1. Prologue
The Sburb was a known ship amongst pirates, not because it was leaded by a fearsome pirate, no matter how good Captain Strider was, but because it was believed that it was a beacon for sorcery ad therefore only bad luck could come to those who traveled in it. This was why its crew had changed many times, but a few remained in the cursed vessel, Captain Strider being one of them of course, together with his younger brother and four more crew's mates
The watercraft wasn't the only thing supposedly cursed, the Striders were as well, this was mostly thanks to their demonic eyes, they hid them with magic but the rumors spread nonetheless and seriously, superstitions could get a person killed
But one rumor about both the Striders and the Sburb was true, and perhaps because of this it also was the one people believed the least, yet if you were told that the Striders had contact and an agreement with merpeople, then you should probably believe it's true
Thanks to all of this, the six members of the Sburb were recruiting men for their newest expedition, a search for the much unknown waters of change, but no pirate was willing to get themselves cursed
A hooded figure walked through the crowd of the bar; it stopped close to the table where the younger of the two Striders sat, catching his attention
"It zemz to me that your brother iz embarking into a dangerouz mizzion" said the stranger
It was a female voice, one that dragged the eses turning them into something more akin of a zed, almost as if she were trying to imitate the sound of a snake when speaking
"What is it to you?" he asked
"Let'z juzt zay that if you let me talk to him I'll give you what he wantz and, if I feel grassiouz, alzo what he needz" she said
"Wow, too much information lady" he said
She laughed, it was an almost chirpy sound and he feared for a moment that he had crossed a troll
"I think I may have confuzed you" she said
Pale, thankfully very human, hands rose up to her hood and dropped it to reveal a similarly pale complexion with a few freckles, the weird orange coloring of red heads, and finally what really caught his attention, bright violet eyes
"Then again the lazt time I zaw you, you were extremely young" she said
He looked at her again and noticed fangs barely showing in her smile, a dangerous aura surrounded her; he realized this was a mermaid in human form, one who was smiling at him with amusement
He stood up and signaled her to follow, wining another smile from her, it was better if he did what she asked, they were going to be crossing the waters of the merpeople soon and it wouldn't do to have them sink their ship because he made one angry
His brother was walking to the bar, probably to find him; he stopped when he saw him, his eyes then looked at the red-haired woman and widened
"Fanssy zeeing you again Ztrider" she said
"What are you doing here Aresta" he asked
"I think you know the anzwer to that" she said
The waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and every sea that drains in it, were the territory of the merpeople, The Caribbean was however neutral territory, therefore pirate territory. It was on these dangerous waters that the outcasts of the troll merfolk were left to their own devices
There were more than a thousand reasons why Karkat Vantas had ended up here, there was at least half as many for Sollux Captor to be here as well, there was quarter that amount for the mermaid that was swimming them, what didn't make sense was the female mertroll that followed her
As they approached Karkat noticed that only the troll had a soul fish, the mermaid had either already found her mate or had none at all. Karkat concentrated on her, she had white hair matching with almost silver-looking scales, the human skin was a tone of pink so pale it could've been confused with white as well, this lack of color combined with the pair of bright red eyes showed that she was an albino, he glanced at his two soul fishes even though he knew both were far too dark to fit that color, he even spared a glance at Sollux's knowing full well neither was red at all. He then looked at the troll, she reminded him of someone who wasn't all that kind, like all mertrolls, her scales reflected her blood color, hers were a bright blue just like her eyes which was why Karkat had thought she didn't fit in the picture, her soul fish was a dark green color that could easily be part of the hemospectrum so why was she here?
The mertroll saw behind the mermaid as if following her, it occurred to him that she probably knew this waters as well as they did, which meant not at all, the mermaid on the other hand seemed to be just in her element, finally they reached speaking distance
"Hey there, nice to see you aren't floating in your own blood yet" said the mermaid
It was said in a joking tone, Karkat understood why, it was better than to talk seriously about it, Sollux let out a chuckle and was rewarded with a straight smile, it was still odd not to see fangs on merpeople
"So, here's the rundown, you are now in the neutral territory, which means it's home for sirens and passing pirates, so if you wanna live you'd better follow me" said the mermaid
Karkat nodded and saw Sollux do the same, one didn't mess around in these waters alone, much less if you didn't know where everything lead to, Sirens were just as fond of merfolk meat as they were of human's
"Luckily you three are the only ones for today, so let's get going" said the mermaid
They started swimming into what Karkat guessed to be the ocean, if the depth level was anything to go by
"So how about we introduce ourselves on the meanwhile and then you can ask me anything you want to" said the mermaid
"That sounds fine with me" said the blue blood
Karkat grumbled and Sollux shrugged, the mermaid smiled again
"Well, I'm Casidy Brhet, my job is to get you somewhere safe before nighttime, thankfully it isn't all that far" said Casidy
She then looked at the blue-blooded troll, she smiled in a supporting manner and the troll returned the smile
"I'm Aranea Serket, I'm from the Idean Ocean, I was part of a revolutionary movement, so I ended up here" said the female mertroll
"Aye, we had a bunch of you guys appearing here, we had to lift the barrier that connects directly with it and everything, it made my brother go nuts, it wa beautiful" said Casidy
Aranea gave her an odd look, something between confusion and concern, the mermaid was simply joking, but he guessed maybe the blue blood didn't understand that, red eyes moved to Sollux
"You I'm curious about, your soul fish is a familiar color, I mean, the one that isn't mustard like the rest of you" said Casidy
"I'm Thollux Captor, me and thith dumbath are from the Pacific" said Sollux pointing at him
"I can introduce myself just fine asshole" said Karkat
"Ah, you're from the batter bitch territory, that explains why she would kick you out even though your soul link is tied to someone of the merfolk, she isn't too fond of us" said Casidy
"I'm surprised you even know the difference" said Karkat
"Well, our queen is a huge dork when it comes to anything related with fate or magic, which obviously includes mating rituals for all merfolk alike" said Casidy
Karkat thinks he already likes the merpeople ruler, he had heard about her, some of his so called friends had seen her thanks to their higher ranking on the spectrum. Terezi, a teal blood that was on the justice system, said she smelled like corals which made no sense to Karkat but was the best description he had. Casidy seemed to like her platonically, they probably got along well, and if a queen was ok with being friends with an albino mermaid maybe he would last more than a few days