Chapter Text
‘Twas a misty aftermoon when the sky was crowded with dark grey clouds and the airborne fowl soared above the sparkling sapphire waves dancing with the gusty breeze guiding the sails of many a sailing ship, one particularly rowdy vessel was celebrating the successful aftermath of their latest battle with an infamous pirate crew. The leader of this unruly crew was the scrappy, rugged and sharp-witted Prince Charlie of the Dompler family. You’d be forgiven for assuming he was a mere swashbuckler than a Royal. Despite being the heir to the throne of his kingdom he was looked down upon his fellow Nobles for coming off as awkward, bumbling and unattractive. Charlie didn’t give two shits what the overglorified snobs thought about him because he’d rather prefer going on high-spirited adventures beyond the sea with his motley crew of sailors than waste his precious time on some boring luncheon just to get judged for merely being there.
“Damn son, you showed Salty who’s-who THIS time!” Chris cracked up as he raised his stubby hand to initiate a high five from Charlie, who happily accepted the offer. Tomar piped up: “Don’t forget how his little toadie Ketchup immediately ran and cried for his Captain for it once he saw you jump into the crow’s nest with the dagger in your mouth.” Lyle let out a chuckle when adding: “What a wimp.” The gang shared their own retrospective of the event with gleeful laughs. “Oh, I almost forgot-“ Charlie uttered, while revealing a bottle of high quality rum: “I swiped this before I left!” The sailors howled in delight at the treat their friend unveiled. “Charlie you sunovabitch, we love you!” cried Chris who already felt intoxicated by the strong smell reeking from the bottle. Charlie replied with a wink and a cheeky “finger gun” gesture before opening up the bottle and shouting: “Bring out yer flasks, maties!”
On the other corner steering the ship was it’s Captain whom they jokingly called “Mr. Boss”, he was also the closest thing Charlie had to a father since his own parents passed away sometime when the land critter was a merely a homunculus. Mr. Boss’ ears observed the rowdy party singing off-key in unison to a familiar sea shanty, a side effect of hitting the sauce. Mr. Boss chuckled and sang along with the crew as he navigated them back to their kingdom of Gremblonia.
“I’ll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue
and it’s hey to the starboard, heave hoooooooo!!!!
Look out, lad, a mermaid be waitin’ for you-“
Charlie, who was a top the ship where the sails where draped, belted out with great gusto: “DOWN MYSTERIOUS FATHOMS BELOOOOOOOOW!!!”
~
Meanwhile, another kingdom below the surface, Meeplantica, the royal family was hosting a special concert in the Palace, peformed by the children of King Steven and Queen Bertha. Who was especially excited for this event was Alan Red, a lobster who was the designated royal composer and King Steven’s right hand man, who stayed up many moons writing new symphonies exclusive to the concert. “At last, I finally get to bestow my magnum opus.”
The anticipating crowd where greeted to the stage opening up revealing three large clamshells, with Alan raising his wand and the band began to play as two clamshells revealed the two eldest siblings, Damien and Amy, who harmonized: “Ah, we are the children of Bertha and Steven, great mother and father who raised us well!“
The third clamshell opened to reveal the youngest sibling…or at least it was meant to. The crowd gasped in shock as Alan has to do a double take in disbelief, Amy was holding back her urge to throw one of her classic primadonna tantrums in front of the crowd and Damien rolled his eyes knowing this concert was gonna hit a snag. Queen Bertha flipped out screeching hysterically while agonizing over where her youngest could be and King Pimling raised his fist and his trident to the sky shouting the name of his youngest in rage: “WHY THAT LITTLE-!!!!”
~
Within the outskirts of Meeplantica lay a shipwreck from long ago which would be collecting a lot of dust if it wasn’t literally underwater. Visiting this once bustling vessel was a cloaked sea critter carrying a tote weaved in kelp accompanied by a green guppy with a protruding snout, The critter wiggled his tail in excitement. “There it is, Glep! Isn’t it fantastic!?” As Glep finally caught up to his energetic and spontaneous friend, he got a good gander at the decaying exterior of the destination his friend had been hyping up all day…and he was disappointed to say the least. In a high pitched nasally gibberish he asked: “Eskewafibbyjibbywo! Jazazebayowozoio? (What a dump! Pim, you brought me all the way here for this?)” Pim reassured: “It’s what’s on the inside that counts! Think of all the amazing things land critters have made that are just lying around under appreciated and unused…” he monologued whistfully while gazing through the window as some of his dark pink hair curls spilled through his hood. “I hope you’re not getting cold fins…but if you are I can stash you in my satchel for safe keeping.” Glep wasn’t scared as he was unimpressed, but he couldn’t leave Pim behind since he liked the guy. “Jazazewabozoyoboio. (Thanks, but I’ll stay here and watch out for sharks)” “Alright, this will be quick, I promise!” said Pim as he swam through the window and did a graceful twirl and a soft hum as he browsed through room-by-room. After acquiring some odds and ends like a pair of golden cuff links, opera glasses, a high heel and tons of silver wear, Pim finally came across an orient box gilded in gold. The ever curious mercritter popped the box open to reveal strands of stone beads and chains as well as a figurine of a couple holding hands almost as if they where dancing, just then Pim noticed the key on the back and wound it up, out came “twinkly” music and the couple finally started “dancing”. Pim was so mesmerized he fell into a dreamlike state with a tinge of envy over how both dancers had feet, humming to the ethereal tune. Once the tune stopped and Pim was about to wind the key up again, he heard Glep squealing in terror and immediately looked around crying out: “Glep! Where are you little buddy?!” He swam closer to where the sound was coming from and when swimming to the next sector of the shipwreck, he was greeted to Glep frantically swimming away from what wasn’t a shark but what could only be described as a “abyss demon”. Tall and spindly with what appeared to be a head with horns resembling coral branches and piercingly cold ocean-blue eyes staring into one’s soul. Pim grabbed Glep and swam for a way out of the abyss demon’s sight. Pim forgot the crucial advice from his grandfather from when he was just a little tadpole: “Don’t dive too deep into the abyss…you’ll get lost!” Oh if only he didn’t have a hard time remembering little things like that AND an addiction to thrills. He could hear the voice of his stubborn father nagging at him that he just doesn’t learn or listen. Pim slipped out another window and as the demon followed, only for Glep to slam it shut in his face and blow a raspberry at its squished face as he followed Pim away from the scene.
On an island surrounded with a collection of various discarded “human and land critter stuff”, another pink mercritter was casually chilling out while marveling at a crystal sphere slowly whispered in awe: “Nooooo waaaaaay…” He then heard two familiar voices coming closer to his ol’ swimming grounds. Looking into his scratched-up telescope, his smile turned into a grin as he jokingly shouted: “Yoooo mercritter on the looooose!” While waving his hand to signal his youngest cousin and his friend. Pim squealed back and frantically waved: “Hello Graham Nelly!!” Glep followed suit with a cheery: “Skawabezewayo (S’up bruh)?!” While the green guppy never liked how cold, conceited and haughty the rest of Pim’s family was, he did take a liking in his out-there cousin. He opined in his head: “If only the rest of the royal family where as cool as Pim and Graham”. Pim swam towards the sandy shore of the island where his cousin sat, going off: “You wouldn’t believe the adventure me and Glep had today!” as he opened his satchel and took out each item from the haul.
…
Graham laughed at Glep explaining his POV of the morning recap while he closely analyzed the treasures Pim unearthed, he observed a particularly fancy dinner fork engraved with the initials “M.P.” and declared: “Congratulations, my lucky friends, for you have found a dinglehopper! Actually there are a lot in this bag but this particular one is a certified righteous find.” The ever curious Pim of course asked: “What’s a dinglehopper?” “Dinglehoppers are what land folk use to comb their hair, I’ve seen fancy ones like this used by rich folk, but usually they’re more enlongated than this. It’s perfect to carry around and show off at events like parties and concerts!”
The last word had Pim remember something he was supposed to attend to earlier…but completely forgot which day it was. The small mercritter panicked: “Oh no the concert is supposed to be today! I think….Daddy’s gonna kill me!!” as he grabbed all his stuff and added: “I’ll see you later, thank you!!” Pim swam off in a hurry with Glep tagging along. “Catch you by the tide, kiddo!”
~
Back in the Abyss, the skeletal remains of a whale was permanently beached to the ground, inside was the dingy lair of one such infamous sea warlock who was as short-and-stout as he was also, to put it mildly, kind of a stinky little shitbag. He gazed upon his crystal ball watching Pim and Glep on their way back to the palace while grabbing a bowl of tiny crustaceans and crunching them between his teeth as he waited for the fireworks to light up. “Yeeeees…it’s all coming along nicely….one more piece to fall into place until I strike-“ his slow-witted henchman interrupted with a smartassed remark: “Say Grim, what are we gonna do tonight?” Grim gritted his teeth in frustration and replied: “The same thing we do every night, Gnarly: plot to snatch my deadbeat uncle’s trident so we can try and take over the seven seas!!!”