#her name is violeta now

[floq]

character redesign

experimenting on how to convey albinism in my art style

[violethyacinth]

If I see one more fucking tiktok about how Men was a “surface level, reductive film” I’m gonna flip my fucking lid.

Media literacy is in HELL and y’all are acting fucking silly. Every negative “critique” I’ve seen is giving fake-woke, white liberal bullshit. “It doesn’t even pass the Bechdel test” 🙄 are y’all kidding me? I keep seeing people say the movie is trying to say that men are inherently evil. I wholeheartedly disagree. I would argue that this movie is an exploration of how toxic masculinity begets more toxic masculinity, and how damaging it is for men to seek validation and hinge their worth so heavily on the love and attention they receive from women. It shows how this behavior is damaging to everyone, not just women and non-men, but to men themselves, too. It’s a film with heavy themes of trauma and healing throughout. However, for as horrific and freaky as this movie is, to me it’s a hopeful one. To see Harper this entire film reclaiming her autonomy despite the most horrific shit happening to her is empowering to me. It’s almost laughable to me the fact that we’ve been given this film that is about a woman reclaiming and reestablishing her autonomy and all anyone can seem to do is talk about the men in this flick. I’m really about to go in so, spoilers ahead for the A24 movie Men.

Harper is such a strong lead character. Harper says “No” repeatedly throughout the film and is continually ignored but she NEVER relents. Harper says she wants a divorce and she means that shit. He tries to manipulate her into staying, she shuts that shit down. Her husband gets violent with her, she immediately makes him leave and his dumb, unable to take “no” as an answer ass, literally died as a result of trying violate Harper’s boundaries further. Harper does everything right in this flick and y’all still dont like it?

Harper said she was going to have this vacation for herself and she DID it! The scenes of her simply existing among nature are so beautiful and joyful and TRUE to what it feels like to finally escape a shit relationship. This movie is so beautiful and unsettling all at the same time. We get these gorgeous shots of Harper in nature truly reconnecting and just feeling and enjoying her surroundings. This movie so expertly balances these moments of peaceful serenity with unsettling tension. Watching this film, you as the audience are experiencing these emotional ups and downs along with Harper. There is a scene where she gets caught in a rain shower while out on a walk and she finds shelter under an ancient tree. We see shots of the wind blowing her hair about and rustling the leaves above her. Harper is smiling, I mean absolutely cheesing it, laughter bubbling up out of her as she’s watching the leaves shimmy and shake against the blue-gray sky, and all the while there’s this beautiful musical score building underneath in such a way that it appears as though the leaves and nature itself are making music for her. It’s one of the first truly light and joyful moments of the film. Throughout the entire scene there is an almost tangible feeling of a weight lifted off of Harper’s and the audience’s collective shoulders. We’re given a moment of relief from the tension that had been winding so tightly since the moment she arrived at Cotson that carries on into the next scene.

When Harper gets to a point where she just wants to give up and come home because of all the horrible shit that had happened her whole trip, her friend puts her foot down and really shows up for Harper. Her friend is the only person this entire film that we see honor Harper’s wishes, full stop. She does not come to the house in Cotson until AFTER Harper says “yes,” once again reinforcing Harper’s autonomy. Yes, Harper wanted to come home but as her friend said to her, “this is the only thing you’ve wanted for yourself.” I think that moment of defiance, of righteous anger we see from her friend in that scene at all the shit Harper had experienced is so beautiful. If your best friends don’t support you in the things you want to do and encourage you when you feel like giving up, then are they really your best friends?

The ending sequences are so fucking wild and amazing to me. Once Harper agrees to stay and wait for her friend to show up, the escalation of the horror and the monsters? Whew it’s intense. But throughout, Harper maintains her autonomy. She stays a badass. She thinks someone’s broken in? She grabs a weapon. Geoff shows up and wants to have a look around? She urges him not to leave but is ignored because of his chivalrous posturing, which he ties directly to a shitty thing his father used to say to him. She accidentally hits him with her car as a result. That shitty fucking piece of shit kid shows up and is taunting her and harassing her? She nearly stabs the little fucker again. The sexually repressed vicar? She means no so intensely that SHE RUNS THAT BITCH THROUGH! I think it is so interesting that in all of these instances that Harper responds to violence with violence, it never seems to actually stick. But when she finally stops fighting back physically, when she sits down and asks “what do you want from me?” And his reply is just “your love.”

Harper is having none of these motherfuckers bullshit and I LOVE that for her. So for her final scene to be sitting in the bright courtyard and looking up to see that her friend is there and realizing that she is safe and she isn’t alone is so delightful.

I just think this movie is so good and so beautiful and so powerful.

I have a lot of other thoughts about the folk horror aspect of this movie that I think a lot of people are missing. I will not share them here right now because I just wanted to gush a bit about Harper and how amazing she is.

[theaxolotlkween]

Some Nanite Project headcanon doodles and their explanations, going from left to right:

I doubt that Rex would say this exact thing but the idea is that, being a fairly lonely kid and someone who was probably easily bored even back then, Rex would’ve pestered the people around him a lot, which you know. Fair. I hc him as being a lot like he is now, but obviously more childish. Because literal child. So very inquisitive, curious, trusting, and empathetic, but easily bored and reckless. I feel like he would play on his own (or accidentally injure himself climbing on industrial equipment which just seems like something he just. Did. It also makes him currently being an adrenaline junkie make more sense) until he got bored (or injured) and then pester all the scientists around him that would tolerate him for long periods of time.

Next up is that Van Kleiss and Violeta Salazar (Rex’s mom) had similar or complimentary roles on the Nanite Project and thus worked together a lot. Judging by how Van Kleiss talks about Violeta in Written in Sand, they probably had a similar dynamic to Rex and Van Kleiss in that episode, except with a lot less sand and threat of imminent demise. This would be really funny to me. Also pictured Rex just hanging out, because he seems like he would be a momma’s boy. He is acting out a very tense and dramatic romance between these two cars and they are finally about to kiss. I also feel like current Rex would love K-dramas.

I honestly don’t think Van Kleiss hated or disliked Rex when Rex was a young child. I feel like he would’ve found him amusing at best, annoying at worst, and sort of weirdly endearing, but never being outright mean to him. Based on the tolerance he has for Rex’s shenanigans in the show while he has almost none for anyone else, even his own allies, this had to have started somewhere. If Rex was a chronic botherer, then someone who doesn’t get easily or outwardly annoyed would be the perfect target. Van Kleiss also still is not explaining shit, his favourite activity.

Finally, Rex naming ZagRS. This is actually one that I’ve had since I was about 14-15 because there’s no reason given for her name to be what it is. Like it’s not an acronym like GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System), and it sounds kind of like Zagreus, an ancient Greek deity that I cannot find anything on except for who his parents might be and that he might have some connection to Dionysus. In canon, Caesar mentions that Rex speaking Spanish makes him laugh because he has trouble with pronunciation. This recently led to a whole-ass rabbit hole where I came up with the theory that Rex has just always had trouble pronouncing words because of ADHD, which fed into my already existing headcanon of Rex having named ZagRS. Also I think that Caesar was another person Rex bothered a lot because Caesar has a tendency to be pretty chill. I kind of wonder if they had to keep Rex away from ZagRS because she was designed to destroy any nanites that got out of the holding tanks.

I honestly love making these theories and headcanons so if you want to see more or have questions just pop me an ask.

[checkmatein3moves]

As we're getting into "big family meal" season, what are the ROs family lives like? Among the rich kids, who's family actually does family-only non-business not-for-clout stuff? Sit down meals, that sort of thing? For the not-rich-as-kids folks, who has/had a good family life? Do they keep in touch or get together with family? How would the ROs feel about getting roped into a significant other's family traditions?

impossible question to answer succinctly. the windhams probably have the most wholesome family dynamic including the most cousins the main branch is actually in contact with, but even out of them, it's rare that every single one ends up home. people are busy, sometimes choose to be with friends, but when it all works out there can be up to 20+ at their place for homely gathering.

the kamyas definitely had comfortable sit down dinners, but since elias died the vibes are not the same. monty and her parents don't have a bad relationship but i don't think she can bear to be around them by herself for a family dinner yet. things probably veer towards business by accident, because of the importance they place on it in regards to bettering the family.

the zus were once tied to the wangs (number 6) through marriage, although none of them were very comfortable with mars. unfortunately he is the kind to have everyone together for unity rather than actual family love, and it was easier to go along with than fight. arguments at the dinner table probably disintegrated that, especially because nobody ever took noir's side, not even his maternal aunts or grandparents, even if they agreed with him and often left him the only one standing up for himself which contributed to his position now. presently, zu family dinners are business affairs with mars, lemon and kai in thin debates, zia and sometimes twenty plus whichever simp might've been lucky enough to get an invite to to get an opportunity from mars.

the vinterens threw elite parties rather than family meals. violeta has obviously never been a big family woman, but the she liked the attention and buzz from guests and the excuse to get absolutely smashed rather than sit around and actually talk to her few relatives left. benz might have put his name on them sometimes but they were probably too indulgent for even him to risk getting his reputation too embroiled with.

the hales would've had nightmarish family dinners back when laurel and ten were children. barely a single night they could be in the same room without laurel and benz fighting, so he would've given up and left them with any of his siblings/cousins/in-laws and their partners that weren't too busy to be there. present day he's doubled down on business even more, so like mars he usually uses dinners as an opportunity to get all his higher ups in one place. since hebe has grown up she's better at diplomacy and sits through them to learn, but they are by no means warm or fun affairs. maybe there was exceptions when MC, hebe and elspeth were kids but maybe they see it through rose coloured glasses.

the sissels are another family that probably ends in arguments at the table, though not out of spite but the sheer amount of stress and pressure they feel from being so new, so to speak, to the lifestyle. otherwise they would probably have a happy family gathering not taken over by gossip and speculation, because their priorities would be different. they do like a spectacle though. fancy desserts and fire tricks and less focus on actually eating the food than being impressive. they do definitely try, though. jelly and pixy are simply too old to keep falling for the facade.

the only lower class character who we (as the MC) can infer anything about is sailor, because honey, jareth and ludo have very obscure family lives. they did have a hodgepodge family that loved them, but when their mother got sick the money problem got exacerbated and the glue of the family disintegrated. all the cracks in the fragile happiness got too large to salvage. they enjoy what they have at the MC's place, even if the MC is the kind of person to expect them to eat with staff instead. the food is better and they have a sustainable way to access it, and they know how to make the most of temporary bonds.

[hadesisqueer]

The best thing I've seen tonight is that there's a Spanish reality about singers named Operación Triunfo and apparently there's a similar one in France named Star Academy or something like that, and for some reason French fans started beefing on twitter with Spanish-Latam fans and they all started insulting each other. Then some Spaniard posted an edit of Violeta (one of the contestants of Operación Triunfo) and a vid of her singing and some French lesbian was like "holy shit I like her voice and she's fucking gorgeous wtf" and some other Spanish lesbian was like "yeah? Vote for her to be favorite this week, then, it's free, here's the VPN you need!" And now apparently there's a whole bunch of French sapphics who fell in love and are voting for her, which has made a bunch of misogynistic twinks upset and some others are like "y'all get along with French people now? You betray your COUNTRY over this?"

And the answer is-- yeah lmao. Violeta gets a lot of unjustified hate and considering how lesbophobic/biphobic people are toward her fans, I wanna make them mad lol (voting Chiara again next week just to spite them lol). Plus, I'm gay before I'm Spanish, lesbianism over patriotism, sorry LMAO /j

[marcussour]

Sadly, yesterday chilean music icon Cecilia passed away at 79 years old after a sudden illness, and I wanted to take a moment to write something regarding what an important figure she was to chilean music and culture in general.

Mireya Cecilia Ramona Pantoja Levi, known just as Cecilia -nicknamed “la incomparable” (the unmatched)- was a jewish chilean singer. Even though she started her career in the 50′s in her hometown of Tomé, she rose to prominence and stardom in the early 60′s as part of a movement that was known as the chilean “new wave”, that was basically a bunch of artists that took the rock n roll and twist anthems of the 50′s and 60′s and made versions in spanish (often more softened or “tame” versions of the most sugestive songs), that was part of a bigger movement of the same name that happened in almost all of Spain and Latin America.

But Cecilia was special because she always distanced herself from her peers, first by making her own music, and second, by singing songs made famous by spanish and italian artists, instead of usamerican or british ones. Those songs were also more romantic and sad than was the norm back then, to the point that now she’s known as an icon of the “cebolla” music (”onion music”, basically sad songs that made you cry). 

She was also special because of her looks: she had shorter hair and she mostly wore pants or suits similar to the ones Elvis wore in the 60′s and 70′s, all of this at a time when chilean society was even more conservative than today, to the point that her looks and her onstage dancing (that included her signature move, called “beso de taquito”, where she basically sent a kiss flying by doing a move similar to a football heel kick) brought her outrage and criticism from chilean society (there’s a well known episode where she performed at the Viña del Mar’s festival, the most famous music event of Chile, and they tried to censor her).

The things she did and the music she sang kinda made her an outlier between the more tame artists on the chilean new wave. But it was also what made her stand out, not only as a musical icon, but as a feminist and countercultural one: she was friends with some of Chile’s musical legends like folklorist Violeta Parra and singer/theater director Victor Jara (she even made covers of popular songs of both artists). She also founded her own record label during Allende’s government.

Sadly, with the US backed coup of 1973 and the arrival of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Cecilia had to move to a more underground life, partly due to her perceived political sympathies (it’s a well known fact that in the 80′s she was accused of fraud and spent time in jail as part of a political prosecution by the dictatorship because she was seen as “a communist” due to her having a cover of Violeta Parra’s legendary song “Gracias a la Vida”, even though she always referred to herself as an “apolitical” figure). It’s also worth noting that most of the chilean new wave artists were figures that aligned themselves with Pinochet’s dictatorship, either by conviction or convenience, and she was one of the few that refused, which is one of the reasons why she was removed from public eye.

When Chile’s buoyant night life disappeared under curfews and the perils of the dictatorship, Cecilia moved to perform in underground nightclubs, where she became an icon and a cult figure for other audiences: queer people and sex workers (in one of her last interviews, she said she was “the queen of the gays and the ladies of the night”).

With the return of democracy, her figure grew in stature not only among older generations, but also the newer ones, who not only saw in her a music legend, but a feminist icon and an important ally of the LGBTQIA+ community (besides her express support for queer people, there has been speculation for years regarding her sexual orientation due to the fact that she never married, never had a public romance or partner, nor did she had children; even when asked about her sexual orientation, she always kept it hidden due to wanting to have a private life -she once said that even if she was a lesbian, that’s part of her privacy and not something for the public to know-).

Well known chilean artists like Mon Laferte (with whom she recorded a duet), Anita Thijoux, Álvaro Henríquez, Los Bunkers and Javiera Mena always expressed admiration towards her figure. She also received in 2016 the presidential music award, the official award where the chilean government recognizes musicians for their contributions to chilean society.

Even now in death, thousands of people have come to her wake to say their final goodbyes to a musical legend, usually by singing along their songs. It’s a fitting tribute, after all, she stated that one of her final wishes was that, after she died, she wanted to be remembered and celebrated like a party.

Here are some of her most well known songs:

Tango de las Rosas

Puré de Papas

Baño de Mar a Medianoche

Un Compromiso

[camelliagwerm]

I ended up in a discussion with a friend about OC/Canon children and ended up writing enough that I figured it was worth posting lol.

Valerius & Camellia —

Princess Mirela Daciana Camelia Dragavei (she/her, born 15 Rova 4725 AR, dhampir) – the youngest of Prince Valerius and Lady Camellia; she transitioned in her teenaged years. Quiet and unsettling, Mirela much prefers studying the properties of her family’s blood and anatomy to politics and religion; she is more than content to leave those responsibilities to her father and sister, and could often be found in the labs in the depths of the old ziggurat. Cruromancer wizard /  vivisectionist alchemist mix.

Princess Violeta Valeria Andrada Dragavei (she/her, born 15 Rova 4725 AR, dhampir) – the eldest and heir of Prince Valerius and Lady Camellia by scant minutes and she never fails to remind her sister Mirela of it.  Spoiled and hot-tempered, demanding, and she absolutely let being the heir get to her head. Still, she has a soft spot for her twin and her father, but has a very strained relationship with her mother as a result of being a shaman. Bones Shaman.

Magni Aeducan —

Ser Gorim Magni Aeducan (he/him, born 9:30 Dragon, mother: Mardy) – conceived on the last night that Magni Aeducan was a Prince with their favoured noble hunter Mardy, by the time Gorim was born, his noble parent was an exiled kinslayer, sentenced to walk the Deep Roads. By the time Magni learned of Gorim’s birth upon their return to Orzammar, they arranged for Bhelen to sponsor the child on their behalf. No Aeducan child would be left in the gutter. Gorim grew up with a distant parent who often preferred to remain topside, but idolised them anyway – wanting to be a hero too. Named after their parent’s second and now Seneschal of House Magni, Gorim - “the most honourable dwarf [Magni] knew”

Kieran (he/him, born 9:31 Dragon, mother: Morrigan) – Magni’s tempestuous affair with the Witch of the Wilds was always going to end in heartbreak. Though they broke off the relationship after negotiating an engagement with Queen Anora of Ferelden, Magni and Morrigan spent one last night together, conceiving Kieran in a ritual. After the final battle, Morrigan disappeared to raise their child on her own. Kieran has only met his father a handful of times and both parents prefer to keep it that way so Kieran does not get caught up in Fereldan, Orlesian or Orzammar politics.

Princess Amgarra Aeducan Mac Tir (she/her, born 9:43, mother: Anora) – often referred to as a little miracle, Amgarra was an unexpected surprise for Queen Anora and her consort. With Anora in her 40s, the rarity of half-dwarves and the taint inside Magni, it should not have been possible. But still, it happened, after 13 years of marriage and Magni having found a cure for the Darkspawn corruption inside them.  Amgarra comes from the dwarven word amgarrak, or ‘victory.’ She very much favours her grandfathers Endrin and Loghain in different ways: the classic Mac Tir nose and piercing eyes and the famous wiles of the late King Endrin. When she is of age, no doubt she will be a strong successor to Queen Anora – and a frightening prospect to Orzammar, as she has blood claims to both countries.

Ser Valdan Magni Aeducan (he/him, born 9:32 Dragon, mother: Mardy) – the second son born by Mardy. After the events of Awakening and Amaranthine had burned to the ground, Magni was advised to take a ‘diplomatic leave’ from the Fereldan court and his post as Commander of the Grey, and returned to Orzammar for a year, during which Valdan was conceived. Similarly to Gorim, he grew up with not much contact with his topside parent, but unlike Gorim, he resented his father for it. 

Byron & Viconia —

Vala DeVir (she/her, date of birth unknown) – the only child of the Bhaalspawn Byron and the Sharran drow Viconia DeVir, Vala grew up sequestered in the cloisters of a Sharran temple alongside her parents. However, her relationship with her parents – especially her mother – grew strained the older she got and the more she longed to have a life outside of the temple. Against her mother’s wishes, but with her father’s blessing, she set out on her own the night she became of age – becoming an explorer of the Underdark and gaining a trusty giant spider as her companion. She never returned to her parents until her father was on his deathbed, and by the time she arrived, he’d already passed away in his sleep. Gloomstalker ranger.

Leto & Cassia —

Lady Cassandra Visteria van Mynaard von Valancius af Dargonus (she/her, date of birth unknown)  – the only child and heir of Rogue Trader Leto van Mynaard von Valancius, born via surrogacy with a member of House Werserian after it became apparent that Lady Cassia was unable to bear a living child due to her Navigator genes. She was allowed to have a proper childhood at the insistence of Cassia, who never got to have one – and it was only when she hit her teen years that Cassandra’s education in the von Valancius dynasty began in earnest. After Cassia left the public eye and retired to Janus following her mutations becoming more grotesque, Cassandra was devastated by her mother’s absence and her grief was compounded by her father’s increasingly apparent madness from his diviner abilities. She comes to rely heavily on her great-grandfather Abelard after she is forced to take up the mantle of Rogue Trader too young.

[allemantheias]

Repaying them for saving you. Part 4. [END]

Status: finished. 03-12-2023. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. [Part 4.]

Read this on AO3. ~ ~ Masterlist. ~ ~ Word count: 907.

In the morning you wake up and see that you're alone. When you look around the room you discover the clothes you wore yesterday on a chair next to the bedroom door. Washed, dried and ironed. There's a note on the folded stack of clothes and you read it.

"Take your time getting ready, take a long shower in my bathroom if you want and make some food in the kitchen. We're checking up on some intel on the guys from yesterday. Back around twelve."

So after a long shower and this time not dropping your clothes on the wet floor, you walk into the kitchen and look around for someone to help you, since you don't know where to find anything you need. No one's here and you decide to inspect all the cabinets and drawers. You hear footsteps behind you and turn around. An older woman stands in front of you.

"Can I help you?" A friendly voice asks.

"Yes, um- sorry, I-" Embarrassed from getting caught you look at the floor.

"Don't worry, Coronel Vargas told me to help you with breakfast if you came into the kitchen. Is there anything I can make for you?"

"Are there any leftovers?" You don't want to bother this woman to cook for you.

"Sweetheart, I was ordered to make you something fresh. Don't be shy, tell me what you would like to have now. Come take a look in the fridge." She leads you into a massive walk-in fridge. Lots of men and women have to be fed three times a day, so they need a big space to keep everything at the right temperature. You feast your eyes on all the ingredients present, think about which ones you want to eat now.

"I would love some Mexican scrambled eggs."

She hands you a basket lined with a patterned dishcloth. "What do you want in your scrambled eggs?"

"Green and red peppers, cherry tomatoes, some toasted bread on the side." You dream about all the ingredients that would be good together.

"Alejandro and Rudy will be back by the time your food is done. They'll like this too." The products you name are put in the basket by the woman. "Looks good." She takes the basket from you and starts preparing the ingredients on the large counter in the kitchen.

"Can I help? I feel bad for letting someone else do all the work."

"Of course, sweetheart." She walks out of this part of the kitchen and comes back a few seconds later with a cutting board and knife. "Don't feel bad for having someone do their job. I get paid to make food." You nod and start cutting the peppers into small cubes, while the woman quarters the cherry tomatoes. She softens the cut-up vegetables in a deep skillet and you whisk the eggs until there's no separation of white and yellow anymore. You oil the slices of bread and put them in the preheated oven, while the woman scrambles the eggs in the skillet. "You're late! You said you'd be back at twelve." The woman hits Rodolfo with a wooden ladle.

"Sorry, mama. We had to take a detour because of a military checkpoint." This is his mother! 

"Corrupt?"

"Very possible, we didn't want to risk it."

"Good choice. Now sit, lunch is ready. And breakfast for you, sweetheart." She lays her hand on your back and guides you to the closest table. The men scoop their plates full of food before sitting down and immediately start stuffing their mouths. "As if they're starving."

"Mama, it's been four hours since we had breakfast!"

"I gave you food for on the road." Rudy's mom makes him look down at his plate in defeat.

"It's lovely as always, Mrs. Parra." Alejandro compliments.

"I had wonderful help." Encouraging she places her hand on your shoulder. Alejandro looks up at you with a smile on his face, before he goes back to eating. "It's still Violeta for you, honey." She turns to you. "I've known him since they both joined the military when they were sixteen and he still addresses me so formally." You chuckle and scoop up, are also starving, just like the men across the table. "Hey, how are you feeling after last night's fun?" Alejandro sits next to you at the table you had breakfast at.

"Great. I'm glad I was able to thank you both like that." You see him laugh at your words, but his expression turns serious again quickly and you're worried that there's some bad news about the cartel guys. "Was I an isolated attack?"

"Yes, we reviewed everything the intel could find on kidnappings. Your name was nowhere to be found. They probably decided to take you when they spotted you alone, an easy target." He explains. It soothes your nerves that no other cartel members know about yesterday, so there won't be another group waiting for an opportunity to catch you again. "Ready to go home?"

"Yes." You're happy to go home again, yesterday was a scary experience, but you will also miss Alejandro, Rudy and his mother. It may have only been one evening, an amazing night, and one morning, but too much has happened to walk away untouched by all of this. By them.

"Let's go." "Thanks again for saving me." Maybe in another life, maybe in another world, an alternate universe - will you meet them again.

This story ends here. I hope you liked it and that I did the gender neutrality justice on my first time writing it. Please, if you have feedback, please please let me know.

There will be a first-person-original female character 'continuation'. With that, I mean that there will be a sort of alternate timeline where this one continues.

Thanks for reading this one and leaving all the likes and reblogs. I absolutely appreciate that.

[naranja-uva-student-council]

Hello and welcome to the official blog of the Naranja-Uva Student Council. My name is Penny and I'll be the primary person running this blog because I'm the only one here who knows how to use the internet.

I suppose I should introduce the members of the Student Council.

Nemona Loba - President

You all know her and, sigh, love her, its Naranja-Uva's star student and ace battler Nemona. Not that she lets you forget it. Her talk tag is The Prez Speaks.

Juliana Violeta - Vice-President

(Juliana edit by @plasmaapologist)

The only reason any of us can tolerate eachother. She doesn't talk much but she's a dependable friend. Her talk tag is Vice Prez Speaks

Arven Tiempo - Secretary

One of the biggest assholes on campus. We keep him around because he's good at cooking. Okay, that's a lie, we keep him around cause we do kind of like him. But don't tell him that, he'll get a big head. His talk tag is Secretary Speaks.

Penny Johnson - Treasurer

Me. I'm the brains behind this operation. Trust me, this whole thing would fall apart without me. I prefer to keep a low profile and operate behind the scenes. Rumors that I hacked into the LP system are unconfirmed. As far as you're concerned, I am innocent of all crimes. My talk tag is Treaurer Speaks.

(OOC: Hi guys! Welcome to my latest blog! This takes place in what I call the "Student Council AU" which, as you probably guessed, is an AU where all four protagonists are on the Student Council, not just Nemona. This somewhat take inspiration from Kaguya-Sama: Love is War (I am once again asking you to watch Kaguya-Sama: Love is War). Though its only inspired and the characters aren't direct paralells. This also means there'll be a narrator with the talk tag Narrator Speaks. The Student Council is unaware of the Narrator unless it would be funny.

(I was originally going to do a romance plot between Juliana and Nemona but then I did nothing with it because writing Penny and Arven sniping at eachother is more fun so I've dropped that and now all of these goobers are Acearo because I always headcanoned them as that anyways and only did the romance plot to keep the Love is War gimmick, though the inspiration's still there, romance plot or not. I could never be as funny, clever, or creative as Aka Akasaka anyways.)

[jpriest85-blog]

Recently played @pdrrook VN Perfumare and fell in love with the setting and characters. I'm so looking forward to reading more of this story when Perfumare: Avulsion is fully released.

I'm now compelled to share some art and basic info about my MC.

Name: Violeta Reyes Liz Morren

Pronouns: she/her

Preferences: Bisexual

Birthday: February 23rd

Height: 5ft7”/170.18cms

Appearance: A curvy Latina woman in her mid-20s of average height, with a Bronze complexion and black medium length straight hair. She has an oval shaped face with freckles, hooded eyes, and a full mouth. Normally, dresses in classy feminine vintage style fashion in public with makeup and hairstyles inspired by starlets from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Notable features: Violet eyes that she normally hides with color contact lenses, and noticeable dimples when she smiles or laughs

Personality: At first glance, Liz comes across as a very charming and attentive person. Which has helped her in her job (both at the perfume shop and her illegal side gig) and staying under the radar. Being observant of people and how they behave is useful for making a sale or determining if they're a potential threat and acting accordingly to try and get the best outcome. Especially if it's a situation where she doesn't always need to rely on her affliction. Liz is well aware she's an attractive woman, and she's not above using it to her advantage. After all, she doesn't always need to use Allure to get someone to do what she wants when a coquetteish smile, asking sweetly for a favor, combined strategic use of cleavage can get the same results. Although she does enforce a strict professional relationship boundary with her clients and suppliers.

While Liz usually comes across as friendly and accommodating, she still keeps others at arm's length due to her past. She used to have a pretty good childhood growing up and was raised in a large and loving family with her parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and a seemingly endless number of cousins. Until she developed her gift and was shipped off to the academy suddenly alone because of something she couldn't control. At first, young Liz thought that if she worked hard and could control her Allure ability, maybe she could come home one day. Sadly, no matter how hard she worked or how well she did all the letters she wrote home, they never responded. Eventually, Liz got tired of the heartbreaking silence and just stopped trying to reach out to anyone. Until Reed started attending the Academy and wouldn't leave her alone.

Now, Liz can count the number of people she trusts and depends on with one hand and still have fingers left over. Although with those few people, she tends to be more open and relaxed around them. Sure, she'll still smile politely with other people. She works in retail, it's expected. However, when Liz trusts someone, she is more expressive, genuine, and affectionate as opposed to the more carefully affable persona. She'll argue with you, cry, make dirty jokes, and ramble about whatever new thing she's passionate about.

Additional info & Headcanons

Both her alias and real names are references to brands of cologne/perfume. Her alias given name Liz in reference to actress Elizabeth Taylor who had her own line of perfumes, one of which is called Violet Eyes, and her real name Violeta Reyes came from Agustin Reyes’ Royal Violets cologne. 

When it comes to Liz's personal scent preferences, she likes using solid perfumes that have a fresh and light scent like in linen perfumes. Solid perfumes travel better and last longer than liquid perfumes and tend to have more subtle scents so they're less likely to overwhelm her sensitive sense of smell. 

Liz’s native tongue is Spanish and she became fluent in Italian due to growing up with Reed. Sometimes she'll rapidly switch between English, Spanish and Italian (complete with hand gestures) during conversation if she's very excited or angry. Normally Liz tries to avoid getting too animated in public because it'll draw unwanted attention, although there are exceptions like when an obnoxious customer crosses a line and she tells them off, or when she's around someone she trusts.

She'll also use Spanish terms of endearment with loved ones. Which makes things interesting for the various LI saves. Jewel and Laurent seem to be the types who'll become flustered, which would make Liz coo over how cute they are. Meanwhile, Reed, who's constantly addressing her with “bella” and “tesoro” is mentally agonizing himself on his save whenever Liz calls him “guapo” or “cariño” in return.

Since Liz was left to fend for herself so young, she had to learn how to take care of herself quickly. A particular skill set she developed was mending clothes and diy repairs. It helped save her money on clothes and repairs around the house over the years, excluding major issues with plumbing or wiring, as she doesn't have the training for those kinds of problems. 

Back at their Academy days Liz once saved Reed from an embarrassing situation when he ripped the seat of his pants by helping him discreetly sneak back to his dorm to change and even mending the ripped pants for him. Ever since Reed always asks Liz for help whenever he needs something mended or altered. Over the years, Liz started getting annoyed when she started feeling less like she was helping out a friend and more like Reed was using her as his personal seamstress. They even argued about it a few times until finally settling on a compromise. Whenever Reed needs some clothes fixed or altered, he has to be willing to do some chores or cook for Liz in exchange. It even worked for a while …until Reed learned Liz also be used to mend or take in Flavio's clothes too. Although, to be fair, Flavio rarely asked for Liz's help in the first place. 

Since Jewel and Reed don't get along, Liz often times finds herself having to play mediator between the two. Except whenever card games are involved. One day, when work at both the Perfume shop and bar was slow, the three of them found some playing cards and wound up playing poker to pass the time. Considering Reed is so competitive and the fact Liz knows him so well, he'd consistently wound up losing against her. The game quickly devolved into a childish argument between Reed and Liz, and in a bizarre reversal, Jewel had to play mediator between them.

Since Laurent is a fan of classic noir films, he was very caught off guard when he first started visiting the perfume shop and saw Liz wearing her vintage attire. Especially on his route, Laurent wasn't quite sure if Liz was real or a dream since she looked like one of those beautiful actresses from classic black and white films but in living color. 

[storybookhawke]

How do you imagine Anders first kiss with Karl to be?

I can imagine it a million different ways, dear Anon ♥️ but I did write a little fic for you while on the plane

As Fate Would Have It (1034 words)

Kanders, Anders x others (flings), T, unwanted kisses, wanted kisses, age gap, circle boyfriends, a little bit of canonical sadness

If someone asked, Anders isn’t sure what he would consider as his first kiss. 

There’s his actual first kiss — the first time his lips ever met another’s — at the young age of six years old. His village was a small backwater valley in the middle of Ferelden’s countryside, far away from everything and everyone. But by a small mercy from the Maker himself, there were a handful of other children around his age to grow and play with. Until he was old enough to work the field with his father, he spent his days trapezing through the rocks and mud with a group of his peers.

If he recalls correctly, Violeta was her name, a girl with brunette braids just a scant few months older than he. She was a menace — both in personality and in playstyle. She often led the small group of children playing in the pastures, creating make-believe scenarios for all to follow, assigning roles to everyone despite their wishes. Anders never had planned on sharing a kiss with her, especially at six years of age, but she had other plans. He never thought much of it as a child, nor as an adult now that it comes to mind. But he supposes her shoving him up against a tree and planting her lips on his would count as a first kiss, even though they were simply playing house at the time.

Then there’s another instance a little further into his childhood. He was barely fourteen and had only been in Kinloch Hold for just over a year or so. But still, it was long enough for him to catch on to the tower’s shared hobby of incessant but hollow courtship. Love and romance meant nothing behind those walls, save for entertainment in lieu of nothing to do. Apprentices constantly changed the object of their affections by the day, if not by the hour, and the enchanters were no better than the teens they often condemned. Flirting, touching, kissing — it was all just part of the game they played to distract themselves from the cruel reality in which they lived. It was a dance delicately played among the captured, though the real thing was far beyond their reach.

Perhaps his first kiss — that is, the first kiss he wanted — would be the one with Jamil, a fiery elemental apprentice just one year older than him. They had been eyeing each other all throughout the week, electricity building between them with heated stares and subtle hints peppered into their very public conversations. The dance they played was fun while it lasted, teasing each other until they were ready to snap beneath the tension of craving and youthful seduction. It didn’t take long for them to wind up in a broom closet together, hands searching, clutching, groping each other without going much further in risk of being caught. Not that they had much to worry about, seeing as they quickly lost interest in each other once they had satisfied the novelty.

Either situation might count as his first kiss, but in his heart, Anders knows the answer.

The first kiss he wanted, the first kiss that mattered, was his first kiss with Karl Thekla — the man who changed everything. Unlike the other memories shrouded in a hazy fog of time, he can remember it like it was yesterday, down to the smallest detail. The familiar musty scent of thousands of yellowing parchment pages filling the eastern library, how the cold of the stone flooring seeped through the soles of his thin leather slippers, the way the scant rays of the dwindling sun filtered through the high narrow windows and caught on the dust floating in the stale air like a slow flurry of snow.

[read the rest on AO3]

[idealisticrealism]

TCL 3x03 thoughts

Many thoughts and spoilers, as usual.

The Main things:

Given the timeframe with Fi’s journey back (and needing her in time for the Child Protective Services meeting), it can’t have been more than a day or two since the last episode.

The reappearance of Adan’s name in the credits was very confusing until Russo produced the video. I’m pretty used to the body double use now (managed to not even cry at the sight of my boy, which I'll take as progress) so my main thoughts about the vid were that it looks just like a scene from a fic idea I had last week that did make me cry, and also that if the footage is from a police body cam, I’m guessing that cop is dead/unconscious and slumped against their own vehicle given the angle and the fact they’re not moving…

Calling it right now, ‘Jeremy the handyman’ is undercover FBI. Russo is smart enough and determined enough not to put all her eggs in the Nadia basket, so I think that this is her other plan to take Thony (and through her, Arman) down. And as she later tells Nadia: nothing is ever as it seems. So I'm convinced the racist attack on the Cleaning Ladies office was fabricated by the FBI to allow ‘Jeremy’ to be introduced into Thony’s life in a way that would lead her to trust him quickly and allow him into her circle, especially with his kindness and all his sentiments about the shittiness of xenophobia and how ‘this is her home, no matter what anyone says’. I’m actually genuinely pissed about it tbh, bc Thony deserves that kindness and support for real, instead of having her isolation and fear and vulnerability preyed upon by people who want to throw her behind bars just because she didn’t play by the rules of their flawed and biased system…

Sigh honestly though, Thony is too stubborn and short-sighted for her own good. Like yes she saved Soledad’s life by ignoring Dante’s orders, but in doing so she risked her own life as well as Fi and Chris’ lives, and also jeopardised her relationship with both Ramona and the CPS worker who is responsible for deciding if Luca should be taken from her or not. At least she’s written consistently in that she always tries to do the ‘right thing’ and save the person in front of her, but that means she often overlooks the potential consequences of taking that action and the overall balance of good vs bad that would come out of it. Like I’m guessing she’s one of those people who absolutely hates the Trolley Problem lol

Well now we know how Paolo’s money comes into play… funny that if he’d never given Chris the money, Chris wouldn’t have been able to give it to Camila and her mum, which means they wouldn’t have come on the crossing, so he would have never had to fight the guy to defend Camila, and wouldn’t have ended up getting stranded in the desert…. Again, this show really is great at demonstrating those ‘well-intentioned actions leading to bad outcomes’ moments 

This ep is really trying to give Jorge a bit more depth, from him being all cute about Violeta’s soccer practice (showing he’s an involved dad who is also laid back and knows how to have fun, not one of those intense/pushy ones), and how his warnings to Thony have become less like threats and more like well-meaning advice. He’s willingly acting as Thony’s chauffeur rather than sending an underling to do it, and he’s also letting her debate with him on a more even level than before, where previously he just shut her down immediately. He even actually seems to listen to her about not hurting Nadia and the idea of letting Ramona meet Nadia instead (given what we see in the trailer). The scene where he finds her with the van is likely meant to look like he is hiding something, but I think he is genuinely looking for Arman and actually didn’t know that this was the van that took him, and he just doesn’t trust her enough yet to be open with her about it.  I also think he respects that she cares enough about Arman to stand up to him, to challenge him about his possible involvement– if I’m right and he truly is trying to bring Arman home safe, her persistent loyalty to Arman even in the face of danger to herself would be a big point in her favour. 

Okay what the hell is the little glass jar Thony finds, though?? Something of Arman’s? Something that they can get a bad guy’s fingerprints off of to give them a lead? A sedative medication that indicates he was drugged and taken somewhere, rather than killed and dumped?? I need answerssss

Poor Nadia is suffering through feelings of betrayal on all sides here lol. I don’t blame her at all for going to Russo and trying to save herself and Arman through a deal, but I’m so relieved that Russo’s obsession with punishing Arman has made that alliance an impossibility. Now all we need is for Nadia to cool down a little, and realise that despite everything, there’s only one person she can truly turn to… (and yes, I’ve written a fic about it lol)

“You ever notice that everyone around him turns up dead?” lollll look at this show being all self-aware about its tendency to just kill off its problems haha. But still, Russo’s got it all wrong; Arman’s not the common denominator here. He may have been the one pulling the trigger a few times, but he was almost never the one actually setting the events in motion. Instead, it’s Thony. Despite being someone who tries at all times to save lives, Thony is like an unintentional angel of death for those she encounters, and sadly Arman is going to be the next to fall.    

Other stuff:

It was interesting to see how clever the cartel is with all the different types of vehicles they use to transport people in order to avoid suspicion, I wonder how realistic that is?

I love that the show has continued its tradition of having cleaners/household staff regularly appearing in the background, highlighting the fact that even if they’re often overlooked, they’re there

The date on the bodycam is messing with my timeframe for the show based on the only other previous reference to dates that we’ve gotten, and though I know they probably just picked a random date, I don’t like it haha

That was very cool imagery with Ramona’s tea, of something shrivelled and dull being put into an intense environment and blossoming into something amazing… hmmm, wonder what they’re trying to say about Thony there haha

Fi totally ships Chris and Camila lol. I love the bond that formed between the two families (Fi protecting them in the store by putting on the Southern Belle act was awesome), and I hope Camila and her mum continue to be in the show, like maybe Fi and Thony could hire the mum as one of their cleaners and help both of them settle into life as an immigrant in the US. 

Also, the ICE raid was hard to watch, but bless the ladies in the store who helped them to hide! True allies!

The emotional song playing at the end as Fi and Chris are left behind is called 'Sister, Take My Hand' which just feels fitting for this show

Anyway, really looking forward to the Nadia & Ramona meeting next week. My wild dream of a badass coalition of mob women (Thony, Fi, Nadia, Ramona) running Vegas may just happen yet…

[ginnyxauthor]

VIRTUAL YOUTUBER WIKI

✦ Pairings: None! Platonic! NIJISANJI & other Vtubers x Child! OC

✦ Synopsis: Character Profile of the OC (Virtual YouTuber Wiki)

✦ Further Notice: Unfortunately, my OC is not real and is only a product of the author's imagination.

Nerissa Marinus

✦ BASIC DETAILS

ORIGINAL NAME — ネリッサ・マリヌス

NICKNAME(S) — Hime, Neri-chan, Squishy, SFW Fish, Nemo (Male Alter-ego), Risa (Alter-ego), Imoto (by Finana Ryugu)

DEBUT DATE — Youtube: 2022/12/18

CHARACTER DESIGN — 镜中音

AFFLIATION — NIJISANJI EN

✦ MEDIA

CHANNEL — Youtube

SOCIAL MEDIA — Twitter

✦ PERSONAL DETAILS

GENDER — Female

AGE — Child

BIRTHDAY — March 17

HEIGHT — 132 cm

ZODIAC SIGN — Pisces

EMOJI — 🐚

Nerissa Marinus (ネリッサ・マリヌス) is NIJISANJI EN's very first solo and child female English Virtual YouTuber.

✦ INTRODUCTION VIDEO

【DEBUT STREAM】 TO THE SURFACE WE GO

✦ PROFILE

A jellyfish nereid who spends her time playing with the marine life and her 50+ sisters in the sea. With an innocent mind and a heart as light as a feather, this small nereid is ready to take on whatever the surface has in store for her. Right??

✦ HISTORY

Background

On July 20th, NIJISANJI EN had hinted about introducing their very first solo female Vtuber accompanied by a teaser featuring the new liver's design and voice. What shocked fans the most was that the vtuber is just a little girl!

Nerissa's YouTube channel was created on December 12th, and her Twitter account also created in the same day. Her first tweet was made on December 15th, 2022.

Debut

Nerissa made her debut on December 18th, 2022 as part of a special debut program hosted on the NIJISANJI EN channel, with commentary provided by Finana Ryugu and Uki Violeta. After her debut stream in her channel, Nerissa appeared on the main channel.

✦ FANS AND MASCOT

Nerissa's fans are called Jellybeans.

Her mascot is a jellyfish wearing a cute ghost costume that she stitched herself.

✦ QUOTES

"So this is what the surface looks like!" ‐ Debut Trailer

"Onee-san, you have an egg? Are you a mommy now?!"

"Can you be my big brother?"

"The Jellybeans say that I am the definition of seiso."

"You are my family now!"

✦ TRIVIA

Identity

Species: Sea Nymph

Color: #678D9D

She can speak English, Tagalog, Japanese, a little Spanish, and Fish/Whale.

She can also write and translate Greek and Latin.

Lore

Nerissa Marinus is the youngest daughter of the 'Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sister to the fifty (there's definitely more than that) nereids and Nerites. She is famous for her cute, child-like appearance, bright presence, and powerful magical abilities, earning the name 'Hime' from her family.

Despite living far, far longer than most humans, she still retains her innocence, kindness, and curious-like nature. She loves to explore the seven seas, create mischief every now and then, sing and dance with her siblings, and play with the other inhabitants within the ocean, especially with a certain tropical mermaid she calls her 'Onee-san'.

Being the youngest daughter of her family, she was treated like royalty. Fragile. Ready to be broken if touched just once. She hated that. She hated that her family tries to spoil her rotten in order to keep her from leaving. They knew how adventurous she is. She wasn't even allowed to meet and help the sailors that occasionally pass by her home unlike her sisters.

It was sooooo unfair! She internally whined.

Nerissa wanted to be like everyone else, do things herself and explore more than just the seas. She wanted to go beyond them. She wanted to see... the surface.

So, when she heard that her tropical friend had left in order to learn about humans and their culture, she knew what she needed to do.

No, she was not going to consult an evil sea witch for help! She may be naive at times and young in human years, but she wasn't a dummy.

After leaving a note where she knew her family will look first, she grabbed the one thing that reminded her of home — her necklace — and quickly swam to where her friend has gone to, never looking back once. The closer she swam to the surface, the more excited she became.

The moment her head was completely out of the salty sea water, she felt as if she was exploring the Pacific Ocean all over again. But times that feeling by like hundred. Just by looking around her, she knew she was going to like this new place. She couldn't wait to meet the humans and make new friends!

The surface may have its downsides, but this little jellyfish is ready to take on anything the surface has in store for. She just needed to find her tropical friend first.

Likes and Dislikes

Likes: Water, seashells, marine animals, dogs and cats, plushies, desserts, everything Disney, spring and summer, meeting new people

Dislikes: Horror/paranormal, spiders, reptiles (except turtles), sour and spicy foods, thunder and lightning, any form of pain, being alone

Hobbies: Swimming, exploring/traveling, singing, dancing, collecting new things, arts and craft

Favorite anime/manga: Ponyo, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Wolf Children, Ouran High School Host Club, Free!, Tamako Market, Tamako Love Story, A Silent Voice, Horimiya, My Hero Academia, Acchi Kocchi, School Babysitters, Little Witch Academia

Favorite games: Animal Crossing, Minecraft, Pokémon, Kingdom Hearts, Mario Kart, Fall Guys, Just Dance

Favorite shows: Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Star vs the Forces of Evil, Phineas and Ferb, Winx Club

She is a major fan of the Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Harry Potter series.

Miscellaneous

Face Claim: Jellyfish Salad from Food Fantasy

The name Nerissa is a girl's name of Greek Origin meaning "sea nymph" or "from the sea".

Nerissa is the only sea nymph of her family that is part jellyfish. Why is she part jellyfish instead of part mermaid like her siblings remains a mystery to this day.

The piece of jewelry around her neck was given to her by her parents on the day of her birth.

Unlike other jellyfishes, she can feel pain in the same way that humans would. She does possess a brain, a heart, bones, and a respiratory system.

She was born with the bell — the umbrella-like dome — floating above her head, symbolizing her jellyfish side. She would later add seashell clips with a ribbon attached to her bell as she found the clips and the design on the ribbons adorable.

Nerissa could make her bell disappear whenever she wanted by using magic. She does this when she sleeps, although there are times where she forgets to do that and the bell continues floating above her sleeping form.

She is bioluminescent. If she focused hard enough, her whole body will begin to glow, but this will tire her out quickly. Fortunately, her bell is also bioluminescent and it doesn't drain her of her energy, so it's a perfect lamp/night light!

Nerissa doesn't get why she has to wait for her senpais' approval on the book/show/movie/anime/manga that catches her eye before starting it. (It's to protect her innocence.)

She is a very curious and adventurous child that she needs one of her senpais to watch over her in case she runs off somewhere.

She is oblivious to everyone trying to fight for the seat of 'No. 1 Onee-san' or 'No.1 Onii-san'.

She has a huge collection of marine animals plushies and seashell pillows scattered around her bedroom and on her desk.

Fans deemed that Nerissa is NIJISANJI EN'S most favored Vtuber.

✦ EXTERNAL LINKS

Media

Nerissa Marinus 【NIJISANJI EN】 - YouTube channel

@NerissaMarinus - Twitter account

Twitter hashtags

#NerissaMarinus - General Tag

#NerissaLive - Live Tag

#NeriMariArt - Fan art Tag

NSFW? What's that?

#NeriLikesTurtles - Meme Tag

#JellyClips - Clip Tag

#NeriAssets - Assets Tag

#ThumbNeri - Thumbnail Tag

[ficklecat]

OC Interview: Emmanuel Domingo

(dialogue responses to the OC interview prompt)

1. Please state your full name and occupation.

“Emmanuel José Domingo Alvarez, or Manny Domingo for shorter. I’m a physical trainer and a grad student, hoping to become a physical therapist!”

2. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

“I am a proud Guatemalan and first generation American citizen of my family, and first to go to college too, which I am so grateful for. I love the outdoors and playing sports; I’ve been an athlete since I was a little kid, as little as a baby, because my father says I kicked a lot before I was even born!” (laughs) “Let’s see…I have two wonderful partners, Phineas and Violet, who I adore with all my heart, and my dream is to build my own physical therapy practice and help people pursue recovery and healing at any shape, size, or condition!”

3. How would you describe your childhood?

“I think I had a wonderful childhood, despite missing a few things. My father did everything he could to make my life better and easier than his was and he made good on that promise. Growing up without my mother here was hard sometimes, but I was still surrounded with so much love and support, I didn’t want for anything even when my papà didn’t have a lot to give. I could do sports and make friends and I got good grades and made my papà proud, which was enough for me. I am very fortunate.”

4. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

“I wanted to represent Guatemala in the Olympics! I still think I could honestly, but that would mean a lot of work to change my current path, and I’m quite happy with where I am now!”

5. Do you have any role models? Tell us a little bit about them.

“Ah, so many! My papà, of course, he is my hero. A few athletes, notably Erick Borrondo, who was the first and only Guatemalan Olympic medalist. Serena Williams, but also Alok Vaid-Menon and Blair Imani. I look up to the people who I feel embody the spirit of being authentically who they are and fighting to reach their potential, or helping others to do the same.”

6. Are you introverted or extroverted? Why?

“Absolutely extroverted. I can’t help it. I love learning about people and meeting new friends. Phineas jokes that I’ve never met a stranger, and that’s true!” (laughs)

7. How would you describe yourself in three words?

“Passionate. Loving. Determined!!”

8. What do you like to do for fun?

“I love it when the three of us go hiking or to the beach together. Or cooking dinner with Violeta. She is a wonderful baker! I enjoy testing recipes with her. If I’m by myself I mostly enjoy going for a run out in nature, or watching anime. I can binge a whole series in a weekend if I’m not careful!”

9. What's your greatest achievement? Why do you consider this your greatest achievement?

This was answered in an ask, check the tag to find it!

10. What's your biggest goal? How do you hope to achieve this?

“I want to be able to help people achieve the best versions of themselves. I don’t know if that can count as a goal so much as an aspiration but it is something I think I’ll never achieve only once, but rather will always work towards. I get a lot of fulfilment and energy from helping others, it enriches me and makes me feel purposeful. I think because of this I will never truly be done working towards this goal because I know in my heart I’ll always be looking for ways I can help, moving from one to the next. It’s a good thing for me though, it makes me excited about the future.”

11. What does your dream room/house look like? Would you mind showing some inspiration pictures?

“Honestly I’d love to live in my childhood home! My father and I have been fixing it up, he’s been remodelling a few of the rooms and I help him some weekends. We have so much tied to that place, it’s a very special and comforting space. It has high ceilings and lots of natural light in the front room, a gorgeous sunroom where papà keeps some of his herb garden, and the kitchen is coming along with new cabinets and countertops. Little by little! If not that exact home I’d love something like it - warm and inviting and bright, with space for me and my loved ones to enjoy each other’s company.”

12. How would you describe your style?

“Athletic and comfortable. I am usually at the gym working with my clients so I am always dressed for that. Which I don’t mind, I feel stuffy in other clothes sometimes. If I’m not wearing gym clothes I’ll at least like to wear some decent shoes, and I always bring a hoodie or jacket wherever I go. I like being prepared.”

13. What's your favorite song?

“Ahhh I love music, this is a hard question! My go to answer for this question is usually What I Got by Sublime, but there are so so many more - Sweet Honey by Slightly Stoopid, Longview and When I Come Around by Green Day are also favourites —ah! Too many to name!”

14. Where are you happiest?

“Outside! Even on bad weather days I love being in nature. I often like to go on walks or lay in the sun on my patio or in the grass on the campus green. No matter what mood I’m in nature can always manage to bring me back in some way. It’s as close to a cure-all as I can get.”

15. Who is the most important person in your life? Why?

“It’s impossible for me to pick just one person, I love too many to say one is more important than the other.”

16. Do you believe in soulmates? Why or why not?

“I believe with all my heart that Phineas and Violet are my soul mates. I also believe my father and mother are soulmates. But I believe soulmates aren’t just lovers, you know? They’re friends. They’re mentors. They’re whoever makes you feel like your life is worth living. Maybe that’s not a soulmate to some people but it is to me.”

17. Have you ever been in love?

“I am so in love! I have been in love since I was very young. I continue to love just the same, even more now I think, because I know what it means to feel it.”

18. Have you ever been kissed?

“Oh most certainly. I don’t think I’ve gone a single day in recent memory where I haven’t been kissed. I’m so lucky for that.”

19. Describe an average day in your life.

“I like to get up early and start the day with black coffee at the window. It’s a good time to get myself some alone time and prepare for my day because no one is awake yet usually. After coffee I’ll have breakfast and then get ready for the day. I try to keep all my classes in the morning so that I can train my clients in the afternoons and evenings, so I work out after lunch before training, or if I have time I’ll try to get a workout in after breakfast and before classes. I try to keep busy so I tend to book clients until late, and typically I’ll be finished with my day around six or seven. Dinner with my loves is usually after that, and then I’ll do homework or study or spend time with them after that!”

20. Describe your nighttime routine.

“I try to walk every night for a little bit, which usually means I get to walk with Phineas and his dogs most evenings. Or if he isn’t up for it I’ll take them myself. I like doing that, they’re sweet and it makes me feel helpful. After that I’ll enjoy whatever Violet and Phineas have planned - for them, it’s usually movies or shows, and we like to take turns picking what to watch together. Sometimes we’ll play a game or I’ll play cards with Violet while Phineas reads, but my nights typically end with the two of them no matter what. After all that, I’ll shower and get in bed - Violet sleeps in and Phineas is an insomniac, so I’m usually the first to sleep, but they still like to cuddle up with me even if they don’t sleep right away, which is so very lovely.”

21. (Make up a question) Tell us a “low-stakes” unpopular opinion you have.

“Oye this might talk me out of a job but - exercise is free! You don’t have to buy anything, you can just move! The myth that there’s a right way or proper way to exercise is silly to me - go walk, jump up and down, dance in your living room! Exercise is free and it can be anything you want it to be! I dislike the narrative society has created that tricks people into feeling like movement needs to be competitive or prescribed or on a membership basis. You can do whatever you want, you can move however you want - my father used to chop wood in the back yard to work out, we didn’t have a fire place! There are less rules than you think, have fun!”

[rumalumasuns]

"You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known - and even that is an understatement" (F. Scott Fitzgerald) - With Uki Violeta

Based (loosely) on The Little Mermaid by Disney (no angst and seafoam here lol)

Part of my Living in a Fairy Tale series

!- Reader is Gender neutral (if I made a mistake somewhere I apologize and I'll fix it as soon as possible!)

!- Mentions of potion-making, spearing, blood, magic, witches, bones/skulls, stalking, light cursing

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, Uki Speaking

Original work by rumalumasuns, 12,565 words (I think this is my longest one lol-), unedited but I will do so when I have time later :)

Once upon a time,...

In the beautiful Mujigae Ocean, there was a kingdom of merpeople. Young, old, in between, and in all shapes and colors - the merpeople lived happily and sustainably. Although there was some more trouble now with the increasing surface-dweller population, the merpeople handled it by taking the trash that was thrown into their domains and creating items to use and trade with, or channeling the oily parts of their waters into powerhouses for some of their newer inventions.

Like any other kingdom, the Mujigae Kingdom had a royal family: Rikusan, the king, and his many children. There was no formal queen of the kingdom, and Rikusan let his children take on the surnames of their own mothers, so a lot of them had different last names.

Rikusan's children were as unique as they were powerful: one was an octomer who could write novels as beautifully as he looked, two others (twins) were fairy-mermaid hybrids who liked to cast spells to prank others, while another was a kind tigerfish mer who used her claws only when her family was being threatened.

The majority of the citizens of Mujigae loved and appreciated the children of Rikusan: not only were they pleasing to the eye, but they also protected the kingdom using their various powers. Despite this great love for the royal family, however, not all of the individual royals of Mujigae were loved.

In particular, there was one merman prince whom the people were wary of - Uki Violeta.

Uki was a soft soul who had a hardened exterior, making him hard to approach. Additionally, he was one of the most powerful out of all of Rikusan's children, as the night he was born the gem of a star had come down from the sky, plunged into the water, and came to Uki, blessing him. A sign of this blessing was a small flower mark under his right eye, as well as heterochromia from the effects of the star's power.

Uki's blessing made him a psychic: a telekinetic combined with a mind reader. This made him admired by some. Uki's abilities were known for foiling many assassinations on the royal family and for causing multiple attacks on the kingdom to fail. For this, both his family and his people were grateful. However, his actions also made the Mujigae Kingdom's enemies bitter and waiting for revenge.

Although Uki was loved by some, in particular by three brothers in his family who always tried to protect him, others were skeptical of him. Some people in the corners of the ocean whisper doubts about Uki's intentions. What if he were to turn someday and tried to take the throne for his own? Uki certainly could have a motive: he wasn't the oldest of the Mujigae royals and was near the end of the line to become crown royal, meaning if he wanted to have the throne he would have to fight for it. These wary merpeople decided to avoid him whenever possible and only pay their respects when they absolutely needed to.

Others hated Uki - particularly the enemies of the kingdom whom he was able to defeat easily with his powers. Infiltrations into the palace were always attempted but failed because Uki would be able to detect the traitor or the spy in an instant. He also had no problem defeating their soldiers with just a flick of his hand.

This made him a target of speculation and anger, even within the palace walls. Despite what his loved ones, such as his brothers Sonny, Alban, and Yugo, tried to do for him, Uki decided to keep to himself and not cause a stir whenever possible. He didn't mind that his other siblings were more loved than him, or that he chose to stay in his room for their sakes. Uki quite liked the solace sometimes. However, it didn't stop his heart from stinging whenever the crowds became quieter as he approached, or when he saw the fear in the eyes of the children as they gazed at the flower under his right eye.

To fill this void he felt within himself, Uki chose to read - from the royal palace's cookbooks to the fantasy novels in the palace library. Uki quite liked to read the novels - imagining two souls falling in love and accepting each other for who they were after going through hardships together made his heart swell. He longed for that connection, for love that he has never had before.

He wanted it so badly, that one night Uki decided to venture out of his room, and swim to the surface. One of the tales he had read was about how one of his kind, a merperson, chased after royalty from the surface world. Despite all the hardships they went through, the two ended up falling in love and the story concluded with a happy ending. Uki figured that if one of his own kind wouldn't accept him, perhaps someone else - some other being could.

While thinking about this, Uki swam even faster to the surface, until his eyes were able to peek out from the ocean. He had tried to go to a location that was near what humans like to call a shore. To his luck, there was a being on the sand - Uki believed that his textbooks called the creature "a human male". The man had grey hair and a red lightning scar on his left eye. His ears were different from Uki's ears - unlike the purple scales Uki had at the tips, the man had ears were entirely made of flesh! The man's hands were also different from Uki's webbed ones: while one was also flesh, the other looked red and made out of some of the metal trash that the merpeople collected. In that metal hand was a notepad.

Uki's tail began swishing excitedly in the water.

'A human!' he thought, and with care, he swam towards the shore. First, he let the man know of his presence by splashing the surface of the water from underneath. Uki saw the man become alert. Slowly, Uki popped his head out of the water, his hair soppy and covering his ears. He shyly stuck out his fingertips from the water and waved.

The man looked straight at him, before laughing.

"You scared me, man! Why are you fooling around like that? Jeez, I almost got a heart attack."

"S-sorry," Uki managed to stutter out, as his face grew warm from having to talk to someone new.

"All good. Want to come out from the water? Isn't it cold?"

Uki shook his head, little droplets scattering across the water's surface.

"I'm fine, thanks."

The man nodded, before waving at Uki with the notepad.

"I'm Fulgur, by the way. Fulgur Ovid. I'm a marine biologist. You are?"

"Uh, I'm Uki. Uki Violeta."

"Oh, I've never heard about you before. Are you new to town?"

"...Yep," said Uki. He hoped that Fulgur would take his bluff.

After the initial awkward reaction, Fulgur and Uki led a normal conversation about the moonlight - Uki asked Fulgur about the town because he didn't know much about it as he "just moved in". Fulgur was happy to oblige and offered to show Uki around the town if Uki came out of the water. Uki politely refused but asked Fulgur to meet him again around this time the next day, to which Fulgur agreed.

Many months passed, and Uki spent time talking to Fulgur at night as he told Uki about his work and how he recorded the marine wildlife that became more active at night, as well as stories of his life and his sibling, and stories of the town. Through their conversations, Uki found that he could trust Fulgur, who revealed to him that one of his ancestors, one of the town's founders, was a mermaid.

"Speaking of, how come you're always in the water whenever we meet, Uki?"

"Oh, uh... I like swimming?"

Fulgur looked at Uki with a raised eyebrow. Uki knew that Fulgur already had suspicions that he was a merperson, but he hoped that Fulgur would take his bluff just one more time. Fulgur just nodded in understanding and laughed.

"Sure, we'll go with that. Just tell me when you're ready."

And Uki did, a couple days later. One night he nervously waited for Fulgur to come out onto the shore, his hair tucked behind his scaly ear. Soon, he heard a rustle from the tall bushes on the shore. Out came Fulgur, notebook in hand as always. He then saw Uki and waved as usual, before his eyes widened upon seeing Uki's ears.

"Oh my- you really are one of them!" he exclaimed excitedly. Uki, who braced himself for the worst, was surprised, then elated. Fulgur wasn't afraid of him.

The largest smile spread over his face.

"Yep!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of years passed since Uki had ventured out from his castle at night.

Not many people at the palace noticed Uki's absence, except for three of his brothers, because Uki tended to keep to himself anyways. However, his brothers Sonny, Yugo, and Alban noticed his subtle changes. For instance, Uki's room in the palace was now filled with many things from the surface, from books (which Fulgur waterproofed for Uki) to what humans call a "fork". Once, Alban questioned it.

"Ya know, I tend to hoard lots of sparkly human things, but not so many of the unshiny ones. Where'd you get all this stuff anyways?"

Uki just smiled, saying he found things while wandering around at night. Although Yugo expressed his worries about his brother going around alone at night, he didn't question it much. Sonny just inspected the items to make sure they weren't threatening to Uki, as he was well-versed in things that come from the surface that is threatening. They let him be, though, seeing that the objects and just talking about the surface made Uki much happier, which they loved to see.

Just like they think, Uki is happier than he was a couple years ago, especially when humans or the surface world are mentioned. Although the merpeople around him were still wary of him, he didn't mind as much. He not only had the support of his brothers but now he also had Fulgur and time on the surface away from the ocean. Thanks to this, Uki became much more content about himself.

During these years, Uki and Fulgur became like brothers. While Uki helped Fulgur learn more about the creatures of the ocean and merpeople, Fulgur taught him how to write in various human languages and introduced Uki to the internet. Additionally, with Uki's permission, Fulgur also tested out various elixirs both on himself and on Uki - one to help with water breathing and another to help turn Uki's fin into legs.

It only took a year until Fulgur finally developed the right formula to make water breathing and Uki’s fin-into-legs elixirs. Although these only provided temporary changes, it was a milestone for Fulgur who wanted to explore more of the ocean and Uki who longed to go on the surface rather than stay in the water.

The first time Uki was able to have full legs (not just conjoined legs with fins for feet), he cried after being able to take his first step. The potion lasted for a couple minutes before Uki's legs turned into tail once more.

Now, Uki had a couple months of walking experience, while Fulgur's underwater breathing elixir allowed the user to create a bubble of air around the face and breathe underwater for 20 minutes.

For the sake of keeping things a secret, Fulgur kept the formulas for the elixirs in a safe that he only knew of. He didn’t want to sell the formula or reveal it to the public because he didn’t want the ocean to become something that humankind conquered, and he didn’t want Uki’s secret to be discovered.

Uki didn’t know about what Fulgur did with the formulas, just happy about the fact that they worked. Now, he could stay on the surface for much longer and actually go into the places that Fulgur talked about in his stories.

Their lives were pretty normal, and no one really threatened Uki's existence.

...Yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once, while Uki was chilling in his mermaid form in a large tank in Fulgur's lab that was overlooking the shore, someone burst through the front door. Like a deer in headlights, Uki froze, staring wide-eyed at the person who came in.

"𝐅𝐔𝐔-𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍~! 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆, 𝐁𝐑𝐎! 𝐈 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃~!" shouted the person excitedly. They then noticed Uki, just as Fulgur came into the room with a tired face.

"Y/N, how many times have I told you not to slam open the door like that-"

"𝐎𝐡! 𝐀 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞! 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝- 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋-"

"Y/N! Enough!" said Fulgur before slapping his hand lightly over Y/N's mouth, to which Y/N responded by licking the hand.

Fulgur's face scrunched up in disgust before wiping his hand and going over to Uki, who looked at Fulgur.

"Uki, meet my sibling, Y/N Ovid. Y/N, this is Uki. He's the friend I was talking about. Yes, he's a merperson, get over it."

Y/N gasped, but not in horror like Uki expected, but in delight. Their eyes were sparkling.

Uki's breath hitched when looking at their excited expression.

'How can someone look so gorgeous?'

As a royal mermaid prince, Uki had to go to several balls in order to fulfill his royal duties. Merpeople attended these balls decked out to the nines in fine pearls, sea glass, and surface metals, not only trying to show off their wealth but also appealing to the royals of the kingdom. However beautiful they may have been, none of them could hold a candle to the person standing in front of him.

Y/N held their hand out to Uki, smiling brightly. Uki slowly took it, although unsure of what he was supposed to do. Y/N shook it up and down.

"𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐔𝐤𝐢!"

Uki smiled shyly, while Fulgur eyed his face with suspicion before pulling the two apart.

"Alright, break it up you two. We have work to do. Give me that food," he said as he took the wrapped-up lunch boxes that Y/N cooked for him.

"𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐔𝐤𝐢 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐬𝐨 𝐈 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞…," said Y/N sheepishly, but Fulgur paid no mind to it.

"He can just have some of mine," he said, unwrapping the boxes on a table meant for eating.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨!" said Y/N, offering a rice ball up to Uki. Uki reached down and took it, examining the curious food item.

Although Fulgur showed Uki a lot about the surface, the cuisine was not one of them. Fulgur barely ate himself unless he got a call from his sibling to eat. So, Uki was excited to eat something new. He took one big chomp, then froze.

"...𝐈𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝?" asked Y/N, who watched Uki's reaction, hoping it wasn't terrible. Y/N took a liking to Uki and hoped that he would enjoy their food. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, after all.

Uki then looked at Y/N with shining eyes.

"It's- It's AMAZING! More please!" he said, making grabby hands. He didn't care if he seemed like an infant, Uki wanted more.

Y/N laughed before handing over more rice balls to him.

Fulgur watched the whole interaction while sipping on tea that Y/N put in a thermos bottle for him. He had a feeling about what was going to happen but decided not to comment on it. If it happened, it happened.

And it did.

From that day onwards, Y/N came daily to the lab, always bringing delicious smelling and tasting food for the three of them to eat. Y/N got to know more about Uki, as well as tried out Fulgur's underwater breathing elixir, even swimming with Uki in his tank.

Uki was thrilled to meet someone new from the surface. From Y/N, Uki learned about the concept of "university" and found out that Y/N wanted to specialize in genetic research. He also got to know more about their family (including Fulgur, or Fuu-chan, as Y/N calls him) and why Y/N liked cooking. Y/N got to learn about Uki's past, including how he was often left alone by his peers because of his powers (though he forgot to tell Y/N about the fact that he was a prince). As the two got to know more about each other, Y/N eventually felt more than just initial attractiveness towards Uki. They found out that he was not only humorous and cute but also that he was stronger than he knows, as well as humble and kind.

Because they held Uki in such high regard, Y/N felt like helping Fulgur improve the formula for turning Uki's fin into legs. Because of their help, Fulgur and Y/N were able to improve the elixir enough to extend the time that Uki could walk on land from 30 minutes to three hours.

These changes led Y/N to beg Fulgur to allow them to take Uki out to the rest of the town. They promised wholeheartedly that they would keep Uki safe and make sure that he would never be found out by having a timer to warn them before he would have his fin turn back into legs.

Fulgur was extremely reluctant: he never brought Uki too far from his lab, and he was always there to make sure nothing was to happen to Uki. Sure, the elixir they used for turning Uki's fin into legs was much more improved, and Uki was able to walk very well. Fulgur was able to teach Uki enough human customs to not stand out too much, but still, Fulgur couldn't help but worry. And if Uki was ever found out, then what would ever happen to Y/N? Fulgur made a promise to their late parents that he would protect them no matter what.

Despite these many questions, one look into Y/N's eyes showed that Y/N would not give up on bringing Uki more into the human world, with or without Fulgur's approval. Fulgur sighed, knowing he'd much prefer it if Y/N could do it with his approval than without. So, he begrudgingly let them go.

Before Y/N could run off, Fulgur hurriedly set a timer watch and placed it around Y/N's wrist, while Y/N just rolled their eyes and nodded.

"Watch out for numbness in the legs, it's a sign that he's turning back."

They gave him a thumbs up in understanding, saying they'll be careful, before squealing in delight and turning around to drag Uki away to their car (after giving him an elixir for five hours).

"Be careful!" shouted Fulgur after the car. Luckily, the lab was far from other parts of the town, so no one would hear him.

Fulgur hefted another long sigh, hoping that no incident would happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲?" asked Y/N tentatively, looking over at Uki. They were standing in the lobby area of a club. While Y/N wore a white crop top (note: anyone can wear a crop top!) with deep purple wide-leg suit trousers, Uki was decked out with black wide-leg suit trousers, a white belt with a silver buckle, a deep purple shirt, and a black leather jacket. Around his neck were a matching black leather choker and silver chains. Though his hair was unstyled, Uki was, to Y/N at least, making the room seem much hotter than it already was.

Uki nodded, his heart thumping wildly. He was nervous but excited. He was about to be surrounded by a bunch of humans when the most he had been around was two at once.

Despite all these new things, Uki knew he would be alright. After all, Y/N would be with him the entire night, something he absolutely loved, and he was going to learn more about human culture.

Y/N nodded before they beckoned him to follow them to a door. As they got closer, Uki heard the sounds of booming, music, and laughter getting louder. Once Y/N pulled back the door, the full blast of music hit Uki's ears, and his eyes were occupied by the neon lights blaring in the darkness and the crowds of humans dancing in the strobe lights.

Uki was still, taking it all in. He was really here, like a real human. Y/N laughed at his dumbstruck expression, before taking his arm and pulling him into the dark area.

Through Y/N, Uki experienced club dancing, socializing, and, most importantly, alcohol.

Y/N actually knew the club's two bartenders: Luca and Nina. After drinking something Y/N thought Uki would like, Uki got a little tipsy and called Nina's hair "old hair" because it was the color grey.

Panicked, Y/N tried to explain to Nina that "old hair" was just what his culture called grey hair. Before Nina could get offended, however, Uki commented on how pretty Nina was, too pretty for "old hair", which flattered her and made her anger disappear in a moment. Instead, she gave Uki more to drink, which made him giggle and thank her while offering her his glass with two hands.

Y/N smacked their forehead in exhaustion before ordering a drink from Luca, who laughed at Y/N's reaction and pogged his way into making Y/N a drink while making them laugh.

Uki and Y/N had so much fun, and they were so tipsy, that they forgot something very important. The time.

At some point, Uki started tapping Y/N on the shoulder.

"Hey Y/N, my legs feel weird, haha," slurred out Uki. Y/N laughed with him before Fulgur's words vaguely came into their mind.

"Watch out for numbness in the legs, it's a sign that he's turning back."

Y/N's eyes widened, and they looked down at Uki's legs. Sure enough, the pants were starting to stretch out to accommodate for the fusing of legs. In a panic, Y/N hoisted Uki to his feet while he still had them, and excused themselves from Luca and Nina, who waved their goodbyes.

Although Y/N had some trouble dealing with Uki's floppy legs when they felt just as drunk, their adrenaline enabled them to keep going.

Luckily, Y/N and Uki made it to the club's mixed restroom in time before Uki's legs were completely molded together. Once inside the mixed restroom, which was blessedly empty, Y/N opened one of the big stalls and placed Uki in there before taking out a water bottle of seawater from their bag.

Uki's legs were now completely gone, and all that was left was the shredded remains of the pants he wore and his purple tail, dull from the lack of seawater. Y/N opened the bottle and poured its contents all over Uki's tail, which immediately soaked the water up and became shimmery.

Before Y/N could sigh in relief, however, a gasp and a small scream came from behind them, and Y/N whipped around in a panic only to make eye contact with two people standing at the entrance of the mixed restroom. One was trying to frantically pull their phone out from their purse and another was on the verge of screaming even louder.

Y/N swiftly ran up to them and knocked them out, before taking the phone that came out from the purse and checking it to make sure no footage of Uki was taken. Luckily, there wasn't, and Y/N hoped that by the time the people woke up, they would think that they had a crazy dream. Just in case, Y/N phoned Luca and Nina to "take care of them" by giving them a drink at the bar strong enough to give them short-term memory loss. They explained it was because one of them was hitting on Uki, and Y/N wanted them to forget Uki's face. Nina chuckled knowingly before agreeing, while Luca just laughed at Y/N in the background.

After getting their confirmation, Y/N, now having a blushy face, gave Uki a spare elixir they had in their bag and called a taxi to take them home. They also took out a pair of pants for Uki to wear on the way out. The elixir was one of Fulgur's earlier creations, so they would only maintain Uki's legs for 30 minutes. So, Y/N decided to go back to their penthouse, which was much closer to the club than Fulgur's lab.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y/N sighed in relief as they put down Uki's body into the large bathtub of their penthouse (Y/N's got muscles!). They then turned on the faucet and poured a chloride-sodium mix into the water to make an environment similar to the ocean for Uki's tail to be healthy.

Neither of them spoke, the room silent save for the sound of running water as the volume in the tub increased.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢… 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧," said Y/N tentatively.

Uki's attention snapped to Y/N, a face of disbelief.

"What are you saying? I want to be here with you...," he said in a tone of disappointment and hurt.

But Uki and Y/N both knew that Y/N was right. If Uki were to be discovered, not only would people forcibly want to take him away, but they would also go after the rest of Uki's home.

Still, Uki was stubborn: he had just been able to live the life that he wanted to, where he was accepted and had someone who looked past his powers. Heck, looked past the fact that he was an entirely different species!

"But- But Y/N? What if I wanted to stay?"

"𝐔𝐤𝐢-"

"WHAT IF I WANTED TO STAY! I- THEY- THEY CAN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING TO ME! I- I WANT TO BE WITH YOU! I- I JUST!- I just-... Y/N. Please," said Uki desperately, as he reached out to them from his place in Y/N's large bathtub.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢…," said Y/N, walking over to where Uki was before taking his hand with a sad smile. "If you stay here, you might die. Today was a really close call."

Uki was about to protest before Y/N placed a finger over his mouth.

"𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠, 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐇𝐞𝐜𝐤, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞. 𝐔𝐤𝐢…"

They trailed off before taking a deep breath and both of Uki's hands in their hands and looking into his eyes.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢, 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 - 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞. 𝐁𝐮𝐭, 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐈 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞."

Uki's heart thumped loudly and blood rushed to his ears. Y/N... loves him?? But still wants him to be away, for his safety?...

He peered at Y/N through his lashes, trying to pout and show them how much he hated their suggestion, while also trying to hide his blush. But, he also knew that they were very close to being exposed, and they could've both been in danger. There was no way the surface dwellers would accept him. A miracle would have to happen if he wanted to stay. If only he was human...

A lightbulb went off in Uki's head, but he wanted to surprise Y/N. He acted reluctantly as he let go of Y/N's hands and crossed his arms.

"...Fine, I'll go back. But you absolutely have to wait for me on shore tomorrow night."

"𝐈 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐝𝐨," said Y/N with a sigh of relief. Uki then shyly took one of the hands of Y/N's to his lips and gave it a cautious and light kiss. Y/N flushed before laughing and giving his hand a kiss back as if to seal the promise.

Uki and Y/N then spent the rest of the evening together in the bathroom, just talking about things, with the occasional forehead and hand kisses. Eventually, Y/N brought their waterproof tablet to the bathroom so that they could watch KDramas together while holding hands.

All the while, Uki's plan was forming in his head.

When Fulgur came to the penthouse later on, he drove Uki back to the ocean, making sure that Uki was doing okay after finding out what happened in the club. Uki then waved to Fulgur as he swam into the sea, then dived down, swimming towards the capital to get to his room in the palace.

Once in his room, he gathered some valuables he owned, including several golden doubloons and rare commodities made from the surface's trash. These items were stashed away in a bag and hidden in his closet.

With this bag, Uki resolved to go to the place he was forbidden from going to - the Sea Witch's cave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome," said a voice echoing through the cave as Uki entered it.

Uki was at the witch's cave, hoping to gain a way to become a human. If the change had to be permanent, Uki didn't think it was so bad. After all, the majority of the Mujigae kingdom didn't care about him, so his becoming a human shouldn't be that much of a deal.

Uki clutched his bag of trading items close to his chest as he was surrounded by skeletons - likely the army for the witch, and also the damned souls that weren't able to fulfill their deals with her. He gulped - as powerful as he was, Uki was not able to get out of deals that were written the way that the witch wrote them, as the witch used magic for her contracts.

Finally, Uki got to the innermost part of the cave, where he saw whom he presumed was the witch, hunched over a black pot filled with various ingredients. Noticing his presence, the witch turned around, arms spread in welcome.

"Hello! I've been expecting you," said the Sea Witch, with a sharp grin. Uki heard rumors of the Sea Witch, though seeing the real being was quite different from legend. He never saw anything like her.

The witch was not quite an octomer, though she had tentacles, not quite a lanternfish mer, though a large light source protuded from her forehead, and not quite a shark mer, although she was the color and had the teeth of one.

Though her smile was welcoming, her eyes were cold, black voids. Uki got chills from the sight of her, but steeled himself when remembering Y/N's face, and thinking about the surprised and happy face that they'll have once they see Uki.

"*Ahem* How can I become human?"

"Oh," said the witch in surprise. "I haven't heard that request in a while. Well, you need to give up your most prized possession."

"I see- well, here's my signed copy of a book I have cherished since childhood-"

"I'll stop you right there, honey," said the witch, her face growing into a twisted grin as she seemed to grow in size in front of Uki.

"I require nonmaterial things, such as your voice, among other things."

"...What other things?"

"Hmm, memories of that person you like in their head," said the witch, as she brought out a looking crystal made of sea glass, and an image of Y/N buying groceries showed up.

Uki's eyes widened in panic.

"How do you have that?" he asked as he reached for the orb in a panic.

The witch put her hand in front of him, stopping him from getting the crystal.

"You can give me your voice or your powers, and I will also be taking the memories of you from this person. There is a hefty price to pay for wanting to become human. It's a hard spell to perform, you know."

With her words, the witch conjured a contract out of thin air, and a pen to sign it with, dipped in gold ink. The contract stated that if Uki wanted to have what he lost come back to him, he had to make his special person remember him and love him back within a week. If he failed, then Uki would become a servant to the Sea Witch for eternity.

Uki hesitated as he held the pen. Y/N, forgetting about him? He would have to befriend them again, make them love him again... And what if he failed?

But, if he were to surpass all the odds, it meant being able to be with them for the rest of his life. Uki made a decision: he would do it. He knew he could. So, his grip on the pen became tighter.

"I'll give you my voice. Please, make me a human," he said, his hand decisively signing the contract.

The witch's smile turned wicked and her eyes twinkled maliciously for a moment before she composed herself and waved her hand, making the contract disappear. She then beckoned Uki toward the center of the cave. He set down his things, before swimming to the center. He eyed the witch warily but remembered that what he was doing was all for Y/N's sake, and began to prepare for the worst.

"No funny business," he warned, his eyes glowing with psychic energy. The witch flinched before nodding hastily, then began to chant around Uki. Golden and green swirls of energy surrounded Uki, particularly his legs, and he began to change.

While she was chanting, the Sea Witch reflected on the deal she just made. She knew of Uki's power and was one of the few who coveted it. She wouldn't dare harm the vessel that held it before she could use it as her own. The Sea Witch was sure that Uki would fail, so she wasn't too worried that she wouldn't get her power. She would just wait until the time was up. And of course, she wouldn't let Uki alone either - she'd do her best to make the spell so strong that she was sure his precious person would never remember him ever again.

Though she thought that Uki would never notice her thoughts through her chanting, Uki heard them loud and clear. He began to make a plan on his own - he had to get back to Y/N safely and had to help them remember who he was.

And he wouldn't be alone in getting help. Luckily, Uki had an advantage that the Sea With did not think of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fulgur was on the beach, getting ready to go underwater to record more observations on the wildlife in the coral forests near the shore, before hearing a series of splashes coming from the ocean. He turned around, only to witness Uki coming out from the water, half-naked and with a happy smile, waving to Fulgur. Uki had a bag slung over his shoulder, and a skirt made of seaweed was clumsily around his waist.

Fulgur laughed at Uki's appearance and was about to wave back with glee before his eyes widened in realization.

"Wait, Uki- how do you have legs?? I didn't give you an elixir... WAIT YOU NEED PANTS-"

Uki opened his mouth, trying to speak to explain before remembering that he had given his voice away. He then had an idea, grabbing a notebook from his bag (kept dry using magic) and scribbling hurriedly on it with charcoal.

He came close to Fulgur, holding out the notebook to him so he could read it out loud.

"I may have traded my tail and possibly sold my souldtothedevilIneed yourhelptohaveY/Nrememberme- WAIT WHAT-"

Fulgur grabbed Uki's shoulders, panic in his eyes.

"YOU MADE A DEAL WITH A WITCH?? AND Y/N NEEDS TO REMEMBER YOU TO BREAK THE SPELL?? UKI- WHY??"

Uki explained through writing that he wanted to be on land with Y/N like other humans, without the help of potions and such. Fulgur groaned at Uki's stupidity, head in his hands.

"Wait, why can't we just tell Y/N about you?"

Uki shook his head, explaining that Y/N had to remember him on their own, and also love him back. Fulgur sighed again, before grabbing his phone to call Y/N over. Uki was about to smack Fulgur's phone out of his hands, before he was calmed down.

"Chill - I'm only inviting them over. Then, I'll check to verify that they really forgot you. If they did, then I'll re-introduce you as a friend who's helping me with my research. Got it?"

Excitedly, Uki nodded, his eyes shining and his hands making lots of hearts and thank you signs to Fulgur, who just sighed at his antics and gripped his forehead.

"It's going to be a long week. You think you can really do it? Beat the witch's conditions, I mean," asked Fulgur. Uki nodded.

"Alright then. Well, first order of business, you need some pants," said Fulgur pointedly as he gestured to the flimsy seaweed skirt that was slipping apart. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around Uki's waist. While tying it, he continued speaking.

"Let's try to get my sibling to remember you by recreating similar moments. For instance, why don't we try making some rice balls to give them when they get here? They told me they'll be here in an hour, so let's go."

Uki nodded, fists balling up in determination. Rice balls were the first thing he tasted on the surface, and they were from the hands of Y/N. This time, he would make some for them, hopefully just as good.

Though he was saddened by the fact that Y/N wasn't waiting for him on the shore, just like they promised the night before, he was ready to try and gain their love back again. He will get through this, and hopefully, get Y/N to remember him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After lots of struggling with forming proper rice balls, putting in the correct ratio of black sesame seeds, nori, and rice, as well as other seasonings and fillings, and plating them, Uki finally finished making rice balls that looked similar to the ones he ate when he first met Y/N.

He stood anxiously in the lab's kitchen, waiting for Y/N's arrival, when someone burst through the door.

"𝐅𝐔𝐔-𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍! 𝐈'𝐌 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄! 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝?" said the musical voice that Uki had been waiting for for hours. His heart clenched and he longed to go out right away and just embrace Y/N, but that would just be weird. Y/N doesn't remember him. Just in case they did happen to remember, though, Uki cautiously peeked around the corner. His breath hitched in his throat again. They looked even more gorgeous than last night, and even the first time they met.

Their hair was tousled, likely because they drove here with the windows down. On their face was a large smile as they glomped Fulgur, who just patted them awkwardly on the back, as he thought about how Uki must be hiding somewhere and watching this with a sad face. After they parted, Fulgur rubbed his hands on his neck.

"Hey Y/N, I wanted to ask you if you remember Uki? You know, my friend I met in uni?" asked Fulgur, lying about Uki being a university friend. Unfortunately for Uki, Y/N looked confused.

"𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐢? 𝐍𝐨, 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫."

Uki's eyes widened at their words. That means that Y/N didn't completely forget about him.

'Maybe...' he thought, and he cautiously stepped out, rice balls on a tray in his hand. It only took Y/N a couple seconds until they noticed them.

"𝐎𝐡, 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨! 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐔𝐤𝐢? 𝐈'𝐦 𝐘/𝐍, 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮! 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧!" they exclaimed with excitement, eyes sparkling just as brightly as when they first met. Uki smiled and nodded. Y/N tilted their head, confused as to why Uki wasn't speaking.

"Ah, right. I forgot to mention that he lost his voicebox in an accident recently," said Fulgur, trying to come up with a semi-reasonable explanation as to what happened.

"𝐎𝐡 𝐧𝐨! 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐔𝐤𝐢!" said Y/N. "𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧. 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐂𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡…," they pondered.

Fulgur gave Uki a look. They were at least able to confirm something: Y/N hadn't completely forgotten about Uki. At least he seemed somewhat familiar to them. It means that they would be more comfortable when hanging around Uki.

Putting that revelation aside, Uki went up to Y/N and offered them some rice balls.

"𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞? 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮!" they said with a large grin, swiping one of the rice balls before chomping down on it.

"𝐌𝐦𝐦!! 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝! 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫! 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞?" Uki beamed, and shook his head, holding the tray out to Y/N, who took another two balls.

Witnessing the entire exchange, Fulgur sighed in relief.

'They'll be fine,' he thought. "Alright, Y/N. I'll leave him to you," said Fulgur, before going back to his research. Y/N looked at Uki before blushing a little and taking out a notepad from their bag.

"𝐔-𝐮𝐡𝐦, 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞?" they said tentatively as they held out the notepad to Uki. Uki set down the rice ball tray on a nearby table (FAR AWAY from all the lab equipment, by the way) before delicately taking Y/N's notepad and taking out a pen from his pocket.

"Thank you," wrote Uki in cursive. Y/N nodded, as they looked away and began to fan themselves.

'𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝?? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞?? 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲- 𝐀𝐆𝐇 𝐏𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐈𝐌 𝐇𝐄'𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔, 𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐓!'

Chaotic thoughts ran through Y/N's head, and Uki couldn't help but listen to them. Normally, he would never invade Y/N's privacy, but he did have to check on his progress to see how they were feeling about him. He was pleased after listening for a little while and was even proud of himself for being able to make them flustered again, even though they lost their memory.

'Good, I just need to keep this up,' he thought, as he looked out the window behind Y/N's head. The sun was setting, and a day had gone by.

Only six days remained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest continued much like the first time Y/N and Uki met, except Uki didn't tell much about his powers or his mermaid self to Y/N, just about how he grew up pretty alone. Uki got to learn the same things that Y/N told him before, including something they didn't tell him before: two creeps.

Two creeps showed up at Y/N's university a couple months ago, and they were constantly following Y/N around and trying to isolate and talk with them about random things for no reason. Y/N confessed to Uki that they were getting really sick of their nonsense, and considered calling the police on them many times.

"Why didn't you?" wrote Uki, frowning at Y/N out of concern. Y/N shrugged and shook their head.

"𝐈'𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧."

They then started to flex their arm muscles jokingly, to which Uki silently chuckled at.

"𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞."

Uki and Y/N were able to grow closer throughout the week, easily because Y/N felt comfortable with Uki. They really liked him - his manners, how he always tried to take care of them, and how he was always concerned for them, but still kept his boundaries. Y/N appreciated that a lot, especially when they didn't meet many people like Uki.

So, on the last day that Uki had to get Y/N to remember him, Y/N miraculously decided to invite Uki over to their place. Uki, surprised but excited, agreed after confirming that it was alright for him to go.

They drove from Fulgur's lab to Y/N's penthouse. As Uki stepped into the place, he remembered the last time he was there. It was the last time Y/N knew of his true self as a merman. It was the last time he felt their embrace and kisses and listened to their words of love. It was the last time he saw them before he gained permanent legs. Y/N was fidgeting as they saw Uki scan their home.

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭?"

Uki turned to them before smiling brightly and giving two thumbs-ups. Y/N smiled in relief at his response, before offering Uki something to eat. Eagerly, he nodded and sat in the dining room while Y/N went to the kitchen to whip up something - they called it spaghetti alla carbonara. As they cooked, they heard Uki sniff the air which was now filling with the smell of garlic and fried eggs.

When Y/N finally finished up with the dish and placed it on the table, Uki looked at Y/N with wide eyes. The dish looked so delicious and smelled amazing, that Uki could not wait to dig in. Y/N chuckled and handed Uki a fork. He stared at the utensil. Long ago, during some of his first weeks here, he thought that the silverware was meant for hair care. Fulgur was quick to teach him otherwise, but Uki still had embarrassing memories of that time. Uki sucked in a deep breath before positioning the fork like Fulgur instructed him to. He then took a large portion of the spaghetti and shoved it in his mouth before any noodle or egg piece could fall off. His face became one of awe at the taste, and he smiled widely at Y/N. The spaghetti was delicious. Y/N grinned fondly at Uki's content face before eating some spaghetti too.

Before Uki could revel in the flavors of the food any longer, he was startled by loud banging noises on Y/N's door. He turned to Y/N questioningly, motioning at the door, before noticing that Y/N's eyes were widened in shock.

"𝐈… 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐮-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞. 𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞…"

Uki's eyes widened, before turning to the door. The door got pounded on again before the lock on the door started jingling. Wariness heightening, Uki stood up and positioned himself in front of Y/N protectively. They heard muffled talking on the other side.

"...open!...damn door..."

"..hurry... stupid-"

Uki and Y/N then heard the door make a *click* before swinging wide open, revealing two tall figures.

"Y/N!~ WE'RE HERE!~ IT'S ME, FLORA!" said the tall female, who tried to swoop and hug Y/N, not even registering Uki's presence until she bumped into him.

"AND JETT!" yelled the tall male, likely Flora's sibling, who tried to tackle Y/N and shove Uki aside, but Uki refused to budge, only holding onto Y/N's hand, which was now balled into a fist.

"𝐖-𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊! 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐰𝐨?? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞? 𝐍𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞?!"

"Well, sweetie, we found out that you don't dorm in the uni, and so we wanted to hang out, but couldn't!" whined Jett with a pout.

"So, we took some time to look through some security cameras and also we looked after you as you went on your way home! Now, we can hang out whenever!" said Flora ecstatically, her face showing a smile that was off-putting to Uki.

Uki glared at the two silently. Not only did they ruin the atmosphere, but they dare to stalk Y/N?! He was pissed. Clearly, his negative energy was apparent, because Jett then turned to Uki with a glare.

"And who are ya, huh?" he asked pointedly, going up close to Uki and poking at his face. Uki wanted to badly slap his hand away, but thought about Y/N's safety and instead decided to wait it out and see what happens. He gave no reaction.

"Huh... huh.... huh...," repeated Jett as he continued to poke Uki. Flora was snickering in the background.

Just as Y/N, who was really ticked off by the entire situation, was about to tell them to get out, Jett froze, and silence filled the room. He then raised his hand threateningly.

"𝐖𝐚𝐢𝐭, 𝐉𝐞𝐭𝐭-!"

"Why won't you talk?!" exclaimed Jett, harshly smacking Uki's face and knocking him off balance. Uki fell to the floor, and the wind knocked out of his lungs by how strongly he was struck.

"Seriously, brother. His face pisses me off!" screeched Flora, her face wrinkled in disgust.

The siblings then turned to Y/N, sickeningly sweet smiles on their faces. Y/N just turned away from them, instead going to Uki's side and helping him up from the floor.

"Y/N, babe - why would you want to stick to that mute son of a gun?" asked Jett, annoyed at Y/N for ignoring them.

"Yeah, aren't we more charming to you? I thought you liked us," whined Flora.

Y/N rolled their eyes.

"𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲? 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 - 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬!! 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐢 - 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐔𝐤𝐢 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧! 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭, 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞. 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐬," Y/N said as they held up their phone, "911" brightly lit on the screen.

Jett huffed before kicking one of Y/N's potted plants near the front door. Flora glared at Uki on the way out, sticking up a birdie with her hands before leaving.

When it was clear that the two were gone, Y/N sighed in relief before turning around and touching Uki's cheek tenderly, bruised by Jett's punch.

"𝐎𝐡, 𝐧𝐨, 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭?"

Uki shook his head, but Y/N didn't care.

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐥𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐮𝐮-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐉𝐞𝐭𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟."

They sat Uki down in the living room before heading to their medicine cabinet in the kitchen to grab some ointment, band-aids, and ice. The spaghetti was long forgotten on the dining table.

Y/N swiftly came back and gingerly put the ice pack on Uki's face, instructing him to hold onto it while getting into the car and driving to Fulgur's laboratory.

While in the car, Uki took out his mini notebook from his jacket pocket before scribbling something down quickly as Y/N pulled into Fulgur's lab's garage. Just as they finished parking and started to take out the band-aids and ointment for Uki's bruise, Uki finished with his inquiry and held it up to their face.

"Why did you help me? Those people looked dangerous... Are you sure you won't regret it later?" said the note, as Uki looked down and took Y/N's hand that was free from holding anything. His eyes were trained on the floor of the car in worry.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮… 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞?" asked Y/N, making a face showing how in disbelief they were at Uki. Uki just nodded slightly, his eyes boring into the ground while fiddling with the zipper on Y/N's jacket with one hand and keeping an iron grip on Y/N's free hand with his other one. Y/N laughed.

"𝐍𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐔𝐤𝐢. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬! 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮… 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐔𝐤𝐢, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 - 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝." said Y/N.

Uki's heart fluttered, and his face flushed as he looked up from the ground to stare at Y/N. Tears started to form in his eyes. Y/N said this to him before - he couldn't believe that Y/N would say those words to him again. It showed how much Y/N really loved him.

He smiled, causing the tears to roll down his cheeks, and let out a laugh. Only, this laugh wasn't silent - it was audible, and a musical, low-pitched laugh came out heartily.

Y/N smiled before their eyes widened in realization along with Uki's.

"𝐔𝐤𝐢?… 𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡? 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲??" said Y/N with wonder as they reached out to touch Uki's face and wiped away a tear. Uki grasped at his throat.

"Ah, ah, oh my- oh my gosh. I- I HAVE MY VOICE BACK! Y/N, THIS IS WHAT I SOUND LIKE! IT'S ME, UKI!" exclaimed Uki with elation. He then quickly got out of the car, Y/N following after him. Once facing Y/N, Uki eagerly took their hands and started dancing around with them. They laughed with him as they spun around.

The joy was cut short when Y/N suddenly screamed from pain. They clutched their head, as memories of Uki and Y/N together came into their mind. Tears began to roll down Y/N's face, as they looked up at him.

"𝐖𝐞- 𝐔𝐬- 𝐈- 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞, 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭- 𝐔𝐤𝐢, 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲-"

Uki immediately pulled Y/N into a hug.

"Don't be, because you remembered me in the end anyways."

Y/N clutched onto Uki's shirt, sobbing into it as they remembered everything - their first meeting, their club experience, and everything Y/N said to Uki the night before they lost their memory, including their confession. They settled into a quiet embrace, and then Y/N looked at the ocean, where Uki was from.

Behind him, the sun set on the horizon. Uki gripped Y/N as the sun dipped below the water. Y/N broke the curse that the Sea Witch put on Uki just in time, and they were now standing together.

"NOOOOOOO!" bellowed a noise from the ocean.

Y/N and Uki looked at the ocean tensely as a giant whirlpool formed. From it, a gigantic tentacle emerged from the water. Sensing danger, Uki's eyes glowed as he began to gather psychic energy in his hands to fight whatever threat was coming at them. He also created a barrier near the beach's shore, isolating the sight and sound of the beach, ensuring that innocent and nosy passersby wouldn't come and become nuisances in the likely battle.

Y/N took out the small laser pistol from their car's glovebox that Fulgur made for them for their birthday. Behind them, Fulgur came out from his lab with a large gun that had red energy charged at the tip, ready to fire.

"YOU- YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FAIL! YOUR POWERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MINE! HOW DARE YOU!" bellowed the Sea Witch, as she emerged from the whirlpool. Her enormous form towered over them.

The witch was pissed off, to say the least. She was planning on taking Uki's powers and taking over the Mujigae kingdom with it, taking her time because she thought that the power extraction would be a breeze with her contract, but now that Uki was no longer bound by it, all the waiting she did was for naught. The powers were not hers.

The Sea Witch looked in Uki's direction, before making eye contact with Y/N. The black orbs of her eyes seethed with rage, and she unleashed human skeleton soldiers onto the beach.

"GIVE HIM TO ME!" she screeched.

Fulgur immediately started to fire at the skeleton soldiers, while tossing a water-breathing elixir to Y/N. Y/N, who knew what this meant, caught it and chugged it down before running in the direction of the Sea Witch. Uki ran with them, suspending Y/N in midair while they ran as his legs turned into a tail the moment his feet touched the water. On the way to the Sea Witch, Y/N and Uki fought off skeleton soldiers - Y/N in the air and Uki in the water - that surrounded them, trying to prevent them from reaching the Sea Witch.

No matter how close they got to the witch, however, they still tried to maintain their distance. There was a whirlpool surrounding her, and Y/N, as a human, could definitely not handle the strong currents that would pull them into the whirlpool and to the ocean floor.

"UUUUUKIIIII!!!!" shouted a slightly high-pitched male voice. Uki turned to see below him, only to find that his three brothers, Sonny, Alban, and Yugo were swimming up to him. His eyes shined in happiness, and he waved at them.

"WHAT'S GOING ON, BROTHER?? WHO THE HELL IS THIS WITCH??" asked Sonny as he crushed a skeleton soldier's head with his fists. Y/N gaped at him from behind Uki.

'𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞!' they thought excitedly, looking between them all. Alban noticed them first.

"Ehhh?? Who's this? Is this the person you left us for??" asked Alban, raising his eyebrows while scanning Y/N. Uki, seeing that his eyes were wandering, went quickly into the water and covered Alban's eyes, slightly irritated.

"Everyone, meet Y/N. Y/N, these are three of my brothers. Sonny, Alban, and Yugo."

"Yo, how you doin?" asked Yugo, a cheeky smirk on his face as he winked at Y/N. Y/N laughed.

"𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫. 𝐖𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐡, 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥," said Y/N more seriously, turning to the Sea Witch. Sonny's eyes darkened.

"Alright, we're ready to fight. Our kingdom is in danger, after all," said Yugo, getting out black pearls from his crossbody bag and charging them with blue sparks. Y/N's eyes widened.

"𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦?...," they said in shock.

"Uh.. we'll talk about that later," said Uki. "For now, let's get them!"

Sonny crushed multiple skeletons with his bare hands surrounded by yellow energy, while Alban had daggers charged with orange energy in his hands, causing skeletons to disintegrate upon contact.

Meanwhile, Y/N was above the water, shooting at floating skeletons and the Sea Witch whenever they got the chance. Uki used his psychic powers to compress the skeletons into balls before volleying them at the Sea Witch. Yugo shot charged black pearls using a slingshot, which went out of the water and gave strong electric shocks to the Sea Witch's large form upon contact. She cried out in rage, before using one of her tentacles to swipe at all of them. Coming off from her tentacle were shards of bone, likely her skeleton soldiers that she crushed up in order to make missiles to aim at the group.

Some of them were heading straight toward Uki and Yugo, but before they could get any closer to them, Y/N was in front of them with their jacket in their hands like a shield. While most shards of bone got stuck in the jacket's thick material, some smaller shards skid over the tops of Y/N's arms, making small and long scrapes on them. Eventually, a skeleton soldier's skull made its way to Y/N, knocking into them hard enough to break Uki's concentration in levitating them.

Y/N fell into the water, knocked unconscious by the force of the waves as they began to get closer to the whirlpool, which would drown them eventually and bring them to the bottom of the ocean.

"Y/N!" yelled Uki, as he reached out for Y/N's hand. But Y/N was too far from him.

Luckily, Yugo was nearby and he grabbed Y/N before they could get sucked into the whirlpool.

"I'll bring them to the shore!" shouted Yugo as he started speed-skimming the water to the beach. The Sea Witch, thinking that Uki was now preoccupied with Y/N, shrank to go after the now-defenseless kingdom. She left the whirlpool behind, hoping that Uki and the others would get caught in it.

Uki nodded, before glaring at the whirlpool.

"You're going to pay for that, binch."

He headed straight in, Sonny and Alban following suit. Unlike what the Sea Witch thought, the whirlpool was almost a shortcut to the Mujigae kingdom. Uki, using his foresight, knew this, and he took it in order to get to the palace before the Sea Witch could.

On his way to the palace, Uki, Sonny, and Alban dealt with the Sea Witch's various skeleton soldiers.

Some time later, Yugo swam up to them, joining them as they fought bones and bones.

"Is Y/N okay?" asked Uki worriedly while crushing a skull with purple energy. Yugo nodded, telling Uki about how Fulgur was waiting on the surface and that Y/N was getting treated now by "these two people - one blonde and one with old hair".

Uki sighed in relief. Y/N would be safe with Luca and Nina.

"Alright then," he said, as he turned to the direction of the palace. His brothers looked at the same direction, their faces grim and serious. "Let's go."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a couple minutes of speed-swimming, Uki's face became one of shock as he saw the state the capital of the Mujigae Kingdom was in.

His home, the palace, was now scattered as debris around town, tearing into other merpeople's homes. Around him, people were wailing, trying to find their loved ones in the debris. The throne room, with the shining pearl throne, was exposed, with the king sitting on top.

"Yugo, Alban, you guys get to father first. Sonny and I are going to help these people."

Yugo and Alban took off in the direction of the king, as Uki's eyes glowed and Sonny's hands were enveloped in yellow energy. As Uki moved the debris around, Sonny helped to pull out anyone who was stuck under it and provided healing using the yellow energy from his hands.

When they were done with the large chunks and most of the civilians were fine, the two swam in the direction of the palace.

Uki quickly swam in front of the throne, where his father was sitting, awaiting the witch.

"Father, what are you doing?? You need to get out of here-"

The king held up his hand, silencing Uki.

"I am staying, son. This is my throne, my home, and I intend to defend it. I intend to protect us."

Uki sighed in exasperation. He knew that the old man had lost most of his power a long time ago - the king was practically defenseless and harmless. Wordlessly, Uki looked at Yugo and Sonny above him, who nodded, then they and Alban grabbed hold of the king.

"You- you rascals! Let me go-"

"No, father. We're getting you to safety," said Sonny, his arm pulling from under the king's right arm. Yugo nodded as he took the king's left arm, and Alban took away the king's trident to hold onto as Sonny and Yugo took the king out of the vicinity. Uki waved to them gratefully, before turning to the entrance to the throne room.

From the Sea Witch's destruction earlier, the throne room, like the rest of the palace and city, was filled with debris and wrecked. Uki got a slight headache thinking about all the damage that he would probably have to help fix using his psychic powers, but then he turned to the task at hand.

Soon, the Sea Witch would be coming to the throne room, but Uki won't let her win. Especially not after what she did to Y/N. His hands balled into fists thinking about how much harm Y/N must be in.

'I need to get back to them quickly,' he thought.

Just as Uki thought that, he heard the sounds of water splashing and the clattering of bones approaching him. He looked up, only to make eye contact with his current object of hate: the Sea Witch.

"OUT OF THE WAY, MEASLY CHILD. DO NOT STAND IN THE WAY OF GREATNESS!"

Uki's eyes glowed bright purple at her words, his rage at her empowering him as his hands got surrounded by purple energy.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE, BINCH!" shouted Uki.

The witch pointed towards him and ordered her army to charge. Uki didn't care. He started to move his glowing hands around, and the water started to swirl around him and the Sea Witch, who started to grow apprehensive.

Her skeleton soldiers couldn't hold against the current that Uki generated, and their bone structure started coming apart as they clattered around them. Uki then started shooting waves upon waves of purple energy blades from his arms, fully disintegrating the skeletons. Though Uki knew that these skeletons were the remains of the merpeople who made contracts with the Sea Witch, he also knew that the latest merperson besides himself who made a contract with her would've been dead by now. Thus, he was just returning the souls back to where they belonged: not in the Sea Witch's possession.

The purple blades of energy were also leaving long gashes on the Sea Witch's body, dark blue blood oozing out of the wounds. The witch cried in rage and pain and began to throw more shards of bone at Uki, which he easily deflected.

In truth, the Sea Witch, without her enhanced size, skeleton army, and potions, was just an outcasted weird lady. She had no real power, unlike Uki. That's why she coveted his power so much: it would make people fear her, possibly respect her.

Uki knew these feelings of wanting to be seen and empowered, but he also knew that this way was definitely not the right way to gain these things. Additionally, the Sea Witch, with her shenanigans, lead a lot of merpeople to their doom, while she took from them what she could. Extortion and murder. Uki could not forgive that.

So, not much mercy was shown when Uki reduced the Sea Witch's skeleton army to sand and brought her to her knees. She was weeping, as her dark blue blood stained the floor of the wrecked throne room.

He used his powers to summon a chain and tie it firmly around the Sea Witch. Sonny returned from taking the king away to a safe place, only to find this scene of Uki in front of the throne, and the Sea Witch bowing before him on the floor, in chains. Sonny swam up to Uki.

"What should we do with her, brother?"

"You're our Moon Guard captain. What do you think?"

"Definitely permanent imprisonment and exile in our volcanic prisons."

"You're the boss."

"I'll get some of my soldiers to escort the witch."

"Thanks, bro."

"Of course."

Sonny then summoned some of his Moon Guard soldiers, who had been going around the kingdom with the Sun Battalion, led by Uki's brother Luca, making sure the citizens were safe. Together with Sonny, they escorted the powerless Sea Witch to the volcanic prison, where she would be placed in a Hell-fire cell, facing the heat of her sins for the rest of her eternity.

When Sonny got back to the throne room, he found his father, the king, sitting on the throne again, talking to Uki. Unlike other times when he saw Uki and the king together, Uki was smiling slightly as the king clapped him on the back for a job well done. Sonny smiled at the sight. It seemed like his brother would finally be okay. He then swam up to them, bowing to the king before turning to Uki.

"So, brother. What will you do now?"

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"𝐎𝐰- 𝐔𝐤𝐢! 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐬!"

"Serves you right, what were you thinking back there trying to block me from those shards of bone. I could've handled myself," said Uki as he tightened the bandage on Y/N's arm. The cuts on them, though not bleeding much anymore, were surrounded by pink welts from the seawater combined with the open wounds.

Y/N winced before laughing through the pain.

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰?" they said jokingly as they placed a hand over Uki's that had rested on their shoulder. Uki pouted.

"You- you're so stupid sometimes," he said, his face getting red from the little skin contact that Y/N initiated.

At the moment, Uki and Y/N were in Fulgur's lab that was overlooking the shore of the beach. Uki was able to be on land in his human form because the magic from his father's trident allowed him legs. Y/N and Uki shared a quiet moment, laughing at each other as they treated each other's wounds.

When they were finished, they made eye contact before resting their foreheads against each other. Uki relished this moment when he could be connected with the person he loved after such a hectic battle. He was relieved that Y/N was okay and grateful that they were both alive in order to experience this moment.

Suddenly, they heard a shout come from outside.

"uuuuUUUUUKIIIIIIIIIII!"

Uki backed up from Y/N and looked out the nearby window, only for his eyes to widen as he saw his brothers Sonny, Alban, and Yugo pop their heads out from the ocean, waving at him. Uki laughed and waved back, but his eyes opened in surprise as more heads popped out from the ocean - the rest of his siblings, some of the townspeople, and even his father, who beckoned him to the ocean. Uki and Y/N shared a look before they got up and rushed outside to the shore.

They were lucky that Fulgur had a private part of the beach, otherwise, paparazzi would be all over the fact that a lot of merpeople were appearing all of a sudden.

Y/N got in front of the king and bowed, while the king just raised his hand.

"You don't need to do that, you're practically family," the king said, teasingly winking at Uki, who flushed.

"𝐓-𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲."

The king smiled, before turning to Uki. Behind the king, the merpeople who popped to the surface bowed to Uki, some thanking him, others praising him. Uki smiled at the sight, slightly flustered as he never though such a thing would happen to him. After saying their greetings, the merpeople disappeared, save for the king, Yugo, Alban, and Sonny. The king opened his mouth.

"Uki, do you like living on land?"

Uki pondered, before nodding.

"But, I also love our home, father."

The king nodded, his smile growing even bigger, prouder, even.

"Alright, then I will give you this," he said, taking a necklace with a small silver charm from his neck.

"But that's your necklace, isn't it?"

"It's fine, it's better for you to have it anyways. This will let you gain legs whenever you are out of the water."

Uki gasped, before gratefully taking the necklace and turning to Y/N excitedly. They hugged, while the others looked on with smiles (except Yugo, who gagged), and slowly started to retreat back into the ocean.

"See you later, brother," said Sonny as he waved at Uki, who smiled at him and waved back.

Once they were under the water, Uki handed the necklace to Y/N, who helped him put on the necklace.

They made eye contact, before clasping each other's hands. The sun was setting, and Uki could not tear his eyes off of Y/N's lips. Having the same thoughts, Y/N leaned closer to Uki, who followed along.

They shared a gentle kiss in the sunset's glow, and they lived happily ever after~

The End.

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Epilogue:

"𝐔𝐤𝐢! 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞!" shouted Y/N with glee as they swam through the ocean in front of their lover.

They were testing out the new and improved elixir that Fulgur came up with in order to breathe underwater like a merperson for a certain amount of time. Instead of allowing the user to create a bubble of air around the face (much more unstable and dangerous), the elixir temporarily gave the user scaly gills around the neck area that allowed the user to gather oxygen particles from the water around them, like most marine wildlife. On Y/N's wrist was a timer that would give a 5-minute warning that the elixir's effects were going to run out.

Although Uki disliked the fact that the gills made it more difficult for him and Y/N to snuggle, he was happy to have the opportunity to show them around the place he grew up in.

Many things changed since Uki and Y/N defeated the Sea Witch and her army. One thing was the fact that the townspeople didn't doubt Uki anymore. They saw how he was kind to help the people when the town was in shambles and how he had no hesitation in facing off against the Sea Witch as she approached the king's throne. They knew that he was a protector, not a threat respected him for it. Some even apologized to him and thanked him for what he did.

Uki, slightly uncomfortable with the people's new attitude but also happy that he could now go around the town with an easier heart and mind, led Y/N through the streets of the capital. He showed them his favorite bookstores, cafes, and places to buy inventions using the trash from the surface.

Y/N marveled at everything - they had never gotten this deep into the ocean, nor did they ever imagine that there was a whole community under the sea to explore. They pointed at all the bits of coral that surrounded them, exclaiming about how beautiful the construction of all the homes was underwater, and thought that the inventions of the merpeople were amazing. They also picked up some trash that was lingering on the ocean floor, angrily muttering about how humans are so careless sometimes with their trash.

Seeing how genuinely concerned they were for his home made Uki's heart clench. Whenever they found bits of sea glass or a shiny shell, Y/N would show it to Uki proudly, and Uki never hesitated to take what they brought to him into his shoulder bag. They would be looking at these spoils later at the surface in Fulgur's lab.

As Y/N continued to go around, greeting some merpeople who curiously looked on at the pair, Uki thought about his life thus far.

A couple years ago, Uki never would've thought that he'd journey to the surface, find a partner from there, or have to fight a Sea Witch to keep them. A couple years ago, he would've been stuck in his room, poring over books that depicted love that he thought he would never have. Yet, there he was, in the ocean with his lover, and he now had the ability to be with them on both land and sea.

He thought of his desk in his room in the palace, which was now bigger because it was remodeled after the Sea Witch destroyed a lot of it. On his desk was a half-completed bracelet made of the highest quality white shells, purple sea glass, and gold wire he could find. The middle of the bracelet had a smooth, shining, light pink Akoya pearl.

Uki wanted to propose to Y/N with it once he was ready.

But for now, he was content to collect the rest of their things before returning to the surface and enjoying some riceballs in their new shared apartment.

He couldn't wait.

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Thank you for reading!! I had lots of midterms these past weeks so unfortunately this was delayed a lot sorry - I meant to post for the noctyx anniversary ahhhhhh :( hope yall liked it tho!

sonny and yugo may come out later this week after my midterms :))

[allemantheias]

Repaying AU. Little teaser from another wip. WC 484.

"Is Coronel Vargas available?" While I drove here, I ran all possible scenarios through my head. I didn't know which of them I should tell first, so after thinking about it the whole way here, I decided on Alejandro.

"The coronel is not here at the moment. Do you want to leave a message?" The woman behind the desk at the entrance doesn't even look up while she talks to me.

"His dark blue Lexus RZ is parked here, and all six patrol cars are too." I counted the patrol cars two weeks ago and Alejandro drove me home in his personal car to not draw attention to us in case of cartels scouting the roads, just now before I walked into the building I counted the patrol cars too.

"Who exactly are you that you know which car is his?" The receptionist pays attention to me now, I can see the shock in her eyes.

"I'm the woman he and Sergeant Major Parra rescued from cartel members two weeks ago. It's urgent." I'm not in the mood for this.

"I'll see if I can contact him. Have a seat in the waiting area." She goes back to ignoring me, focusses on the papers on the desk and I take the closest seat I find, put my bag down on the seat next to me. Unfortunately, I can't hear if she's actually calling Alejandro or fakes it to please me. Rudy and Alejandro won't leave me hanging if they know I'm here. They told me to come to them if I ever needed anything. Twenty minutes later my name gets called. Not by the woman behind the desk, an older-sounding woman. My name is called a second time and I look up to where the voice comes from. Rudy's mother!

"Yareli, what are you doing here? Did something happen?"

"Not really, I just have to discuss something with Alejandro. She refuses to contact him, though." I nod to the desk.

"Follow me." Rudy's mother walks to the desk and I take my bag, follow her. "Lia, she's with me."

"She has to be registered first!" The desk woman jumps up from her chair and rushes to a cabinet.

"No, she doesn't. No one can know she's here."

"Mrs. Parra, that's against the coronel's rules!"

"He doesn't want her in the system. Lia, let me handle this. Thank you." Rudy's mother grabs my hand and leads me around the metal detector gates into the actual building.

"Thank you, Mrs. Parra."

"It's also Violeta for you, carinõ." She enters the kitchen with me and pours a glass of fruit agua frescas for me. "Now tell me, what is troubling you?"

I really want to tell her, but what if Rodolfo doesn't want his mother to know yet? "I don't know if they want me to tell others."

"Do they know?"

"Not yet, that's why I'm here."