#mnau

ok so i was thinking, what if mermaids were real but they lived deep deep down in the ocean? isn’t 98% of it Not Discovered? what do we know? and then i was thinking, but, down there, there’s no sun there’s a lot of pressure, what’s the info about the fishes found in the deep sea (as far down as we’ve been able to reach as of now)? and i came across interesting info that made me think that, imagine that mermaids were like this?

really thick, greyish skin

super fucking slimy

thin weak bones. the less bones the better

no hair whatsoever. just slimy af.

big (almost?) black eyes to be able to see silhouettes in the dark

human-shaped ears? no. human-shaped nose? no.

like, 3 rows of teeth. pointy teeth.

their tails are either black or red

they don’t know how to talk, but they can

that weird thingy frogs have between their lil fingers? yeah that too

gills. on the neck.

see and this is where i started thinking about an AU rather than real mermaids because fish that live down in the deep sea are reaaaaaaally slow due to the fact that there’s barely any food so they’re SLOW AT EVERYTHING so they can survive

mermaids? nah man. predators of the deep sea. fast af.

arms? we’re keeping those because ykno, half human. not actually necessary. but we’re keeping them.

neil’s looking good!!!! he’s fucking creepy!!!!!!!!!!!!

here comes the fun part, i loved thinking about this. THE TRANSFORMATION.

obviously, neil the mermaid (mer..man? ehh) becomes human once his body is out of the water. this is what happens (all at the same time? i dunno im still thinking about this)

its a slow transformation

it lasts 5 hours

its not pleasant. at all. it’s really painful.

the tail gets ripped in two as the legs start forming. the fish-y skin and all the scales slowly start falling. it feels like his skin is getting ripped out :)

yknow, humans have like a, skeleton and stuff. so...boy needs some bones. throw in more pain!!! 

he starts choking since he cant breathe since there’s no water but once his gills start closing (painfuuuuuul) his ~human instincts~ kick in and he breathes thru his mouth until ykno, he has a nose (later)

thick skin? dont need that no more. slimy shit? nah. i imagine that sort of like, melts away. once the transformation is over he’s still covered in his gross slime but once someone throws water at him he’ll be fine. actually painless. new skin is sensitive af tho!!

see some deep sea fish have big eyes w big lenses with only rod cells since they are super sensitive to small light signals. imagine outside? hell not even outside, while he’s getting captured! neil cannot open his eyes once light starts coming in, and even then there’s too much light. so you could say he barely notices the pain of his eyes becoming “human” since he’s in agony from the light

his teeth? they all fall out. human ones grow. there’s a lot of blood involved here actually

somehow, do not ask me how, just.. somehow. nose and ears grow. really Not Pleasant

his hearing, his skin and his eyes are really really really sensitive a few hours after the transformation

he passes out after its done, obviously

hair grows at a normal pace? so he’s still bald for like,, a few weeks sorry neil. but the hair color is the same as the tail. in this case, of course, red

no bellybuttonnnnnnnnnnnn

(i also have written down the transformation back to mermaid if anyone is interested wink wink)

and GOD the thing is,, the foxes (not all of them are there but they’re all a group of scientists) were yknow like on a mission to explore the deep sea and ? holy shit they caught something ? whta the FUCK IS THAT !!!!!!! it’s making weird noises and covering his face and oh oh it’s starting to writhe what is happening is it dying? “of course it’s dying it’s a fish and it’s out of water you moron” “THAT’s not a fish” “should we kill it?” “are you insane?! we need it alive” “yo what the FUCK is happening to its tail” (they’re recording everything) “is that.. is it a mermaid?” “what”

they record the whole transformation. the mermaid, or so renee says it is, keeps making anguish noises. it’s obviously in pain and nicky wants to put it out of its misery but aaron needs to experiment, nicky, you’re not touching it. nicky leaves after 20 minutes of seeing it suffer.

aaron andrew and renee are the only ones who stay the whole time. matt leaves shortly after nicky and calls dan (who is with allison and kevin back home @ the lab) to tell them

renee and aaron do some tests on passed-out-neil (”throw some water at his legs see if they become a tail again” (they dont))

and GOD i just,, matt, nicky and renee teaching neil how to talk. neil, having been captured once (..guess who..) does Not Trust Humans. renee writing down everything that happens, every new thing neil does, aaron just walks in to poke needles and shit at neil. neil hates him.

the foxes deciding a name for him ;;

I DONT.................HAVE MORE.....................like they cant spend a lot of time out there if they have a mermaid among them but they need enough time that at least neil learns how to walk and basic “yes” “no” “i matt. you neil”. and ahhhh its all i have but ONCE NEIL CAN TALK HE’S UNSTOPPABLE aaron regrets the day they pulled him out of the water accidentally. obviously there’s some romance going on there between him and andrew just no idea how it starts tbh i know nothing i am nothing

but UM obviously one day the foxes give neil the opportunity to go back to the sea since they kind of?? kidnapped him?? sort of? and fuck no neil ain’t going back there??? first of all. painful as hECK. secondly. he was alone and now that he’s got people why would he go to that quiet lonely darkness again? also he kind of,, doesn’t like fish anymore. too many years eating it, he’s tired of it. he’s staying. (and maybe that night andrew kisses him for the first time)

ALSO PLEASE NEIL SEEING PICTURES OF HIMSELF AS A MERMAID FOR THE FIRST TIME