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2016-01-22
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2016-04-01
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4/?
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UNDERWATER

Summary:

Long ago, two races ruled over the seas: Merfolk and Sea Monsters.

One day, war broke out between the two races.

After a long battle, the Merfolk were victorious.

They sealed the Sea Monsters in a deep ravine with a magic spell.

Many years later...

Atlantis 201X

Legends say that those who swim near the ravine never return.

 

UNDERWATER

Notes:

*Saw that practically EVERYONE was making an AU for Undertale. Decides, 'Why the fuck not?' and makes one as well*

(Fanart will make me deliriously happy and love you forever! Just tag it 'Underwater' and/or 'DarkFoxKirin's Undertale Mermaid AU' and/or send me an ask on Tumblr! www.tumblr.darkfoxkirin.com)

(P.S. Cover art is not by me, but the creators of Subnautica.)

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Rapture Of The Deep

Chapter Text

 

It was a beautiful day outside.

Well, it was always beautiful with all of the different sea plants schools of fish swimming about.

You hear a hiss and a few thuds at your bedroom door. You smile and swim over to open the door for you pet electric eel, Panic. He was pretty big for his size by being around fifteen feet long with five inch long fangs. He was a navy blue with shining golden eyes. You had gifted him with a lovely silver chain collar with his name and your contact info on a silver banner on the front of it. The letters were engraved and filled in with black squid ink. On the back of the collar, was a ring for a leash to be attached to. He was a bit banged up with a few scratches from run ins with a few sharks some years ago. Everyone in town was afraid of him, but he was a big softy. Well, at least when it came to you. Yeah... their fear was probably justified.

He has a twin brother named Pain, and your older sister, Alonda, owned him. He was a dark crimson and had silver eyes. Alonda had put a similar looking collar on him, only it was gold. Pain was prissy and stuck up whereas Panic was more laid back and playful. Your eels must get it from you two since that's how you and your sister are. She had always loved being Daddy's little girl, but so did you. What made it different was the fact that she always used that to get what she wants. So she had stayed at the palace and helped your older brother, Alexander, with his princely duties. Now, he was a mixture of both of you. He was proud and at times arrogant, but he had a heart of gold. Which is probably why he was the heir of the throne. You were happy for him, he'd make a great king.

Merfolk who have more magic than others were held in high esteem. You were one of them. Although, that was probably because your father had the most magic out of everyone being King Trident himself. Yes, you were a Princess, and so were your siblings. However, you were the youngest and was third place to inherit the throne. You didn't mind though. You thought all of that 'Royal Duty' crap was overrated. So, you had moved out of the palace to go to college a few leagues over. You lived in a grand coral apartment that overlooked Atlantis and it's fabled Ebott Ravine.

Now, legend has it that Ebott Ravine was cursed and that whomever swam near it's edges got sucked in and never returned. There had been a few disappearances throughout the years to prove this fact. No one said it out loud, but they all knew that it must have been the ravine. You weren't too bothered by all of this however. You actually found the stories fascinating to you. You would even swim around the area of the ravine sometimes. You never got too close though. There had been disappearances and you could never be too careful.

Panic slithered over to you and rubbed against your torso and part of your tail. You giggle and stroke his fin. "Alright, alright! I'll take you on a walk as soon as we eat, alright?" Your eel gave you a look of acceptance and swam back out and towards the kitchen. You go back to your bed which was a huge luxurious clam and straightened the plush and cushy sea flowers that covered the bottom of it. It was the summer season so the cold currants wouldn't be coming for awhile, otherwise you would have had your kelp blanket to fold back up. You finish fixing up your bed then you get dressed and give your f/c and o/f/c shark-like tail a strong flick, shooting you out of the bedroom door and into the hallway. When you reach your kitchen, you pet Panic again as you pass him to reach your Cooling Cupboard. Very few Merfolk have magic these days, but some of them were scientists and they've made some ingenious inventions to get by just as well as humans. When you were in school, you had learned all about human's metal moving boxes called cars and flying contraptions called airplanes. The merfolk scientists had done their best at duplicating these 'vehicles' and other devices, and most of them worked out pretty well. All they needed was a slight change in design and a dash of magic. Nowadays, you would find merfolk zooming around in ship cars and watercycles.

You pull out a sushi salad for you and a few pieces of raw squid for Panic. The eel gives out a gleeful and thankful hiss before snatching up the first piece. "You're welcome, precious." Panic rolls his eyes at your nickname for him before going back to his meal. He much preferred the name you gave him when he was but a hatchling. You chuckle at him as you swish some of your long h/c hair out of your face. It tickled when it floated into your face and it almost annoyed you, but your hair was your pride and joy. Besides your lovely tail and Panic of course.

After you and Panic had finished your breakfast, you grabbed his leash and clipped it to him before you went out. It made your neighbors nervous when he wasn't on a leash so you keep him on one when you're in public.

You make sure you lock the door behind you then store your keys into your waterproof messenger bag. It was your favorite! The bag was black with f/c swirly designs and a picture of an octopus and an eel fighting on it.

You head out to your normal hangout spot at the local ocean park. It was very pretty with it's various coral formations and thousands of different sea plants. Tons of friendly sea life stayed around the area as well. Panic swims next to you contentedly, occasionally snapping at passing fish. He managed to catch a few and then proceeded to eat them. Used to his antics, you just shake your head and keep on swimming.

After circling the entire ocean park once, you and Panic decide to float around Ebott Ravine a bit before going home. It was the weekend, so you didn't have school until Monday. It takes around thirty minutes of leisure swimming before you reach Ebott Ravine.

It was deserted and a little spooky if you were honest. There was no marine life anywhere and nothing grew for a mile long radius. The water was so still. Usually there were nearly constant currants coming and going it was rare for it to be still, but not here. The water was almost stagnant.

You and Panic look around for a bit before deciding that it was time to leave. But before you could, you noticed something glowing near the edge of the ravine. It was closer than you had ever gotten to the ravine and you were tempted to leave it there, but your curiosity got the better of you.

And we all know what happens to that fabled cat.

You cautiously swim forward. Everything was fine, you were just going to dart over and take a peek at whatever was glowing, then back away. Panic whined and circled you restlessly. He had a bad feeling about this.

Just as you reach the edge of the ravine, you catch glimpse of a gorgeous glowing flower, one that you've never seen before, which was strange because you loved any kind of flower and knew many of them.

You hadn't realized that you were drifting forward until it was too late.

It was like there was a sudden whirlpool sweeping you and Panic up and sucked you two down, down, down into Ebott Ravine's depths with a roaring ferocity.

You were jerked to the left and you hit the side of the ravine with a loud crack.

Everything went dark.

[TBC...]

Chapter 2: Meeting Flowey The Sea Flower And Other Extreme Sports

Notes:

Hey yall! So, I've drawn Reader, Pain & Panic, Sans, Papyrus, and Gaster for yallz! So go check that out!

http://darkfoxkirin.tumblr.com/post/138028230266/these-pics-i-drew-are-for-my-new-merfolk-au-for

http://darkfoxkirin.tumblr.com/post/138038978591/alrighty-heres-sans-and-papyrus-for-my-merfolk

(Also, I described Flowey and the flowers in the cave as the flowers in the cover art.)

Chapter Text

Something nudges your cheek gently.

It hisses at you and nudges you a bit more harshly.

This keeps on going until you groan and roll over.

Big mistake.

Pain lances through your ribs, head, left arm, tail, and some of your fins.

You cry out as your eyes shoot open. It's dark, but you're laying on something soft and it's giving out a strange blue glow. Panic swims across your vision, his holes on his sides glow a bright blue as an occasional vein of bright blue electricity crackles about his body. He nuzzles against your cheek and whimpers at you worriedly.

You look over your various bruises and scratches as you run a calming hand along Panic's body, his electricity wrapping around your hand and arm, making it tingle. If you were anyone else, you would be convulsing or worse, dead already. The only reason you weren't, it because when you, Alonda, and Alexander were first introduced to Pain & Panic as kids, your father had you all put through shock and poison therapy so that you wouldn't be hurt or killed by your pets accidentally. The poison therapy was because of Alexander's poisonous blue ribbon eel, Tsunami. He was thirty-seven feet long and acted just like his owner too. Alex had given him a red chain collar just like the ones Pain & Panic have. Tsunami was often separating the eel twins from fighting with each other like Alex does for you and Alonda.

You look down and find out that you're laying on a bunch of those glowing blue sea flowers like the one you saw before you got sucked into the ravine. They looked similar to those large yellow flowers from the surface, sunflowers you think that they were called. Only the petals were a glowing translucent sapphire and the face of the flowers were a greenish yellow with visible veins coming from the stems to the petals. The stem was a greenish yellow with a long bubble of the same translucent material that the petals were made of. Floating inside of the bubble were tons of small glowing golden balls. Some of the bubbles were longer than the others of different sea flowers.

You gaze up at the feeble light that was filtering down from the top of the ravine. You weren't too banged up, even if it did hurt a bit to be swimming. You lift yourself up and look at Panic who was a bit more calm after your ministrations. "Come on Panic, let's get out of here."

Only, you couldn't.

When you tried to pass the cave's roof by swimming through the gap that you got sucked through, an invisible wall became slightly visible and pushed you back after giving you a nasty zap. Luckily for you, you were used to rather nasty zaps. Other's would have been paralyzed for a spell.

You huff out a cloud of bubbles and look around the underwater cavern that you find yourself trapped in. The rock and stalagmites were a deep purple color, unusual but pretty. You saw an arch to the far side of the room that led to a dark corridor. "Well, since we can't go up, we might as well go forward." Panic hisses his discontent but follows after you faithfully.

You come to a smaller cavern, but this one only had a single sea flower in it. There was a crack in the ceiling that allowed a sliver of light to hit it. You swim closer to it, perhaps it'll have a smell. (Merfolk can smell things under and over water.)

When you get close enough, the sea flower turns around and it has a face on it. You lurch back while Panic hisses at it venomously. "The hell!? Why does a sea flower have a face!?"

The sea flower giggles and smiles wide at you while totally ignoring Panic. "Why, because this sea flower needs at least something to express himself with!"

"And it can talk!?" You have seen things that have been animated by strong bouts of magic, usually toys that you requested to be by your father, but they usually only talk when spoken to or when you needed someone to give you a hug. That was probably why you didn't immediately swim away screaming.

The sea flower laugh at you again. "Of course silly! Oh! Where are my manners! Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the sea flower!"

You stare at the sea flower for a bit before slowly edging around it to get to the arch that was on the other side of it. "Uh huh. Charmed. Well, as... nice as it was to meet you, me and Panic really have to-"

Flowey's eyebrows scrunch up a little bit but keeps his smile wide. "What you have to do, is to let me tell you the rules down here! Golly! You must be so confused!"

"Well, yeah, but I'm sure that-"

That dumb flower cuts you off once more. "Don't worry! It's easy! Here we go!"

The cavern gets darker and there's a sharp wrenching sensation from inside of your chest. You gasp and look down to find out that there's a shimmery turquoise non-anatomical heart floating outside of your chest. You feel empty and uneasy without it. "Hey now, I don't-"

"See this? This is your SOUL. The very culmination of your being! Wowzers! You're pretty strong!" At that, Flowey some how starts to sweat, looking a bit uncertain, before shaking it off. "B-but every one needs more LV! What's LV you say?"

"I never said that-"

"Why, 'LOVE' of course! You want some love, don't you?"

"Not from you-"

"Too bad. Here are some... 'Friendliness Pellets'! Make sure you gather as many as you can!" Your eyes widen as some small white pellets, that look alarmingly like bullets, appear from behind Flowey and zoom toward your soul. You easily dodge as Panic becomes even more agitated than before, snapping at a stray pellet before it disappeared.

Flowey's expression darkens as he struggles to keep his smile up. "Oh no! Looks like you missed them! Let's try again! And don't forget to try and catch them this time!"

You easily doge those pellets as well. "Dude, I said no-"

The flower glowers at you. "Didn't you hear me? R u n . I n t o . T h e B U L L E T S !"

Even more alarmed, you knew that they looked like bullets, you dodge them once more. Then Flowey's face twists into something truly demonic. "YoU KnOW WhAt's GoIng oN HeRE. Don'T YoU?"

"Er, it wasn't that hard to figure out..." You begin to gather up your magic. You don't like to hurt people, but you're one of the best fighters in the sea. You were even personally trained by your father. The only people that can best you are your father and Alexander when he gets lucky.

"YOU INSOLENT LITTLE- D I E ! ! !"

Some more of those bullets form a circle around you and begin to close in. Ah, no. You form your favorite weapon, a scythe, out of your signature turquoise colored magic. (Alonda's is lavender while Alexander's is scarlet and your father's is gold.) With a wide sweep of your arm, you destroy all of the sea flower's bullets and place the scythe threateningly close to his stem.

Flowey's eyes widen and he sweats even more as he waves his blue leaves. "Whoa, whoa, hold up there buddy! Y-you don't wanna hurt little ol' me do you?"

He gets even more nervous as Panic swims in threatening circles around him, hissing as his holes light up. "What!? You just told me to die!" You exclaim in outrage.

He looks around frantically. "Ah... Did I?" He cringes and yelps when Panic gives him a tiny zap to one of his petals. "OW! Alright, alright! So what if I did!? I just wanted to get free EXP and LV! I didn't know that you were freakishly strong!"

You narrow your eyes at him and thip him in the face. The flower screams in outrage but you cut him off. Annoying ain't it? "You mean to tell me, that you were going to lure some poor soul into a false sense of security and then kill them!?"

Flowey gulps before slowly nodding. "Uh... No hard feelings?" One look at your enraged face gives him his answer. "SHIT."

You let your scythe dissipate, but before Flowey can escape, you form a bubble of magic around him, while making sure that there is enough of the pastel lavender sand and water in the bubble before you seal it. You swim over and cup the large bubble between your palms. "There. Now you can't hurt anyone else."

Flowey glares at you in outrage before attempting to break his way out. He quickly finds out that it hurts him to touch the bubble physically or with his magic and ceases his futile attempts. His voice is muffled as he screams at you. "You mother fucker! Let me out right n-!"

You thip the bubble and in turn, the bubble smacks Flowey right in the face. You patiently wait until his screams of pain and rage subside before speaking. "Watch it! It's either stay in there and learn your lesson, or I can kill you now, so what will it be Mr.Doom And Gloom?"

Flowey glowers at you as he sweats again. Finally, he huffs and looks away, sulking. You smirk and start to swim to the archway, having the bubble float after you. "Much better. Now, come along Panic, let's find a way out of here. The rude sea flower's in time out." Panic hisses out a laugh and follows after.

As you pass the archway, you almost bump into a purple and white blur. You don't because Panic surges forward and catches that impact so that you wouldn't have to. Whoever rammed into Panic backed up a bit and placed their hands to their mouth. "Oh! I am sorry my child! I heard some yelling and I thought the worst! All you alright?"

You blink at what looks to be some sort of Capricorn, only, she has paws instead of hoofs. because everything else looks goat-like. She also had pristine white fur with a similarly pristine white butterfly koi tail. She was wearing a purple dress with white sleeves and a strange white emblem on the front that looks like three triangles under a set of wings and a circle between the wings. Her small horns look exceptionally adorable. All in all, she's a very beautiful goat-fish.

"Um... Well, you're not wrong. Heh heh..." You rub the back of your head while Flowey snickers at your plight. You respond by thipping the bubble again. Silencing the bubble so that his screams can't be heard, you turn your focus back to the concerned goat-fish lady. "You see, I got sucked into the ravine and this mean little guy," You hold up the bubble with the sulking sea flower in it up so that the goat-fish lady, you gotta learn her name sometime, can see it before speaking once more. "attacked me, so I put him in time out until further notice." Catching her mother-henning gaze looking at your cuts and bruises, you wave off whatever thoughts that may have popped up. "I'm fine. This is just from when I hit the sides of the ravine while I got sucked in. No biggie."

She bleats at you worriedly before putting her hands on her hips. "Well, 'no biggie' or not, they should be treated! Come my child, let me heal your wounds and give you something to eat. You look famished!"

You chuckle and pet Panic when he gets close enough. "Well, I'm not one to say no to such a nice offer! But, may I ask, what's your name?"

You ignore Flowey's muttered, "You said no to me..."

The goat-fish lady places a paw to her muzzle and gasps. "Oh dear, where are my manners! I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. And may I ask of your names?" She glances down at Panic before looking back at you.

You smile and point at Panic. "You may! This is Panic, and I'm Y/n. Oh, and this party pooper is Flowey, apparently."

Toriel smiles back at you before suddenly reaching out and holds your hand to lead you forward. "It's a pleasure to meet you! I'll make sure that your stay is exceptionally pleasant!"

This makes you pause for a second. Shouldn't she mean, 'visit'? You're not staying here, you're a princess for Poseidon's sake! Once your family catches wind of your disappearance, they'll send the royal army searching everywhere! You don't like worrying the people you love. Plus that fact that your father is known to have quite the temper.

You and Panic are going to get out of here.

No matter what.

[TBC...]

Chapter 3: Escaping The Ruins

Notes:

I drew more fanart! Okay so, these pics are for the scene from the 2nd chapter and the other one is of the basic premise of what sea flower!Flowey looks like.

http://darkfoxkirin.tumblr.com/post/139007355616/heyguyssadlymyspacebarisntworkingcurrent#notes

Chapter Text

Flowey grumbled behind the three of you in his 'time-out bubble' as you and Toriel made light conversation.

As you went, she explained the fact that there were puzzles everywhere and how to solve them. (Such as the giant anemones that were fatal to the touch but had certain paths that weren't electrified. She insisted to lead you all through that one herself.) She also told you how fighting wasn't always the solution to something and if you were ever in trouble, you were to strike up a friendly conversation until she can come and scare the monster away.

No offence to her, but sometimes fighting is the only option.

You've learned that the hard way.

Toriel stops and turns to you when you all reach a medium sized cavern with a large black coral growth that looked like a tree from land in the middle of the cave surrounded by empty red sea snail shells. There was also a quaint little house made out of the same purple stone at the far side of the cavern. You could tell from a distance that she was growing different sea flowers and underwater plants in front of it in a garden. "Welcome to my humble abode, my child." She swims over to the house and opens the door for you. "Please make yourself at home. I need to head to the kitchen for a moment. I will be back momentarily."

She rubs a large paw over your long violet hair before swiftly swishing her strong white tail, disappearing into the kitchen.

Flowey seems uneasy being in the house, but you pay him no mind. You sigh and look down at your electric moray eel hybrid. "Well... Let's go look around while we wait for our host." With that, you and Panic drift off with Flowey's bubble floating after you.

You don't find much except for a room that's obviously for a child, one that has to be Toriel's, an overly large stone rocking chair with tons of tiny blooms to help cushion it, and a decent sized bookshelf with a vast collection of school books and... sea snail facts? There was also an underwater heat vent in a designated carved out spot in the wall near the rocking chair. There's a mysterious dark tunnel leading down below the house. You're curious but you decide to wait until Toriel is finished with whatever she's doing and is otherwise preoccupied.

You try to somewhat fix your hair from it's rather disheveled state by staring at yourself in the hallway mirror before giving up and making a mental note to find a comb or a brush later.

Flowey looks at you through the reflection of the mirror and scoffs at you. "There's no helping that, what do the human's call it? Oh yes, a rat's nest that you call hairrrrrr-OW!!!"

You had swiftly smacked the back of the bubble, causing it to smack him in the back of the head. He shuts up with a growl as he glares at you hatefully.

You rise an eyebrow and give him a droll look. "Did you really think that you can insult me without ramifications? Or did you just forget?" He glares at you for a moment before jerking his gaze away with a light blue flush to his face. You smirk and twirl out of the hallway and back into the living room.

Not a second after you wander back into the room, Toriel comes bumbling in with two plates with one huge steaming slice of pie on each and places one on each side of the table across from the rocking chair. The Capricorn-ish monster takes off her oven mitts and sets them off to the side as she smiles at you. "Well don't just sit there Y/n, dig in! I thought that you might be hungry after everything that's happened, so I made you my anemone and kelp pod pie. I do hope you like both ingredients..."

Aw. Maybe she didn't want you to stay for two long. Just long enough to eat and rest up. You smile at her and sit at the table to pick up your fork and dig in. "It's fine. Not a lot of merfolk like anemone because of it's stinging flavor."

Toriel snorts rather loudly and bleats out a laugh before quickly covering her mouth and letting out another bleating laugh. You smile. Huh. She must like puns then.

When she finally contains herself, you've finished her pie. It was one of the best pies that you've ever tasted. She inhales a large gulp of water and lets it back out again before looking back at you. "You like puns? That's just delightful! I do believe that you'll love living here, my child!"

Uh oh.

Flowey snickers from beside you as your face crumbles from it's easy going smile. "Toriel... I don't know how to put this delicately but I can't stay here. I have a family to get back to who's probably worried sick by now! I'd love to hang out some more, but the sooner that I get out, the less citizens my father will harass to try and learn of my location. And that brings up yet another question: How do I get out of here?"

Toriel's jovial mood was gone with the currents of a whirl pool. Her face goes slightly cold before straightening up with a flick of her tail. "I see. Come with me then."

She leads you over to where the tunnel is and swims in. After a quick second of hesitation, you beckon Panic to swim infront of you before grabbing Flowey's bubble and adding more magic to it to make it glow brighter.

Turquoise light dances across Toriel as you swim over to her. Her back is to you and infront of her is a gigantic set of double doors. "Tori-"

"Here it is. This door leads out into the rest of the underground. But you'll just end up like the rest. They come. They leave. They die. It's an endless and vicious cycle and I don't want another to suffer from it as long as I can do something about it!" With that, she whirls around and spreads her arms. You can feel the water around you start to flow faster because of the rising magic in the tunnel. "Prove it. Prove to me that you can take care of yourself!" You feel that tugging in your chest once more as your cartoonish turquoise heart fazes out of your chest and hangs infront of it as the tunnel gets even darker around you two.

Well shit.

Flowey seems nervous if a bit sullen. "Oh, she can... Believe me..."

You roll your eyes and mute the bubble before you turn to look at Toriel in sorrow. You know that you can take her. I'd be a bit difficult, but you've fought tougher. "I'd rather not, but I can tell that you wont back down so very well. Just know that I never meant to hurt you."

Panic hisses and tries to lurch forward, but you stop him with a raised hand. "No. This fight is my own. Stand down." He whines at you but drifts back a bit, nudging the bubble holding your flower delinquent so that it comes with him.

You wave your hand in a slight gesture and summon your glowing scythe. You see Toriel's eyes widen and flicker for a brief moment before hardening again. You position your weapon and dart forward, wanting this over with as soon as possible.

Toriel tries to shoot scorching hot bubbles your way, but you either block with your own magic or you just twirl around it. You control your swing, making it so that it takes most of her health without killing her. She was a good person at heart. She only wanted what was best for you.

Toriel gasps and clutches her chest as she sinks down to the floor of the tunnel. You let your scythe disappear as your 'soul' slips back into your chest and you swim forward to catch Toriel before she can touch the tunnel floor. It was rather filthy. "I must express my most sincere apologies, but I must get back to my family." Damn. Whenever you get nervous or particularly uncertain, you fall back into your 'formal Princess voice'.

Toriel groans but offers you a slightly pained smile. It's slightly bloody. "I-it's alright Y/n. I wanted y-you to show me, and you did. And I'm s-sure I'll be fine. All I need is some pie and I'll be g-good as new!"

She slowly moves her tail back and forth and rises. The goat-fish woman jerks like she just remembered something. "Oh! I meant to g-give you this earlier but... y-you know. Once you pass those doors, d-don't come back. But... Please keep in touch... m-my child."

Toriel reaches forward to tug you into a light hug which almost brings tears to year eyes before letting you go and slowly swimming away.

You reach for the door handles but you look back one more time and you find out that Toriel was doing the same. She smiles at you one more time before departing up through the tunnel and back into her house.

You sigh and pet Panic, who had swam back quickly (with Flowey in tow) when he sensed when the fight was over. "Well... that's that I guess. Let's go bud."

Panic let's out a series of clicks as you push open the heavy doors with ease. You pass through a cavern similar to the one that you had first met Flowey in. "Oh the memories." You mutter sarcastically.

After you exit that room, you reach another set of doors which you open easily as well. What meets you next are heavy cold currents. Why is it so cold!? You knew that the cold season wasn't supposed to come until six months from now! You shrug. Whatever. This place was trippy and you'll blame everything on that.

The cavern layout was vastly different from the Ruins. Out here, the stone was white with black streaks going up and down pretty far. On either side of you are tall walls with incredibly long stalactites and stalagmites. They sort of resembled the trees from the forests you researched about in school. This place was huge and it just kept on going. You wonder just how big this underground is.

You shiver and unroll the sleeves of your red turtleneck when a particularly cold current rushes past you. You have to wave your tail constantly in order to not be blown away, and you keep on moving forward. But just in case, you hold on to Panic and the bubble containing Flowey for a bit more balance.

You find a broken piece of a stalagmite laying on the white sand but you ignore it.

Once you're about ten feet away from it, the stalagmite shatters into a dozen pieces. You and your two companions whip around to stare at the shattered stalagmite in shock.

Flowey takes one look and glares at you. "Oh great! Just great! We're being stalked and are going to DIE! Down here, it's KILL or BE KILLED!!!"

Despite your better judgement, you feel a bit of a chill creep down your spine. You shake it off and keep going.

Seeing a rather widely spaced gate made out of coral, you speed up.

Just before you reach it, however, a deep gravely voice speaks up from behind you. "m e r m a i d . i s t h a t a n y w a y t o g r e e t a f r i e n d ? t u r n a r o u n d a n d- whoa there!"

Not one for dilly dallying, you summon your scythe and swing it behind you in a wide arc. There's a flash of blue and you look up to find... a skeleton man-fish!?

[TBC...]

Chapter 4: Merman Skeletons That Can Talk

Chapter Text

My magic ignites in my left eye as I narrowly dodge the mermaid's sudden attack.

The turquoise scythe catches on the collar of my white turtle neck and effortlessly slices straight through it down to my chest. Fortunately, it misses my ribs and spine. A second too slow and I'd have been dust... yikes.

Note to self, don't sneak up on mermaids with 900+ LV...

Speaking of the feisty mermaid, I quickly back up as she swiftly turns around. Her magenta eyes are narrowed but they widen slightly when she catches sight of me. I warily glance back with sweat dripping off of my bony brow and my usual grin strained.

I've never seen a fully grown mermaid before and I can truthfully say that this one is beautiful. She has slightly wavy long violet hair with pale skin. She's wearing a long sleeved red turtle neck and a yellow and green sash across her waist. Her magenta eyes have red eye shadow on them and her eyelashes are long and thick. There are lavender and turquoise scales that make up her shark/lionfish tail and some are scattered over her cheeks and what can be seen on her torso. Her yellow and green fins are slightly tattered. I hear a low hiss from behind her and my eyes dart over to the huge dark blue eel that was slowly coming from behind her. It was a bit scratched up and had golden eyes. There was also a leather and silver chain collar around it's neck. Occasionally, there would be a stray flicker of bright blue electricity coming from it's body. It made me extremely uneasy... And following that thing was a semi-large transparent turquoise bubble with that damn weed implanted in it with some strange pastel purple sand. I close my eyes to change them back to their normal white specks before turning back to the menacing mermaid.

I take my hands out of my pockets and spread them then wink at her. "what'sa matter? haven't you ever seen bones before?"

The mermaid raises a finely sculpted eyebrow as she slowly straightens. Her scythe is still out however... "No, no, I have. They just don't shatter stalagmites and try to stalk me. Like a creep."

I shrug and put one of my hands back into my pocket. The other I hold out to her. "heh. well, sorry about that. i'm sans, sans the merskeleton."

Her eyes narrow as she finally dispels her scythe, but doesn't hold out her hand. Tough crowd... "Charmed. I'm Y/n. Now, why were you stalking me and what do you want?"

Oh, now she's a smart one. My eternal smile widens as I bring my other hand back into my pocket. So much for getting rid of the tense atmosphere with a well placed prank. "i'm supposed to be a sentry looking out for merfolk, but i don't try too hard. now my brother on the other hand is a merfolk hunting fanatic!" I look past Y/n and catch sight of Papyrus swimming over. "oh look, here he comes. here, follow me. my brother made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

Y/n cautiously follows me as I swim past her and through the bars made of stone. When I get to the conveniently shaped coral bunch, I realize that Y/n was too big to hide behind it. Luckily, my sentry station was close by. I turn back to her and point to it. "alright, go hide behind my sentry station while i deal with my brother."

The mermaid just crosses her arms and stares back. "I don't think so. I'm not sure if you're trustworthy and even if you are, I can handle myself if your brother tries to harm or capture me."

My eyes disappear at the hidden threat to my brother. "now look here girlie, i ain't gonna hurt ya, but if you lay one pretty finger on my brother, well, y o u ' r e g o n n a h a v e a b a d t i m e . . ."

Y/n's eyes harden. "I don't want to harm anyone. Unless someone starts it. Then I'll be the one finishing it."

We're both still staring at each other when Papyrus zips over. "SANS! I'VE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER FOR YOU! IT'S BEEN DAYS AND YOU ST- OH, HELLO! SANS, WHO'S THIS? HAVE YOU MADE SOME NEW FRIENDS?"

 

///

 

You look away first so that you can check out the newcomer. Unlike his brother, this one is taller and has a longer tail. Which is all bone as well, but has the same transparent ectoplasmic tail. This guy's is silver with jagged red fins that have orange accents. There's also black spots here and there. You think it looks like a barracuda's tail. He's also wearing some sort of white armor with a few red badges on the left side and has a red scarf wrapped around his neck. He has red gloves on his hands as well. You turn back to Sans. He was the one with the blue hoodie and white turtle neck that you had sliced halfway through. He was shorter and had a short blue, white, and black transparent ectoplasmic clown fish tail.

Sans' 'eyes' come back when he looks over at his brother. "heh, why? were you-"

His brother's eye sockets narrow. "SANS, NO-!"

Sans smirks. "-getting bonely?"

BA DA TSSS!

You jump and look around. Where the hell did that come from!? The taller brother screams and swims around in erratic circles while waving his fists around. "SANS! DON'T POISON NEW FRIENDS WITH YOUR INCESSANT PUNS!!! YOU SHOULD BE RECALIBRATING YOUR PUZZLES ANYWAY! NOT BOONDOGGLING!!!"

When the taller merskeleton calms down, Sans speaks again. "aw, come on papyrus, didn't you find it at least a bit humerus?" And that sends 'Papyrus into another fit of frustration. Sans chuckles at his brother before glancing back at you. "but to answer your earlier question, this is y/n. she's a mermaid."

Papyrus stops and zooms over to you. "GASP! A MERMAID!? THAT'S WONDERFUL! UNDYNE WILL- I'M GONNA- I'LL BE SO- POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!" You're starting to get wary again so you drift back a little. Sans sees this and keeps a close eye on you. Papyrus stops celebrating for a moment to get a closer look at you. Panic doesn't like this and hisses at the taller merskeleton brother, but he doesn't pay him any heed. "OH MY! YOU SURE ARE PRETTY! AND YOU'RE SUPER STRONG AS WELL! I'LL BET THAT UNDYNE WOULD LOVE TO SPAR WITH YOU! I'D CAPTURE YOU, BUT I DO BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE TOO STRONG FOR ME SO, *AHEM* WOULD YOU DO ME THE HONOR OF GETTING CAPTURED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS?"

You float there for a whole minute staring at him before answering. "...No."

The poor guy looks so heartbroken that you blurt out what you say next before you can stop it. "B-but, I'll do some... puzzles with you? If you'd like that..."

You can practically see the sparkles that light up his eye sockets. "I'D LOVE TO MERMAID! I'LL GO GET THEM READY NOW! AND PERHAPS LATER, YOU'D LIKE FOR ME TO GRACE YOU WITH A SPARRING MATCH?"

Sans doesn't like this, but you shrug at the, frankly, adorable merskeleton. "Alright. I'll make sure to go easy on you. But later I need to leave. You see, I've gotten sucked down here and I need to get back home to my family."

Papyrus 'gasps' again and rushes over to pull you into a big hug. You freeze up, but you gradually loosen up when you guess that he's not going to do anything harmful to you besides squeezing too tight. "OH, MERMAID!" "Y/n." "DON'T WORRY MERMAID! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL HELP REUNITE YOU WITH YOUR FAMILY! BUT FIRST, WE MUST SOLVE SOME PUZZLES! NYEH HE HE!"

And with that, he let's you go and twirls away and disappears into the stalagmite forest. "Well that was... something."

Sans stares in the direction of where Papyrus went for a moment before side eyeing you. "yes. it was. and remember what i said." He pauses as he looks behind you at the strangely silent Flowey before speaking again. "and if i were you, i'd kill the weed."

Then Sans lazily swims back from where you came from which made no sense, but whatever. It was time to indulge a magical skeleton of a merman. Who knows? Maybe you'll even have a bit of fun.

[TBC...]

Notes:

Edit: I drew my own fanart, WHEE!!!

http://darkfoxkirin.tumblr.com/post/138028230266/these-pics-i-drew-are-for-my-new-merfolk-au-for

http://darkfoxkirin.tumblr.com/post/138038978591/alrighty-heres-sans-and-papyrus-for-my-merfolk