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Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 5: Merms

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The two merms crowd close to Bro as he waits on the water's edge for Alt's reply. It takes a while--longer than it should have--but soon he receives it, phone making its text sound. Anti jumps a little, briefly disappearing underwater before popping back up. Jack laughs. Anti scowls.

By this time, Bro can’t deny his need to dangle his legs in the water. So he’s done so- rolling up his pants and enjoying the water a bit as he waits. He jumps too- but only cuz Anti did. He laughs along with Jack. Bro checks his message and then grins. “oh! Alt said he found a boat! He said we so I guess Jackie is with him-and he said that he found help so he’s on his way! Whoo!” He looks back at Jack and Anti, “Do you guys know anyone with a boat?”

Anti frowns, looking vaguely unhappy about the mention of boats. But Jack tilts his head thoughtfully. Then he looks at Anti and says, "Ah-lee?"

"Right, that Ollie human." Anti nods slowly.

Bro perks up and then smirks, “A human named Ollie huh? Hm… I wonder… does he have dark hair? Tan-ish skin? Glasses? Wears lots of yellow?”

"Uh... glasses?" Anti glances at Jack, who says something. Then he nods. "Oh, those. No, I've never seen him with eye stuff, but that is what he looks like.

“Eh close enough- oh I bet Alt’s gonna be real happy about that.” Bro snickers.

"Or it could be a--" Anti shudders "--TridentCorp boat."

Jack shakes his head. He chatters something.

"Oh really?"

A nod.

"Oh." Anti blinks. He looks at Bro. "Some merms we know were visiting a human with a boat."

"Shays, Daki, Neep," Jack offers.

Bro blinks at the names, sounding them out himself then grins. “Chase, Jackie and… I’m guessing Schneep? Sick dude! Merman me- ha… that’s crazy.”

“Oh yeah, your name is Chase, too. But you're not literally the same as the Chase we know. You're human." Anti says.

Bro blinks at Anti’s explanation then laughs, “Well yeah but- look at me! We probably look the same, don’t we? Same name? It’s cuz I’m him- but from a different world!”

Suddenly, Jack 'gasps' and ducks underwater.

Chase jumps a bit at Jack’s gasp then looks at Anti and points at where he disappeared. “…do you know what that was about..?”

Anti looks down into the water. "Yeah. He'll be back up in a minute." Then back at Bro. "You do sort of look like him, if he was human. But what do you mean, a different world? The land and sea can't be that different."

Bro laughs, “I mean- I’m from a whole different set of lands and seas- ones you guys haven’t swam in at all. Cuz they’re like-places you can’t even go without magic!”

Jack reappears quickly. He chatters for Bro's attention and points down into the water. Swimming in circles in front of him, hard to see because of being completely underwater, is a small fish, weirdly flat and circular, its blue and green scales patterned like Jack's. "Am! Thiz iz Am!"

Bro looks back at Jack and then leans over the water. He smiles brightly as he sees the small fish. “Omg! It’s like a tiny you! Hi… Am?”

"Yeah, that's Sam," Anti says. "She's a discus like Jack, so they have a bond." Jack nods, backing him up.

“Oh Sam! Well hello, Sam!” Bro says cheerfully.

"Jack, do you know anything about... a different set of lands and seas?" Anti asks. "That you can only get to with magic? Or do you think the magic freshies would know?"

Jack looks confused. He shakes his head and says something.

"Yeah, I don't know, either."

Bro tilts his head. “Magic Freshies? What’s that mean? But uh- well I guess I’m not lying I’m just- trying to figure out how the hell I explain different universes to creatures that barely know human things…” Bro mutters, scratching at his head.

"Yeah, sounds real difficult," Anti mutters. "I'm not good with human shit. I can only speak your language cause of some magic that happened. And, uh, I mean our... some people we know--"

Jack nudges him, saying something teasingly.

"No, I'm not going to."

More nudging and teasing.

Anti scowls. "Fine. When I said 'magic freshies' I meant our... f-f-fr-friends." He stumbles over the word like he's not used to it. "They study magic. And they're freshwater merms, so 'freshies.' Their names are Marvin and Jameson." He sinks in the water. "They're not... they probably don't like me that much... I messed with Jameson a while ago..."

Bro blinks at all of this. “Huh… Marvin and Jameson… studying magic. Ha… that’s crazy too- mostly for Jay. But…” He suddenly pales, remembering something he seems to have forgotten. “Ohhh fuck- M-Magnificent! How- how did I forget he’s lurking around??”

Bro scrambles to his feet and clumsily tries to shove back his shoes, looking for his belongings. “fuck fuck! I should have been searching! Uh! Fish dudes!! Is magic like- only underwater?? Or is there any on land? Do you know??”

"Mag... nificent?" Anti repeats, confused. "I-I don't know much about magic." He looks at Jack, who shakes his head and says something. "Jack doesn't think there's land magic. At least, not anymore. Why?"

“Because that fucker is gonna go after to biggest source of magic around here and fuck! Now he’s gonna put a whole other magical species in danger!” Bro curses, nearly falling back as he hops into his shoes and rolls down his pants. He grabs his backpack and hovers in the air for a second before he stops and thinks, floating back down. “…fuck! If it’s all underwater- I can’t fly to find him! Arghhh!”

The merms make surprised sounds as he hovers. The two of them glance at each other, having a brief conversation. "Um... so... you'd need a boat, then?" Anti asks. "To go find this guy? Aren't your friends coming here with a boat? What if you wait here for them to show up and you can use the boat to go looking?"

Bro deflates and slumps back down to sitting on the rocks, almost pouting. “Yeah… guess I have to wait now… I just- how can we use a boat to go searching underwater? We’d need like- a submarine or something. Maybe Alt knows a good spell…”

"We could go to our magic frie--freshies," Anti says. "Marvin knows a spell to turn merms human for a short time. There can be one going the other way. Of course, you'd need a boat anyway to come with us to them."

“Oh- sure we could try that! God… that’d be sick.” Bro grins, “if I didn’t have to chase after a madman, I’d love to chill as a merman. Though my friend Jackie would be wayyy more excited than me to do that. His daughters are obsessed with mermaids and his wife studies sea life.”

Anti's expression darkens slightly. "How does she study sea life? Are they in tiny glass boxes? Do people stare at them? Do they deny that they're alive in the first pl--"

Bro’s eyes widen slightly and he tries to interject, “what?! No-!”

Jack reaches over and places a hand on his shoulder, calming him down. Grumbling, Anti disappears under the water. Jack looks at Bro apologetically and makes a chirp-'ow'-chirp-click sound that must mean "Sorry" in some way.

Bro watches the place where Anti disappeared and rubs his shoulder. “…she studies them on a boat and then… dives under to take care of them.” He adds quietly.

Jack nods understandingly. He holds up one finger, then dives under the water. Bro can see him and Anti under the surface. They seem to be gesturing. Having another conversation, maybe? And then both of them surface. "...sorry," Anti mumbles. "We... know some bad humans."

“I…it’s okay… I understand. I’ve met tons of bad humans too.” Bro tries to say with a laugh. “But- I fight off the bad humans- with my fists~!” He makes a few punching motions and then grins.

Anti grins, baring sharp teeth. "That's what you gotta do sometimes."

Jack rolls his eyes.

"Well. Looks like we're waiting some more. Boring."

“Heh… yeah.” Bro smiles. “Guess we gotta just… wait.” God- he hated waiting…

Looks like the merms also hate waiting. Jack swims back and forth a little, then makes an "oh!" sound and disappears under the water, swimming away.

"Don't know what that's about," Anti mutters.

But then Jack returns holding a couple of things. Paper? Green paper with drawings on it? He spreads them out on the rocks and chatters some.

"He wants to show you some of the places he's been," Anti says. "Jack's an explorer. He makes maps. So I guess I'll stay to translate what he says." He sighs. "You all gotta get magic translations like me and Chase one day."

Bro blinks and then smiles wide, leaning over to look at the maps eagerly, “Oh wow! Lemme see! These look so cool!”

-----------

The merms guide them to a part of the coast where there are no buildings or any signs of people. Soon, tall brown rocks appear in the water and Ollie has to really concentrate on following exactly where the merms go, as they show them the safest path between the rocks. And then the coast rounds into a large lagoon.

Chase finds Alt and Jackie on deck. "This is it," he says. "I hope your brother is here."

Alt glitches to the railing and squints to look around. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere…”

“Unless he decided to fly off-“ Jackie chuckles, “You know it’s hard for him to sit still.”

“God, these rocks,” Ollie mutters at the helm. “No wonder merpeople live here, it’s so hard to get the boat through.”

But get it through he does, pulling into the center of the lagoon and gradually getting close to the beach. Alt and Jackie can see Bro sitting on the beach with two merms in the water nearby.

Jackie stands up and points over the edge, “I see him! BROOOO!!!” He calls, waving wildly.

For Bro’s part, he’s spent a while listening to Jack explain all the interesting man-made and merm-made things he’s found in the ocean when he sees the boat. And he sees a shark fin rapidly approaching through the water towards them.

Bro looks up from where he was listening to Jack and then grins and waves at Jackie. “YOOOOOAHHH-“ he suddenly screeches and pulls up from the water as he sees the shark fin coming close, “holy fuck a SHARK???”

Alt and Jackie look at each other and then burst into laughter at Bro’s reaction.

Mer-Jackie’s head pops out of the water, laughing. He waves. Jack seems excited to see him. He swims over and the two of them start chattering really fast together.

Anti looks at Bro. “That’s just Jackie. He wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Oh-“ Bro says simply, his face turning red.

Two more shapes move through the water towards them.

Ollie drops anchor. “This is as close as I get get without running aground,” he explains. They’re still about twenty feet from the shore. “So, uh… can you do your disappearing thing this far away? Like, teleport over there?”

Alt laughs and nods, “Yeah, I’ll go get him.” He gives a two finger salute and then glitches onto the shore.

Bro blinks and then grins, getting to his feet. “Yo! Can you believe this dude?? Mermaid us-es!!”

“Yeah- crazy right?” Alt chuckles. He quickly touches Bro’s shoulder and casts the translation spell so he won’t be so lost anymore. Alt bends down by the rocks and smiles at Jack and Anti. “Hi! I’m Alt- I’m Chase’s brother. Thanks for keeping him company. Who’re you guys?”

Once again, the merms all “ooo” at Alt’s spellcasting. “Human magic,” Jack whispers. “Wait, can you understand us now?”

Mer-Chase, joining the group, nods. “Exactly! It’s magic!”

“Whoa.” Jack whistles. “Well in that case, I’m Jack! And this is Anti!” Anti doesn’t say anything. He’s squinting at Alt suspiciously. Why does this human look familiar?

Bro brightens and nods, “Yeah! I can understand now! Thank god- I could tell Anti was getting annoyed.” He laughs.

Alt looks over at Bro in confusion then looks down at Anti. His eyes widen. Oh… okay. …weird. But- he tries to smile at him and places a hand on his chest. “Hi Anti um… I’m also called Anti so…nice to meet you. Oh and nice to meet you too, Jack.”

Anti tilts his head as Alt talks. “Why do you all have names like us? That’s so weird. And don’t say something about different worlds, your brother has been trying to explain it for a while and I just don’t understand.”

Jack pats Anti’s shoulder sympathetically and smiles at Alt. “Nice to meet you too!”

“Are we leaving your other friend on the boat?” Schneep asks, confused.

Bro looks over and Jackie is still waving over at them. He laughs and then jumps up into the air. “Let’s all meet properly over there! C’mon!” Then he bursts into the air and heads over to the boat, landing softly on the deck.

Alt snorts and rolls his eyes then smiles at the merms before he glitches over to get back on the boat too.

As Bro flies over all the merms gasp and chatter in awe, then swim back to the boat when Alt disappears.

Bro grins at Ollie and extends a hand to greet him. “Hey! Ollie right? Thanks for helping my friends come get me! I’m Chase!”

“Whoa!” Ollie gasps, then sighs and leans heavily against the wheel. “Flying people. Okay. Yeah. Sure. Fuck it. Nice to meet you, Chase.”

The merms soon join everyone by the boat. Jackie reaches up and snags more fries that fell on the deck.

Alt can’t help but laugh, “It’s a hard concept to get. Don’t worry about it.”

Jackie laughs, clapping Ollie on the shoulder, “Yeah don’t worry it’s hard to get used to!”

Bro blushes a bit, messing with his hair. “Oh yeah sorry- uh- I’m a superhero back home so… flying~!”

Once everyone is back over by the boat, Bro’s expression gets serious and he looks at Alt and Jackie. “…I think the mer-guys are gonna be in serious trouble… Jack told me all the magic in this world exists under the water. Which means…”

Alt’s eyes darken and spark with power, “Magnificent.”

“Exactly.” Bro nods gravely.

Mer-Jackie blinks. “Magnificent?”

“Fucking stupid name, right?” Anti mutters, and Schneep laughs.

Alt, Bro and Jackie laugh too. “It is a stupid name!” Jackie grins.

“From the way human Chase talked about him, he sounds dangerous,” Jack says. “Another human with magic. And I think he wants more.”

“Well… fuck! How are we supposed to find him under water??? Do you guys have any idea how BIG the ocean is??” Jackie says, waving his arms out big and exaggeratedly. “We don’t even know where he landed! He could be anywhere!”

“We can ask Marvin and Jameson about where big sources of magic would be,” Chase suggests. “If anyone would know, it would be them.”

“That’s a good place to start… if there’s magic to be learned, a Marvin is bound to know it.” Bro mumbles.

As everyone talks, Anti squints into the distance, edging around the boat to get a better look at the ocean beyond. “Do you guys see that light?”

Alt glitches over by Anti and narrows his eyes too, “…what is that?”

Something glowing blue is streaking through the ocean, just under the waves, coming towards them. The other merms also notice it.

“That blue is the color of Jameson’s magic,” Schneep says.

The glowing thing gets closer, surfacing once it gets near the merms. It’s a construct of some kind. Circular with a long thin strand coming off it like a tail. It begins to emit some merm noises, which Alt’s translation spell decodes into a familiar soft voice. “Human with magic came down into the lake, not needing supplies. Conjured strings and nets and transformed into a merm. Marvin got hypnotized and is taking the human to the ocean. I’m following. Meet up at the river mouth, maybe we can stop him. I’m bringing the siren stone.” And then the construct fades away, dispersing into the water.

The swaps all listen to the construct in horror. Alt’s eyes glow and spark dangerously with magic as he growls, “That fucking mangy cat!”

Bro hurriedly whips over to look at Ollie, “How far is this river mouth? Will it take long to get there?”

Alt grabs his spell book and starts to look again through it furiously. There has to be a spell to help! He might be able to go down there but… he can’t leave Bro and Jackie behind.

“R-river mouth? What?” Ollie stammers, confused.

“Ollie still can’t understand us,” Chase says. He looks at Ollie and speaks in English. “That was a message from our friend. He and his, uh… life friend are in danger. We need to go save them. We can take you to the river where they are.”

“Oh- sorry!” Bro says, looking embarrassed. Alt blinks and then casts the spell one more time on Ollie so he can keep up. He blushes slightly and then glitches back away to look through his book more.

Ollie blinks. “Wow. Uh, okay. Magic. Cool.”

“Okay, sure.” Ollie nods to Chase now. “Glad this happened early in the day, would hate to sail at night. Is it more TridentCorp?”

“No, someone else,” Chase says.

“Good. Those guys scare me a little.”

“Tridentcorp? That’s a corrupt business if I’ve heard of one-“ Jackie mutters.

“TridentCorp is the worst,” Schneep mutters darkly. “They care so much about learning that they do not care what effect they have.”

“Most of us have been, uh… affected by them,” Chase says. If the guys pay attention, they may notice a brief flash of fear on Anti and Schneep’s faces before they both sink down into the water to hide it. “But, uh, we have some people on the inside! Who realized their mistake once they figured out merms are people and not just smart fish.”

Emotion flickers bright and quick on Alt's face, freezing as he hears of TridentCorp. Sounds just like Sclera... Anger burns in his eyes but he tries to hide it as he focuses.

“I’m gonna kill this magic guy,” mer-Jackie mutters, gripping the side of the boat. That draws attention to the fact that he has claws.

“Not if I fry him first,” Anti mutters darkly.

“What? No, I’m not being literal,” Jackie says.

Anti pauses. “I thought killing the threats was allowed?”

“If there’s no other choice,” Schneep stresses. “You cannot go in with intent to kill.”

“Oh.”

Alt sighs and looks at Anti and Jackie, “As much as I’d love to see that… we can’t kill him. We have no idea what that would do to our world…”

“Also I’m against killing!” Bro comments raising his hand.

“Are you against all killing?” Jackie asks. “How do you eat?”

“Most humans don’t have to hunt, Jackie,” Chase says. “Remember the food shops I told you about? Some humans make the food and send it there for everyone to buy.”

“Whoaaa.”

Bro can't help but laugh, "Yeah, what other-Chase said! When I say that I usually mean people. ...don't really hunt though- dunno how'd I'd feel about that..."

"Even in school merms often hunt for themselves," Chase says. "I-it was so strange to hear that humans don't do that for the first time."

After a bit Alt finally glitches to his feet, looking excited. "Hey! I found a spell!" He points and Jackie and Bro, "You guys- get in the water!"

Bro and Jackie blink comically then look at each other before looking back at Alt. The merms also stare at Alt with comically wide eyes when he announces that.

"You have a random 'turn into a mermaid' spell in that book?? In a universe where we don't even have mermaids??" Jackie asks, raising an eyebrow.

Alt makes a face. "... it's experimental-"

"No No! Hell no!" Jackie says, making an x over his chest.

"C'mon! It should work! Look I have runes for water, breathing, fish, and transformation- if I can combine those it's bound to work!" Alt says earnestly, "Besides we can't stop Mag if we're stuck on a boat!"

"Alright well then- you try it first! Then I'll believe ya." Jackie says stubbornly, crossing his arms.

"I can already shapeshif-!" Alt tries to argue before he huffs and digs through his bag, "Fine fine! I'll show you-"

Bro watches this exchange with wide eyes. He whispers to Jackie, "...you know you shouldn't push his buttons like that-"

"I'm not fucking with experimental magic- I dealt with that enough in college." Jackie mutters.

Alt takes the lid of a marker off with his teeth and then starts to scribble some runes on his bracelet. After a bit of doublechecking, Alt sets down all his stuff he doesn't want to get wet in his bag and pulls off his hoodie and shoes. He mutters some words and runs his finger across the new band of runes on his bracelet- they light up blue and so do his eyes. He then runs towards the edge of the boat and dives off into the water.

Bro startles at this and leans over the railing to call over him, "A-Alt??"

Jackie can't help but look over too- Then, he's splashed in the face by a long black tail with a curvy fin on the bottom and white bands at the end. Alt's face peeks up soon after, grinning smugly. "Seee?"

As Alt jumps into the water the merms all scatter to avoid getting hit. Once Alt is revealed to be fine, they gather around again.

"Whooooaaa!" Jackie gasps. "You can do that? After drawing some symbols?! Whoa!"

"I had to drink a potion that took forever to make to turn human for a day, and you can just do that?" Anti grumbles. "No fair."

Now that Alt is actually in the water, he's more able to see all the little details of the merms, the fins and scales and bright colors. He also realizes that they're all actually pretty different in size. For once, he is not the shortest one in the room, as his new merm form is longer head-to-tail than both Jack and Chase. Schneep, Jackie, and Anti, meanwhile, are all bigger than him.

Alt grins bashfully and his tail reacts in kind, flitting back and forth. “To be fair- it’s taken a lot of practice for me to do stuff like this… it’s a lot of reading and studying to understand how differing magic interact and combine with each other… so you know… I guess I just make it look easy…”

Alt does take better stock of himself and the others- noticing the size difference. Nice not the be the smallest anymore. He has scales going up from his arms and on his belly and chest. Even some creeping up on the side of his neck and face- and he can feel gills too, slowly opening and closing. That felt… so weird- He didn’t seem to have a tail fin like a stereotypical merman either- his tail just ended at a point, the whole body resembling a kitchen blade in shape. Except for the curvy frill like fin on his stomach and inner side of his tail.

“Yer such a show off!” Jackie yells off the side of the boat.

“Wha- I AM NOT!!” Alt shouts back. He looks to the others and then holds up a hand before he glitches back onto the ship. As he does- he seems to pop back into his human shape, except scales still crawl up his face arms and legs. He smiles smugly at Jackie and Bro and gestures at himself. “And see! It’ll only work if we’re in water~!”

Jackie makes a face, “Are the scales permanent then?”

Alt blinks and then feels his face and cringes a bit. “Uhhh- no? …we just gotta cross out the runes when we’re done and it should be fine!”

Jackie is quiet for a minute before he eventually sighs and holds out his arm. “Alright- but if we gain any lasting fishy effects I’m taking you to court, Brody.”

Alt rolls his eyes but grins and quickly starts writing down the runes on Bro’s and Jackie’s wrists.

Once Bro has his written he looks back at Ollie. “…what should we do about Ollie though? …we’ll need a place to keep our stuff- but also I feel bad just leaving him here.”

Ollie laughs. "Don't worry, I'm fine up here. I'd rather stay with my boat than turn all fishy. Uh, no offense to you guys," he adds, looking down into the water.

Bro laughs, “That’s fair!”

Chase grips the side of the boat and pulls himself up. He grins. "You're like halflings! Half human half merms. They're pretty rare but the same sort of thing happens to them, changing shape once fully submerged in the water."

Alt blinks and then grins, “Hey! Maybe that’s why this works so well! Since there’s something similar magically~!”

Jack pops up next to him. "Oh, you'd know, wouldn't you, Chaseee?"

And then Jackie appears and nudges Chase. "You loooove your halfling pups more than you looooove your girlfriend."

"Wh--shut up, bro!" Chase's face turns red, his blush strangely darker than a human blush would be.

"We all know it, Chase," Schneep says. "And you know it, too."

"I do! But you guys being all smug about it makes me defensive."

"It's so romantic, though," Jack says teasingly.

Jackie’s eyes sparkle, “Oh chase you’re a dad! Ha! Just like me! Except you know- my kids are human but- god Kelsie would give anything to be a mermaid.” He looks at Alt and smirks, “When we get home and tell this story- she’s gonna be begging you to try this on her.”

Alt chuckles, “…maybe- I’m too afraid of Zara killing me though.”

“That is a fair fear!” Jackie laughs.

"Oh you have fries--kids too, Jackie?" Chase says, perking up. "Mine are Sereia and Muirin, they're twins! And they're so great, Muirin is so smart and Sereia is so energetic--"

"See? He loves them," Jackie says, grinning.

"I do, I really do." Chase smiles. "Their mom, Stacy, raises them most of the time since they grew up on land, but they visit as often as possible."

Jackie beams at Chase and nods, “Yeah I got 3 lil guppies! Kelsie, Oliver and Penny- Penny’s the baby but she’s gonna be 2 soon! Kelsie is 9 and Ollie is 7! Kelsie loves everything magic and magical and cats and Ollie loves reading and drawing. And Penny’s a baby- but she’s such a little firecracker.” He laughs. “Their mom is away a lot but I don’t mind. She and the kids are my whole world.” He smiles, looking lovesick.

Bro nudges him, “Okay Romeo, focus won’t you?”

“Oh! Right!” Jackie gets up on the railing and then dives into the water with a cool parkour move.

Alt snorts and rolls his eyes, “Now who’s the show off?”

Jackie pops back up and has blue scales going over his eyes like a mask and red scales covering up his neck. His chest is mostly red too and a few blue stripes decorate his back. He has a thin almost see through back fin and a normal almost orange ish tail fin. He looks himself over and grins, trying out his tail. “Dudeee what?? This is sick!!”

Bro watches and laughs and follows his friends’ leads, keeping his stuff on the boat with Ollie before diving into the water. Chase shakes out his hair and feels the gills on his neck, but he’s not covered in scales. His skin is smooth and gray in the places it transitions from human to fish- and looking at his mouth you can see his teeth are now sharper. He has a broad familiar dorsal fin- but his skin is darker than mer-Jackie’s. His tail ends like a shark’s marked with darker stripe like bands. Bro blinks down in disbelief. “Woahhh! Imma shark!!”

Again, the merms back away as the humans jump in. But they crowd back around to ooo and ahh at the guys' new fishy forms. Jackieboy is a little smaller than Alt, while Bro is tied with Schneep for biggest.

"[Vent] yeah!" Jackie says, laughing. "You're a striped shark!"

"Tiger shark," Chase says. "I dunno what Jackie is off the top of my head, but he's very fishy."

Jackie looks over himself and then grins, “I thinkkk I’m a goby! Maybe… Catalina?”

Alt grins and soon jumps back into the water.

Jackie looks at him as he enters and swims around, studying him. “Oh! You’re a knifefish, Alt! A ghost knifefish! They’re electric just like electric eels!” Jackie says excitedly.

“Someone has been listening to their wife more-“ Bro teases.

“Hey- my wife’s interests are my interests!” Jackie says proudly, flicking his tail.

Alt looks down at himself and flicks his tail, feeling a bit of a current. He grins, “huh- neat!”

"Good to have you all here!" Jack welcomes.

"Aw... I was hoping for another octo," Schneep admits.

"Are any of you freshwater?" Jackie asks. "I know striped sharks aren't, but Alt? Other Jackie?"

"It's not a problem if you're freshwater," Chase says. "You'll just feel a little off after a while."

"Dry," Anti comments. "Even with the water."

As the merboys explain the freshwater thing, Jackie hums. “Oh! Knifefishes are freshwater-“

“Greatttt- that’ll be fun.” Alt grumbles, sinking into the water more, pouting.

"At least you won't be alone in that," Jack says. "Anti's a freshie too--"

Anti suddenly shoves him. "Shut up!"

Jack sticks out his tongue. "No."

"Well, uh, we should get a move on, yes?" Schneep says. "You all look like fast swimmers, so I will hang back and attach to the boat. If I swim with you I will just slow the pace."

"But we like having you around, Schneep!" Jackie suddenly hugs him, causing Schneep to make a stammering clicking sound in surprise.

"You're our brilliant healer and best friend!" Chase chuckles.

"Schneep's right, though, we don't all swim as fast as you, Jackie. And I don't know how easily these guys will adjust to their new forms. So it's something to think about, at least."

The swaps all smile and laugh at Schneep and Jack’s interaction. “If we can we should all try to stick together, right?” Jackieboy says. “I’m a decent swimmer but… that was with legs-“

"Oooo, do you guys think your strange abilities will still work as merms?" Jack asks Bro and Alt.

Alt and Bro look at each other and then seem to think. Alt looks down at his hands and they spark up with his magic. “Oh! My magic seems good- and I can glitch but… I dunno how helpful that’ll be underwater.”

“I thought putting computer stuff in water would short them out-“ Jackie teases.

“Shush-“ Alt replies but, he does look a little uneasy, wondering if his glitches would affect anything. Glitching from the water to the boat did feel kinda… bad. Like a shock in his bones.

Bro’s eyes glimmer with sliver blue light as he tests punching. “Still got my super strength.” He then looks up at the sky and narrows his eyes like he’s concentrating, his tail flicking wildly under the water. Then he laughs and shakes his head, “no flying though- which is more than fair! Fish shouldn’t be able to fly.”

"Flying fish are a thing!" Jackie says. "I've seen them!"

"And when the sirens first started, uh... making families with merms, their kids had wings," Chase adds.

Anti makes a face. "Could you not phrase it that way?"

"Even flying fish cannot really fly," Schneep says. "They glide for a while, that is all."

Bro blinks then laughs, "Well I think I'm just too big now!"

"...I was gonna be surprised that sirens were real but- that seems like a small thing now." Alt says, flushing a bit.

"Hey!" Ollie leans over the side. "Uh... are we going? I mean, if you guys want to chat some more, that's fine, I just wanna know so I don't have to be on standby."

"Hang on a second." Jackie lunges up the side of the boat, reaches up to the table, snatches a burger from its surface, and falls back into the water, quickly stuffing his face.

"I never should've introduced you to that," Chase sighs.

Jackie eats surprisingly quickly. "Now I'm ready. Race

you to the front!" And he darts off.

The swaps giggle at Jackie grabbing the burger. "welp! Guess it's time to see how good of swimmers we are!" Jackie says as he dives under the water after mer-Jackie.

Bro looks at Alt and smirks, "Craziest adventure yet, huh?"

Alt laughs, shaking his head. "Yeah... let's hurry before Mag destroys the ocean." The Brody bros then dive after the two Jackies.

Despite his eagerness, Jackie seems to be having a hard time swimming like a merman. He's trying to approach it like you would swim with legs- lots of wide sweeping arm movements and its slowing him down.

Bro on the other hand, takes to the water like he was born for it, gliding through the currents as easily as he flew through the air. "Yeahhh!! This is so awesome!!"

Alt has trouble at first but manages to get the hang of it after a bit, grinning as it starts to get easier.

Anti watches Alt curiously. Now that he's paying attention, a knifefish is kind of like an electric eel. He hangs back, unsure how to approach. Unsure if he even wants to.

Chase and Jack hang back a little, watching Jackie. Jack seems pretty amused by this. "H-here," he says, holding back his giggles. "Stop with the arms. Focus on the tail. Move it side to side."

Bro laughs, "Yeah man, put your arms to your sides- they'll slow you down, by your side is more aerodynamic~"

"Underwater it'd be hydrodynamic, Chase," Alt giggles.

"Oh shush, know-it-all-"

Jackie follows their advice and starts to get a bit better, though he has to concentrate a lot on moving his tail just right.

"You got it!" Chase says encouragingly.

And slowly, the boat heads off.

-----------

This river is wide and deep, no signs of any humans on the shore above. They're passing through a section with a gravelly floor, the stones beneath shades of brown, with a few tall reeds near the shores.

Magnificent's merm form has no problem keeping up with Marvin. Though he does start to notice a strange feeling. Like his skin is too tight. Marvin seems unbothered.

Magnificent grumbles a bit, hating this strange feeling blooming across his skin. What could that be? "How much river is left?" He asks, glancing at Marvin.

"About... halfway," Marvin says slowly. "Are you a saltwater merm? Is the water bothering you?" The questions are delivered monotonously, automatically, like he's used to checking in on visitors.

Magnificent hums in thought. "... I must be... is that what this feeling is? This... tightness?" He groans, "How inconvenient..."

"That sounds like it," Marvin says. "Once we reach the ocean you'll feel better. I'll feel worse." His eyes flicker, like he registers that that should bother him, but then it goes away. "That's fine."

"Mm.. poor thing~" Magnificent chuckles condescendingly, "As long as it won't kill either of us, then it'll be fine."

"It won't. Don't worry."

Magnificent nods, satisfied with this answer.

You know, it's strange, the sunlight passing through the water makes it look like there's something moving on the riverbed below them...

Mag focuses on the path ahead for a bit before the sunlight seems to be playing tricks on him. He looks down at the riverbed, narrowing his eyes to see if he can detect anything down there.

...Nothing. It must just be tricks after all. But as soon as Mag turns his attention away, Jameson lets out a breath of relief. He wonders if he should try to get ahead of these guys. He knows where they're going, after all. There's only one way to go.

Magnificent snorts and focuses on swimming forward, annoyed he let the sun trick him. No need to be paranoid. He's never known Jameson to be brave, after all.

A moment passes. They continue swimming along. Jameson decides to wait until they reach the delta, where the water spreads out and there's more opportunity to go around them. As they go, the riverbed becomes less gravelly and more sandy, with some silt in the air. Surprisingly, it doesn't bother his eyes like it would have if it was dust in human form, but it does make it harder to see. The water becomes shallower. Reeds appear more and more frequently.

"We're getting close," Marvin reports.

Magnificent tries his best to swim through these annoyances but ends up batting reeds and such away and out of his face instead of just, swimming around them. He grumbles but tries to keep his complaints to himself.

...He looks distracted. Jameson takes a deep breath, preparing himself, and starts to circle around Magnificent and Marvin.

And Magnificent does not notice. He is not used to the movements of reeds and fish and water. But Marvin is. He stalls for a moment, staring off to the side.

Magnificent pauses now and looks to Marvin. He narrows his eyes. "Do you see something, little fish?"

"I think something big is moving over there..." Marvin says. "There's not a lot of big creatures out here usually."

Jameson tenses. He's about level with the two of them now, but about fifteen feet away. Should he speed up?

Magnificent's expression darkens. "See what it is, won't you?" He commands Marvin. "Capture it, if you must."

Marvin nods and starts swimming in that direction.

Jameson panics internally. He would've been able to deal with the stranger coming close to fight him, but not Marvin! If Marvin tries to fight him, he's not sure he can fight back. If he'd be emotionally able to do that. So, instead, he darts forward, sending more silt into the air.

Marvin reels back, surprised, and starts giving chase.

Magnificent shouts in surprise and then starts to chase after them too.

Soon enough, Magnificent teleports in front of Jameson, cutting him off and grabbing him. He giggles. "Well well! Jameson~! So glad you could join us!"

Jameson lets out a squeak and lashes out with his tail.

Magnificent grabs the tail to stop it and throws him back through the water. "Really Jameson~ You have two options here! You can either join Marvin and help me find this source of magic orrr you can leave! And that can be willingly~! or through your grave." He blasts out magic towards Jameson as he cackles.

Jameson's eyes widen and he starts to move, but he's not fast enough. The blast hits him and he goes flying through the water. It nearly dislodges the bag he's wearing but it barely stays tight.

Marvin gasps. The spirals in his eyes flicker. "N-no! No, you said--" He grabs Magnificent by the arm. "You said you w-wouldn't--"

Magnificent growls as he's grabbed by Marvin and he whirls on him, grabbing him by his arm now. "You listen to me now, Marvin. I call the shots and you obey, got it?!" He pumps more influence into him, trying to drown out his resistance. He's too busy scolding his puppet to turn back on Jameson.

Marvin shudders, trying to resist... but he can't. He slumps, eyelids drooping as his eyes are locked on Mag. "Yes, Magnificent..."

Magnificent grins wide, "Good."

Jameson recovers, watching this, horrified. He doesn't want to do this but--but he clearly has no chance with Magnificent. His only option is to get the others. Sorry, he signs, hoping Marvin can see it. I'll be back. And he swims as fast as possible downriver.

Mag forcefully pushes Marvin back and turns to look at Jameson- only to see him swimming away. He hums and then shrugs, "See? No harm done, little fish. He swam off- never really met a Jameson who's a good fighter anyways." He laughs and then gestures for them to get going again. "Come along then. Maybe we'll see him again. And I'll consider the option of sparing him- if you're on your besttt behavior~"

"Yes, Magnificent," Marvin says again. He turns around and continues swimming, a bit less gracefully than he was before. "We're almost to the ocean."

"Perfect." Magnificent giggles.

#SATCV #SATCV merms #alt anti #swap magnificent #bro fantastic #jackie mann #YEAHHH MERM SWAPSSS!!#you know i had to make them mermen ahjak #it was so fun coming up with what fish they would be! :D #oh and mag is a pacific blackdragon lol #re-reading this one i forgot how much i loveeee these chapters <3

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