#what a gentle skele-mer

[kgirlgamers]

Thalassa!

A name I’ve already came up with for this adorable skeleton mermaid!

💙🩵🩷💜

I have tons of cool facts about her:

Always has her eyes shut in her life

Lives in the abyss

Not really that expressive

Name “Thalassa” is sea in Greek

[tttinytrash]

Shelter from a Storm

So I’m stealing shit from @shamedump yet again. They were talking over on their blog about a version of Pokemon Snap with our favorite skeleboys in their various au and species presentations instead of the Pokemon, dubbed Skeleton Snap. So instead of standard pokemon, we get everything from bitties to giants, with an assortment of mers, nagas, and other such versions roaming an island with a lone human camped out taking pictures for science. In particular, an exchange about the skeles being helpful during a storm (found here) struck a cord with me. Using this and the surrounding asks about the situation, I got this!

You always have such a sense of satisfaction watching the loading bar steadily fill as your lovely photos upload to the shared drive with HQ. A tech on the mainland is on the line with you for confirmation of a successful upload, though your interaction is limited to lines of text on the screen.

The computer chimes, signaling completion and you await the tech’s confirmation. 

<<Data is uploaded, but some of your shots may be corrupted.>> They send.

<<Which shots? Are they all bad?>> You type, feeling a sinking in your chest.

<<No, most are fine. But the ones dated during the storm you reported have a blue filter. Oddly, the landscape looks fine.>>

You breath a sigh of relief and laugh, trying to figure out how to explain. You think back to the day in question.

-----

A storm was brewing, the thick grey clouds and temperature shift loomed as a warning. You scrambled to bring your equipment into the tent at basecamp or stash everything in their waterproof containers. You knew you weren’t going to get much research done today, so you set the tent up as comfortably as the plethora of boxed equipment allowed and prepared to hunker down instead. You went to seal the entrance to your tent, only to find a few bitties huddled at the “door.”

“Oh, hey little guys.” You greet.

They can’t speak, but one bitty with a bright blue bandana and starry blue eyelights looked up at you beseechingly, doing a spot on impression of puppydog eyes. He glanced into the tent briefly before fixing his hopeful, wide eyed gaze on you again.

“Oh, did you wanna stay in here? Come on in guys, I’m sure there’s room.”

The small gaggle of bitties rushed in, and found various places to hide amongst the boxes and mostly disappeared from sight. That was fine, these were far from the first skeletons to end up in your tent. Unlike his companions, the little blue bitty who’d acted as spokesperson seemed to not feel the need to hide away. He went straight to your sleeping area and found Chippy, a bitty companion of yours with a cracked skull, already hidden in your sleeping bag and cuddled up to him. Looks like you had two cuddle partners now.

You slipped into the bag with them, and the two ended up snuggling in on either side of your neck, likely seeking warmth. The blue bitty felt cold to the touch, but was quickly warming up, making you glad you’d let the gaggle inside. Light snoring from multiple places about the tent signaled most of your small friends had fallen asleep.

Now all there was to do was wait and try and get some sleep yourself.

-----

You jolted awake then water hit your face. 

The storm had rolled in full force by now, and the flaps sealing your tent from the gale outside had snapped open. You got out of your sleeping bag as quickly as you could without hurting either bitty that had been snoozing on you and rushed to the entrance. The wind was blowing the rain inside, and you struggled against it to get the door to close. You stepped outside to get a better angle even though you were being soaked. Ugh, the zipper had snagged, and the wildly moving fabric wasn’t helping! 

A few of the bitties saw your struggle and ran from inside, catching the flapping bottom of the tent entrance and using their combined weight to pull the fabric down enough for you to be able to zip past the snagged point. They ducked back inside and you were about to do the same when movement caught your eye.

One of the giants in the area was ambling by, shirtless for some reason. He stopped in the clearing nearby and stood, face up towards the falling rain and eyes closed in obvious contentment.

Oh, you had to get a photo of this.

You ducked back inside, threw your rain gear on over your warm PJs, and grabbed your favored waterproof camera. “I’ll be back, but I have to take pictures of this!” you called to those who were in the tent.

You were able to close the tent behind you, and scrambled a bit away from your tent onto an outlook that would allow for your candid shots. The flurry of clicks as you took shot after shot of the giant enjoying the rain was a familiar sound, and you knew you could sort through your photos later. 

You were mildly surprised when the giant opened his eyes and looked towards you, catching you in the act. You weren’t afraid of this giant by now, his territory was the closest by far to your camp and you’d seen plenty of each other. He’d even helped you after your pod crashed before. He was clearly amused by you watching and waved. You smiled and waved back. 

The interaction was cut short when you nearly toppled off your outlook when a strong gust of wind hit your from behind. 

You squawked as your loss of balance left you flailing and you went tumbling to the uneven ground. The first thing you checked was your camera, which you’d managed to shield from the fall. Thank goodness. Your skinned palms were less lucky, and you hissed a breath while assessing the damage. You felt the ground shake and knew the giant’s huge strides were making short work of the moderate distance between you two. By the time you’d looked up he was hovering over you in concern, on one knee to be more on your level.

“Hey big guy, I’m ok.” You assured, wiping your muddy hands off on your raincoat and revealing bloodied skin. 

He warbled in concern.

“I’ve got a first aid kit, it’s fine.”

A higher pitched warble from the tent caught both of your attention. The blue bitty had slipped under the entrance and was running up to you. Chippy hung back by the tent, but watched. He clambered over and joined in on inspecting your hands, making a concerned noise.

“Hey little guy. I’m ok, really, you guys worry way too much.”

The big one garbled something, which the little one seemed to understand, and with a nod to the he patted your leg before he ran back to the tent, getting Chippy to follow him inside.

The giant meanwhile, laid his open palm by you and gestured for you to clamber aboard. You trusted him to keep you safe and wanted to know where this was going, so you took up the offer and gingerly sat in his bony palm.

“Did you tell little blue there you were gonna help?” You asked as he gingerly raised you up to his face as he stood.

He nodded, relaxed smile back in place at your understanding. Once he wasn’t hunched over anymore, he gently used his free hand to gently brush a finger over the back of your hands, which had been laid on your thigh.

“What? You want my hands?”

He nodded, so you brought them forward, palms up. In response, he brought you closer to his face and lapped at your outstretched appendages with feather light pressure. The act was so gentle and foreign that you couldn’t help but giggle. You felt his magic knit your damaged skin together, remembering similar treatment after your crash. Apparently direct contact with their magic had healing capabilities, and you thanked the giant for his aid once again. This earned you a happy sounding hum of acknowledgement.

You had to quickly use your freshly healed hands to cling for balance when another gust whipped past, clutching his thumb desperately. Well, in all honesty you doubt you would have fallen, as the giant had cupped his other hand around you and brought you up to his chest in a protective manner.

The wind also left you rather chilled, so you weren’t sad about the proximity to his surprisingly warm ribcage. A light scent of chalk hit you along with the ambient petrichor with your newfound proximity. 

He seemed to take notice of your appreciation towards body heat and made a questioning noise above you. You gave him your attention.

He slowly moved his hand away from himself, so you could see his face. He proceeded to open his mouth (a rare sight for half the population on the island) and pointed inside, then patted the blue barrier between his ribs and pelvis. 

That was absolutely not ASL, but you understood his meaning.

You hesitated, but eventually said “Uh... yeah. That sounds good to me. Thank you.” You’d done this once before, also at the crash, so you knew this was safe. A cold, wet tent wasn’t very appealing anyway.

He brought you back to his face, so close you could have laid a hand on his nasal bone, and opened his mouth again. A dim blue glow came from the tongue laid across the bottom of the cavern before you and from the depths at the back. 

Then he waited, allowing you to enter on your own. You had to steel yourself a moment before you could will yourself onward, but ended up army crawling your way in. Instead of fear when he closed his teeth behind you, you found yourself relieved to be out of the rain. Honestly, it hadn’t occurred to you how pervasive the constant sound of watery impacts on your hood were until they were delightfully silenced. You tossed your hood down onto your back and took in your surroundings while laying belly down on his tongue. 

Your observation was brief, as once you were in, he didn’t leave you waiting long. The room tilted until you began to slide backwards, and you and gathered up your camera to shield it, knowing what was coming next. You heard and felt the strong gulp once you hit the gullet at the back. 

The pressure around you was steady, but the pliable material kept it from being uncomfortable. In a moment, you slid into a more open space noting he’d leaned his body to prevent you from dropping into the pit of his stomach. Your camera greatly appreciated the lack of impact.

You readjusted after he had sat down against a cliffside, hopefully as comfortable as you were. If the happy sigh from above and around you was anything to go by, he was pleased by the whole situation. 

The tissue around you was warm, soft, and translucent. This meant you could see the outside world, and excitedly took the opportunity to snap a few more photos of the landscape. After a few more minutes, you shut your camera off and settled comfortably. 

You looked up, seeing the shadows of his ribs moving in and out with his breathing. Taking a photo of that view, tempting as it was, felt like an invasion of privacy somehow. You settled for taking a mental photograph instead. 

The noise in the background was a softened version of rain hitting a roof like back at home, but there were soft burbles added to the mix that reminded you of where you were. The combination was surprisingly pleasant. 

You sat, listening to the quiet ambient sounds and watching rivulets of rainwater cascade over the blue tinted bubble around you. Honestly, you didn’t even remember falling asleep, just a warm feeling of safety.

-----

You were brought out of your reminiscing by the tech pinging you again asking if you were still there.

<<Yes, still here. The blue tint is just from an improvised rain protector.>> you assured, deciding this was adequate explanation.

<<Understood. Keep up the good work out there!>>

<<You bet!>>

You signed off with a smile. Gosh, you loved this job.