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Grian awoke alone on a mossy floor of a crevice. Which, a while ago, wouldn't have been that concerning, but considering Mumbo usually had Grian resting on his own side, softly swaying with each breath, this was very big news.
"Mumbo...?" Grian murmurs, rubbing his eyes and expecting a tentacle to curl around the rock opening or his tail from being or something.
Not even a verbal response.
Well, now Grian was worried because Mumbo wasn't due for any checkups today, and he wasn't responding meaning they either took him or mumbo had moved to a spot in which he couldn't hear the little mer calling to him.
Both were equally horrible because if Mumbo had moved somewhere, he couldn't hear Grian's bed had to be out of the tank, and the scientists' we're their own warning.
The dirty blonde shot up to the surface, his eyes widening when there was no Mumbo in sight. "MUMBO?!"
If he wasn't here that left one place for him to have gone had he not been taken and it made Grians blood run cold.
The main floor.
...
Mumbo hadn't meant to get lost.
He'd just wanted to go look at the other mers, was that such a crime?
Well, yes, apparently. Especially when you're blind and walking on oddly wobbly tentacle legs that can only stretch so far.
(Seriously, how many things could he trip over and accidentally latch on to?)
Even more of when you think you find your tank again and fall in and in trying to figure out where you are accidentally latch onto another aquatic species of animal and in trying to figure out what it is find out it's a shark.
...
The day had been relatively
Scar blinks, feeling something snake it's way under his body, rolling up his tail in an odd way, like little bubbles we're sucking onto him, gradually getting bigger.
He curls in on himself to look at whatever it is from underneath and sees a red thing attached to him, feeling.
He tilts his head a bit, trying to get a better look.
The tendril is attached to odd membranes attached to other tendrils. And they all lead up to one point.
"Well, hello there..." Scar murmurs to himself, moving to his side a bit to wiggle out of whatever it is and swim around to look at what the things were connected to.
Scar is nearly smacked in the face.
A mer is in his tank. An odd mer with a tail like he's never seen before, tentacles. The mer is staring at the spot where Scar was, face pale.
"What's wrong?" Scar whispers, looking from the empty space to the black haired merman.
The man looks at him, eyes wide and unseeing. "There's a shark in here." He breathes as his voice quivers.
"Yup." Scar laughs to himself. "That'd be me."
The mer shrieks, shooting back against the glass and trying to clamber over. Leaving Scar with a face full of ink.
"Woah! Woah! Woah! Hold on!" The shark calls, sounding concerned. "Don't go out there! It's a long drop!"
"Rather drop than get eaten!" The mer yelps, falling back in the water and floundering around for a moment before Scar could say anything.
"Well, I'm not gonna eat you, so that's an invalid argument." The brunette scoffs, looking amused. "You'd be too stringy for me."
The squid mer somehow got paler at the joke, and Scar bobbed in the water, just kind of looking at him. "I'm Scar, by the way."
"M-mumbo." The squid starts, looking on edge but not about to jump to his death anymore, as he pointedly stayed out of the water. "Wh- wait, Scar? Do... do you know Grian?"
The pajama cat shark was taken aback by that, blinking a few times before stuttering out a "yeah."
It clicked to him then who this was. "Are you his new...?"
"Tankmate. Yeah." Mumbo says, sighing in relief. "Oh, thank void, I thought you were one of the scary shark mers. Like the ones that got at that one scientist."
"Nope." Scar laughed to himself. "Though with how they look at me, you'd think I was."
Mumbo slid back in the water. "Aw... well, I'm sorry about that mate. I'm a bit of a nervous wreck at the moment. Still trying to figure out how to operate myself with limited sight."
"Nah, it's okay." Scar murmurs, offering his tail in Mumbo's direction. "I can guide you to the stairs if you wanna get out."
Mumbo had just taken his offer when he heard frantic footsteps racing up the stairs, and Cub came into his line of sight. Eyes and hair are wild. Panting a bit before he took in a deep breath. "Scar."
"Hey, Cub." The shark mer smiled.
"Hello, Cub." Mumbo pitched in, latching onto Scar's tail.
Cub rubbed his temples, smiling despite his best efforts not to. "You two are..." He inhaled, exhaled. "Going to make me lose my job"
"But we'd be doing it endearingly." Scar teases, swirling in a circle around the confused Mumbo.
"You'd be doing it accidentally." Cub corrects, turning his attention the the squid mer. "You're lucky Grian told me you breached containment. If I hadn't found you now, it would have been bad for your chances to stay with Gri. Plus, you're worrying him just vanishing like that."
Mumbo shrank in on himself a bit, looking ashamed. "Sorry..."
"Not here to shame you, just here to get you back." Cub shrugs, "As long as you get back to the other tank, I don't care if Grian is celebrating or talking to himself."
Scar, made unhappy bubbles under the water, and Cub sighed, moving to crouch at the edge. "Look, Scar, I know you miss having Grian around, and that I was unfair that they moved him, but there's nothing you can do about it at the moment, and Mumbo's going to have a much worse day if we don't get him back. So I'm going to take him back, okay?"
The Brunette mer takes a moment to stare disdainfully at his hands before nodding curtly and circling around to push Mumbo forwards with a gentle series of headbutts.
"Tell Grian I said hi." He instructs, giving Mumbo a quick hug before ducking back into the water.
Cub rolls his eyes and scoops the squid mer up, sighing heavily as he starts with the dripping wet squid ner down the stairs. "No more exploring. And if you somehow get your tentacles on money, you owe me a new coat."