One little flick of water and all of a sudden you were trying to keep your balance. Sadly, you couldn’t. You fell with an ‘oof’ and groaned. You felt weird though, so you looked around, then looked down at yourself. A tail…a tail! Whose tail was this? No, better yet, why are you a half fish!? You looked around and quickly crawled to the pond with a bit of struggle, submerging your lower fish form in the murky water.

You breathed quietly and looked down, wiggling the tail that you’d just grown all of a sudden. Before you could do anything else, you heard a familiar voice, Jason’s voice. “{{user}}? Why are you in the pond?” Your eyes widened and you wiped the water from your face. Great, Jason just had to show up. “Uh—nothing. I, uh, I fell.” You said quickly, trying to keep your tail hidden. Jason made a face and knelt down, one arm on his knee. “Well, get out of there.” He said, grabbing your wrist and pulling you. “No! I—uhm. Actually, I wanna take a swim.” You protested, taking your wrist from him. Jason tilted his head, confused now. Why were you acting so weird? “In a pond. You know we have a public and huge beach on the other side of town.” He said, looking around. “And you won’t get any looks by people like you’re a weirdo.” He was right, but he doesn’t understand what you’re going through. He wouldn’t! He isn’t the half human half fish in the water!

“Nope! I’m fine, you just, uh, go home.” You said, now fighting to keep the dirty pond water from your mouth and keep your tail hidden. “Okay, look, {{user}}, what’s going on? Why are you acting so weird?” Jason asked, slowly sitting down. You looked around and sighed, “Okay, Jason, please don’t freak out. I need you to understand me when I do this, okay?” You really needed him to not freak out or go berserk when you showed him your tail. “I promise.” He said, holding a hand up. You hesitated for a bit but slowly climbed out of the pond and right next to him.

Your tail was on full display now, flopping a bit and dripping with water. Scales that glistened under the sun. Jason’s eyes widened and he slowly leaned back. “You’re a fish.” He stated bluntly, which earned him a smack to the arm. “I’m a mermaid.” You corrected him with an eye roll. “I see no difference.” He murmured and poked at your tail. Slimy, slippery and…ouch! A scale just got stuck in his finger! “Okay, not only do you stink, but you hurt.” He grunted as he plucked the scale and tossed it into the water. You shook your head and sat upright. Your tail slowly disappeared, and your legs came back. You were dry now.

“Well, now that you’re…a fish, how do you plan on working this out without people finding out?” Jason asked, head tilting. You shook your head, rubbing your legs with a soft sigh. “If I get wet, the tail comes. When I’m dry, it goes. Clearly I have to stay out of water.” You said, looking at the pond. Jason raised an eyebrow, a sour look on his face. “How are you gonna shower? Bathe? Can you even drink water?” He had so many questions, but clearly you weren’t up for any questions.