Octavius

The unknown origin story of a well-known villain

     Octavius had always been different, for he had been born without fins. Where all the other merfolk had strong, scaly tails, he had eight long black tentacles. His mother was a witch who died when he was very young and he had no father. Some said his father was an octopus which he refused to accept. Though merfolk loved all sea creatures, mating with them was a terrible act. Octavius was often called an abomination by complete strangers and there was no hiding his tentacles.
        The first day he saw Athena, he knew he was in love. The ten-year-old outcast was sitting in a cave by himself when a he heard the most enchanting music. He raised his eyes over the rocks just enough to see a merchild of maybe seven years, sitting on a few feet away singing to herself. The young mermaid had long hair as red as the setting sun and a smile just as beautiful. Octavius' silver hair, dark eyebrows, purple-ish grey skin, and sharp facial features could not have been more different from her fair skin, fiery hair and soft, sweet face. If he was darkness, she was light. Suddenly, she turned her head and saw him dart behind the rock again. 
        "Wait!" She cried but he was already swimming away. In his haste he let loose a cloud of ink that hid his escape from the ocean angel. He swam and swam until he reached an unfamiliar part of the ocean. A wrecked ship sunken down into grey sand provided the perfect hiding place. 
        He found a dark hole and slipped in, not noticing two big yellow eyes on each side of him.
        "Hiding are we?" Voices seemed to echo all around him.
        "Who's there?" He cried whirling around in the darkness.
        "Oh no one important." Out of the darkness, the yellow eyes appeared next to each other growing steadily closer.
        "Who are you?" He asked.
        "We are no one of consequence."
        "We?" At that moment the eyes separated until they were farther apart than Octavius' longest tentacles could reach. 
        "W-w-what are you?"
"Same as you we should think. Outcasts." As the glowing yellow eyes drew closer, Octavius swam backwards out of the ship.
        "Are you a monster?"
        "No more than you are, little misfit."
        "If you aren't a monster, come into the light!"
        "If you insist." Out of the darkness swam two giant eels, each with a single glowing eye and a single normal one. 
        "Your eyes... Why do they glow?" 
        "For the same reason you were born with those." They looked at his tentacles with something almost hungry in their glowing eyes. 
        "I don't know why I was born this way." He said, watching them suspiciously.
        "Nor do we know why we were born with these. What we do know, is that we were not given these by accident."
        "What do you mean?"
        "We have been waiting for someone like you."
        "Someone like me?"
        "Yes. Someone meant for greatness. Someone who is feared. Fear is power, you know."
        "Really?"
        "Oh yes. Fear can lead people to do many things."
        "Like what?"
        "Oh we don't know."
        "Well, that is hardly helpful." Octavius crossed his arms.
     "Oh, don't think we cannot be helpful. Why are you here little misfit?"
     "I was swimming away."
     "From?
     "... a girl." 
     The hissing voices cackled. "A girl was it?"
     "Don't laugh at me!"
     "So who was this girl?"
     "I don't know. She was beautiful though! Her hair was... and her VOICE... it was incredible."
     "Sounds lovely. So why are you here and not with her?"
     "She almost saw me! She would have been terrified! She would have called me an abomination and she would have been gone before I could open my mouth to ask her name."
     "Poor misfit. We don't see anything wrong with you."
     "Really?"
     "Certainly. Where do you live little misfit?"
     "Live?"
     "Yes."
     "Well, nowhere."
     "I that so?"
     "Yes."
     "If it pleased you, you could stay here."
     "You would let me live with you?"
     "Of course."
     Octavius thought for a moment; he had nowhere else to go. "I will accept your offer on one condition: Stop calling me 'misfit.' My name is Octavius."
        Octavius thrived in his new home for ten years before he saw Athena again. The eels taught him everything they knew about the ocean and it's creatures- most of which were the kind merfolk tried to avoid. His silver hair grew longer and his grey torso grew chiseled as his new caregivers taught him to swim faster and faster. As he changed though, his love for the mysterious red-haired beauty did not.
        His life with the eels taught him to be confident in himself, even though the merfolk still hated him. He was swimming through a coral reef one day when he heard the voice again. His normally haughty expression gave way to an intense eagerness as he tried to follow the sound. When finally he found her, Octavius could not believe his eyes.
She was more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. Her hair floated around her like a fiery halo. Though her face had thinned, it had not lost its softness. Her brilliant green eyes and full lips made his tentacles go weak. When she saw him, she seemed as delighted as he was, which was strange in itself because nobody was ever happy to see him. "It's you!" She said happily. "The boy with the silver hair!" Even when she only spoke, her voice was music to his ears. Octavius could not seem to make his mouth form any words so he just floated there with his mouth open like one of the eels. "Why did you swim away?" The mermaid asked. 
        "I... uh..."
        "I tried to follow you but I couldn't see you through all the ink." 
     The moment she mentioned the ink, he managed to form a few words: "I thought you would make fun of me if you saw me or swim away screaming."
        "Why would I do that?"
        "Well, look at me."
        "Are you going to ink again?"
        "No..."
        She looked at him for a moment. "Alright, I've looked at you. Now, tell me why you swam away."
        Octavius couldn't quite understand how the girl had managed to miss his eight long tentacles. He looked down at them and then back up at her.
        "Those?" She asked. "You thought those would scare me off?" He nodded. "If you had gotten to know me before disappearing," she said. "You would have known those didn't bother me?"
        "REALLY?"
        "I'm sure you've gotten a lot of grief during your life but I never saw you as some kind of monster. You have tentacles just like I have red hair. Done."
        Octavius would have told her he loved her right there if it weren't for the giant young merman that came gliding up. "Athena," he said, putting his arm around the beautiful mermaid. "I've been looking all over for you."
        "Sorry," she giggled. "I made a new friend, though." She smiled. "Triton, this is..."
        "Octavius."
        "Awesome name," she said through a sincere smile. The merman, however, was not as pleased. 
        "I've heard of you. You're the abomination, the son of a witch." He said with a deep voice. Though he was surely the same age has Octavius, he was much bigger. Where Octavius had lean, toned arms, this "Triton" had bulging muscles so there would be nothing more than a verbal conflict that day. 
        Athena was shocked at Triton's words. "Triton, stop it-"
        "I'm not an abomination! You're all just afraid of people who are different from you!"
        "Please, Octavius, not everyone is against you!" Athena pled.
        "They might as well be!" He screamed. "All my life, the only sin I've committed was my existence! I never hurt anyone, but still you jabbed at me!" Octavius swam right up to Triton's face. "Someday," he whispered. "You will be the weak one and you will feel what it's like to be helpless." At that he swam away, his tentacles moving him faster than any of the merfolks' tails ever could. Not that any of them tried to chase after him anyway.
        Octavius returned to shipwreck in a rage. "What's wrong?!" The eels asked.
        "For one moment I thought I could be normal, I thought I could be loved but no! Nobody could ever love... THIS!!!" He glared down at his flailing black tentacles and looked as though he were about to try and rip them off when the eels stopped him.
        "You are not to blame for their heartlessness. However, if you so choose, you could punish them the way they punish you. You could make them feel all the pain you have ever felt and more! Your mother was a witch- yes we knew her well. Her magic lives in you! Her power lies dormant in your heart just waiting to be released into the sea again! You could make them all suffer." The voices chanted feverishly in unison.
        "... Not all of them... Athena... She was kind..."
        "If she is with that merman, she is not with you and if she is not with you she is against you. They're children will grow to fear and hate you just as their father does... No, she too is the enemy."
        "You're right. She may not care that I am a monster, but she couldn't miss it. She is not blind." He screamed in despair once again.
        "Come away with us," the eels whispered. "Come away and we will teach you everything." Octavius looked back the way he had come. "There is nothing left for you here."
After a moment, Octavius gave a humorless laugh. "There was never anything to start with. 
     The next time, he saw the shipwreck, Octavius was returning as a father. He knew Athena had been married and had a few merchildren as well. While those children lived in luxury, for Triton was now king, his little daughter called a broken ship her home. He made sure though, that she never wanted for anything. The little tentacled child was well fed and rather plump. She had hair as silver as her father's hair and she looked at the eels as family. She grew up with a hatred for King Triton so strong that only her father could say he hated the merman more. She showed an affinity for magic almost from birth and Octavius was very proud of her. His baby, his sweet little Ursula...