“Welcome to New Atlantis.” Greeted the staff member in what Thomas AKA Tom thought sounded way to much like a greeting he would hear from the front desk of a Hotel and not what was pretty much a hospital. “Checking in?”
“Yes.” Answered Tom as he gave his information to the women, she was in a full biohazard suit, even had an air line leading up to a system of lines in the ceiling. No one was 100% for sure how the mermaid virus spread, some say touch, others air and even others said it was a blood/STD style virus. None of that had been proven yet and given how many people where transforming into mermaids and merman on the daily basis some had wondered if it really mattered anymore.
“Ok, Mr. Smith I have your information here.” Confirmed the staff member “Looks like your in stage 1 of the change, got confirmation of the infection by three different tests but so far no changes.”
“Yes, Doctors say I caught the infection early, so I am a day away from changes, unless I am immune or something.” Explained Tom, as he prayed, he somehow was immune. There had been 1 case of someone confirmed to have the virus, but she never changed but that was worldwide. He didn’t think he would be that lucky, but he wanted to hope he was.
“Well let’s hope, if so you will get a full refund.” Said the staff member with a smile which looked like she had heard that line a thousand times a day. “Either way, I have all your information and contact numbers.”
She reached down and pulled a small keycard with a lanyard on it placing it on the counter between the two of them.
“This is your room key and badge; we give you a lanyard since your suit doesn’t have pockets.” Explained the worker “You have room 217, you will go lower into the building once your change progresses.”
With that Tom nodded and headed toward the elevator which went down to the second floor. The entire building was built “upside down” in his view, the lobby was at the top floor where a person would walk in while at the lowest level which opened into the ocean and the New Atlantis community a mermaid or merman would swim out. He forgot which floor was the floor which went from being dry or semi dry to being totally under water, but he would find out when he got there.
He walked down the hallway and found his room. It was a simple room like one would find in any hotel. The only odd thing was that the floors around the bed actually sunk into the floor, the wheelchair by the bed told him way, it was to make it easier to get in and out of bed once his legs started to merge together into a tail.
Laying on the bed was basically a one-piece women’s swimsuit only with small shoulder covers and legs. It looked like a swimsuit from the 1920’s or something. With a resigned sigh he put on the extremely flexible suit, he knew it was designed to stretch and why they went with the design for a women’s suit instead of a man.
Odds are he would swim out a mermaid not a merman. Over 50% of men infected with he mermaid virus became a mermaid but even that number was skewed, kids under the aid of 18 to 19 didn’t change genders but men in their 20’s to 30’s where more likely to change. Women changed into merman as well but they where only like 1 in 100 or so.
Tom sat on the bed wondering what to do, with nothing better to do he did what any self-respecting single man in his mid 20’s would do. He headed to the bar, if he was going to be changing into a mermaid or merman might as well have some drinks as he did so.