#lightcatcher!eclipse

It was field trip day at The Crystal Kingdom Daycare, and everyone- including the three animatronic attendants- was excited for their destination; the beach!

Eclipse did a head count while Moon and Yin, their human helper, checked the permission slips and Sun made sure the bus was packed with everything anyone could possibly need for a fun day at the beach. 

"Alright, all the permission slips look good. Everyone here, Eclipse?" Yin asked as they looked up at the tall robot. Eclipse smiled and gave two thumbs up with his upper arms, his lower ones placed on his hips. 

"Everyone is accounted for, Yin!" With a satisfied nod, Yin put the permission slips in a folder and put the folder in their backpack then headed to the doors of the building, where Sun was waiting outside patiently. Light from his namesake refracted off his rays casting bright, colorful lights around him like a halo. Yin opened the door, sticking their head out. 

"Did you get everything on the bus?" They asked, and Sun nodded giving a thumbs up. 

"All set to go!" 

Yin smiled and pulled their head back in, then turned to the group of kids waiting in the lobby area of the daycare. "Are you guys ready for a fun day at the beach?" They asked, and received a loud chorus of excited 'yeah!' and 'let's go!' They laughed and clapped their hands together, looking over the group of toddlers. "Alright then! Everyone grab your buddy and line up at the door!" 

There were some excited screams and squeals as the older kids found their younger buddies and held their hands, then lined up at the door. Moon and Eclipse stood behind the kids, with Eclipse carrying one of the youngest, a little boy named Avery, in his arms since the little one didn't have a buddy due to the odd number of children going on the field trip.

"Alright, let's go!" Yin said enthusiastically, pointing the way forward in a silly manner before leading the line of kiddos outside where Sun joined them at the front of the line. They marched their way over to the bus, where the doors opened and the driver, a kind, plump older woman named Matilda smiled at the group. 

"All aboard the Fun Bus!" Matilda said, causing the kids to giggle and squeal in excitement. Yin laughed as well before boarding the bus, giving the woman a grin. 

"Jeez Tilda, you always know how to rile them up. Sometimes I think they like you more than me!" Yin teased, pretending to be exasperated. Matilda smirked and pretended to toss hair over her shoulder, despite her graying locks being tied up in a loose bun. 

"What can I say? There's a reason my grandkids call me the 'fun grandma'." She laughed before beckoning the kids onto the bus with a single gesture. Yin went to the back of the bus and started to buckle the kids into the special built-in car seats, while the three animatronics waited outside the bus. 

Once all the kids were buckled Yin waved Sun, Moon, and Eclipse on board, and the three clambered in, having a bit of trouble due to their height. Eclipse especially struggled being the tallest of the three, but after a bit of maneuvering and one interesting looking position later everyone was seated. 

"That's everyone! Off we go!" Matilda shouted as she closed the doors before starting to drive the bus away from the daycare. Yin entertained the children during the trip, with songs and little games of Eye-Spy until arriving at the small beach. 

The daycare had paid to be the only ones there for the day, meaning the beach and its amenities were all empty, save for a few seagulls here and there. Matilda pulled to a stop by the bathrooms, copying the sound of the air brakes as she did, getting a few giggles from the little ones. "All right, everybody off!" The woman said in a fake stern voice, which caused more kids to giggle as they wiggled in their seats, eager to go play.

Yin first helped get the three attendants off the bus who started unloading the supplies for the day as Yin proceeded to unbuckle all the kids with Matilda's help. After the last child was free from their restraints Yin led them off the bus carrying Avery as Matilda brought up the rear. 

"Alright friends! Line up so we can help you get changed into your suits!" Sun's voice boomed over the sounds of the waves and the chattering of the children in the way only his can, causing a scramble amongst the group of little ones. 

Once they were lined up, Eclipse handed each child their bag the daycare had the parents pack containing swimsuits and snacks. After every kid had their bag, Sun and Moon led the boys into the men's bathroom and Yin and Matilda led the girls into the women's bathroom. It was a process, helping the groups of kids get changed. 

While the girls were all relatively well behaved, the boys were another story. At one point one of the young ones that was still needing a swimming diaper tried to run outside stark naked, but thankfully Moon managed to nab the streaker before he could make it outside. The foiling of the little boys plans caused him to get upset and throw a tantrum, which Moon just sighed and stood there, holding the squirming, naked little boy until he finished crying and screaming. 

“Are you done, Quinn?” Moon asked the boy, who sniffled and grunted as he went limp. Moon chuckled and set Quinn on the floor before getting the boy ready to swim. No more incidents happened while the rest of the kids were dressed, and finally both groups met up outside. 

While the kids were getting changed, Eclipse went ahead and set up the pavilion with drinks and extra snacks as well as put a few blankets in various places in the sand, weighing them down with heavy seashells that were sitting around. He headed to where the bathrooms were, bottles of sunscreen in hand. 

Every kid was slathered in sunscreen before being released to go play, with an adult watching over each little group. Matilda sat under the pavilion, entertaining little Avery who seemed to be afraid of the ssand, crying whenever he was set down. 

Eclipse stayed by the playground, Yin went with a group of kids who wanted to play in the sand, and Sun was with the group who wanted to swim. 

Sun helped get the younger kids into life vests, and the older ones who knew how to swim got floaties on their arms. Once all the kids had their floatation devices he let them go into the water, where they splashed around and squealed. 

Sun waded into the water, the waves lapping at his calves as sunlight reflected off his rays and warmed his body to a pleasant temperature. He kept his eyes on the kids as they played in the waves, even ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at the various shells some of the older children dug out of the sand. One child even found a piece of sea glass they wanted to keep, so Sun slipped it into his pocket so the kid could take it home. 

Beneath the waves, a fair distance from shore, something- or rather, someone- was watching the group of human children closely. That was, until something caught their eye- multicolored lights dancing across the surface of the waters, absolutely captivating them. They swam closer, staying out of view of the children while investigating the source of the beautiful lights. 

Upon getting closer they saw the lights were coming from crystals atop a strange creature’s head, decorating it like a crown. They crept closer, but one of the kids must have sppotted them because they heard a shout from above the water. 

“Mister Sun! There’s something over there!” Abigail, one of the girls swimming, shouted, pointing to where a dark shape could be made out in the water. That concerned Sun, as he was worried it could be a shark. He waded further into the water to see if he could scare away whatever was there, only for a spray of water to hit him in the face, temporarily blinding him as he felt something oddly similar to arms wrap around him and drag him under the water. 

When his vision cleared up a little under the water he could see that something was holding onto him and dragging him further out to sea, which caused him to panic slightly. He tried pulling his body away from whatever had him, only to be met with the sound of angry clicks, similar to that of a dolphin or whale. Whatever had him slowed down once they were at a decent depth before letting go of Sun, where he proceeded to sink to the ocean floor. 

He watched with wide eyes as he got a look at his captor; it was a mer, a real life mer. They looked slightly different than the ones commonly depicted in movies and coloring books, with scales covering their chest and various spots on their arms, and fins at the sides of their head where their ears should be. There was even a small pair of gills at their neck, barely visible as Sun watched in awe. 

The mer’s scales were a stunning blue-green, dotting their body before becoming a solid mass where the tail started. Looking at the tail Sun estimated it had to be at least 6 feet long, with flowing fins in a slightly lighter color than the rest of the scales. The gender of the mer wasn’t obvious since they had a pretty flat chest covered in glittering scales- not that it mattered. 

The mer swam in a circle around Sun as he sat criss-cross applesauce on the seabed, watching them in fascination. The mer had the same fascination towards him, examining every part of him they could. 

Meanwhile above the surface, the kids had screamed and run out of the water when they saw their caretaker get pulled under the water, and Matilda and Yin were busy calming them down at the pavilion while Moon and Eclipse stood at the water’s edge, trying to figure out how they were going to get Sun back unharmed. 

The mer let out a few curious chirps and clicks as they investigated Sun’s crystal rays, tapping at them with their claws a few times before letting out a soft whistle of confusion. Their fins fluttered slightly as they circled Sun again before settling down on the sea floor in front of him, their tail folding under them. 

They clicked and chirped, tilting their head as Sun shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t understand you.” He said in reply, the sound from his voice box muffled by the water and the fact he spoke with his mouth closed. While he didn’t think it would be too much of a problem if her were to open his mouth underwater, he didn’t want to risk it. 

The mer startled slightly upon hearing him speak without opening his mouth, and they pushed off the sand to grab Sun’s face, tilting it this way and that while trying to figure out how he spoke without his mouth moving. Sun allowed them to manhandle (or would it be merhandle? Bothandle? idk) his face for a bit before gently grabbing their wrists, taking their hands off his cheeks. “Easy there, friend.” 

The mer took their hands from his and swam back a little, watching him closely to see if he would follow. When he didn’t they settled back down, sitting on the sand once again before staring at the light reflecting through the surface of the water and bouncing off Sun’s crystals. 

It was Sun’s turn to tilt his head in curiosity, wondering what the mer was so entranced by as he watched them looking at the reflections from his rays onto the sand- OH! So that's what they're so entranced by! His crystals and the colorful reflections!  Sun chuckled, startling the mer from their trance. 

"You like my rays?" He asked, getting a nod from the mer. "And that's why you kidnapped me?" Another nod. The confirmation of his thoughts made Sun smile. 

The mer got up from their spot on the sand and got closer to Sun's rays, reaching out with a hand to touch one of the large crystals. "Ah, please don't touch those, they're-"

Crack.

Sun’s warning was interrupted by the sound of shattering crystal, and then blood began to cloud the water as the mer pulled back, hissing as they clutched their hand. Although he was underwater, Sun’s systems began to go nuts upon seeing the injured half-humanoid and he shuffled on the sand, looking around for something, anything, to help stop the bleeding- 

His ribbons!

Sun slowly unraveled the ribbons from around his left wrist before moving towards the mer, who was hissing in pain as they pulled pieces of crystal out of their hand. They stiffened when they saw Sun get closer and let out a low growl, warning him to stay back- but he wasn’t going to listen. 

“Hey, I just want to help, it’s okay.” He reassured the mer in a calm voice, and they stopped growling. They were still apprehensive, but didn’t pull away when Sun gently took their injured hand in his. He carefully pulled out a few shards of crystal left before wrapping the ribbon around their hand, the wrap tight but not too tight. After tucking the loose end of the ribbon in, he checked over his work, giving a satisfied nod. 

“That will have to do for now. But no more grabbing random things, alright?” 

The mer nodded, seemingly embarrassed that a land dwelling creature had tended to their wounds. 

Meanwhile, on the surface Yin had managed to find someone with a boat nearby that could help find Sun, so they got on the boat with Moon, leaving Eclipse and Matilda with the kids. As they searched the crystal clear water, Moon spotted the telltale shine of Sun’s crystal rays. 

“There he is!” He pointed, and the man driving the boat cut the engine, letting the vessel float to a stop. Yin quickly tied a rope around Moon’s waist before he jumped into the water, sinking down to the bottom where he saw the most interesting sight. 

Sun was sitting next to a creature that looked like a mermaid, but with extra scales and fins. The sunny bot was talking happily with the mer, who responded in clicks and chirps. 

Moon then noticed that one of Sun’s ribbons was missing, only to see that it was wrapped around the mer’s hand- “Sun, your ray! What happened?” Moon asked, finally seeing the broken crystal. 

Sun was surprised by Moon’s sudden appearance, and the mer bristled and growled, all their fins standing up in a defensive display. They looked ready to pounce at Moon, but Sun reached out and set his hand on their shoulder, softly telling them everything was alright. 

The mer calmed down, settling back down on the sandy seafloor, all the while keeping a close eye on Moon. Sun sighed in relief before looking over at Moon, a cross of embarrassment and upset on his face. “Sorry… but as for what happened to my ray, my friend here got a little too….. enthusiastic, and broke it. It was an accident though!” Sun had to reassure Moon of the nature of the incident as the latter seemed irritated by the account of the incident. 

“Alright, well it’s time to say goodbye to them. Everyone is worried sick!” Moon explained as he took a slow step towards the two. The mer immediately flared their fins again and wrapped their tail and body around Sun possessively, growling at Moon once more. Moon froze in place and held his hands up in surrender while Sun’s face turned a bright rainbow hue in shock and embarrassment. 

“H-hey now, it’s alright. Moon won’t hurt you! He’s just coming to help me get home.” Sun said as he pat the mer on their tail in a soothing manner. Almost immediately they calmed down, relaxing and laying across Sun’s lap without completely letting go of him. They clicked and whistled, sounding a little sad at the idea of their shiny new friend leaving them so soon. 

While Sun calmed the mer Moon was able to get closer, ending up a few feet away from the two. “Sun’s right, I just want to bring him home.” He said softly, which got the mer’s attention really fast. They bared their teeth at him, but didn’t growl. Moon took another step forward, and as he did the light from above caught on the crystal at the end of his hat. 

The light reflections got the mer’s attention almost immediately as their pupils dilated and they let go of Sun, zipping towards Moon. They circled around him at the last second, fixated on the teardrop crystal on his hat. They chirped as they reached out to gently grab ahold of the crystal.

“Uh…” Moon looked over at Sun, unsure what to do. Sun shrugged before grinning, a plan having popped into his head. 

“Moon, give them your hat.”

Moon looked at Sun like he had just said to do the worst thing ever and reached up to grip his hat forgetting the mer was inspecting it. “No!” The mer chirped at him indignantly when Moon took the crystal out of their hands. They clicked in annoyance before reaching out and yanking the hat out of Moon’s hands, swimming away with it swiftly. 

“....well, that solves that issue!” Sun said with a laugh as he moved closer to Moon, who grumbled in annoyance. “Come on, let’s go home.” 

Moon tugged on the rope a few times and the boat’s engine started up, helping to drag the two back to shore where Eclipse stood, holding a couple towels and trying hard not to laugh at the soaked state of the two. 

They dried off and helped gather the kids, packing everything back onto the bus. Before climbing on Sun looked back out over the water, where a figure was halfway out of the water, waving. Sun waved back with a smile before climbing onto the bus.