They had spent so much time in the science center that they had to rush the couple of blocks to Chiana Table to have their late lunch with Cura’s jerk of a brother Micha. When they arrived, they found what looked to be an Italian restaurant with multiple booths with glowing candles which where actually small balls of magical energy.
“Ah…I was worried you wouldn’t show up.” said Micha as the group was lead into a private party room, Micha was already enjoying a meal which only showed how little he actually cared about them. “No matter lets get this started, I booked my return journey back to the reginal capital and I don’t want to miss it.”
“Slacking on your job Micha, you are suppose to help them fully integrate with our society.” Countered Cura as Micha grinned.
“My underlings will handle that; I am only going to get the ball rolling as you humans would say it.” Stated Micha as everyone sat down as a waiter came up and began to explain the food. To Colton’s pleasure it was actually Italian food, or as best as one could do of Italian food underwater. Seaweed pasta, fungus sauce and the other sea-based food. After explaining the meals multiple times the waiter went to get their orders in.
“Well…I have multiple files here for each of you.” Stated Micha as he held up a series binder each with their names on it. He passed it around as everyone took their own. “The humans where go enough to give us some basic information about you, age, date of birth and employment/educational history.”
The first page held that information, with copies of their major records, Adrian’s eyes widened a bit as he looked at his binder which included him military records and the list of metals he won on the battlefield.
“We are going give you a matching amount of money that you had in your land-based bank accounts and in the case of…” said Micha as he had to check his own notes. “In the case of Tim and Adrian we are giving you an extra bounce to fill in what you would have gotten in the average human life span in military benefits, however you will not get anything more from us than that. You will find cards which has access to your accounts.”
“Understood.” Stated Adrian as Micha eyed him closely, he returned the favor and for a moment the two merman just looked at each other.
“Alright, we have arranged housing for tonight in a nearby hotel and depending on what you all want to do we can arrange more permanent housing in areas where you can learn your skills.” explained Micha as he once again double checked his files. “All of you will need reeducation on some levels.”
“Like what?” inquired Lupe
“Well, maybe not you, hair is hair even under the sea.” Said Micha as Lupe sunk back in her seat a bit a little ashamed that almost all her friends had amazing jobs while she was a want to be artist and full time hair stylist. “However for Harmony and Monica you will of course have to take refresher classes on merpeople biology before you can take up nursing but given how close humans and merpeople are, that should only take a few months or so.”
Harmony and Monica both expected that.
“Same with Colton and Damon you will have to take some classes on how things work under water but again it shouldn’t take long.” Stated Micha “As for Tim, you have a choice you can either finish your schooling or go right into the work force, I recommend finishing schooling we need more people like you.”
“As for Stacy and Chloe, you two are the real prizes in this whole mess.” stated Micha “We where luckily to have you two join us under the sea, your skills will be put to work right away. I have already reached out to multiple private and governmental groups and all of them want one or both of you to start working for them. If you turn to the last page in your packs you will see the expected starting pay for each of the jobs.”
Chloe and Stacy turned to the last page in their binders, maybe last page was the wrong term it was in fact six pages all with offers from multiple companies and a brief outline of pay and benefits. All of them in six or seven figures range. Everyone flipped to the last page of their binders to see about how much each one of their jobs would earn in their new society.
Adrian flipped to the last page of his own page expecting to see nothing but instead found information about being a Hunter. His eyes widened a bit as he looked at how much a hunter made, he expected it would be next to nothing but from what he could see out of the corner of his eyes it was actually more then Colton or Ana and was about even with Damon.
“Hunters aren’t respected but they earn a lot of money, more than me and more than a lot of others.” whispered Cura as she saw the confusion on Adrian’s face. Adrian thought for a moment, it made sense, Hunters put their lives on the line against deadly animals. The best he could think of it was crab fishermen, yes, they were not that respected, but they worked very hard and earned a lot of money. Micha must not have noticed Cura and Adrian talking as the food arrived and people began to eat.
The food was rather good and even tasted like Italian food.
“Well in the binders are also brief outlines of our laws which may be different then on the surface.” explained Micha “The biggest one is that you are to have no contact with anyone from the surface, if you do then they either must join you under the sea, get their memories changed or killed.”
“We understand.” stated Damon
“Good, then I will be off, the meal is on the government so enjoy because starting after it you will have to pay for everything.” said Micha as he stood up. “I will leave you in the capable hands of my baby sister.”
“Goodbye Micha.” said Cura as Micha stopped beside his sitting sister.
“I must admit, this is better than the last group of humans you brought us.” stated Micha “I’ll let Mother and Father know you are doing ok. Good day all and welcome to merhood.”
With that he swam out of the private party room.