Mermen in Melbourne

The Explination

It took Austin a full five seconds to realize where he was. The light blue taint to the room, the sturdy rock door, the mud caked walls. He was still here. He never left.

"Morning, moonshine. Would you like any kelp? Trent said you might be opposed to meat, so I opted out of that," Tanner said, offering a plate of some green vegetable to Austin. Austin lazily rubbed his eyes, sitting up clumsily.

"Uh, no thanks, I'm not hungry," Austin said. He didn't care about food right now. He needed to get out.

"Alright, suit yourself," Tanner said, taking a bite of the kelp. It crunched in a way that made Austin uncomfortable. "Anyway, I thought we would talk a little about the charter today. You know, teach you the rules of The Teach."

"I don't wanna learn your stupid mermaid rules," Austin grumbled, and Tanner shot him a glare.

"You calling me a mermaid is like me calling you a centaur. It is just not... it is just not," Tanner said, shaking his head darkly.

"Gotcha," Austin said, not picking up on Tanner's sullenness.

"Gotcha. Does that mean, like, get you?" Tanner said.

"Uh, it means, like, I understand. Sorta."

"Sorta? Sort of, right? And then it's is it is?"

"Yep." Austin said. He was growing sick of this quickly.

"Sorta, gotcha, it's, they're, and... what was the other one? Oh, I'll," Tanner said, pride seeping through his voice. Austin didn't care.

"I should be speaking of merman charter, though, that is what I was sent to do," Tanner changed the subject. Pulling a list out of - where did he pull that out of? - Tanner read down the zodiacs, explaining each one.

"So you are a Scorpio, right?" Tanner said, and Austin nodded. "Scorpios usually have the job of Nightcrawler, which is really kind of important. The only reason our Teach has survived this far without one is that Ian's a stellar hunter. Anyway, the Nightcrawlers are responsible for finding food. And by food, yes, I mean other mermen. Wait, wait! Do not fuss!" Tanner called, noticing Austin's signs of distress. Austin was curled into some weird shape, staring at Tanner.

"You want me to kill other mermen? That's not okay, dude!" Austin shouted, shaking his head rapidly.

"You sound like Trent. Anyways, it's like that one scientist guy said. Survival of the fittest," Tanner added, and Austin felt like he was going to be sick. He certainly wasn't the fittest.

"So you have to kill mermen. Not only does this get us food, it eliminates competition from other Teaches. There is some pretty fierce rivalries going on, and taking out others, especially in their sleep, is really a good way to be taken seriously," Tanner explained. Austin shook his head again.

"There's no way, no way in hell. I'm not doing that" Austin argued.

"Eat." Tanner said, veering the conversation once again to the plate of kelp. "You get cranky when you're hungry."

"This isn't a damned Snickers commercial!" Austin said, eyeing Tanner. "People are dying."

"Your point?" Tanner said.

"Maybe I'll just kill you, maybe that will go easier," Austin muttered, picking up the plant from the plate. It looked disgusting.

"Whatever. You are probably wondering why everyone was so surprised that you were not a Taurus. The Taurus does not really have a job, but will shift from human to merman and back at the call of another merman. That's what you did, so we all thought you would be a Taurus. We were wrong, obviously. You must be an outlier." Tanner said. Austin bit down on the plant finally, the texture gliding over his tongue. As wrong as it felt, it didn't taste as bad as he would have expected.