#elemental shore

[ominousbears]

I feel like I haven't rly posted much art recently, so have a sketchy wip for smth I'll finish up digitally later :V

[theninjamouse]

Water Elemental Shore, Pt. 2

i need to be stopped lol ✌️ enjoy! (ps idk how to add a readmore in submissions, i would have otherwise since this is rly long! like, a LOT longer than expected: 3.6k+ words, 5 n a half pages… oof)

—–

Most everyone who comes to Grillby’s bar knows it’s fairly hot in there, save for a few tourists or locals who haven’t stopped by yet. The look of mild displeasure that hits their faces once the door opens never fails to catch the attention of Grillby himself, and he huffs a little just about every time (or at least he used to; it happens too often to get a reaction out of him now). Lately, however, the air is a bit more humid than normal, and these looks are replaced with something more on the uncomfortable side of things, even for the regulars. The cause of this new phenomenon is sitting right across from him at the bar, gently stirring a green-yellow beverage with a metal straw and focusing intently on the swirl of colors that follows the movement.

You’ve been crouched low for the better part of five minutes now, chin resting directly on the bar not three inches from the glass. The drink shimmers lightly as it revolves lazily and it’s reflected in your own glittering eyes, looking on in amazement. Why you’re so awed by one of his simpler drinks Grillby doesn’t quite understand, but it humbles him nonetheless. Sans and Frisk, sitting to your left, think it’s hilarious and snicker to themselves at the display.

“You know,” Grillby says quietly, making you jump and look up at him, “I think it’s better to actually drink it than to just swirl it around for an hour.”

Indigo rises to your cheeks as you let out a short laugh. “Right, right,” you agree, rubbing at the back of your neck for a moment. “It’s just really pretty! I’ve never seen anything like it before.” You take the glass in in one hand and the straw in the other, pausing one last time to look at it again, before raising it to your mouth and taking one long drink.

It’s so strange, what happens next; the alcohol doesn’t just go away like he half-expects it to when you gulp it down. Instead, it blooms a bright green-teal color inside your entire head and runs like paint through, well, water gently downward through your throat into your chest. He can’t see past any of the cloth covering it, of course, but he can see hints of it edging into your shoulders and down to your waist. It falls through your arms only a little, intermingling with the rest of you, even as you blink up at him with a wide smile.

“That was incredible!” you cheer. Grillby’s flames shift towards pleased yellows as he smiles softly at you. “Are all the drinks as good as this?” You look back and forth between him and the pair to the left of you, who are sipping at their own glasses of ketchup and juice respectively.

Frisk giggles and puts their cup down on the counter as they swipe a menu off a stack within reach. “Pretty much, yeah!” they say brightly. “Grillby’s just really good at what he does! Although,” they add, dragging a finger along the extended list of beverages and pausing for just a moment, “this one is really cool too!” They tap one item near the bottom firmly, beaming. Sans, sitting on their other side, leans over their shoulder to look as they angle it towards him so you can’t see. His ever-present grin widens as he glances towards Frisk with a knowing look in his eyesocket. “kid’s got good taste,” he chuckles, taking the menu from them and handing it off to Grillby as he taps the drink’s description himself, “not my favorite, but it’s definitely tide for one of the best.” Frisk bursts into giggles, which makes you laugh quietly at their antics, too.

You grin at Grillby as he looks from the menu to you. You push your now empty glass towards him across the bartop (the teal is gone, he notices as he looks at the arm extended towards him) and rest your chin on the heel of your palm.

“I take it you’d like another drink?” he asks teasingly. You only wink at him in response.

Barely a minute follows as he expertly whips up a new beverage for you, your eyes following his hands the whole time. An ounce of this, two of this, a splash of this, fill to the top with this, stir with a long spoon, garnish with a twist of zest, and… there. He slides the drink, a deep orange-red this time and taller than the last, across the bar into your waiting hands, and you eagerly chug it just as fast, if not actually faster.

It blooms in you again, but rather than teal, a purplish-magenta hue glides along your surface. Since this drink was bigger than the other one, your arms and legs are now flooded, too. You look down at them in surprise, turning your palms over and swaying one back and forth to watch the liquid float through you. Oh this is cool.

“Oh!” you exclaim brightly, “Did this happen with the last one too?” Laughter bubbles up from your chest as you bring your face closer to your arms and examine them.

Grillby nods silently and Frisk beams. “Yup,” they affirm, popping the ‘p’, “it’s really fun to sea.” They giggle again, practically folding in on themselves with the force of it. You tilt your head to the side, vaguely confused by the emphasis.

Sans snickers and nudges their arm. “yeah, i don’t know of any otter monster who does that,” he says, “do you, frisk?”

Oh. You see what’s going on here now.

Frisk plops their head in their hands and puts on an exaggerated thinking face as they try in vain to hide their growing amusement. “Hmm…” They slowly drum their fingers on the dark wood. “Don’t think so. I think she’s probubbly the only one.”

You make a face. Sans and Frisk are too caught up in their pun battle to notice it, but Grillby chuckles quietly. He completely understands your reaction.

“are you shore about that?”

Oh cmon, that one wasn’t even that good.

“Dolphinately!”

Okay, that’s enough. You raise your hand and flick your fingertips in their direction, causing a few heavy drops of water to bean them both right in the head. “No making fun of me,” you playfully scold, fixing them each with a look.

Sans’s brow scrunches up in confusion as he wipes the moisture off his face. “we weren’t–”

But Frisk cuts him off as they lean forward, startling you backward which makes the water at your head fall over your shoulders. “Was that your magic?” they ask.

“…Yeah? Of course it was?” you reply, bewildered. You move to look back at Grillby, but he’s not behind the bar when you turn. When you check the rest of the restaurant, it looks like he’s just finished taking orders from some customers who just walked in, stowing some messing scribbled notes in his apron and nodding along while they hand back their menus.  A vague feeling of disappointment rises in your chest and you turn back toward Frisk, who’s looking at you with a curious excitement that makes the corners of your mouth twitch upwards. “I’m a water elemental, it makes sense that I’d use water magic, doesn’t it?”

Now Sans has leaned forward a little. You feel a little weird under this much scrutiny. “what kind of stuff can you do, though? like some water monsters out there shoot water to try n’ wash you off, but i bet you could do a lot more than that, don’t you think so, grillbz?”

You jump slightly and whip your head back around to the bar, where Grillby is emerging from the back with trays of food balanced on each arm. Man, he works fast. Either that, or you just aren’t paying very close attention right now. He pauses thoughtfully for a moment before giving a noncommittal shrug and moving carefully back towards his eagerly waiting customers. The light thwack on the countertop wrenches your attention away from the bar and back towards Frisk, who has both a hand splayed out flat over the weathered wood and a distinct gleam in their eye. “You’ve gotta show us now! Grillby’s all fire and he can do some really cool stuff with it, so you’ve gotta be able to do some cool water stuff with yours, right?”

“What? What sort of things have you seen Grillby do?” you ask, suddenly curious yourself.

Sans shrugs and puts an elbow up on the counter. “eh, he’s got a bit of a fireball thing, sparks some alcohol sometimes for effect, stuff like that. grillby isn’t the type to show off, y'know?” He pauses. “the way i hear it, though, he’s done some wild stuff before.”

A flicker at the edge of your vision catches your attention and you look back to see Grillby standing behind the bar again. “Is that true?” you ask him when he glances towards you. He tilts his head to one side questioningly. You point a finger at the pair to your left who have now picked up for cups and are back to drinking. “They said you can do some cool things with your fire, is that true?”

Grillby hesitates for a split second and looks past you to the rest of the room to make sure nobody’s really looking before nodding and bringing his hands in front of himself and pressing them together. When he pulls them apart, there’s a tiny ball of fire floating there and it unfolds into the shape of a tiny bird. It flits around you once, and when you whip around to watch it, the edge of your head’s trail barely brushes it. A cloud of steam rises from the intersection and you flinch hard and jerk away from it. Out of the corner of your eye, you watch Grillby jump a little too. The bird falters significantly in its flight before stopping in front of you. It flaps solidly in place once, twice, before scattering into embers.

There’s a beat of silence between all of you before you direct a sheepish smile towards Grillby. “Sorry I bumped into your bird, I should have been more careful,” you shrug, hand moving absentmindedly over the spot in your head’s trail where you hit it. It doesn’t hurt at all, it just feels weird, like the ghost of a presence that isn’t there anymore. Grillby’s gaze follows your movements and he opens his mouth to say something, but you cut him off. “But that was wonderful,” you tell him sincerely, “I didn’t know you could do anything like that.”

He flushes blue and gently smiles back as you flip your hands to rest palm side up. You clench them once before slowly pressing them together. A look of concentration crosses your face as your eyes dart up towards Grillby for a fraction of a second before moving back to your hands and shutting tightly.

Frisk looks absolutely thrilled, Sans very interested, and Grillby fairly intrigued as you slowly part your fingers and through them a hand-sized fish swims in the air. It does a loop-de-loop and arcs high towards Frisk and dips down to plant a light smooch on their forehead, making them laugh loudly. With a flick of your wrist, you call the fish back to you and it slams into your hand, reabsorbing the magic and causing only a few waterdrops to splatter across the floor.

You shake your hand out a few times and sigh. “Been a minute since I’ve done that. Weird!” You look up and find Frisk and Sans grinning at you.

“cool,” Sans says.

“Whoa, do it again!” Frisk exclaims.

Grillby just looks on, amused. You blush indigo and grin.

“So what else can you do?” Frisk leans forward on their stool, almost threatening to fall off completely. “Also, why didn’t you make yours explode like Grillby did?”

You fix them with a quizzical look. “Because I didn’t want to make a mess? And it’s not hard to pull it back in, it just feels weird 'til it merges with my core again. Adds a little bit of water that wasn’t there before.”

“wait,” Sans blinks, “can you manipulate how much water you’ve got on you?”

You grin and clasp both hands around the middle of your head’s trail. You scrunch your face instinctively and squeeze tightly. Everyone holds their breaths as all the water past your fists disconnects from your head. There’s no hint of your core left in it, and what’s left of the cutoff point runs very close to the edge of your skull. The trail slowly rounds out into a basketball-sized sphere and floats in your palms as you bring it to your front.

“This is the most I can really do at will. I think technically I could get smaller than this, but that–”

Frisk sticks their entire hand into the water sphere and wriggles their fingers.

A violent shiver runs straight through your whole being, even down to the bottom of your core, and your entire face erupts into the deepest, darkest indigo possible as you thrust your hands up above your head, effectively ripping Frisk’s hand out of your trail. Silently, you return it to the back of your head and wait a second as it reconnects. A glance spared to Grillby affirms that he, too, has gone almost completely blue in the face, though you think you can see a handful of distinct green ribbons skirt across his face. These fade into the same shade of blue, which noticeably strengthens as you meet his gaze. You’re sure you look just about the same.

It takes you a second to find your voice. "U-umm…” The shakiness isn’t surprising either. “Please don’t do that again, Frisk. I’m still connected to my own water, even when it’s separate from me.” They’re looking at you in complete shock and maybe even a hint of shame. Sans looks less horrified, eyelights darting in between you and Grillby, but it’s still pretty significant.

“I’m… sorry, I just thought…” they mumble.

“It’s okay,” you assure them, resting a hand lightly on their arm. That singular action sends a faint chill through you, but you ignore it. “You didn’t mean it and you know better now. And anyway, it didn’t hurt me, it was just… supremely uncomfortable. It was like if…” you pause, searching for the right analogy, “…like if I could put my hand straight into your head. Disturbing, but not painful.”

They nod, grimacing, and turn back to their juice cup.

Oh now this is a silence you just don’t like. Once the indigo has receded and everyone else looks fairly normal again, you bean Frisk in the temple with another waterdrop. They look back at you, concerned until they notice the smirk on your face, at which point they also smile. “You wanted to know what else I could do, though, right?”

They giggle and nod brightly. You make sure you’ve Sans’s eye too, looking inquisitive, before you grin and rest your elbow on the bar top, finger outstretched and pointed at Frisk’s cup. You wait and… there, connected.

“I think you’ve had enough to drink for the night.” You flick your finger upwards in one quick motion and their juice follows. Frisk lets out a short laugh, probably mostly out of disbelief or frustration, as they try to reach up and grab at it (you’re not entirely sure what they’d want to accomplish with that), but you simply move it just out of reach before they can make contact.

Sans absolutely howls next to you, tiny tears forming at the corners of his eyes as he places a hand on your forearm to steady himself. “oh man, that’s great,” he cackles, watching Frisk run around trying to catch their drink. “is it any different because it’s not straight up water?”

You shrug, jerking your finger over as Frisk gets a little close. “Sort of? It certainly feels a bit heavier, but not unbearably so. It’s mostly water and that’s what matters. If I were to try to move mud, it’d be a lot different and I’d need to put a lot more effort into it.”

He hums thoughtfully. You turn your attention towards Grillby, who’s currently wiping down his space and cleaning up between orders. He keeps watching you and Frisk (who, as you look back, has almost gotten a hand on their juice, oops, let’s change that real quick), but more you than them. Stars, it’s so nice to finally see another elemental again. The last one you met came from the storm and she was an absolute delight to be around. She was dark, like the clouds right before it downpours, and forks of lightning ran down her arms and through her trail, which floated behind her like yours does. She’d enter a room and it would instantly light up because her excitement and passion were… electrifying, for lack of a better word. There’s no doubt in your mind your old friend would have loved to meet Grillby were she still around. But–

There’s a sudden splattering sound as Frisk spikes some of their floating drink straight into the floor. Somehow, they manage to look surprised, proud, and sheepish all at once. Chuckling quietly to yourself, you pull what’s left of the juice in the air back together and deposit it straight into their cup; it looks like they’re down to about two-thirds left of what they had.

You watch out of the corner of your eye as Grillby moves to clean it up, mop already out, but you raise a hand for him to stop. Another slow gesture, this time to make sure you’ve gotten everything, and the spilled juice flies over to you before resting a few short inches above your palm. You glance back towards him, where you watch his flames pop in a way that you’re beginning to read as gratitude. “Anywhere I can put this?” you ask, bouncing the sphere in your hand.

Wordlessly, Grillby opens the door to the back and immediately past it, you can see a deep sink with a pair of long, thick rubber gloves draped over the side. You flick the ball away and it sails clear over the bar straight into the drain.

Frisk moves to rejoin you all at the bar with sticky, still slightly dripping hands, but Sans nudges them away and towards the bathroom. “gotta clean up,” he says, “don’t need your mom carpin’ on me for bringin’ you home all gross.” Frisk snickers and sticks their tongue out at him but does as he says. You smile after them.

Sans goes back to drinking his ketchup, pulling his phone out of his pocket when he hears a notification go off, and Grillby watches you trace the whorls in the wood with one finger, obviously thinking deeply about something. He sets down the glass he’s just finished polishing and taps the counter in front of you twice to get your attention. Your pearly eyes meet his in a second. “Is everything alright?” he asks, concerned.

You wave a hand dismissively, giving him a soft smile before looking away again. “Just remembering old friends.”

Grillby blinks. That feels like it came out of nowhere. “What–”

He’s cut off by Frisk’s reemergence from the bathroom, hands now clean and mostly dry. They move to hop up to their seat but Sans stops them by sliding off of his. “just got a text from tor, says she wants frisk back for dinner,” he tells Grillby, who nods. Frisk gives a disappointed “aww” and Sans pats their head, grinning. “sorry bud, we can come back tomorrow or somethin’. sea ya later shore, later gurbz,” he says before winking out of existence with Frisk in tow.

You chuckle before bringing your attention back to the swirls in the countertop. The quiet murmuring of customers behind you and clacking of silverware against plates as meals are finished fade away ever so slowly, and you’re left slowly dragging a finger around the rim of your long-emptied glass and watching Grillby’s firelight reflect and refract through the surface.

The light grows briefly as an orange hand comes closer and taps the bartop in front of you again, making you look at Grillby. He searches your face for a few long seconds before withdrawing his hand and picking up the towel once more. “What were they like?” he finally asks, slowly drying another glass. “Your old friends, I mean.”

You blink once in surprise before you laugh lightly and drop your chin into your palm. “They were wonderful, of course. I was just thinking about how they would have loved to meet you.” Another solemn look passes through your face and your trail drops an inch lower. “It’s just been kind of a long time since I’ve seen them,” you shrug.

You push your glass back towards Grillby and he waits a minute for you to say something, but picks it up when you don’t. “How long?” he murmurs.

There’s a sense of hesitation and apprehension that stiffens your whole posture, but you let out a heavy sigh and lock your pearly eyes with Grillby’s molten ones. He firmly sets your glass on the countertop and waits for you to continue. Stars, you hope he doesn’t think badly of you for this. You gather your courage and just say it.

“What do you know about the war between monsters and humans?”

The Ninja’s Response: 

I can’t get enough of this, this is absolutely adorable! I love how vivid you are in describing Shore! The water element really matches her personality! 

[ominousbears]

shore if you aren’t careful you’re gonna trip and roll down the rest of this hill and look like a DORK, do you really want that??? didn’t think so

childhood friends au!! shore gets summoned a short while after grillby so they get to hang out and get up to all sorts of hijinks (well shore does anyway, grillby is still mildly stressed from having to keep her out of trouble) long story short: i love them

@theninjamouse

[ominousbears]

The flash of embarrassment he feels light across his face makes you smile so wide the corners of your eyes crinkle, and it makes him flush blue again, a little deeper than before.

“You’re blue now!” you gasp, seemingly fascinated by the color change, and spring up from your seat so quickly it almost falls over.

god it feels SO good to have my tablet pen charger back!! i can finally draw digitally again!! here’s an elemental shore as celebration (the blending on shore’s limbs feels off but honestly? her and grillbz’s heads more than make up for it, i’m so so satisfied with those ugh <3)</p>

water elemental shore belongs to an au of @theninjamouse ‘s fic, ocean on fire, which i highly highly recommend reading if u like that good grillby/reader content <3</p>

[ominousbears]

dance creeeeew, but elementals!!! based on an ask on ninja’s blog from a while ago!! these are the casual outfits they had during the war, each marked with some of the royal purple

they all look infinitely better in fullview, i promise

left to right: shore (water), faith (storm), liam (air), tyler (magma)

a labor of love, but one well spent <3

@theninjamouse @oh-dear-gracious

[ominousbears]

teef teef TEEF TEEF

@theninjamouse @oh-dear-gracious

[ominousbears]

yall ive had this idea stuck in my head for like 3 days now and i only just now got to actually draw it out and honestly im living, i love kid shore

@theninjamouse @oh-dear-gracious

[ominousbears]

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