Chapter Text
“I can’t express how thankful I am, this really means so much to me!” The mer paused again by the entrance, a worry dawning their features despite the gratitude; “Also, are you certain that it wouldn’t perhaps be possible to…”
If you were so ‘thankful’ you could stop being so skeptical.
Tippet was quite done with their doubting of his skills, and it was only 10 or so in the morning.
“Yes, yes, you’re very welcome- And for the last time, no. I don’t offer refunds at the moment.”
Shooing away the ever-wary customer with tentacle 2, the cephalopod was pre-octopi-ed with a careful measurement for another batch of serums, while 3 was currently filling out a general report for his records. He placed a tight lid on the small bottle, then glanced over at 3’s work.
“Did you just write ‘Dorito’ Fish Mer?”
3 froze, lifting the pen.
Tippet shook his head; he should’ve expected this. “I’m not sure what a ‘Dorito’ is, but I do know that the individual that just swam out the doorway is in fact that of a Dorado dolphinfish .”
3 had never been the best at spelling, but Tippet had given it the chance to practice; After all, it can’t get any better if it doesn’t keep trying. He turned his attention back to the last bottle while 4 tried to take the pen away from the now quite discouraged 3.
Keeping his eyes on his work, Tippet muttered a quick order to his minty limb; “Ey, cut it out- he’s gotta start somewhere.” Fastening the lid on the small glass container, he continued; “If you wanna be helpful you can get the Ink-out Correction stamps for him.”
The reluctancy ever-present, 4 grabbed a stamp and applied the sticky side down onto the error. 3 hesitantly continued, making sure not to mess up the wording for the previous customer’s identity.
Tippet leaned back and stretched his arms, glad to be done with a few tasks he’d meant to do before the inconvenience of his tentacles interrupted him. A few days ago he had something akin to a premonition occur, and with it came quite a bit of annoyance. He hadn’t been able to function properly with his haywire limbs acting more rebellious than usual, so multiple tasks and appointments had to be put off until further notice.
That is of course, until a few of his questions were answered upon the arrival of a very unexpected customer- Prince Mako. The twitterpated shark merkid asked him about being up on land, both for exploring the human world, and because he had a certain someone he was inclined to potentially meet. Tippet had made a deal with him a couple days ago, granting him some temporary legs.
This event thankfully allowed his tentacles to go back to a state more similar to normal, with only a few hiccups along the way. Tippet then had time for some of those tasks, so he’d been overloading them these past few hours in hopes of catching up.
“You almost done with that, 3?” Tippet knew he didn’t need to ask the thing in order for it to show him or give a response, but his tentacles’ inherent sentience made him feel obligated to ask nonetheless.
3 held up the report to face Tippet, to which his eyes widened and eyebrows came down. There were some words with only a couple letters making the word spelled wrong, but there were a plethora of instances where 3 had thought of some other random word that sounded vaguely similar to the rightful one, and replaced it. There were numerous infuriating mishaps between they’re, there and their , and instead of writing ‘ They left without any further problems, other than the typical skepticism,’ it appeared that 3 had opted to write ‘Thay left with out any father problems, other then the tip-icle skeletalism.’
Tippet’s expression turned more and more concerned the longer he read, almost amazed at how terrible it really was.
Was I dropped on 3 when I was a kid or something?
The thought was still attached to 3 as it was, of course, a part of him, and it made the thing shrink back in shame. Tippet wasn’t sure what to do with it. Himself?
Tippet tried to give 3 a reassuring smile, though he knew that 3 knew he was just trying to cover up his disturbance. “It’s uh- It’s alright, buddy, we just gotta work on it.”
He felt 4 tap something against his arm and he looked down; It was the Ink-out stamps.
No amount of correction stamps could fix this.
Tippet set the stamps on the shelf and patted 3 on the head. It doesn’t have a head. Well, it’d just be his own, so. Whatever, he patted it. “I think it’d be best if you- we take a break for now.”
Drifting to his storage room, he looked among the various containers and bottles.
“Let’s see… is there anything edible in here that isn’t some sort of concoction I shouldn’t consume?” 2 and 6 gave him a shrug. “That was rhetorical.”
He sorted through the mess of strange contents, his pastel limbs bringing a variety of things to his face for inspection. “No, that one doesn’t have a label… I should’ve thrown that away years ago... that one’s for night vision….that’s for gills….that one’s- GEEZ 7, are you trying to liquefy my insides??”
Seeing as how his appetite was nowhere to be seen, Tippet meandered out of the storage room and tried to think of something to do besides work and his approaching boredom. His thoughts swam back to the events with the Prince, which made him curious;
What’s Mako been up to?
Tippet had been looking forward to seeing what became of their deal so far, but the business of the day had made him place such thoughts on the back burner. One of the people that had come to see him this morning, however, was one of his favorite kind; the delivery guy.
Whenever Tippet had any kind of questionable package that may or may not contain deadly substances, the Mer-Mail carrier hadn’t questioned it. Well, not until after Tippet had supplied him with the best advice he could after the guy had forgotten his girlfriend’s birthday, but that’s beside the point.
Tippet drifted to the package he had requested of a distant friend of his; a small instruction scroll containing the ways to conjure up his vision as a tangible form. It’d be like linking up his premonitions to a kind of magical screen, thus clearer to make out and won’t just fade away as thoughts always do. He never really had a use for something like this before, but ever since Mako showed up he thought it’d be useful for matters of the future.
He brought together the ingredients, some of his tentacles flailing around excitedly in anticipation. Tippet usually tried to keep this kind of thing to himself; Being delighted in all the strange potions and magic spells wasn’t exactly what he wanted the public to see. He’d normally try to act more stoic and as if magic was just another limb of his; he already had ten, so what’s one more? Even though magic did come easy to him, he still had so much more to learn, not that everyone else needed to know that. Flotsam and Jetsam weren’t here either, so he could be as excited about this spell as he wished.
Tippet finally spoke the words to the spell while recalling his visions, or in better words, a blurry nagging feeling in the back of his head, as the scroll instructed. Images and sounds started flooding his senses, feeling both in his lair and out above the waves, his thoughts combining some of his own surroundings with what he suspected were Mako’s. The scenes he could recognize as separate from his own then shifted, and there were purple sparks above the scroll’s edges.
Figuring it would be best not to be holding the magically drenched object, Tippet gingerly placed the scroll down on the floor, it vibrating and glowing, shooting random purple sparks. Though the cephalopod was very skilled and educated in how magic works from experience, Tippet wasn’t exactly confident for future visions, or visions at all until recently.
If you explode, can you at least tell me what I did wrong?
…
And please don’t screw up the furniture, I think it’s quite nice.
Just as Tippet was getting ready to douse the thing in some kind of neutralizer, the sparks settled, the vibrating turned to a low hum, and his thoughts and scenes felt almost detached from him. A purple glow seeped from the scroll like ink, and finally spiraled upwards; A misty image of the shoreline, near where Tippet could only guess was the castle, appeared in real-time.
“It. . . “ He felt almost like laughing, as he was sure that it would explode in a heap of swirling magic, wrecking his cove in seconds. “It worked! ” He grabbed his nearest tentacle, which one he wasn’t sure; “ I did that, it actually-!” He calmed down, as he realized he wasn’t quite sure how long it would stay up until expected to lose its connection, and because he realized he should’ve had more faith in himself. “I mean, Of course it worked.”
He still wasn’t completely sold on the idea that he’d be a natural for future things, but he liked to think he was a fast learner. After reading over the scroll again, he was delighted to know that as long as he was relatively close to the scroll, it could stay active indefinitely- Ending it would mean purposefully cutting its connection to him, so he could have it on as long as he pleased.
He cleared his throat as he looked into the image of the beach before him; ”Alright, let’s see what happened to Mako.” He guessed that this vision was a little behind on the times he was searching for, but he had no idea where Mako would actually be at the moment. The only image was the seashore that he knew for sure Mako would be near when he got to the surface.
But how do I see where he is now ?
Do I just- think??
Vision stuff is so weird.
Tippet tried just closing his eyes and reaching into his thoughts; This wasn’t something of the future though, it was just the simple task of figuring out where Mako was at the present moment- no big deal.
. . .
Nothing.
Fantastic.
He opened his eyes and stared at the image, the waves gently whooshing up on the sandy beach. There weren’t any footprints since it’d already been a couple days since Mako got there. Just as he was wondering if the image would distort if touched, 5 decided to be impulsive and try it out.
“Hey, don’t touch-”
5’s poke at the scene suddenly blurred it into a new one; the stairs to the palace. At the change in scene, Tippet’s mind recognized it was closer than before.
Huh.
So I guess this thing could help me get a better idea of how to work this stuff.
It’s closer, but not quite there.
He tapped the image with his finger, and it changed to one of the palace’s halls. If he pressed his finger and held it, it slowly went through the castle’s hallway as if he was there himself. “Wow, this is so much simpler than I thought. -Not that I’m complaining.” There were the occasional servants going by as the scene went on, it turning a corner and continuing toward a set of large, heavy doors. “Wait. Why is he in the palace already? Did he get arrested or something? That’d be unfortunate.”
When Mako had arrived at Tippet’s lair, he’d gotten vague hunches about the girl who thoroughly occupied the guy’s mind; She had brown hair, had a little brother, and was an actual princess. Though her royalty should’ve been a tricky thing to incorporate, it seemed to surprisingly work in their favor. She thankfully had her own reasons for being so trusting toward the shark-dude-now-human-dude, and her background allowed him to have access to nice accommodations, and plenty of ways to learn about the human world. This in mind, Tippet was still slightly paranoid as to how Mako would first meet the girl, as things would most likely be hard to explain, both literally and figuratively.
He turned his attention back to the magical scene before him, as the large doors were opened to show the impressively extensive royal library. “Wow… He’s ridiculously lucky.”
Tippet heard his mind give almost a victory noise as the scene now felt up to date. The perspective turned around the final shelf’s corner and lifted higher to view both Mako and the younger brother. “ There you are, finally.” The magic followed along as they walked down an aisle, the little boy chatting away as Mako carried a step-stool.
What was the Guppy boy’s name again?
G….something.
Gordon-?
No…
Greyson, that’s it.
It was trickier to remember the little prince’s name, as Mako only mentioned it maybe once. He had referred to the kid as ‘Guppy Boy’ or ‘Mini G’ the entire time he’d met with him. The girl, ‘Gabby,’ on the other hand, could’ve been mentioned at least 50 times. Tippet suspected that a princess wouldn’t likely have the name ‘Gabby,’ reasoning that Gabriella was her actual name, and that Mako had already given and gotten attached to a nickname for her, which he found amusing. Speaking of the princess, she still hadn’t shown up in the scene yet.
The cephalopod watched as Greyson finally came to a specific section, getting all excited about the books he planned to read. The image was still hazy, so Tippet couldn’t quite make out the titles, and the sound wasn’t the best quality; sounding like it was slightly muffled and bouncing around in his head. Greyson pointed to the books and grabbed the tall step-stool from Mako in a hurry. He scrambled up the stool and pulled out a book, flipping through the table of contents, a studious grin on his little face. Without looking back, he tossed the book behind him while talking some more, Mako barely catching the thing before it collided with his face.
“Eyy, he’s got good reflexes.” Tippet hadn’t noticed through his investment in the scene, but 6 had grabbed some snacks it’d found somewhere. This whole situation felt so much more enjoyable than anything he’d done in ages.
After catching the flying book, Mako glanced up to find the little boy tossing one after another from the shelf, saying something about how he wants his schooling to be more centered on the ocean. While Greyson was happily babbling, he seemed to have forgotten that Mako’s lack of audible protest didn’t mean there was an actual lack of protest altogether.
Poor Mako was dashing around below, catching each flying book before they hit the floor and stacking them up under his chin in a panic. It was apparent that Mako had a much higher level of concern for the pages’ well-being than the younger prince. That, or Greyson had extremely high expectations for Mako, and he was somehow managing to live up to them so far.
Greyson seemed sure to empty the entire shelf as he barely glanced at each one before launching them behind him. Mako had about 15 or so books in between his hand and chin, and was carefully picking up a couple that he hadn’t quite made it in time to rescue before hitting the ground. Finally coming to a brief stopping point, Greyson picked up a final book, exclaiming something before the thing became airborne like the rest.
It all happened so fast, and it was utterly hilarious to watch. Mako was in the process of picking up one of the unfortunate books on the carpet when Grey carelessly threw the last one, giving him close to no time to react. The young boy looked behind him just in time to see the heavy book meet Mako’s unsuspecting nose. By the time the Guppy Boy opened his mouth again to warn him, Mako was on his back, with the stack of books all over the floor.
“Oh, this just got so much better- Glad I ordered this thing when I did.” Tippet scooched forward, looking like a child watching his favorite cartoons.
He watched as Greyson then hurriedly stumbled off of the step-stool and started nervously asking the unconscious Mako if he was “All right,” with said unconscious shark giving no response. -Not that he could anyway- The Gubby Boy shook Mako’s shoulders, growing more concerned as Mako remained out cold. He then tried gently smacking his cheek, hoping to snap him out of it. All he got as a result, however, was Mako’s nose bleeding. Their library must not have a rule against keeping a low volume, as Greyson then shouted loud enough for Tippet to clearly hear it;
“OH NO- I KILLED HIM!!”
Tippet laughed out loud, astonished at how ridiculous this all truly was. He wasn't sure how Mako’s Third day would go, but him completely comatose from an aerial book, on the floor of the royal library wasn’t exactly how he expected things to play out.
Greyson jumped up, looking around nervously, perhaps debating on where would be the best way to hide a body. He then tried picking Mako up by his arms, soon realizing that his small stature wouldn’t be of much help. The Guppy Boy opted for dragging the shark by his feet, which, though still proving to be a strenuous task, was more plausible.
The little boy got a couple of yards past where they’d been, him now approaching a fancy table and chairs, with a cart of different books nearby. As he drew closer, the scene then showed the princess, who was reading and writing some things down on a paper. Upon hearing Greyson’s groans, Gabby looked up and her eyes grew very large.
Then ensued general sibling panic and asking of hurried questions after another. Greyson explained the situation while Gabby knelt down beside Mako, using a handkerchief to wipe away the blood. Just as she was chastising her brother about the terrible way he handled the books, Mako blinked hard and shifted. He silently groaned, his hand rising to his nose.
Greyson exclaimed with relief at Mako’s movement, happy to also get away from his sister’s judgment; “HEY, MAKO’S ALIVE!”
Gabby stopped mid-sentence, her attention immediately turning to him in concern; “Hey, you’re awake! How’re ya feeling?”
Mako looked as if he woke up in an entirely different world, blinking at the ceiling in confusion and holding both the handkerchief and Gabby’s hand to his face in pain. Greyson heaved a sigh of relief and plopped down onto the chair, while Gabby still tried to get some kind of coherent response out of Mako, like a nod or some way of knowing he was fully awake.
“Mako, you took quite a hit- how’s your nose?”
Her words finally seemed to register as Mako’s confused gaze settled to recognize her face.
“Op, here we go.” Said Tippet, elated.
Soon after came Mako’s noticing that he was currently clutching Gabby’s hand, and with it came his signature bright red ears. He abruptly sat up, making Gabby slightly alarmed. “Woah, take it easy- That book was a really solid one!”
Grey helped him up to his feet; “Yeah, ah… sorry about that. It was totally an accident though, I swear! Just curious though, how much do you actually remember from a few minutes ago?”
Gabby got up and swatted her brother’s head at his comment; “Greyson, just apologize normally!” She sighed and looked back at Mako; “If you don’t remember, he threw a book at your face. Does your nose hurt much? Does it possibly feel broken?”
Mako awkwardly rubbed his nose, unsure if it was broken or not- It just hurt. Greyson moved Mako’s hand away and inspected his face, giving his own judgment; “Eh, I doubt it’s broken. He might’ve had a lot of blood rushing to his face while I was dragging him though, cuz his face’s all pink.”
Mako’s face flushed redder than Liberty’s scales as they both stared at him. Covering his face with his hand, he pivoted and went weirdly speed walking (he’s barely had his legs for a day or so) toward the direction of the books Greyson had thrown. The little boy ran after him to help pick up the books, tossing apologies for Mako’s nose and going on about how he wished Mako could talk so he could tell the difference between the silent treatment and his normal mute-ness.
Tippet clapped though no one was around to hear; “Bravo, Greyson, that was fantastic.” He smiled to himself; There were sure to be numerous scenes to watch throughout the next couple of weeks.
Does this count as spying?
Nah.
…
It does, but they won’t know until it’s irrelevant.
He watched as Gabby set down the bloody handkerchief and helped carry a smaller stack of books to the cart, Greyson babbling on and Mako failing to hide behind a tall stack of books. Tippet had a feeling this was going to be the most entertaining deal he’d ever struck.