31 Tales (Volume II) - Powers Unlocked

The Aquatic Beauty

The reflection wasn't hers. It was a man, older than her, the man her parents wanted her to be. He was attractive, successful and was that... a ring on his finger? Marina wasn't that man. She never was. They shared some similarities, their eyes were the same but still they weren't hers. How could eyes belonging to a man belong to her? She wished everyone could look past what they thought they saw. She always knew who she was, she had never questioned it. From the day she knew what a girl was she knew she was one. She had told everyone such every day for the entirety of her life. They called her a liar and said she was sick. "You're not a girl, you're my son" her father would yell. She would stand her ground, no way would she allow someone to tell her who she was. This was easy when she could get out and have a moment to herself but then lockdown came. Months locked inside with her parents who called her a man and told her to man up. She felt lost. Alone. Then some hope came, lockdown ended and she could now go out even if it was socially distanced but no, people had to ignore the rules and spoil it for everybody else. Now she was back in a local lockdown and she had had enough. The same four walls, the room that wasn't hers. She would relax. So she drew a bath. That's what she was waiting for. She turned to look at the warm water calling her forth, excited for the small moment of peace. Where she could be with herself for just a moment. No parents, no older brother in her personal space. The water was almost at the lip of the bath now so she turned off the tap and slowly dipped her toes into the warm liquid which sent goosebumps all over her body.

Time flows slower in the tub, the world stops and leaves you to lay within a cloud of water. Closing her eyes Marina thought of everything she loved, the water was one of them of course, why else would she have chosen her name? She thought of herself within a body that nobody would mistake for being a "mans body" it wasn't the body she wanted, she was happy in the body she was in. So what if her legs were hairy and she had to shave her face every morning? Her hair didn't make her a man. She even liked the hair on her chest, it was both warm and soft to the touch. She didn't think of another body because she wanted one, she thought of one as a way to blend in so people could see her as the woman she was. Society was so behind. There are millions of women with hairy bodies, why couldn't they just accept that fact? The more she thought about the body society expected her to have the more the water seemed to... morph? It was a strange feeling as if the liquid were now flowing within her. She felt it crawl into her legs and up to her chest. She felt it slide up her neck and into her face and finally through her long flowing hair. Long? Sure during lockdown she never had the chance for a haircut but her hair had never been this long. Her eyes opened quickly and she grabbed at the hair that now fell to her hip. She stood on an impulse and she felt like Ariel from The Little Mermaid when she had gained legs for the first time. She stared into the mirror opposite her and saw the woman she envisioned in her head. She looked down and all of her hair was gone. Her face was clean shaven too... no, not clean shaven. Completely hairless as if it had never even grown there. She was a smooth hairless woman and she hated it. She didn't want to be this, this is what everyone else wanted her to be. She jumped out of the bath and grabbed a towel. As soon as she dried herself off she was back to normal. Her legs were just as hairy as always. "That's odd" she thought aloud. She turned back to the bath. Again it summoned her closer. She stepped back in and this time she thought of Ariel. Why not? She was her favourite Princess. As she closed her eyes and felt the water flowing through her again she opened them to see a turquoise tail struggling to fit into the bath. "Holy..." KNOCK KNOCK "Kai get your ass out here you've been in there for over half an hour I need a sh..." it was her brother. In a panic she climbed out and dried herself off to best she could until she was herself again.

That night she lay in bed staring up at the grungy brown ceiling her and her brother shared. Something had happened to her within the bath and she had not made it up. Somehow she could transform her body into anything she could imagine but only in water. She waited for her lousy brother to snore like a warthog before she snuck out. She headed for the harbour, she dawned the darkest clothes she owned and blended into the darkness. When she found a spot that appeared to be secluded save for a large greyish boat, she striped to her boxers and dived in. It was so dark within the waters grasp so she imagined herself as luminescent as a jellyfish. She opened her... she didn't have eyes? Not anymore she was a blob of green light with what seemed like a hundred tentacles flowing beneath her. Even her boxers had morphed into this new version of herself. That's a good sign, she didn't need to remove her clothes to transform. She wondered if she could change other objects within the water, not just herself so she swam her little jellied self to the boat. She touched it with her stinger and thought of a pool floaty, a rubber ring would work. No! A rubber ring that looked like a chocolate frosted doughnut. She felt the water flow from her tentacle into the bottom of the boat and felt it shrink and inflate into the ring she had imagined. Someone screamed as they fell through the air and splashed into the water. Marina changed herself again into a Mermaid but this time a Mermaid that had her face and her body. Her tail remained luminous like her jellyfish selfs body. She swam to the man and helped him up onto the ring. He stared in awe as he looked upon the legendary creature before him. "You... you're a mer..." he mumbled trying to adjust to the rubber doughnut. Marina placed a finger to his lips. "I'm a mermaid" no way was she going to be misgendered as a merman when she finally found her inner mermaid. She had no idea how it were possible and in many ways she didn't care. This was a gift she loved. The light within the darkness of her life. She let go of the man and swam away gracefully through the water, she swam down, down as far as she could and created her legs again. Her feet touched the bottom of the water and her foot scraped across what must have been glass from a beer bottle. She screamed as blood began flowing up towards her face and she fainted at its sight, laying peacefully within the water.

The next morning she woke to herself being dragged out of the water by two people in diving gear. "What is the meaning of this?" She demanded underwater without an effort or need to hold her breath. Her normal sounding voice startled the divers and one even let go for a moment before grabbing back onto her arm. The three emerged from the water and the first thing Marina saw was the man from last night. "That's him" he pointed "that's the merman" Marina felt the words stab her in the chest. She closed her eyes in pain and tried thinking happy thoughts "this isn't happening, this isn't happening" she whispered as she thought back to Ariel and her film as a whole. "Ursula" she said with a laugh. Marina felt herself grow and grow until she felt her deep purple tentacles touch the bottom of the harbour floor. Her face was very much her own but she had the shocking white hair Ursula had worn within the film. "I AM A MERMAID" she bellowed as one of her tentacles grabbed hold of the man from last night. He thrashed his legs in panic as he nodded. Marina remembered the divers and looked around for them only to see an arm hanging out from under one of her giant tentacles "NOOO" she didn't want this to happen. She never asked to be this. She transformed back into her mermaid form and dove to the corpses of the divers. It was too late for them! She swam to the surface defeated and saw news crews pulling up and journalists rushing out in a frenzy. She had no time for journalists. They would only misgender and accuse her of being a monster, so instead she morphed into a lime green dolphin and silently swam away diving in and out of the water like the aquatic beauty she was. Perhaps she would be seen again one day but for now she didn't want to show her face. Marina knew she wasn't a monster or a murderer and she didn't need to explain that to anyone. She knew who she was and that was the most important thing. She was Marina the Aquatic Beauty.