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keith is a mermaid. some people would prefer to call him “merman” but he doesn’t really care, and it’s not that big of a deal if guy mermaids are still called “mermaids.” he was born and raised off the coast of new jersey. he was a warm water mermaid. he had no clue how those who lived off the coast of washington survived. he’d always preferred the warmth, especially when he was a kid. he’d often swim up to the surface during summer to feel the sun on his face. that was kinda what led him to needing to flee, however.
you see, the older he got, the closer he would risk getting to the shore. and one time, someone found him. the guy who found him was named shiro, and keith learned that he had a passion for scuba diving. shiro didn’t seem scared or anything, when he saw keith. he was just intrigued. he talked to keith, asked him some questions, asked if they could meet again.
so they did.
they continued meeting up, seeing each other, asking each other questions, etc etc, for a long time. keith was 14 when he met shiro, 17 when he had to stop. when keith could, he’d go back to land with shiro. shiro would take him out to eat, or show him around the city, or take him on the rollercoasters on the boardwalk. they had a lot of fun. keith really treasured his time with shiro.
until the inevitable happened, and someone caught keith.
he wanted to take shiro to see some cool fish that were closer to where he lived, but apparently someone keith knew had followed him, and had seen keith with shiro. she reported keith to the head of their group, and he was set to have a trial to decide on punishment. you see, it was strictly prohibited for mermaids to come into contact with humans, and especially to go on land. even more than that, it was against the rules to bring a human even close to where they lived.
before the date of the trial, keith’s mom told him to leave. she said the rulings were always cruel, which keith knew, and that his best bet was to go. so, he did. he swam and swam and swam until he was outside of the deadzone: florida.
don’t ask keith why florida is the deadzone. he doesn’t know. it just is. no mermaids inhabit any of the area around florida, no mermaids travel there for fun, or for migration. it’s completely off the radar. so, it’s perfect for keith.
he doesn’t want to live alone as a mermaid, though. so, he walks on land, and he takes it upon himself to conform into the life of a human.
in the process of getting that settled, he discovers there are rules. yes, for living as a human in general, but mostly for living as a human when you’re actually a mermaid. he didn’t know about these rules before, and he doubt anyone else did either, because mermaids simply don’t live as humans.
the rules are numbered, but only by keith, and only so he can keep them organized.
rule number one: you must be fully submerged in water at least twice every twenty-four hours, at least once in the ocean. if you miss one, you pop a tail at the fifteen hour mark, with hints of it popping up starting at the twelve hour mark. the only way to get rid of this and to avoid suffocation is going into the ocean. if you miss both, you suffocate at the twenty four hour mark.
it’s harsh. keith’s discovery of that rule was unfortunate. his first day on land, at a diner eating a burger he bought with stolen money, he noticed scales on his wrist that he knew weren’t there when he first grew his legs that morning. his actual tail came out three hours later, when he was sitting in an empty alley, trying to come up with a plan. however, he was only about a half a block from the beach, so he did his best to drag himself to it, being careful not to be seen. it was one of the colder months in the beginning of the year, though, so not many people were at the beach, and for that, he thanked his lucky stars.
his discovery of the second part of that rule, the suffocating part, came twenty four hours later. he was just about to take a shower in the bathroom at a public gym when his tail popped the first time, so he was quick to get his legs back, but it wasn’t the ocean, so when the twenty four hour mark hit, he felt his throat closing up. he was, however, just a few feet away from the ocean. he’d been resting at an isolated cove he’d found, and he figured water might help, so he disrobed and walked into it, and it took away his pain.
rule number two: water doesn’t make you pop a tail unless you are fully submerged. bath? tail. shower? no tail, unless you try really really hard. swimming? tail. rain? tail if it’s heavy, no tail if it’s not.
rule number three: don’t fuck with the moon. all the lure around it is true. it will make you and all your senses hypersensitive when it’s out and full.
rule number four: speaking of the moon. if you miss going in the water once on the day of the full moon, you suffocate.
rule number five: don’t fall in love with humans. or you will be screwed.