#sad 3000 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

razzle-zazzle · 6 months

Text

Whumptober Day 30: it's okay just to say "i'm not okay"

Borrowed Clothing

3855 Words; Pearl & Seaglass

TW for brief nonsexual nudity

AO3 ver

The sound of waves against the shore was the first thing Dion heard.

It was weird—Dion had poked his head above the surface before, once or twice, but he’d never been close enough to any shores to hear waves against the sand. And even if he ever had been, he’d never been human before, either, so the sound was still different to anything he’d ever heard. It was like a kind of whoosh, but he was picking up the vibrations differently and it was weird. And awful.

Dion groaned, squeezing his eyes shut against the onslaught of the sun. How did humans deal with this? How did they deal with anything? The sand beneath him was hot and dry. Awful. The waves lapping at his side were uncomfortably cold. Absolutely awful. He could hear seabirds somewhere above him. At least that was a familiar sound, if weird to hear it with human ears.

Slowly, Dion forced himself up into… sitting, was that what humans called it? Yeah, that sounded right. Sand clung to his arms and back, weird against his now scaleless skin—didn’t humans have any defenses at all? Maybe they were venomous. Gisu had said something about how bad human bites could be, maybe that was it.

Dion blinked his eyes open, taking in his complete and utter lack of a proper tail. The pearls and shells he decorated himself with were now tangled around a pair of legs, how horrifying. Human legs, too, with their soft skin and patchy fur and awkward shapes, and—what was that. That thing between his legs, what in the name of the abyss was it—

Dion wrenched his gaze away from the thing between his legs, resolving to not worry about it. Instead, he stared down at the blunted nails on his toes—wait, if those were smooth and useless, did that mean—

Dion lifted one of his hands to inspect. It was just as he feared—the delicate webbing and shimmery scales were gone, and his perfectly-maintained claws were gone, replaced with blunted and useless human nails, all round and smooth like pearls.

Awful. Humans were awful. Dion couldn’t possibly understand why Raz was so obsessed with them.

He turned towards the rock face sheltering this section of the shore, where Gisu was already digging through an old chest in the shade of the cliff. He made to flash his stripes—

Humans, it turned out, didn’t have stripes. Or any way to glow at all. No tail, no claws, no scales, no stripes—how did humans survive at all? Did they just luck their way into infesting every available scrap of land?

Dion was about ready to try figuring out how the hell legs were meant to work—he’d seen crabs, so he had a rough idea—when Gisu stomped back over, adorned in cloth that wrapped around her legs and billowed around her waist, her chest and shoulders covered with the light material. She threw two pieces of cloth at Dion, grinning. Her beautiful sharp teeth were gone, replaced by blunt human ones—Dion didn’t even want to think about his own teeth, if that was what human teeth looked like. Maybe the venomous human theory wasn’t right—surely, there was no way such a small jaw and mouth could be useful in catching prey.

“You’re gonna want to remove those pearls.” Gisu said, and wow, even as weird as it sounded her human voice was still somehow pretty. “And put those on. Humans don’t like nudity.” It was electric, her voice, elegant and strange just like her.

Dion stared at the cloth pieces in his hand. Oh, so it was adornment. He understood that. And with the way humans had no scales, it made sense that they’d want extra adornment. One could never go wrong with some extra color, and humans clearly needed it.

“Um,” Dion started—and wow, that felt weird, the vibrations in his throat different from his clicks and whistles as a mer. “How…?”

“Oh, right.” Gisu grabbed the lighter-colored piece of cloth. “Your head goes here, and your arms go here…” She grabbed the other piece as Dion fought to get the cloth on over his head. It was weird not having a dorsal fin, but that meant he could get the adornment on much more easily.

“This one’s for your legs.” Gisu explained. Dion took it from her, pulling it on with some difficulty.

“It doesn’t fit.” Dion lamented. It was too tight around his legs, stiff and uncomfortable. It was too tight between them, too—how did humans deal with this?

Gisu made a sound not unlike a click. “Yeah, we’ll have to find a larger pair of pants…” She shrugged, reaching for Dion’s hair. “C’mon, let’s get that kelp out of there.”

Dion flinched back. “What?” But his adornments were important! It took so long to find pearls the perfect shade of blue, and going around without adornments was something no proper mer would ever do, unless their adornments might get caught when hunting. But even still, his pearls were fine!

“Humans don’t decorate themselves that way.” Gisu explained, “If we wanna find your brother without getting into trouble, we need to blend in with humans.” She opened the satchel on her hip. “Here, we can store ‘em in here. That way nobody can get at them.”

Dion looked at her dubiously. “Even the pearl you gave me?” It didn’t match the rest of his pearls, pink and oblong, but it was his favorite one—he didn’t want to part from it, didn’t want it to not be in the corner of his vision at all times.

Gisu nodded. “Sorry.” She carded a hand through his hair, starting to remove some of the kelp strands.

Dion huffed, moving to untie a pearl string. “Humans are awful.” He grumbled. “I can’t believe you let Pooter become one.”

Gisu looked at his legs, eyebrows raised.

Dion’s face flushed. “That’s different.” He mumbled. Before long, his hair was free of any shells, pearls, or kelp—much to Dion’s growing dismay. But he knew that no amount of shark-guppy eyes would be able to convince Gisu, here—she knew what she was doing. He’d just have to trust her, as much as some parts of this irked him.

“I only have the one pair of shoes,” Gisu was saying, and Dion noticed that her own feet were encased in what he guessed were shoes. “I think your brother took the other pair from the chest.” She frowned. “I’ll have to get a pair for you…”

At the reminder of his legs, Dion glared down at them. “I don’t like these.” He declared.

“What, the legs or the pants?” Gisu laughed. It was such a strange sound, electric and human and yet so undeniably her. Dion could almost forget how awful the whole situation was, hearing that noise.

Dion growled. “Both.” Almost wasn’t enough. Even with Gisu here, standing next to him, brown human eyes alight with amusement, Dion was still so irked by so many things. The dry sand was rough, the sun was hot, the pants didn’t fit, and all of his natural strength was gone in favor of a weak and gross human body. Without Gisu, he wouldn’t even be here—she was the only thing making this whole ordeal worthwhile.

Dion shifted, folding his legs under him. Sand got into the pants despite their tightness, grating against his legs. Awful! He pushed down, struggling against the lack of muscle memory, yet aided by some incomprehensible instinct that told him to have his feet flat on the ground, toes pointed forwards without telling him anything at all.

Dion stood, wincing at the heat of the sand on his bare feet. His legs wobbled, and he fell—

Gisu caught him. She pushed him back up into a standing position, holding onto his arm to brace him.

“Thanks.” Dion muttered, trying again. He managed to keep his legs under him, this time—which meant now he had to move.

Gisu moved to stand in front of him, taking his hands in hers. “Just follow my lead.” She said, taking a step back.

Dion swallowed. He could do this. Carefully, he moved one of his legs forwards, sliding his foot along the sand.

Gisu shook her head. “You’ve gotta lift it.” She explained, bending her leg to lift her own foot off the sand. “Haven’t you seen crabs before?”

“Of course I have!” Dion groused, copying her movements. Gisu took a step back, and he matched it. He wobbled, the sand still hot against his feet—

But he didn’t fall. Not with Gisu holding his hands in hers, not with her in front of him to lean on.

“Yeah,” She said, “Just like that.” She took another step back with her other leg. Dion matched it.

Hey, he was getting the hang of this!

A few more steps, then—

“I’m gonna let go now, okay?” Gisu pulled away, leaving Dion standing on his own. He silently mourned the loss of her hands in his, then schooled himself. He could do this. He could do this!

He took a step forwards, then another. He wobbled, once—but he didn’t fall, instead taking another step. And another.

Dion grinned. He could do this!

“Yeah!” Gisu clapped her hands together. “Wow, you got that quick.” She looked up at the sky, shading her eyes with a hand. “We should probably get moving, though. I don’t want to think about the kind of headstart your brother got.”

Dion nodded—stopped. “How am I supposed to walk anywhere with… this?” He gestured towards his bare feet, which were barely good enough for hot sand. No wonder humans covered themselves in shoes—their bodies were practically useless on their own.

Gisu smirked. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” she reassured, “I know just the place.” Gisu decided. She grabbed his hand, starting to run towards the rock face. “C’mon!”

As always, Dion found it impossible not to follow where she led.

+=+=+=+=+

The human marketplace was loud.

Humans were everywhere, absolutely crowding the space. It was nothing like the markets Dion was used to—at least mer knew how to give each other space to breathe. But between the human stalls and the human bodies and these accursed pants and the too-hot stones beneath his feet, it was all Dion could do not to fall apart panicking.

He was getting the hang of walking, though, managing not to stumble even with the awful awful pants. Gisu held his hand as she led him along, and he held her hand back as tightly as he could. He would always be able to follow where Gisu led—it was as easy as breathing.

But good gods, this was awful. Humans were awful.

Still, Dion forced his focus to narrow down to Gisu, to the way her hair bounced behind her as she walked, to the certainty in her steps as she navigated the chaos. Her human form was shorter than his for reasons Dion couldn’t fathom—she wasn’t really smaller than him in their true forms, so why was she smaller like this? Some quirk of the spell? But they’d both eaten the same amount…

Dion resolved himself not to worry about it. The humans in their stalls were all calling out in a cacophony of voices—another reason why human language made no sense. Why have something purely aural if it was just going to result in chaos like this? How anyone could decipher what was going on here was beyond Dion.

But if anyone could do it, it’d be Gisu for sure. She came to a stop at a stall full of various footwear, regarding the contents.

“That one.” Gisu pointed at a pair not unlike her own, but bigger. “How much is it?” While she and the human manning the stall talked, Dion’s gaze drifted over the stall next to it, which was covered in glittery bits of metal. A tiny metal chain caught his eye, and he drifted towards the stall to take a closer look.

Dion picked up the necklace. It had a piece of metal shaped like a shell threaded onto it, and little beads along the string. There wasn’t a hint of anything actually from the sea, yet it must have taken incredible control to make chain links so tiny—

“Are you going to buy that?” The human standing at the stall asked. Dion startled, then set the necklace back down.

“No.” He said. “It’s ugly.” There was value in the workmanship, but that couldn’t make up for the fact that it was a pretty sad adornment—there was no color! Just plain shimmery metal that’d probably rust underwater. And it was a poor imitation of a real shell.

The human huffed. Gisu appeared at Dion’s side, boots in hand, and grabbed his arm. “C’mon.” She said, dragging him away. The moment the stall was out of sight, she dragged him over to a wooden structure and shoved him onto it. She shoved the boots into his hands. “Put these on.” She ordered.

Dion complied, pulling the boots on. It took him a few tries to figure out how to lace them up, and they felt weird on his feet—

But it was much better than going around barefoot. Dion stood, testing them out. Gisu grabbed his hand, and he let her drag him along. As they continued, Dion voiced a question.

“So what’d you trade for these anyway?” The bartering hadn’t taken that long, he felt, and he wondered how Gisu managed it. If it was his mother, he’d have been standing at that stall all day until she managed to haggle the human down to trading the boots for something as simple as a string of nacre beads. A rather long string, of course, but still.

“Oh, humans don’t really barter.” Gisu began to explain, her voice taking on a familiar cadence—which was weird, how did the way she flashed her stripes translate into audible speech? That spell was really something. “They use a kind of metal disc as a sort of intermediary.”

Dion stared. “What.”

Gisu reached into her satchel. “These things.” She held out a small metal disk, passing it over to Dion. It was smooth, with decal etched into both sides.

“Oh.” Dion turned the small disc over in his hand, then handed it back to Gisu. “So do humans use these for adornment, then?” He couldn’t imagine where one would even look to start collecting these things.

“They don’t do anything with them, actually.” Gisu shrugged. “They just trade them for things.”

Dion frowned. “That makes no sense.” You didn’t trade useless things, that was a basic rule. Maybe gemstones, but those could be turned into art or adornments. Even pearls had to have some kind of use to whoever they were going to, or the trade just wouldn’t happen.

Gisu snorted. “Yeah, but it’s just the way things work up here. Humans will give these things out in exchange for goods or services.” She continued along, the crowds beginning to thin around them as they left the marketplace.

Dion made a face. Humans were just weird. Surely, if they were able to work with metals, then why not melt these things down and make something actually useful?

“Up here.” Gisu said, breaking Dion from his grumbling. She led him up a winding path towards a larger human dwelling, its boxy structure standing out among the others purely through its size. “I have a friend who lives here, she can totally help us out.”

Dion really didn’t like the idea of Gisu having human “friends.” But he trusted her to know what she was doing, and this wasn’t an argument he could ever hope to win, so he kept quiet, following her along up the stone path.

They made it to the human dwelling—where were the entrances? All Dion could see were shimmery panels of glass and a section of wall that was different from the rest. How did anyone get in or out? Or maybe they were approaching it from the wrong side—hopefully that wasn’t as much of a social faux pas as it was under the waves.

Gisu rapped her knuckles against the square patch of wall that was distinct. A few moments later, the piece of the wall swung inwards—oh! An entrance cover! Like a hermit crab folding into its shell and blocking out attackers with its claws. It was almost clever—Dion scoffed. Like humans could ever be truly clever. No species that came up with pants could ever be clever.

There was a human standing in the door, dark blue hair splaying out to the sides. She was utterly covered in adornments—they kind of resembled some of Gisu’s enchanted charms. A land witch? Did such a thing even exist?

“Oh.” The human blinked. “Hey, Gis.” She looked past Gisu to Dion, who froze under the scrutiny. How were human eyes threatening? They could barely see! “Who’s this?”

“Dion, Lizzie.” Gisu introduced. She rubbed at the back of her neck nervously. “Look, normally I don’t come looking for favors, but we kinda…” she searched around for a good lie, “We need clothes.” She said finally, already starting to dig around in her bag. “I think I’ve got a few of those spider crab legs you were after…” She pulled out a bundle of the legs in question, and held them out.

“Neat.” Lizzie smiled lazily, taking the offered legs. “And yeah, sure, come on in. Norma’s not home right now, so don’t worry about her.”

“Great!” Gisu chirped, dragging Dion in over the threshold. He yelped, hurrying to keep up with her before he lost his balance entirely. “Dion’s not the greatest around people, so the less the better!” They followed Lizzie through the dwelling until they reached a room that was almost as decorated as she was. Lizzie set the bundled crab legs on a shelf, then gestured to a boxy structure that Dion didn’t recognize. “Go right ahead.” She offered.

Gisu nodded, moving over to the wooden… box… thing. She grabbed a set of metal handles on the front, pulling on them to reveal that the thing had various clothes inside of it. “Hmmm…” Gisu considered, then grabbed a different pair of pants. “See if these fit.”

“Okay.” Dion struggled to exit his pants, shoving them down.

“Um.” Lizzie started, then left the room. Dion wasn’t really paying attention, though, too occupied with pulling on the new set.

They fit a lot better, but as he spun around to examine himself…

Dion grimaced. “Do I have to wear these?” He asked. Couldn’t humans be sensible about anything?

Gisu cringed. “Yeah, no humans are weird about this kind of thing.” She looked at his crotch. “Besides, do you want your human bits flopping all over the place?” She turned back to the clothes. “Maybe something looser?” She pulled out what looked like shorter pants. “Hey, wait, try putting these on under your pants, that should help with the chafing.”

Dion moved to remove his pants once again—

“Okay,” Lizzie came back in, “If you two are going to have sex please don’t do it in my bedroom—”

Dion whirled around, his face burning. (Why? Why were human bodies weird?) The thought of mating Gisu while in this disgusting human body was a thought he never wanted to have again, please.

“Dion doesn’t like pants.” Gisu said, in the tones of someone making a mundane discovery. She still tossed the shorter pants at him, and Dion grumbled but pulled them on anyway.

“Well.” Lizzie pursed her lips. “Here.” She walked over to the clothesbox, and pulled out something that was distinctly not pants. “Try this.”

Dion took the offered fabric, holding it out in front of himself as he tried to decipher it. It was like a tube that was wider at the bottom, with a small set of buttons near the waistline. He pulled it on, and stood.

Lizzie and Gisu watched as Dion spun slowly, examining himself. He gripped the material in his hand, rubbing it between his fingers—as week and clawless as they were, human hands were surprisingly sensitive—and just trying to get a feel for it.

“Well?” Gisu asked. Lizzie looked ready to go grab something else—

“I love it.” It reminded him of some of the adornments he would wear to special events back home, soft and light and loose around his body. He did a twirl, watching as the skirt billowed in a way that only the lightest of fabrics could underwater, the way it rippled like waves and sea anemone. “I love it.” Dion reaffirmed, surprised by the lightness of his own voice. “It’s perfect.”

Maybe humans weren’t quite so awful, after all.

“Good!” Gisu decided, clapping her hands together. She turned to Lizzie. “Thanks!”

Lizzie shook her head. “Don’t mention it.” She grimaced. “Really, don’t.”

“Okay.” Gisu chirped, grabbing Dion’s hand once again. “Now let’s go find your brother!” She decided.

“Oh, you’re looking for someone?” Lizzie asked. “I could probably help.”

“Yeah,” Gisu started to explain, “Dion’s little brother ran away, so we’re trying to find him before he gets into too much trouble.”

Lizzie nodded. “What’s he look like?”

Dion froze. What did Raz look like, as a human? “Small.” He guessed. “He has a helmet and goggles that he wears everywhere,” He added. Gisu nodded—Raz must have been wearing his dorky helmet when she brought him to the surface, then. “Really annoying, always getting right into trouble and poking at things he shouldn’t.” Dion groused. “And then me or Frazie get in trouble over it because apparently we’re not setting a ‘good example’!” He crossed his arms with a huff.

“Ugh, yeah, siblings are the worst.” Lizzie agreed. She started to lead them to the door. “Hey, the Junior Explorer Corps Meeting starts in a little bit, why don’t you come with?” She offered. “The more people you’ve got looking for your brother, the faster you’ll find him.”

“Ooo, good idea.” Gisu agreed. “I need to bother Morris about any new conjuration spells he’s learned, anyway.” She took a firmer hold of Dion’s hand, dragging him along through the dwelling.

“Um—” Dion started, but Gisu and Lizzie were still talking between themselves about different kinds of magic. He followed along in their wake, unable to get a word in edgewise as he was practically dragged along.

He didn’t sign up to meet even more humans! This was supposed to be simple!

But Gisu didn’t let go of his hand, and he wouldn’t let go of hers. He’d trust her on this—she was the expert, here, and he couldn’t not trust her. It was impossible not to follow where she led—

But that didn’t mean Dion wanted to get involved in human business!

Still, he followed along. What else was he going to do? He knew nothing about the surface—it was all up to Gisu to guide him through this.

Dion forced his anxiety down, and focused on her. It’d be awful, because almost everything about humans was awful—

But he’d have Gisu, and that was more than enough.

#whumptober2023 #no.30 #borrowed clothing #psychonauts #zaz writes #nudity tw #it's completely nonsexual (spell doesn't create clothes) but i'm going to tag it just to be safe ig #there is a moment where dion is icked out by human genitalia even if the bits in question are never explicitly described #pearl & seaglass au #dion aquato #gisu nerumen #lizzie natividad #whooo!!! dion and gisu are on the surface!!#surely raz has not gotten into too much trouble before they got here #surely #and hey! dion gets to wear a skirt!#lizzie looking at dion like ''gisu. gisu i love you as a friend but what is this. why have you brought this sad wet cat onto my doorstep''#this piece is softer than the others bc it's pretty much just dion looking at everything on the surface and going >:[#callign humans weird and gross for 3000+ words

7 notes · View notes