1
OOC: Though I'd love to take credit for the lovely ideas surrounding the mer-folks in these posts, everything was inspired from wikipedia as well as the book The Secret History of Mermaids by Prof. Ari Berk

Ic:
Raina was standing at the exit gate of the Australian airport looking for her ride while slathering on the sunscreen. Luke had ended up heading back to New York when they got to their transfer airport. There had been a big emergency back home so he wouldn't be able to see this through with her. After everything they'd gone through lately she was disappointed they wouldn't have this time together, but perhaps it was better off that way. He could take care of things at home and she would be free to gather all the data she could while here.
The sunscreen made her skin look even paler. Among these people she looked like she was chipped from ice. She was thankful for the long dress and sunhat, they'd keep her from burning and made her look like less of a tourist.
She finally spotted an older man in a dark suit. She couldn't fathom why he'd wear a suit in this weather but he held a poster with her name on it. She put her luggage down on its wheels and started dragging it. The man made eye contact with her- well what she thought was eye contact behind his large dark shades- and smiled. "Hello" she said when she approached him "I'm Raina"
"Ah yes Raina. Dr. Grey's assistant. I'm Doctor Pereli." he took her bag and motioned for her to follow. "The Limo is waiting, I'll brief you on the way to our lab."


***

"And as you can see we're convinced this is a genetic anomaly- obviously the x-gene at its finest but because their generations date so far back these people are convinced they're real mer-folks. Descendents even from the Atlantains! Such rubbish. Pereli put his hands though his hair and Raina gazed at him thoughtfully while stealing glances at the beautiful scenery zooming past the car. "What we'd really like to do is gather some DNA for testing, try to find out why this trait is passed down so strongly. We suspect there is inbreeding on purpose to keep the trait but there are so many questions and that's why..."
"... you need my special talents." Raina smiled. "I don't know if they'll trust me or not, but I can always try. I'm not one of them... but it should be interesting. I've never met another mutant like me."
"You're about to meet more than you could imagine.

2
It had already been two weeks and Raina wasn't getting much further than Pereli. So far much of the "Kumari Pod" as they called themselves remained rather isolated. Raina had contact with a few who let her know exactly what they thought of a mermaid allowing herself to be extorted for entertainment. That didn't seem to help her cause.

Raina still seemed to have a leg up so to speak on these mer folks. As far as she could tell their mutation hadn't gone beyond the tail. They didn't have the gills or any control over the elements like Raina did. Pereli theorized this was due to all the inbreeding but Raina wasn't sure.

Currently Raina was draped over a lawn chair that was propped up on a dock that extended out onto the calm water. A tall beach umbrella kept the sun off her shoulders while she made notes from a folk lore book. Luke was still taking care of things and with Christmas fast approaching Raina wasn't sure she'd make it back in time.

"Hey Raina!" a splash and a gasp of air came from behind Raina. She flopped over on her belly to face Kin, a young mer-boy of no more than 10. He'd been one of the few mers to talk to Raina- mostly because there weren't many mers his age- but he hadn't been able to provide Raina with a whole lot of information that the adults in the pod might.

"Hey Kin. How's the water today?" Raina asked pushing her sunglasses down her nose.

"It's great, you should come for a swim today!"
Raina cocked her head to the side and considered this for a moment "You know, I 'spose I could for a while!"
with that she launched herself into the water leaving only the hat and glasses behind.

3
Christmas came, and Christmas went. It was so surreal for Raina to watch it go by without celebrating, and without snow. She made up her mind that she and Luke would celebrate it together when she got back. But really, she was so close to a breakthrough here it would be awful to leave.

So far Perelli and Raina were able to learn from Kin's mother the birthing process of the mers- Like Raina they turned human when they were dry so the mers climbed on land to have their children who were actually born with tails.

Raina had proposed to Perelli that perhaps the human aspect of the mers was their mutation based on how they were born. He agreed to accept the theory for the time being until they gathered more evidence.
The big thing Raina was trying to establish was a genetic line. She was doing that by gathering blood samples from as many willing mers as possible.

Today she sat on the dock with Kin's mother, Aurora. Aurora looked a lot like Ghost back home, except that her skin had the palest blue tint to it, and of course she had a long almost serpent like tail flicking about in the water next to them. Aurora chatted with Raina as she prepared the syringe and wiped alcohol on her arm.

"The way I see it, we all came from the sea. If Darwin could see that surely Perelli can. Our pod just returned to the sea. That's all. Don't you feel like the sea beckons to you?" she winced as Raina poked the needle under the skin and began drawing blood.

She thought about what Aurora said for a moment. "I don't know. I've always run from my mutation. Your pod doesn't think much of how I use it." she took the needle out and put the blood away in a cooler.

"You should be weary if you have children. They will feel like outsiders. The ocean always calling to them. Aurora lowered herself back into the water as Kin surfaced to join them.

Raina went silent. She hadn't thought much about children since that... dream. And she didn't care to have a lecture from a woman who refused to send her son to school.
"Thanks for the sample Aurora"

4.
"I think we've make a break through."| Said Perelli leaning up from the microscope to look at Raina who was staring into a computer screen.

"Hmm? What did you say?" She asked distracted.

"I said I may have a break through, what are you reading?" he exchanged slides on the scope.

|"I was reading about Romania..." she said in a far away voice tracing the line across her neck. "Did I ever tell you about my time in the camps? The stress caused my secondary mutation to come out..." she trailed off.

"Mm I read your file. We should finish up our work here then. I hear what's going on in Romania wont last too long there's been too much uproar. But you'll likely want to get back to your school." he shuffled around a few papers

"It just brings up... memories." she admitted. "So what's this about a break-through" she minimized the window of the mutant victims and swiveled her chair to face Perelli.

"Well, based on the DNA we've recovered it seems there's a strong suggestion of 4 clear genetic lines. I think it confirms our thoughts on inbreeding and suggests the lineage goes back only 4 or 5 generations."

Raina nodded and was silent.

"Look, I know it doesn't seem like a big deal my dear, but without your help we wouldn't have been able to study this with the locals cooperation. It's so rare to have the same mutation passed down generation after generation. With your talents we had the bridge we needed. This will open the door for so many mutants in the future."

Raina smiled "I know. I guess I'm just missing home. But let's finish up here. My flight leaves Friday and we still need to categorize all of these samples ..." she spun the chair back around and opened up a new spreadsheet on the computer.

Friday. One day away from weekend. It was not more or less to the general population then this. And in this instance. On this very day, Martin begged to differ. He didn't even know it was friday after all, so his work commenced with the same calm and a bit-too-perfect attitude that accompanied him on every day. Except for sundays when he happened to think of them. Or that they were. Usually the behavior of the children was an indication. Except through the times of exams. Then they all suddenly seemed to suffer from a spontaneous reprieve of the memory loss that affected them during the semestre concerning the purpose of the mansion building -besides hiding a mutant vigilante group that had allied itself with the police force and was hunting down the criminal and bigoted elements of the city alike.
The first summer greens were planted and today the ground would be, inspired by a few mathematical diagrams he had seen in one of the advanced mathematical coursed offered at the school -he had most certainly NOT been sniffing around in classrooms, just been in there to look for a pen-, prepared for a new bit of gardenery, an interesting bit in the question whether it would ever survive to its completion, that would fit perfectly with the mansion style of the house. Where there was now a big patch of grass, already thin lines of brown, of upturned earth, announced his plans, swinging around in wide swirls and small corners, laying out the lines of what would be.

There was something he had forgotten.... He was sure of it. He let the shovel fall from his hands and onto the fround where it gave a thunk that echoed the heavy breath he took in an effort to move the cold air into his alveoli, ever hoping it would increase the aptitude of his neurons toward recalling. And decrease the aptitude of his muscles to complain about every movement. -On a side note something needed to be done about that sooner or later- What was it? Someone of the staff had approached him a while ago, wasn't it? Who? He didn't remember...it wasn't important at all. More important was, that they had asked something of him. Something important that he should take care of? Something he had most certainly forgotten. Something he should write down? Something he should have written...

oh....

He had written it down. But not here. He left the garden in quite a hurry, putting strain on the few bits of muscles he had that they had not been prepared to endure. He left his little work of art...if you wanted to call it that, behind. And his shovel, to run to his room, to shuffle a pile of notes for the one he was missing in his mind. The door to his room fell shut behind him, the clamor of the door numbed by the angle that was holding it closed normally with some force. He slammed against it, as he opened it and it slammed shut, mirror and consequence being one, as he let off the force and slipped into the interior of his abode.

Clinically clean it was to say the least, his personal belongings being stored in plain sight in neat piles whose corners sat tightly on each other, arrayed with a precision that must have taken time? There was not a speck of dust to be seen anywhere, not even bits of earth on the ground. The smell was a mix of bleach and diverse other cleaning agents maybe explaining the spotless enterieur. A symphony of Linalool and citronellol lay in the air and no spot was anywhere to be seen. It was, maybe except for the few things that belonged to him, the only things that spoke of the fact that there was someone living in this room on a daily basis. The only thing that was in disarray were yellow post-its. They decorated the table and the computers monitor, some parts of the reading lamp and the door. Well maybe not the only signs of life. But in this environment it looked more like an art project then anything a living person would accomplish. And there it stuck, written with a red pen and underlined several times. He was supposed to retrieve someone named Raina from the airport... today. His muscles sighed in relief, as he exhaled sharply. At [time]. Luckily that was still a while away. Or not? His gaze was magnetically drawn to the clock.... One hour! And that considering New York traffic. It was a hurdle to pass to say the least. He wanted to have been gone half an hour ago, before he had forgotten. Another sprint was prudent he judged.

The door fell shut behind him, as he left for the garage. He would have to take one of the mansion cars. They were fast for the most part. And maybe expensive. That was posing only one problem. He hadn't driven in a felt half-a-century. And it had, most certainly been six or seven years in real time when he last had encountered an Otto engine from behind a drivers wheel and some month since he had encountered one from the wrong side of the engine. An Otto engine of his small dimension at least. The handling was quite unfamiliar. Not to mention that he had never bothered to acquire a drivers license for anything smaller then a vessel the size of the mansion. And even those bits of knowledge rested now, tightly shut away in some corner of his brain beyond forgetfulness, but beyond use also. At least ships were safe to drive and quite easy to steer. Where lay the difficulty in steering this optimist?

Exactly half an hour later, he stood unhurt and slightly shaken in the great hall of the airport, awaiting what was there to come. Raina. He had never heard the name before. A sign would have to suffice to find her. Or rather to allow her to find him.

continued here