This is based off a popular AU known as aquariumstuck where some of the characters are creatures in an aquatic zoo such as mermaids, fish, walruses; all other characters are human. Though this makes sense without it, I highly recommend you take a look at the original aquariumstuck first because things will be clearer that way so go to salihombox .tumblr .com (don't worry it's sfw). However I have altered the story and characters quite a bit. This is from Tavros' s point of view for now. He works at a local aquarium on a tropical island, though I have yet to decide which island. Suggestions would be nice!

You are nervous today. You aren't sure exactly why; a sunset walk along the seashore normally helps calm your frazzled nerves, but today something just feels...off about your surroundings, and it puts you even more on edge.

You are alone at the beach, just the way you like it after an exhausting day of work at the local aquatic zoo. You don't dislike your job, but having to deal with annoying tourists asking where the mermaid exhibit is all day is enough to make anyone go insane. As you wander through the squelching sand looking for seashells (they are everywhere but you still love collecting the colorful ones), you notice somthing reflective is lying in a large far off tide pool. Though it's not as much a tide pool as a rocky outcropping around a five foot deep pit in the sand that fills after high tide. Small children are warned to stay away from it, but other teenagers have dubbed it The Tub as it is used like a hot tub on sunny days when the trapped sea-water heats up. It can easily hold four people, more if they give up personal space. You just assume it is more litter and trash left behind by some careless vacationers caught on the rocks. You are tired of their pollution. Don't they know how bad that is for the local wildlife? Trash left carelessly lying around could easily kill a variety of animals. The storm last night likely blew tons of trash into the ocean.

==Clean up trash

You shake off your residual skittishness from the day and absently make your way to The Tub.

You near the pool of water and kneel on the rocks starting to reach towards the water, expecting to find some trashbag or popped inflatable toy. But when you look past your reflection, what you see lying there is much more shocking than any toy. A nearly full-grown ridgeback sea-troll, more commonly known as a mermaid, or as in this case, a merman lying face down in the saltwater surrounded by a cloud of inky purple that you originally thought was a shadow, but you now see is blood.

Shit!, you think backpedaling furiously on all fours. You grind your hands into the sharp rocks beneath you to make sure that you're not dreaming. Ouch! Nope, definitely not dreaming. You stare with increasing alarm at the unmoving troll's body. After a minute in this position you realize the sea-troll is not going to rise out of the murky water and tear you to shreds, and so you slowly rise to your feet, still wary of the thing. As you cautiously step near it, your logic and what knowledge you've picked up from working at the aquarium finally kicks in and you know that the poor thing is probably dead. But mer carcasses deteriorate very quickly, meaning this troll likekely died just a few short hours beforehand. This brings about the question of how exactly how the corpse got here.

You can't imagine why it would ever come within a hundred miles of land.

==Quick factual interlude on sea-trolls

Though merfolk are extremely varied in breed and race, they typically dislike the company of other creatures and will go to great lengths to avoid all contact with humans, generally living far out to sea in small, interconnected groups to accomplish this. Each breed of troll is highly adapted to their environment, yet can adapt to most any other ecosystem not completely different from their own. These environments are usually hard for humans to reach, such as the ocean floor, boat graveyards, the arctic, and other equally perilous places, making them exceptionally challenging to find.

This and the fact that your island home's tropical reef is also the home of a colorful and strangely social and unaggresive variety of mertroll is why tourists come here in droves hoping to catch a glance at a wild troll. And if they don't spot one they can visit the aquarium which boasts two adult coral merfolk nicknamed Feferi and Eridan, and Fef (as you had taken to calling her) actually performed for audiences.

The point is, this isn't a coral mertroll, this is a ridgeback sea-troll, one of the rarest and most aggressive species of mer, easily identifiable by the long spines running along it's body. While many breeds are known to attack and kill anybody that manages to get too close, ridgebacks are notorious for actually leaping out of the water to knock their victim's in, where they proceed to eviscerate them on the surface of the water where all can see, but not before wrapping their long spiny bodies around the human and squeezing, piercing them with their many sharp, not to mention poisonous spikes. Needless to say, it is a good thing they are so rare.

Fun fact: Ridgebacks are also known as Subbjuggulaters for their apparent domination over other mer and affinity for juggling various objects underwater. It is not known why they do this but they do.

== Back to the issue at hand.

This is not good. You whip out your phone and start to write a text to Sollox to get his veterinarian ass over here and come see this, quick, and to bring Kanki; he'd have a field day with this. Right as you are about to hit send, the sea-troll twitches.

== Flip the fuck out and drop your phone in the water like a dumbass

You flip the fuck out and drop your phone in the water like a dumbass. Shit, you curse your stupidity at not actually checking whether or not it was truly dead; now you could pay the ultimate price for this screwup. You really don't want to die. You back away slowly and grab a peice of driftwood up off the sand, holding it in front of you like a weapon. Like that would do you any good. If that troll attacks you, you're as good as dead; bye-bye Tavros.

It doesn't move again. You hesitantly grab your phone from the watery edge, eyes glued to the mer-troll. You do a quick check and it's completely fried; the phone is so soaked with saltwater you doubt even your computer geek of a friend Sollox could ever get it working again. It's a well known fact water is instant death to cell phones. You slip it into the back pocket of your shorts just in case.

Just then the merman appeared to flex it's tail. This time you know it isn't an optical illusion. Before you can run for it, the spiny mer twists onto its back in the Tub, choking as it tried to breath through its own blood.

It's bleeding profusely from a large gash on it's stomach.

Frozen in terror, you stare as the troll manages to claw it's way to the surface and cling to the side of The Tub, gills flapping as it breathes in air instead of the thickening mix of indigo blood and water. If it wasn't so badly injured you'd certainly be dead by now.

Chest heaving as it adjusts to breathing in the cool air, the bleeding mer-troll seems to notice your frozen form for the first time and stares back at you with wide eyes matching it's blood color.

You unconsciously take in every detail of him. It has most of the usual features of it's species, gray skin, slit pupils, gills, pointed teeth, claws, and a pair of horns. But there were some things unique in this one that you had never seen before, like its coloration. Most of it's body was the typical grey color, but along the mer-troll's sides and arms were stripes of varying shades of purple and gray-green. It's long tail was a stunningly dark shade of violet, almost like oil reflecting the rainbow, with a bright indigo pattern curling around it, punctuated by black and silver markings. On it's face it bore swirling marks like those on it's tail, reminiscent of tribal tattoos, while around his eyes were black lines radiating outward that vaguely reminded you of a clown for some reason. It's horns were similar to that of a goat, though a bit larger, twisting up to around a foot and half tall from base to tip. But the most amazing part was his slight bluish-green boluminescence that focused mainly on his markings, and oddly enough, freckles. It was a stark contrast to the gash across its torso, bleeding a deep purple.

Somehow, seeing such a beautiful animal so injured makes you want to scream. You often get emotional over such broken creatures, especially those of the aquatic variety. But you also know that this was a common trick of certain kinds of mer, like your native coral sea-trolls, who sometimes used their beauty to lure in their prey, and how others sea animals used subtle forms of mind-control, such as twisting your emotions.

You suddenly tear your eyes away from the trolls gaze, remembering that in your training for taking care of Feferi you had been told to never look directly into a trolls eyes because they will see it as a challenge to their authority and attack. You really did not want it to attack, no matter how injured it was.

Author's note: merpeople are viewed closer to animals than people in this AU, though significantly smarter than normal animals. They cannot talk. They are somewhat rare, but only because they don't want to be seen.