Work Text:
Green stares out at the ocean, his siblings off making sand castles and playing volleyball on the beach while he just watches. The ocean seems to sing to him, a gentle melody that he catches himself humming along to from time to time.
-how come I never realized how beautiful the sea is? It’s so striking and bright, I shouldn’t have missed it.-
Waves gently rolling across the sand, the salty air, it’s all so hypnotizing to Green. He almost wants to dive right in, be engulfed by the cold waters like a cocoon.
Sadly, his trance is broken prematurely.
“Yo Green, wanna come and play a round of volleyball with us?” Orange -Greens hollow headed sibling- asks, their question startling Green from the trance he was in.
The water quickly calls back to Green, as if stealing his attention away from his siblings.
“No, no I’m alright.” Green responds, his tone light and somewhat absent as he goes back to staring at the waves.
“is something up?” Orange questions, moving to sit next to Green on the shore. Waves nip at Greens skin, the tide just barely high enough to hit his outstretched legs.
“No? Can’t I just appreciate the beauty of the ocean?” Green retorts, his eyes never leaving the waves in front of him.
“I guess… but come on, don’t you want to hang out with everyone?”
“I mean yeah? But the water is just so pretty today you know?” Green raises to his knees, slowly standing upright and breathing a deep breath of the salty sea air.
Green subconsciously takes a wobbly step forward, moving closer to the waves.
Orange grabs Green’s shoulder, turning their brother around and meeting his glossy eyes.
“Green, you’re clearly not okay, come sit down.” Orange lightly tugs on their brother’s shoulder, pulling him away from the water.
-the ocean is so beautiful, I just want… I want to be part of it’s beauty-
Green shrugs off Orange’s hand, walking faster towards the deep blue sea he is so enchanted by.
“Green! What are you doing?” Orange’s voice sounds murky and wrong, as if heard from deep underground.
-gotta get closer, the water is home-
Green takes a step into the waves, then another and another. An expression of pure joy crosses his face as the water hits his waist, it’s so cooling and calm…
“GREEN!” Orange yells out as he pulls Green back onto the shore, a large wave crashing down moments later.
-why is it gone? Where’s the water? Where is it?-
Green turns his head to Orange, a drowsy look on his features. His ears twitch, he isn’t sure if they should be able to do that.
“Water… where water?” Green questions as he slowly opens his eyes, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness. He raises a hand to itch at his face only to find something new on his skin, the scales that coat his cheeks.
“Green what the hell! You could’ve gotten hurt, or pulled out by the current!” Orange exclaims as they look Green over. “What’s with the- uhm- scales?”
“Huh? I don’t know.” Green responds half heartedly. “Can I go back in the water now?” He asks, eyeing the waves with a small smile.
“No! Absolutely not!” Orange scolds as they gently tug Green further away from the water, back over to their other siblings.
Orange all but drags Green to his chair, plopping their brother down and keeping a close eye as the rest of the group begins to gather.
“Green are you ok?” Blue asks through a mouthful of netherwart.
“You look like a fish! No offense…” Red exclaims before quickly covering his potentially self esteem damaging blunder.
“What in the world?” Yellow mumbles, adjusting his glasses to look over Greens new features better.
The new fin-like additions to Greens ears twitch again, moving slightly with every sound. He spreads his fingers to see the webbing between them, as if it were created for the waters.
“Water- where is- *eugh* I’m okay guys, just a bit thirsty…” Green responds to his siblings questions slowly, trying to tune into just one voice at a time. Red quickly hands Green a water, which he gladly accepts and chugs in one gulp as if it were nothing.
“Can I have another? Please.” Green opens his hands, holding them out in a grabbing gesture as he stares at the water cooler the gang had brought with them.
“Uh… sure?” Blue replies this time, grasping an unopened bottle in her hands. Green struggles with the bottle cap for a moment but not a single person could’ve known what he would do next…
Green bites down hard on the top of the plastic bottle, tearing away the cap with sharp canine teeth he definitely didn’t have before.
“Woah! calm down there dude.” Blue exclaims as she jumps back a little from the sudden feral action.
“Yeah it’s not that serious” Yellow butts in, all the while trying to make sense of their brothers odd changes.
“Too- too dry- hot- hot out here.” Green begins to stand from his chair, trying not to topple over.
“It’s really not. do you have a fever or something?” Orange asks, looking more and more concerned with every passing second.
“Can’t you- why don’t- the ocean is so loud guys, why can’t you hear it?” Green’s words are slurred as his environment feels hotter and drier by the second.
“Green, you really need to sit down.”
“Yeah, Blue is right, you look like you’re gonna pass out.” Red affirms.
“Are you sure you’re not, like, hallucinating or something Green?” Yellow offers the idea, but Green just shakes his head weakly.
“I- I don’t think- I don’t feel to good…” Green comments as he slumps into a sitting position only a few feet away from his chair.
“He looks dehydrated, Yellow can you get some ice from the cooler?” Blue begins to command the group as she moves to Green’s side.
Orange and Red quickly get the idea and pull one of their beach umbrellas out of the sand and over to Green.
“Deep breaths Green, deep breaths,” Blue soothes Green to the best of her ability, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as she speaks.
Yellow brings a handful of ice over to Green, holding out to him. Green grabs an ice cube and pops it in his mouth like a candy.
“It that helping?” Orange questions with worry in their eyes.
“B-better… much- much better.” Green murmurs as he takes in the cool feeling of the ice in his mouth.
Green’s family sit around him, all under the bright beach umbrella they’d brought with them. Each waiting for a turn to ask what happened -or rather is happening- to Green.
“Sorry guys… I don’t know what happened, it was just suddenly so hot.” Green explains, still chewing on the ice Yellow gave him.
“What’s with the scales and all that? You look like a fish person!” Red questions, tacking on that bit at the end for who knows what reason.
“Well he’s not really a fish, he has no tail.” Orange butts in, trying to latch onto the lighter mood the situation is taking on.
“Yeah but he’s all scaly.” Red retorts, false sass in his tone.
“So? Snakes are scaled too.” Orange returns, pushing Red slightly.
“Oh come on guys, he’s clearly just a bit dry. He’s not turning into some sort of fish-snake-person.” Blue shuts down the argument between her siblings, no longer paying attention to Green as the child like fight continues.
-maybe… maybe this isn’t so bad-
Green thinks to himself, blind to what’s still changing as his pupils become silted and his scales glitter in the dimmed light under the umbrella.
“G-Green? Are you… feeling alright?” Yellow pipes up, gently tapping Green on the shoulder to get his attention.
“Yeah. Still a bit warm but I’d call it okay.” Green responds, itching at a scaly spot on his shoulder.
A new, scale coated, strong, finned, tail lays behind Green now, seemingly forming from nothing in a matter of moments and attaching to the teen’s back. It twitches and flicks up sand from beneath itself occasionally yet he doesn’t notice.
“I hear it again… the water, Yellow, it feel like it’s calling out to me.” Green admits as he turns to Yellow, his pupils dilating and widening at the sight of his sibling.
“I don’t know what you’re hearing Green, but I want to help,” Yellow pauses, standing up and brushing sand off themself as their siblings bicker in the background. “So let’s go follow this ocean song of yours.”
“Actually?!” Green exclaims as he jumps to his feet, his new fishy tail wagging in the sand below him and kicking up dust.
“Actually. But you’re going to hold my hand the whole time okay?” Yellow smiles as they offer Green a hand, Green gladly accepts. He doesn’t want to get carried away either.
“What does the ocean sound like Green? I want to know what you’re hearing.”
“Well… it’s like a, what did you call it… liminal sound, like some kind of strange forgotten memory.” Green explains, smirking as Yellow’s eyes light up at that fact that, yes, he had payed some attention to their in-depth explanation of Backrooms lore last week.
“Like the lights buzzing in level 0? Or more like an eerie piano?” Yellow questions as they walk along side Green.
“Definitely the piano, it feels like the waves are singing to me.” Green answers, his voice becoming soft and detached as he approaches the water’s edge with Yellow.
“Alright, now let’s just take one step in okay?” Yellow suggests as they let the waves flow over their feet.
“Just one step… just one step…” Green repeats over and over as he slowly places one foot in the water, having to hold his tail with his free hand just to stop its wagging.
“You can take a few more, I’ll stop you from going to far.” Yellow steps forward a bit more, their hand still tightly held in Green’s webbed one.
Green smiles gently as he takes one more step, then two, then five, glancing back at Yellow every time just to make sure it’s okay. His tail begins to slosh in the water, happily moving in its natural environment.
“I’m gonna let go now Green,” Yellow states with a warm tone. Their hand slowly pulling away from Green’s, leaving him like a dog without a leash.
Green instantly dives deeper into the water, moving from ankles deep to waist deep in moments before just jumping in completely. Green’s tail splashes above water as Green himself swims in tiny circles around the now half submerged Yellow.
“Maybe Red’s fish theory is right,” Yellow jokes, earning a splash from Green.
“I’m not a fish! Fish have gills and stuff, I’m an amphibian!” Green replies as he resurfaces.
“Yeah but amphibian’s don’t have scales, idiot.” Yellow retorts as they send a splash right at Green’s face.
“I bet you can’t even spell amphibian!” Green counters, a smug expression on his scaly face.
“I doubt you can spell it.” Yellow quips back, chuckling as Green’s grin fades.
“Uhm… A-M-F-I-B-I-A-N?” Green’s own ego backfires on him as he tries to spell the word out.
“A-M-P-H-I-B-I-A-N, Green it’s a ‘PH’ not an ‘F’” Yellow jests, their own smirk growing as they splash at Green again.
“Yellow? Green? This is where you two ran off to?” Blue asks as she steps into the water, shivering as the waves hit her legs.
“Yeah, Green was antsy and I thought it would help.” Yellow responds as they walk closer to the shore, leaving Green alone in the deeper waters.
“Wait for me!” Green shouts as he darts through the water, moving into a sitting position slightly deeper in the water than Blue.
-I don’t know why this happened, but I like it, I like it a lot actually… I feel like I could sing about it.-
“So, you’re feeling better Green?” Blue asks, not really noticing Green’s gentle humming.
“Yeah, mhm… I’m kind of tired though.” Green replies with a distant, sing song tone. His tail splashes around in the shallow water like a finned whip.
“We can head home if you want.” Orange offers as they join everyone else on the shore, Red follows shortly after.
“Yeah, that’s alright with me.” Red adds.
“Same here,” Yellow agrees with a yawn.
“It’s getting late anyway, Alan is probably wondering where we are.” Blue jokes as she stands up, water dripping off her flower print swimsuit.
“Yeah, don’t wanna upset the mother hen!” Orange jokes, causing a chorus of laughter to escape their sibling’s lips.
“He really does act like that sometimes, just cause we’re young doesn’t mean we can’t fend for ourselves!” Green jokes as he stands from the shallows, shaking water off himself like a dog.
“Yeah, how are we supposed to explain all this though?”
“Who cares, we’ll work it out when we get there… right guys?” Green asks.
“For sure, we always do.” Orange replies.
“Alright, let’s head home .”