AN-
... So
Not dead lmao-
Think I need to put warnings on all books to how slow I am now

~~~~

Dave paid the cashier, thanking him walking to the outside of the bait shop.

Today was their first trip out on the sea. Dave just had bought a net to "catch mermaids".

Vincent snorted lightly at that idea, he hoped Henry was finally going senile.
Mermaids, only his older brother would believe in mermaids.

He shook his head, motioning for the basically jumping up and down Dave to follow, them both walking across the pier to one of the boats that they had gotten.

It was rather, flimsy but would work just well for what they needed
And if not? Dave could fix it up more,

That's what Vince had always wondered about his brother, he couldn't write (neither could Vincent fairly), and lacked a lot of knowledge due to never going to school, yet he was a genius when it came to robotics.

He supposes that his brother could do and learn about anything he put his mind to, he was always the more idealistic of the two of them, while the younger was always more realistic. He found it funny honestly.

"Vincent get your ass on the boat!" He snapped out of his thoughts looking to Dave.

"Huh?-"
"Hurry up! I don't need you daydreaming out on the open seas!"

Vincent snorted stepping onto the boat, helping set sail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is fucking stupid."

Dave rolled his eyes at Vincent's anger, having not even caught a single fish in the 2 hours they had been out to sea, while Dave had a nice meal.

"If you weren't so jerky to your movements, and too weak to pull up the rod you'd be having a much more fun time." Dave teased, ducking seeing the bait worm being thrown at him which went overboard.

"Poor worm, died for nothing." He said somberly, Vincent grumbling making the taller snicker.

"I thought I was the impatient one?~" Dave said smirking

"I can throw much worse then worms at ya Dave."
"Hah, you think I care??"

Dave laughed at Vincent's expression, and beaming seeing a small smile slightly appear on his brother's face.

"Hah, got you to smile."
"Shut the fuck up."
"Nah-"

Vincent sighed, looking out in the seemingly bottomless blue.

"... Hey Vince..? What do you think is down there..?"

Vincent looked down into the blue, seeing the small fish that lightly swam around them.

"... I don't know honestly Dave, surely something beyond our imagination, creatures that live in unimaginable places, maybe even one as old as the dinosaurs?
I guess, I only imagine horrors, but cause of your ridiculous stories... I've started to think less horrors and more wonders."

Dave smiled.
"Aw, glad to hear. I don't, know either, but the idea of extremely sentient sea creatures intrigues me."

Vincent snorted. "I've figured that out by now."

Dave chuckled, pulling up his fishing rod and looking at the sky,
"Probably should get back so we're not stuck out here late."

Vincent agreed, going to the front to turn back on the engine.

Dave looked out to the sea still, relaxing

... but in the corner of his eye he caught something.

It was something, strange, orange?

He quickly tried to catch it, but no matter where or how hard he looked, he couldn't see anything.

'What... was it my imagination?"

He was brought out of his thoughts by Vincent yelling for him, shaking his head walking to him.

As they slowly sailed back to shore, he thought more about it.
'I could've sworn I saw something...
Maybe, maybe it was just a small fish-
Ugh, I'll go mad thinking of it, I'll for now focus only on dinner.'

Deep into the sea, a man watched their boat leave.

His Orange hair was tied up into a small ponytail with a strange band he had found in a trash pile, having hazel eyes with strange piercings surrounding it, tattoos of sea creatures covering his orangish chest, a orange fin down his back, and a glistening tail covered in different shades of a copperish orange scales and a bright warm orange ombre fin mermaid tail.

"Jack!! That was so so unsafe!!"
He heard a familiar voice call out, who swam up to him quickly

They had slightly curly very dark hair with soft london blue highlights throughout, dark turquoise eyes, pale skin, similar tattoos though much less, and a cyan shaded scales and cyan ombre fin betta fish like tail. Though some parts of it seemed to have been rid of, and scars and cracks covered it.
His back fin was the most obvious of being Betta fish like.

"Ah come on Topaz, it was just a small glimpse, nothing worth worrying over!"

"No it was, your just a complete fool."

Jack scoffed acting offended.

"N-Not now Jack! If you had gone any further you would've been caught by that net!"
"I wouldn't have! You never ar-"

"You KNOW I'm much faster through the water then you are, as unlike you I'm used to running for my life." Topaz fought back crossing his arms.

"..."

Jack sighed, nodding.

"I know I know... I just, thought I saw a nonhuman up there, as he had purple skin!
But guess that's untrue."

Topaz slowly softened sighing.

"I know you mean well, but you have to be more careful in what you do.... I can't lose you too ok..?"

Jack gave him a hug.

"I know I know... you won't T. I promise you..."

Topaz nodded hugging back, making Jack smile.

Once Topaz had calmed down he let go, swimming away.

Jack looked to the faraway boat, remembering the snippets of information he had gotten from listening.

"Interesting guy... maybe I'll get to listen to him again."

He shook his head swimming back after Topaz.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AN- I AM BACK KIND OF-

Also new title/mermaid designs let's go- sorry this took so long but motivation is, lackluster for me lmao
Hope you all enjoyed after waiting for so long!