seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from Qatar
seen from Macao SAR China
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Macao SAR China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from Belgium
Mermay!Kip is all I've been thinking about lately and I am so excited to finally show her off to the world! 🐬🐚💖Hiro @hirodraga pretty much read my mind again for this piece. They captured each and every one of her wonderful, mermalicious details! Also I'm currently SCREAMING because of just how freaking cute Taro is right now????
Episode 1
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos
Music: "Atlantis" by Ellie Goulding
Tikos belongs to @dreams-of-the-arcana
All episodes can be found here: Mermay AU Masterlist
***
Zotikos Orion Katsaros-Yakinthos balanced on the bow of a small schooner, peering out at the misty reef ahead through his spyglass.
The pirate captain had left his crew behind on Stormchaser. Not that he hadn’t wanted any of them to join him in his pursuit of long lost secrets – he certainly extended the invitation. It was just that none of his motley crew dared to set foot in these shallow, teal waters.
Tikos wasn’t the type of captain to force his crew to go where nothing but morbid curiosity pulled him. On the surface, there was no gain, no treasure to be had from this island shrouded in mist. So Tikos left them be and took the schooner out by himself.
Rumor had it, this island was cursed.
The Republic of Floating Isles – as it had been known long ago. If you were lucky enough to get your hand on a map that still charted its existence, it would be identified as such. But out here in pirate country, the small archipelago was known by a different name.
The Melting World.
Once every three hundred years, the islands would appear. There was a story that came with it. One of temptation, mystery, and tragedy.
According to legend, The Melting World was home to a very powerful water spirit. A nameless entity who never allowed anyone who entered the reef to leave.
Tikos lowered his spyglass.
He had faced such creatures before. Sirens, selkies, all sorts of mer and their kin. They had many forms, but in the end, he found that they were all the same.
This water spirit, whoever they were, would be no different.
He would find out what was so precious about this place that no soul had managed to bring back to the surface. Because if there was one thing he knew about the merfolk, it was that they were always hiding or protecting something.
Whatever this water spirit was guarding, Tikos would find it and take it for himself.
Episode 2
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos
Tikos belongs to @dreams-of-the-arcana
All episodes can be found here: Mermay AU Masterlist
***
Tikos was not gentle while guiding his schooner through the rising beds of coral. The water was shallow enough for him to wade through and pull the boat along, as far inland as he could get it.
By now, the mist had evaporated, making the pirate wonder if it had been a simple glamour to make the islands appear more mysterious than they truly were. As he took in the forested cliffs of intense green contrasted against the shimmery, pale limestone cliffs, he could acknowledge that the lack of mist did not subtract any of the wonder from the Melting World.
Tikos had dragged his boat as far as possible. He didn’t feel the need to bother with an anchor since they weren’t close enough to shore for the tides to run away with it. And there was nothing he could tie it up to with rope. The sand bank that held the boat in place would have to do for now.
Kiki, Tikos’ weasel familiar, sprinted down from the schooner and onto his shoulders. She nipped at his ear and chittered fast and urgently.
“Hm?” Tikos hummed absently as he reached back to give her scritches. His gaze was still on the lush cliffs and vibrant plant life creating shadows over the water. He continued to wade between the corals, using the island as a beacon.
Kiki dug her claws into the pirate’s shoulder and squealed sharply. Tikos jerked to a halt and nearly swiped his familiar into the water.
“Gah! Kiki, it’s too early to draw blood. What’s wrong, girl?”
But as soon as Tikos tore his eyes away from the wonder of the island, he could see why his familiar was so alarmed. Stretching out before them like a fresh wound in the reef was a deep blue chasm. Tikos was mere inches away from stepping directly into the dropoff. Not that he wouldn’t be able to swim himself to safety, but he didn’t trust ominous indigo trenches – especially ones carved right between two shallow bodies of water.
Tikos continued to stare down into the trench, letting his eyes adjust to the change in light. Shapes began to take form under the bright sun. Tikos took a step back as more realizations came to the surface. He wasn’t looking at just any old trench.
This was a pirate ship graveyard.
Episode 4
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos
Tikos belongs to @dreams-of-the-arcana
All episodes can be found here: Mermay AU Masterlist
***
Tikos didn’t expect the island’s interior to be as mesmerizing as its exterior. After the school of dolphins had herded him over the channel of wreckage, he could relax and finally enjoy his surroundings. They traveled down ethereal limestone waterways where the sunlight was interrupted by the eroded rock and flowering canopies.
Tikos lost himself in the games the sunrays played against the surface of the water. Kiki cooed in amazement at all of the shifting scenery.
Eventually, the dolphins brought Tikos and Kiki into what could be best described as an indoor-outdoor series of caves. There was no vegetation, so everything was bathed in glowing teal and white light. The bottom of the cave was about six feet deep, allowing Tikos to stand if he really needed to.
He slid from the dolphin’s back and swam through the maze of glimmering limestone columns on his own. The dolphins disappeared from view, but they sounded like they hadn’t gone too far. Tikos figured the water spirit was somewhere close by. Kiki chose to ride on top of the pirate’s head, only hopping off in order to scale the roughly cylindrical pylons that connected to the cavernous ceiling.
“Don’t go too far, Kiki. There could be traps.”
Right as Tikos was thinking of what he would possibly say to the spirit on whose territory he was currently invading, something approached him in the water.
“Well, hello. And who are you?”
The creature gave a little chirp. With her soft fur and cute face, she reminded Tikos a lot of his own familiar. This one looked like a lemur crossed with a seahorse. When the newcomer was sure she had Tikos’ attention, she zipped off through the water, stopping every so often to make sure Tikos would follow.
Eventually, the strange lemur led Tikos to a part of the cave that was mostly closed off from the outside, but still close enough to let in the sunlight. The little creature chirped in triumph as Tikos and Kiki swam into view.
Tikos’ heart stuttered when he heard a voice hiss, “Taro, no! Why did you bring them here?”
He only caught a glimpse of a brown skin and iridescent jewelry before a speckled tail splashed enough water to conceal the creature’s getaway.
Tikos swallowed. He had no doubt that he had just spotted the water spirit. He felt his skin flush from the memory of their face alone.
Suddenly, the thought of stealing the water spirit’s secrets didn’t seem like such a simple task.
Episode 7
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos
Tikos belongs to @dreams-of-the-arcana
All episodes can be found here: Mermay AU Masterlist
***
Tikos dragged his thumbs over the water spirit’s webbed ears as held her face and pressed so that her spine met the cool, eroded rock. She parted her lips for him and savored every light intake of breath, both his and her own. They were tentative at first, but that initial taste ignited a cool fire and soon they were chasing shallow, hungry kisses.
The mer withdrew, but only slightly. She breathed, “I don’t even know your name.”
Tikos chuckled as he pulled her back in. He fed his arm underwater in order to scoop her tail around his hip. “Forgive me. I’m Zotikos,” he found her lips again, gently this time. “Orion,” he went back for another kiss. “Katsaros,” and another. “Yakinthos.”
Tikos pulled back to check her reaction. He found her lashes fluttering dreamily before her eyes finally cleared and she lifted an expectant eyebrow.
The pirate laughed. “Tikos is what they call me.”
The water spirit hummed in understanding. “Kipling is what they,” she gestured to the dolphins in the background, “call me.”
Tikos repeated her name as he walked his lips down her neck. Kip wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and exhaled loudly. She hadn’t felt this sort of contact in three hundred years and couldn’t hide how much she craved to be held and marked in her warm, quiet caves.
“Tikos?” Kip wondered aloud while Tikos’ face was still buried in the crook of her neck. “Why would you come to the island if you already knew how dangerous it was?”
Tikos lifted his head and matched her sober expression with one of his own. “I thought there would be something worth protecting here. I’m ashamed to say it now, but I thought you might have been hiding something.”
Kip shook her head. “You’re not the first one to assume that, but… there’s nothing here. Only the curse that kills whoever tries to leave. No one knows where it came from.”
Tikos lowered his gaze and bit his lip in uncertainty.
“If you don’t think I’m telling the truth,” Kip said, “I can take you on a grand tour of the islands and show you all there is to see.”
Atlantis | Mermay AU Masterlist
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos the Pirate
Atlantis
episode 1 episode 2 episode 3 episode 4 episode 5 episode 6 episode 7 episode 8 🍋 episode 9 episode 10 🍋 episode 11 episode 12 episode 13
Episode 5
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos
Tikos belongs to @dreams-of-the-arcana
All episodes can be found here: Mermay AU Masterlist
cw: nudity
***
The water spirit was trying to avoid him.
She, if he had to guess, didn’t seem scared of him so much as shy. Tikos wasn’t used to shyness when it came to the mer. Wrath. Temptation. Seduction. That he could handle! But trying to coax an elusive entity out from their own hiding place?
“Please go away.”
Tikos had no idea where to start.
The pirate used every trick in the book that he could to keep her talking so that he could find her more easily. “Your friends led me here, my darling. The dolphins and the lemur-seahorse – they are your friends, correct me if I’m mistaken?”
He heard her make an annoyed sound. “My cousins, yes. The sea-lemur is Taro. Also, I’m not your darling.”
Tikos drifted around another limestone pylon, hoping this would be the one she was hiding behind.
“Forgive me. Sometimes I get a little carried away with the pet names. What should I call you, oh serene water spirit of the Melting World?”
“Didn’t you hear the stories?” She said, dodging the question entirely. “Leave now and you might have a chance to make it off the island in one piece.”
“I would like to see you first,” Tikos said without a second thought. “Can I look upon your face just one time? Then I’ll leave, I promise.”
He heard water rustling nearby, followed by the clinking of shells and other small trinkets. Tikos turned around very slowly, his brown eye searching for the water spirit. When she appeared, his breath caught at the sight of her crown of sea crystals and pearls braided throughout her wet, springy curls. Her warm brown skin glittered faintly under a dusting of seasalt. Thanks to the sheerness of her blouse, he could see everything, including the pearlescent baubles framing her nipples.
Tikos pushed off from the pillar to meet the spirit in the center of the cavern. The closer he came, the more of her he took in. The water was clear enough for him to see that her tail was of the same shape and speckled design as the dolphins that brought him here. Her ears flared out past her curls and braids as thin, membranous fans.
Tikos brought his gaze back to her face, which held just as much suspicion and reservation as her voice had earlier. Her eyes, however, were mostly still downcast.
“Please,” Tikos said softly as he closed the gap between them. “Look at me.”
Episode 3
Mermay!Kipling x Tikos
Tikos belongs to @dreams-of-the-arcana
All episodes can be found here: Mermay AU Masterlist
***
Tikos didn’t know if he should trust the handful of dolphins that had swum up from the depths of the trench and were now circling him and Kiki.
They didn’t look like any dolphins he had seen before. Their form echoed that of the bottlenose, but they were covered in spots, like some kind of aquatic dalmation.
Tikos consulted his pocket nautical codex. He leafed through the pages of illustrations, which would never acquire water damage thanks to a special drying charm.
He gave a soft ah-ha when he reached the page depicting the dolphins before him. They were a friendly species native to warm Prakran waters, but concentrated in the nurseries of tropical islands, including the Republic of Floating Isles.
Tikos closed his book and studied the dolphins some more. They came in all different sizes, so he assumed that they were a family. Based on the way they rolled on their side and rubbed up against his legs like cats wishing to be stroked, Tikos guessed that they wanted him to follow them somewhere.
He glanced over at the trench in uncertainty and back at the smiling, freckled dolphins. Kiki chirped in gentle curiosity as if to say, What are we waiting for?
Tikos perked up. If his familiar was relaxed about this whole situation, then he had nothing to worry about. Right? Besides, how could he call himself an adventurer if he wasn’t willing to cross a pirate graveyard?
“Okay, which of you thinks you’re strong enough to carry me?”
Even though the dolphins wore permanent smiles, they seemed to all beam at Tikos’ question. Several of the larger ones rotated in fast, tight circles while peppering the air with their high pitched clicks.
This wasn’t the first time Tikos swam with a dolphin, so he felt at home as he stretched out along the animal’s muscular back and took hold of their sturdy dorsal fin.
“Take me to the spirit of this island,” Tikos said as soon as they left the safety of the shallows. He tried not to pay attention to all of the sunken wreckage they were passing over. He knew that merfolk could smell fear in humans. So he did the best he could to strike it from his heart.
