya's head snapped up he was nearly blinded by her sunbright smile beneath the aquarium lights.

"Raha!" she exclaimed, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear in an uncharacteristic but all-too-endearingly shy move. "Hehe, ready to—hm?"

Lunya glanced behind her. There was a Lalafellin boy who couldn't be more than six or seven years old tugging at her sleeve, blue eyes practically sparkling as he peered up at her.

"Miss Mermaid," the little boy said in awe.

"Oh!" Lunya gasped in delight and G'raha felt his knees go weak. She placed her index finger to her lips and shushed the child. "You can't tell anyone! It's a secret that I have a human form!"

"Oh!" the boy echoed excitedly, miming her gesture. "Secret! Okay!"

Bending her knees slightly so she was at eye level with him, Lunya asked, "What's your name, sweetheart? Where's your adult?"

"I'm Cherry!" Cherry said proudly, and then he looked around. "Um… Bebe…" He turned and pointed down the hall. "Gift shop! Bebe's in the gift shop!"

Lunya looked up at G'raha with a sheepish smile that was so bleeding cute that if there wasn't a grade-schooler clinging to her he probably could have kissed her then and there. "Do you mind?"

Swallowing his adoration, he shook his head. "Of course not, Miss Mermaid." He ahem'd and raised his voice. "Come along, Sir Cherrypit," he said boldly. "We must set out on a quest to find your Bebe!"

Cherrypit squealed with joy, clapping even as he said, "Who're you, mister?"

"Do you know the story of the Little Mermaid?" he asked. When Cherry bobbed his head, ponytail bobbing with him, G'raha grinned. "I'm the Human Prince who the Mermaid gave up her tail for."

The little boy gasped. Unable to contain his glee he bounced up and down while still attached to Lunya's arm, his light-up sneakers going absolutely wild.

"Raha," Lunya sighed, cheeks tinged pink, but she didn't actually protest and it only made G'raha's grin grow further. "Very well, my prince—let's return this little fish to his school together." She took one step forward and nearly tripped, grabbing G'raha's arm as she stumbled, but instead of panicking like he almost did she simply looked back and winked at Cherry. "Ah, sorry!" she said with a giggle as he looked at her with wide eyes. "I'm still getting used to having legs!"

Taking one of Cherry's little hands in her own 'for support', the three of them navigated through the aquarium to the gift shop. There they found a Lalafellin girl around Lunya's age pacing back and forth by the plushies, looking under every table and digging through piles of plush dolphins and penguins and sea lions.

"Bebe!" Cherry called.

"Cherry!" the girl wailed when she saw them, dropping a plush urchin back onto its display to dash over to them. "You can't just wander away like that! What if something bad happened?! What if a fish ate you?!?! What would I tell Mama and Papa?!?!?!"

G'raha had a feeling that it would be very hard to argue with this girl about it being difficult to get eaten by a fish in the Waking Sands Aquarium, so he wisely kept quiet as Cherry comfortingly patted his sister's hand.

"I won't do it again! Look, I found Lady Miss Mermaid and her Human Prince!"

"Woah, that's amazing, Cherry! We really liked your show!" 'Bebe' gushed before she looked down and squinted skeptically at Lunya's legs. "You're definitely not half-fish right now, though, right..?"

"I'm most definitely human right now," Lunya said amusedly, winking at Cherry. "But you promise to keep my secret, right, Cherry?"

"Yeah!" Cherry cheered. "Thanks for saving me, Miss Mermaid, Mister Prince!"

As the two siblings waved goodbye, Lunya looked up at G'raha.

"Shall we go for dinner now, Mister Prince?" she asked teasingly.

"Of course, Miss Mermaid," G'raha said with a wide smile, taking her hand in his own as they left the aquarium together. "Probably not sushi tonight, though."

"Heh, probably not!"

[gsstories]

COTL AU

I have thought of an AU. Imagine if the lamb didn’t make the Bishops their followers. What if after the fight, the Bishops were sent into a deep sleep and woke up when the humanoid animals went all extinct and now humans roamed the world. They Bishops are now small, weak and almost powerless. They have to slowly regain the power of their crowns before taking over again but then they are all found by humans, some who decide to take them in and take care of them. Well, at least most of them are taken in. Narinder would not let himself be adopted.

AU is basically a ‘What if the Bishops were normal ish animals and had humans to care for them?’ Shamura would be the pet tarantula of a genius yet overly stressed college student. Kallamar be living in an aquarium and one of the workers, a young adult, there cares for him a lot. Narinder is a stray cat that is often aggressive towards people but eventually warms up to one person, a chill schooler. Heket is a fat frog who be treated like queen cause frogs are the best by a rather hyper middle schooler. And Leshy is taken in as a pet by a primary school student.

Who would these characters be? Idk, it’s up for interpretation, it’s an open AU and anyone can use it. Do whatever you want, the humans be placeholders in my eyes until I figure something out but hey, I hope this can be fun for someone! Just imagine having a wise spider, a scared squid, an angy kitty, an even angrier frog and an arrogant worm! It be chaos and I love it!

(If anyone does end up using this idea, please do credit me and tag me cause I would love to see the way you would write about them)