Part Of Their World | Homestuck AU

|Chapter 2|

Cronus smiles as he swims up to the surface of the ocean with Tavros following quickly, his bag by his side as he soon pops up to spot a familiar seagull looking through a telescope on a rock.

"Jake!" Cronus waves and grins as he swims over, Jake looking through the telescope the wrong way as he sees Cronus well away from where he is. "Woah! Mertroll off the port bow! Cronus! How're ya doin' mate?" He lowers the telescope and jumps when he sees Cronus practically right in front of him. "Woah, what a swim!"

The mertroll rolls his eyes and pulls up his bag, pulling out the silver item and grinning widely. "Jake, look vwhat vwe found!" He says, Tavros peeking out of the water, "Y-Yeah, we were in this sunken ship! It was really creepy...."

"Human stuff, huh? Hey, let me see-" He takes from Cronus and inspects it, his feathers ruffling as he soon fixes up the glasses he's managed to keep on his beak. "Look at this...wow! This is special! And very, very unusual"

"Vwhat? Vwhat is it?" Cronus asks, his eyes shining as he looks at the pointy silver thing.

Jake holds in it his wing and grins, "This, my fishy friend, is a Dinglehopper! Humans use these to straighten out their hair!" He says and uses the fork to demonstrate, twirling it in his fingers and pulling it through to ruffle them into a an almost mohawk sort of style, "See, you just twirl here and yank there- and voila! You've got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over!"

Cronus takes the Dinglehopper back ad stares at it in awe, turning it over in his hands. "A Dinglehopper...!"

Tavros points to the pipe laying just away from the bag on the rock, "What about t-that one?" He asks, looking at Jake curiously.

The said seagull picks up the pipe and looks at it now, chuckling a bit, "Oh I haven't seen one of these in years...! This is wonderful! A banded, bulbous; Snarfblat!"

Both Cronus and Tavros look at each other before staring at the pipe, tilting their heads in unison out of confusion. Jake just laughs as he moves a bit closer, explaining, "Now, the Snarfblat dates back to prehistorical times, when humans used to sit around, and stare at each other all day. Got very boring. So, they invented the Snarfblat to make fine music. Allow me-"

He suddenly blows into the Snarfblat and only seaweed comes out, Jake coughing and washing the seaweed out. Cronus' eyes widen as realisation hits him, "Music? Oh no, the concert! Oh my glub, Dad's gonna kill me!"

"T-The concert was today?" Tavros asks, looking at Cronus with worry and surprise as the mertroll gathers the items in his bag. Jake is still looking at the pipe however and narrows his eyes at it, "Hmm...maybe you could make a little planter out of it or something?"

"Uh, I'm sorry, I'vwe gotta go. Thank you Jake!" He says as he waves and soon swims back down under the water, racing back to the golden kingdom where his father resides.

"Anytime mate! Anytime!" Jake waves and watches the mertroll go, soon flying up into the sky to go elsewhere.

Meanwhile, two eels follow the mertroll from afar, their red and blue eyes glowing as a particular octopus looks through their eyes with her magic.

"Hehe, yes, hurry home, little prince. We wouldn't want to miss old daddy's celebration, now, would we? Huh! Celebration indeed. Bah! In MY day, we had fantastic feasts when I lived in the palace!And now, look at me...wasted away to practically nothing...banished and exiled and practically starving, while he and his flimsy fish-folk celebrate!"

A growl sounds from the woman as she soon grins, a hand on the crystal ball in front of her, "Whale, I'll give them something to celebrate soon enough. Sollux! Mituna! I want you to keep an extra close eye on this pretty little son of his...hehe, he may be the key to Dualscar's undoing..."

Soon enough, the said mertroll has arrived at the kingdom and accidentally runs into his father, the King frowning as he leads Cronus to his throne room. "Come w-with me, w-we need to talk"

Cronus bows his head out of slight fear and shame as he follows Dualscar, chewing on his bottom lip nervously and leaving Tavros behind who ends up following anyway.

Dualscar huffs as they soon enter the throne room, turning to Cronus with an almost angry glare. "I don't knoww w-what w-we're going to do with you, young man"

"Dad I'm sorry! I-I just forgot I-" Cronus starts, only to be interrupted, "As a result of your careless behaviour-"

Karat suddenly pops up by Dualscar's side, angry also as he crosses his claws across his small chest, "Careless and fucking RECKLESS behaviour!"

"The entire celebration ended up being...uh..." Dualscar loses his words for a moment and Karat finishes the sentence for him, "It was fucking ruined! Completely and utterly destroyed thanks to your incoherent thinking! This concert was supposed to be the pinnacle of my fucking distinguished career, and now I', the laughing stock of the entire fucking kingdom!"

"W-Well it wasn't his fault!" Tavros speaks up, feeling nervous, "W-Well, first, uh, this shark chased us! Yeah, and we tried to- b-but we couldn't, and grrrrr! A-And we- woah, oh, and then we were safe! But then this seagull came and it was this is this, and that is that, and-"

"Seagull? W-What? You w-went up to the surface again, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU!?" Dualscar barks angrily, Cronus flinching at the loud tone as Tavros hides behind him.

"N...Nothin' happened..." He says quietly, the King shaking his head with a frown. "Oh Cronus, how many times must w-we go through this!? You could've been seen by one of those damn barbarians...by one of those humans!"

"Dad they're not barbarians!"

"They're dangerous. Do you think I w-want to see my youngest child snared by some fish-eater's hook!?"

Cronus huffs and glares in return now, "I'm 7 and a half sweeps, I'm not a child anymore!"

"Don't take that tone w-with me, young man! As long as you live under my ocean, you w-will obey MY rules!" His father barks once more, his glare much more colder than Cronus'.

"But if you vwould just listen-"

"Not another w-word! I am never, NEVER to hear of you going to the surface again! Is that clear!?" He yells, Cronus taken aback by his father's anger.

Tears swell up in his eyes as he quickly swims out of the throne room, Tavros following right behind out of worry.

Dualscar sighs as he soon rests back in his throne, his head in his hand as he starts to calm down. Karkat huffs as he scuttles to Dualscar's side, "Hmph! Teenagers, they think they know everything. You give them a fucking inch and they swim all over you!"

"Do...do you think I w-was too hard on him...?" He asks with a sigh, looking at the crab beside him.

"Definitely not! If Cronus was my son, Gog forbid, I'd show him who's boss! None of this fucking 'flitting to the surface' and other such nautical nonsense! No, sir! I'd keep him under tight control"

"You're absolutely right, Karkat"

"Of course!"

"Cronus needs constant supervision"

"Constant!"

"Someone to w-watch over him...to keep him out of trouble"

"All the time-"

"And YOU are just the crab to do it"

~*~

I'm sorry this was late!! I'm trying to keep up with updating I swear!

Anyway enjoy!!