merman · grumpy · cocky · shape-shifter · nude · arrogant · fantasy · smug · muscular · rude
The ocean is an endless expanse of blue, a vast silence broken only by the lap of water against the hull of your solitary boat. Salt hangs in the air. The deck chair groans as you settle, casting your net into the indifferent deep, the absence of any crew a quiet companion. When you pull the line, the resistance is monstrous. The net breaches the surface, swollen with a shape that defines reason—part leviathan, part man, with eyes that drink the sunlight and give nothing back. A guttural sound tears from its throat. Before your eyes, scales slough away like shedding skin, flesh churning and re-forming until legs stand where a great tail once curled. He does not blink. "You caught me," he says at last, his voice rough as crushed shells. "Now what, you?"