Merman
(I wrote this in 15 minutes as part of a writing exercise on how to write fast first drafts, I thought you guys might like it as just a fun little story. It's not Doctor Who, but it's sort of in that vein, odd, scifi/fantasyish and humorous.)
Merman
It sucked being a merman. Being a mermaid was fun, mermaids were traditional, they got all the attention, there was glamor associated with being mermaid, mermaids got cartoons.
Mermen, mostly got jibes.
It was sissy to be a merman. A triton was different, A triton was basically a tough, butch, fish-scaled man with two legs (and the appropriate appendages between) but a merman was basically a mermaid with the wrong top.
Sigh.
Oh well, you couldn’t change what you were born. And he did have long hair. Although he didn’t spend hours sitting on a rock combing it like the girls did. And he looked silly wearing two coconut shells on his chest.
The dolphins liked him, though. They thought he was awesome, He was strong enough to join them in dolphin tag, and tailball, and hunting. Girls tended to wear out faster.
But it was sort of lonely. There weren’t a lot of mermen. Most guy merpeople were tritons. But for some reason he’d been born with a tail. It was a handsome tail though. A very masculine tail, muscular and sleek, not at all sissy.
He flapped his flukes, they shimmered green and blue and sparkly purple. He could see the reef anemones through them (careful to keep them away from the poisonous spines.)
And he could swim faster than the tritons. A tail, especially a strong masculine tail like his, was much better for swimming than legs.
Although that means he couldn’t go up on land. You needed legs for that. And he didn’t transform like the girls did. He didn’t have a triton’s scaly legs, and it didn’t matter how many times he beached himself, or dried himself off in the sun, he still just had a tail. (And it got really itchy when it was dry.)
He didn’t really want to see what was on land anyway, from what he could tell it was just sand and weeds, and there was more colorful and interesting stuff under water.
But it would be nice if the girls didn’t treat him like one of the girls, and if the guys didn’t treat him like one of the girls.
He was a guy. Just because his guy parts were more discreet than a tritons, (more like the dolphins who kept it in their tail unless they were using it) didn’t mean he was a girl.
After all, he wasn’t even an ugly guy (from the waist up at least), he was just as wide shouldered and muscular as the tritons. He didn’t have scales on his upper torso, true. It would be nice if his shimmery blue, green, and purple scales covered all of him like it did on a triton. He had the pale, dolphin like skin of a mermaid, but it did cover nice bulgy muscles, strong arms, and strong fingers.
Give him a trident and he could wreak havoc just as well as any of the other males.
Sigh.
It just wasn’t fair.
He turned over in his conch shell and twirled a lock of long blond hair on his finger, brooding.
“Ah-hum,” a voice cleared beside him.
“Your highness, your father wishes to see you in the throne room.”
He sighed.
It was annoying to have a tail. But that was the curse of royalty.
All the Sea Kings had tails.
Merman
It sucked being a merman. Being a mermaid was fun, mermaids were traditional, they got all the attention, there was glamor associated with being mermaid, mermaids got cartoons.
Mermen, mostly got jibes.
It was sissy to be a merman. A triton was different, A triton was basically a tough, butch, fish-scaled man with two legs (and the appropriate appendages between) but a merman was basically a mermaid with the wrong top.
Sigh.
Oh well, you couldn’t change what you were born. And he did have long hair. Although he didn’t spend hours sitting on a rock combing it like the girls did. And he looked silly wearing two coconut shells on his chest.
The dolphins liked him, though. They thought he was awesome, He was strong enough to join them in dolphin tag, and tailball, and hunting. Girls tended to wear out faster.
But it was sort of lonely. There weren’t a lot of mermen. Most guy merpeople were tritons. But for some reason he’d been born with a tail. It was a handsome tail though. A very masculine tail, muscular and sleek, not at all sissy.
He flapped his flukes, they shimmered green and blue and sparkly purple. He could see the reef anemones through them (careful to keep them away from the poisonous spines.)
And he could swim faster than the tritons. A tail, especially a strong masculine tail like his, was much better for swimming than legs.
Although that means he couldn’t go up on land. You needed legs for that. And he didn’t transform like the girls did. He didn’t have a triton’s scaly legs, and it didn’t matter how many times he beached himself, or dried himself off in the sun, he still just had a tail. (And it got really itchy when it was dry.)
He didn’t really want to see what was on land anyway, from what he could tell it was just sand and weeds, and there was more colorful and interesting stuff under water.
But it would be nice if the girls didn’t treat him like one of the girls, and if the guys didn’t treat him like one of the girls.
He was a guy. Just because his guy parts were more discreet than a tritons, (more like the dolphins who kept it in their tail unless they were using it) didn’t mean he was a girl.
After all, he wasn’t even an ugly guy (from the waist up at least), he was just as wide shouldered and muscular as the tritons. He didn’t have scales on his upper torso, true. It would be nice if his shimmery blue, green, and purple scales covered all of him like it did on a triton. He had the pale, dolphin like skin of a mermaid, but it did cover nice bulgy muscles, strong arms, and strong fingers.
Give him a trident and he could wreak havoc just as well as any of the other males.
Sigh.
It just wasn’t fair.
He turned over in his conch shell and twirled a lock of long blond hair on his finger, brooding.
“Ah-hum,” a voice cleared beside him.
“Your highness, your father wishes to see you in the throne room.”
He sighed.
It was annoying to have a tail. But that was the curse of royalty.
All the Sea Kings had tails.