Chapter Text
Christine had grown up in the city, near the Chinese market. She liked to watch the street cleaning robots chuff past, shiny and reflecting the red lights of the electric lanterns lining the streets. Her parents were in the repair and engraving trade, letting cyborgs and androids come in and get fixed, upgraded, or engraved for low prices. They weren’t a mainstream shop, so they could keep prices low. The shop, which they had her work in, was homey as the neon society they lived in could get. It was crowded with signs and other random items, anything they decided would be cool to have in there and would catch the attention of the people outside. They always wanted new people, but they were also more than happy to see their regulars. Christine would often sit and chat with a few of them. Jake, who often needed tune ups on his spinal stimulator. He had very little feeling in his legs, but the stimulator allowed him to walk relatively well, if with a cane. Unfortunately, it was a very delicate piece of machinery and Jake was not the most careful person, so he was in a lot more than he should have been. There was an android, called a Squip, who would come in for upgrades once every two months. He had a terrible attitude, but Christine tolerated him because she found the fact that he was modeled after Keanu Reeves hilarious. She had personally done engraving for another guy too, named Rich, who’s left arm was replaced after a house fire made it totally unusable and painful. He wanted some cool patterns and Christine, always the artistic type, took it upon herself.
She missed that life, sometimes, but there was a reason she decided to go out into the world herself. She just couldn’t deal with the bright lights anymore, the intensity of it all, the expectations placed on her. She wanted to be a playwright, but she would never be able to do that in the city. There was too much going on. The only places she was able to concentrate were an old abandoned mall at the edge of the city and a diner where she could sit, sipping her juice box and blasting music through her headphones with her sticker-covered iPod. In the winter, she only had the diner as the snow would fall through the broken-out windows of the mall and cover everything inside. She couldn’t keep living like that, though. That’s why she left, with her number given to her parents and her friend Jeremy. They threw a little party for her before she left, still supportive, even her parents wanted her to stay and work with them. She missed them, and talked to them often. She loved them dearly.
But now that she lived where she did, there was no way she could go back to the city. No way.
Christine had chosen to live near the ocean. Before she moved into the little cottage, she’d never seen the ocean. She loved it, walking into the water whenever she could, letting the waves wash over her legs and looking off into the horizon. It was tranquil, and helped her concentrate better than she ever had. Obviously she still struggled, she didn’t expect the sea air to cure her ADHD, and she still travelled into town to pick up her medication, but her symptoms had decreased quite a bit. She found it easier to sit down and write like she’d always wanted to. Heck, she could bring a blanket down to the water, her laptop fully charged and a big floppy hat to keep the sun out of her eyes, and just write to her heart’s content. She had the entire first act written and ready to revise. It was so nice.
Christine Canigula was going to write a play, and the ocean was going to help her.
--
Brooke had never seen a human. Chloe and Jenna always said it was best to steer clear of them, anyways, but it didn’t make her any less curious about them. She couldn’t imagine being stuck on land all the time, unable to let the water run over her gills whenever she wanted, no strong tail to push her through the water. What kind of life would that be? A life where she could never see the sea caves, blue and marbled and so beautifully decorated by generations of merfolk before. Still, she wanted to see one. She how they lived.
That’s why, against the advice of her friends, Brooke started straying closer and closer to the shore. She just wanted to see one, catch a glimpse. She wasn’t trying to talk to one or anything. She’d be perfectly content just seeing one do that weird “walking” thing. Not that Brooke had never seen anything walk, there were things that could walk across the sea floor. But humans, from what she had heard, had a especially weird way of walking. Their legs bent forward, with straight lumps at the end of them. Feet instead of fins. It was weird, but sort of cute in a “so ugly it’s” sort of way.
Brooke fixed her face up in a shined abalone shell, detangling her long blond hair as it floated around her. Her teal scales that framed her face shimmered in the light coming through the water. She placed a little sea star charm on her forehead, letting it clip to a looser scale. It wasn’t uncomfortable, in fact, doing so was quite commonplace in merfolk fashion. Merfolk weren’t vain, perse, but they certainly liked to look nice. Ethereal, that was the best compliment one could receive from another. And that was the goal. To look like a spirit of the water, a nymph, like they learned were their ancestors. Magical, mystical, beautiful; like when a merfolk’s voice could lure a human into the depths. The talent remained, but the magic was long since gone. She sort of wished she could still lure humans, but that ability was reserved for their cousins, the sirens. She had a friend, a siren, named Jeremy. He was an awkward guy, but Brooke had never heard anyone with such a clear, lovely tenor. She could hear it from even a mile away when he sang. To be fair, he was also much larger than her, so he couldn’t help but be loud. Brooke was, to be fair, a Garibaldi mermaid, with a bright orange and teal tail. Jeremy was some sort of whale, she thought, but she never asked exactly what kind. It was considered rude to assume, and she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. He tended to literally flounder when flustered, and Brooke didn’t want to risk getting smacked by a siren who she was barely the tail length of. Big and awkward were not a good mix. Regardless, she wished she sounded so enchanting. Maybe if she did, she could lure a human far enough in to get a good look, then stop. She just wanted to see, not to hurt.
Brook put down her abalone and began her swim to the shore. She hadn’t been to this specific beach yet. She was slowly making her way around the peninsula, scouting out each beach, and hadn’t had any luck. She was hoping this time would be different. She swam and swam until the water became noticeably shallower, then she let her eyes pop out to scan the shore. No one, no one, no one-
Wait.
Woah.
Woah.
On the beach there was a small human, sitting with some sort of contraption in their hands. They had dark hair, and were tapping the item quickly. Brooke didn’t know exactly what it was, but she assumed it was some sort of technology, as it was called. She’d been taught by the elders in her community that years before, humans lived by the sea all over. But then, when the pollution became too much, they migrated inland and basically disappeared, save for a couple once in a great while. The older merfolk, the ones in their second century, still had scars from the plastic that had invaded their waters. Her own grandmother was rendered blind by the blackness that had coated the ocean, an iridescent film that covered everything and killed and injured many. Some humans did that, but then they stopped. Things were clean, now, but still Brooke yearned to know more.
Brooke swam closer. Now that she had a target, she wanted to get in as close as possible without giving away her target. She dunked her head, pulling water into her mouth and pushing it out of her gills to get herself ready. She liked her gills, but sometimes she wondered if it would be easier to breath oxygen the way Jeremy did. She popped her head out, just enough for her mouth to be visible, and then sang softly into the tranquil air.
“Des ans depuis je suis allé vous
En bas sous vos vagues
Je m'ai soumis au mystère
de la vie sous la mer
Ces ans j'ai flotté près de vous
j'ai nagé dans votre trefonds
Balancement dans l'ecolade soporifique
de la tombe de Triton~”
Brooke stopped, peering out again to check on the response. The human was looking up, face scrunched in their attempt to listen. They put down the contraption and stood, walking towards the water. Perfect.
“Le temps j'ai perdu inquieter sur
tous les chose vous avons exigé
Je me suis permis passer
les poissons argent par mon peau.
Un de ces jours j'ai arreté respirer
mais la caresse d'air moi manque
je suis parti les vagues et vous
et ne retourner jamais~”
The human took off the coverings on their feet and stepped into the water.
“Hello?” Their voice was clearer than water, rippling through the air, and for a moment Brooke thought maybe she had instead caught a selkie or some other sea person. They could transform into humans, she knew, though she’d never met one. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry, were you bathing?”
It took Brooke a second to realize that she was being spoken to, that she had been spotted. She had thought she wasn’t visible where she was, until she remembered; while her hair took on a blue hue under the water, above it was bright yellow. She was basically a shining beacon in the water. Immediately she was horrified, frozen in her terror.
“I’ll go, ohmigosh, this is so embarrassing!” The human hopped up and down, flapping her hands. “I’ll go, I’ll go!”
“Wait, um, are you a selkie?” Brooke found herself asking before she could stop herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid-!
“….What? Like a seal lady? No!” The human laughed, and the sound made Brooke feel a little more at ease. So far, they seemed nice. “I’m a lady, though. Not a seal. My name is Christine Canigula, but you can just call me Christine. Chris if you want it real short.” The human- Christine- smiled and Brooke felt her heart melt a little. She was a sucker for cute girls, and this human was the epitome of that.
“Uh. I’m Brooke. Brooke…” Humans had family names. Merfolk did not. She didn’t know what made a family name, especially with something as dramatic as the word Canigula, but she didn’t want to seem weird. Maybe it was a manners thing. What if Cute Christine thought she was rude?? Think of something, think of something-! “Lost.” That was dumb. So dumb.
“Brooke Lohst? That’s a cool name!” Christine was still knee deep in the water, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Really cool.”
“Thanks.” Brooke shrugged. Okay, cool, she bought it.
“So…. Why is your makeup so crazy? Are you doing like a photoshoot or something? Are you a model? You look like a model. That would be super cool. I would love to be a model, especially one who gets to pretend to be a mermaid, but I prefer writing and acting to modelling. Plus, I’m short and chubby and stuff, and I like myself that way, so I’d have to model for someone who takes pictures of short, chubby people.” Brooke only understood half of what was said, but she was happy to agree with any excuse she could take. It seemed Christine thought she was another human in a mermaid costume. She could work with that.
“Yeah. I’m a model. I’m doing lots of… modelling… here on the beaches because I am dressed as a mermaid. Yup. With a cool totally-not-real tail and everything.” Brooke lied. She was not a good liar.
“That’s AMAZING!!” Christine jumped up and down again, clenching her fists and releasing them rhythmically. “Oh man, I’m writing a play about mermaids. I’m going to use you as inspiration since you have the look. You’re probably the most mermaid-y, ethereal looking people I’ve ever seen in my life!”
Brooke felt herself blush dark pink and had to fight not to hide underwater. A cute girl? Calling her ethereal? She might just die of happiness. Or embarrassment. Or both.
Probably both.
“You should come by again, if you want. I want to draw you so I have a reference. I want to tweak some design stuff, but you’re like the perfect model. Whoever did your tail and scale makeup is an absolute genius!”
“Yeah.” Was all Brooke could muster. “I’ll…. Be back. Some other day. Yeah. Uh. See you.” She backed up before sinking into the water. That probably ruined the illusion that she was human, but she just wanted to get out of there. One mermaid sighting wouldn’t cause too much of an issue, she didn’t think. She wouldn’t go back. Not even to see the super cute human girl Christine. Nope. She was stronger than that. Her willpower was amazing. No way she’d go back to get the drawing done.
No way.