art stuff

Occulta Apparentia AU(OAAU)

I had an idea guys

I'm still on my hybrid/inhuman bullstuff still so here we go

Grian has lived in the city of Sorûo with his best friends Mumbo and Scar for at least four or five years. Things are pretty normal, your typical, busy city...save for the reports of strange things in the shadows. Whispers of the mysterious, supposedly deadly and supernatural creatures known as Solua returning has everyone on edge, while Grian simply wants to keep his job at Gem and Pearl's coffee shop.

When Scar goes missing, Grian must get Mumbo and set out with nothing more than a warning phone call from Scar and his plea to find a man named Cub, and ask him to help find someone known as 'X'. But that's much easier said than done–neither he nor Mumbo know who those people are, any idea where to find them, and things keep happening that make Grian question what he understands about the fabled monsters lurking about.

This started with "okay what if Scar got kidnapped and tried to tell Grian something in the middle of it" and now we're here. Hope this be good eats for y'all :)

Also Gem and Pearl are friends, I apologize to shinyduo shippers but they just homies running/working at the coffee shop together.

*Modern society mixed with my fantasy/inhuman twist bcs I can't write good, normal stories. Idk man I'm tryin' this out, wish me luck. Occulta Apparentia means Hidden Appearance in Latin(according to Google translate; idk if that lessens its credibility or not), which I thought was very fitting for this AU/fic. Also Sorûo is said 'so-roo-oh' bcs idk what the special thing over the u does. I wanted a cool town name and so I took the Latin word for 'watcher', which is Oûros, and flipped it around. Idk if that will mean anything just yet but new name making idea: mutilate, flip, or use pieces of Latin words. It's great.*

*we start in Pearl and Gem's coffee shop.*

Grian lifts his head from the table he's wiping down as Joel shoves into the small shop. As always, he seems energetic, anxious, wired as hell, and yet insurmountably tired as Gem calls out a greeting. Joel nods his head and slips into a chair, leaning heavily on the table. There's no need to take an order; they already know what he'd ask for: an incredibly sweet tea and sugar water. Grian asked him only once how he handles it, and Joel had smiled and explained it was a weird condition he was born with. The following description of it was vague, but with no true medical expertise and Pearl's apparent agreement, Grian held him at his word.

"Hey, Joel...we doing alright?" He inquires, passing him the...flavourful...beverages. "Uh–good, we're...doing good." Joel answers wryly, glancing up at him for a moment before dipping his head in gratitude. "See anything?" Gem calls, passing by to restock a basket of napkins. Any semblance of a good mood leaves Joel as he rests his forehead on his arms. "No." The man groans. Both Gem and Grian offer sympathetic glances while Joel takes a large gulp of his tea. He has a few jobs, but one he's been working particularly hard on as of late is a 'project for Lizzie'. He doesn't elaborate much on it and so Grian's unsure what it is specifically, but Pearl implied that it may have something to do with things called Soluae. Grian also knows very little about them(along with a great many things), but he doesn't really believe they exist. They sound like just another conspiracy theory or myth–like aliens, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. Sometimes a claim of someone seeing one pops up on the internet and that starts a short-lived trend of false sightings, but the only 'concrete evidence' is a singular, very grainy image of someone laying dead in an alleyway. The original image has been deleted and it's often stamped out by forum moderators when it pops up again. The image itself is very poor quality, but it looks like it has large, hairy legs resembling those of an arachnid coming from its back. However, the colors blend into the shadows and grey of the walls so much it could be a trick of the eyes. If Grian gets called a skeptic for not believing in such questionable evidence, so be it. Nobody openly talks about the things, aside from Joel. Even then, he's only begun doing so because of his wife. And it's no wonder Joel's not seen anything–Grian has walked around at night plenty of times before; not once has he seen something strange.