I got sick (ugh), so I stayed home and worked on a bunch of random stuff. A couple of these probably won’t see the light of day but I had fun messing around with it.
Another silly comic I did a day or two ago. Random happenstances occur during Ichigo's stand-in mission which turns her human and makes things a lil awkward.
Short Bleach fanfic; merperson au. Grimmichi. Merperson Grimmjow, human Ichigo. Grimmjow's point of view. Fluff. Fic under the cut.
Based on the prompt "message in a bottle" from the July Prompts List by creativepromptsforwriting.
Grimmjow peered at the object in his hands. It was transparent, and rounded, narrow at the top, wider at the bottom, and inside it had what looked like...a strange type of white leaf? He narrowed his eyes at the object and shook it. The white thing inside shifted as well. Chittering to himself, he took the object and swam to the surface. He poked his head just barely above the water and scanned the area. No more of those creatures-that-had-two-tails were present. Part of him felt relief that he wouldn't have to stay so quiet and stealthy, but another part wished a certain one had stayed. Namely, the one who threw this object in the water.
He brought his head fully above the water now, gills shifting closed to allow his body to change to breathing through his nose. He pushed long blue hair out of his face as he drifted casually over to some rocks that jutted out of the water like shark teeth. He hummed to himself thoughtfully and looked at the object in his hands, then back at the rocks. He swam right up to them and gently tapped the object against them. It made an interesting high-pitched sound at impact, and he tapped it again, a bit more firmly. His ear fins twitched at the resulting sound and he chirped happily, continuing to tap it gently against the rocks.
After a few more minutes of that, Grimmjow was bored. So he turned away from the rocks, examining his new toy again. And when he held it up to the sky, the light glinted off of it in interesting ways. He spent a few moments turning it this way and that, before ducking underwater with it. The contents of the object remained dry, even under water. He thought it must be because of the seal on top. He tapped it with his long fingernails and the seal made a tink sound. But he had no idea how to remove it without wrecking his item. Surely, the one who threw it in the ocean would know, the thought came to him, and he tilted his head. He'd seen that two-tailed creature a few times, with its bright orange hair and strange tails that let it walk about on the shore. His tail swished back and forth as he thought, finally coming to the decision that he would wait for the orange-haired two tailed creature to come back and then force him to show Grimmjow the mysteries of this object.
Grimmjow came to check the shore dutifully every day. And every day he was disappointed to not see the one he was looking for. Day after day, week after week. He swam up and hid, watched the shore for a few hours, and then left in defeat.
Until finally, four weeks later, he saw it again. The orange-haired two-tailed creature! It was laughing and chasing two other, smaller, two-tailed creatures along the shore, one with brown hair and another with black hair, splashing water at them and shouting. It reminded Grimmjow of how the guppies he knew when he was younger would play. But he didn't want two-tailed guppies. He wanted the orange-haired one, and only that one. So he waited.
Eventually, as the sun was setting, a voice called to the two-tailed ones on the shore. Grimmjow's ears flicked and he watched as they started making their way further inland, the orange haired one loitering behind to clean up several items they had brought with them. Seeing his chance, Grimmjow darted out of his hiding place.
The two-tailed creature was turning away, so he had to get his attention. Grimmjow let out a really loud, demanding chirp, not certain the creature would fully understand but hoping he would at least get its attention. It worked. The creature jumped slightly and turned around, eyes scanning the water before they landed on Grimmjow. Then its brown eyes widened and it dropped the stuff it was carrying. Grimmjow took this as a good sign and swam closer, calling out to the other creature. The creature blinked and glanced around, before moving closer to Grimmjow. Yes. This was good, Grimmjow decided.
He waited until the creature was close enough, and then started chattering at it, demanding to know what was in the object and how it got there. But, as he had suspected, the creature didn't seem to understand. Its brow furrowed and it rubbed its orange hair.
"Sorry, I don't know what you're trying to tell me," the creature stated. Grimmjow narrowed his eyes at it. He had no idea what it just said. "...I get the feeling you don't understand me either..." Grimmjow tilted his head, still not picking up what the creature was trying to communicate. He slid his tongue over his fangs and looked at his hands, which held the object under water. Then he looked up at the orange haired creature. The creature licked it's lips as well. "Maybe..." it pointed to itself in an exaggerated motion. "Ichigo." Grimmjow tilted his head. The creature repeated the motion. "Ichigo." Is it saying what it is? he wondered. When the creature kept repeating, Grimmjow decided this must be so. He looked up at the orange haired Ichigo and pointed to himself, before stating his species name in their tongue. The Ichigo's eyes widened at the series of clicks and chirping sounds. "Uh...." He did his best to replicate it, but Grimmjow still had to correct him several times. Eventually, he just gave up and nodded when the Ichigo made noises that were almost correct.
After trying for a while to communicate, Grimmjow decided he had enough. He wanted answers. He chirped in an annoyed tone and brought his special object out of the water. He held it up to the Ichigo. The Ichigo blinked, its brown eyes focused now on the object. Which was fine for now since Grimmjow wanted answers, but the Ichigo better look at him again after the object was solved. He rather liked the attention.
"Ah. Sorry. Yeah, I threw that in here...I shouldn't have. It's...well, you know the cliché of messages in a bottle?" The Ichigo spoke, but Grimmjow understood none of it. He just stared at the Ichigo with a deadpan expression. "Uh. Right. You don't understand." The Ichigo reached for the bottle, and Grimmjow hissed and yanked it back. The Ichigo stopped and blinked. "Uh. Sorry?" Grimmjow wasn't sure what that meant either, but the tone sounded apologetic so he decided not to kill the Ichigo for trying to take his possessions. The Ichigo pulled its hand back a little, then flipped it over, palm up and held it out with an uncertain gaze. Grimmjow watched it with narrowed eyes as he gently and reluctantly placed the object in the Ichigo's hands.
The Ichigo twisted the top of it, opening the seal and Grimmjow perked up, eyes brightening and tail swishing back and forth in the water. The Ichigo tilted the object and then reached in with its slender fingers to pull out the strange white leaf, unfolded it and showed it to Grimmjow. Grimmjow tilted his head. The white leaf was very thin looking, fragile, and he worried it would tear. It was covered in little black squiggles and for some reason, those squiggles looked important. "See, it's just a silly note...pretty much just a little wish for a friend. Maybe this is the universe answering me," the Ichigo spoke softly. Grimmjow didn't understand at all, but he liked the soft tone. It was nice and warm. He wanted to hear it more. Grimmjow held out his hand and chirped again, wanting the object back now that he knew how it worked.
The Ichigo blinked. "Oh. You...you want it back? I thought you were mad that I littered..." Grimmjow rolled his eyes. How many times was the Ichigo going to talk before remembering Grimmjow didn't understand. He made a grabbing motion at his object again. "Right. Right." The Ichigo put the white leaf back in the object and resealed it before giving it to Grimmjow. Grimmjow nodded and gave a happy chirp. The Ichigo smiled and Grimmjow liked that smile, even if its teeth were pathetically dull and not sharp at all. "Um. I'll see you later," the Ichigo said. It waved to him. Grimmjow tilted his head, clutching the object tightly in his one hand and returned the wave with his other. The Ichigo turned around and walked away, following a path that would lead it to all the other Ichigos.
Grimmjow looked at his object happily, excited that he knew how it worked now. He darted under water and dashed away to his little den, which was full of objects he'd collected from the shore over the years. He gently put the newest object in a safe place, and then began scouring through his collection. He looked for something the Ichigo...no, His Ichigo, would like. He'd seen many Ichigos on the shore over the years, so he tried to focus on items they seemed to enjoy. The smaller Ichigos tended to like shells, he knew, and all sorts of rocks. He wasn't sure if that changed as Ichigos grew. He had seen larger Ichigos with shiny rocks, but those ones looked more special than just a smooth stone. They were shiny...brightly coloured...Ah. There. His sight caught on a small blue stone, shiny and secured on a small chain. He had found it near the shore a few weeks ago, while waiting for his Ichigo to come back. This would be good. It would be perfect. He was certain his Ichigo would like it, because it was pretty and shiny.
Now all he had to do was wait until his Ichigo returned to the shore. Grimmjow chirped happily as he settled into his den to sleep for the night.
