#giant merman au fanwork

[wolfie180g]

Chapter 17 is up! Lemme know what you think and where you'd like to see the story go in the future - what scenes I should cover before the end!

[muppenthings]

Watermelon wish

Submitted by prplzorua

So, it's been a bit...I wanted fluff but, uh, it's bitter sweet?

Heh, whoops 😅

WC:3,535

TW: pain, mild injury, blood, unconsciousness. 

Enjoy!🐙

----

  ‘Wish upon a star’, they said. ‘You never know! ~’ they said. Yet, they never once said what to do on the off chance that the star actually granted the wish.

  ----

  Pain.

 That’s the first thing he noticed on the night of the new moon.

  It hurts! It hurts so bad!

  Every inch of him ached, the pain radiated from his hair down to the tip of his tail fin. 

Everything felt like it was being compressed.

  His ribs felt bruised and his gills struggled to function, it was as if he had swum into the endless depths below and the pressure was consequently wreaking havoc on his body. He would fight it if he could, swim up and away from the cause of his pain, except…

Except, he was already on the surface and had been for quite some time.

  The sun had gone down no more than an hour or so and the “Scratching cliff” was a familiar spec in the distance ahead. The next meet up with his humans was to be in the morning, many, many hours away.

  He coughed and gagged; the scent of his own blood was beyond alarming. However, the pain radiating throughout his form kept him immobilized. That, of course, made his panic all the worse. If he could move, he would have been flailing and thrashing about in an attempt to escape whatever it is that was causing all this pain. 

Instead, he could do no more than writhe and whimper, while somehow remaining buoyant for the duration of his agony.

  The pain only grew more intense and to make matters worse, he was sinking. 

  The light of the stars wouldn't reach below the surface and he was already not the biggest fan of the dark. Time seemed to move in slow motion, as the pain wracked through his body, the darkness began to envelope him in dull pulses.

  If his pained cries could escape his vocal cords underwater, they would have been heard all the way to shore.

  Virgil truly had no idea how he ended up in this mess or in this much pain in the first place, all he knew was that it hurt and his surroundings were slowly getting darker-

  There was a flash of motion that caught his eye. Something swam by him.

  There it was again!

  With the pain holding him in place Virgil couldn't move anything more than his head- which he tilted to the side- only to be met with the largest shark he's ever seen.

  Fear for the creature, one that he hadn't felt since he was young, resurfaced with a vengeance. How was it bigger than he was?

  He remembered Logan mentioning that there were once enormous sharks that hunted enormous whales but his human said those were gone….

  Then again, he existed, so why wouldn't something bigger?

  Still, it was terrifying to see all those teeth in front of him, all far sharper than his own.

  Why was it here? Why was this the first time he's ever seen one?

  It swam closer, it was circling him.

  Held captive by both fear and pain the Mer had no choice but to defend himself if the shark decided to make a snack out of him.

  Virgil bared his teeth.

The shark took it as a challenge.

  Adrenaline immediately flooded through Virgil and for the first time, in what felt like hours, he was finally able to move.

  He dodged out of the way, just in time for one of those very sharp teeth to dig and scrape a line down his shoulder. Hissing in pain, Virgil grabbed his shoulder, hoping to stem the flow of blood. 

  Shooting down and then towards shore the Mer figured his best bet was to lose the shark in the kelp forest and if not, well then one thing was for sure, sharks couldn't go up as far on land as he could.

  Weaving in and out of the kelp field wasn't something that he usually did, he'd simply pick and eat his fill, occasionally take a nap or so if he had eaten too much. His size meant that the tall plants weren't much of a problem but this time he was having some trouble with the thickness of the kelp itself.

  To its credit the shark easily caught up to him, likely because of the smell of his blood and the fact that it was being propelled forward faster by the current. It was strong enough to hurtle both of them towards the shore.

  Not seeing any other option, Virgil shot forward to the beach-

  The last second before he broke out of the kelp forest the shark came extremely close to taking a chunk out of his tail and in a moment of pure adrenaline fueled motion, the Mer reared back and slapped the shark across the gills with a swing of his tail.

  The creature was hit hard enough to bleed. Virgil even winced, a hit to the gills was nothing nice, to be bleeding from it was worse.

  The shark swam away and for that the Mer was grateful. That hit sent all the pain that had been holding him in place before shooting with a vengeance throughout his body. 

  He managed to swim just outside the kelp forest before pain and darkness completely consumed him.

  ---

  "Odd, usually Virgil would be here by now", said Logan as he glanced over the horizon.

  Patton shrugs, "maybe he left for a bit," he then points at the shore, "there's a whole lump of kelp on the beach, maybe he went back for more?"

  "Is...is there something under the kelp? Looks like it's moving!"

  Patton and Roman looked at each other…and then immediately raced down to see what was under the kelp. Completely ignoring Logan's shouts to be careful.

  When they got closer, Roman gently picked a handful of kelp off the lump. Patton followed suit…

  "LOGAN!" 

  The simultaneous call from his friends nearly threw the Pharmacist off balance. When he finally got down to the flat, he jogged quickly towards the two, only to freeze at what was in front of him. An unconscious mer.

  Roman looked at him through wide eyes with panicked breaths. "There’s...there's no way...right?"

  "It wouldn't make sense for it to be… but they look exactly like him", adds Patton, equally shocked.

  "It can't be Virge, this one's human sized! Can a giant just shrink?!"

  Logan shakes his head. "I don't know Roman, but that makes the least sense. This one could be a sub-species or closely related at least. One thing's for sure, is that they're injured."

  True to his word there was a large gash across the mer's right shoulder. The blood flow was thankfully slow but it did cause the kelp to stick to surrounding scales.

  Logan is quick to send Patton to get the first aid kit and a towel. While he and Roman work to free the human sized mer from all the kelp it was wrapped up in.

  Patton was back faster than he probably should have been given their rocky terrain.

"I got the kit, but there was no towel, so I improvised"

  Logan takes one look at the cloth item Patton has in his hand, "that will work."

  ----

  Virgil stirs to a sharp pain in his shoulder. He winces and hisses, subconsciously trying to get away from the source of pain.

  "...ep back….waking up!.."

  Groaning, the mer slowly opens his eyes. He's definitely on the beach and above him is a very familiar face. He blinked, very confused, "Logan?"

  The human looks at him in awe "Virgil?!"

  Before he can blink again, he's suddenly being held. It takes him a moment to register because his brain shut down for a bit. 

  He hadn't been held in so long.

  Very sore and extremely teary-eyed, the Mer sobs and all too eagerly grapples on to Logan before the human can let go. Patton quickly Joins in and pulls Roman along for the group hug.

The latter grumbles good-naturedly but Virgil didn't care because now he can hug them.

  They pull back to ask Virgil the obvious question, but the mer refuses to let go of them, whining near pitifully when they try to pry him off.

  The trio simply resigned themselves to the hug. They did however get somewhat of an explanation from the mer though.

  "I have no idea how it happened, one moment I was looking at the shooting star thing that Patton told me about and the next thing I know I'm waking up in so much pain I couldn't move and with a shark that was bigger than me staring me in the face."

  "A shark?! Is that what happened to your arm?" Asks Patton concerned, reaching down to squeeze the mer's hand.

  Virgil nods, "yeah, it chased me all the way to the kelp forest, where I managed to hit it in the gills with my tail. It swam off after but I passed out the moment it left; I think."

  "Ok, wow, that explains the kelp you washed up on shore with" mumbled Roman gently patting the Mer's back.

  "It still doesn't explain Virgil’s new size though", mumbles Logan more perplexed than ever. He was practically holding the brunt of the mer's weight to allow Virgil to "sit" upright, but didn't seem bothered by it in the least.

  "Well, he said he saw a shooting star, maybe he made a wish and it came true?" Supplies Patton with a shrug, well the best shrug he could manage with Virgil latching onto him.

  Logan deadpans. "Really Patton, you expect me to believe in wishes and magic?" 

  "Well, mermaids exist, so…"

  "Fair enough", concedes Logan.

  "Well, that settles it I guess, magic exists and wishes on stars work if you're lucky. Cool, I'll buy it", huffs Roman with a disbelieving chuckle; he gently pokes Virgil on his side causing the mer to squeak. “But if you're gonna keep holding onto us we're gonna need to get somewhat not crushed"

  Sheepishly, Virgil let's up on his hold.

  ----

  When they finally settle more comfortably, Patton and Roman immediately begin rattling off ideas about all the things they can do now that their mer is near human sized. 

  "If we put him in a hoodie and a wheelchair with a blanket-"

  "He can't really sit up though-"

  "Seat belts exist! Or...or a toddler car seat!"

  "That could work-"

  To which Logan sighs, half in fondness and half in exasperation, as he begins the 'painstaking' task of logically shutting them down. "No, it wouldn't and we don't know how long he will stay this size; besides he's hurt and moving him around doesn't seem like the best idea."

  "But Logan! What if-"

  As the trio continued "arguing" about what to do regarding their now smaller sized aquatic friend, Virgil himself was hardly paying attention to them. Well, to their words at least. Everything else, he was very much attuned to and he was well aware that he was practically purring up a storm; but he couldn't quite bring himself to care. He would be quite pleased to remain exactly as he was for-like-ever.

  They were sitting on a large purple blanket in an odd half circle; where in Patton was side-by-side with Logan and yet able to talk to Roman who was directly across from him and roughly 3 arm lengths away from the Pharmacist. And Virgil...

Well, Virgil was currently being held by all three of them. 

  His head was being comfortably cushioned by the slot of Patton’s right shoulder. The Barista did not hesitate to run his right hand through Virgil’s hair, as well as trail his finger nails up and down the mer’s scaled neck.

  Logan was still technically holding Virgil the most.

While he was sitting, legs straight out and leaning comfortably against a rock; the mer was basically draped sideways over his lap with the brunt of his upper torso and back being braced by the Pharmacist's chest. This was easily keeping Virgil in a sitting position, while allowing his injured right shoulder to be away from harm. This also meant that Logan had to have one arm wrapped around him to keep the mer stable. The other arm was, of course, used to gesture and gesticulate why the wild ideas other two had, would most definitely, not work. 

  Occasionally the hand wrapped around Virgil’s middle would twitch--especially if Logan found one of the ideas particularly ridiculous-- which sent a slight tickle to the mer's ribs. 

  As mentioned, Roman was about 3 arm lengths from Logan, or at least the distance that put him directly under the mer's Secondary dorsal fin. The entirety of the rest of Virgil’s tail was over Roman's lap or within his holding range, especially with the way the mer curled into the contact. Apparently, the base of the second dorsal is a lovely place to scratch.

  Yes, Virgil was quite content to remain exactly as he was. Each point of contact sent pleasant little shivers throughout his body and he soaked it up all too willingly. Laying limply in the hold of his friends, he thoroughly let feelings encompass him. 

  The half-dazed state of bliss that the mer was in, was only added upon by the fact that Virgil could, in fact, reach with both of his hands and gently dig into the soft purple material beneath him. Rubbing his fingers against the soft of the blanket while practically submerged in the sensations and the warmth of his friends was next level bliss-

  "Shh- shh, wait!...Look at him guys, he's practically a puddle!" Chuckles Roman.

  "Mhm!" Beams Patton, "his purring isn't as loud as it used to be, but he's really purring"

  Logan snorts, looking at his aquatic friend amused. "Well, I'm glad, you seem quite comfortable Virgil"

  The mer trills a pleased sound of affirmation, too far gone to bother with words. Still, the message gets across clearly, causing the trio to burst into laughter and the smile on Virgil’s lips to be a little bit wider.

  ----

  "...if he wasn't playing with the blanket, I would have thought he had fallen asleep..."

  Logan's whisper would have prompted another wordless reply- except the other two stopped their movements to check.

  "...m'not…”, Virgil starts with half lidded eyes, his voice rumbly as well as a tad muffled by Patton’s shoulder. "...'s jus' nice…"

He wiggles, just a little, hoping that they would continue with their previous ministrations. He sighs in contentment when they chuckle but resume. 

  The quiet didn't last long before it was interrupted. Though this time it wasn't by a question or any of the humans themselves, but Virgil’s own stomach.

  The mer frowns, face flushing red in embarrassment as he hides his face in Patton’s shoulder.

  "Guess it's lunch time, huh?" Grins the barista, gently patting his head. "Good thing we brought two watermelons!"

  The mer immediately perks up.

  ----

  "He's got to be the happiest person on the planet right now", chuckles Roman around a bite of his watermelon slice.

  Indeed, the mer was; Virgil was happily eating his watermelon slice- which was actually an entire half of the fruit- as he was draped across his friend's laps. His purring had yet to stop.

  The evening was spent with Roman and Patton showing Virgil pictures of anything interesting they could think of on Logan's laptop.

  Being smaller meant that the mer could actually see details and everything was bright and clear and beyond fascinating to him, especially Logan's rubik's cube.

  The humans found great amusement in watching Virgil switching and swapping the toy's sides in order to match the colors. His determined yet confused expressions made it all the better.

  Unfortunately, the sun soon began to set, meaning that the trio of humans would have to leave in order to avoid driving down a rocky and bumpy road at night.

   They bid Virgil a farewell, but not before Logan changed the bandage on his arm and asked the mer to stay close to shore for the night to avoid wetting it.

  Patton left him with one final big squeeze and also the other watermelon that they hadn't opened.

  Virgil watched as the car disappeared into the distance, when it was completely gone, he yawned and stretched. Eager to go back to solving the rubik's cube Logan had given him. The moon was full so there was plenty of light to differentiate the colors.

  By the time he managed to solve the cube he was so tired, he couldn't even celebrate. Instead, he gently set the cube down on the side and yawned, curling in on himself slightly as his eyes began to close, he'd show Logan that he finished it in the morning. He fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

  He had fallen asleep so quickly that he was almost unsurprised when he woke with a jolt.

  The sun was already up but looking around, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary- that is until he looked down. The watermelon that was once bigger than his head was currently a bite sized snack.

  Oh.

  He was back to his regular size again.

He couldn't even see where the rubik's cube was. He knew the general area but it was hard to make out amongst the rocks.

One of his humans would be able to see it though, so it wasn't lost. Still he did want to show it to the humans himself...

  Well...at least he had his watermelon.

Sighing forlornly, the Mer simply poked at the fruit, rolling it back and forth between his hands.

  Logan and probably the others would be coming soon. It would be a bit sad that he wouldn't be able to hug them again like he did yesterday...He missed it already.

-----

  Logan, along with Patton and Roman showed up a mere hour later with the barista rushing out of the car. Arms filled with boxes of board games, only to stop short.

  Virgil waved from the shore, a soft tentative thing. He wouldn't be able to play any of the games with them at his normal size.

  Logan was the first to reach the mer on shore, with Roman coming in right behind, Patton went to put up some of the boxes he had in his arms. He did end up bringing two of them though.

  "How is your shoulder, Virgil? Does it still hurt?" Asked Logan, he was searching for the wound to no avail.

  "Uh, no actually… I can't see or feel anything, maybe it healed?"

  "Hmm, seems like, but I don't see any signs of scarring or anything either." 

  Virgil shrugs, he hadn't even realized that he wasn't in pain anymore.

  "Huh, that's cool!" Chimes Patton, "guess the wish gave you a little magic healing as a parting gift."

  "...wish it would have lasted a little longer…", mumbled the mer with a soft sigh.

  The three humans gave each other a knowing look.

  It hurt knowing they would have to leave their aquatic friend so soon when he was obviously feeling down but they wouldn't have much time to hang out with him. It was a Monday morning after all. 

  All of them managing to get the afternoon shift in such short notice was a miracle in and of itself, still they tried to make the most of it.

  Patton handled the playlist and the three humans clambered on to Virgil’s hands, or on his wrist in Logan's case, while they just talked- about anything and everything they could think of. The Pharmacist had found the completed rubik's cube and congratulated the mer before they left.

  But the response was a bitter sweet smile.

  ----

BONUS: 

  The next time the trio came for their weekly visit, which of course was the following Sunday. 

  Roman was the first one to get out of Logan’s car and was quick to get something from the trunk.

  Logan and Patton shared an amused look as they watched the other go down the slope as giddy as a child on Christmas.

  "Hey V!" Called Roman to the obviously sad Mer. The human was carrying a large bulky black garbage bag. "I know you've been feeling a bit down so, well, uh here...this is for you, open it!"

  Virgil raised a skeptical brow, but still raised a clawed index finger and gently cut the bag open. Roman, for his part, easily gathered up the plastic before it could get blown away.

  Virgil froze, inside the bag was a large purple blanket, it was bigger than his hands and so very, very soft.

  So soft in fact, that he immediately brought it up and rubbed against his face.

  "So...I take that to mean that you like it?"

  The happy purring trill in response was answer enough. The mer's form practically melting onto the shore as he felt the material.

  Roman laughs, "good, I'm glad! I had to hand stitch four large blankets together, but I'm really glad you like it".

  "...Thanks Roman..."

  "Anytime Virge!"

 END.

------

Mupp/en: Aaaaaaaah!? Oh my gosh this is such an amazing mixture of happy and sad, bittersweet. I loooove it! <3

The scene with the shark was thrilling! Poor shark tho, getting slapped for their efforts.

The first moment Virgil just latches on to them all was so precious! Also when they all sit down and reduce Virgil to a puddle, love it! Then his little wiggle, silenty asking for more scratches...!

And I loved the bonus! Good guy Roman! 🧡

Did I already mention I love this? Thank you so much for sharing! 🌸

[muppenthings]

PURPLE

Submitted by: prplzorua

Me absolutely loving the last vid and the eye shadow? More likely than you think! 🐙

Here’s all fluff, because I’m still absolutely giddy about it.

WC: 2,152

—-

 It started the last Meet up Patton had come in with a lovely shade of Baby Blue eyeshadow.

Well, not that anyone else knew at the time. When Logan had picked him up he was wearing shades, so it wasn’t until he stepped out of the car and onto the beach that the Pharmacist and the Actor realized.

Patton had taken off his shades so that the mer on shore would be able to gauge his expressions. He didn’t want to risk the anxious giant thinking that he was upset with him.

It was Logan who noticed first and he simply stated that the color suited the Barista well.

Roman, upon realizing, eagerly complimented Patton on the look. Going so far as to say that they should match up next meeting in their respective colors.

 "We can be eye-shadow buddies!“

Patton only laughed and thanked them.

Assuring Roman that he would definitely be up for that.

 Virgil, however, was confused.

 "What’s eyeshadow?”

Patton paused. “Oh, well, it’s like a powder that you use to cover around your eyes, see?” He says pointing at the glittery color on his face. “It brings out my eye colour and my freckles!”

The mer tilts his head slightly.  

“What are freckles?”

“They’re just little dots on my skin-”

Virgil suddenly looked alarmed. “like scars?”

Thankfully, Logan stepped in, “no Virgil, not scars. No pain of any kind was involved in how freckles came to be. They’re just areas of pigmented skin; think of it like your markings but plenty and very tiny.”

The mer blinks, thinking about it before nodding. “Oh, ok.” He then looks back at Patton, “so why do you wear eyeshadow?”

“I only wear it every once in a while, but when I do it makes me feel good! And it’s fun and pretty looking!”

“…oh…”, says the giant softly.

After the Barista explained it, to him, the giant seemed sad. It was then that the humans remembered that the mer wasn’t able to see such tiny details; he  probably couldn’t see their eye color, much less little splash of colour on Patton’s face.

Roman frowned.

He felt a little bad for the big guy, but he couldn’t do much about it. Besides what colour would go well with the merman’s grey scales?

Did it even matter? 

Roman looked up at Virgil again, squinting in thought.

A favourite colour would work. Wait what was his favourite colour?

“Hey Virgil, what’s your favourite colour?”

The mer blinks away from his conversation with Logan. “Uhh. Purple”

“Really?”

He never would have pegged the guy as someone who likes purple. Roman had assumed the giant would have preferred blacks or grey’s or even brown.

Virgil shrugs, “yeah It’s bright and it reminds me of the cleaner wrasses. They’re the best cleaners in the station, kinda  really nice and very brave. So yeah, purple…then uh… black and grey.”

“Huh, didn’t take you for a purple kinda guy”

Virgil shrugs causing the Logan on his arm to be disrupted, if only for a moment

Purple, Roman thought. How would purple look on Virgil’s face? Wait…how would his marks look if they were purple?

And that’s what lead to the idea.

—-

Being an Actor had many perks.

Helping on stage had even more perks, especially when one needed to get a hold of old props or extras. Which, of course, meant that after talking to the director and his other colleagues, he was able to get quite a lot of purple powder paint.

The only issue now, was to get it on the mer without Logan freaking out. A quick phone call to a certain eager friend, gave the answer; a bucket…or well two.

 Patton was also the one to remind him that they’d need brushes. Virgil being a giant meant that regular brushes would be too small. So on the Saturday evening before the meet up, the two went to the department store, looking for the softest dustpan and brushes they could find. They also got a fairly long, retractable step ladder each.

“Ok”, huffed Roman as they reached Patton’s apartment. “we got the stuff, but how are we going to stop Logan from knowing what it’s for?”

Patton just smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder, “don’t you worry about that. I’ll handle it”, he winked, before leaving the room.

Roman for the life of him couldn’t figure out why that sent shivers down his spine.

—–

The next day, he found out why.

Patton had indeed convinced Logan to take the materials with them as  they drove down to Kelp cove. All without telling him what exactly the contents of the bucket were.

The Barista apparently had something over the Pharmacist and very much used the blackmail to his advantage.Even as Roman cheered in glee, he made a mental note not to let Patton get too much dirt on him.

—-

When they arrived, Virgil was already there laying with his torso half out of the water. He perked up immediately when the three of them came down the slope.

“Hey Virge!” Waved Roman as he stepped up to the Mer with a bucket. “Can you tell me how it smells to you?”

Virgil glanced at him skeptically but took a light sniff. Only to rear back suddenly. His nose twitching in an almost sneeze.

The actor looked sheepish. “Oof, I probably should have warned you that it might make you sneeze.”

Virgil deadpanned.

“Anyway”, huffs Roman, “can you handle the smell?”

The Giant still looked skeptical, but nodded.

“It doesn’t really smell bad, just tingly? I guess?” Roman suddenly beamed and Virgil grew even more skeptical. He reared back a bit more. “Why?”

Before Roman could answer, Patton came running down with the other bucket. Eagerly he opened it to show the mer the purple substance inside it.

“Because we mentioned the eyeshadow last week and you looked sad that you couldn’t see it and Roman figured that the only way that would work was if it were on you!”

“On me?” The Mer blinks.

He looks at Logan, who simply shrugged.

Thanks to Patton, the Pharmacist had no clue that this was what his friends were plotting and could offer no input on the matter.

Virgil worried at his lip.

“Will it hurt?” He had thousands of other questions but that one seemed to make the most sense to ask.

They had told him about ear piercing and bits about make up the week prior. So he immediately associated the two, especially since Logan had said they were ‘human beauty products’ and Roman had said that ‘beauty was pain’…but then again, Roman did say that while putting his hand on his forehead and making a weird pose.

Patton brought the brushes forward.

“It shouldn’t hurt at all! But tell me, how does this feel?”

The Barista takes the brush of the pan and brushes it gently against Virgil’s arm.

“Does this hurt?”

The giant raises a brow, “uh, no?”

“Good! This is how we’re gonna put the makeup on you, well the powder at least but it’s close enough to makeup.”

“Yup!” Chimes Roman, “so, you up for it?

Virgil, took a deep breath and then nodded, ”…yeah, ok". Roman and Patton squealed.

The winds on the beach suddenly picked up and blew some of the powder from the bucket into Virgil’s face. The Mer tensed,  rearing back a bit as his eyes drew closed his nose twitched and his breath hitched-

“Oh, everybody get down! He’s gonna blow!” Cried Roman and all three humans dropped to the ground as the giant battled with his oncoming sneeze.

Thankfully it was a false alarm.

Virgil snorted, huffing, shaking his head and twitching his nose until the feeling fully abated.

Roman looked up at the Mer now rubbing his nose, before glancing at Patton and Logan who were still on the ground with him. The Actor burst out laughing. “Oh this is gonna be fun!”

—

Their set up was fairly simple, all things considered.

The giant was to be propped by his elbow, with his hand curled under his chin and his head set at a particular angle.

It was a rather comfortable position, if not an odd one. Virgil didn’t really mind it, even if Roman’s instructions on ‘how to move his head’ were a bit confusing.

Currently they found a position that allowed the humans full access to his markings and one that didn’t cramp his neck.

Virgil was propped on his left hand, while Logan was sitting on the fingers of his right hand. Patton and Roman were each sitting on the top of their ladders, left and right side respectively, and happily brushing away.

Logan was looking curiously up at them. “Are you quite certain that these brushes aren’t causing you any harm Virgil?”

The mer hummed, “no, the brushes are really  soft…s'kinda nice actually.”

“Oh, well alright. If your certain-”

“Hey specs!” Called Roman from his seat at the top of the ladder, “he’s relaxing, so can you stop asking him questions?”

Logan rolled his eyes at the actor, “I was just making sure-”

 "Yeah, well, you’re making him shake my ladder!“

Which was true, but thankfully not by much.

 "Barely!” Hollered back Logan, grinning.

“Barely is a lot!” Retorts Roman, a wide grin was plastered on his face.

Patton chuckled and whispered to Virgil. “That’s good to hear kiddo, glad you’re relaxing into it. Just don’t go falling asleep on us!”

“I won’t”, whispered back the Mer, but his voice sounded dazed, near sleep-thick actually.

Patton giggled knowingly and in retaliation, Virgil scrunched up his nose.

“Hey!” Exclaims Roman with a dramatic whine, “now I gotta start that piece over! Stop! Moving!” There was no heat at all behind those words, which only caused Patton and Virgil to snicker.

Shaking his head at his friends, Logan then sighed and accepted his position as ground support…literally. 

Virgil would make low whining sounds and wiggle his fingers whenever he couldn’t feel the Pharmacist. So the human either had to sit, lean or stand on one of the Mer’s fingers to keep him calm.

Not that Logan really minded, he assumed that because Virgil had his eyes closed and could feel both Patton and Roman, the giant found it necessary to feel him too.

Asking the jumpy mer questions worked as well but it disrupted the process and Roman would scold him again. For as amusing as that was, Logan knew he wouldn’t be much help as he didn’t have much experience with makeup.

Then again it wasn’t actually eye-shadow, just colored talcum powder, and even he could probably do a decent job at it…the ladders didn’t have the space for him to help anyway.

—

When it was finally completed and the two buckets were empty, both Patton and Roman had come down and safely retracted the ladders.

Virgil was giddily instructed to take a look.

The mer conceded fairly quickly and moved towards the water’s edge, just enough to see his reflection without disturbing the water too much.

Virgil blinked.

And then blinked again.

His reflection was staring back at him with purple marks instead of black. It was…different. Though, a very nice kind of different.

“So…do you like it?” Asked Patton hopefully.

The giant nods, smiling.

“Wooh!” Shouts Roman fist pumping. “I brought tiny bags, hold on, I want pictures of all of us!”

The actor then sprinted up to the car, only to return moments later with three, very tiny but brightly colored, see through bags. He held them up eagerly, one Red, one Baby Blue and the other a sparkling Navy.

Patton easily and neatly smeared on the Red powder on Roman and of course, Roman did the same for him. Then the two of them pulled Logan, sat him down and each did an eye.

The poor Pharmacist didn’t even get a chance to have protested. But the way the other three were snickering, even he doubted that he would have.

—

“Do you actually like it?” Logan whispers, as the two behind them were busy choosing the best pictures further up on shore.

Virgil thought about it for a moment, calmly watching his reflection in the water.  His face turned a light pink, only serving to bring out the purple color more. “Yeah”, he grins, and nods in confirmation, actually giggling a bit, “yeah, I do.”

Logan looked up at the giant and smiled back, he couldn’t help it. The Mer truly was a sight to behold.

Virgil was beaming, all brilliant, bright and giddy. The purple 'eyeshadow’ glittering as he did so.

END.

————-

Mupp/en: This is so, so adorable and wholesome! All of them wearing eye shadow in the end is amazing! Just perfect! 👌 I gotta say, Patton blackmailing Logan into not questioning the buckets made my night. The idea with the powder and its application was clever! And the result, a happy mer! 💜

I just adore how you write their interactions! And their little banters! It’s amazing! I love this so much! Thank you for sharing your wonderful work!! 🌸

[muppenthings]

Submitted by: xofiasblog

This took forever to make but it was fun

—

Mupp/en: Aaaaah your style is so cute!! I love the big eyes! :D I wonder who he’s looking at. If it’s not one of the trio then, well, someone’s got a big surprise. I also love how you made the pattern on his tail; them overlapping makes a very nice effect! Aaah! This is so lovely!! Thank you so much for sharing your art! 🌸

[muppenthings]

Missing you

Submitted by: prplzorua

Can’t go too long without angst, am I right? 🐙 

WC: 6,311

TW: Bleeding, Injury, mentions of vomiting, mentions of animal eating (not explicit), panic attacks (implied), minor cursing, bruises. That’s it I think?

—-

It’s almost unfair how easy it is for a human to fall.

They make one miss-step, just a single look back to laugh at something the other said-

A single second.

A single slip.

Two gasps; and then everything moves in slow motion.

Virgil had seen it coming.

An irrational thought that he always had.

One of them might trip.

 One of them might get hurt.

As irrational as it was, it was not impossible and so the mer was always vigilant when his humans would come down for their weekly visit. He was always watching them, just in case.

This time, this time it paid off.

Well…almost.

The moment the human had slipped, Virgil had already pushed himself upwards with one arm and had his palm outstretched, half lunging to catch.

Unfortunately, the mer was just a second too late.

Pushing up on those rocks definitely bruised and cut up his underbelly a bit, but he hardly cared. That pain was nothing compared to the cold panic that shot through him the moment a short, shrill scream cut off into silence with a sickening snap.

He missed.

He missed and now one of his humans…Logan– it was Logan–wholay prone and unresponsive on a pile of rocks.

He missed.

—–

“Logan!” Screams Patton and Roman.

Roman moved to run down but Patton sticks an arm out to stop him. “Go get Logan’s first aid kit.”

Wide eyed, the actor blinks, then nods and sets off frantically to find the kit in the car.

Patton doesn’t hesitate to race back down.

Being the smallest, he easily manurvers himself beside his fallen friend.

Logan’s lower half had somehow managed to become wedged between two fairly large rocks. His unconsciousness likely from the fact that he hit his head on the way down.

Virgil remained frozen in place above them.

Roman winces as he reaches near, as pale and unsure of what to do as the giant above him is. The first aid kit practically rattling with how shakily he’s holding it.

Patton ignores them both, grabbing the kit and putting on gloves while trying to force down his own panic. Quickly he checks for the rise and fall of Logan’s chest.

“He’s breathing”, the barista says on an exhale.

Both Roman and Virgil sigh relieved, if only slightly-

“Roman”, Patton’s tense voice causes the actor to whimper, “we’ll need to move him.”

“…O-ok…”

—–

Patton bites his lip.

Stabilizing Logan’s upper half and trying to stop the bleeding of his forehead at the same time was fraying his nerves.

Roman was still trying to push the rocks-

“Shit, Pat, there’s more blood!”

Virgil’s breath hitches above him and Patton curses under his breath.

“Which leg is bleeding Roman? Can you see it?”

It’s a fair question, they were about to leave when all of this happened after all. The sky was progressively darkening into the evening. The moon was now out and no help down there what with it casting shadows onto the rocks.

“Yeah”, Roman calls back, he swallows audibly, “…It’s- it’s his right leg and…it looks broken”

“Wh-where? Can…can, you tell me roughly where the break is Ro?”

“It…it looks like in the middle? Like it’s under the knee but over the ankle. I don’t think there’s a bone sticking out but it’s definitely broken…”

Patton exhales shakily through his nose, “ok. Ok. It’s better his leg than his spine, but I don’t want to take any risks”, the barista exhales again. “Virgil”, he calls as he looks up.

The mer’s eyes lock on to his.

The pupils were wide with a look that Patton has seen plenty of times before he spirals, barley restrained panic. Really the human would applaud the anxious giant for holding it together…if he wasn’t doing the same thing himself.

“I need you to move the rock on the left as gently as you can ok?”

Virgil swallows thickly but nods.

“Ok good, I’ll tell you when alright?”

Receiving another short half- aborted nod, Patton turns his attention to Roman. “Ro can you reach his knees? I’ll need you to hold them steady for when Virge moves the rock”

“Yeah, ok…ok…got them”

“Alright, keep them steady”, directs Patton as he makes sure that Logan’s spine wouldn’t be jostled from the on coming movement. “Ok Virgil, on the count of three, you pick it up, ok?”

The giant didn’t answer verbally but he did stretch his hand over the rock, poised to grab it.

“Ok. One…Two…Three…”

Virgil removed the rock gently but almost effortlessly. Then in the same moment he chucked it as far as he could out to sea.

Having removed one of the rocks that had wedged him in place, Logan’s body would have rolled down, if it weren’t for Roman and Patton stabilizing him.

“Oh God! Shit Pat, there’s really a lot of blood!”

Patton flinched.

“Ok”, he says shakily, trying very hard not to hyperventilate, “…ok…we need to stop the bleeding but I can’t see anything here and if we bind where the bone is broken; we’re gonna have bigger problems…We still need to move him.”

The Barista looks frantically at the situation and tries to come up with a solution. He blinks as he remembers something, he snaps his fingers.

“Towel! Uh… we need a towel, Roman see how steady you can place his legs-”

“I can’t! If I move, he slips!”

“Ok…uh, Virge can you place your finger beside were Roman is? Make sure Logan doesn’t slip”

Virgil exhales shakily but gently places his right hand where Roman is.

Roman, for his part, is quick to climb over the mer’s fingers; while still awkwardly bending to keep Logan from slipping until Virgil’s was properly able to brace the prone human with his pinky finger.

Now free, Roman shoots up towards the car and scrambles to find their beach towels.

Meanwhile Virgil was trying to keep his hand steady for fear of his fingers shaking and possibly harming Logan further.

His breaths are hitching with the effort and he worries his lip. His friend’s blood is something he never wanted to smell or see ever again.

Thankfully Roman returns quickly with a fairly large beach towel. He then looks at Patton.

“We’re going to lift him with the towel right?”

Patton nods and the actor doesn’t hesitate to spread it down next to Logan.

—

“You’re going to basically scoop his lower half up Ro, ok? You move your arms under his left leg all the way up to your shoulders, think almost under your neck-”

“Ok, and what about-?…What if…what if I make it worse?”

“Roman, right now, things can go a lot worse, so at this point we do our best ok?”

The actor nods, taking a deep breath as he steals himself, trying to fight the panic as best he can.

“Alright”, continues Patton, “for the right leg, you’re gonna have to grab his ankle and his thigh, right at the bend of his knee to keep it steady. You do both legs together and we lift at the same time ok Ro?”

“…yeah…ok…”

“Ready, one…two…three!”

Thankfully they manage to get Logan onto the towel with out any complications.

Roman exhales and a manic laugh escapes him in the process. “Ok we got a make-shift stretcher, now what? I don’t think we can lift him all the way up like this!”

Patton shakes his head. “We can’t, not without hurting him further, but…”, he pauses, for a split second to look up at Virgil, “do you think you could lift us over?”

The mer bites his lip, as if to stop himself from speaking and then nods shakily.

He placed his left hand flat with his palm up.

Once more Patton directs Roman on how lift Logan. “Make sure the towel ends under his knees….Good…Now grab the two ends of the towel with one hand and hold his left ankle steady, ok?…Alright, ready?”

“As I’ll ever be”, shudders out Roman.

“We move on three…”

——

Virgil couldn’t think.

It was as if his body was moving but not by his control. His mind had blanked out and nothing else mattered save the ringing in his ear and the lifeless form of Logan in his palm. The other two were there, of course, but his mind didn’t fix onto them.

The sensation of holding his friend’s limp body, was beyond terrifying but the tiny rivulets of red that were slowly dripping between his closed fingers was even more so. This would be something that would haunt him for quite some time.

Surprisingly, he kept his hand steady, willpower overcoming fear as he moved straight up, swiftly, though carefully.

Once his hand was safely on the edge, Patton and Roman we quick to move Logan onto flat moonlit ground.

The moment his palm was free, it immediately started to tremble. So much so that when he put it down, it was shaking hard enough to dislodge nearby rocks.

Thankfully the small tremor didn’t seem to disturb the three on the edge.

Throughout all of this, the Pharmacist doesn’t so much as twitch.

—–

Now that they were on stable ground and he could see, Patton winced.

Logan was pale, and the right side of his jeans were soaked with blood. Roman was definitely right when he said the leg was broken, the area was angry and swollen,

though thankfully there were no bones pushing out. Hopefully it would be a clean break.

“Ro, bring the car as close as you can to us and drop the back seat”

“On it”

Patton didn’t wait until Roman left, he quickly reopened the first aid kit, which he had been holding under his arm during the “ride” up. Finding the emergency  scissors, he cut through from a tear already formed in the Jeans.

There was a long gash on Logan’s leg, starting from right below the hip, stopping right above the knee. The deepest seemed to be at the thigh, which explains why it was bleeding so much.

Grabbing as much gauze and bandages as he could, Patton tries his best to wrap the wound. Near the hip and knee had stopped bleeding rather quickly, especially when pressure and two wraps of gauze and bandages were applied. The part in the thigh however, kept bleeding.

Patton kept adding more gauze pads and bandages but they were still getting soaked through. Shit.

Roman stops the car in reverse, just a foot shy of his friends.

The back is open, the seat is down and there’s a towel laid out on the floor.

Patton almost wanted to laugh, imagining the actor frantically cleaning up the back of the vehicle but he refrained, fearing he’d start crying instead.

“Ok, good work Ro. Does…does your phone have signal?”

“Uh…”, the actor fumbles to grab the phone out of his pocket one handed.

Patton was going to ask why, when he realized that Roman’s left hand and parts of his arm were covered in Logan’s blood-

“Yeah, I got a bar or two, that- that’s enough right? I should be able to call 911 with this-?”

“Wouldn’t hurt to try Roman, just put it on speaker. Calling for help is usually the first thing you’re supposed to do, but I panicked”, a manic chuckle escape him and immediately his eyes start to water and his throat burns. He knew he was going to start crying if he laughed.

Shakily Patton tries his best to fight it back, “besides, I wouldn’t possibly be able to explain how our friend just lifted us back onto flat ground-”

“911, what’s your emergency?”

—–

The police officer had transferred them to the Hospital line where the medical dispatch began talking to them.

“Ok, Patton Linden was it?”

“Yes ma'am”

“Ok, are you trained in anything? To help help you’re friend there I mean.”

“Yeah, I took a  First aid course a while back but I’m a bit rusty”

“That’s ok hun, we do the best with what we got. Now, can you repeat to me what you told the police officer? He cut the line before I could get all the info”

“ Uh, yeah, patient is Male, age 25, his name is Logan Gray. We’re at Kelp cove, he fell down the slope. He hit his head and is unconscious but breathing…His lower right leg is broken and there’s a deep gash on his thigh on the same leg-”

“Ok, were you able to stop the bleeding?”

“From his head? Yes. But the one on his thigh is soaking through the bandages as we speak.”

“Keep adding the bandages and apply more pressure. Is it spurting or pouring? And how long ago was this incident?”

“It’s pouring and like five to ten minutes? I’m not really sure.”

“Ok Patton, keep applying pressure. I was trying to get in contact with the Coast Guard but they would not be able to get to you in time. And it will take the ambulance four hours tops to get to you. Do you have a vehicle? And can you drive it?”

“We have a vehicle and no I can’t drive but my friend Roman can-”

“Roman? Is he injured as well?”

“No ma'am”, piped the actor, “Roman Rivera here, I’m fine, I’m here and I’m listening…terrified but listening.”

“Ok good. Roman, you’re gonna have to drive you’re friends to the hospital ok? We’ll have a team on hand waiting for you, once you’re here we’ll handle it. You job is to get them here, got it?”

“…right”, he replies shakily, “got it.”

“Patton? Is the wound still bleeding?”

“Y-yes…yes it is and…and we’re out of bandages”

The dispatch takes in a breath, but continues in a calm voice, "ok, new plan. If you kneel and put both your hands on the wound, does it still bleed?“

Patton kneels and pushes down on the bleeding wound…nothing more comes out.

”…it stopped, it stopped but only when I’m like this"

“Alright, that’s good! Do you have anything that you can use to add more pressure?”

“No ma'am”

 "Ok, that’s ok. Where you able to splint the broken leg?“

“No, I don’t remember how to and all we have is a towel

"Alright then, here’s what you’ll need to do. Roll up that towel, get Logan into the car and elevate his leg by placing the rolled up towel underneath. Once he’s stable Patton keep applying pressure and Roman get here as best you can ok?”

“Yes ma'am” they said simultaneously.

Roman quickly rolls up another one of their beach towels and places it on the spread out towel in the back if the car, before returning to Patton.

“God…he’s so pale…”

“I know, we need to move, you heard the dispatch, they’ll be waiting for us as soon as we get there.”

“Right…ok, we lift on three”

——

They were gone.

Virgil shudders, barley holding back a whimper. He had kept quiet when the stranger’s Voice was instructing Patton and Roman with how to help Logan, but the moment managed to get inside the car…they left.

He knew that Logan needed help and that they were focusing on him and trying to get him to the healers…but he didn’t understand what the voice was saying and he didn’t know if Logan would make it or not.

Logan was his first friend.

How could he have let the human fall right in front of him?

Logan was his first human friend ever.  He was the one who showed him patience and kindness. The one who broke through the wall of loneliness he’d built up over the years.

And he just let the human fall.

There’s a stinging sensation in both of his eyes and the giant realizes that he’s about to start crying.

His breath hitches hard enough to make his gills ache and his throat starts to burn as a lump forms in it.

One by one the tears drop down. The first one burns when it falls as does the second and third.

Virgil sniffs and reaches to wipe his eyes. He knows that it won’t even be close to stopping his tears but it would at least quell the burning.

The moment the mer lifts his hand, the scent hits him.

Flinching, he looks to his palm.

He knew it was there, he hadn’t forgotten the feeling. It just hadn’t clicked yet, that, Logan’s blood coated his hand.

A cold rush of adrenaline runs down his spine.

There’s a sudden dizziness that comes with the piercing ringing in his ears an his heart beat at his tongue. Nausea barley gives him a second to turn before he’s gagging and retching up the contents of his stomach.

It’s no more than a thick stream of bile that flows down easily into the water, but it feels so much worse.

His dry heaves are joined by his sobs and there was just so much that happened in a short time and the entire scenario is replaying in his head. Panic overwhelms him and it feels like he’s suffocating.

Not knowing what else to do, Virgil…

Virgil bawls.

He curls up right where he is on the rocks, clutching the bloodied his hand to his chest and cries as loud and as long as his lungs would let him.

He didn’t know how long he was at it but his gills were beyond sore from all the flaring and his lungs were starting to dry out. The discomfort didn’t stop him from crying though.

Somehow after cries finally petered out, through his harsh panting, sniffing and sobbing, a glint of light catches his eye.

Flinching, he finds it in the same spot Logan fell. Biting his lip, the mer pulls himself closer towards the area.

It took a lot of effort and focus for him to have realized what it is. The other two had left in such a rush, that all that remained in their wake was Logan’s pair of cracked and bloody glasses.

Gently, oh so gently, Virgil picks up the tiny pair of glasses. He’s shaking as he plucks it up with his claws and holds it in the flat of his palm.

More tears began streaming down his face as fast as his thoughts were streaming through his mind. Logan was his first friend. And the other two! They looked so panicked. Something could go wrong! What if their human healers couldn’t heal Logan? What if Logan was mad at him for missing and letting him fall? What if Logan doesn’t come back-?

What if Logan doesn’t come back?

—–

Roman was going to scream.

He was screaming and cursing in his head at least.  Every bump on the road made his heart clench and he was sure that more bumps appeared to spite him.

From the rear view mirror he could see Patton on his knees pushing down, trying to keep their friend from bleeding out further. Every bump jostled them further.

Roman wanted to scream.

An hour and forty-five minutes had passed–according to digital clock in the car– and  and they still had about a mile or so to go.

“Where are we right now Ro?” Asks Patton shakily from the back.

“We just past the Marina’s main pier”

“Ok, we got an hour to go…we…we got this, right? Just…just an hour left.” Patton’s voice cracks and breaks as he begins sniffling, still trying to hold himself together.

Roman tensed, adrenaline freezing his veins. He looks to the rear view mirror nervously. “He’s ok right? He’s still breathing, right?”

“Yeah, he’s breathing still…and I’ve still got pressure on the wound…sorry”, sniffs the barista, his breaths hitching, “was trying not to cry…not really working”

“That’s alright Pat, I’d be bawling myself if I could, but I need to see the road. We’ll get there, and he’ll be ok. Lo will be ok”

Patton didn’t have the heart to tell him not to make false promises. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that his gloves were soaked through.

—-

The moment the Hospital was in view Roman practically shouted in glee.

There was a team of Five paramedics waiting outside.

“Are you Patton Linden?” Asks the lead EMT when they got closer.

Roman shakes his head, “no Patton’s in the back with my other friend, he’s still got his hand over the wound.”

“Ok, pull up over here so we can get him on the gurney”

Roman was quick to do as instructed.

The paramedic team brought the gurney right behind the car and opened the back.

Patton didn’t remove his hands until they told him to.  One of them jumped into the car beside him and began applying bandages to Logan��s thigh. Another was stretching inside to splint the broken leg.

Once they did as best as they could, they moved him onto the gurney and four of them rushed Logan into the Emergency room.

The final Paramedic stayed outside with Roman and Patton. Collecting as much information as she could. She even helped Roman cleanup and Patton properly dispose of his bloody gloves.

—–

An hour and a half.

It only took an hour and a half for a doctor to get back at them. They had been waiting anxiously in the waiting room fearing the worst.

“Good evening gentlemen, I’m Dr. Sagrada”, the Indian woman introduced herself, “You two are here for Logan Gray right?”

“Yes ma'am”, uttered Patton nervously. Roman, not trusting his voice could only nod.

Dr. Sagrada smiled, “well, I’m happy  to say that Mr. Gray is in stable condition. The bone, thankfully was a clean closed break, a cast and six to eight weeks of rest and he should be back on his feet, no surgery needed. He did need twenty stitches on his thigh and a blood transfusion, both of which have gone through successfully. He does have a mild conclusion but other than that, he’s fine. He’ll need to be watched overnight but he should be ready for release tomorrow morning”

The moment the news was given Roman stood up. “Oh my god he’s gonna be ok!”

He practically lifted and spun Patton from his seat into a teary hug, absolutely sobbing in relief.

Patton was hugging him just as tight.

The Doctor let them have their moment.

—–

The moon was high in the sky when the two finally made it back to Logan’s car.

Patton was exhausted and Roman’s nerves were fried, but they weren’t not going to tell Virgil what happened.

The drive up had been thankfully less harrowing than the previous one but adrenaline was still coursing through both of them.

Patton leaned his head against the window, looking out but not really seeing what was happening.

The Marina’s lights were on, though quite a few of them were dim-

A loud keening sound, suddenly cut through the air.

“Roman stop the car!”

Roman hit the breaks immediately and the car screeched to a stop in protest.

“What? Why?!”

“That’s Virgil!”

“What?!”

“Look!” Cries Patton as he points at the two very distinct glowing eyes in the water. A large splash adds to it.

—

Virgil couldn’t handle the suspense anymore.

He didn’t know how long he was on the beach but he needed to know if Logan was alright or not.

He gently placed the glasses down and hauled himself of the rocks and into the water.

The moment the cool water covered him, he winced. Looking down he could see his underbelly mottled with quite a bit of bruises. Right, that lunge he made…these bruises were definitely a reminder of his failure to save his friend.

Biting his lip, the mer blinks back tears and heads towards the town.

Usually he’d avoid going towards the mass of humans because experience has told him they react poorly and their machines are painfully noisy. But of course, that was before the one human he cares deeply about was injured.

He makes it to the Marina before he realizes that he couldn’t go further. What was he going to do? Crawl?

The entire situation made him want to scream.

The Marina was in the center of the town but he couldn’t go anywhere from there. He didn’t even know where Roman and Patton were taking Logan. The helplessness just made him feel so much worse. Sobs bubbled in his throat and he couldn’t help it.

What was he going to do now?

His friend could be dying and he couldn’t do anything about it.

He digs his hand into his hair, pulling slightly as he sobs more.

Angry at himself and everything but also equally terrified, Virgil heads back-

that is until he spots a familiar car.

It was heading to the largest pier in the marina, the one closest to their beach.

Pushing himself, Virgil takes off, making sure that he’d get there and to his friends.

Maybe Logan was fixed already? Would he be with them?

His tears refuse to stop and his chest ached, his erratic breathing hitches every second or so, adding to the twinges of pain from both his lungs and gills. Still, he’d get to them.

He made it to the main dock before the car and he shuddered at the thoughts he had on the way there.

What if Logan didn’t make it?

Humans were so fragile and a simple hit to the head cod damage them.

What about all the blood?

Logan lost so much blood, could he have bled out?

The more he listened to these thoughts the more frantic his breathing became.

He almost missed the car, almost.

Frantically he tries to call out to them but his abused vocal cords betray him and all that comes out is a hoarse choked keen.

Still, it manages to get the job done.

—

Roman slams the car into reverse and and spins it into the nearest place he could park…the base of the dock.

They pause panting, before giving each other the look and running to the end of the pier.

The mer was most definitely there, making odd low warbly keening noises as he hugged himself in front of the pier.

He kept doing so until they called out his name.

The tentatively the giant snaps his head up and moves a little over eye level to the dock.

“What are you doing here-?!” Exclaims Roman.

Virgil shakes his head, his voice cracked, trembling and warped as if he were sobbing. “Is Logan ok?”

There’s the cacophony of a small curious crowd coming closer and the two humans on the dock wince.

“Virge”, grits out Roman as he and Patton struggle to push the giant down and out of sight, “they’re are people coming! Just go down dammit!”

Virgil shakes his head, half blubbering out questions. In a midst of a spiral.

Patton tries his best to speak some sense into the giant. “Seriously Virgil, you can’t be here!”

But the mer whines instead.

It’s a low broken, sorrow filled sound and it brings tears to Patton’s eyes.

“Hey!” Shouts a security guard coming up behind them.

Patton and Roman freeze.

Before Patton sighs, pleading with Virgil, “Go back to our beach, we’ll meet you there and we’ll explain ok? But you have to go!”

Virgil stays  still, just for a second, long enough for the two to see that he was in fact crying.

He nods and swims off. Thankfully sticking as low to the bottom as he could. His tail and dorsals still a tad visible.

The security guard approaches the pair of friends and Roman puts his acting skills to the good use.

He squeals, suddenly all happy and exited, “Pat did you see that?! I got to touch a dolphin! That was amazing!”

Patton for his part slid into character, though shakily. “Yeah, I know! How crazy it was for him to come all the way up here!”

“Right?! I didn’t expect that-”

The security guard looked unimpressed, flashing his light in the direction Virgil had just left. All he could see was the last bit of the tail fin sip below the water.

“Alright. Alright. You had you fun boys. Dolphin’s gone, and you two should get going too”

“Yes sir!”

“Have a good evening sir”

The security guard watched the two walk off. “Dolphin huh?” Mumbles the security guard to himself, “please, I’ve seen many dolphins in my day…guess I owe that ol’ crazy Cap'n something for his troubles A drink at least.”

At the base of the dock was the crowd and in the crowd happened to be-

“Yo cuz! What the fuck was that?!”

“Remy?!” Exclaims Roman, the actor shakes his head, surprised to see the other but not surprised to see him wearing his shades at night. He continues the act with the flourish and grace he’s known for.

“Uh, it was a big ass dolphin!”

Remy crosses his arms in disbelief. “No way-”

Roman takes it as a challenge and ups the ante. “Yeah! It just freaking grabbed a seagull out of mid air, didn’t you hear it screech?”

Having heard the sound and not knowing what else it could be. Remy’s shades are pulled slightly down in awe. “No fucking way-!”

“I’m serious! It even came close and let me pet it! Just ask this guy”, Roman points to the security-guard.

The guard roles his eyes and sighs. Guess he owed the captain two drinks. “I only saw it’s tail but shows over anyway, get moving the lot of you”

Remy shrugs and bids his “cousin” farewell taking the small crowd with him.

Roman and Patton rush to the care where the actor exhales shakily. “That was seriously way too close!  Can I like, not have a heart attack today? Please?!”

Patton bursts into manic chuckles but they end up into hitching breaths of almost half- sobs.

—-

The drive back to the beach at Kelp Cove was a quite one. By the time they had reached Virgil was already there.

His large form draped over a cliff ledge with his arms pillowing his head as his shoulders shook with each breath.

Patton frowned, the sight of the crying mer was breaking his heart.

Carefully he and Roman slid down and went to comfort the distressed giant.

—-

“He’s ok V, we promise.”

“…really?…”, blubbers out the mer in relief.

The mer was now laying on the shore, with Patton gently pressed and patting his wet face.

Of course this leads to another round of tears because honestly Virgil had been so worried that Logan wouldn’t make it. He said so as much, or well that’s at least what Patton could decipher between all the incoherent gibberish the mer was trying to say through his sobs.

“Mhm, he’ll need a little time to heal up, but other than that, he’s A ok!”

Roman meanwhile was calls Logan’s boss to explain the incident and the fact that he’d be in the hospital and unable to work for a while. Thankfully she was understanding and wished Logan a speedy recovery.

Next Roman called Patton’s boss to let her know that he couldn’t make the morning shift because one of his friends was in the hospital and another of his friends is not taking it too well.

She let Patton have the option of an afternoon shift or simply to take the day off if he wished. A quick question to the barista himself and Roman relayed that Patton would be taking the day off.

From there the actor then calls his own boss to inform him of the situation; thankfully securing a day off for himself as well.

With the calls complete, Roman walks up next to Patton. He pats Virgil on the cheek before asking the barista to him to remind him to fill the car with gas. “Considering all our up and down, getting stuck halfway to civilization is a no go.”

Patton chuckles.

The three of them spend at least two more hours on the beach before the humans decided it would be best for them to leave.

Roman tells Virgil that they’d come visit him as soon as they can.

“Just remember, we can’t bring Lo here yet ok? He needs to rest up and heal. The road on the way here would be too rough for him-”

“…right…”, murmurs the mer as the other two make their way to leave.

Virgil did not leave the beach, instead he spent the night there gently holding onto the pair of glasses.

With stray tears occasionally rolling down his face, he may or may not have cried himself to sleep.

—-

The morning comes and Roman and Patton do manage to get Lo out of the hospital.

The Pharmacist was in a temporary wheel chair, with his right leg casted and a bandage wrapped around his head.

Patton is walking beside him holding

some crutches as Roman wheels him to the car. Even so, Logan was very adamant to be brought to the beach.

As a matter of fact he was demanding Roman to take him to see Virgil. He was doing so with all the poise and sophistication of a drunkard.

Roman tried his best, both not to laugh and also to calm Logan, but it was half-hearted.

“Sorry Specs, but you can’t go back to the Beach yet. You need to rest. That broken leg of yours on that bumpy road? Plus a Rocky beach? It’s not optimal for healing.”

“…thn I’ll drive ther m'self!”

“And no you can’t drive there yourself-”

“…‘n why not? I can! I c'n drive!”

“You only got one working leg right now buddy-”

“…and?!..’m highly functional”

“You’re high,  that’s what”

“…take me, or I’ll get ther-”

Patton sighed and moved to kneel in front of his medically hazed friend.  

“Lo, honey, listen. You’re on a lot of pain medication right now and you’re slurring your words. You don’t want to scare Virgil when you’re like this right?”

Logan pauses and then shakes his head.

“Right, I thought so, you can go see Virge as soon as you pass the three week mark and the doc give you the go ahead, ok?”

“…but-”..“

"Ok?” Patton says sternly.

“…okay…”, Logan pouts.

The moment they get Logan into the passenger seat and his wheelchair in the back. The Pharmacist falls fast asleep.

Roman bites his lip to stifle a laugh, “I feel a little bad for him…” Patton gives the actor a curious look, “but , I feel worse that I didn’t film it!”

Patton’s expression makes the universal ‘and-there-it-is!’ look before he piles himself into the car.

—-

It was roughly four weeks before Logan finally returned to the beach.

In those four weeks, Virgil had stayed by the beach everyday.

He had lost track which days were which. Not that he cared anymore.

Roman and Patton would visit him whenever they could, which was often on random days because of their work.

As a matter of fact, Virgil didn’t even know what day it was currently.

He was so tired.

The other two had constantly told him that Logan was fine. Hearing Logan’s voice from Roman’s phone confirming that. Despite all of that, the mer found himself plagued with nightmares every time he closed his eyes.

Whenever he drifted off in the water he’d wake to images of Logan coming to great him and falling again because he wasn’t there.

Another part of the reason he kept showing up on the beach was that he wanted to be there when Logan arrived, he wanted to see for himself that his human was alright…

His eyes were closing on him…

He forced them back open, it was early morning, if Roman and Patton didn’t show up within three hours they weren’t coming until late afternoon and if not, then they weren’t coming at all. That was fine.

He could wait…three more…hours…

He jolted awake. He could wait! He could.

…he could…

His eyes…slowly slid…closed…

—–

Roman pulled the car up to the beach, he was quick to get the wheelchair out from the back. Meanwhile Patton was helping, Logan at the front.

Once Logan was in the chair, he wheeled himself as close to the edge as he dared.

He looked out at the water…

And at the giant’s sleeping form on shore.

He frowned, if for only a moment.

He could honestly say he missed Virgil and seeing the giant resting almost made him want to let him be. Almost.

“Good morning Virgil”, is all Logan calls out and immediately the mer’s eyes snap open and lock on to him.

“…Lo…”, he chokes out on a broken rumble.

It’s a surprisingly quick motion that has the mer reaching out to him, hand ready on the ledge.

With help from both Patton and Roman, they managed to wheel Logan onto the giant’s hand and the Trio enjoy the short ride down.

Patton and Roman step off to the side, allowing, Logan and Virgil to catch up.

The mer immediately bursts into tears.

Afraid to hold, he gently brushes his nose against Logan’s cheek.

Chuckling, the human does his best to hug  the slightly shaking mer.

After reassuring that the other was alright…for the umpteenth time. Virgil gently hands Logan his glasses.

“Oh, I’m glad you had these. The lenses won’t be too hard to replace  but the frames were very hard to get. Thank you Virgil, you saved me quite a bit there”

…you saved me…

Virgil gives him a watery smile.

—-

End…of part 1 ;)

——

Mupp/en: This is amazing. 💗 The characters go through so much stress here and it’s so hurtful. Goodness I love this. So much. ;o;

Patton is such a champ here. Holding it together and keeping his calm (but only  barely. The poor, poor boy!) and instructing the other two. Logan is so lucky to be out cold through all of this. And Roman. Oh you sweet panicky lad. And Virgil. Even bigger and more panicky lad. 💕

Loved Remy’s cameo here. Shades on in the middle of the night. xD

Poor lads going through all of this. OOF. At least they had a sweet reunion at the end. My goodness! Thank you so much for sharing!! 🌸

[muppenthings]

Customers are like Dolphins

Submitted by: prplzorua

So, I know it’s been a rough couple of days for you fam so here’s a bit fluff. Hope it makes you smile.

TW: Mentions of animal eating (not explicit)

WK: 1522

 —-

Logan drives to Kelp cove on a late Sunday afternoon.

Stepping out the moment he parks, he looks to the beach with a tired sigh.

The Pharmacist smiles a bit when he finds Virgil on the beach already. The mer was laying on his crossed arms and yawning; he looked rather tired.

He likely was, considering that he hadn’t yet acknowledged Logan’s presence.

Carefully the human made his way down the slope, finally catching the attention of the sleepy giant.

“Good afternoon Virgil!”

“…afternoon…”, rumbled out the mer, he then paused and looked upward frowning, “you said you’d be late but where are-”

“Ah”, cut in Logan knowingly, “well due to an incident with the lead, Roman, being the under study, ended up becoming the new lead for a big play. He’s currently rehearsing with his fellow actors. Patton couldn’t switch shifts today unfortunately, so he was unable to make it.”

Virgil exhaled, though it sounded like a huff.

He attempts to shrug nonchalantly. “So just us then? Fine by me”

It would have been easy to believe the mer, however, the drooping Dorsals gave his slight disappointment away.

Logan, knowing his aquatic friend rather well, was quick to pick up on it.

“On the bright side, the both of them are free on Wednesday if you’re amenable to that”

The Dorsal fins immediately perk up and the Pharmacist bites back an amused chuckle.

“Sure”, answers Virgil calmly, unaware that his own body was betraying him, “that’s in four days right?

“Yes, four days.”

“…m'K…”, yawns the mer.

This time Logan actually does chuckle. “You look, like how I feel”

Virgil yawns again, “Dolphins are jerks”, is all he offers as a response.

The Pharmacist quirks a brow. “Are they now?”

“Mhm, they can either be nice and friendly being playful and doing flips and tricks; or they’re little jerks when they want to be.”

“Really?”

“Mhm, some pods will ram their snouts into me just to get a reaction or if they have young and want to defend them. And I don’t care how small they are, a well aimed ram around the gills still stings.”

“Ouch,” winces Logan in sympathy, “I don’t know that much about them but I do know that Dolphin mothers are notoriously protective over their young, so fair.

Virgil rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, protective mothers get a pass. But they’ll keep jabbing me even though I’m leaving already! Like geez, calm down, I can’t swim that fast! And it’s worse if you were trying to take a nap.”

Logan laughs, “I’m sorry that happened to you but you must admit that it is funny”

“Yeah, yeah. What happened to you?”

The Pharmacist sighs tiredly, “well you see, customers are like dolphins.”

The mer raises a brow but he’s grinning at the use of the phrase.

“Really?” He asks, already amused.

“Very much so”,  Logan replies without missing a beat. “Usually Sundays are my day off but today my boss had decided that with the upcoming flu season, it was best we open half day today-”

“Which is why you said you were coming in the afternoon last meeting.” When Logan nods, Virgil shrugs. “Which was fine by me. I had a good hunt this morning.”

“Lucky you, I felt like I was the one being hunted today. People were shoving and pushing; yelling and demanding all to get medication before things ran out of stock. Usually it’s peaceful if not tedious at the Pharmacy but today-”

“They were jerks?”

“Yes, so in a way, customers are like dolphins.”

Virgil snorts, “I still can’t tell if the Dolphins are better or worse than that Orca.”

“Well Orcas are in fact related to Dolphins, they are Dolphins actually, or they fall under the same species at least.”

“…hmm…”

“It’s true, they are compatible enough to mate and produce offspring. It’s rare but very much possible. It’s called a ‘Wholphin’ for some odd reason, but… yes.”

“…Rare huh?…If I see one, I’ll tell you how it tastes”

“Virgil!”

The mer cackles.

Unlike with the other two, he had no problem talking to Logan about his diet and the human was always curious and quick to question how the things he ate actually tasted.

At one point he had described how a particularly large Blue Marlin tasted and how it was rare for him to have been able to sneak up and catch the unsuspecting fish.

By the next meeting Logan was eating one, cooked obviously, but had said he rather enjoyed it. He also said that the fisherman who caught it worked at a nice restaurant and he got the meal for a nice price.  Humans.

“Mammals are weird”,  he says aloud.

“That’s fair”, chuckles Logan.

Virgil yawns. “Hey, do you ever get really sleepy after you eat?”

“And is that the case with you?”

The mer simply shrugs.

“Ah, well yes. It has happened to me plenty of times, especially when I’m full”

Virgil nods, and as if to prove his point, he ends up yawning once more. The giant’s cheeks flush a lovely pink.

Smiling up at the other, the Pharmacist offers a gentle pat on the arm in mock sympathy. “Would you like me to assist?” He asks with a smirk.

Virgil rolls his eyes but moves to lay down more comfortably and so that the human has more access to his neck.

—-

Logan climbs up and begins one of Virgil’s favorite pastimes; neck scratches. Near immediately the giant merman begins to purr. The Pharmacist finds himself quite amused.

Unlike Patton, who had his own technique when it came to the neck scratching, Logan’s was more technical. He went over as many scales as he could in a row, all the way up to the scales that meet skin beneath the hair line.

Fascinated by the textures Logan finds himself entranced, just mindlessly scratching over the lighter then darker patterned scales. It was calming and by the sound of the mer’s rumbles, it felt good too; so he kept at, uncaring of the passage of time.

Virgil almost falls asleep, almost. A full stomach, some good scratches and time spent with his friend? That was a recipe for nap time, unless, of course, said human moved.

Logan makes to slide down, but before he could, Virgil sleepily, but gently grabs him like a teddy bear.

The giant tries to speak, but his hazy mind finds that words are currently too hard to string together coherently and his tongue feels heavy; so he croons and whines his displeasure instead.

“Wha-?! Virgil, I’m not leaving! I’m just going to get my Laptop”

The mer whines again, his tongue clicking in distaste; he pouts.

Logan chuckles, as he pats the giant’s cheek, “very well, I’ll stay up here with you. A little relaxation would probably do me some good.” The Pharmacist huffs out a mock sigh as he then reaches into his pocket for his phone and sets an alarm.

Virgil sleepily nuzzles against him some more.

A pleased croon slipping out on a rumble.

Logan laughs softly, “you’re very affectionate when you’re sleepy, you know that?”

He receives a huff and a low happy rumble in response.

It’s not long after that the Mer’s eyes close and his form slowly goes limp. The human smiles fondly at the giant’s face; peaceful and slack with sleep.

He settles himself comfortably as he mutes his phone and begins to play a mindless game of Tetris.

—-

Zzzzt.   Zzzzt.   Zzzzt.

Logan wakes up with a jolt.

The phone on his chest had only just stopped buzzing. He grabbed it, finding a missed call from Patton. He was about to call back when he noticed the time.

It was late evening, he blinked and looked up; the moon was slowly starting to make its way into the sky. Logan groans internally, realizing he slept through the alarm.

Sighing, he pockets the phone and begins to pat the cheek he was gently held against.

“Virgil! Virgil!”

The Mer’s eyes snapped open  but it was obvious that he wasn’t quite yet awake.

“Hnn?…Whazzit?” Mumbles out the giant groggily, his eyes were closing on him.

Logan had to bite back a laugh, it seems that the Mer was more tired than either of them had initially thought.

Still, he manages to wake Virgil on the second try.

The giant blinks, registers the rising moon, blinks again, and then shares a look with Logan.

“Dolphins”, they say simultaneously both unable to hold back their laughter.

After receiving a quick lift on to the slope.

Logan waves Virgil off saying that a bit of rest was exactly what he needed.

Virgil smiles then and waits for the car to disappear from view before he makes to leave. A trip to an estuary seemed like the best idea, he was rather thirsty after his nice nap.

—–

Mupp/en: You already know how much I love this, but I can’t say it enough: It’s amazing! Their dynamic here is so wonderful! I love how you portray them! 🌸

Also, love how Logan’s neck scratches are more technical but Virgil appreciates them just as much~ And the sleepy teddybear hold returns! They both got a nice, long nap in the end! :D Thank you so much for sharing this gem! ✨

[muppenthings]

Nets to the Shore

Submitted by: prplzorua

So originally this was supposed to be a short little angsty thing…it’s almost 10k lmao. Enjoy🐙

Wc:9585

Tw: Drowning/suffocation(implied) Blood, Vomiting (implied), Injury, talk of eating/eating of animals(not graphic)…uh that’s about it I think?

—-

“-Let’s get to Corbin, with our final report; see how things are going down live at the Marina…Corbin?”

“Thanks Sloane. I’m here at the Marina–fifth port dock– where as you can see behind me the sea is beyond rough. With winds up to 62 knots and a corresponding maximum deepwater wave height of 46 feet. Trawlers are advised to stay vigilant or return to shore. A Small Craft Advisory has already been issued by the National Weather Service.  Both private and commercial boat owners are advised to dock their vessels and ensure that their bilge pumps are working-” 

“This will be the second massive storm this month right Corbin?”

“That it is Sloane, to those at home please do ensure that your windows are shut and that you remain inside; to those going home, make sure your headlights are on and drive carefully. It’s going to be one long night of rain. This is Corbin Corne signing off for News 5-”

—–

Lightning decorated the sky.

Flashing sharply and crackling with thunder not too far behind it.

Waves rise and break, surges form, rolling to and fro-

Virgil is asleep surprisingly peacefully through all of it, thunder be damned, he’s exhausted.

He had been dealing with a particularly pesky pod of Orcas, one member of which had led him on a frustrating chase that had caused him to burn far more energy than he realized.

The waves are high enough to actually rock him back and forth as he floats limply at the surface. In his tired state it reminds him of when he was younger…smaller. It reminds him of when they would hold him and rock him to sleep. 

As he dozes, drifting off both figuratively and a bit literally, he relaxes under the rain, reveling in the rhythmic but gentle pressure the drops create as they splash across his body. 

He’s asleep for not more than an half-hour when a sharp pain in his scalp startles him awake. 

He jolts his up quickly trying to figure out what had caused it– that movement sets it all off, a simple mistake on his part really-

It takes a second but the mer belatedly realizes that there is a net tangled in his hair, this of course is what he realized the same time in which said net had swung– caused no doubt by his previous motion–wapping straight into both of his eyes.

Virgil reels back with a yelp.  

Swimming vertically now, he rubs his eyes. 

The stinging pain prevents him from opening them for a bit-

He’s suddenly tossed with a wave and almost goes rolling. He manages to right himself with some difficulty, something he finds odd, for he usually has decent balance.

He had tried removing the net from out of his hair, but it slices at his fingertips with the motion. His claws seem to further tangle and yank– so he stopped but not before the pain set in, a sore scalp is not something he needed at this time.

Still trying to open his eyes, Virgil finds himself tossed again, this time with a pulse of sharp pain on his tail. Another net? He swims downwards, hoping that if he went deep enough, he’d bypass the rest of the netting. But with his tailfin wrapped as it was, his balance got even more thrown off and a rolling wave threw another net at him.

More nets, great.

He grasps at it blindly, tearing away the one that tried to completely cover his face. Unfortunately for him, when doing so another piece latched on to his fin spine along with his already wrapped tailfin. 

Wincing, he bends in an attempt to tear it off, only for pain to shoot up and throughout him. There was a net on both of his spines connecting to his tail. He had tried to straighten out but that became an even more difficult task. The sea, of course, had no mercy with him and one point he was even tossed to the surface.

Growling at the absolutely ridiculous situation he found himself in, Virgil tried to at least swim forward. He couldn’t tear off the net at his tail because it was connected to his dorsal spines and he couldn’t tear it off of the spines because he could only reach the first spine and that was entangled with the second one and that one was tangled with his tail; which meant…a problem.

Huffing in slight panic, the mer continued his attempt at moving forward, he wasn’t too far from the beach as his meet up with his humans was to happen at sun up; still he was a lot further out and swimming with just his hands wasn’t exactly his top speed.

His primary concern though, was that he got out of the way of the nets. He should be fine in the shallows, where he could either attempt to remove the pesky mesh himself or he could wait for his humans to assist him…as embarrassing as that would be.

Of course, things could never be so simple.

Near wrapped up, unable to fully stretch out, plus poor balance made it exceptionally easy for the undertow to pull the mer back, toss him up and then forward again. The rest of the netting having been just as tossed around as he was, all too easily hooked on to another net piece by his first dorsal. This piece looped around his chest as he was pulled back and tightened around the second dorsal spin.

Virgil clawed at the net around his chest, pulling it in an attempt to tear it, but his dorsal fin protested greatly against that action. Before he could even try to do something else, another wave snagged him. Thanks to said wave the netting loosed around his chest as he was pulled, but when he was sent forward it immediately tightened…around his gills.

Now Virgil panicked.

The net was wrapped around his gills, forcing the slits completely closed.

Automatically his body switched to air breathing…underwater.

Unable to simply push inhaled water out through his gills, it became a struggle to push the water back out his mouth. Once again he thrashed around, trying to get the net off his gills, only to be met with more pain and now dizziness. Every panicky exhale took a lot of energy–of which he already did not have much of–worse considering he had to “cough” harshly in an attempt to ventilate. He could barely get any oxygen in and he was quickly getting exhausted. 

Fighting the pull of the waves, Virgil resurfaces only to just barely gasp for air before being 

Battered and tossed up again. He sputters when the rain hits his face, coughing and hacking up a bit of water only to swallow more as he’s tossed back down. 

His dizziness increases with push and pull of the waves. He scrambles to the surface just in time to realize two very important things. First, is that he’s gotten much closer to the beach, so much closer in fact that he immediately registers the second thing…He’s in the center of the surge.

The waves pull him to the surface again, just as the thunder cracks, loud enough to deafen him. The rain beats down and for a moment Virgil can’t feel it.

He can’t feel the waves tossing him or the water itself.

He can’t feel pain.

The dizziness has yet to cease, as a matter of fact it’s worse than before. 

He’s plunged down and under with everything spinning.

He’s tossed up and everything is spinning.

Back down again; spinning.

The moon, the waves, the stars, the waves and the sky that’s getting blacker and blacker; all spinning.

He’s pulled back, all the way to the top of the wave now. He knows this, somewhere in his head, he knows, but he can’t feel it. He can’t breathe and the black sky should be scary. He can’t breathe but the black sky is so pretty… It dances in circles.

He’s sent under–even the seafloor is spinning–and pulled up…

He can see the beach coming closer and closer to him.

He almost laughs, since when can islands move?

The Sea sent forward to learn but he doesn’t find out– the black sky, now brown– swallows him whole.

—–

It was an ordinary Sunday for the trio. 

Logan sighed and rolled his eyes at his two bickering companions behind him. They weren’t too far from the beach but the drive out did start later than usual. Last night’s storm, while further out to sea, still sent in some chill winds and a bit of rain. It wasn’t enough to do any damage, but they had all agreed to wait for the things to die down a bit, for safety’s sake. It was almost ten now and Patton and Roman had been going at it for at least an hour. Both arguing about ‘who’s turn it was to be the DJ’, which really meant that whoever managed to steal his laptop, would oversee the playlist for today. The Pharmacist sighed internally, while he didn’t particularly appreciate either of them simply commandeering his computer, he did find Virgil’s reactions to the different music genres interesting. So far it seemed that he enjoyed punk/pop/rock music the most, but didn’t at all mind the Disney songs that Roman and occasionally Patton would play. The mer was truly fascinating. 

Hmm, would he enjoy Mozart?

The moment Logan parked, the other two rushed from out the back, trying to race to the front passenger seat to grab the coveted Laptop-

Just for it to not be there but cradled to the owner’s chest.

“Logan! Come onn! It’s my turn to play DJ! Patton lost fair and square!”

Logan sighed, for probably the third time this morning; only to glance at the waves and freeze.

The computer slips right out of his grasp…and three things happen at once:

Roman dives and successfully catches the Laptop before it hits the ground. There’s a horrified gasp that comes from Patton and Logan himself had booked it; sliding down the rocks with little to no care for his safety.

By the time Roman stands up to brush himself off, Patton is also no longer beside him.

“What the heck Specs?! Why would you-?…” For the first time since they arrived, Roman finally took a look onto the shore- his blood ran cold.

“…Dios mio…”

There, on the high up berms of the rocky beach, was Virgil.

The giant mer lay in a crater, arms splayed out and unmoving. The sharp rocks that usually decorated the area were either cleared or crushed on impact, forming a trench that trailed from his head to the waters that barely reached the tip of his tail. Even so, what little water that could reach dipped under and pulled away with trails of red. None of them have ever seen Virgil come up this high on land. Last night’s storm had apparently caused a low tide, which meant another one was coming.

And still the worst part…

The worst part was the nets.

 They layered over him, two- three at a time wrapping around tightly; from in his hair one had attached, and was pulling on and most definitely cutting, into the fin spike of his first dorsal fin. Another piece looked to have connected to the same spine and wrapped underneath him. Another one was pulling the dorsal itself bending it as it attached to the second dorsal’s fin spine. More and more were connected from there. From the second fin spine a net dug into the fin before the tailpiece and that fin itself was wrapped in another net piece; connected to the lower part of the tip of the tail. It was a mess and no doubt a painful one if the mer was conscious .

Roman bit his lip as tears sprung to his eyes. He had heard of dolphins, turtles and sharks getting netted by careless people. He’s heard of whales stranded on garbage- filled beaches. Those seagulls choking on plastics. So many of these things, and he’s heard it and seen some of it too, but nothing-nothing, compares to this.

Virgil was someone Roman thought untouchable. Sure the guy had anxiety and was too grumpy for his own good sometimes but still. Of all the great creatures he had seen, none of them could compare; Virgil was on a completely different level. And yet, for him  to be wrapped up and downed by something a measly human made…

To see him like this…so still and rendered helpless.

God it hurt.

 “Virgil! Virgil! Virgil! Can you hear me?!”

Shaking his head, Roman snapped out of his horror stricken stupor. Laying the laptop gently on a flat rock, he rushed down to the others.

Patton was on his knees with tears streaming down his face; his hand was clamped to his mouth, looking like he would be sick any minute.

Logan, on the other hand, was pacing around, pulling weakly at the nets; voice filled with panic as he kept trying to rouse their unconscious friend.

“Virgil! Can you hear me?!”

“I- I don’t think he can specs-”

Logan grit his teeth, turning away from Roman. 

“Right…”, hisses the pharmacist. He clenches his fist and squeezes his eyes shut; swallowing back the burning rage and helplessness he feels at seeing his friend in such a state. “We need to get these infernal things off of him.”

Before either of them could try, Patton, who had been shocked silent, spoke for the first time. “Lo-Logan-” His voice, a cracked warble as he raises a shaking hand to point.

“It’s around his gills.”

True to his word, the nets that wrapped underneath him had indeed pressed the mer’s gill slits closed. It was only then when all three realized that Virgil’s, usually, raspy breaths, were rattly far too shallow.

The three are quick to try to pulling-

But the nets don’t budge, instead they’re left with stinging imprints in their palms.

Logan runs a hand through his hair. His free hand, a shaking fist at his side; he exhales harshly in frustration and then he begins pacing. “This won’t work. We need something that can cut it, the nets are made of metal mesh”

Biting his lip, Roman reaches into his pocket for his phone and quickly dials a number. In the din of the dread filled silence, the speaker on the phone echoes loud and clear.

“/What’s up butt for brains!/”

“Remus, look, one of my friends is in a… bit of a situation. No questions, I need something to cut wire mesh”

/“No questions…huh? Aight, I know a guy, but my shift starts soon. I can send it with Remy but he’s heading by Ramon’s dock in a bit so-”/

“Wait, the Marina?! That’s perfect! Tell him I’ll meet him there!”

“/Uh, sure. If either of you fucks see Tia Valerie say ‘hi’ for me-”/

“You do know she’s not our real aunt-”

/“Her family loaned us the sail every summer since we were pinchitos Roman, so…tell Tia Valerie I said ‘hi’, got it?”/

“Alright, alright! Jeez…I owe you though-”

/“Like hell you do! I’ll collect my debt sometime in the unforeseen future, heh~”/

Remus hung up and Roman could swear he heard his brother’s mischievous wink. Accepting his fate, he looked to Logan.

The Pharmacist wasted no time in tossing him his keys. “Go!”

With a nod, Roman’s moving on that single word. He takes Logan’s car and all but drives off in a hurry; the tyres screeching in protest as he goes.

“Patton"

The still shaking Barista glanced at his friend.

“Yeah, Lo?”

“Do you remember that foreign ship that last month’s storm brought? 

”Mhm, it was all over the Marina’s website.“

Logan inhaled sharply. The three of them would scan that website daily as a precaution.

The Marina was the closest thing to their beach after all and if there was any inkling of their mer friend on that site-

Well thankfully that hadn’t happened as of yet.

The Pharmacist exhaled. “Right. That ship was a Skipper and it used a Purse Seine net. This is the net they lost.”

“What? How do you know?”

“The insignia”

Patton blinked in confusion  as Logan suddenly walked up and away. Not wanting to leave Virgil alone, the barista waited, scanning the nets for the insignia Logan had said he found.

On the second glance around, Patton spotted it. A small silver piece, no bigger than a quarter; on it was an engraved picture of a mermaid.

Logan returned with his Laptop, the screen now showing the Marina’s webpage and the image of the ship with the same mermaid painted on the hull.

“According to this, a Purse seine net can reach more than 6,500 feet in length and 650 feet in depth, varying in size depending on the vessel, mesh size, and target species. The bottom of the net is drawn together by hauling in a long wire called the ‘purse line’ to form a huge cup shape of netting just below the surface of the water with the targeting fish inside…” Logan suddenly pauses, skin a solid shade paler. “…I saw that wire–Patton do you know what this means?” The Barista simply shakes his head, knowing Logan wasn’t actually asking. “What’s on Virgil isn’t stray pieces of net, it’s the whole net!”

 Patton attempted to comfort his friend by placing a hand on his shoulder but before he could, Logan pulled away. 

The Pharmacist grit his teeth, slapping closed the Laptop and shoving it under his arm. His free hand continuously scratching through his hair, he then signs out short a hysteric laugh. “If this was the whole net undamaged on a ship, Virgil would be able to break out, tearing through easily. But with the way the mesh wrapped around him..” Logan scratches through his hair again, pacing. “ I never thought that something like this could ever occur but…”, he laughs again, hair flopping over his glasses, “Virgil says he always avoids boats, especially trawlers– a lot of good that did him…”

—–

Roman scans the docks, he had been there for a solid five minutes and hadn’t seen who he was looking for. 

Grumbling to himself about ‘how people are always late when you’re in a rush-’

The moment he steps out of Logan’s car he accidentally bumps into Remy. The impact nearly knocked him flat on his behind, thankfully the other managed to catch him…in a one handed dip.

“Woah there cuz! I know we’re not actually related but I can’t have you fallin’ for me hun, that’s bad for business”

“Very funny Rem”, Roman rolls his eyes as Remy pulls back and pulls him up.

The other shrugs, black leather jacket rustling. “Just sayin the truth babes– and speakin’ of, what’s with Ree telling me to drop this stuff off for you?”

Roman blinks, only just realizing that Remy had been carrying a bucket with what looked like tools inside. He wordlessly takes the bucket from him. “Oh, yeah, I uh- kinda needed it for a friend-”

Remy lowered his shades so he could look Roman in the eye. “A friend huh?  Is that why Remus pulled the ‘no questions’ card? Cause when he told me to get these things for him I could swear this was going to be used for a B&E–buut then he said it was for you so I figured, maybe it’s for gardening…not like you can’t use these things to do both,” he shrugs, “but context matters doesn’t it?”

“Fair, but ‘no questions’ Rem. Remus will owe you his favor and I’ll owe him; simple as that.”

“Hmf, y’all no fun babes. But fair is fair and ‘no questions’ has gotten me out of some pretty tight shit, so I’ll drop it. No tea for me today I guess. But I do have a bit of hot tea for you~”

Roman raised a brow and Remy happily continued. “Remember Tio Ramon’s ex-girlfriend  Sandra? Well rumour has it, she had gotten a little too handsy with another one of the patrons-”

“Remy, what does this have to do with me?”

“Ugh, if you had patience I was gonna get there! But anyway, tl;dr Tio gets to sell the Cat”

“What?! He’s selling the Catamaran? For how much?”

Remy smirked, “Real cheap. As cheap as you can rent it type cheap. Best fuckin’ revenge if you ask me. I told him I’d buy it and we’re currently working out the price, but I’m willing to split it between you me and Ree since we all learned to sail on the bloody thing”

Before Roman could even think up words to possibly reply with, a shrill voice rings out.

“Mis sobrinitos! ¿Como estan?”

The boys turn around to see a Latin woman on skiff, bailing out water with a bucket.

They look at each other and then look back at her and wave.

“Hi Tia Valerie!” they shout in unison, causing said woman to burst into giggles. “Did you come to help me today too Roman or is it just Remanuel-”

“Remy Tia! Just Remy. No one uses full names anymore! Not unless their in trouble-”

Valerie laughs, “well you and the twins are always in trouble so it’s only fair”

Remy slaps a hand to his face, “Tiaaa!”

Roman laughs at his “cousin’s” expense. “Sorry Tia but I have something important I need to do, so it’s just you and Remy”

“Ah, ok! Tell Verdito I say hi”

Roman rolls his eyes, of course his brother still keeps the nickname, “sure I’ll tell him”

“Ok, good…Remanuel, apurarse!”

Remy jolts looking affronted but moves anyway. Though he doesn’t hesitate to pat Roman on the shoulder in parting. “Think about it cuz, next summer you and your boyfriends can sail to a nice sandy beach and have a barbeque or a sunset cruise or some other sappy shit like that.” 

Roman sputters, “they’re not my-”

Remy already turned around, heading in Valerie’s direction. “I’ll text you the deets!” he calls back behind him, not even looking as he waves.

Roman shakes his head and heads for Logan’s car.

A beach barbeque and a cruise? Didn’t sound like a bad idea at all.

—–

Roman reaches back to the beach in record time. The moment he parks, he all but  jumps out; not bothering to waste anymore time, he simply grabs the handle of the bucket and slides down the rocky slope.

He stumbles slightly but righted himself in time to avoid crashing into his equally distressed friends.

Logan is quick to look over the items in the bucket; he’s pleased to see the bolt cutters but confused about the sheers, gloves and spade.

The Pharmacist raised a brow. “Gardening tools?”

“Hey it’s the best he could do! It was either this, or stuff for breaking and entering–and I don’t know about you but us ‘gardening’ sounds a lot nicer for our reputation than committing a crime, thank-you-very-much!”

Logan shakes his head. “It’s fine Roman”, he sighs, as he plucks up the bright orange gardener’s gloves from the bucket with one hand and passes the bolt cutters to Roman with the other. “ These will work”, Logan says, more to himself than anyone as he puts on the gloves. Once they’re on he locks eyes with Roman, “and to be honest…. I couldn’t care less about our reputation or what the 'other stuff’ would have entailed,  so long as it would’ve worked. Virgil is our priority.”

“Right”, agrees Roman with a resound nod.

Logan repeats the action, equally as resolute. Together they move towards the downed mer.

Patton, who had been hugging Virgil’s side- in a small attempt at comfort- steps back.

“I- I’ll go fill the bucket with water, just… just in case”

The other two let him go, knowing that the situation was even harder on their soft-hearted friend. 

“OK Roman, we need to do this carefully”, gently Logan wedges his gloved fingers between an area in the mesh, “cut right here a piece at a time. It’s a lot thinner than it looks but it’s wrapped around in thick layers.”

“Got it, one at a time. Can’t exactly afford to break this thing-”, mumbles Roman shaking the bolt cutters in a half-joke.

“Precisely”

Roman bites his lip and gives one internal sigh for his friend’s ability to be ever so literal. He positions the cutters beneath the mesh Logan was holding and presses down.

Slowly but surely the netting starts to give way.  Patton comes back with the bucket, now filled with salt water.

“Hey, it’s working!” Exclaims Roman in relief filled excitement.

 "I guess we’ll have to be quick about cutting the other side-“ pipes Patton, having come closer to inspect.

"Actually”, starts Logan, “that won’t be necessary, this mesh is pulled tight and stretched out above Virgil’s primary dorsal fin and is pulled under him. Think of it like a rubber band, if you pull one end until it breaks-”

“It’ll snap back! Got it…or don’t got it”, Roman pauses then huffs, trying to press the handles of the cutter together over the last piece of netting. “Logan come help me here, the mesh here is thicker than the rest, I just need to…press down-”

Crrkk!

With Logan’s help, Roman finally manages to cut away the net around the gills. The netting snaps back immediately, pulling off from where it was, sliding off the dorsal fin and scraping against another layer of netting–that remained connected to the net in Virgil’s hair– to the other side with a hiss. The boys wince, that would definitely lead to a case of rope-er net burn. The mesh lands onto the rocks below with a loud thud; both sides are now free.

The moment the piece of netting is off, Virgil gasps ragedley. Hot air escaping the once closed vents as the unconscious mer suddenly coughs up a copious amount of water.

Each cough sends a visible jolt through the trapped giant’s form. He coughs himself into a fit, ground and body shaking painfully until he’s spitting up more sea water and then bile; heaving with a pitiful groan. The semi-viscous liquid runs down the trench and straight into the water. The boys, who had fallen on opposite side of the trench, looked on, increasingly distressed at the sheer volume.

Virgil groaned again, his heaving, and subsequent dry heaving, had finally abated; though he began coughing wetly once more. Thankfully, this time there was a significant lack of saltwater.

The moment his second coughing  fit calmed, the mer’s breathing immediately became less ratley. Settling ever so slowly to it’s somewhat usual rasp. 

Still that did very little to assuage the trio’s worries.

—-

Roman and Logan had to climb up and down to try to cut netting that had layered on top of each other to set the three wrapped fins free. Everytime they managed to cut a layer at the dorsals, it seemed like there was another connecting layer by the tail. Sure they could have had Roman stay at the top and Logan by the tail or vice versa, but the amount of netting actually wrapped around was thick and it required both of them to press down–lest they damage their only tool for the job. That and the fact that whenever the netting was cut, it would snap and pull back too rapidly for only one of them to catch, hissing with friction. So for the sake of not hurting their already injured friend, the two resigned themselves to their fate…and exercise.

Patton meanwhile had taken hold of the gardening sheers and began the slow, arduous process of cutting loose the net in Virgil’s hair, carefully avoiding pulling too hard for fear of tugging on the already abused fin spike.

The mer groans pitifully and the Barista feels his heart break– he also feels, Virgil’s head tilt, granted that he is in the giant’s hair–its when Virgil groans a second time, that Patton realizes that the mer is stirring.

He slides off the neck via the shoulders and quickly rushes to Logan and Roman who were now at the base of the merman’s tail.

“I think Virgil is waking up!”

Before either Logan or Roman could turn, Patton was already running towards the mer’s face.

He kept a decent distance however, just in case.

Virgil’s eyes snapped open…wild in blind panic.

—-

The moment he wakes, Virgil felt as if he had been tossed through a wild current and slammed repeatedly against the seafloor for the fun of it. 

His entire body aches and he groans in discomfort only to find his chest tightening. He coughs, belatedly realizing that he’s on land…

He’s on land and he can’t move his tail-

Last night flashes before him, all he can see is nets, nets, nets!  His tail is still wrapped in one, he knows, he can feel the metal digging into his flesh…

A movement passes at the corner of his eye and he turns quickly to it…there’s a blurry figure but it’s definitely a human in front of him.

Did…did a human manage to capture him?

He growls, baring his fangs, attempting to make himself more of a threat. 

His arms ache too much to possibly hold him up; his fingers and claws are cut up and definitely bleeding from when he tried and failed to claw the mesh off. He can’t move so there’s nothing much else he has going for him. 

“Woah! Hey! Easy there kiddo, you’re gonna be ok! I promise-”

Wait…he knows that voice. He blinks a few times, trying to make out the blurry figure.

“…Pat?…”

“Yeah buddy, it’s me, Ro and Lo are working on getting these nets off you”

Oh. He’s with his humans, he’s safe. 

“…good…,” Virgil cringes, his voice cracked sharply and his throat was so dry it burned. He attempted to swallow but that little much else other than adding the taste of bile further down his throat.

Roman comes up, slightly out of breath.

He gives the Mer the best smile he can muster in this situation.

“Hey”, he says pointing at the top of his own head in a mirror of the giant’s, “nice hat”.

Rolling his eyes, Virgil huffs just enough air to send Roman flat on his behind.

The human couldn’t do anything but laugh.

The mer’s lips twitch into a smile. He’s thankful for Roman’s distraction, the human’s laughter helps ease some of his tension…but he’s suddenly tired. His eyes droop and a sudden wave of exhaustion washes over him.

Roman pats him on the hand; he blinks, unaware that he had closed his eyes.

“Hey V, Logan says we need you to roll to the side so we can get to the fin before your tail. He says it’s caught up bad in a mesh piece that goes all the way around to the top of your Dorsal fin”

Virgil grimaces, but moves to turn on to his side so that his underbelly and fin can be seen. However, when the mer attempts the motion he all but jerks, tensing and pausing at the pain that suddenly floods through him.

He yelps, tears pin pricking at the corners of his eyes.

It’s then that Logan runs up and he gently places a hand on Virgil’s forearm. “We still need you on your side, but you can’t move your tail fin. The net is so tangled there that the pull that might literally cause you  break your secondary fin spine”

With a shaky nod, Virgil positions one arm under his head and turns without moving his tail by simply leaning his toros to the side, bracing steadily with his other arm. 

The humans step back and gasp. 

Beneath the mer is completely red. 

Blood begins to trickle down freely, leading from the trench and straight into the water.

—–

In panic, Patton takes the bucket of water on to the now exposed underbelly, rinsing the layer of blood off a section. Quickly, he runs to the sea to refill the bucket and repeats the process.

Virgil hisses at the sting but he doesn’t move.

Once it’s as rinsed as a human could possibly reach. The trio can clearly see how Virgil’s underbelly is cut up and mottled with various sized bruises. 

Logan and Patton share a sigh of relief.

The Pharmacist puts a hand to his chest, exhaling shakily. "He’s ok, thank goodness”

Roman stares at him incredulously. 

“Okay? Logan, look at him! He looks like that eraser Remus and I used to stab with our pencils in middle school”

“They’re bruises Roman and what looks like a couple… dozen thin and or quite shallow lacerations; all in all nothing apparently fatal. I was worried we’d bear witness to an evisceration”

Roman pales considerably.

“His-his skin is thick enough for that not- for…for that not to happen right?”

“It would seem so for this case, but his underbelly has significantly less scales than the rest of him. As I mentioned, he doesn’t have any deep wounds-”

“Then what’s with all the blood?!”

“Remember the time you stepped on a thumbtack and it kept bleeding?”

“But that went in deep”

“Right, new analogy then…hmm” put his finger to his chin, “oh! I’ve got one, think paper cuts. Very painful, very shallow and bleed excessively when pressure is applied to them”

Roman nods, with a panicked exhale, “ ok papercuts, I can deal with papercuts” he says to himself as he begins pacing, scratching his fingers in his hair; ruining it. Something he absolutely abhorred doing. “Papercuts not guts, papercuts not guts. Paper-”, he freezes locking eyes with Logan. “…no guts?”

“No guts”, confirms Logan.

“Right, right…ok. He’s ok”, Roman takes a deep breath, attempting to calm himself. “Ok, we need to get him out of those nets”

Logan wordlessly hands him the bolt cutters.

—-

Up and down the two go again.

Roman and Logan carefully climbed up to Virgil’s first Dorsal fin only to realize the connecting mesh was on the second one. They move to said fin and cut the metallic net piece, only to find another section connected to the lower lobe of the tail fin. Down they go to cut that mesh piece to find that it also connects to the fin in front. Biting his lip Roman moves to the small fin in front of Virgil’s tail, he doesn’t know what it’s called and at this point his not going to bother asking. All he knows is that from this position he could see more of his friend’s blood slowly start to cover his deep bruises. Grimacing Roman refocuses on his task; Logan puts his gloved fingers under the mesh and he places the bolt cutters and presses down…

CRRK! 

The net snaps, whipping back–and off the fin it had wrapped around– as it bounced up, now hanging on the secondary fin spine. With the smaller fin now free, the two return to the lower part of the tail fin and cut the mesh there. Only a portion of it came loose as the other part of the mesh was wrapped around the second fin spine, so back up they went. At the top they removed the free hanging piece before cutting the piece connected to the tail- 

The moment they did that the mesh and what apparently was the ‘purse line’ snapped, lashing out and whipping a sharp mark into the mer’s underbelly.

The humans wince as Virgil cries out. 

His whole body shaking in visible pain as he fights hard not to move.

Roman and Logan look at each other, they shout out an apology and receive a barely restrained whimper in response. Wincing again, the two move to quickly cut the mesh around the secondary fin spine- this which wrapped around the second dorsal fin itself. They manage to cut that piece, freeing the second Dorsal fin completely…and displaying the cuts and bruises caused by the constriction.

They were about to move to the first Dorsal fin when a loud thud echoed. 

The pair turned to see that Patton had thrown the nets from Virgil’s hair onto to the rocks below.

“Nice one Pat!” Exclaims Roman…until he sees the blood dripping down the hand Patton was holding the sheers in. His eyes widen, “…Pat?…”

Patton smiles sadly at him, then he looks at his injured hand. “These nets sure are sharp, huh? Worse when they snap backwards. It’s not a deep cut, don’t worry Roman, it just hasn’t stopped bleeding yet, that’s all-” 

“Patton”, starts Logan shakily, “ there’s a first aid kit in the trunk of my car, please bandage your wound, I can not stand to see more of my friends get hurt today”

“It’s really not that bad-”

“Please”

The barista pauses, it’s rare to see Logan as disconcerted as he was, he looked ready to have a break down at any moment; something which, at the moment, would most definitely not be ideal. Patton nods sharply and then slides down, heading for Logan’s car.

Logan sighs shakily, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He takes a deep stuttering breath before moving to the Dorsal fin; Roman follows numbly behind.

They managed to free Virgil’s first Dorsal to see it equally abused as the second. However, the mer’s first fin spine remained wrapped by a piece of mesh that connected to another piece… which was wrapped around the lower lobe of the tail.

Sighing, they slide down.

Patton returns with a strip of gauze wrapped around the center and tied to the back of his palm. Logan takes one look at the sloppy work and immediately unties it, wrapping it properly around the center of his friend’s hand.

Meanwhile, Roman was mouthing a question to Patton–who simply mouthed back a 'don’t worry about it’–once Logan was finished, he wordlessly went right back to finding the weak point in the mesh around he tail.

His friends behind him simply shrug,  just Logan things…

they left it as such, they had more pressing matters to deal with anyway.

Once the weak point was found, it was a quick thing, cutting away at the mesh and freeing the tailpiece. Like the others before, once cut, the mesh snapped and bounced itself up- this time however, when it bounced it practically launched itself up and off of the mer. Having been made loose by cutting it at the base, when the mesh became airborne it slipped right off the fin spine, freeing the trapped giant completely.

The three humans cheered.

But the notion was short lived.

The moment Virgil’s tail was free, the limb twitched and the merman shakily turned. Trembling as he managed to position himself head first–still within the trench– closer to the water. Unfortunately, before he could drag himself down any further, his arms gave out. Thankfully, he had managed to catch himself by bracing on his elbows, so it was more of a crash down rather than a face plant. 

The injured mer instinctively shifted onto his side, immediately curling in on himself; his pectoral and pelvic fins hugging his underside while his tail curled upwards to his face.

The fetal position. 

Virgil groaned as he lay there, a solid sound of both pain and relief. He’s barely aware of his humans’ footsteps as they come running towards him. 

There’s a muted ringing in his ears, he knows they’re asking him something but he can’t make it out. Worse with the dark spots dancing in his already blurring vision. He huffs out an uncomfortably dry exhale and his eyes rolled back; far too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

Patton failed to stifle a sob and Roman flinched. Seeing your friend pass out after something like this wasn’t exactly easy to handle. Logan walked up and placed his hand on Virgil’s forehead. If his eyes were watery, no one said anything.

“We-”, Logan winced as his voice cracked, “…we should let him rest”

The other two nodded.

With the mer unconscious again. The three humans worked together to drag the mess of netting far from their aquatic friend.

—-

By the time they fully managed to drag and stuff all of it into the back of Logan’s car, an hour or so had passed and Virgil had started to stir. Patton ran down to check, while Roman and Logan were still struggling to close the back.

Patton reaches in time to see the mer blearily open his eyes. The human kept a little bit of a distance, recalling what had happened the first time the giant woke. “Hey buddy, how are you feeling?”

Unlike the last time, the mer recognized him immediately and there was no panic in his eyes, though there was something else.

“Dizzy”, rumbled out the giant through a grimace, his entire form radiating exhaustion.

Patton frowns, placing a hand on Virgil’s forehead. The merman leans to the touch, eyes closing again.

“Guys?!” The barista shouts, alarmed, “he’s burning up!”

Logan somehow reaches before Roman, placing his hand right next to Patton’s. The Pharmacist bites his lip, then pats the giant’s face to rouse him. “Virgil, you need to get back into the water. Your fever will only get worse if  you don’t”

The Mer huffs, knowing that his human was right but dreading the fact that he had to move. Still, his lungs/gills were uncomfortably dry and the faster he entered the water the better he’d feel.

Carefully rising, Virgil moves sluggishly with a grimace, barely managing as his arms and shoulders shake. His head hurts and he feels extremely lightheaded and dizzy, nausea bubbling in the back of his throat. To make matters worse his tail twinges in pain with every flex of the muscle. He whines, pained and pitiful. 

Patton and Roman cheer him on, coaxing him to keep moving…but he can’t.

His neck bows under the pressure and strain of the pounding in his head. The pain pulsed relentlessly between his ears and his eyes. The only thing holding him up was his shaking elbows which soon gave out and the mer found himself, once again, sprawled on the ground.  He’s closer to the water sure, but he’s also very far from it.

He groans, gills flaring and breathing rapidly at the exertion. It makes his lungs/gills and throat all the drier.

Logan pats him on the arm, “rest for a bit and then we can try again later ok?”

The giant nods again, unable to do more as he tries to catch his breath. The dry air makes his head spin faster and the nausea worse. 

He closes his eyes.

The second time Virgil tries, his head is spinning so badly that he almost tilts when he rises on his palms. He manages to drag himself a bit further, but before he can get too far, the nausea takes over and he gags. He falls again, dry heaving and then coughing as he gasps for breath. His entire form shuddering in pain.

The third time…the third time Virgil had gotten the farthest, but once he fell, he couldn’t find the strength to even lift his head, much less his arms to drag the rest of him. 

His eyes closed again.

—-

The mer lays miserable on the beach, shuddering as chills wrack through his injured form.

Patton passes a long white beach towel to Roman– who is currently on top of Virgil’s hair– and he spreads the towel gently on the downed mer’s  forehead. Logan pulls another wet towel from the bucket and passes it to Patton; the cycle repeats. There are at least four towels overlapping–two on top and two directly under– as one big makeshift cold rag.

Virgil hadn’t stirred since his third attempt at moving and Logan thought it best, considering the situation, to allow the mer to rest while they figured out a way to lower his fever. This of course led to Patton’s idea of using their towels. It was a good thing that he always kept–and often forgot–extra towels in Logan’s car.

The mer wakes after the second time the trio of humans had re-dampened the towels. Not shivering as much but definitely sore. He wakes because Roman had screamed bloody murder when it was his turn to fill the bucket of water.

“There’s a shit ton of sharks here!”

“Well duh Ro”, snarks Patton, “Virgil’s belly is still bleeding, of course they’d be here”

“But-!”

“Just bring the water, I think Virgil’s waking up- Woah!”

Apparently waking up didn’t mean awake. When the mer stirred the first thing he did was pull Patton towards him. The human squeaked as he was placed somewhere between a hand and a cheek.

“Patton!” Logan and Roman cry in distressed unison.

“Don’t worry!” calls Patton as he frees a hand to wave, “he’s not really holding me tightly at all!”

Roman snorts, bringing up the bucket of water. “Looks like you’re his teddy bear Pat”

Patton giggles, “looks like!… but we really do need him up..”, with a grunt Patton frees his other arm and pushes against Virgil’s cheek. “Come on Virge, we need to get you back in the water”

The giant huffs, wrinkling his nose, but did not stir further. 

Patton tried again but was met with the same result.

Roman, on the other hand, cleared his throat, then cupped his hands around his mouth.

“Virgil, you’re gonna squish him!” He yelled.

Now that got the mer to jolt up.

The towels falling off when he swung his head sharply, panic racing through him as he tensed, almost dropping Patton when he was checking the human over.

Roman cackled, but Patton was unimpressed. 

“Roman!” He admonishes,“ that was mean! I told you I was fine!”

“Sorry, but you wanted him awake!~”

Virgil deadpans, while Patton shrugs sheepishly.

Logan rolls his eyes at the two but advises the giant that he should get in the water before his fever gets worse. Virgil whines, wanting nothing more than to rest further; still with Patton cheering him on and two more breaks he slowly makes his way to the water.

The Sweet, sweet, blessed salt water. 

The mer all but happily rests, letting his gills take in water and finally get rid of the uncomfortable dryness. His throat still parched and his body ached but one thing at a time-

Virgil saw something flash passed from the corner of his eye, followed immediately by a sharp pain radiating up from his tail. Suddenly, he was angry. Exhaustion? Dizziness? Gone. Pain? What pain? He was HUNGRY.

One of the sharks had thought it wise to bite the mer’s already abused tailfin–Virgil took a bite out of It.  And then another shark and another. The frenzy grew, lost in the scent of blood, unaware or uncaring of the far larger predator in their midst; and Virgil took full advantage of that. Whatever foolishly came too close to his mouth, swam too slow or was in grabbing range-food.

“Well Roman”, started Logan as he jabbed said friend with an elbow, “I guess you don’t have to worry about the sharks anymore, Virgil seems to have got you covered with that”

Roman shakes his head at the pharmacist but remains steadfast, not really wanting to look but at the same time unable to look away at the carnage in front of him.

The giant made quick work of the sharks, it didn’t take more than a few minutes as they either dispersed or were eaten.

When the water finally cleared and the blood lust faded, Virgil winced, the pain of every one of his movements came rushing back at him with full force, bringing the exhaustion back with it as well.

Turning the mer headed back to shore, where he could see his human friends waiting. He blushed slightly realizing how he must’ve looked to them while in the middle of a feeding frenzy. 

He didn’t go as close as he usually would, for fear of getting stranded– and fear of scaring Roman and possibly Patton– but he didn’t have to come up much as the trio practically ran at  him in the water.

He’s met with cheers and small hands trying to hug his face.

He leant into their touch, feeling a bit better and a lot more tired.

Logan warns him that another storm is likely coming later that night.

“You should stay close”, he says, “…just in case. I would also like to come visit tomorrow morning to check on you, if that’s alright?”

Virgil agrees.

Patton keeps hugging him, “well you know that means I’m coming too!”

“And me!” pipes Roman with a grin, “I can’t not tease you about those sharks after all”

—

True to Logan’s word there’s a storm that evening and it’s even bigger than the previous one. 

Virgil actually did something he rarely ever did. He slept that night on the beach. 

Farther down shore than he would be when dealing with his humans, but still. 

His torso was lower in the water, adding to the novelty of the high-tide while his head was pillowed on his arms above the water. 

For the second time in a night, the mer fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

—

It’s a chilly Monday as Logan drives the other two down to the beach.

Patton and Roman are quiet, the former asleep and the latter half-way there but futilely fighting it. The Pharmacist couldn’t help but smile softly at the two through the rear view mirror.

 All of them had spent the night at Patton’s place, it was the closest to the beach and after a quick trip of probably disposing the net and  going to get their stuff from their apartments; the trio had agreed to leave early in the morning to check on Virgil. They would have to leave earlier than usual to check and then head for work and that brings them to their current situation. 

Patton was now leaning on Roman’s chest–tucked under his chin–snoring softly. Roman himself had given up the fight with his eyelids and now had his head resting on top of Patton’s. 

Logan yawned, but shook himself further awake, they were getting close.

The Sunrise greeted them the moment they stepped out of the car– well more like the moment Logan dragged a half awake and even less awake Patton out of the vehicle–

It was beautiful how the violet and pink rays spread out across the sky. Illuminating the beach with the upcoming dashes of yellow and orange. Casting a gentle light on everything…including the still form of the giant merman on the beach.

The sight woke everyone up fully, a shot of fear through their hearts and adrenaline pulsed throughout their bodies.

The three of them didn’t waste time, no hesitation at all as they sprinted to the shore to reach their friend.

“Virgil?!” Logan called, his voice a slightly higher pitch than usual. 

The mer didn’t so much as twitch.

“Virg-”

“Hey specs, hold up, listen”, Roman placed a finger to his lips. The other two went silent-

There it was, the sound of soft snores.

They sighed in relief. 

Logan sits down on a rock for a moment, eyes closed with his hand pressed to his chest.

Roman places a comforting hand on his shoulder, feeling very much the same way.

Patton, on the other hand, tries to rouse the mer; wanting to make sure that he was truly alright.

He goes nudging his full body against the giant’s cheek. “Hey Virge…need you to wake up for a bit bud.” Thankfully after doing so twice, the merman finally begins to stir.

“…ngh..”

 Virgil wakes slowly.

His eyes blearily open, groggy exhaustion heavily present within them. He barely manages to glance at his humans before his eyes close on him again.

His cheek is nudged again and the mer whines, unhappy at his slumber having been disturbed.

Patton laughs and goes to hug his nose, “you and me both kiddo, it’s way too early for this,huh?  But we still need you up, just for a little bit I promise”

Virgil groans, huffing softly, he nuzzles a bit into Patton’s hold before opening his eyes.

The Human takes the queue, stepping back beside Roman and Logan as the mer rises on his elbows. Virgil propps his chin on his psalm, the other hand rubbing his eye as he yawns.  

Roman doesn’t even bother to admonish the giant about it this time. The poor guy looked well and truly exhausted. “Did you sleep at all?”

“Mhm”, the mer nods, now rubbing the other eye, “…still tired though…”

“I can imagine”, adds Logan as he pats the sleepy giant on the arm, “healing takes energy and considering all that your body went through yesterday, it’s no wonder you’re exhausted”

Virgil hums in response, laying back down and pillowing his head with his arms.

“Your fever seems to have abated but do you still feel dizzy or light headed?”, Continues Logan, concerned. 

The mer shakes his head, hardly registering, “…’m jus…rlly sleepy..”, he mumbles, eyes already closing.

The trio looked at each other before looking at the now less than half awake mer.

Patton, place a small kiss on the tip of the giant’s nose. “Get some rest ok Virge?”

“…m’k…” 

Roman chuckles, patting Virgil’s index finger. “Sweet dreams, ya sleepy sea bass!”

“..hnn..”

Logan rolls his eyes good-naturedly at the other two. He had to admit though, the mer fighting with his eyelids was a rather cute sight. “We’ll come back to check on you this evening, is that alright?”

“…mhm…” 

Virgil was long asleep before Logan reached his car.

—-

It’s somewhere in the afternoon  when Virgil shoots up awake.

He blinked, confused for a moment and wondering if everything had been a dream– the twinge of pain from his tail and the dull throb from his underbelly stated otherwise–his cheeks colored a bit when he recalled this morning’s interaction with his humans. Then again, he honestly had no idea that he’d be that exhausted despite sleeping longer than usual. 

Huffing, the mer carefully drags himself back into the water. Sure he could have simply floated closer to shore– and his bruises would have probably thanked him for it– but his anxiety of getting re-tangled prevented him from doing so. Thus, the night on the beach.

Moving wasn’t too bad, he wasn’t as dizzy as yesterday but he was beyond thirsty. Since there were no proper estuaries to drink fresh water from on the island, that meant he would have to swim for about two to three hours to find a secluded one at the mainland.

On a good day swimming that distance wouldn’t be too bad, but considering his current condition, getting to fresh water took far longer and was far more painful than it had any right being. Still, quenching his thirst and not dying from dehydration was a bit more important than his comfort. 

When he drank his fill, Virgil made the slow swim back to the beach. His humans had said they’d come to check on him–a sweet notion that made him a bit warm inside–and he wasn’t one to miss their meetings.

He managed to grab some handfuls of kelp on the way, happy to munch on low effort food. He winced then, realizing that hunting was going to be a bit difficult now that adrenaline wasn’t covering up the pain; still though, those sharks made a decent enough meal and with the added kelp he should be ok up until the end of the week…hopefully.

By the time he reached the shore and managed to get himself somewhat on land, the humans had arrived.

—-

The trio was glad to see that their mer was far more coherent this evening than he was in the morning.

Roman of course teased him, though not too badly.

Logan had asked to access his injuries, requiring him to lean on his side so the human could see his underbelly. Thankfully, according to the Pharmacist, there was no sign of infection, but he wanted to keep watch and check in again the next day and the next…just in case.

Virgil didn’t really mind, more time to hang out with his humans right? The only problem of course was the early morning wake up calls, but Patton and Logan had made that up on their,‘holiday given’, day off, where they happily took a nap with him.

This routine repeated up to a week and half when he was finally feeling better. His scratches and cuts had scabbed over but the bruises and the net burns had lasted longer.

Now after every storm, the trio find their way to the beach as early as possible to see their giant friend either asleep or already waiting for them on their beach.

END.

 —————–

Mupp/en: I don’t even know where to begin! What an amazing read I can’t!!! My heart just ached so much for Virgil here. From the start where he gets tangled up, how the net cut into him, all the cuts and bruises, the lash across his stomach, the resulting fever and overall unwellness. Muh heart! Muh boi! Then when Virge was in sleepy mode and I just sahgdsdaksa ;o;

A moment of appreciation for Remus and Remy (Remanuel!! :D) too!! Ah I love Remy! I loved his and Roman’s interactions! 

Patton is such a sweetheart I can’t!!! I just can’t! His unwillingness to leave Virgil’s side, how he calms him when he wakes up in a panic and then all of the face hugs. And Patton being held like a teddy against Virgil’s cheek!! ANd the NOSE KISS WAS TOO SWEET! 💗 

And Roman, oh my goodness! He tries his best to keep everyone’s spirits up with small jokes. Roman… just trying his best in general. Huuuu!💗 (Also the “Papercut not guts” scene? Oh that was dark! xD) And then the scene with him screaming bloody murder at the sharks! Such a Roman thing and I laughed! xD

Then we have Logan, oh bless him. He cares so much for his friends. Like when Patton got his hand cut and he couldn’t stand to have more friends hurt. And him wordlessly fixing the wrapping? And all of his frustrated and anxious body language depsite trying to remain calm and collected. And just how. much. he. cares. 💗

Overall, this is fantastic and I loved every single word. Thank you for sharing it’s wonderful! ;o;

Tags for those that wanted: @98prilla @sparkedawg @entitydark

[muppenthings]

Counts this as a win

Submitted by: prplzorua

Back again XD. Most of you we confused about the game so, here it is, hope you enjoy! 🐙 

WC:1k

TW: None, it’s just for once lol

  —-

It was fairly easy for Virgil to clear a path in the rocks to make the sand beneath smoothish. All he did was sweep the rocks away with his forearm.

It stung only a little, but there was no way he would ever tell Roman about that.

“This is the shell game, its really simple, all you have to do is collect the shells”, beamed said human as he begins to draw various rectangles.

Virgil quirks a brow. "Uhuh, and what are the rules?“

"There are only two rules”, Roman smirks and then points at the boxes with crudely drawn shells, “this box is your zone, these boxes are the shell zones and that’s the exit.”

“Ok…”

“Rule 1. You have to collect all of the shells and get to the exit”

“Sure”

“Rule 2. Once you collected a shell, you must leave that shell zone and you can’t go back in it”

“Doesn’t seem that hard”

“Oh yeah? Well I’d like to see you try big guy!-”

“And I would like to see you get in the car Roman, it’s late and I have an early shift!”

Both Roman and Virgil turned to look at an exasperated Logan.  

The mer’s cheeks flush and the actor laughs sheepishly.

“Yeah. I’m coming specs”, mumbles Roman as he turns to Virgil with a wave, "see if you can solve that by next week Virge!“

—–

Roman squinted.

The afternoon sun really was pulling out all the stops with the brightness.

Then again, he’d rather stare at the sun that deal with Logan’s silent fury. The other really didn’t like being this late.

Still, Roman couldn’t complain, it was a very nice day and it just got even better….

On shore was Virgil, propped up smugly on his elbows with an array of shells surrounded by crudely drawn lines.

He immediately recognized the set up for the game and he grins giddily and waves. The merman in turn nods at him, eyes alight with a challenge.

Roman carefully hops down rock to rock while Patton races him down and beats him to the shore, equally eager to greet the giant.

"Hiya Virge! How you doin’ bud?” Beams the barista, a smile a mile wide.

“ ’m good”, rumbles out the mer, happy to lean down and receive a hug from the bubbly human.

“Ooh, whatcha got here?”

“…game…”

“Oh?”  Hums Patton, tilting his head this-way-and-that in an attempt to understand what the game was.

“I don’t think I get it V, the shells are really pretty though. What’s the game about? How do you win?”

The mer grins then.

All teeth, strong and powerful teeth far larger than any human. It was something that should most definitely scare a person, but Patton simply giggles.

It seems that Virgil was in a particularly playful mood today and he wasn’t going to be the one to stop that.

Logan walks down, having sent Roman back up for something. The Pharmacist offers a short, polite, soft and yet clipped greeting, before sitting down on a nearby rock with a huff.

“What’s wrong with Logan?” Whispers Virgil tensely to Patton.

“Oh don’t worry about it. He’s just a bit grumpy cause his boss made him late and he doesn’t like being late, especially for our meet ups. Give him a minute and he’ll cool down, you’ll see”

“Ah, ok. I didn’t really notice that it was already afternoon. I was too busy collecting these shells”

“They are really nice shells-”

“Ok you two”, pipes Roman now panting infront of them, he had brought down a black duffel bag and a water bottle for Logan. Leaving the items by their owner, the actor moves properly into the giant’s line of sight. “No more whispering. It’s time to see if Virgil actually figured it out!”

“I did”, rumbles the mer with a grin.

“Oh really?” Replies Roman with his hands on his hips.

“Yes”

Logan, having finally cooled down, came to see what all the fuss was about. “Is that a modified version of the bug game I showed you Roman?”

“Yep! Only instead of squashing bugs, V here collects shells”

“Ah, understood. I assume the same rules apply; you must collect all the shells but can only enter a shell’s room once, correct?”

“Ooh”, whispers Patton from his place on the crook of Virgil’s elbow.

Roman nods. “Pretty much specs! Virgey here says he’s solved it. I’d like to see if actually did”

“I did”, smirks said mer.

“Alright then, show us!”

“…Gladly…”

—–

  “That’s not…that’s not fair!” Exclaims Roman as he looks at the lines the merman drew with a single claw.

Patton and surprisingly Logan were howling with laughter.

Virgil was looking quite pleased with himself, truly smug as ever.

“You can’t…! You can’t do that though! The rules…!”

Virgil grin, a half laugh escaping as he tries to contain his glee.

 "The rules said I couldn’t go into the shell’s zone more than once, never said I couldn’t go into my zone again"

“But!”

“He’s right Roman”, comments Logan, “the rules never stated that he couldn’t return to his original zone once he collected the first shell. Besides, he’s collected all the shells as per the other rule, which means-”

“I win…”, cuts the mer, grinning smugly.

The actor rolls his eyes and pouts but admits defeat. Besides, its not often he gets to see the mer this level of happy. Peaceful and content? Usually. Anxious? Near all the time, but this energetic and playfully snarky? No, these were special days.

As he watches the giant giggle along with Patton and Logan himself was holding back more of his chuckles…yeah.

Roman counts this as a win.

 END.

--------

Mupp/en: Awwwwh this is adorable! 😍 Virge being all giddy and smug is just too cute! Look at him skirting around the rules like a pro! Then there’s grumpy Logan. Lateness is not on the schedule! Also Roman rather staring at the sun then to deal with Logan’s fury! xDDD And of course, Patton being Patton. Ah sweeties all of them! <3 Thank you so much for sharing! 🌸

[muppenthings]

Ooooooh my gosh look at him! :D His eyes are so shiny and full of wonder! Absolutely precious! And the sparkles, I love those! xD Happy Holidays to you too! 😊

@muppenthings

Happy Holidays! Hope you’re doing okay. Just ‘What young mer Virgil would think seeing a Christmas tree for the first time’ might be like. Thank you for being so kind. Stay safe out there.

[muppenthings]

Something was there

Submitted by: prplzorua

Enjoy? 🐙

Word count: 1627 

TW: panic, dark water, mentions of eating animals (not graphic)

—-

It was early in the evening and he was technically in front of the beach.

Far out in the open where the “scratching cliff”, as Patton dubbed it, was a mere speck in the distance, but still in front of it. All he had to do was swim straight down and he’d be there in time for the meet up.

Virgil always found himself dreading the nights before the meet ups with his humans.

There were just too many things that could go wrong.

What if last week was the last meet up?

What if they didn’t want to see him again?

What if something happened to one of them? To all of them?

Of course these fears were usually dismissed the moment he spotted the trio on the beach but the thoughts always bounced around in the back of his mind.

Along with those, amongst other nerve wracking thoughts in his head, the ones that always got him tended to be regarding the date itself. He could have counted the sunsets wrong and missed the whole day entirely.

The worst thought of them all though, “what if I’m abandoned again?”

The giant huffs and shakes his head.

It doesn’t take away the thoughts but it does help him focus instead on what’s in front of him.

A lone Whale Shark.

It was just circling about; out in the open.

Virgil observed it carefully, though curiously, from his position. 

The Whale Shark was a nice sized adult and at first the mer had assumed that it was looking for a mate.

But the scent was wrong.

Over the years Virgil had learnt the meaning of many different calls, and scents from friend and food alike. Especially mating calls or pheromones. He did not want to swim through a spawning cloud ever again, thank-you-very-much.

While he was no expert, he had only initially pinned it as a mating thing because it didn’t smell or look inherently distressed, or as if it was looking for food; but it surely wasn’t doing that for fun either.

The mer had seen and heard many different random songs, sounds and dances of creatures just goofing off but this was definitely not one of those. For one thing, it  looked sombre and confused.

Virgil couldn’t find anything wrong with it physically, maybe it lost its young?

He watched it swim around in circles a bit longer.

The evening sun had set and it looked like a new moon night.

Virgil sighed.

The Whale Shark was still swimming in a circle. 

Usually he wouldn’t have waited this long for easy food but he was curious. Unfortunately, that curiosity did not pay off and he was bored.

Might as well put it out of its misery.

It was rather easy to catch the Whale Shark. It hardly even registered his presence, it just kept circling.

Virgil met it half way…

CHOMP!

Now very full and having belched and licked his teeth clean, the mer decided it was high time to get closer to shore.

The stars were extremely dim and with no moon, he’d rather not stay too long. He was not the biggest fan of the dark.

But before he could leave, a faint peculiar sound reached his ears. It was an odd, but rather unique and pretty call. He didn’t know what made it but he was curious.

Tilting his head, this- way-and- that, he managed to catch a bit more of it when he turned left. He swam a bit and then turned further left to get a better listen and then he turned left again.

It took him a moment, but then he realized something, he was swimming in a circle. Just like the Whale Shark.

He paused frowning.

Should he swim down to find the source?

The sound was growing louder but by only a little bit. It was still moving around him.

Virgil frowned deeper, resisting the urge to foolishly swim around in a circle again. The thing had to be below him right?

Wait…

He swam down, he swam down! He didn’t mean to move and he swam down!

The mer stops his descent in panic.

Now that he wasn’t swimming in circles, he had unintentionally swam down into depths he did not like.

He only just registered the twinge of pain from his flaring gills- just how fast was he swimming downward? He wasn’t getting that much oxygen in either.

Shaking his head, Virgil opts to leave the mystery sound as a mystery; at least until he could get some proper light. No moon and a depth far deeper than what he was comfortable with, was simply asking for trouble.

He heads upwards only stop.

The sound.

It’s far louder than it was before.

Virgil shakes his head again, the pretty sound was pretty, but it wasn’t close enough and he wasn’t going to chase after it any further.

He moves upwards again only to freeze.

He had been so hyperfocused on the sound he didn’t realize just how deep he had been or how dark it had gotten.

Currently, he was surrounded by a what seemed like a wall of solid black. There was no longer any light, and the water was so dark he literally couldn’t tell where up or down was. Everything was all just the same distressing shade of black.

Fighting back more panic, Virgil tried to figure anything to help him find his way to the surface. He would try to guess by the temperature but now everything felt the same. He would try pressure but that would require him testing the depth and he didn’t want to risk picking a direction and going down deeper-

The pretty sound was back.

Still very pretty, but right now it was starting to sound pretty threatening.

The mer couldn’t even see his hand in front of his own face. He’s then hit with a sense of apprehension and he listens with greater intensity.

He’s not alone.

A sense of foreboding stole over him. Virgil tries to check his surroundings, but the pitch blindness only contributed to his “unease”.

There’s a tingling almost imperceptible sensation, that something is not quite right and he knows.

Something is watching him.

It’s spinning around him.

He can’t see it, but he can feel its gaze so he turns with it.

Around. 

Around.

Around.

Tears sprung to his eyes and his throat burned as he took in rapid gulps of water; gills flaring and stinging in the process.

He wasn’t getting enough oxygen. 

Virgil knew he was big, but for all that was worth, he had never felt so small. As a matter of fact, the last time he felt this way was when Sharks used to target him when he was young and vulnerable. 

Now it’s the same feeling, but only worse.

So much worse.

Terror continues to course through his very being. He grits his teeth, baring his fangs and raising his arms, revealing sharp claws out and ready in defense. 

He’s absolutely terrified. 

His hands are shaking and he can feel his heartbeat in his ears. His gills flare tenfold for oxygen, to the point where it actually hurts, but it’s not enough and he’s feeling light headed. His eyes are still stinging and he knows he’s crying. Still, he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

He keeps turning, braced and following from where, whatever-it-is was staring at him.

He’s swimming in a circle again.

He stops, trying to catch it out of his peripherals-

Something touches the back of his neck.

—-

Virgil wakes with a gasp.

Head shooting up and looking around in blind terror.

He blinks, realizing that he’s woken up on the seafloor. He wonders where he is, why he’s on the bottom and how he got there in the first place. 

His body aches but it’s mostly his gills. 

He chooses to blame it on sand irritation from his mini panic and impromptu nap on the seafloor.

He surfaces sluggishly, pressing a hand to his stomach.

The sun was already in the sky. 

He was also far closer to the cliff than he was before. The beach was only a handful of minutes away.

He swam to the beach.

“Greetings Virgil, are you alright? Your expression states you’re uncomfortable”

The giant blinks at Logan’s question.

Oh.

Virgil grimaces as he carefully pulls up closer to his humans.

“Virgil?” He asks again.

“ m’ fine, just full”, mumbles the mer. His stomach clenched just slightly in protest of being very full and placed on rocks.

“Oh! Big breakfast bud?” Pipes Patton.

Virgil wrinkles his nose, “Big dinner, actually”

“Ahh, well, would some neck scratches make you feel better? Roman and I got our nails done yesterday, see?!" 

Patton holds up his long baby blue acrylics and Roman just as eagerly shows off his red and gold ones.

Who was Virgil to deny them?

— 

Roman climbs up and offers Patton help.

Patron reaches for the hand with a grateful smile- he points out  a discoloration to Roman.

The actor starts laughing and addresses the mer he’s sitting on.

”Oohh, food and some fun times with someone else hmm?~“ He smirks and whistles jokingly, ” that’s a real pretty hickey, you got there bud!“ 

Virgil looks quizzically at Logan, who was the only one he could actually see given that the other two were on his neck.

"I was alone?” He says puzzled, “and what’s a hickey?”

Patton presses on the mark and Virgil freezes. “Virgil? Where did you get this mark?” He asked.

The mark was exactly where that thing had touched him.

Eyes wide in confused horror, the mer glances to the waters behind him.

The pretty sound echoes in the wind.

End.

 -----

Mupp/en: AAAAhhhhh this is incredible! 😍 Poor Virgil I can’t! Him worrying before the meet up like please no, no such thoughts. ;_; And the spawning cloud *cackles* Yeah that’s something you’d never want to swim into twice. xD The part where he realized he was swimming in circles like the whale shark? Yeah you knew something fishy was going on then. Then there’s the deep, dark water. And the feeling of not being alone down there, something watching you, circling. That’s terrifying to imagine! Poor Virge!! D: It was such a relief when he woke up. A relief that lasted until the ending. It was so, so good! I love it!! Thank you so much for sharing! 🤩

[muppenthings]

Cleaning day

Submitted by: prplzorua

So, this takes place after Nets to the shore.

But like…I have no explanation for this. I’m just really fascinated by the fact that the Cleaner species of underwater creatures (wrasses, gobies, shrimp etc) have their own little dance greeting for their ‘clients’. As a diver who has visited quite a few stations, I actually got to see it personally but I never understood it until I had hw about it lol.😁🐙

Anyway enjoy XD 

Warnings: Blood (a little bit), injuries/wounds (not explicit), loss of consciousness (implied)

That’s it, I’m giving the poor giant a break, tho don’t worry :)

WC: 2,639

—-

Virgil winced for the umpteenth time as he kept swimming.

It’s been a solid four days since he was tangled in the nets and his healing cuts, bruises and burns, ached something wild.

So that brings him to this area of the water, to a cleaning station.

He grimaces the moment he enters the familiar outcrop of coral, his head was pounding and cleaning stations were always extremely noisy, but on top of aching, his wounds had started to itch and he really wasn’t too keen on that. So cleaning station it was.

This one was located on the side of a channel, it was one of the few big enough that he could fit while laying on the course but soft sandy bottom. There were only two other client species getting cleaned it seemed;  a Leatherback turtle and a Moray eel. 

Good, not as busy as it could have been.

He swam in slowly, but moved to lay on the sand. 

He really didn’t have the energy to swim in place while they cleaned him.

The mer lay still on the bottom with the back of one hand pillowing his chin and the other near his face. Once the sand settled a few brightly colored Wrasses came bobbing around his face to greet him.

Gently, he exhales and opens his mouth.

The fish are quick to start, diving in and picking at the bits of whatever was stuck in his teeth.

Once it was established that he was here to get cleaned– and that he was not going to break the unspoken rule by attacking anything in the station– plenty more cleaners came up to him.

Some Gobies came swimming in a circle in front of his nose and then started their cleaning at his hair and first dorsal fin. The Cleaner shrimp followed directly after, rocking side to side in greeting before crawling over to clean his claws.

Three small wrasses swim into his left gills to clean and the mer shudders.

Virgil hated the feeling but knew better that to squirm, a necessary evil and all that.

Until one of the fishes yanked at something and the giant’s breath seized.

After a moment of frozen panic Virgil attempted to breathe again but when he tried, he ended up coughing. The force of it startled not only him but the surrounding fish

That’s when the scent hit…blood.

Everything scattered, leaving the giant mer to battle with his coughing fit. 

Once it settled and Virgil found himself breathing clearly again–the little wrasse came up to him with something in its mouth as an apology…a piece of the net mesh.

The mer lifted his palm slowly and the wrasse placed the piece of metal in his palm and then fled as fast as it’s little tail could take it.

The other cleaners waited, hidden behind coral crevices; the turtle and eel were long gone.

Virgil rolled his eyes and resumed laying flat with his mouth open. 

While he didn’t blame the cleaners–injuring a client  enough to where it bled, was a means to get everyone eaten– but he really didn’t want to come back the next day. Being surrounded by a cacophony of noise with a headache was not something he was up for and having to swim all the way back twice? No, he best wait and get the cleaning done and over with.

Realizing that the mer wasn’t going to eat them for the earlier discrepancy, the Wrasses came back. This time there was a far larger one that bobbed up and down in front of the giant.

Ah, the alpha. Behind it were about fifteen other  smaller wrasses of the same species, right, wrasses were protective over their broods and tribes. One of the smaller fishes at the back of the group was the one Virgil recognized as the one that pulled the net piece out of his gills.

When the small fish realized Virgil was looking at it, the poor thing quickly swam behind another member of its group only to be pushed away. The bigger wrasse Swims in front of it and bobs up and down once more, the little one behind it, seems to timidly do the same.

The giant almost snorts, but knowing that the particular action wouldn’t translate well, he simply tilts his head and remains calmly on the sand. Signal received the wrasses begin cleaning again; the little one staying fin fin with the alpha.

Seeing that Virgil was their only client and that the wrasses were not eaten, meant that it was relatively safe and that the mer was a patient predator and that meant…free reign on cleaning.

In seconds, the Mer found himself swarmed with various cleaners including a couple Blue tangs, though they stayed far from his face.

The Cleaner Shrimp were back at his claws, carefully and skillfully cleaning under them, while the fishes swam around  in a cleaners frenzy.

Surprisingly the Eel came out of hiding and the turtle returned, causing the more skittish cleaners to take care of their previous–less giant-- clients. Not that Virgil minded, the ones he had were doing a pretty good job and by the fact that he now held a small piece of mesh under his thumb, it was a pretty thorough one too.

One of the fish– that was once in his mouth– tapped his cheek gently with its tail, signalling that it and the others were done and he could close his mouth. The mer did so gratefully, wiggling his jaw a bit; holding his jaw open and still for so long caused it to ache a little.

The Cleaner shrimps had just finished with his claws when a Goby bumped a bit too roughly into one of the visible bruises on his side. This, of course, caused  the mer to jolt but the Goby remained resolute.

Grumbling, the mer leaned on his side, exposing the injuries on his underbelly.

The Goby tried to pick off the dead skin around one of the cuts but Virgil jolted again. Upset, the Cleaner Shrimps and the Wrasses chased the too rough Goby away–it swam to the turtle and began cleaning the reptile’s shell, the turtle couldn’t care less–with the Goby gone, the Cleaner Shrimps began carefully cleaning the wounds. Because the mer didn’t jolt at all, the Wrasses left those wounds to the skilful crustaceans and continued their cleaning at his fins.

Some time later a squadron of Manta rays came in circling around.

Because Virgil was, currently being tended to by most of the cleaners, the Mantas could only get cleaned by the few remaining, meaning only two Mantas at a time.

He watched them swim, circling around the area, over and over as they got cleaned. How unfortunate that they couldn’t stop moving lest they drown.

The mer watched them swim, gritting his teeth behind his lips–to avoid any accidental signs of hostility–he could feel the tiny nips and nibbles of the Cleaner Shrimp as they neared a particularly deep cut. It wasn’t too deep actually but it was deeper than the others. Still, he bared it, knowing that an infection would be far worse.

Virgil kept watching the Mantas, hoping that focusing on them would be better than the pain and discomfort, but of course, the squadron brought their own sense of discomfort, they were as loud as anything else in the water. That alone didn’t bode well for the merman’s still pounding head. He really should have drank more water when he was at the estuary.

Still, he was already here and he might as well finish. He kept watching the Mantas.

They swam, four in one circle.

Circling.

Circling.

Circling…

The four Mantas he was watching had white bellies.

But the more they circled, the more black bled into white.

Circling.

Circling.

Circling…

They were completely black now and the pounding headache grew worse, but that was completely unrelated.

Circling.

Circling

C i r c l i n g…

—-

Virgil opened his eyes with a silent groan.

His headache and the pain pulsed right around the bridge of his nose.

The Mantas were still circling in his vision.

He blinked, only four of them were left out of the entire squadron and two of them were currently being cleaned.

Did he pass out?

Before he could really think about it, one of the Cleaner shrimp swam up to his nose and sat right on the tip, causing him to cross his eyes in order to see it. The little crustacean tapped its claws down twice. The mer gave a tentative look, he had to admit, the shrimps did a pretty good job. The edges of his cuts and scrapes weren’t as red and those that had started to scab were instead white lines, nice to know he wouldn’t scar too badly, or if at all, after he was fully healed. Virgil glanced down again–nothing was below him–so he moved slowly onto his stomach. 

Immediately after he did so, the Wrasses, having just finished with one side, began on the other.

Soon enough, the Cleaner shrimp had left, having gotten their fill. 

The Mantas were now gone and the smallest wrasse, now feeling brave, came up to Virgil and tapped him gently on the nose. Cleaning complete.

Gently he nods in thanks, before stretching and then swimming carefully forward and out of the channel.

—-

Now clean, still achy but significantly less itchy, Virgil heads to one of his favorite areas…

 and picks up a couple handfuls of kelp.

He’s not too hungry yet, but considering that hunting may mean reopening wounds, he wasn’t going to wait till he got to that point.

With his kelp collected, the mer heads to his beach, Patton and Logan said they’d visit him for lunch. They had something called a holiday? It didn’t matter, he still got to spend time with them and that was all that counted.

The moment the mer reached the familiar cliff, he spotted Patton on the shore.

The tiny human didn’t hesitate to wave at him. Smiling, Virgil dove under, swimming as quickly as he could manage, before carefully coming up next to Patton.

In a blink the barista is hugging his nose. “Hi buddy! Roman can’t make it today, he’s helping his brother with something. But how’re you doing today?”, he giggles.

The mer huffs out a chuckle, “ ‘m good”

“Glad to hear that Virgil”, comments Logan as he walks down the berms to stand next to his friends. “And may I ask the state of your wounds?”

Virgil nearly rolls his eyes, give it to Logan for being straight to the point, but still, he can’t say that he doesn’t appreciate it, the incident was scary for all of them. Instead, with a sigh, the giant carefully turns on his side, minding that his torso on hard rocks wasn’t exactly fun.

“…‘m better”, he rumbles out, “still hurts a bit, but better…”

Logan is quick to inspect the bruises and cuts in front of him–he just barely stops himself from touching–he then moves downwards to the tail, checking on the mer’s fins. The Pharmacist is quick to return to the other two. “Thankfully it seems that there is still no sign of infection”

“There better not be”, mumbles Virgil as he lays back onto his stomach, pillowing his head with one arm, the other holding the kelp. “That place is way too noisy to go back to if that happens”, he exhales, now nibbling at the kelp.

“Place?” Inquires Logan.

“…station…”

“Ah, that’s quite clever of you to go there, it should minimize the risk of infection greatly”

“Mhm”, agrees the giant chewing on his kelp, “still noisy though”, he then mumbles something about a ‘headache’ but the rest was lost to his chewing.

Patton, looks between the two of them for a second with a pensive hand on his chin, and then he snaps his fingers with a realization. “Oh! Cleaning station!  With all the little cleaner fish and shrimp right?”

“That is correct Patton”    

  “Yup”

Came the simultaneous replies from Logan and Virgil respectively, the barista beamed.

—-

The three happily stayed at the beach, Logan sitting on a nearby rock, while Patton was sitting on the ground and leaning against Virgil’s forearm. The giant himself, meanwhile, had both arms now pillowing his head, kelp long eaten.

“…and then she said she wanted six shots of espresso!”

“I certainly hope you didn’t give that to her, that amount  is highly detrimental to one’s health”

Patton shrugs,“I mean she was a paying customer and-”

The barista was suddenly cut off by Virgil’s large yawn. 

“Oop! Are ya Sleepy buddy?”

The mer shrugs, getting up to brace on his elbows while mumbling something unintelligible and looking away, not wanting to admit it.

Logan tsks. “Larger creatures require more energy to heal Virgil, it would be beneficial for you to rest”

“…but-…”, started the mer in protest.

“Oh! Wait I got an idea! I’ll be right back!”, with that Patton practically sprinted up the beach.

Logan and Virgil looked at each other, then at the direction their friend left, then back at each other; they shrugged.

A few moments later Patton returned with a sun hat, four beach towels and sunblock.

Logan quirked a brow as the barista suddenly deposited two of the towels into his arms. “Um, Patton? What is all of this?”

“Stuff for nap time!” the barista exclaimed cheerfully, as if that explained everything. “Alrighty Virge, I need you to lay back down ok?”

The giant pouts but does as requested, laying down and pillowing his head on his crossed arms.

“Perfect!” cheers Patton as he then climbs up and spreads a towel over from the crook of the mer’s elbow. He then lays down on his back and covers himself with another towel like a sheet. “See? Nap time!”

Virgil blinks and  huffs a short laugh as he then breaks out into a grin. 

Logan himself smiles at the two, before squeezing the two towels Patton had given him and joining the other human.

—-

They didn’t fall asleep right away, but the three of them were far more relaxed than before. 

Patton continued with his story and then Logan with one of his; when that was finished Patton started with another one.

Slowly, slowly Virgil found his eyes slipping shut, he tried to fight it-

there was a small tap on his arm.

He looked down to see that it was Patton.

Surprisingly it was Logan who had fallen asleep first. The Pharmacist was curled up, on Patton’s side with his head resting comfortably on the barista’s stomach.

Patton looked up at him with a heavy-eyed smile, “get some sleep bud, we’ll be right here, promise”

“..ok..”

When Virgil woke up roughly an hour later–no thanks to a seagull that decided to perch on his nose and then leave when his eyes opened– he found that the human was good on his promise. Both Patton and Logan were still there, asleep and curled up with one another, breathing softly.

The mer smiled and closed his eyes again, his headache was gone but napping a little longer wouldn’t hurt.

---------------

Mupp/en: Aaaah! Another gem!  ❤o❤  And I learned new things! Cleaner fish greeting their clients? That’s so cute! And ooooh my goooosh the little wrasse that picked off the mesh piece! Precious baby was so timid! Them hiding behind another wrasse was adorable. :,) I loved how much the fish and shrimp were communicating with Virgil! I just... I love them all.

I loved Logan’s and Virgil’s shared look when Patton darted off to get the towels! xD And the nap time!!!! Hnnngh my heart! 💕 I love this!!! Thank you for sharing! <3

Btw. Patton’s customer is so relatable. 

[muppenthings]

Submitted by: iggyalfi2319

Janus, on a pneumatic boat: oi, Virgil!

Virgil: *ignores him*

Janus: I have something to tell you!

Virgil: *still ignores him*

Janus: I guess you don't want to know the message Logan gave me for you.

Virgil: *perks up*

Janus: lean closer and I'll tell you.

Virgil: *rolls his eyes but comes closer anyway*

Martha: *comes to the surface, booping his nose* accept my apologies!

Virgil: ... *Eyebrow twitches*

Janus: *snorts*

Virgil: 💢💢💢💢💢

Martha: *dragging the boat away from Virgil, said giant mer on their tails*

Janus: WORTH IT 🤣

-

(I thought this would probably be better than just a simple ask X3)

(also, you get your own incorrect quotes XD)

-----

Mupp/en: Oh no! Swiiiimmmm! Mwahaha thank you for sharing! xD

[muppenthings]

Agsdsggdgd! Oh he looks fantastic! 💜 I love the pencil work, especially on his markings! And I love his expression, he looks so calm and relaxed! The pose is very nice and fluid too! Like he’s about to swim upwards all gracefully! Gaaah! I love it! 🌸 Thank you so much for sharing your art! :D 

...

I feel like I've done something wrong by drawing this. I definitely have...

I uh... drew @muppenthings big fishy Virgil. I'm not sure why I picked that pose :/

[muppenthings]

Headache

Submitted by: prplzorua

It’s been a bit of hard time since I last wrote. Finals and life have been kicking my behind, thankfully I survived them but with Headaches and Migraines galore. Today friend found out that I worked my way up to a fever, fun. I’m laying on him as I type this, friends make thebest pillows; he says ’Hi’ btw.

So yeah, here’s a little self-indulgent thingy.🐙

Tw: headache, sleep deprivation

Wc: 1,730

—–

Why me?

Virgil groans internally, placing a hand to his head for a moment. He grits his teeth and pushes forward through the water, he had somewhere to be after all.

Still, his head was pounding, to the point where he could literally feel the pain pulsing at the bridge of his nose and at the back of his eyes.

He sways slightly as he swims, a little too preoccupied with staying on course to fully commit to a faster streamlined form.

While the meet ups didn’t have a set time, he knew the humans would be around rather early and by that logic, he was already late and wasting time.

Honestly, for once, he didn’t want to go.

Nothing against his humans, not at all. It was just that, at this very moment, the ever present throbbing made him feel like crying.

It hurt to blink.

Of course he still would go, there was no way he could disappoint others by not showing up. That and he worried that if he didn’t show, they wouldn’t come back and he’d be left alone again. No matter how much his head hurt, that, would hurt far worse.

So on he continued.

He didn’t know when exactly the headache started, all he knew was that it had gotten progressively worse. It had started yesterday…or maybe the day before? It didn’t matter, the pain kept him from the one thing he knew that could relieve it, sleep.

He hadn’t been able to even doze for ten minutes without pain pulsing through his temples and his ears ringing.

To make matters worse, that Orca kept going out of her way to annoy him despite the fact that they were in the open ocean. Her shrill squeaks and whistles did nothing for his aching head. It got to the point where he literally couldn’t keep lunging at her because the pain was starting to make him nauseous.

As angry at he was at the entire situation, he knew chasing after her would exhaust him far more than he was up to; a headache on top of that was not something he was willing to deal with.

Unfortunately, retreating didn’t do him much good considering that he was tired, sleepless and the headache was still very much present.

Virgil rose to the surface and frowned.

The beach was now in view and all three of the humans were already there and waiting.

—-

“There you are! We were beginning to think you wouldn’t show!”

The merman winced, face flushing slightly at the mock scolding. Roman’s voice was a little too loud.

The day continued as their meet ups normally would.

Patton and Roman fought over who had the rights to the playlist for the week.

Logan had found an article of interest and was trying to ask the resident Marine Creature what he thought or experienced based on the given information.

Said mer however, tensed up and winced at near every sound produced by the humans.

Virgil closed his eyes, barley biting back a groan of pain. He really shouldn’t have come.

“Virgil? Are you alright?”

—-

Everyone paused at Logan’s question.

Patton and Roman gasped as they actually took a good look at their large aquatic friend.

Virgil kept his teeth grit and his eyes closed. In too much pain to bother hiding it. Logan’s voice was still echoing through his ringing ears. "You can go home if you’re not feeling too well, y'know-“

“It’s fine…I’m fine-”, grumbled Virgil, only to wince right after; the vibrations of his own voice practically rattled through his teeth.

“Sure you are”, deadpans Roman as he crosses his arms, “tell you what big guy, we all know something’s up and if you don’t want to leave then-”

Virgil didn’t get to hear the rest of that sentence before he tensed in panic. All sound was drowned out by the rapid beating of his heart…were they going to make him leave? What if they didn’t wanthim to come back?

Was it because he was late?

What if they didn’t want to meet up with him again?

What if-

“Oh that’s a perfect idea!” Exclaims Patton gleefully. The tiny human was loud enough to shock the mer out of his stupor…well almost.

Still, the biggest smile was on the Barista’s face when he turned to face the giant. “Virge! Virge! Lay down and stay put, I’ll be right back!” With that Patton’s running up the beach.

Virgil blinks, belatedly realizing that he had in fact moved and laid down when Patton had told him to. He hadn’t registered that at all-

“So V, are you ready?”

The mer locks on to Roman, who was smiling all giddily, the human looked like he was ready to follow right after the other.

“Pat gives the best face massages! You're going to love it, trust me” he grins.

“I can attest to that as well, it’s excellent for reliving stress and it makes headaches a bit more bearable,” pipes Logan with a knowing look. The Pharmacist gently pats the giant’s arm. “Let us help? Even if just a little?”

Virgil’s cheeks flushed a nice red.

“F-fine”, he mumbled.

Roman bit his tongue to stifle his giggles, he decided not to tease the poor mer today, not yet at least.

—-

Patton came back with a bottle of lotion.

Virgil was hesitant at first, many human products had a smell he did not like but Patton held up the lotion so he could smell it first.

It smelt like the sea, but a bit off…ok a lot off but it wasn’t too bad, he could stand this, unlike that nail polish thing.

Logan was skeptical about placing it on his skin, in fear of a negative reaction. So they settled with placing a bit on his arm to test it. The lotion was cool on his skin, if a bit sticky.

Seeing as it wasn’t doing much in way of absorbing into the thick skin, the Pharmacist thought it best to simply negate the lotion completely.

—-

Virgil had to admit…this was nice.

He exhales slowly, his eyes drooped low, only barley stifling a yawn.

At first he had been skeptical.

Unsure how what ever a ‘massage’ was would help his headache but he honestly couldn’t deny Patton; and with the other two also eager to help, he really couldn’t say no.

Still, right now he was very glad he accepted the “help”.

It was weird initially, what with Patton pressing up the skin on his cheek, but then he pressed down and started rubbing in slow deep circles. The motion was calming, it gave him a feeling similar to the neck scratches but different. Roman was at his other cheek doing the same thing. Because neither Patton or Roman could see each other, likely because of his nose, they weren’t pushing up and down at the same time. The alternating motions caused him to shudder, sending an odd but pleasant tingling feeling all the way up to the back of his neck to the tip of his tail.

He sunk further into the touch.

Currently, Logan was on top of his hair doing similar motions as the others. Laying and leaning down- the mer is certain that the human has a piece of his hair tied around his waist to keep him from falling- Logan presses and rubs at his temples.

Virgil groans in relief, though it comes out as more of a low exhaled rumble instead. Whatever Logan was doing was working. Somehow the human had gotten rid of the pressure on the bridge of his nose, causing the pulsing in his ears and eyes to gradually become muted.

His head still hurt but having all three of his humans helping him lessened that. Each pull; push; rub and press sent him further and further…

Roman was humming something, he’s never heard the song before but…It’s nice…soothing…

Patton gently pulls his eyelid closed.

Shh-ing him with a giggle and gentle mirth.

Slightly startled, the giant couldn’t do anything but chuckle softly. Still, he complies, relaxing further and closing his eyes.

Virgil exhales slowly and evenly; letting all the calming and soothing sensations wash over him like a wave.

——

“…didn’t think he’d snore…”

“…it’s not snoring perse…Ro…more…inhaling…exhaling…gills ..”

“…I think his…cute…”

“…you think…'ery… does…cute Pat…”

Virgil blinks, groggy with sleep still hanging on his eyelids, he attempts to piece together the odd conversation he’s hearing; but he honestly, for the life of him, can’t make any sense of it.

His eyes flutter closed once more.

—–

“Virgil?”

His name is called softly, but he still startles awake.

Eyes snapping open, he blinks to find Patton with a gentle hand placed to his cheek.

Patton smiles at him- Roman and Logan are right behind doing the same.

“Hey buddy, how’re you feeling, headache still bothering ya?”

Virgil shakes his head and yawns.

“…’m ok…headache’s gone”, he rumbles out softly. “That’s good to hear! I’m glad we could help!”

“Mhm”, mumbles the mer. He sits up bracing on an elbow and he rubs his eye-

He pauses, only just realizing that the sun is almost finished setting.

Roman laughs at the expression the giant makes. “A blink and you wake up hours later huh V?

Virgil’s cheeks flush but he nods absently.

—–

Patton and Roman wave as they head carefully to the car, using Roman’s phone as a flashlight. Its not that dark but it’s a precaution.

Logan had stayed behind for a minute or two to speak with his aquatic friend.

"I know it may odd or difficult for you, but if you ever need help or simply don’t feel well, just tell us, ok? I swear to you we will try to do everything in our power to help.”

“Yeah…thanks, Logan”

The human smiles and pats his arm in farewell.  

“Any time Virgil”

Virgil smiles back.

End.

——-

Mupp/en: AH this is adorable! 🤩 (Sorry about the headaches and so tho. I hope you’ll feel better soon now with the finals over! :c) Poor Virgil is having such a bad headache and then nearly panicking when he thought they’d make him leave. ;o; Ah the trio are just… so great! Logan with a safety hairline, Patton pulling his eyelid closed, Roman’s snore comment. xD Just their interactions are so precious and wonderful. Gosh I love this! Thank you so much for sharing! 💗

[muppenthings]

Listless

Submitted by: prplzorua

I couldn’t get out of bed this morning…so yeah, see if y'all can relate lol.🐙

TW: None that I can think of? WC: 507

——

Virgil frowned as he lay on the seafloor.

He was half sprawled on his side with his pectoral and pelvic fins hugging his underbelly. One hand was pillowing his head, while the other hand played with the rubbly sand.

‘Play’ was a loose term, it was more of him scooping up the sand with a closed fist and letting it trickle through slowly enough that the current carried it away before it could sink back down.

The mer sighed.

There was just a lot of feelings he had welling up in his chest, heavy enough that it kept him there pinned on the seafloor.

He was bored, but he didn’t want to do anything. Everything just seemed like too much and not enough at the same time.

He could try to catch up on sleep…but he didn’t feel like floating up and found it hard to sleep on the seafloor when he wasn’t extremely tired.

He could try to look for something to hunt or even go for kelp…but he didn’t feel like it.

He could just get up and swim aimlessly…but his entire body ached painlessly. It was just hard to get up for some reason.

He wasn’t hungry, but was he thirsty? No.

Sick? No.

Tired? Not really. 

The mer huffed, his mental check list did nothing to help. Huffing again, he picked up more sand and let it trickle through his fingers. 

He watched the sand flow on the current.

Maybe…maybe he should try to figure out that game Roman was telling him about?

Yeah, he didn’t have to move much to draw the box things!

Flipping onto his stomach was odd.

The motion made him dizzy but not. Honestly he was quite tired of his contradictory feelings. But he knew one thing, if he could beat the game, he could lord it over Roman; and teasing the human was always fun.

He missed his humans…

He’d see them in four more days and just thinking about them made him feel a bit better.

The barest facsimile of a smile forms on Virgil’s lips as he begins to draw one large box–with a single claw– and divides that box into several more.

He smiled fully when he completed the set-up. 

“Alright Roman”, he thought, “let’s see if I can beat your game!”

He hummed a tune internally as he began searching for the possible pathways he could take with out getting trapped.

The first few tried didn’t go so well.

Though Virgil found himself more and more into the challenge of a game so simple yet so complex. Guess his day was full of contradictions.

Still, the afternoon found Virgil very much into the game. Happily changing tactics and getting closer and closer to the goal by every try.

He grinned.

The heaviness in his chest didn’t feel as bad anymore.

Soon he’d find it in himself to get off the seafloor and possibly catch up with his whales, but for now, he’d lay and play the game.

END.

 ——

Mupp/en: Awwh poor Virgil. :( I’m glad he found distraction in the game! And hopefully he beat it so that he could gloat over Roman later! 

“Honestly he was quite tired of his contradictory feelings.”

Can relate to that one. Feelings can be so confusing at times. :,) Wonderfully written! Thank you so much for sharing! 🌸

[muppenthings]

Bad Squid?

Submitted by: prplzorua

So I ate some bad food or something yesterday and before I took a nap I had started writing a lil bit for the ‘hangry’ fic. Fam I’m like so invested in this au, when I fell asleep I had a dream about it. Surprisingly, I could remember quite a bit about it. Anyway I thought you might enjoy.🐙

Tw: vomiting, talks of death, nightmares, fever.

—

It starts with Martha stalking Virgil where he’s heading to the kelp beds.

Betsy comes out to admonish Martha but Martha shushes the elder Orca pointing out that there’s something wrong with “the beast”

And there is. Virgil’s swimming so slowly and he’s swaying oddly. He lands harshly just barley making it in the entrance of the  kelp forest. Shakily he starts the pick some kelp but he has to stop every odd second to press a hand to his head.

Betsy asks Martha what’s with him. Martha looks affronted.

 "How would I know?“

“It’s your beast, I figured you would at least know the status of its health!”

“He’s not mine!…but he looks ill…”

Que Virgil throwing up immediately after she said that.

Chunks of some sort of flesh, blood and bile float upward. The two killer whales are quick to dodge it. Watching in disgust as various Bass feed off of it.

The giant collapses then. Tail, now no longer peaking just outside the kelp, instead curled up towards his face.

Martha approaches him before Betsy could stop her. His eyes are open but rolled back white. Martha jabs him in the cheek with her snout. He twitches on an exhale and his eyes flutter closed but there is no other movement.

Betsy swims tentatively closer to Martha hoping to pull her away, when the rest of the pod appears. Elda demands them to move away.

Martha protests, wanting to know if the giant would die or not. She can’t make peace with him if he’s dead.

Elda wants to know why she would think the beast was dying.

And it’s then that a good amount of Bass go belly up.

After finding out that the fish ate what the giant threw up. Elda tells the pod to keep moving. She tells Martha that, “if he doesn’t move within two days, expect him to be dead after”

The pod swims off. Martha swims back her  unconscious foe and squeaks at him. “You better not die! I didn’t get to defeat you nor did I get to make peace. You better not die, I’m not finished with you yet!  With her proclamation over Martha swims off with the rest of the pod.

Virgil, very much unconscious, has a string of dreams that almost seem real. They’re fairly good dreams but they seem…off.

Martha swims back the next day to see that the giant was still there and by the looks of things, he hadn’t moved at all. She grumbles and leaves. Not knowing that Betsy and an unwilling Wilbur are worriedly trailing behind her.

Virgil’s dreams start to get weird and things like time aren’t making sense. He only meets up with his humans once in a week, how is he seeing them so much? He’s not complaining but he’s curious. Patton tells him not to worry about it. So he doesn’t, but it still bothers him. Then there’s the other things. Roman doesn’t like swimming but yet he’s happily playing in the water and asking Virgil to toss him in….When did Logan get his gear on? When did Patton?

Day 2 . The beast remains unmoved and Martha’s angry. Squeaking, clicking and huffing profanities as she swims away. Wilbur swims behind Betsy, not wanting to get too close to the younger Orca.

Virgil’s dreams go from weird to nightmarish. The group is having a decent conversation when the ground suddenly begins to shake, then it splits open  and swallows the humans whole. Panicking, Virgil quickly shoots forward hoping to reach them, but ends up cutting and bruising the bottom of his belly on the sharp rocks from the motion. He still couldn’t reach them. He couldn’t see them either despite his ability tense in the dark, they were too far down. He tried prying apart the split further but  more dirt and rocks fell on top of them and Logan and Roman screamed.

Panicking Virgil thought about what he’d have to do to get them safely out of there… he’d have to find another human to help them. Before he could a large wave crashed over them causing the mer to actually roll. Thankfully it was deep enough where his dorsals didn’t touch the bottom. Now that there was water, Logan  Roman and Patton began to float up.

Freaking out, Virgil grabs then quickly but as gently as he could and rushes to the surface. The humans cough and sputter and their arms and legs are bent wrong but  they’re alive. He takes them to the marina, it’s crowded and filled with screaming humans. Some are taking pictures of him, the fisherman are throwing nets and  spears anything really.

He avoids as much as he can, trying to get his humans onto a doc where other humans could take care of them. He succeeded, barley but now they’re taking Patton, Logan and Roman to a hospital. Hopefully the human healers can help them.

Some how through it all Logan loses a shoe on the dock. No one touches it. Hoping the young man can soon come and retrieve it himself.

Virgil spends days stealthily watching the beach and the  marina dock, hoping that he catch a glimpse of either of his three.

Humans know of him now and it’s been a struggle to keep out of sight, but he manages if not with less sleep than usual.

One day while he was around the marina dock he over-heard a fisherman talking to a young girl. He didn’t catch all that the man had said to the child but he didn’t hear the last bit and his blood went cold.

"Such a shame, we’ll never know if that beast had saved those three or was trying to eat them. Three young lives lost to the sea regardless.”

Lives lost. That’s all that echoed in Virgil’s head. His humans were dead. He was all alone again. Still in shock the mer was un aware that he had surfaced a bit more than intended- “Hey!” Shouts the fisherman, starting the motor of his boat. He swims away attempting to hide in a nearby forest of kelp. Up close the sound was so loud. Loud. LOUD. LOUD.

Virgil wakes up with a gasp. A motor boat was driving by above him. He blinks, only just realizing that he’s laying in kelp. Panicking, he swims in the direction of the beach.

His head and heart is pounding and his entire body is sore but he doesn’t stop until he sees the familiar cliff face. He swims closer and on the shore he can see three familiar figures.

Virgil wasted no time in reaching to them and gathering them up in his hands to press them to his cheek. “You’re ok!”

The humans wiggle and squirm, they’re not being held too tightly but they can’t exactly move. He received three answers:

“Of course were ok!” “Did something happen?”  And “put me down you crazy trout!”

At Roman’s behest they were placed gently down. Disoriented, the humans were unable to stand upright for a second, resulting in all of them falling onto of each other. Roman brushes the dirt off him but Logan rushes up to the mer.

Now less panicked, the giant looked exhausted. Logan placed a hand on the giant’s forehead, Virgil leans to the the touch, eyes closing. “Virgil, you’re burning up!”

“…’m fine…jus ate some bad squid s'all…threw it up so t’s fine… ’m fine…”

“Uh, Virgil?” Squeaks Patton, voice higher pitch with worry. But the merman doesn’t stir.

Roman moves forward, waving his hand up and down in front of the giant’s eyes. He whistles, “welp, he’s out cold”

“More like the opposite, Roman, his fever has me worried. Logan rubs his chin pensively. "I have a full day, but can any of you come over tomorrow to check on him?”

“I can switch shifts and come after lunch-”

“I don’t have work tomorrow but I have practice with the theater group for the play next week- hold on, I’ll see if I can get them to do it with me in the morning, then I can come with Pat in the afternoon”

“You two would actually get up that early-?”

“For him? Yeah”

Logan smirks at their synchronization, but is extremely thankful for his friends.

It’s late evening when Virgil finally stirs. Patton gently pats his cheek until the mer’s bleary eyes locked onto him.

“How bout you go back in the water and get some more rest, yeah? Roman and I will be back tomorrow afternoon to check in on you, ok?”

The giant nods sleepily, not wanting to move but also really wanting to get back in the water. He does manage to swim off after a bit more coaxing.

Day 3. Martha finds him on her way to the kelp. He’s floating limply, asleep on the waves. She whistles and clicks happily. And then immediately jabs him in the cheek.

Virgil’s eyes snap open, but he doesn’t register enough to do more than jerk away as an instinctual reaction. When he blinks and finally realizes it’s the Orca that always bothers him, he glares at her with a huff. He doesn’t have the energy to be lunging at her so he doesn’t bother. Instead he swims away and heads for the nearest source of fresh water, his head is pounding and his throat is way too dry.

Betsy and Wilbur watch as the young Orca does a happy flip before heading back to the pod. They glance at each other…“Martha’s back!” They holler as the two follow the younger member back to the pod.

Virgil, meanwhile, drank his fill at an estuary before heading back towards the beach. He didn’t realize when he fell asleep but he was woken up by a seagull, among many, pecking at his ear.

Shaking the stupid birds off, Virgil noted that the sun was high in the sky. It was already afternoon.

When he reached the beach, Patton and Roman were already waiting for him. He stretches before climbing on to shore. He greets the Humans with a wave followed by a yawn.

“Well you’re looking better!” Cheers Pat.

“Better?” Scoffs Roman, “he looks like he just woke up”

Virgil, who was rubbing his eyes, just shrugs, “I did”

Roman laughs, “alright then, well good morning. Wanna tell us what happened yesterday?”

“Yeah”, piped Patton, “you had us pretty worried bud. You said you ate some bad squid?”

The mer nods, bracing a hand on his cheek as he begins explaining. “I was hunting when I saw it. A giant squid that had strayed from deep water, for me, that meant dinner. It managed to put up a decent fight but it didn’t win, obviously. My mistake was not realizing that squid that size usually don’t come in this close unless something was wrong with it. I didn’t even realize it until I went to get some kelp and I suddenly had a headache, stomachache and some serious nausea all wrapped up in one”

“Oof”, winces Roman, patting the giant’s index finger, “guess that means you’ll stay away from squid for a while huh?”

Patton hugs the base of his thumb, “sorry that happened to ya bud”.  Virgil just ruffles his hair in response with said thumb. Pat laughs, “hey, wanna see this game I learnt recently?”

“Sure, as long as the ground doesn’t split in two”

“What?!” Exclaimed the two humans simultaneously

“Nothing!”

—-

Annd then I woke up and now I have a craving for squid XD.

——-

Mupp/en: I find it so amazing that people have dreams about the au like woah!! (I hope you’re ok tho, bad food is no joke :o)  Now to comment the fic! I love it! 🤩 I love how Betsy went all “Well he’s your beast” and Martha basically goes “Nuh-uh!”. And just how lovely it is that Martha cares for her nemesis. Her worried prodding and then the little happy squeak and flip  when she finds him awake! :,) And honestly, the orca trio’s dynamic is wonderful (And very canon. They do follow her around worriedly, I just haven’t gotten to show it :O)

That nightmare was intense. Poor Virge! But then Logan lost a shoe like he was Cinderella and I had to chuckle. xD; And them worrying about Virge later is so sweet. :,) The ending is beautiful! The poor lads! xD Thank you so much for sharing!!! 💗

(I’m surprised you crave squid after having a dream about bad squid lol! xD)