"Excuse me" this red-haired woman wearing a gray hoodie over a navy and green body wetsuit with slip-on trainers called to her local Magic shop's manager who was currently working on the frontline stock. "Yes miss-" the manager started before seeing the woman's face "M-m-Maria Howmass..." he muttered. "oh you know me?" Maria took note in confidence. "Well I should, my twin nieces are regular visitors to your great aquarium Sea-Wonder" the manager explained before asking "so what brings you here today?". "I was informed your shop...mr Ashford, was the place to go to sort a problem i'm having out" Maria answered. "I see... why don't we take this to my office, see what it is we can do" Mr Ashford suggested.
Once in the office "so miss Howmass, what is-" mr Ashford started. "Maria, please" Maria politely interrupted "anyway i'm in the process of expanding what I offer at my aquarium... more to the point, live mermaid shows". "and I come into this how?" Mr Ashford inquired. "only members of staff I have on hand are my teenage volunteers and limited support staff, ironically both more than willing to partake... but their are issues" Maria started to explain "problem is the support staff are either just younger than me, older from my father's day or have medical conditions preventing prolonged submerging... also the renovations for building the tank for the show limits the funds on hand for the costumes and insurance". "ah I see... you need an alternative that cuts down on one of the spends, this case the tails needed that more than likely will need constant maintenance and updates to the growing volunteers" Mr Ashford realized "how much on hand do you have to spend then after updating the insurance?". "£150000" Maria admitted. "more than acceptable" Mr Ashford agreed before making a call "Amanda, can you and Jacob meet me at the clamshells... the huge ones like your cousin brought last month... great we'll see you their". "umm... sorry but what does these huge clamshells have to do with my request?" Maria questioned. "that's what I've asked my employees to help show you" mr Ashford answered "please follow me".
Mr Ashford escorted Maria to this storage area with a pool in it that for some odd reason had a wired sliver clamshell at the bottom and this Hispanic blond girl only wearing a green bikini top and white sarong alongside this raven haired young man in the store's uniform standing by the pool's edge. "WOW... Maria Howmass the customer in this?" the boy Maria guessed is Jacob remarked. "yes Jacob and this purchase we're working on is for Sea-Wonder" mr Ashford assured. "well i'm all ready to help show her what these mer clamshells do" Amanda assured. "fair enough, go ahead Amanda" mr Ashford agreed.
upon getting the OK Amanda removed her sarong to reveal she was lacking a bottom half of her bikini as she dived into the pool and swam toward the clamshell where she started laying down as it closed up with her inside "Amanda's a gifted swimmer and free diver... able to hold her breathe for up to an hour" Jacob informed Maria. "not that for this demonstration she'll be down that long" mr Ashford followed with Maria still confused at what was going on.
then suddenly after a few minutes the clamshell reopened with Amanda now sporting a bright green tail in place of her legs, similar scales covering her lower arms up to her elbows, a light green transparent monofin and small but similar fins on her forearms and back and her eyes changed from the normal white, iris colour (in Amanda's case brown) and black pupils into green with cat-like slit pupils. "what the- how did-" Maria mumbled in shock as Amanda swam back up. "well this is a magic shop... these mer-clamshells are they are officially called can turn humans into merfolk, need more proof just pop your head in the water?" Jacob dared. Maria did so with Amanda following her lead "quite amazing don't you agree" Amanda assured below the water while taking Maria hand and rubbing it against the point where her tail joined her body and physical assured that she wasn't wearing a costume.
once Maria had her head above the water again "mr Ashford I must protest that I can't use a oneway method on my volunteers" Maria argued. "oh relax it's not that" Jacob insisted. Amanda then seemingly reluctantly got out of the water with Jacob drying her off with set towels and as she dried of right in front of Maria, Amanda reverted to human. "you'll of course need these to fully understand how these work and depending on your performance tank's setup i'd suggest making a few adjustment" Mr Ashford then exclaimed as he handed Maria the papers detailing the mer clamshells. "by the way each clamshell costs £20000" Amanda followed.
"well... in the end my informant was right, this is the best place to sort my problem" Maria assured "so how long to get 8 of them down to Sea-Wonder?". "about 3 to 4 days... baring any unforseen issues" Mr Ashford agreed before asking "anything else of interest in all this?". "well..." Maria started: