#it made me too sad to think that a merperson would have to live their whole life as an unwanted parasite on another person

[cracklewink]

Science-themed mermay day 3: Parasite (Sea Trout + Tongue-eating Louse)

Shoutout to @moose__chan on twitter/insta for helping me double check the ASL!

Bonus:

[tf2-hellhole]

Hey, I really love your mermerc au and it got me thinking. How would the mercs react to having a love interest who is a merperson?

Scout:

My server members and I like to joke that there are places in/around the Center (the place the research and interaction between the species happens) that are known for being make-out spots. He’d probably be dragging you to these places for a deep kiss all the damn time, often just to fluster or annoy you. There’s a coral reef a few miles off the coast where the Center is located that’s his favorite.

He’s always showing off his swimming skill to you, and likes to drag you around to show you how fast he is. He always has this adorable, proud smile when you compliment one of his skills or tricks, especially if they're new.

Soldier:

He’s quite protective of you. He gets grumpy and acts coldly toward people he doesn’t know that are around you, and he can get full-on aggressive towards larger merfolk that approach you, even if you’re bigger than he is. He knows the merfolk world is much more dangerous than the human world, and he doesn’t know what he’d do if any harm came to you.

Likes to keep you physically close to him, both out of protectiveness and just enjoying when you’re near. He’s not used to people touching him, so a hug or a quick cheek kiss will turn him into jello.

Pyro:

Pyro likes to have you there for medical checkins if you’re already in a full, established relationship (they don’t have any fresh injuries, but they were once very injured in the past, and that shows in deep tissue scars. They sometimes need physical therapy to be able to swim properly). They find your presence comforting, as the physical therapy can sometimes be frustrating or uncomfortable.

They loves catching food for you, and they make sure that they know your species’ diet so they take good care of you. They also bring you pretty rocks and human trinkets from the sea floor.

Demo:

His family has a tradition of spending a certain part of the year in Scotland, and part of the year in the sea. It absolutely breaks his heart to have to leave you for months at a time, but he sends you letters (probably laminated lmao) and little gifts every week, and he gets so adorably excited when he gets back. He always jumps into the water with no regard for his clothing to hug you as soon as possible.

His family has a special hierarchy for when they’re in the ocean that places him as one of their most important warriors, so he often ends up in the center’s medical ward after fights. He’s a bit of a baby sometimes, so he likes to seek out your comfort when he’s really injured.

Heavy:

Most merfolk have unique behaviors towards mates/partners/crushes that are similar to the courting rituals of the species their tail is. Male belugas will make a lot of noise towards females they’re interested in, so as a result, Heavy tends to make lil beluga clicking noises when he’s around you. He’s a little embarrassed about it, so he’ll disregard it if you point it out.

It’s normal for smaller merfolk to hold onto the arms/fins or kinda piggyback on bigger loved ones just for safety or to make sure currents don’t pull them away, so he’s very used to his sisters and mothers holding on to him. It makes him blush a little if you trust him enough to hold on to him.

Engineer:

He's certainly not tiny (he's actually about 5'8" long), but Engineer is certainly very small for a merman, so he's pretty self-concious, both because people mock him for it and that it puts him at a physical disadvantage. He'll need some assurance that you don't think negatively of him because of his size. But when you tell him, he gives the most heart-warmingly shy smile and mutters out a soft "Thank ya, darlin'."

He collaborates with a lot of the human Center scientists, and after learning about human tech, they've made a lot of technical advancements together. When they've had a breakthrough, he always comes to you, presses a deep kiss to your lips, and excitedly explains everything to you.

Medic:

For a while, he's not very convinced that you're interested in him. I mean, who would want a partner who could accidentally kill them just by brushing tails? Besides, he's very happy on his own, thank you very much.

But eventually that hard shell wears down because honestly, he is a little affection-starved. Eventually, the center invents a fabric which is used to safely and comfortably wrap his spines, so he's completely safe to touch. After he gets to put it on, he's all over you.

Sniper:

Earning his trust is difficult sometimes, because he's so used to not depending on anyone other than his (now dead) parents or his one friend, Scout. But his reactions as you eventually break his boundaries and earn his trust, like the first time you hold his face or give him a kiss, are highkey heart-breakingly sad, but oh so worth it. Just like, imagine giving him a soft kiss and he just tears up a lil and smiles a lil and he's all shy-

He absolutely lives to be gently held or cuddled. He doesn't care if you're half his size, please hold him

Spy:

He's a little protective of you, but he doesn't stop you from doing what you want to do. He has a lot of scars from other merfolk, so he's not too happy about trusting other merfolk with being around you. Over time, though, you show him that the world isn't as cruel as he thinks it is, especially when he stops acting like a prick.

He has a lot of scars that he's pretty uncomfortable with and doesn't like talking about them. Please trace or kiss his scars and tell him that he's still handsome, but he might melt to the point he dissolves in the water /j

Shows off his color changing ability by constantly changing them when he flirts with you

[darthwheezely]

sand and stone - g.w. - 1

summary: marine biologist y/n has made a major discovery - george, prince of the north reef and heir to the throne of oceanic royals. but when sinister forces threaten his very life - and the life of his family - will they be able to make it out of this alive?

pairing: merman!george weasley x marine biologist!reader

warnings: cussing, light angst (in this chapter!) possible sex in future chapters (if so: I’ll add nsfw warnings to each chapter when that occurs!), cruelty

a/n: it’s taken ages for me to update my series’ and for that i am so sorry :,) i just needed to bust out smaller projects like one shots to bring my head space back and i PROMISE i walk chapter 5 will be next as i’ve been actively tackling it for a HOT second now, it just has some intense content to write so it’s been hard for me to tackle yk?

Fred replayed the scene over and over, he knew there was nothing that could bring George back, nor heal his guilt in the process. Fred was older, he should’ve been wiser by default, he was always the protector and for the first time in his life he had chosen his own mischief over George.

“Fred!”

“George!”

And in his mind the outcome would always be the same:

George was gone.

And it was his fault.

Palace life was more stifling than it ever was, with Fred next in line as coronation as the next High Prince with a few more titles after his elder brother Percy, a marital match was next, and for some odd reason (Fred noted) that was taking a higher value than searching for his own brother.

And that didn’t really make sense to him.

Fred had asked every living merperson in the court if they had seen the ship, what it looked like, where it was going, anything to conclude that information was out there. But alas, none of them knew anything important.

King Arthur, on the other hand, didn’t seem to want to help at all.

So here was Fred, now pushing his way through the doors of the main throne room, watching with vile contempt as his father and his oldest brother Bill chatted about something making them laugh so hard they were wheezing.

“Son! How lovely a surprise,” Arthur had looked bemusedly at his fourth and bullheaded son.

“Don’t bore me with your bullshit, Father, I know nothing I have to say will probably mean anything to you anyways,” Fred snapped, prompting Bill to rise from his seat.

“Fred, what is going on with you as of late? What makes you think you can address our father, the King mind you, like this-“

“Because with all due respect, big brother” he shifted his eyes from Bill back to their father, who was looking coldly back at him with less than no remorse, “I’ve come to ask about the search party for George.”

“Then, ask, son, you know your brother and I can’t do your little tease all day,” Arthur coughed, waving his aide to bring him his handkerchief.

“How has the party been? Has anyone found anything new since the discovery that it was a boat that took him?” Fred was pacing, tapping his chin, a mannerism he always did when he was in thought.

Arthur sighed in frustration, “we would have told you if there was any other news, now get dressed for your courtship ball tonight-“

“No.” Fred said simply.

“N-no?”

“Yes, no, as in no, I will not be attending the courtship ball tonight.” He crossed his arms and looked from Bill back to his now flabbergasted father. “Is there a problem?”

It was now Bill who answered an exasperated, “yes, there’s a problem, all the eligible women for currents on end will be in attendance and you need a wife before the kelp harvest, you know this-“

“Ah, forgive me, because a wife and a mindless piece of grass is more important than my own goddamn brother,” Fred spat, “my mistake, your Majesty.”

Arthur rose from his seat and started in towards Fred. “Frederick, Prince of the North Reef, you’ve got a lot of nerve coming in here and-“

“Demanding justice for your own child?”

The room was silent for a moment, Fred looking mightily angry but also pleased in the fact that yes, he had gotten his father right where he wanted him.

“Son. I’ll strike you a deal,” he said quietly. Fred scoffed and rolled his eyes, heading towards the exit.

“Father, I know the extent of your deals and as such, I’m not going to participate in your little games,” he called from behind.

“You don’t want to find George yourself?”

Fred stopped dead in his tracks.

“Freddie...a father knows his sons better than they expect...and George is your other half and...” he swallowed, “this search isn’t going as well as it should and we all need answers,” he finished softly. Fred turned around and tears pricked at his eyes.

“If you choose to find your brother on land and you do so in one week’s time,” he closed his eyes and inhaled, “you’ll never need marry-“

“Father-!” Bill sputtered.

“-and never need settle in any of the Reef palaces I’ve created. Son, you’ll be-“

“I’ll be free of royal life if I so choose” he rubbed his jaw, taking a moment to think.

“You’re the best brother I’ve ever had, Freddie!”

“And you’re my best friend, Georgie!”

“And we’ll never be apart-“

“Not as long as we live-“

“-forever,” Fred said to himself softly, before nodding.

“If I’m not back in a week - send the search. You don’t want two dead sons on your hands,” he paced back to the door, pushing both sides open with both hands.

“...and I’ve got answers to find.”

As soon as Fred left the room, Arthur chuckled deeply.

“Bill?”

“Yes, father?”

“Keep an eye on him. We don’t need him getting out and stirring up any more trouble.” He rose from his throne, eyes still staring at the door.

“My son must learn to be quiet.”

—

George was back in the water, he knew that much. His head lolled back and forth as he slowly regained composure, seeing his tail as shiny and new as ever, but somehow unable to move it. He felt exhausted, like he’d swam to the South Reef and back like he used to do with-

“Fred...” he murmured, not really to anyone, just calling out to him somewhere. He realizes after a couple minutes that he was slowly sinking, his eyes fluttering open and shut again slowly in time before he hit the ground.

It was sand. He was in water, he knew that much, immediately jolting up swimming forward until-

“Neptune, what the fuck is this?” He rubbed his head, hitting something unbeknownst to him. He slapped and hit at the surface in front of him, making a sound of echo and reverb as he squinted his eyes and saw:

This was not home.

“Hey - hey let me out!” He shouted, banging on the clear surface, clearly seeing -

“Humans...” he mumbled, the laden horror setting in, backing up in shock and swimming for dear life before he hit the other side of this surface, repeating the same banging, desperate to be freed.

“Let me out! Let me go, I need to find my brother, please!” He cried out, swimming every way possible way, hitting the hard and translucent surface every time.

“What’s he doing?” A voice said, a younger woman for sure.

“He’s trying to break free, but unfortunately for him: that’s plexiglass.” A distinctly deeper and more even voice replied.

“He - he wants out.”

That voice. George stopped and turned around, he’d heard that voice before.

“I shouldn’t have brought him back, Dr. Lockhart-“

“No-“

“Yes, and - and now we’ve stranded him here, I mean, we don’t even know how long he’ll survive under isolation-“

“That’s enough, Miss Y/L/N!” The man shouted, stilling the voices in the laboratory. He cleared his throat and pushed up his glasses before smiling tightly at the girl.

“You forget yourself, Miss Y/L/N,” he said softly. “You may be a fantastic marine student, but you are still just that: a student. And until you reach a higher potential,” George watched with rapt eyes as the man made his way to her pressing a button.

“That is all you will be. A very. Smart. Student.” He clipped, turning a gauge.

George heard a very loud sound, looking up and seeing a large square thing coming down to the top of the encasement he was in. He scrambled to swim up, attempting to push it up and off, but it was too heavy and eventually he realized -

“I’m trapped,” he said hollowly, looking out at the people in the lab, now looking highly uncomfortable and exiting the room.

“Please - please I need to get back home,” he pleaded. “No, no, please” he banged harder on the plexiglass, “let me out! Please, let me out, I’m begging you!”

He saw her then, her face of...sadness. And remorse. And maybe something else.

“Please,” he whispered at her, before she swallowed, keeping her eyes to the floor and exiting the laboratory.

George, Prince of the North Reef was alone.

•••

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[moonbeamwritings]

of salt water and curious gazes

Summary: Following your grandmother’s death, her seaside home fell into your care, deemed the only one she could picture inhabiting it. Things were simple enough, tending to the garden and making frequent trips to the beach as you adjusted to life in the small town. It all changed, however, when you spent a night under the full moon with a rather peculiar blue eyed companion. (Merperson AU)

Author’s Note: Hey everyone! This is definitely different from what I usually post, but I hope you guys are just as interested as I am! Let me know what you think! Also, buckle up! This is a long one and might end up being a part one 🤪

sequel: “of salt water and loving gazes”

Your grandmother’s home had always been your safe space, a place in which you were free to run around and spend your time as you saw fit. After her death though, it seemed as if all of the joy had been sucked out of the small, seaside cottage. Your heart broke just a little bit more as you turned down the all-too-familiar street and pulled into her, now your, driveway.

She’d left the house to you, explaining that she could see no one else living there but you. You had been itching for change, growing tired of the hustle and bustle of your daily life, so perhaps with fate’s guiding hand you would find solace along the shoreline, in your happy place. I know you’ll treat it well, the letter she had left assured you. P.S. The ocean works wonders for the soul. Don’t forget that. 

You gripped the steering wheel as you stared at the front of the house through the windshield. It was just as you remembered, bright blue hydrangeas dotted the garden, flowers fat and stems long, the doormat was perfectly centered, the mailbox the same faded green as it had always been.

With one final sigh, you willed yourself out of the car, keys jingling in your hands as you went. The house was much quieter now, lacking the bubbles of laughter and soft music that were staples of your childhood visits. The sweet smell of baked goods no longer wafted through the kitchen, her shoes no longer resting by the door. Most of her belongings had already been cleared out, handed off to friends and family, but what was left was yours. The house was yours. The thought that what once belonged to her was now left entirely in your care made your heart swell with both sadness and pride. You would make the best of this, if not for yourself, then for your dear grandmother.

Unloading your car was simple enough, taking only an afternoon to get everything completely organized. That night, you watched the sunset from the back porch, warm mug in hand as you looked out at the seemingly endless sea. Your eyes drooped as the vibrant colors of the sun were replaced by the pale yellow light of the moon.

Adjusting to life in the quaint little town was difficult. The townspeople who had known your grandma could only seem to muster pitying glances when they saw you out and about, treading lightly as they asked about you and your move. You stuck to the house most days to avoid them, cleaning things up and shifting things around.

Something about the beach had an uneasy feeling settling in your stomach though. As you traveled down the path, a bag slung over your shoulder and a towel in hand, you couldn’t help but feel eyes on you, carefully tracking your every move.

Your grandmother’s neighbors were kind and friendly, no doubt willing to approach you if they were to see you sitting out. The beach itself was private, reserved for residents like yourself, so it’s not like wandering strangers lingered about. This feeling was different. It was as if the waves themselves were peering back at you, just as mesmerized by you as you were with them.

One day as you munched on a sandwich, legs pulled close to your chest as you stared out at the ocean, you could’ve sworn you saw curious blue eyes staring back. You stopped going to the beach for a few days after that.

The morning you finally returned to the beach left much to be desired. The beautiful blue sky and relaxing ebb and flow of the waves were replaced by thick fog and dark gray skies, waves rocking against the shore with more force. You had no idea what had compelled you to make the trek down to the beach that morning, but you had felt as though you were being pulled there, tugged along by a thin red thread, like you were supposed to be there.

The wind bit at your face as it rustled the fabric of your coat. You were thankful that it had yet to kick sand up into your eyes. As the water sloshed against your bare ankles, you could barely see three feet in front of you, fog completely obscuring the horizon. Your grandmother’s voice sounded in the back of your head, “I know you don’t like the beach when it’s foggy, but I’ll have you know, I’ve seen some of the cutest seals on days just like this one.”

Deciding that the waves weren’t as bad as you had expected and wanting to know if her words would ring true, you ventured down the jetty, carefully calculating each step so as not to stumble. 

On your way down the jetty, you caught sight of a familiar pair of blue eyes, just barely visible over the surface of the water. Why would someone be out swimming in conditions like these? Eyes scanning what little area you could see, you halted all movements, eagerly waiting for the person to resurface. Were you imagining things? Soon enough, a head popped out of the water, showing off broad shoulders, black hair, and… Was that a star tattoo?

Raising your voice to be heard over the wind, you called out, “Hey, dude! It’s not safe to be out swimming with all this fog! I’ve heard there have been sharks in the area recently!”

The person wheeled around at the sound of your voice, eyes widening in surprise. You watched as his mouth opened and closed, but no response came. Before you could get another warning in, he was dipping back below the surface, disappearing into the murky water. Without thinking, your feet carried you to the very tip of the jetty, searching for any sign of the solitary swimmer.

“Hello!? Hello!? Is anyone out there?”

You felt crazy as your head swiveled back and forth, ears tuning in to the gentle way the waves struck the rocks. It was quiet, deathly so. Was that just another trick of the eye? A manifestation of the loneliness you’d felt in your little seaside dwelling? The result of feeling like you were being watched for the past few weeks? You couldn’t tell.

You’d seen those eyes before, you’d assured yourself as you walked back to the sand, right? Surely they were the same ones you’d encountered during early morning sunrises or all the lunchtime meals you’d eaten on the beach. They were too familiar to be nothing more than a host of different, swimming strangers.

After the whole incident, you kept a close watch on those around you when you went into the grocery store and the other local shops. Did anyone’s eyes match that deep, unrelenting turquoise? Did anyone have that star tattoo on the back of their shoulder? You searched high and low, but reached no feasible conclusions, no answers that allowed you to sleep better at night.

In one of your more desperate late-night deep dives, no pun intended, you toyed with the idea that perhaps you’d seen some sort of siren, a merperson exploring the waters near your home. The melodrama of Twilight’s Bella Swan frantically searching the internet for answers to her vampiric questions flashed through your mind. You laughed out loud at the thought. That would not be you.

Weeks went by and things returned to relative normalcy. You still occasionally felt curious eyes on you, but you hadn’t seen any flashes of blue since that foggy morning. You ate your lunch, you cleared your head, all without any distractions from the mysterious man.

Your mind raced as you watched the sunset from your kitchen window, suds covering your hands while you worked a sponge over the dirty dishes in your sink. Earlier in the day, you’d received a phone call from a friend, essentially admonishing you for your move to your grandmother’s old house. They had completely ignored your feelings, only working from their own experiences as they ranted and raved. The call left you feeling drained and desperate to get down to the beach. Maybe dipping your toes into the salty water while you watched the full moon rise would ease the ache in your heart.

Pulling an oversized hoodie over your head, you made the walk down to the beach, taking your time to look for shells and sea glass as you went. Having no luck, you moved down the jetty, a pep in your step as you hopped from one rock to the other. At the end, you carefully shuffled out of your shoes before sitting down to let your feet and calves slip into the cool, dark water.

The moonlight left the ocean in front of you sparkling, like the stars themselves had fallen into the sea, shining brightly as they bobbed with the waves. You were thankful you had the beach to yourself.

To release some of your energy, you began swishing your feet back and forth beneath the surface, relishing in the soft movement of the water against your skin. Losing yourself in your thoughts, you’d hardly realized you were being watched until you heard the gentle sloshing of water off to your right, ripples traveling up against your legs.

You snapped your head away from the moon, scanning the glassy surface all around you. Your eyes widened, breath hitching in your throat when you finally saw them. 

Blue eyes.

“You.”

The stranger’s eyes mirrored yours as you stared at one another. The droplets of water caught the light of the moon, bathing the man in the rolling starlight of the sea. Your heart fluttered.

“What the hell are you doing? Have you not heard about all of the shark sightings or do you just not care? Night swimming like that is so stupid.”

He waded closer, still beyond arm’s reach, but inching closer with the movement of the waves.

“I don’t need to worry about sharks.”

“What are you? Some kind of whisperer?”

He examined you carefully, mouth dipping below the surface only to reappear as he replied, “You could say that.”

The man’s body was entirely submerged save for his head and shoulders. You eyed each other as silence fell, punctuated by the crashing of waves in the distance. With his eyes on you like this, you felt as if you were being stalked, kept under a watchful glare for any signs of weakness.

“You know,” you spoke, attempting to diffuse the tension, “you can come sit up here with me, if you want.”

“No, thank you.” His reply was immediate, but your words had him closing some more distance. The closer he came to the jetty, the more you realized just how large he was, all broad shoulders and defined muscle. Imposing.

His eyes flickered down to watch your feet where they moved in the water, head tilting curiously as he followed the exposed skin up to the curves of your knees, eyeing them too. It’s like he’s never seen them before, you thought.

You floundered thinking about any way to continue the conversation with the handsome stranger, to attempt to distract him from the gentle sway of your legs. With a wide sweep of your leg, you unconsciously sent your foot towards the stranger, but instead of skin meeting skin, your toes brushed against the rigid surface of scales.

Scales!?

Your eyes shot open as you yelped, scrambling to pull your feet from the water and up onto the jetty, “What the fuck was that?”

Your knee jerk reaction sent the man in front of you reeling back as well, splashing back below the surface of the waves.

Your mind spiraled, forcing you to through your own Twilight movie moment. It was as if all the pieces were steadily falling into place: always swimming at odd hours and in adverse conditions, never seeing him in town, being unfazed by the presence of sharks. 

Your heart pounded against your ribcage. He couldn’t be… Could he?

Throwing caution to the wind out of sheer desperation for answers, you gently placed your feet back into the water, calling out for your potential new companion. You waited for any sort of response, resolving to sit for hours if you had to. Unexpectedly, you saw his eyes breach the surface once again, keeping his distance.

“Hey,” you spoke, keeping your voice as soft as possible, beckoning him closer with a wave of your hand, “Come here.”

He swam up to you, positioning himself in front of you. The man looked almost… cute like this, eyes wide and cautious as he stared up at you from the water.

“So, are you, like, a merperson or something? A merman?”

He nodded in lieu of response.

“Can I see?”

It took a long moment for him to move, eyes locked on yours as he thought over your tone of voice. Finally nodding, he leaned back, treading water with his arms as he exposed his tail to you.

It was breathtaking, the full expanse of it decorated with deep purple, almost black scales, like he had entire galaxies trapped within each and every one. The fluke glittered, iridescent under the beams of the moon. You gasped at the sight.

“It’s beautiful.”

Without thinking, you brushed your fingertips along the fluke, taking in the smooth, silky texture. In an instant, his hand shot out and took your wrist in its grip, removing it from his tail. Your eyes widened at the action, fear taking hold of your lungs at the feeling of his pointed nails against your skin.

“That tickles,” he quietly told you, loosening his hold on your wrist. You could’ve sworn you saw his face flush at the admission.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” came his grumbled response.

You fell silent for a moment, mind still racing with the thoughts that you were actually in the presence of a merman, that your stupid midnight thoughts had actually been correct.

“Can you tell me your name?” You finally settled on asking, deciding that if this whole thing was going to continue beyond tonight, you should at least learn his name.

“It’s Jotaro.”

You parroted the name, testing it on your own lips, memorizing the sound. Jotaro placed your hand back in your lap, moving to place his elbows up on the rock beside you instead. “What’s yours?”

You shared your own name, smiling at his proximity. He followed your lead, repeating your name as he looked up at you.

You sat with Jotaro until your toes pruned, goosebumps rising on your skin as the night brought lower temperatures along with it. You smiled to yourself as you watched his eyes roam over the flesh, fascinated by your body’s reaction to the cold.

After shivering for what felt like the hundredth time, you bid Jotaro a goodnight, promising to meet him again the following night at around the same time. He nodded in response, sending one last, long look in your direction before disappearing back below the waves.

Curling your hands into the sleeves of your sweatshirt, you began the walk back to your home. The phone call with your friend had completely slipped your mind, instead replaced by the warm feeling Jotaro’s presence settled in your heart. With the scent of sea spray still lingering on your clothes, you washed the sand from your feet and turned in for the night. As you laid your head back against your pillows, you wondered if your grandmother had been right all along. Maybe the ocean truly did work wonders for the soul.

[knchins]

The 16th Year - Hitoshi Shinsou

Summary: Your quirk was destined to awaken on your sixteenth birthday, and it would force you to take to sea-life with your birth parents. No one with your quirk had wanted to stay on land before, but none of them had been so in love at age 15…

Pairing: Histoshi Shinou x Fem!Reader

Rating: G

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: Light fluff, some angst, teenage heartbreak

Notes: Hello! This is the first thing I’ve written for the bnha fandom so I hope you enjoy it. I wrote this for the @bnhabookclub​ Mermay event! This is loosely based off of the old Disney Channel movie “The Thirteenth Year”. A throwback to fellow 90s babies. Special thanks to @hawksward​ for reading of this for me. <3

She had always accepted him and his dream. The first day they met, when he mentioned that he wanted to attend UA and be in the heroes course, she didn’t laugh. She didn’t sneer and tell him that his quirk was only suited for villainy. Instead of scoffing and looking down at him, she brightly smiled up at him. To her, his dream was perfectly reasonable. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero, in fact in her opinion there was quite a romantic ideal to it. 

Their chemistry was profound and none of their peers had anything that came close to their magnetism. She had told him that she was quirkless, when the truth was that her quirk was not bound to awaken until midnight of her sixteenth birthday. Currently she had two weeks to tell him the truth. It was a heavier weight than any young teenager should have to bear. 

They were in the same class at UA, she had opted to follow him there as she knew her time with him was limited. They had known one another since they were eleven and even then she always knew that her clock was ticking down with each passing second. She dreamed of a way to be rid of her fate, to stay with him and see his ambitions come to fruition, but alas there was no cure for her. In fourteen days she would be a merperson and would have to swim into the arms of the others that were bound to the sea. 

She was already exhibiting subtle signs of her quirk. It was little things that she kept under wraps, hoping no one would notice. And in truth, no one did except her adoptive parents...and her best friend. 

Shinsou had not brought up her strange behavior. How she was incredibly thirsty all the time, how her skin suddenly seemed drier than usual, or how fast she had become in the water. Weekends spent at the community pool where the two of them liked to relax suddenly made him feel as though she were a fish out of water. He didn’t know how right he was. 

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?” He asked one night as they sat at their favorite sushi restaurant. Y/N sat stiffly in her seat, chopsticks in midair. How did she tell him? How could she knowingly break his heart like that? 

She forced a smile but the sadness shone in her eyes. “There’s something I need to tell you.” She confessed, placing her utensils down. “I’m not quirkless.” 

He cocked his head to the side curiously. She had never shown any signs of having a special ability, so the notion that she had been lying the past four (almost five) years seemed a bit ridiculous. Still, he decided to bite. “Alright, what is your quirk then?” 

Y/N had never worried about Shinsou using his ability on her. He never had and he told her a long time ago that he never would. She trusted him with all of her heart so any time he asked her a question she simply answered. Other people that knew them thought this was wildly dangerous, especially as they got older. What if he took advantage of her? But Shinsou would never do such a thing. He wasn’t a villain, not in a million years. 

“Remember how I told you I was adopted?” She probed, thinking perhaps it was best to start from the beginning. The purple haired boy simply nodded in response. “My parents, they live in the ocean with a colony of other aquatic people….they can’t live on land.” 

A deep frown formed on his features. What did that have to do with her exactly? He wondered to himself. Obviously she could live on land. Still, he said nothing as he waited for her to continue. 

“People with my quirk, don’t manifest it until their sixteen.” She continued. “They’re bodies undergo a transformation. Their legs fuse and turn into a tailfin. We become ningyo on our sixteenth birthdays.” 

Hitoshi continued to stare unblinking. He could typically tell when she wasn’t being series and he waited for a tell to show him that she was totally joking. After a few minutes, when her sad expression did not change, he realized that she was telling the truth. His chest became uncomfortably tight, as if someone dropped a hundred pound weight onto it. The air left his lungs, his tired eyes widening in shock. She was going to leave him? The one person who seemed to support him most? The one person who always uplifted him and encouraged him and cheered for him...gone?

The hurt expression that crossed his usually stoic face broke her. She thought she had prepared herself for this, but in reality she hadn’t. The impending destruction of their relationship was all the more real now that he knew of it. She was certain that neither of them would ever fully recover from this. 

“You’re leaving me?” He asked, his voice a whisper that didn’t dare to show any kind of true emotion. The apathy did not match with the words. The disconnect only told her that he was beyond angry with her for never telling him about this. Suddenly, the horrifying thought of having ruined their relationship before her birthday dawned on her and she nearly began to cry right on the spot. 

“Not because I want to.” She spoke softly, hand darting out to grab his across the table. “Hitoshi, you know I would never leave you if I had a choice. I care about you more than I care about myself.” 

The tears fell freely down her face as she was unable to hold them back. “I love you, you know? I don’t think you understand how much it hurts knowing that we can never actually be together. We’ll always be a world apart.” 

He wanted to recoil from her touch, but the sight of her crying caused his anger to recede back into the back of his head. She had never admitted her feelings to him, and while he knew he had been wildly in love with her for years he also had never been able to bring himself to confess it. He was always worried that he would ruin what they had. Little did he know that it would ruin itself one day. 

“You love me, Y/N?” He asked, his voice still quiet. This time there was emotion behind it. Raw, tentative emotion that was deeply afraid to be shown. Sometimes he hated his own vulnerability around her. How his walls came down any time you were around. No one knew him better than she did. No one brought comfort to his soul like she did. And now...now she’d be taken from him forever. 

“With all of my heart,” she murmured to him, dabbing tears away with her napkin with her free hand. She hoped her makeup wasn’t completely ruined, however she knew deep down that it was. She felt his hand flip over in her gasp in order to hold her palm. She wrapped her fingers around him in return. 

“Let’s get out of here.” He said before standing, helping her up with their connected grasp. He left money on the table for the bill and led her outside. There was still that same incredible weight on his chest, despite her confession. It only seemed to make him hurt at the loss of her even more. 

She didn’t know where he was taking her until they ended up on the nearby waterfront. They walked onto a long pier and stared out at the ocean in heavy silence for a long time. The only thing they could hear were the laps of the waves against the wooden pillars of the dock. 

“Well this isn’t how I expected to spend my Saturday night.” Shinsou finally murmured as he pulled her closer to him. He had wanted to kiss her for so long now, perhaps now the time was right. Perhaps he should also tell her his own feelings. His silence had unnerved her, though he obviously wasn’t repulsed by the thought of her caring about him in a way that exceeded friendship. 

They were facing one another now, chests pressed against each other as Shinsou’s other hand slipped around her waist. He had never done anything like this before. They both felt incredibly awkward at the closeness, cheeks glowing pink with uncertainty. “Me either.” She mumbled back to him, voice quaking. This kind of embrace went far beyond a platonic hug. 

“Y/N, can I kiss you?” He asked, his voice dropping low as his eyes were glued to her lips. Both of their hearts were hammering within their chests so loudly that it was deafening. 

Her eyes blinked slowly as she lifted onto her toes to connect her lips with his softly in lieu of a verbal answer. The future hero was taken aback, so much so that he nearly stepped away from her. He hadn’t noticed her desperate grip on his shirt of the tightening of her hand around his. The simple need to be kissed by him too much for her to simply wait. 

Slowly his eyes closed and he reciprocated, lips pressing against hers in a chaste kiss that was over way too soon. Neither one had ever kissed someone before. It was perfect in every conceivable way. 

Before another word could be said, they kissed again and again until the moon shone high above the water. Only when their curfews edged closer did Shinsou decide to walk her home. 

He kept her hand held securely within his own, never wanting to let it go. Finally they could express how they felt with one another. The years of tension were gone only to be replaced with longing for what could have been. The walk back was torture as they both knew the time to revel in their mutual feelings would only extend for the next two weeks. 

The time spent until her sixteenth birthday, Shinsou and Y/N were inseparable. While before it was common to see them together, studying for school or just hanging out, now it was more steadfast for them to be attached at the hip. They were constantly touching each other in one way or another, her arm wrapped around his or their hands holding as they walked. His hand on her knee when they sat next to each other or even sometimes his arm around her shoulders when they watched a movie. It was small and innocent.

“Hitoshi.” She whispered to him sadly as they sat on the dock on the eve of her birthday. At midnight she would return to the sea from which she came as a newborn. “Do you promise to never forget about me?” 

She knew her request was selfish, but the thought of being totally erased from his life had plagued her tremendously. They had grown infinitely closer over such a small amount of time. Shinsou was staring at their reflections in the water. The question seemed completely absurd to him, as how could he ever forget his first love? 

“I could never forget you.” He said honestly, not noticing that she had slipped off her clothes. He was too lost in thought. 

Thousands of scales covered her most intimate parts, obscuring them from view. Her legs were already beginning to ache as she sat down on the edge of the pier, toes touching the water. Shinsou seemed outwardly unfazed by her lack of dress. Really seeing her figure without obstruction for the first time made him wildly uncomfortable with arousal. Obviously it wasn’t the time nor the place for that, but it was still a teenage boy pumped full of hormones. 

Y/N plucked a shining scale from the center of her chest and held it out to him, a sad smile on her delicate lips. “You have to promise.” She said in a voice so soft that he almost didn’t hear it. 

He took the turquoise scale and held it tightly in his palm, never wanting to forget the feel of it. “I promise.” He said, sounding totally defeated. Would he ever see her again? She said she would come to this pier as often as she could at night to visit him, but he simply did not know if she would be able to keep her word. The insurmountable pain rendered him unable to even cry at his loss. 

She slipped into the water as his watch beeped to signal the turning of the hour. She was totally obscured by the darkness. Two minutes later, a small head popped from the water and he noticed a swirling of scales scattered down her neck along with what looked like gill slits. 

“I love you.” She said one last time, as if he’d instantly forget unless she reminded him. His heart trembled in his chest as tears finally did threaten to fall. 

“I love you too.” He said resolutely, and then she was gone. 

[franstastic-ideas]

Oh my GOD LIBRA AND CARMINE!!!! I love them!! Please do write more of them oh my goodness

You want more Libra and Carmine?

It’s been a while, but here you go!

~~~~~~~~

She wasn’t sure exactly when it began, but as of late, Carmine and the river-bound merman she had accidentally befriended and endeared herself to had initiated a ritual of sorts every other afternoon when classes weren’t an issue.

Libra would tangle himself around her far smaller frame, he had done so the very first time he had made it onto land like a sad sort of seal, but it was only recently that she had begun to reciprocate his physical acts of affection. The redhead found herself more than once carding her fingers through his own long locks of turquoise and awkwardly wrapping an arm or two around him.

As time passed, her touches had grown less awkward, less hesitant, and soon she had begun to not only inwardly enjoy but anticipate the increased intimacy between them.

However, as soon as their cuddle time ended, Libra would immediately head towards the water and submerge himself once more, almost desperately so. She supposed that being an aquatic being that lived in water, he needed to do this to survive. She wondered if Libra was endangering his own body just for the opportunity to hold her, his claimed true love, longer.

On this particular day though, Libra had slipped up, made a fatal error in his previously established routine. Somehow, the two of them had dozed off together, the sound of the stream nearby and the warm sunlight on their bodies having easily lulled them into a peaceful slumber.

Carmine hadn’t the slightest clue how long they had been unconscious, but she was awoken by the sound of a shrill yelp next to her.

She instantly rose from her place on the grass, turning over to face Libra in the fraction of a second in order to assess the situation and uncover the reason as to why he would cry out in such an alarming manner.

But when Carmine’s bespectacled eyes fell on him, another cry, and just as shrill as the one before, punctured the once tranquil air around them, this time falling from her own lips.

Next to her was not a merman, but a man, still unmistakably Libra, but without the traits she had become accustomed to seeing - his fins had retracted, and most glaringly obvious was, his tail was missing, a pair of long legs in its place.

And the most glaring detail of all was, he was naked.

He turned so his back was facing her, still feeling the urgent need to conceal what was left of his dignity from the girl.

“D-Don’t look!” He nearly squealed before rising to his feet and making a mad dash for the river, diving in such a way that an Olympic medal swimmer would have wept - even while in a furious panic, he still held a great amount of grace.

“Can I look now?” Carmine asked once she heard him resurface, her eyes still covered just in case.

“Yes…” He meekly replied, his voice uncharacteristically wobbly. “This… this is exactly why I can’t leave the caves for long, or this river. I’ve been stuck here in this spot for… most likely several years now.”

“Because you’ll turn human, and this is a bad thing?”

“No, it’s not really a bad thing - it’s our race’s camouflage, and what you just said isn’t really how it works either. I may appear human in that form, but I’m still a merman! A werewolf is still a werewolf, even if he looks like a normal human man among other men, right?”

“I… guess so?” She decided it was best to just nod and agree, because now her mind was dangerously close to spinning out of control over the fact that he had just strongly implied the existence of werewolves being a reality. “But why can’t you leave the river? You seem like you have a pretty good grasp of walking on your own two feet, so…”

“Because… well… you know… somebody might see me like… that…” He sunk lower and lover into the water until only his eyes and the top of his head was visible, obviously ashamed.

“Wait, wait, wait…” Carmine waved her hands about, doing her best to fight off a grin threatening to manifest. “You mean to tell me that the entire reason you’re always here isn’t because you’re bound to the water or that you can’t walk, but because you’re afraid someone’s gonna see you in the nude?”

He didn’t respond verbally; Libra just nodded his head, not meeting her eyes.

“…AHAHAHAHAHA!!!” The redhead burst into a fit of hysterical laughter, collapsing onto the ground as she clutched her gut. “That’s hilarious! I can see the headlines now: Naked and Afraid Blue Man Spotted Downtown! I always wondered why you always hung out here, how you got here, but this? This is the last thing I could ever have expected-”

“It’s not funny!” He yelled over her, his face undeniably and frighteningly stern, silencing her in an instant.

“I… I’m sorry…” She spoke softly, a sense of shame creeping into her heart.

She would never have laughed out loud with no restraint like that had she known he would have reacted like that. His feelings were not only obviously hurt, but from where she was standing, Carmine could spot tears beginning to flow from his eyes.

She had expected him to, at the most pout at her, but otherwise this would have been something for them to laugh about together. But no, this wasn’t so.

She had hurt him terribly.

“…I shouldn’t have raised my voice at you like that.” Libra admitted after a few more seconds of silence between them. “Please try to understand; this entire situation is near unspeakably embarrassing for me, in numerous ways I can’t even begin to explain. I’m stranded here until I can acquire another set of clothes - my old ones were stolen a long time ago, so… here I am.”

“Then, maybe I can make it up to you? For laughing when I wasn’t supposed to?”

For some reason, Libra’s entire face had turned scarlet, his voice dropping down to a hoarse squeak.

“A-A-And… how do you intend to do that?”

“I have an older brother who comes by my house sometimes and stays a few days whenever he does. He leaves behind a lot of his stuff, including his clothes. See where I’m going with this? I think they might fit, or at least cover all the stuff that needs to be covered…”

“Oh…! Um, I… I would like that very much, if you would…”

So the next day, Carmine brought over a set of clothes as promised. She had assumed they might have been a bit too small for him, and she was correct - the pants weren’t as noticeable, but the black tank top was so short on him that it exposed his stomach… and consequently, all of his toned abdominal area.

But Libra didn’t seem to mind at all.

He thanked her profusely for the clothing, but something about the way he was behaving still seemed off to the girl. She wondered if she should question him on the subject, assuming that he was still upset with her, but Carmine didn’t have long to ponder over this until…

“I owe you an explanation.” He nervously toyed with the straps of the top, still not meeting her gaze. “You see… I was careless. To someone of the opposite sex to see a merperson in that form, their body bare, well… I… I’m so sorry, Carmine!”

He suddenly grasped her hands in his, holding them tightly.

“We… We have to marry now!” He continued to speak over her alarmed shriek that immediately followed. “This… This is my fault, but… but we have to be responsible about this! I mean, I was planning on marrying you anyways, but… but not like this! This is hardly the most romantic way our lives could have been entwined together forevermore, but… But I promise! I’ll be the best husband ever! You won’t have any regrets in this arrangement and you’ll want for nothing if you’ll give me your hand!”

“Libra, we can’t get married! We don’t have to!” She attempted to talk some sense into him. “Your weird merman honor isn’t at stake here; nobody will know!”

“But I’ll know, and the guilt is already eating me alive!”

[bittysvalentines]

Where the Ocean Meets the Shore

From: @maramcgregor To: @karin848

Kent isn't supposed to swim near the surface, but he's a curious young mer and can't help himself. He falls in love with a human boy and stays at a distance, until he can't stay away any longer. Rating: G, Content Warnings: allusions to homophobia,  Tags: Bitty/Parse, Merperson AU, Mutual Pining, Yearning, Merperson!Kent, Human!Bitty, Magical Fix-It

The rest of his pod would say he didn’t have a single scale of self-preservation in his body. Kent just felt that he had an overabundance of curiosity. They weren’t supposed to go to the surface, particularly near land. But, he was curious. And they were near enough to a small inlet that it wouldn’t be too risky. When Kent breached the surface, he was a mere 50 feet from a wooden structure jutting out into the water. Sitting with his knees tucked to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs was a land boy that must have been a couple of years younger than Kent - assuming that humans aged at the same rate as merpeople.

Kent drifted closer, just barely keeping his eyes above the water. He watched as the boy idly tossed pebbles into the water and stared down at the dark surface. His large brown eyes were red-rimmed and he dragged his forearm across his face, smearing the water dripping down his cheeks. 

Just as Kent got up the courage to open his mouth, a large man came down the hill and out to the boy. “Come to supper, Junior. The rest of the family is waiting on you.”

The boy stood up and nodded. “Okay, Daddy.”

That was the last time Kent saw the boy that year.

* * *

Kent gave up going to the surface to see the boy after 3 months. It was dangerous and his friends in the pod were starting to get suspicious. He had to dodge Jack and Alexei more than once when he went scouting. The other boys were deeply concerned with his afternoon vanishing stunts. 

He wasn’t sure if the land boy that looked so sad would ever come back, but something in his heart hoped he did. And he hoped that the boy looked less sad the next time he saw him. If he ever did.

Finally, a year after first going to the surface and spying on the land people, Kent decided to try again. He had no idea if he would see the boy, Junior, or not. But something deep in his bones drew him back to the surface. Jack and Alexei had stopped watching him like sharks and had relaxed over the intervening months. So, it wasn’t a challenge to sneak off while the other young merpeople were learning about deep ocean currents.

Kent let his eyes barely break the surface, and there, sitting on the edge of the pier was the mysterious boy from last year. He looked sad again, idly tossing pebbles into the ocean, knees tucked up under his chin as he sat curled up into himself. Kent was rarely thankful for his black and silver tail. But, it came in handy when he needed to hide in the shadows.

He swam as close as he dared and watched as the boy mumbled something to himself. It took all of his willpower not to break the surface so close to land and try to listen to what the boy was saying. He knew what he was doing was already dangerous. So, he watched in silence beneath the waves.

That summer, he came back to the pier every day for a week. And finally, the day came when the boy and his family were gone. Kent didn’t go back again that year. But, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away forever. Something about the sad boy drew him in. It was like a missing piece of his soul was calling out, begging to be put back together.

* * *

The years passed and Kent made sure to go back every summer and watch the boy grow up. Some summers, he was happy and played with his family, particularly the younger ones. But, there came a time when the smiles became less frequent and the tears more common. It took everything in Kent’s body to not go to the other boy when he was crying by the ocean. Each year, he came back sadder and sadder, tossing stones into the ocean waves and watching them disappear.

Kent tried to explain the situation to Jack. But, Jack was a pragmatist. And he refused to break the pod’s rules about land people.

“Kenny, how many times have I told you that one of these days you are going to get caught going there. Either by the land people or by the pod. It’s dangerous.”

“You haven’t seen how sad he is. He keeps looking out to the ocean like he would do anything to jump in and just keep swimming.”

“Kenny, it’s not your problem. I know you have gotten attached, but land people cannot be trusted. You need to stop going there and torturing yourself over a land boy that you can never even speak to.”

Kent knew that Jack was being sensible. It was the answer he was supposed to take. But, he couldn’t abandon the boy on the pier. His heart ached every time he cried. And, really, how bad would it be if one land person knew that merpeople were real? After all, it didn’t appear that he had anyone to actually talk to.

He knew he was being ridiculous, but he had to at least try to speak to the boy.

Kent waited in the shallows just below the pier. He made sure to get there while the water was still dark before the sun fully rose over the horizon. He knew he would have several hours to wait before the mysterious, sad land boy would make his way down to the water.  He just had to be patient. It wasn’t really his strong suit, but he was determined to finally have some answers to his questions that had only multiplied in the years that he spent watching from afar.

He lurked for hours under the wooden pier. Finally. Finally, the boy appeared. But, he wasn’t a boy anymore. Then again, Kent wasn’t a boy anymore either. Years had passed and somehow Kent never noticed them until he was faced with them up close. He listened to the young man as he whispered his sorrows to the ocean.

He didn’t really understand why the problems were problems. But it seemed that the young man couldn’t be himself around his family. Kent knew that he had to do something before he ran out of time tonight if he was ever going to stop this aching in his chest.

He screwed up his courage and let himself drift just out from under the pier. “I don’t understand why you are so sad, but maybe it would help if you had someone to talk to?”

In retrospect, Kent figured a random voice coming from the water would scare any sensible land person, but he wasn’t expecting the young man to flail back away from the edge and vanish out of sight further back on the pier. “Crap. I’m not going to hurt you. I just - I was worried?”

Eventually, two large brown eyes peered over the edge back at him. “Who - how? What on Earth?”

“I’m Kent. But, you can call me Kenny if you like. I’ve been listening to you and I have to admit that I don’t really understand why you are so sad, but sometimes talking to someone else can help? I usually tell all my problems to my friends and they do a really good job of telling me to make good decisions.”

“Does it work?”

Kent smiled. “Nope. Not at all. I shouldn’t be here, but I feel like I need to know you.”

They talked deep into the night. Bitty explained the hatred he faced from his family, the disappointment from his father, and the constant, never ending loneliness he lived with. Kent listened and nodded. He wasn’t sure why anyone would treat a family member poorly for loving someone of the same gender, but he supposed it was a land people thing that he would never truly be able to understand.

Kent showed his tail to the first land person he had ever spoken to and preened when Bitty gushed over how shiny his scales were. He always thought he was drab in comparison to Jack’s beautiful blue and yellow or Jeff’s bright red with black markings. But, Bitty assured him that black and silver complemented his skin tone well and that it looked very pretty in the moonlight. Kent couldn’t stop a blush from blossoming over his cheeks. He also couldn’t stop the crush that was forming right that very moment.

* * *

Two more years passed and the ache was still there. Kent still felt drawn to the surface every time Bitty was nearby. He spent that one blissful week in the summer talking to him and learning about his life. And somehow along the way, Kent’s bizarre obsession turned into something more.

“You are not letting this go, are you Kenny?”

“Alexei -”

Alexei sighed and swam over close to Kent. “You are wanting to save your human from land. Is he wanting the same?”

Kent was quiet for a moment, remembering the lost look in Bitty’s eyes as he gazed out over the ocean. “Yeah. I think so.”

“Is not easy thing you want to do. But, maybe come speak to my babushka. There is old family story from before we came to this pod. From back when we lived in the White Sea. Maybe you should hear it.”

Kent followed Alexei back to the caves where the pod slept safely at night. They meandered through the tunnels and eventually wound their way to the section where Alexei’s immediate family stayed. The elderly mermaid that was Alexei’s babushka didn’t leave the cave system often. It was dangerous for a mer of such advanced age in the open ocean where she didn’t have the ability to see too far around her, nor the speed to escape immediate danger. 

“Babushka, I brought my friend, Kenny. He is having questions about -”

“Ah, the fickle mer who likes to go to surface.”

Kent’s jaw dropped and stared aghast at the elderly mermaid. “I - I -”

“Tsk. I know the feeling. You are drawn to surface, yes?”

Kent hesitated a moment before replying quietly, “Yes.”

“Hm. I remember what it was like. You feel like your soul is split in two and the missing piece isn’t in the ocean where it belongs.”

Kent drifted forward, his entire being needing to hear more.

“It is because you are meant for the one you are drawn to. And they are separated by sea and land. Have you spoken to them, yet?”

Kent nodded weakly. “Yes.”

Alexei covered his mouth in shock. “You spoke to the land boy?”

His babushka waved him off, seemingly unconcerned. “I am not surprised. It was same with your dedushka. I could not stay away. He longed for the ocean. And I longed for him. You have heard the story.”

“Yes. But, he never spoke of being on land.”

“Because he was dead there and alive here. There was no point in looking back. Our pod in Russia was not happy with what I had done. They made us leave.” She stared into Kent’s eyes. “You are willing to risk everything for this land boy?”

Kent leaned forward and nodded fervently. “Please.”

Alexei’s babushka opened a large clam shell. Inside rested a glimmering moonstone pendant. “You take this necklace and lay it on the beach or on some rocks and let it charge in the light of full moon. When it shines with the brightness of the moon, place it back in the shell and keep it closed until you see your land boy again. Have him place it around his neck. He must jump into the water and dive deep enough that no light can reach him. When the moonstone is the only light touching him, he will change and become a mer. You will have to hold him down. Land people will fight to get to the air no matter how much they want to stay under. Once they have changed, they can never go back to the land. They will be just as much a mer as you or I. Can you do that?” 

Kent stared at the moonstone necklace and nodded. He wouldn’t force the decision on Bitty, but he could at least give him the choice. He wasn’t sure if he could hold him down as he struggled for air, but if Bitty decided that’s what he wanted, he would do his best.

* * *

“Bitty, come with me. I promise you’ll be happy.”

“How? I can’t breathe underwater, Kenny.”

Kent gripped Bitty’s hand tight and stared directly into his eyes. “If I could give you a tail, make you a mer, would you do it?”

“At what cost? I’m not stupid. Every fairytale I’ve ever seen is clear. Magic always has a price. If it costs your well-being, I don’t want it. If it means that I can never see you again, I don’t want it. I’d rather have these few days a year than lose you for some magical fix.”

Kent played with the moonstone pendant, twining the chain around his fingers. “The price is your life on land. You can never see your family again.”

“What?”

Kent laid the pendant on the pier. “This pendant can turn you into a mer. Forever. I charged it on the last full moon and kept it concealed. If you put it on and dive into the ocean, you will change.”

“What about the never coming back to land part?”

Kent solemnly looked up at Bitty. “You have to go deep enough in the ocean that no light but the pendant’s can touch you. Then, you will change. Once you are a mer, you can never go back to land. Land people cannot know we exist.”

Bitty stared back in vague horror. “I - what?”

“That’s the price. Your life on land for your life in the ocean.”

Bitty took the pendant from Kent’s fingers and inspected it for any sign that it was more than just a pretty rock. “Can I think about it?”

Kent nodded and held out the shell container. “Place it back in the clam shell so that it doesn’t lose its charge. If you decide to use it, do so at night so that you don’t have to go down as deep. I will stay close by, just in case.”

Bitty nodded and carefully closed the shell around the pendant. “I promise I’ll think about it.” He leaned back and then seemed to think better of it. “Kenny, would it be okay if I kissed you?”

Kent pulled himself as far out of the water as he was able, supporting all of his weight on his arms. “I’d like that.”

It was wet, salty, and rather quick, but Kent felt like an electric eel had shocked him down to the tips of his fluke. 

Bitty blushed high on his cheeks and the tips of his ears. “I’ll let you know.”

Kent let himself drift to the bottom of the ocean floor, the after effects of the kiss still pounding in his ears. He was an infatuated fool and he couldn’t care less, until the next day came and there was no sign of Bitty. Nor the day after that. Nor the day after that.

Kent felt sick. He supposed it was a good sign that Bitty had not returned. Maybe he had resolved his problems with his family. Maybe he didn’t need the escape of the ocean anymore. And then a dark voice whispered in his head that maybe it was Kent himself that Bitty didn’t want and the kiss was out of pity. But, he was stubborn. He would stick it out until Bitty and his family left. Then he would go back and wallow in his misery and never leave babushka’s cave again.

The last night of Bitty’s time at the shore came. Kent stayed well beneath the surface and sulked. Then, something changed. Cautiously, he poked his head above the dark water and heard distant yelling. A figure dashed down the sloping yard and hit the pier at a full sprint, diving straight into the ocean.

Kent didn’t waste any time and swam directly for him. Bitty had the moonstone pendant around his neck and swam down as hard as he could, but the water this close to shore was too shallow. Kent, grabbed his arm and pulled him to the surface. “If you want this, we have to go further out. Hold on to me.”

Bitty wrapped his arms around Kent’s neck, soft sobs wracking his body. “I told them. I finally told them I was gay. They couldn’t - they said -”

Kent shushed him. “It doesn’t matter what they said. Your family is here, with me, and soon the pod. You’ll see. Take one last breath. I’ll pull you down.”

Bitty gasped his last breath of air with his lungs and let Kent pull him deep under the waves into the darkness. The moonstone gleamed in the dark. Just as Bitty started to scramble against Kent’s grip for air, the moonstone flashed and his pants ripped apart as his legs fused into a tail with beautiful red scales and white speckles. Gills opened along his sides and water flooded in and filled his blood with much needed oxygen. It was done.

Kent gazed in awe at the brand new mer in front of him. Bitty leaned in and they shared another kiss, this one deep and soul-wrenching. Finally, Kent felt at peace and Bitty was happy.

[goosefightrobinmayor]

Tatterhood

Tatterhood is my fav ever fairytale in it’s original form, so ofc I tackled it first when doing this Glen project.  As such, you can see how like, messy it is, compared to later stuff.  But I still love this girl.

They grew up in the kingdom of Nysgerrig, under the ocean.  It’s not true that Tatterhood left the womb riding a goat- otherwise her mother would have given birth to triplets!  In fact when she was young, she didn’t even have a spoon, or her namesake hood.  All she had was her unusual height and physique, which she used to protect her sister.

For a moment, her parents worried that young Tatterhood would be teased and isolated because of her looks, but that turned out never to be the case- other than some people wondering out loud if Tatterhood had one human and one merperson parent.  It was never a cruel kind of wonder, though.  The people of Nysgerrig were curious; not judgemental.

Anyway, humans and merfolk did marry, and their children never looked like Tatterhood.  They were always born human, though half of them metamorphosed into merfolk in their teen years.

On a map drawn by a land-dweller, Nysgerrig looked like a sliver of coastline and a smattering of islands.  But in truth, most of Nysgerrig was under the waves.  The country had lost it’s capability for magic when the slain princess Seafoam was returned to Nysgerrig to rule.  The princess, however, inspired curiosity in all her subjects.  Curiosity lead to learning, which lead to more curiosity, which lead to invention.  

The humans and merfolk used their learning to get closer to one another.  They used magnets to manipulate water to make it stand and roll around, so that merfolk could move on dry land.  They discovered that they could use the volcanic vents to generate electricity, and that they could harness more electricity from the sun.  Over many generations, the they built dry neighborhood to the underwater city, and slowly moved the humans there.  

But that was many years before the twins were born.  By the twins’ time, humans and merfolk were quite used to their semi-aquatic lifestyles with one another.  

By now, the islands had gone wild.  The creatures on the land- once failing in numbers, now flourished with little sentient intervention.  The air was clean, and the only structures on the islands were solar panels interspersed with the trees.  The strip of mainland had a few farms that provided most of the fruits and vegetables for Nysgerrig.  All the same, the cities had been built well away from important choral wreaths and fish breeding grounds.  Curiosity had also taught them a lot about the creatures around them, and what they needed to flourish.

Tatterhood was- good.  She wanted good things for others.  Her parents used to give her fancy bonnets and dresses, but Tatterhood would give those to charity, and trade them in for tattered old cloaks.  Her mother, annoyed with this, started calling her Tatterhood, and forgot the name she had chosen for her.  Her sister, on the other hand, loved her nice bonnets.  She started calling herself Silkbonnet, or Bonnie, because she loved to be like her sister, even if they shared nothing about aesthetics.

Tatterhood got her wooden spoon to work at a soup kitchen.  She was so eager to work, she bought her own.  However, a kitchen was not her place, and she soon got bored.  Not to mention that the taste of her food left much to be desired.  It’s here where she found her calling, though, when she had to break up a fight between guests.  She was such a natural brawler that she was asked for work as a bodyguard.

The goat was actually a gift from Seafoam herself.  She’d asked the family to come up to the capitol because they’d heard of two girls who were born from a flower.  As soon as Tatterhood saw Seafoam, she was amazed.  Seafoam, too, saw that there was something interesting about the girl, and asked to speak to her alone.

“Are you a hybrid?”  Tatterhood asked once they were alone.

“I’m sorry- a what?”

“A- half-human half-merperson?  I’ve just, never seen someone like you before.”

Seafoam gave a sad smile.  It was true- most merfolk were covered in green or blue scales, deep black eyes and transparent eyelids.  They had gills instead of noses, and fins instead of hair.  They were blubbery, with short, stubby arms, and powerful tails.  Seafoam looked like a merperson from the tail to the waist, but from the waist up looked like a human woman, her hair forming a halo in the gravitized water around her.

“Why do you ask that?”  The question was sarcastic, but Tatterhood missed the sarcasm.

“Because that’s what people think I am,” Tatterhood said.

Seafoam looked surprised, “What?”

“It’s true.  They don’t know for sure.  But I don’t look human, despite having legs a human family.  It’s like I’m a land-dwelling merperson.  And you look like a water-dwelling human.  Are we alike?”

Seafoam laughed, making bubbled in her water wall that escaped into Tatterhood’s air space.  She caught her breath, “Oh darling, of course you’re not half-merperson!  You don’t look like a merperson.”

“Well, that is true,” Tatterhood said, and jutted out her chin.  Yes, she looked totally unique.  More rugged.  Intimidating.  And she had the muscles to back up her looks.

“And I’m not half human,” Seafoam said, “I’m not human at all.  But I did have legs, once.”

“You did?”

She winced, as if in pain, and hugged her tail, “I did.”

“Is that how you came to look human?” Tatterhood asked.

Seafoam cocked her head, as if trying to figure out the answer to that question.  Then, she said, “Listen, Tatterhood.  I’m going to give you some advice.  Be boring.”

“Boring?  What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she nodded, and lowered her voice as if being listened to, “the Narrative Forces made me this way.”

The Narrative Forces.  Yes.  Tatterhood knew about those.  They could make people never die.  She did know for sure that Seafoam was many hundreds of years old- much older than most merfolk.  But why would Seafoam be telling Tatterhood not to live forever?

“With human skin and hair?”

Seafoam nodded, “Do you know how much I hate this hair?  It gets tangled in everything, and I can’t even cut it because it grows back in a few minutes.  Somewhere along the line, the Narrative Forces thought I looked better with the torso of a beautiful human maiden.  And so I’ve been this way for centuries,” she groaned, “I’m not even logical.  I don’t have gills.”

“What?  No gills?  Then how do you breathe?”

“I don’t know!  That’s the problem!”

Tatterhood shuddered all over.  She loved her sister, but she wouldn’t want to turn pretty, not ever.  She liked being strong, and messy, and impulsive and- well, ugly.  She liked being tall and green and having tusks and warts and and pig nose and tail and muscles.  Without those, she wouldn’t feel like herself.

But.  She would like to be a princess.  She admired Seafoam for what she had created in Nysgerrig.  Tatterhood wanted to do good like that, and on that scale.  She even admired that Seafoam did all this while looking kind of funny.  She was mermaid who didn’t look like a mermaid, and Tatterhood was a human who didn’t look like a human.  They really were the same.

Seafoam called the family back, and they answered some questions about the twin’s birth.  At some point, Seafoam got stiff and worried looking.  It was only for a moment, and Tatterhood was the only one who seemed to notice.  Seafoam sent them home, but gave them gifts.  For Bonnie, a lovely bonnet knitted out of the softest kelp.  And for Tatterhood, a wild baby goat the size of a colt.

Her parents feared at first that they wouldn’t be able to handle the goat, until Tatterhood climbed on top of him.  Immediately he calmed down, and Tatterhood rode him out of the throne room.  Her family followed.

Tatterhood adored her goat, who she named Vincent.  He grew even larger, and in a few years was the size of a horse.  Tatterhood took to riding the city on her goat, helping people in trouble either with her diplomacy or her fists and trusty wooden spoon.  

On the twins’ eighteenth birthday, Seafoam called the family to the capitol again, and spoke to Tatterhood.

“Tatterhood, I’ve made a mistake,” she told her.

And then she told her about a deal she made with a delegation of trolls several years ago.  Trolls were creatures who lived far away from Nysgerrig, in the mountains on the land.  Seafoam, who couldn’t leave the ocean much less Nysgerrig, longed to study the wildlife in the trolls’ native land.  The trolls brought her a collection of their livestock, in exchange for something that they lost.  They could come for it in a while.  Seafoam wouldn’t have to find it for them, just not get in their way when they came to claim it.

The deal was worded vaguely, and Seafoam sensed a trap, but her curiosity and her eagerness to learn overpowered for caution.  She agreed.  She now knew that that was a mistake, because she knew what the trolls wanted.

“It’s you, Tatterhood.  You’re not a merperson.  But you’re not really human, either.  You’re half troll.  That’s why I gave Vincent to you instead of the bonnet I created for you.  I suppose it was a weak sort of apology.  But when I saw you tame him, I knew that it was your because of your troll blood.”

Anyone else might have been devastated by this news, but Tatterhood was overjoyed.  Finally, the reason for her being different had a name.  The thought there being other trolls out there she could meet also inspired her.  But not so much what Seafoam said next- about the trolls wanting to take her away from everything- her city, her goat, her sister, to live with them.

“They don’t get to decide that!”

“Of course they don’t.  Which is why I’m going to protect you in the strongest fort in the country.  Trolls are like fae, in that they must keep their promises.  But merfolk and princesses are held to no such standards.  I will break my promise with the trolls, and go to war with them to protect you.”

“And put the people of Nysgerrig in danger?”

“Don’t be foolish- trolls rely on magic, and there is no magic here.  Our armies will crush them.”

“Well I don’t want them to die.  I will go meet them, and tell them I’m not going.”

“That’s foolish.  Tatterhood, remember what I told you about being boring.”

“It’s true,” Tatterhood said, “but I’ve been thinking about it a lot for the past eight years.  And the truth is, I don’t want to be boring.  I want to live forever.  In fact, I want to be a princess!”

“Tatterhood!  But don’t you want to look the way you look?”

“Yes!  Yes I do, definitely,” she nodded vigorously, “you see, I have a plan,” she grinned, “and this fits right into it!  I’m going to become a princess,” she jutted out her chin, “but it’s going to be on my terms.  And, it’ll probably take a while to get just right, so I’ll need some immortality to give me some time.”

Seafoam didn’t like this answer, but Tatterhood had made up her mind.  She found her family, and explained her plan.  Her parents tried to talk her out of it, but Bonnie could see that she was unbudging, so she instead offered to go with her.  Tatterhood was thrilled, and pulled Bonney on top of Vincent with her, and ran away.

Tatterhood met the troll army on the mainland, where some magic was still usable.  Her plan to simply tell them how she felt went down like a lead balloon and they immediately tried to capture her.  Tatterhood escaped, but at a price.  Bonnie had been transformed- given the body of a cow, though she still kept her human head.  

Luckily for the girls, they had gained the attention of the Narrative Forces.  They were in a story now, though, it didn’t have the ending either of them wanted.  They started to wandering the earth, avoiding the trolls, and looking for a way for Tatterhood to become and princess, and for Bonnie to get her body back.

Tatterhood set her sights on helping her sister out.  Though Bonnie didn’t complain out loud, Tatterhood could tell the life of a cow was not for her.  There was so much time that had to be spent eating and then digesting that Bonnie felt like she didn’t have any time for herself by the time she had to sleep again.  When she did sleep, only the ground and piles of hay were big enough for her, as she had a tendency to crush any bed she found.  And her hooves got cracked from so much walking, but Tatterhood and Bonnie could find no one who would make shoes for cows.

But the worst of it were the suitors.  The first time a slightly attractive man came to Bonnie stating that he wanted to help her break her curse, Tatterhood thought Bonnie was lucky.  But after spending an afternoon with him, Bonnie was charging out of town so fast Tatterhood had to ride Vincent to keep up with her.  Tatterhood tried again and again to play matchmaker with a gentleman cursebreaker, but Bonnie rejected them all.  Finally Bonnie explained her reasoning.

“They don’t want to marry me because they love me,” she said, “they want to marry me because they want to break my curse.”

“Well don’t you want your curse broken?”  Tatterhood asked.

“Of course!  But this is marriage, Tatters.  I don’t want to marry to a man I don’t love, and who doesn’t love me.  Think how miserable that would be.”

Tatterhood had never thought of it that way.  She of course had always known that she would have to marry some prince or princess in order to become a Storybook Princess.  But she had thought it would a business arrangement- mutually beneficial for both parties, but not necessarily for the sake of love.  

To tell the truth, Tatterhood didn’t really understand love.  Oh, she understood the love she had for her sister, and her goat, and her family.  But that other kind of love- the love that was supposed to be magical between a person and the one they marry- that thing that was supposed to be all encompassing and surpass all the other loves in her life- she just understand that type of love.  Nor did she want it.  She didn’t want anything to be more important than her sister.

Bonnie shook her head at this, though, “That’s not the kind of love I want, either.  I don’t think that kind of love exists, Tatters.  I know in my heart nothing can take away the love I have for you.  But I am holding my breath that I will meet someone one day- someone I love as much, but differently.  Someone who I can can share a love with because we trust each other so much.  A friend.  Someone who sees me as a friend too, and not just a ticket to immortality.”

This cleared up, Tatterhood stopped playing matchmaker, and vigilantly protected her sister from unwanted advances.  She and Bonnie traveled to all the great cities, looking for some book or some scholer to tell them the way to reverse Bonnie’s curse- one that didn’t involve a sham marriage.  But no one had any help for them.  

While passing through Ausdauer, Tatterhood and Bonnie were scaling a mountain when they came upon an old woman enjoying her tea in her kettle.  They were invited to join her, and gladly did to rest their feet and hooves.  Tatterhood had no provisions to trade for the tea, so she told her their story instead.  A twinkle shone in the woman’s eye but nothing more.

“Why, well not ask me?  I’m a woman of magic, myself.”

“Alright, then,” Tatterhood thought it was at least worth saying the words, “do you know how to Bonnie can get her human form back, without having to marry?”

“Of course.  And you’re going about it all wrong, girl.  Silkbonnet is not cursed.”

“How do you mean that?  She has the body of a cow!”

“Yes, but listen to me.  A curse is a spell cast with ill intent, the intent being to harm another person.  And none of this is true of your ensorcellment.”

Tatterhood stood up, “Explain yourself, crone, or we take the kettle and throw it off the mountainside.”

“You have a temper befitting a troll,” the woman nodded sagely, “you are a troll in almost every way.  Every way but one.”

Tatterhood knew what she was talking about.  What she didn’t know what how the old woman knew.  “Yes,” she said, “it’s true: I’m a troll who can’t do magic.  But how do you know?”

“Girl,” the old woman said, “I know more about you than you can believe, so you must believe what I am telling you now.  You’re not the only half troll here.  Your sister, too has troll ancestry.”

Tatterhood and Bonnie exchanged glances.  “Well,” Bonnie said, “it would make sense.  We are twins, after all.”

“Only in name, though,” Tatterhood said, “we were born of unusual circumstances.”

“Yes, your mother ate two flowers, when she was advised to only eat one.”

They turned back to the crone, “What are you talking about, old woman?”  Tatterhood asked, “And again, how do you know these things?  My mother ate the two flowers, yes, but she said nothing about being advised to eat one.”

“She didn’t tell you about it, but none-the-less, she was advised.”

By now, the twins were rather spooked.  The woman sighed, “The point I’m trying to make is-” she pointed to Bonnie, “you are as much troll as she.  But whereas she has inherited every troll trait but for magic, you have inherited troll magic only.”

“I don’t have magic!”  Bonnie protested, “I never practiced magic in my life!”

“Because you lived in Nysgerrig, where common-magic doesn’t work,” and she gave an exasperated sigh, “why do I have to explain everything to you humans?”

“I thought we were trolls,” Tatterhood said dryly.

“Well you’re certainly thinking like humans.  Use your brains!”

Tatterhood wanted to walk away right then- leave the woman to her rantings.  But Bonnie set her hooves into the earth and said she wanted to hear the woman out.  The woman introduced herself as Bunica, and promised to teach Bonnie how to use her powers.

“It’s no surprise you don’t know you have magic,” the woman said, “you never got a chance to use them.”

“But if I really did enchant myself-”

“What were you feeling just then?”

Bonnie cocked her head to remember, “Scared,” she said, “so much was happening so fast.  I was never so scared in my life.  I thought I was going to lose Tatters.”

Bunica nodded again, “When put in stressful situations, our magic can do extraordinary things.”

“Like turn me into a cow?!  How did that help us, at the time?”

“I dunno,” Tatterhood said, off to the side, “when you got transformed, I knew I had to stop trying to fight fights I couldn’t win and just get out of there.  So in a way, you knocked the hubris outta me.”

“But if I changed myself into this, why didn’t I just turn back when we escaped?”  Bonnie asked, “Me being a cow hasn’t helped us ever since then.”

“Because the magic to change you back is well beyond your knowledge,” Bunica said, “you were full of fear and passion at the time, which created magic that should have been impossible for you.  But now it is very impossible to change back.”

Bonnie rocked on all four of her hooves, “Impossible?  So why are we even talking?”

“Impossible now,” Bunica said, annoyed, “listen, will you?  Of course you’ll be able to change back eventually.  But you must learn how to use your magic, first.”

For a year and a day the twins stayed on the mountain.  Tatterhood couldn’t complain.  She didn’t age, and probably never would again, so there was no point in being impatient.  Bunica started Bonnie on transforming pebbles into gems- small things.  

“Don’t I need ingredients?” Bonnie asked, “Tongue of newt and eye of toad and stuff.  What about a magic wand?  When do I get my wand?”

“Those baubles are crutches,” Bunica said, “you’re a troll.  You don’t need those things.  Just will this pebble to be a sapphire.”

“How can I will it?  The pebble’s will isn’t mine to command.”

“It’s not as long as you have that attitude.”

Bonnie spat out the cud she’d been chewing absently, then made a face when she saw it on the ground.  “Sorry,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, and made a gesture.  The earth swallowed up the cud and spat out a strange and unique plant that gave off an enticing smell.  When Bonnie snuck up to it, however, Bunica yelled, “Don’t you dare!”

“Your problem is believing,” Bunica said, “you need to believe that you’re a troll.  Trolls are nature, and therefore, they can alter nature.  You have to ability to tell this pebble how to be, but you must make an honest effort and stop doubting that it’s possible.”

“Can I, though, when I grew up in place with so much metal?  Nysgerrig seemed to separate from nature.”

“You’ll have to, if you ever want to stop chewing cud.”

And Bonnie did try.  But it was difficult, and the difficulty made her doubt herself more, which made it more difficult.  But while on the mountain, she was not bothered by well-meaning suitors.  And though she pained to stand upright and have hands, she would not marry out of desperation to escape this curse.  

On the third day, she transformed the pebble.  Not a full transformation, but there was a stripe of blue crystal through the center of the rock.  Bonnie was so pleased she ran down to the base of the mountain to show Tatterhood, holding the pebble between her teeth.  A small victory, but the encouragement she needed.

When Tatterhood saw the pebble, she knew the witch had been telling the truth, and decided to settle in on the mountain’s side.  She had set up camp- a fireplace and a tent.  But now she set to work creating a cabin where she and her sister could escape the elements.  Bunica had a cave, but she didn’t offer to share it, and Tatterhood didn’t want to push her generosity.

While Bonnie was transforming stones and leaves, Tatterhood used her non-magical gifts to transform trees into logs, and logs into a home.  She built a house that was sturdy, with wide doors a human-headed cow could enter easily, and even made an exceptionally sturdy bed for Bonnie’s bovine dimensions.  

She finished the cabin, and Bonnie was still learning how to transform leaves into cloth.  Tatterhood made herself busy exploring the mountain.  There were huge eagles, which Bunica has asked Tatterhood not to harm, for they were her children.  There was also a monsterous serpent, a lindworm, who Bunica had also asked Tatterhood not to harm.  She was free, though, to hunt boars and wolves and elk, though Tatterhood did so only when threatened by the beasts.  Bonnie couldn’t digest meat, and Tatterhood was but one troll, so she kept to smaller meals for herself, like foxes and bobcats.

Tatterhood also patrolled the mountain.  Sometimes a young bachelor would come riding up to hunt, and Tatterhood would scare them away with a ruse.  She’d ride Vincent where they could see her, singing at the top of her lungs about hunting and killing humans for a stew with her pack of bloodthirsty trolls.  The bachelors would turn around with haste.  

Then there were the women, the couples, and the elderly, who came up the mountain path to Bunica’s cave.  Somehow, Tatterhood knew not to deter them.  Bunica did business with them.  Tatterhood watched at least once, as she sent a couple off with instructions of what to grow and eat and what not to.  Without looking, Bunica asked, “This interests, you?”

“My origins interest me, Ma’am.”

“Why do you assume your origins are with me?”

“Call it a hunch, I guess.”

“Why do you have this interest?”

“Because I grew up as the only troll in a city of humans and merfolk.  I’m interesting to myself.”

“Your sister is as much troll as you.”

“Yes,” Tatterhood faltered, “yes, she is, isn’t she?  It’s hard for me to get used to knowing that.”

“You must learn not to categorize things by the way they look.  There are many creatures who look like something else.”

“Of course.  Thank you.”

Mostly, she was left to her own devices.  Bunica didn’t have patience for her- or Bonnie, for that matter.  There were days when Bunica simply refused to give Bonnie a lesson because “It’s in you.  Just do it.  I can’t do it for you.”

Ironic, because they were under Princess Elisa’s domain.  Tatterhood must have seeped up Bunica’s patience, because she found herself not too concerned with whether the witch would talk to her next, or how long it would take for Bonnie to regain her proper form.  

She tried to speak to the eagles, but they stayed in the air, snubbing her.  She made friends with the shepherds who lead their sheep to the foothills of the mountain.  They saw her strength, and asked her to kill the lindworm, who was terrorizing their homes.  She refused, but didn’t say why.  However, it gave Tatterhood the idea to try to befriend him.  

She found him to be not so monsterous, not in truth, but was shy, and angry, and his anger was a wall.  Still though, when she had a big kill, she would bring her lunch out to the picnic table, and put a piece of meat on the other side.  Then she would go to the edge of the woods and call to him.

“Lindworm, Lindworm, would you join me for lunch?”

Most of time no answer would come.  Tatterhood would leave the meat anyway, and come out of her cabin the next morning to find the bones picked clean.  Sometimes, she would hear only swears and insults from the wood, but still come out of her cabin in the morning to find the bones picked clean.  

When Bunica finally told her about the creature- Ruby- Tatterhood wanted even more to befriend him.  She had found on this hill someone was was the same as her- the other flower- the ugly twin but- worse.  Even being seperated from Bonnie for more than a few days put an ache in Tatterhood’s heart.  How could parents be so cruel as to force two twins to grow up separately?  She wanted to ease his heartache in one way or another.

But now that she was armed with this knowledge, the lindworm kept himself even further away.  

“I am no other flower.  I am no ugly twin.  I am not Ruby.  I am the Lindworm.  I am a killer, and you had best stay away or you’ll be devoured.”

“You are dear to me, but my story will not end with my death, so I will not allow you to eat me.  It will be your death before mine.”

“Then you will incur the wrath of the mountain mother, and suffer a fate worse than death.”

“Possibly,” Tatterhood said, unconcerned.  The truth was, she was certain he would never harm her.  He wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought he was.

Winter set in.  Bonnie had reversed her transformation and there had been much celebration.  But she had chosen to wait until spring to set out, and stay with Bunica to pick up what magical knowledge she could.  She practiced on anyone who was willing, even Tatterhood, giving her the form of a human man.  

As a man, Tatterhood slayed a large boar that was terrorizing the village below almost as much as Ruby.  He had a scar from an encounter with the lindworm- a gash from his mouth to his ear.  They celebrated the hero, declaring that he must be some kind of prince.  Tatterhood was a bit amused by this, but did not stick around.  She salted the meat and brought an offering to the edge of the woods Ruby resided in, and settled in for the winter.

On the first day of spring, the sisters said their goodbyes to Bunica, and set out on Vincent.  Tatterhood hoped to see Ruby one more time before she left, but the lindworm did not emerge to say goodbye.

Years passed.  The new editions of the Grimmoir came out but with no mention of Bonnie’s disenchantment.  Tatterhood wasn’t sure if this was because the Narrative Forces had forgotten them or because Bonnie had been disenchanted in such an uninteresting way.  Uninteresting, that is, to the Narrative Forces.  They seemed to be very interested in marriage, and revenge, and groups of three.

Tatterhood studied them in her long life.  Met those who had been made into protagonists, like her.  Wrote down their stories, circled certain words, put the tales up on a crime board and connected the themes with strings.  She copied the stories of the princesses out of the common Grimmoirs and wrote them on blue paper.  She was now 100% determined to achieve her dream.

They went all over- saw amazing things.  They even spent time in the land of the trolls.  It was a wild place, without the influence of a Storybook Princess.  In all of time, the Narrative Forces had never granted a princess to the trolls.  But it was chock full of magic.  Everything seemed to be alive there- or part of something that was.  People lived in giant trees and traveled around on dandelion spores and the wind.  

The trolls were family oriented, only their idea of a family was much broader than what Tatterhood and Bonnie were used to.  To a troll, ‘family’ were people you were fond of, regardless of blood.  The twins became the daughters of 42 trolls, the sisters of 31 others, and the cousins of 18 more.  The twins also met many merfolk and felle and even giants who were trolls- as far as they and their (adopted?)families were concerned.

Meeting the trolls, and reading the entries to how the Grimmoir treated them, Tatterhood realized that her dream was going to be difficult.  There was a reason that most protagonists in the stories were human, and that most villains weren’t, and that those who changed into humans always got their happy endings.  There were exceptions, of course.  Tatterhood befriended Puss, a felle who remained a cat throughout his tale and up to this day, and a giant-killer who refused to marry after fulfilling his task, and a witch named Baba Yaga who was celebrated as much as she was feared.

In the meantime, she assured her immortality by finding her roles in other stories.  She was aware that her mother or Bunica might die, making her story disappear, so she entangled herself.  Not always giving her name, though.  Often she was an ogre to be tricked by a protagonist, or(with the help of Bonnie’s magic), an animal who gave some sage advice when needed.  Bonnie took up the role of story starter- anonymously transforming people who greatly wanted to have a place in the Grimmoir.  She always left a way for them to break the curse that was different from the cure all- marriage- for she herself didn’t believe in marriage for that cause.

They also helped in ways that never got into the Grimmoir.  Tatterhood hunted down non-magical bounties when she hit the cities, or joined armies to take on corrupt kings while in the country.  Bonnie gave herself a cow’s head when in places that were interesting to the Forces.  Eventually their tale changed in the common Grimmoirs to state that the girl had been cursed with a cow’s head, not a cow’s body.

“It’s more convenient,” she told Tatterhood with a shrug, “at least I only have one stomach, this way.”

Bonnie had a few love affairs over the years, with people like her who had started their own tales, but didn’t want to finish them by marrying.  And they befriended many.  Tatterhood was happy with the friends, though.  The more she went on, the more she became resolute that that certain kind of love was not for her.  And she was happy.  

Half a century into their journey, they were called back to Nysgerrig because their father was sickly.  They stayed in the city for last years of his life, at his insistence.  Tatterhood was rather distraught at the idea of losing him.  She insisted he come with her on an adventure, so that he could stop his fatal aging.  But the man turned her down.  He didn’t want to be old and withered for the rest of forever- especially when next to their mother, who was still young and vibrant as the day Tatterhood had fought the trolls.

They stayed a few months after the death, but the adventuring spirit had entered Bonnie, and the twins set out again.  But by now, Tatterhood had started to give up on her dream.  Once, she would have offered unaging to any prince who would accept her hand without trying to sooth out the warts on it.  But everyone she met who wasn’t in a tale felt so young to her now.  It would be like marrying a child.

I’m happy, she said to herself, this, what I do, it makes me happy.  I can do this forever.

The twins was on the edge of troll country when she heard that the capitol city had been overtaken by a human army.  The twins of course knew a lot about humans and their tricks, so they decided to go.  The humans had discovered that they could use iron to poison the city and give the trolls sun sickness.  Those with sun sickness turned to stone when under the sun.  The warriors were too scared to leave their houses and defend the streets during the day, and in the night, the humans disappeared.  

They continued this tactic until the city was cowed into submission, and now the humans were treating trolls like servants or toys.  Tatterhood was less than enthusiastic when she and Bonnie arrived.  Bonnie was riding an old canterous mare and wearing a cow’s head, so the humans saw them both as enemies.  They dumped iron-heavy water on top of them.  The half-human girls, though, were immune to sun sickness and fought the army with might and magic.

Tatterhood killed, and was glad to.  She sent the slavers away with a message that the trolls could not be defeated so easily.  The trolls celebrated their heroes, and the twins stayed in the city for several weeks.  They met the royal princes- a troll and a human changeling- though the twins quickly learned not to say that word out loud around him.  

Roar and Reidar’s family were in themselves storied- the villains who had been tricked by a couple of clever felle.  Honestly, the incident was so unremarkable to them that they didn’t realize they were in a tale until they couldn’t shave their beards and someone brought them a copy of the Grimmoir.  They were bemused by the whole business, and used their unwanted long lives to help the more mortally inclined people of Ugress.

Tatterhood and Bonnie stayed to help as much as they could.  The troll population of Ugress, which was still the majority, still had sun sickness.  Tatterhood called on the healers she’d met.  She even fetched Bunica the mountain mother, but not even she could offer up a cure for the poor trolls.  Best she could offer were enchanted hats that kept the sun from freezing them, so long as they didn’t get knocked off.  The trolls who had already been turned to stone were dead.  They were placed in the graveyard- their own tombstones.  

It was a while, and Bonnie and Prince Roar spent more and more time together.  Tatterhood thought it at first one of her flings.  The twins still went on adventures, but returned often to the town of Ugress at Bonnie’s insistence.  

Tatterhood spent time with Reidar, and greatly enjoyed his company.  Like Tatterhood, Reidar was the unmagical sibling- being just a human among trolls.  Also like Tatterhood, he enjoyed brawls and hunting.  Nor did he have any interest in romance.  The only thing they disagreed about was fashion, honestly.  Reidar liked to dress up in the finest robes, and Tatterhood still liked her tattered cloaks.

When Bonnie announced she would marry Roar, Tatterhood was surprised.  Ten years had passed but, then again, it had only been ten.  Bonnie was sure though, and so was Roar.  They had plans to move to one of the princes’ vacation homes- a great house carved into a sequoia tree in Slekta.  The surrounding forest trees were so tall and so dense and so leafy that he would never have to worry about his sun sickness.

Preparations were made for the marriage, which would take place in Ugress.  Tatterhood and Reidar had so much fun getting everything ready.  It occured to Tatterhood, though, that once Bonnie married Prince Roar, she would be a princess.  Once Tatterhood’s dream and- honestly, for a moment, it felt bitter in her mouth to know of Bonnie achieving it.  But Tatterhood wouldn’t stand for that.  She chose instead to be happy that her twin and lifelong friend was marrying someone she was deeply in love with.

Still though- Tatterhood started to see an opportunity.  She and Reidar were friends.  They spend hours together in the same house, and comfortably.  When she asked him, “Would you like to get married?”  She asked it sort of as a joke.

But to her horror and thrill, he considered it.

“If I did marry you, I’d have more excuses to visit Roar.  It makes me sad that he’s leaving, but I don’t want to make Bonnie jealous by visiting a lot.”

“Reidar!  You disappoint me.  You know Bonnie isn’t the possessive type.  Her love only multiplies, never divides.”

“Know, this is true, this is true.  Ah, well, I guess I have no excuse, then,” he shrugged, “I like you, Tatters.  I don’t know if this the proper kind of love to do so but- who cares?  I enjoy your company.  You’re one of my best friends.  Yes, I would like to marry.”

“So then- that’s a yes?”

“A yes- yes, it’s a yes!  Tatterhood, I can’t wait to see you as princess.”

“Not just a princess,” Tatterhood’s tusks vibrated from her joy, “a Storybook Princess!”

It was a race to the altar.

No, really, it was.  Everyone rode their chosen steed.  Bonnie had a black stallion.  Roar rode his rhinoceros.  Reidar had a trollian albatross, and Tatterhood, of course, was riding Vincent.  Bonnie and Roar’s mounts and Tatterhood and Reidar’s mounts were tied together by lengths of rope that gave them each six feet to maneuver around one another.  

It wasn’t a tradition or anything.  They just thought it would be fun.

The first leg of the race was through a wooded evergreen forest under the moonlight. Team Blomst, Bonnie and Roar, were in front, so Team Ugress put on a burst of speed to overtake them.  Suddenly Reidar cried out.

“Tatterhood!  Your hood!”

“What about it?”

“It’s not a hood, it’s a lovely flowing gown!”

Tatterhood looked down to see that, indeed, he was telling the truth.  She was wearing a lovely gown made of all color silks, with rose petals sewn into it.  The gown spilled over into Vincent’s horns and made him lose his cadence, which slowed them all down.  Team Blomst pulled ahead.

“Damnit Bonnie,” Tatterhood muttered, but pushed her silk to the side and kept going.  The next leg of the race was over two swinging rope bridges over a thundering waterfall.  Team Ugress saw Team Blomst ahead and pushed again, getting a lead on them.

“Tatterhood!  Your goat!”  Reider cried.

“What about him?”

“He’s not a goat, he’s a fine stallion!”

Tatterhood looked down, but didn’t need to tell something was wrong.  Vincent was in a tizzy- rearing and trying to bray, but only whinnying instead.  He was a lovely racing horse with a freshly shampooed mane.  Each of his cloven hooves had fused into a single hard toe, and he kept throwing all this hooves to try to get them free of the new enamel.  He caused such a fuss the bridge they were on turned over, and Tatterhood had to comfort him while they were hanging upside down.  

She did get him under control, and spurred him into motion.  She was furious, now.  She was going to win this race no matter what.  Vincent, with Tatterhood on him, leaped onto the albatross’s back.  It flew in the sky, over the track, catching up with Team Blomst.  Vincent leaped down just in front of the other horse, and the albatross resumed flying just behind him.

“Hey!  Flying is cheating!”  Bonnie said, “We established that!”

“So is magic!”  Tatterhood pointed out, and swung her spoon into the horse’s face.  She was going to knock it out.  If Bonnie wanted to play dirty, Tatterhood could, too.  It brushed off harmlessly, however, because it had been transformed.

“Tatterhood!  Your wooden spoon!”  Reidar cried.

“Yes, Reidar, I know,” Tatterhood was holding the paper fan in her hand presently.

“It’s not a wooden spoon, it’s a paper fan!”

“I know.”

“Oh, you know.”

“Yeah,” she pocketed the fan.  Again, Team Blomst had edged in front of them.

There was one final stretch- through a field of wasp nests.  The nests were of the ground variety, and the grass was tall, and no one could no for sure where the nests were.  Tatterhood, with her paper fan, her gown, and her lovely horse, turned to her human fiance.  “Shall we?”

Reidar burst out with laughter.  Long, hard peels.  Tatterhood, annoyed, fanned herself.

“I’m sorry, Tatters, but you just look so ridiculous in all that stuff.”

“I know,” Tatterhood said, ripping the bottom part off her dress, “let’s get some good old revenge.”

So they made for one last go to catch with Team Blomst.  This time, Tatterhood got neck and neck with Bonnie, who said, “Tatterhood!  Your face!”

“What about it?”

“It’s not your face, it’s the face of some lovely human maiden.”

Tatterhood didn’t have to look.  She wiggled her nose to find it was small, and felt her teeth in her mouth- all the same side.  Her hands were small, and uncalloused.  Tatterhood laughed.

“Nice one, Bonnie.  Now turn me back.  I will not marry while looking like this.”

“Fair enough- but do something for me first.  Cut your fiance loose, and tie your animal to mine.”

It was a deal.  Tatterhood was ruthless, cutting the rope with her wooden spoon which had once again been transformed.  The sudden loss of tension made the albatross lose its balance in the air, and like a kite it went tumbling back with Reidar still on him.  At the same time, Bonnie cut her line between herself and Roar.  His mount saw the loose rope and tried to catch it in it’s mouth, only it was connected to it, so it couldn’t quite reach and the rhinoceros ran circles.

Tatterhood and Vincent’s enchantments melted off them like sugar under water.  The twins mounts thundered through the field, waking several wasps nests.  

Tatterhood and Bonnie tagged the minister at the same instance.  “I guess you have to marry us both at once!”  Bonnie said, breathing heavily.  Seconds later, the brother princes came running out of the field, laughing, covered in mud, and chased by wasps.

The tower just, appeared, at the edge of fort Ugress- a tower of packed mud and briars and pine supports, like the rest of the fort.  It looked like it belonged, certainly- but it was also the highest point of the structure.

The king, the queen, the two princes and the two new Storybook Princesses made their way up the tower.  The construction inside was wood grown into steps instead of cut, as if made by troll hands and magic.  A spiral staircase traveled all the way up to a door, and behind the door- plain room, with windows facing due north, due east, due south and due west.

And of course, the door.

Roar put his large hands on Bonnie’s shoulders, then let them go with a double pat, “Well, darling, there it is.  Your door.”

Reidar cleared his throat, “Actually, brother, this is Tatterhood’s door.  Ugress is to be her home, after all.”

“Goodness, you’re right,” Roar said.  

Bonnie took Tatterhood’s hand, “Are you excited?”

“Excited?  I’ve been waiting for this forever,” she put her hand on the door.  There was a sort of warmth as touched the handle- not unlike the warmth of being newly Princessed.  It was different from the warmth of unaging- a little hotter and more intense.  

Suddenly, Tatterhood wasn’t sure she wanted to open the door.

“I’m scared,” she said in a small voice.

Two troll brothers were on either side of her.

“I’ll go in before you,” Reidar said, and put his hand on the knob.  For his trouble, he was zapped and knocked across the room.

Roar got him up, saying, “Maybe you should open it for us, Tatters.”

Tatterhood nodded, put her hand on the knob again, but shook her head.  “No, this isn’t right.”

The brothers looked at one another.

“I know I can invite someone else through.  But this place- this is a place for princesses.  So, only princesses should come through, this time.”  She took Bonnie’s hand, “Will you?  You’ve been with me for almost a century.  Will you step over the threshold with me?”

“Oh Tatters, of course,” she turned to the troll family, “hold the fort while we’re gone,” and then she giggled.