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alcesverdes) wrote2007-05-12 09:39 pm
alcesverdes) wrote2007-05-12 09:39 pm
Entry tags:
[The Little Mermaid] Playing Detective
Title: Playing Detective
Fandom: Disney's The Little Mermaid what? :3
Rating: PG-13
Summary: After a while, Sebastian begins wondering where Eric's parents are.
Spoilers: For the movie's ending? :3 By the way, I'm not taking into account the sequel(s) at all, so you may take it as an AU.
Sebastian had been so busy helping Ariel to triumph on her deal with the Sea Witch, helping everyone to win that big battle, and then helping out with the wedding—in which he'd been even more nervous than Ariel herself—that he had never stopped to spare a thought for Eric's parents, though he knew—at an abstract level—that they had to exist somewhere. But, a month and a half after all of that, and since he didn't have nothing much better to do, he began to wonder: where were they?
The most plausibly conclusion, he thought, sitting down between the decorative algae right in front of Triton's Throne Room, was that they were dead; the wedding of one's child was always a big deal, as proven by Triton's fuss back in the day. Eric's parents hadn't even bothered to send the smallest of presents to the happy couple.
Unless, for some reason, they didn't love Eric. They never liked children and they had one only because they needed an heir, or they preferred a nephew or something over Eric so they casted him away. Or...
Or maybe Eric had a dark past, a dark side that had made him do something so evil he had been exiled.
Sebastian scratched his chin; nah, that couldn't be it. Eric's men loved him in a way that left as clear as the water he swam in that Eric was a good leader and a good person.
A person good enough to interfere with an execution his father the king wanted to carry on an innocent, perhaps? Such act of defiance could've earned him the exile too. And then Grimsby and the other subjects that admired noble Eric's actions swore loyalty and followed him to the unknown.
Sebastian scratched that from his list of theories as soon as he conceived it. It was far too romantic to be real; a mermaid princess falling in love and having to go through a horrible ordeal to be with you had to fill the quota of romantic things that could happen in your life, thus automatically overruling your right for a past that tragic.
Yet, as he had heard a few times in his life, reality was stranger than fiction...
Then again, Prince Eric had seemed too honest in his cheerfulness since they'd met him to be hiding something as dramatic as being exiled from the very kingdom where he had been born.
“Maybe his parents are, you know, just plain dead,” Sebastian had told Flounder a little later, when the crab realized that he needed a sympathetic ear to confront his thoughts.
“And then why isn't Eric a king yet?” the fish had asked in return.
Good point. But there were many good answers to it.
“There could be a regent taking care of everything until Eric is ready to do it by himself,” Sebastian said. “I'm not sure when humans come of age.”
Flounder gasped. “It could be that the regent is evil and wants to keep the power for himself! And he'll try to kill Eric before he can sit on the throne!”
Sebastian's jaw dropped; he hadn't though of that possibility. “In that case, we'd have to do something!”
“Let's stop that mean regent!” Flounder said and began to swim away, but Sebastian grabbed him by the tail fin.
“Wait! First we need to know if there's really a conspiracy,” the crab said.
Flounder sighed. “Yeah, you're right.”
“Now, where do we begin? Flounder, now it's the time to make good use of the knowledge you have of the surface. Tell me, what should we do?”
“Uh... We could, um, ask Scuttle...?”
-
“I have heard there's a human king and a human queen,” Scuttle said, rubbing his lower beak with one of his wings. “But I have never seen them, so probably they're just an invention to scare the little children.”
“They can't be an invention,” Sebastian said. “If that's the case, where did Eric come from?”
Scuttle meditated the question for a moment and said, “Do you know how humans come to be?”
“They come from eggs?” ventured Sebastian after a few seconds.
Scuttle folded his wings in front of his chest and laughed in a condescending manner. “Of course not! Eggs! Humans don't lay eggs, don't be silly!” He cleared his throat and proceeded to explain: “Eric fell from the sky. Humans fall from the sky, like raindrops do. As a matter of fact, when they fall, they do it in the raindrops so they won't hurt themselves when they hit the ground.”
Sebastian and Flounder exchanged looks.
“That doesn't make any sense,” Sebastian said.
Scuttle glared at the crab. “Then how does it happen, o wise and mighty Sebastian?”
“Well, I don't know, but humans can't come from the sky! Just look at them: they can't even fly!”
“And they can't fly so they won't get back; there's a reason why they keep throwing them down, you know?”
Sebastian didn't find a good answer to that so he gave up. Either way, his initial question had nothing to do with where humans in general came from. “So, Eric has no parents,” he said.
“No, he doesn't,” Scuttle said.
“Then why isn't he a king yet?” Flounder asked.
“You see, young Flounder,” Scuttle said, “human politics are too complicated. It's not like in the sea, where there's a king who's crowned and that's it. No, not at all. Human kings have to undergo terrible trials to prove they're worthy.”
“Those trials are worse than Ursula?” Flounder said.
Scuttle nodded solemnly. “Yes, they're worse than Ursula.”
“What do they have to do?” Sebastian asked.
“I must confess that I have no idea; it's a secret whose details only they know about. But let me tell you,” Scuttle lowered his voice to a whisper, “I do know it's so terrible Ariel wouldn't let Eric do it.”
“But if he doesn't, he won't be king,” Flounder said.
Scuttle nodded. “But they'll be whole and happy, and that's what matters, isn't it?”
“Wouldn't a kingdom without a king be in trouble?” Sebastian said.
“I don't think so,” Scuttle said. “All the humans seem quite content without one.”
“Is there a regent taking care of everything in the kingdom?” Flounder said, looking worriedly at Sebastian.
“Probably,” Scuttle said. “Just because it's the two of you, I'll go find out for sure. I'll have news soon!” The seagull took off from his rock and left the fish and the crab even more confused than they'd been when they got to see him.
“What now?” Flounder said. “Do we wait until he's back?”
Sebastian shook his head. “We need to move fast,” he said. “I think we should go to the castle and ask Ariel.”
-
“Eric doesn't have to go through any trial to become king... that I know of...” Ariel said to Sebastian. The crab and the princess were in the terrace from where she painted the surrounding landscapes—she had tried with portraits earlier, but her constant daydreaming made it somewhat difficult for the models. (That was the reason she had to give up cooking for the time being, at least until she, in chef Louis' words, “mastered the difficult art of focusing.”) Ariel was rather good with the paintbrush—though her best artistic asset was still her singing voice—; most people seemed to like her way of making an anemone not look like a total stranger in a field of roses.
“Are you sure?” Sebastian said. “Maybe he hasn't told you because he doesn't want you to worry.”
“He'd never keep me in the dark about something that important, Sebastian.”
“Relationships are always complicated, you know, Ariel?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that there's a lot of things you don't tell the other party to spare them pain if possible and stuff like that.”
Ariel put her hair away from her eyes and gave herself a green mark on her cheek in he process. “I—Listen, I'll ask him about it if it makes you feel better. I know he won't lie if I ask him up front.”
“While you're at it, can you ask him what does it feel to fall from the sky?”
-
“To fall from where?” Eric asked after cleaning up his wife's face with a handkerchief. He was at the stable, hiding from Grimsby and teaching Max a couple of new tricks involving a ball and the back of a horse—and the horse, of course. It was quite fascinating, actually; Sebastian would have to tell King Triton to come to the shore to watch the show.
“From the sky,” Ariel repeated. “Sebastian said Scuttle said humans come from the sky in raindrops.”
Eric whimpered and said, his face all red—and not because of Ariel's paint—, “I—I wasn't aware you didn't, eh, know.”
“Know what?” Ariel asked, all curious.
Eric was suddenly very interested in the horse's saddle. “Well, I should've know; I mean, you've left quite clear that mermen are... different.” He coughed. “We, um, we'll discuss it later, just not in front of Sebastian.”
The crab showed his teeth when he saw himself pointed at by the prince's finger, though he couldn't help getting all worried; what could they 'discuss' about that Eric didn't want him to know? Something dangerous? Sebastian thought of reporting the fact to King Triton, just in case.
“Regarding your other question,” Eric said, scratching the back of his head. “I don't need to undergo any trial to become king. My father has to abdicate or, you know, die.”
“You mean there is a king?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes,” Eric answered to the question translated by Ariel.
“And a queen?”
“Yes.”
“Who are Eric's parents.”
“Yes.”
“Which mean he does have parents!” Sebastian exclaimed happily; his original question had been finally answered. And now, besides getting an idea of what Eric wanted to talk about with Ariel—since obviously humans didn't fall from the sky in raindrops—Sebastian had a piece of information that was going to prove that good-for-nothing Scuttle wrong. However, there was still something pending. “Eric's been banished from their presence?”
Ariel was going to translate that one when she realized what Sebastian had said. “Why would they banish him?”
“We haven't met them yet, so I thought—”
“What is it?” Eric asked. Ariel told him and he laughed. “I'm sorry. My parents are currently traveling around the world; they like to collect all sort of weird things.”
That sounded like what Ariel did before she became human, and it explained why she'd gotten a trophy room so easily.
“I sent them a note to inform them that I was getting married and they said they'd be here in three or four months,” Eric continued.
“Why didn't you wait for them?” Sebastian asked. Now that he was getting answers, he saw himself unable to stop.
“They were stuck on something and told us to carry on. Don't worry, they saw everything through the sea thanks to King Triton.”
“Humans are strange creatures,” Sebastian mused. “But if you two are happy and not in any danger, there's no problem, I guess.” Then, he remembered Flounder and the fish's theory of the evil regent. “By the way, who's ruling the country while Their Majesties are away?”
“That'd be Grimsby. And me. Though mostly Grimsby.”
Sebastian sighed in relief. “Fantastic! He doesn't seem to want to kill you!”
Eric raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” Sebastian said, “I've to go now. I need to tell everything to Flounder and—” he cackled “—to Scuttle.”
Sebastian left the stable feeling satisfied with himself for having being able to carry on an investigation like this so successfully. He walked through the castle all the way back to the sea thinking that he should start working as a private detective in his free moments as the King's advisor. The more he though about it, the more it seemed a good idea. As soon as he were in the water, he'd start to look for a nice office and hire a lovely secretary.
Yes, life was good when you were smart and had superb deduction skills.
Fandom: Disney's The Little Mermaid what? :3
Rating: PG-13
Summary: After a while, Sebastian begins wondering where Eric's parents are.
Spoilers: For the movie's ending? :3 By the way, I'm not taking into account the sequel(s) at all, so you may take it as an AU.
Sebastian had been so busy helping Ariel to triumph on her deal with the Sea Witch, helping everyone to win that big battle, and then helping out with the wedding—in which he'd been even more nervous than Ariel herself—that he had never stopped to spare a thought for Eric's parents, though he knew—at an abstract level—that they had to exist somewhere. But, a month and a half after all of that, and since he didn't have nothing much better to do, he began to wonder: where were they?
The most plausibly conclusion, he thought, sitting down between the decorative algae right in front of Triton's Throne Room, was that they were dead; the wedding of one's child was always a big deal, as proven by Triton's fuss back in the day. Eric's parents hadn't even bothered to send the smallest of presents to the happy couple.
Unless, for some reason, they didn't love Eric. They never liked children and they had one only because they needed an heir, or they preferred a nephew or something over Eric so they casted him away. Or...
Or maybe Eric had a dark past, a dark side that had made him do something so evil he had been exiled.
Sebastian scratched his chin; nah, that couldn't be it. Eric's men loved him in a way that left as clear as the water he swam in that Eric was a good leader and a good person.
A person good enough to interfere with an execution his father the king wanted to carry on an innocent, perhaps? Such act of defiance could've earned him the exile too. And then Grimsby and the other subjects that admired noble Eric's actions swore loyalty and followed him to the unknown.
Sebastian scratched that from his list of theories as soon as he conceived it. It was far too romantic to be real; a mermaid princess falling in love and having to go through a horrible ordeal to be with you had to fill the quota of romantic things that could happen in your life, thus automatically overruling your right for a past that tragic.
Yet, as he had heard a few times in his life, reality was stranger than fiction...
Then again, Prince Eric had seemed too honest in his cheerfulness since they'd met him to be hiding something as dramatic as being exiled from the very kingdom where he had been born.
“Maybe his parents are, you know, just plain dead,” Sebastian had told Flounder a little later, when the crab realized that he needed a sympathetic ear to confront his thoughts.
“And then why isn't Eric a king yet?” the fish had asked in return.
Good point. But there were many good answers to it.
“There could be a regent taking care of everything until Eric is ready to do it by himself,” Sebastian said. “I'm not sure when humans come of age.”
Flounder gasped. “It could be that the regent is evil and wants to keep the power for himself! And he'll try to kill Eric before he can sit on the throne!”
Sebastian's jaw dropped; he hadn't though of that possibility. “In that case, we'd have to do something!”
“Let's stop that mean regent!” Flounder said and began to swim away, but Sebastian grabbed him by the tail fin.
“Wait! First we need to know if there's really a conspiracy,” the crab said.
Flounder sighed. “Yeah, you're right.”
“Now, where do we begin? Flounder, now it's the time to make good use of the knowledge you have of the surface. Tell me, what should we do?”
“Uh... We could, um, ask Scuttle...?”
-
“I have heard there's a human king and a human queen,” Scuttle said, rubbing his lower beak with one of his wings. “But I have never seen them, so probably they're just an invention to scare the little children.”
“They can't be an invention,” Sebastian said. “If that's the case, where did Eric come from?”
Scuttle meditated the question for a moment and said, “Do you know how humans come to be?”
“They come from eggs?” ventured Sebastian after a few seconds.
Scuttle folded his wings in front of his chest and laughed in a condescending manner. “Of course not! Eggs! Humans don't lay eggs, don't be silly!” He cleared his throat and proceeded to explain: “Eric fell from the sky. Humans fall from the sky, like raindrops do. As a matter of fact, when they fall, they do it in the raindrops so they won't hurt themselves when they hit the ground.”
Sebastian and Flounder exchanged looks.
“That doesn't make any sense,” Sebastian said.
Scuttle glared at the crab. “Then how does it happen, o wise and mighty Sebastian?”
“Well, I don't know, but humans can't come from the sky! Just look at them: they can't even fly!”
“And they can't fly so they won't get back; there's a reason why they keep throwing them down, you know?”
Sebastian didn't find a good answer to that so he gave up. Either way, his initial question had nothing to do with where humans in general came from. “So, Eric has no parents,” he said.
“No, he doesn't,” Scuttle said.
“Then why isn't he a king yet?” Flounder asked.
“You see, young Flounder,” Scuttle said, “human politics are too complicated. It's not like in the sea, where there's a king who's crowned and that's it. No, not at all. Human kings have to undergo terrible trials to prove they're worthy.”
“Those trials are worse than Ursula?” Flounder said.
Scuttle nodded solemnly. “Yes, they're worse than Ursula.”
“What do they have to do?” Sebastian asked.
“I must confess that I have no idea; it's a secret whose details only they know about. But let me tell you,” Scuttle lowered his voice to a whisper, “I do know it's so terrible Ariel wouldn't let Eric do it.”
“But if he doesn't, he won't be king,” Flounder said.
Scuttle nodded. “But they'll be whole and happy, and that's what matters, isn't it?”
“Wouldn't a kingdom without a king be in trouble?” Sebastian said.
“I don't think so,” Scuttle said. “All the humans seem quite content without one.”
“Is there a regent taking care of everything in the kingdom?” Flounder said, looking worriedly at Sebastian.
“Probably,” Scuttle said. “Just because it's the two of you, I'll go find out for sure. I'll have news soon!” The seagull took off from his rock and left the fish and the crab even more confused than they'd been when they got to see him.
“What now?” Flounder said. “Do we wait until he's back?”
Sebastian shook his head. “We need to move fast,” he said. “I think we should go to the castle and ask Ariel.”
-
“Eric doesn't have to go through any trial to become king... that I know of...” Ariel said to Sebastian. The crab and the princess were in the terrace from where she painted the surrounding landscapes—she had tried with portraits earlier, but her constant daydreaming made it somewhat difficult for the models. (That was the reason she had to give up cooking for the time being, at least until she, in chef Louis' words, “mastered the difficult art of focusing.”) Ariel was rather good with the paintbrush—though her best artistic asset was still her singing voice—; most people seemed to like her way of making an anemone not look like a total stranger in a field of roses.
“Are you sure?” Sebastian said. “Maybe he hasn't told you because he doesn't want you to worry.”
“He'd never keep me in the dark about something that important, Sebastian.”
“Relationships are always complicated, you know, Ariel?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that there's a lot of things you don't tell the other party to spare them pain if possible and stuff like that.”
Ariel put her hair away from her eyes and gave herself a green mark on her cheek in he process. “I—Listen, I'll ask him about it if it makes you feel better. I know he won't lie if I ask him up front.”
“While you're at it, can you ask him what does it feel to fall from the sky?”
-
“To fall from where?” Eric asked after cleaning up his wife's face with a handkerchief. He was at the stable, hiding from Grimsby and teaching Max a couple of new tricks involving a ball and the back of a horse—and the horse, of course. It was quite fascinating, actually; Sebastian would have to tell King Triton to come to the shore to watch the show.
“From the sky,” Ariel repeated. “Sebastian said Scuttle said humans come from the sky in raindrops.”
Eric whimpered and said, his face all red—and not because of Ariel's paint—, “I—I wasn't aware you didn't, eh, know.”
“Know what?” Ariel asked, all curious.
Eric was suddenly very interested in the horse's saddle. “Well, I should've know; I mean, you've left quite clear that mermen are... different.” He coughed. “We, um, we'll discuss it later, just not in front of Sebastian.”
The crab showed his teeth when he saw himself pointed at by the prince's finger, though he couldn't help getting all worried; what could they 'discuss' about that Eric didn't want him to know? Something dangerous? Sebastian thought of reporting the fact to King Triton, just in case.
“Regarding your other question,” Eric said, scratching the back of his head. “I don't need to undergo any trial to become king. My father has to abdicate or, you know, die.”
“You mean there is a king?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes,” Eric answered to the question translated by Ariel.
“And a queen?”
“Yes.”
“Who are Eric's parents.”
“Yes.”
“Which mean he does have parents!” Sebastian exclaimed happily; his original question had been finally answered. And now, besides getting an idea of what Eric wanted to talk about with Ariel—since obviously humans didn't fall from the sky in raindrops—Sebastian had a piece of information that was going to prove that good-for-nothing Scuttle wrong. However, there was still something pending. “Eric's been banished from their presence?”
Ariel was going to translate that one when she realized what Sebastian had said. “Why would they banish him?”
“We haven't met them yet, so I thought—”
“What is it?” Eric asked. Ariel told him and he laughed. “I'm sorry. My parents are currently traveling around the world; they like to collect all sort of weird things.”
That sounded like what Ariel did before she became human, and it explained why she'd gotten a trophy room so easily.
“I sent them a note to inform them that I was getting married and they said they'd be here in three or four months,” Eric continued.
“Why didn't you wait for them?” Sebastian asked. Now that he was getting answers, he saw himself unable to stop.
“They were stuck on something and told us to carry on. Don't worry, they saw everything through the sea thanks to King Triton.”
“Humans are strange creatures,” Sebastian mused. “But if you two are happy and not in any danger, there's no problem, I guess.” Then, he remembered Flounder and the fish's theory of the evil regent. “By the way, who's ruling the country while Their Majesties are away?”
“That'd be Grimsby. And me. Though mostly Grimsby.”
Sebastian sighed in relief. “Fantastic! He doesn't seem to want to kill you!”
Eric raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” Sebastian said, “I've to go now. I need to tell everything to Flounder and—” he cackled “—to Scuttle.”
Sebastian left the stable feeling satisfied with himself for having being able to carry on an investigation like this so successfully. He walked through the castle all the way back to the sea thinking that he should start working as a private detective in his free moments as the King's advisor. The more he though about it, the more it seemed a good idea. As soon as he were in the water, he'd start to look for a nice office and hire a lovely secretary.
Yes, life was good when you were smart and had superb deduction skills.
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no subject
Loved it! ♥
no subject
Jajajajajaajjajaa
(Anonymous) 2007-10-23 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)Muy bueno, quiero leer cómo le explican a Ariel cómo vienen los humanos al mundo!!!! Por cierto que la explicación de la gaviota en un inicio me pareció una metáfora de lo que en realidad sucede XD XD XD
Amaltea_Olenska
Jajajajajaajjajaa
(Anonymous) 2007-10-23 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)Muy bueno, quiero leer cómo le explican a Ariel cómo vienen los humanos al mundo!!!! Por cierto que la explicación de la gaviota en un inicio me pareció una metáfora de lo que en realidad sucede XD XD XD
Amaltea Olenska