sea monsters, land monsters | sbi merpeople au

3 | fresh out of your egg

oops sorry this has been done for three days i just forgot to post it lmao

also merpeople aging is different! they're children for less time and live longer. so when i say eight years old, that's the rough equivalent of twelve human years. fifty is the rough equivalent of thirty-five human years

cw 

- phil infantilizes disabled people. he means well but still

- minor blood/injury

- sedation mentions

- - -

"They said we can only let you and the baby in the same tank if you promise not to attack me," Phil said, slowly circling around Techno's pool.

"His name's Tommy," Techno blurted, staring with huge eyes through Phil. "He'll bite you if you call him a baby."

"Oh, he can bite me. Such a little thing couldn't do any real damage," Phil said.

"You'd be surprised," Techno muttered. "And he's older than he looks. Something in the oil stopped him from growing. He's actually almost eight."

Phil paused, tilting his head. "I hope he grows big. I don't know what you can do if he doesn't."

"We'll just hunt for him," Techno asserted. "We've done it before."

"You're a mess of three," Phil pointed out. "You would need more than just the two of you to protect your territory, hunt, and keep him safe. Unless you can find somebody to start a new one with, he might just have to stay here."

"What?" Techno's head whipped around, baring his teeth.

"If he doesn't grow," Phil corrected himself. "Which I think he will. Or you could start a new mess! You could have facility support for him and any new babies until they grow up, so you're not taking care of so many helpless kids just between you and your brother."

Techno continued to bare his teeth, a growl hissing through. "Quit it."

"Sorry." Phil raised his hands in humanoid surrender, before instead flattening his ear fins as he remembered to do for the wild mers. "I'm sure you could take care of him yourselves if you wanted to. I was only trying to help. What's your twin's name?"

Techno stayed quiet for a few seconds, watching the antarctic mer carefully. "He's Wilbur. They're both okay, right? I know you said the 'humans' wouldn't hurt them, but..."

"The oil," Phil finished for him. "They're getting better. I haven't been to see them yet, but we can go see Tommy in a few minutes if you want to. They told me not to visit Wilbur yet so that he doesn't try talking before all of the oil is washed out of his gills." Apparently, the facility workers attempting to clean his gills manually could've caused more damage, so they'd opted to let the clean water and swimming wash it out more gently.

"Let's go see him now," Techno said, eyes hardening. "Take me there."

"Okay," Phil said. "Be careful. He's still sick, like you."

Techno gave another glare, a slight flash of teeth, but not a full bare. "You be careful, stranger."

Phil pushed down the small part of him that wanted to bite back and argue with the poor guy. "I will, promise." He grasped part of the rough wall and propelled himself up to the surface. One of the humans was sat in the corner, glancing up when he saw Phil resurface.

"Go see the baby?" Phil demanded, though phrased as a question. He pressed his fists into the floor by the water.

"Did he promise not to fight you?" the human asked boredly.