John let out a heavy sigh as she looked around her new room and how empty it was, a bed, a mirror hanging on the wall and a box which served as a dresser for her. It only had two single tops in it, for a grand total of three.
“Is your room as empty as mine?” inquired John
“Emptier.” countered Mary before she pointed over her shoulder toward the line of spin covered fin which ran from her shoulder blades down to the small of her back. “I can’t wear a top so no dresser.”
That wasn’t fully true, both of them knew that she could wear a top if she really wanted to but it would require her to pin down her back fin a bit and given the points on her fin that was painful. She delt with it when it came to a belt, but she like everyone else needed a belt to hold pouches to carry stuff in and her belt dipped down passing just under her last spin.
“Well the government gave us some money to help us move in, might as well spend it.” Stated John as she snapped on her own belt, it had three pouches one to her right and left with a single smaller thinner one running across her back. Her hand reached and touched the handle of the knife there…she had been amazed that they had given her a knife, a combat knife at that when they had given her the belt and let her pick some tops. She hadn’t understood that until she found out that firearms didn’t work very well underwater and currently they hadn’t developed a full proof way to prevent predators like sharks or others from coming into their community. A knife was for your protection if a shark or something else came for you. They had large nets surrounding the town but that wasn’t full proof.
“So mall it is.” Said Mary with a smile as she spun around and swam away, it was strange instead of walking straight up and down, swimming sideways just looked weirld.
John followed her as the two of them headed out, there was a street per say but it wasn’t as wide as it would have been on the surface. No one had cars and everyone swam wherever they went, there where streets but that was more for addresses then anything else, mermaids and merman swam over people’s homes as they traveled wherever they had to go. They did the same traveling out of their new home and upwards before turning southwards and swimming over the homes, toward what could be called the downtown area.
The downtown area was a series in truth an old navy aircraft carrier which had been sunk years before to make an artificial reef. Now it served as the heart of the downtown area, with a court house, police station and government offices all based out of the carrier with a large open square full of stands where people where buying selling items and with shops around the square. It was the closest thing they had to a mall at the moment.
The ”street” was full of merpeople going about their new lives under the sea, some had hand carts made from bronze which while heavy resisted the salt water better then wood, some had hardened plastics but like almost everything not native to the sea the oils on merpeople skin ate at it.
“So lets do some shopping.” Said Mary as the two of the headed out. They both where focused on getting stuff for their rooms and some other items. The room shopping was simple enough there was a store which focused only on that. They each got a sort of ceiling mounted swing which served as chairs and other items. All those items would be delivered to their home later.
Finally and with some pulling Mary got her former brother now sister to go into a clothing shop.
“You need more tops and some other stuff.” Stated Mary
“Like what?” inquired John
“Like necklaces for one.” Stated Mary as she looked at the long row or necklaces and the like.
“Mary Maxwell is that you?” came a voice from behind the two of them as they turned to see