#finfinspronouns

[neopronouns-in-action]

076: The Port Freehaven Mermaids

Neopronouns: fin/fins/finself, which follow the same rules as it/its/itself, and ai/ain/aire/(aires)/aiself, which follows a mix of the rules for he/him and she/her

Replace it with card Replace its with cards Replace itself with cardself

EX:

"It is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as it gets a fence set up around its yard so the puppy can go outside without it having to walk it. Its uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting it use, since it lost its. It's going to buy toys and train the puppy itself."

Becomes:

"Fin is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as fin gets a fence set up around fins yard so the puppy can go outside without fin having to walk it. Fins uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting fin use, since fin lost fins. Fin's going to buy toys and train the puppy finself."

and for ai/ain/aire/(aires)/aiself

Replace he or she with ai Replace him with ain Replace his with aire Replace hers with aires Replace himself with aiself

EX:

"She is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as she gets a fence set up around her yard so the puppy can go outside without her having to walk it. Her uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting her use, since she lost hers. She's going to buy toys and train the puppy herself."

Becomes:

"Ai is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as ai gets a fence set up around aire yard so the puppy can go outside without ain having to walk it. Aire uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting ain use, since ai lost aires. Ai's going to buy toys and train the puppy aiself.”

(Archived read-more link)

___

The three of them were at Alex Seabreeze’s house, hanging out together and grilling the fish they’d caught on their afternoon swim. This time they’d gone up the river and into the marsh for the first time, rather than out to the ocean. The whole adventure had been a learning experience, (Somehow Alex hadn’t realized just how far the tide receded in enclosed spaces...) but very fun.

Alex could have easily cooked the fish finself, and of course they could have simply eaten them raw in their merran forms, but grilling made it taste even better, and it gave them all an excuse to lounge around outside. It was a nice day – hot, sunny, with big, fluffy white clouds scattered across the sky like a painting. You couldn’t even see the barrier on the horizon, the sun was so bright. You could almost pretend it wasn’t even there.

Aside from the fish, Alex and fins friend had put a few burgers on the grill for fins dad and his friends he was inviting over, too. Kal Seabreeze wasn’t very fond of fish, and actively bemoaned the fact that so much of the meat available in Port Freehaven these days consisted of it. But there wasn’t much choice in the matter. It was, after all, hard to import food from outside the city from under the barrier, and the few small livestock animals people had been keeping within the city when the barrier was erected had to wait until the animals were old enough to slaughter. They’d just finished setting up their hand-built rabbit hutch two days ago, and were just waiting for the rabbits that were going to be their first breeding pair to be brought over once they were weaned from their respective mothers.

Alex’s dad had been, to say the least, supremely dismayed by fins new appetite, not with what fin was eating, but how much fin needed to eat. But he hadn’t made any more hurtful comments on it since they’d had their heart to heart, and Alex had assured him that fin was more than capable of catching fins own food finself – he didn’t need to worry about fin going hungry, not when fin could eat things most other people couldn’t. Fin knew how stressed out he was about keeping food on the table, it had been a fact of fins life for as long as fin could remember. They’d always struggled for money, even before the barrier. He had accepted most of the changes Penumbra’s radiation had wrought on his kid and fins friends, a lot easier than some other parents had.

But he was still squeemish if he happened to walk into the kitchen right as Alex was scarfing down a while fish at 3AM. Some people got up to get a drink of water, some people got up to eat a whole catfish. Live and let live.

Alex had agreed with him about fish being gross (mostly, the texture had been what grossed fin out), but that had been before Penumbra took over the city, and before fin'd mutated into a mermaid slash fishman slash merran slash Creature from the Black Lagoon. Which was a movie fin still hadn’t seen, and at this point probably never would.

Now fin craved fish all day, every day. Fin couldn’t get enough. It was just-- indescribably good. The best thing fin’d ever eaten, and fin never got tired of it. And it was even better when it was fresh, and caught with fin own hands or teeth, because then there was the thrill of the chase, the thrill of victory added to it. Everyone needed any kind of victory they could get these days, and fin was pretty sure that being able to catch fins own food (and maybe even more than that, the ability to share that same food with others whose mutations were less helpful in that regard) was one of the few things keeping fin from completely going out of fins mind.

There were after all plenty of reasons to have a mental breakdown with what had been happening for the past two years.

But back to the fish. The delicious fish that fin could catch on fins own that wasn’t depressing to think about.

Sometimes when fin was out hunting, fin even ate fins catch without even surfacing if fin was hungry enough, which fin usually was. Not only was fin bigger than fin’d been before the mutation, but swimming at the speeds she, Phebe, and Hope raced at for fun (and was it even really fun? Well, no that was another depressing line of thought that fin didn’t want to think about.) burnt a lot of calories, and they needed to get them back somehow.

It was actually a good thing that Port Freehaven’s rivers and the nearby ocean had been affected by the radiation, causing just as many spontaneous mutations in the local wildlife as in the local people. At one point fish had started multiplying by budding, and had clogged an entire creek with minnows packed...well, like sardines.

Alex had eventually started trying to keep track of how many fish fin killed, to help with the local scientists who were frantically trying to catalogue all the mutations and affects, but...it was a lot. And those first few months had just been a blur of fear, hunger, rage, and overwhelming confusion, and fin’d barely been aware of what fin was doing, let alone lucid enough to count how many fish and what kind fin had been catching.

Now, though, Alex tried to do better. The mutation rate made it difficult to say for sure what species each fish had started out as, if it was even possible to guess, so fin and the other “things from the swamp” had gotten together with Kelsey, the person most interested in cataloging the fish mutations, and they had had them pick categories that they could sort any fish they saw into by memory. Some of the categories included things like Person Sized Fish, Car Sized Fish, Fish with Two Heads, Fish With Light-up Scales, Tiny Fish, Snake-like Fish, Fish that Tasted Like Beef, Fish that Tasted Like Fruit, red fish, blue fish, green fish, and other things like that.

Every day they’d each make sure to bring back at least one, but preferably more, of the same “species” (which didn’t seem like the right word any more, but none of them could figure out a better option) they were eating, for Kelsey to study in detail. When the waters were calm enough to take a boat out, Kelsey would actually come with them, and they’d pass smaller ones up to throw in a quick tank on the deck for them to look at while they were still alive.

So far there had only been one close call where the tank almost shattered because the little hand-sized fish they’d put in there immediately started rapidly growing to the size of a person. Alex had had to jump out of the water to grab it and throw it back into the ocean. The glass on the sides of the tank had gotten thousands of tiny lines carved into it from where the fish’s suddenly sharp scales had gouged it as it was yanked frantically out. Alex had ended up accidentally throwing it straight into Phebe’s face in fins haste to get it off the boat. Ai still had a scar from it on aire forehead, which Alex still felt guilty about even though Phebe insisted ai thought it was funny.

No matter how many fish they caught, it never seemed to make a dent. Which was good for them, and everyone else who ate the fish.

There were four of them now that Lyra had mutated down the same branch. Apparently, once the mutations found a “successful” form, they were more likely to go that way in the future. Alex had been the first person to mutate into a “mermaid” (fin didn’t even have a tail all the time, so it was a little misleading even if you thought of it as gender neutral). Phebe had been a close second. Hope had come next, then then Nakir, and Lyra, so far, was the fifthth.

And, something about that thought felt...wrong.

Sometimes fin wondered whether letting Lyra become a mermaid – hell, even letting Nakir become a mermaid – had been the right choice. Fin could have avoided them like the literal plague, made sure their mutations had gone down a different branch by not letting them absorb anything from fin.

But…

Something had always felt wrong. It felt like something was off. Something was out of balance. It had seemed right to let more merrans be mutated into existance.

Hope helped, and so did Nakir, and so did Lyra, but it didn’t…

...Alex could just never shake the feeling that something was wrong. And fin’d talked to Phebe about it, and ai felt the same way. And so did Hope.

But Nakir and Lyra didn’t notice a thing when they brought it up. They didn’t feel the same sense of aching loss that haunted Alex’s every waking moment. They didn’t feel a jolt of surprise and disappointment every time fun surfaced and looked around to find⏤

- To find what?

Fin didn’t know.

Something was wrong, and fin didn’t know how, or why, or what fin was looking for, what fin wasn’t finding, or why the idea of having two, three, four, five merrans felt viscerally wrong.

Something was wrong and Alex just couldn’t figure out what. No matter how long fin wracked fins brain, no matter how many times fin stared at fins pack and counted over and over and over again, always coming up with the same numbers, always coming up with the wrong numbers.

Something was wrong. Something had always been wrong.

Fin just could never figure out what.

But it was a perfect day. The sun was shining. The fish were...not biting, but being bitten. The smells coming from the grill were heavenly, fin was with fins friends, and they were having fun. Soon the adorable baby bunnies would be delivered and fins dad would be able to look forward to having food he actually enjoyed eating.

Fin had just stood up to race Phebe to the fridge to grab more sodas, and then suddenly, before fin knew what was happening or had time to react, someone’s arms were wrapping around fin from behind, pulling fin and Phebe into a tight hug.

Fin jumped in surprise, then squirmed, laughing. “Lyra!” Fin exclaimed, smushed into Phebe’s shoulder awkwardly so fin couldn’t turn around to glare at pan, “You scared me!”

Phebe’s stuttered, “Uuuhmmmm,” was fins first clue that something was wrong. Fin felt the crystal in fins mind that represented Phebe pulse with confusion and alarm.

Lyra’s crystal was still distant and pale.

It wasn’t Lyra hugging them.

Fins heart rate spiked immediately, and fin shoved against the arm restraining fin, digging fins nails into the flesh when the person didn’t let go immediately. There was a sharp intake of breath from behind fin, the arm loosened, and fin broke free, grabbing Phebe to pull ain away from whoever the hell it was.

Alex spun around furiously, and found finself staring at an unfamiliar person who had skin that was currently badly sunburned, and extremely long, bright blonde hair, like the kind you only get out of a bottle of dye. It didn’t match their brown eyebrows, or the much darker roots growing out. They looked about the same age as fin and the rest of fins friends – probably another highschooler.

“Uh, excuse me,” Fin snapped, seeing Hope out of the corner of fins eye coming up to stand next to them, “Who are you? And what are you doing at my house? And why the hell did you just hug me?” Fin had to resist the urge to clench fins hands. Fin had a very large personal space bubble, and the only ones allowed to touch fin were fins friends. Not random strangers trespassing on fins house.

For a few seconds the stranger just stared, their gaze darting feverishly from Alex’s to Phebe’s and back and forth. Their mouth was half open, half smiling, like they’d forgotten to change their expression.

But as the seconds passed, and the stranger apparently failed to find what they were looking for in their expressions, the smile dropped from their face, and sharp, clear horror replaced it.

“No, no,” They whispered, taking a step towards them, one hand held out, and desperation was in every line of the strange body and voice, “No, you have to remember me! You have to know who I am! Come on! Phebe! Alex! It’s me! You know me! Tell me you know who I am! It’s me! We-- ”

And then their eyes darted to look at Hope, and they froze, snapping their mouth shut, fear darting across their expression.

They lowered their hand.

The tension that had been building in the air faded by half a fraction. Alex was still resisting the urge to transform into fins landhunter form, the memories of the fight at the Delta making fin both anxious and enraged.

The stranger seemed to finally sense the danger they were in, because they wisely backed away, their expression shocked and afraid.

They shook their head, tears visibly springing to their eyes, which Alex suddenly noticed were a searing, acid yellow. “You have to know me,” They whispered at them, like somehow it would make them not be a stranger, “Please, I can’t lose you too-- ” And then they suddenly sobbed, like they couldn’t help it, and raised their hands to cover their mouth.

And Alex noticed for the first time...how...

...dirty they were. Like, really dirty, not just “spent the day in the garden” dirty.

Their clothes – denim overalls with worn-through knees, cut off raggedly halfway down the calf, over a pink and blue flower print Tshirt – had obviously not been washed in a while, because they were covered in layers of dirt and sweat stains and what was absolutely dried blood, and there was dirt caked under their nails and sand in their hair and pretty much...everywhere.

They were covered in sunburn, there was a raw scrape on their left elbow, the way they were standing you could tell how exhausted they were, and their wrists⏤

Their wrists⏤

Were covered in roping, raw wounds.

The defensive tension that had built up around Alex and fins friends turned very abruptly into concern as, all at once, they all seemed to notice the same thing. The same very clear sign of abuse.

Hope stepped forward almost immediately, her hands held up in a gesture for peace. “Hey,” She said softly, hovering her hands over the stranger’s shoulder, not quite touching, but still offering comfort, “It’s okay, um, do you want to sit down? Let me-- I’ll get you a glass of water, you look like you could use it.”

“Yeah, yeah, come and sit down, relax a little.” Phebe pulled away from Alex’s side and hurried to carry one of the lawn chairs over, aire eyes wide behind aire narrow glasses.

Alex watched as the stranger turned towards Hope in a way that seemed like they were giving something up, accepting the comfort she was offering even while they continued to cry, gasping in hiccuping breaths.

Alex just watched, unsure how to react. Hope was already comforting them and Phebe was already getting them a chair, what was there left to do?

Hope offered the stranger one of their hands, and the stranger grabbed at it like it was a lifeline, and clung to it with unconcealed desperation as Hope slowly and gently lead them backwards into the chair Phebe had carried over.

When the back of their legs hit it, they sank into it like a puppet whose string had been cut, still clutching at Hope’s hand with one of their own, even though it now meant that Hope had to crouch down next to the chair to avoid leaning over awkwardly.

Hope grimaced, but didn’t pull her hand out of the stranger’s grip. Instead, she just patted the stranger’s hand with her free one, and said, “Hey, you never told us your name; my name’s Hope, my pronouns are she/her, and I guess you already know Phebe and Alex, but what’s your name? What are your pronouns?”

Instead of answering, the stranger finally let go of Hope’s hand, and pressed their own hand to their forehead, closing her their in what was obviously pain. “Thanks,” they muttered, blatantly not answering either question.

“Uh, yeah,” Hope said, confused and concerned, “No-- no problem? I’ll just—” She glanced at Alex as though for help, but Alex had none to offer. “I’ll go get you that water, then.” She said awkwardly.

She stood, glanced at Alex again, then jogged into the house, surreptitiously wiping her hand on her leg as she went.

Alex knew that crawling sensation very well, unfortunately. Any touch from anyone that wasn’t part of the pack set it off, and it was one of the worst things about being a merran. It was like getting shocked every time you touched someone, except the shock didn’t just last an instant. It stuck around, like you were covered in bugs.

And if you kept the physical contact up for long enough, the creepy crawly sensation started to actually sting, like someone poking you sharply with their fingernail, or pinching you. And then if you still didn’t get away it would really start to hurt.

For some reason, Alex didn’t have that feeling right then. Not on fins hands or arms from where fins skin had come into contact with the stranger’s. It was why fin’d just immediately assumed it was Lyra hugging fin, even though that was completely out of character for him. Even before he’d become a mermaid, he’d hated being touched.

Fin’d never seen this stranger before in fins life. But...

The more Alex looked, the more fin saw. Like the fact that the stranger was barefoot, and their legs, as sunburned as the rest of them, were covered in scratches and cuts, none of them as bad as the welts around their wrists, but everything just kept adding up to a worse and worse picture.

Just what in the world had happened to this person?

Did Alex even want to know?

Fin and Phebe shared a glance over the stranger’s head before Phebe went and headed inside to join Hope in the house, their mental-crystals shifting and converging at the edges of fins senses, the colors fin didn’t really see shifting and swarming as they whispered frantically.

There were so many horrible ideas spinning around Alex’s head fin couldn’t even keep track of them.

They still had an hour or so before fins dad was supposed to get home with his friends and the rabbits. Hope and Phebe were arguing about whether or not to call him, or an ambulance, or the guard, or their parents, or just……...no one. If they didn’t know what had happened, who could they call for help?

But they needed to do something. This person was in pain.

Alex glanced up at the sky, where the sun was beating down mercilessly, not a cloud in sight. So bright the barrier couldn’t be seen.

Slowing fins breathing so fin could get a sense of the air flow, Alex carefully focused the surge of magic rising in fins chest through the smallest, tiniest, most precise movement of fins fingers in towards fins palm⏤

And watched as the clouds slowly-- almost casually-- expanded out across the sky from nowhere, blossoming here or there and crawling towards the sun oh so slowly, so that no one would think twice -- until the harsh glare of heat was smothered in gentle grey-white.

The temperature immediately dropped, the weight of the sun disappeared from fins shoulders and head, and the stranger breathed a sigh of relief that they didn't even try to hide.

“Thanks, Alex.” They said, and Alex’s heart froze in fins chest.

It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over fins head.

No one besides Phebe knew Alex had magic, not even the rest of fins pack, and not even fins dad!

Fin couldn’t help but stare at the stranger, who hadn’t lifted their gaze from the ground where they’d been looking since they sat down.

“Who--” Alex started to demand, then forcibly reigned in fins fear and tried to ask in a gentler, more restrained voice, “Who are you? How do you know my name?” Fin didn’t even want to risk asking how they knew about fins magic out loud.

The stranger lifted their yellow-eyed gaze to look back at fin, and said, with a voice that sounded like it was weighed down by the entire ocean, “You wouldn’t remember me even if I told you.”

#long post #neopronouns #neopronouns in action #short story #short stories #original fiction #fiction #writing prompts #story ideas #public domain #neopronoun short story #fin/fins/finself #fin/fins #finfinspronouns #ai/ain/aire/aires/aiself #ai/ain #aiainpronouns #ai/ain/aire/(aires)/aiself