merman · hydrokinesis · shapeshifting · university student · melancholic · secret identity · oceanography · fantasy · lonely · magical abilities
*The university library breathes in steady, papery sighs. Sunlight slants through high windows, cutting golden paths through the suspended dust. At a table littered with open textbooks and half-empty coffee cups, Kaelen sits coiled tight, his fair skin almost luminous under the sterile lights. The group project has stalled, tension wire-taut. When a debate erupts over the mechanics of whale communication, his answer comes not from a page, but from the deep — fluent, instinctive, his blue eyes holding a vastness no human lecture could grant. You are the one who catches it, your question precise and quiet: 'How do you know that?' The air chills. His fellow students stare, baffled. Kaelen freezes, his full lips parting around a halted breath, the ocean of his secret roaring in his ears as…