ok OK GET READY FOR scientist foxes and mermaid neil (probably not the mermaid you’re expecting!!!!!!!!!) i have filled 3 pages with this
ok so i was thinking, what if mermaids were real but they lived deep deep down in the ocean? isn’t 98% of it Not Discovered? what do we know? and then i was thinking, but, down there, there’s no sun there’s a lot of pressure, what’s the info about the fishes found in the deep sea (as far down as we’ve been able to reach as of now)? and i came across interesting info that made me think that, imagine that mermaids were like this?
really thick, greyish skin
super fucking slimy
thin weak bones. the less bones the better
no hair whatsoever. just slimy af.
big (almost?) black eyes to be able to see silhouettes in the dark
human-shaped ears? no. human-shaped nose? no.
like, 3 rows of teeth. pointy teeth.
their tails are either black or red
they don’t know how to talk, but they can
that weird thingy frogs have between their lil fingers? yeah that too
gills. on the neck.
see and this is where i started thinking about an AU rather than real mermaids because fish that live down in the deep sea are reaaaaaaally slow due to the fact that there’s barely any food so they’re SLOW AT EVERYTHING so they can survive
mermaids? nah man. predators of the deep sea. fast af.
arms? we’re keeping those because ykno, half human. not actually necessary. but we’re keeping them.
here comes the fun part, i loved thinking about this. THE TRANSFORMATION.
obviously, neil the mermaid (mer..man? ehh) becomes human once his body is out of the water. this is what happens (all at the same time? i dunno im still thinking about this)
its a slow transformation
it lasts 5 hours
its not pleasant. at all. it’s really painful.
the tail gets ripped in two as the legs start forming. the fish-y skin and all the scales slowly start falling. it feels like his skin is getting ripped out :)
yknow, humans have like a, skeleton and stuff. so...boy needs some bones. throw in more pain!!!
he starts choking since he cant breathe since there’s no water but once his gills start closing (painfuuuuuul) his ~human instincts~ kick in and he breathes thru his mouth until ykno, he has a nose (later)
thick skin? dont need that no more. slimy shit? nah. i imagine that sort of like, melts away. once the transformation is over he’s still covered in his gross slime but once someone throws water at him he’ll be fine. actually painless. new skin is sensitive af tho!!
see some deep sea fish have big eyes w big lenses with only rod cells since they are super sensitive to small light signals. imagine outside? hell not even outside, while he’s getting captured! neil cannot open his eyes once light starts coming in, and even then there’s too much light. so you could say he barely notices the pain of his eyes becoming “human” since he’s in agony from the light
his teeth? they all fall out. human ones grow. there’s a lot of blood involved here actually
somehow, do not ask me how, just.. somehow. nose and ears grow. really Not Pleasant
his hearing, his skin and his eyes are really really really sensitive a few hours after the transformation
he passes out after its done, obviously
hair grows at a normal pace? so he’s still bald for like,, a few weeks sorry neil. but the hair color is the same as the tail. in this case, of course, red
no bellybuttonnnnnnnnnnnn
(i also have written down the transformation back to mermaid if anyone is interested wink wink)
and GOD the thing is,, the foxes (not all of them are there but they’re all a group of scientists) were yknow like on a mission to explore the deep sea and ? holy shit they caught something ? whta the FUCK IS THAT !!!!!!! it’s making weird noises and covering his face and oh oh it’s starting to writhe what is happening is it dying? “of course it’s dying it’s a fish and it’s out of water you moron” “THAT’s not a fish” “should we kill it?” “are you insane?! we need it alive” “yo what the FUCK is happening to its tail” (they’re recording everything) “is that.. is it a mermaid?” “what”
they record the whole transformation. the mermaid, or so renee says it is, keeps making anguish noises. it’s obviously in pain and nicky wants to put it out of its misery but aaron needs to experiment, nicky, you’re not touching it. nicky leaves after 20 minutes of seeing it suffer.
aaron andrew and renee are the only ones who stay the whole time. matt leaves shortly after nicky and calls dan (who is with allison and kevin back home @ the lab) to tell them
renee and aaron do some tests on passed-out-neil (”throw some water at his legs see if they become a tail again” (they dont))
and GOD i just,, matt, nicky and renee teaching neil how to talk. neil, having been captured once (..guess who..) does Not Trust Humans. renee writing down everything that happens, every new thing neil does, aaron just walks in to poke needles and shit at neil. neil hates him.
the foxes deciding a name for him ;;
I DONT.................HAVE MORE.....................like they cant spend a lot of time out there if they have a mermaid among them but they need enough time that at least neil learns how to walk and basic “yes” “no” “i matt. you neil”. and ahhhh its all i have but ONCE NEIL CAN TALK HE’S UNSTOPPABLE aaron regrets the day they pulled him out of the water accidentally. obviously there’s some romance going on there between him and andrew just no idea how it starts tbh i know nothing i am nothing
but UM obviously one day the foxes give neil the opportunity to go back to the sea since they kind of?? kidnapped him?? sort of? and fuck no neil ain’t going back there??? first of all. painful as hECK. secondly. he was alone and now that he’s got people why would he go to that quiet lonely darkness again? also he kind of,, doesn’t like fish anymore. too many years eating it, he’s tired of it. he’s staying. (and maybe that night andrew kisses him for the first time)
ALSO PLEASE NEIL SEEING PICTURES OF HIMSELF AS A MERMAID FOR THE FIRST TIME
“what. is that” “uhh....that’s.. um, buddy, that’s you” “what” “yeah....” “why does my skin look like that” “we think its because it helped you blend in the darkness? you know, like the rest of the deep sea fish” “i’m not a fish” “(softly) you kind of were, pal”
@tell-me-your-vision ah yes the reverse transformation only happens when his full body is submerged in sea water for more than 15-20 seconds, given that it is a long and painful transformation he can’t go around becoming human, then mermaid, then human again every time he touches the water.
so the transformation itself isn’t any less painful than the other one,
it lasts around 5 hours, too
he feels like he’s drowning and like his head is going to explode until his gills start appearing, which, by the way, feel like someone is cutting them open with a knife. slowly.
his nose and ears fall, and it feels like someone is just forcefully tugging on them untill they are literally ripped off his head
he feels a huge pressure on his body when his skin is thickening
all the bones in his body break
his legs start getting closer and closer until they kind of become one (like when you press your legs together) they’re still 2 except he cannot separate them anymore anyway they’re not legs anymore
each scale that appears on his body feels like needles piercing his skin
his hair just,, falls off. hair is always thankfully Not Painful
his eyes start to burn badly and the change makes him go temporarily blind (he’s gonna pass out s ooooo..... eh. u feel)
human teeth fall out. three rows of very sharp and pointy teeth start growing, one by one.
fucking passes out after its done
this transfromation isnt only painful its just really dangerous too?? like our boy is just sinking down as it happens. someone in a boat/ship could spot him? what if there are sharks nearby? he’s bleeding. really dangerous. thankfully he’s only had to experience this one (1) time and he managed to make it out alive. never again.
