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Everyone just assumes that Enma is shy, and while that’s true it’s not the only reason that he tends to stay away from other people.
First of all, he doesn’t have the greatest history of first introductions in the world as he normally either stutters or stumbles over his own feet. Neither of these traits make him look any kind of competent or even normal. By the time they turn 20 most people have gotten over their nervous stutters and learned to walk well on their own two feet; but Enma just never got the memo apparently.
Or at least that’s what most people assume.
Secondly he doesn’t exactly do well in large crowds. There are certain people, a group of six specific other people actually, that he does very well around. So much so that if you saw him from a distance with just them you would never assume that he isn’t a normal person. He smiles and laughs around these people, uses his arms to punctuate each point he makes and leans into their touch when they go to throw an arm over his shoulders. But assign him to a group project with other people, even people he knows from his college classes, and he will stutter and stumble through the work like he’s got stage fright and his group mates are the rudest audience on the planet. It’s almost as he sees the future and knows there’s failure there, then just accepts it and doesn’t fight for what's right in front of him.
See here’s the thing; yes Enma is a naturally shy person but he just also happens to have a secret that he needs to keep from literally EVERY PERSON on the planet other than his parents, sister, his friends and their parents. And that secret?
He’s half-merman.
The whole not being able to walk without tripping thing? Enma spent the first 16 years of his life in the ocean, until he hit puberty and was finally able to use his legs for longer than like three hours a day. Mom said he was lucky that he got his legs at all before he went through puberty, but in his opinion it hurt him more than helped him, because his mom walks like she’s floating and he walks like his clothes are drenched and he’s weighed down by the water that normally buoys him. His younger sister was actually born with her legs, and now that she can be a mermaid for longer periods of time she complains of the opposite problem; of her tail feeling stiff and that she can’t stay at one altitude when swimming. So tripping over his feet is just par for the course at this point, and Enma doesn’t think that will change anytime soon.
The whole stuttering when speaking thing? Mer’s can’t talk under water, the vibrations needed to make sound truly travel were just not able be produced by their vocal cords. Instead they used a version of sign for the most part and if needed shrill screams to warn of, or ward off, danger. So while he can and will speak he always feels nervous doing it, left wanting to use his hands to supplement it, and knowing that the people who aren’t in the know about his nature would never understand. To anyone other than his friends his sign would look like he was flipping his hands everywhere, thus he stutters since all of his concentration is on not moving his hands and not on forming coherent sentences.
With that to consider it’s no wonder that he only feels comfortable around others who are part of what they call the “non-human support group”. Believe it or not merpeople are not the only supernatural beings in existence, and they actually have all banded together to create a thriving underground society. Those who would be hunted down by humans, or have been hunted down in past, need to look after one another after all. So when his mom heard of others who had married humans in the same area she started arranging playdates for all of them.
The rest is history.
Now why does any of this matter? Why do you care about this at all? See here’s the thing: Enma in his stumbling, trying so hard not to hurt anyone’s feelings way, just agreed to go to a house party for Halloween.
And then he did the stupidest thing he could have done in this situation: told his friends about it.
So now he has to stop them from possibly outing all of them, or at least some of them from outing all of them.
“How much of my tech do you think I could get away with” Shitt asked tinkering with a what looked like a bubble, if bubbles were bright blue and had what looked appeared to be glowing hieroglyphics on them.
“None of it?!” Enma replied trying and failing not to grip his hair so hard it felt like he might rip some of it out. “It’s way too advanced! Humans won’t reach this kind of technology for hundreds of years!”
“She is doubling in chemistry and computer science, she may just be able to use that as an excuse! How would they know it’s legit alien tech?!” Koyo said while slightly hovering over Emma’s bed instead of just SITTING on it like a normal person. “Now on to me, do you think if I keep my wings super still they’ll just assume they're fake? I mean obviously they're way better than what can be bought in a store but I can just say I got some art kids to help be build them.”
“Yes to both.” Shitt replied the same time Enma yelled out. “No! They’re college kids not idiots! You’re gonna get us all in such deep trouble!”
“Enma, you forget one important thing here, they’re going to be drunk college kids. I could probably fly over all of them and tell them later I put some shit in the punch and taht they hallucinated it all and they would believe me.” Koyo replied while giving Enma a look that said that he was done arguing his point.
Enma was not done arguing his point, but he wouldn’t push the fae anymore right now. At least not with that look on his face. Enma may want to talk the fae down but he didn’t have a death wish.
“Shitt please I’m begging you don’t do this. Come on someone here back me up!” He pleaded gesturing to the others scattering his room.
“It would be nice to let my scales out for a little bit.” Kaoru said quietly while he looked up from the homework he was trying desperately not to give up on. “I mean I wouldn’t go full dragon obviously, since I wouldn’t even fit in the house then, but my skin itches so much keeping it all in all the time. One careful night wouldn’t be so bad.”
Nooooo. He couldn’t lose Kaoru on this! He needed his support. Enma has been counting on it! Why did this have to be the one point the two disagreed on?!
“Kaoru! I know you want to let loose, we all do, but with drunk college kids?!” Enma asked trying to regain support from the bulkier man, and failing.
“Koyo already mentioned that they'll all probably too drunk to remember. And if they do we have Julie. He can just erase all their memories.” Kaoru continued on without meeting Enma’s eyes. The traitor.
“Whoa! Hold on here! I’m all for a night out but I’m not down with like a mass persuasion okay? Those never go down well! I love you guys, you know that, but I legitimately don’t want to put in the effort of using persuasion on a whole house of people. Plus it’s like the one night a year I can let out my fangs and everyone thinks they’d fake! I’m not giving that up.” Julie stated bluntly from his place on top of Enma’s desk. Julie hadn't even bothering to attempt working instead, as always, he was over to sneak snacks like the chips he was eating.
“I agree with Enma and surprisingly Julie on this.” Aldeheid commented from her spot on the floor next to where Shitt was still working on her bubble like thing. “We only have one rule here in the human world and that’s to not out ourselves. Julie as a Vamp might be able to hide a bit better in plain sight but not all of us could fly so easily under the radar. Especially you Rauji.”
“Enma thought it was a bad idea so I wasn’t going to do it anyway.” Rauji answered. “Besides in my angel form I would be more likely to make their eyes bleed than have them mistake me as someone with a good costume. Which is just about the exact thing we have always been warned against. Right Emma?”
“Right! See this is a bad idea! We can’t do this guys!” Enma said feeling better knowing he had Rauji and Aldeheid at least on his side. Julie may be persuaded…. maybe.
“I still think I’m going to do it.” Koyo said nonchalantly. “I can just imagine how great everyone is going to think my wings are.”
Enma was going to get a stomach ulcer at the rate this was going and it’s not going to be his fault AT ALL. He really needs more responsible friends.
“Maybe just light tech?” Shitt muttered to herself. “Nothing anti-gravity but maybe some of the light projections? They won’t be too obvious, right?”
Just kill Enma now.
“What if I get let the scales out on my face and lightly on my arms. No hands or feet to give me away. I could say it’s all latex.” Kaoru pipped in. “That shouldn’t be obvious.”
PLEASE KILL HIM NOW.
Of course this is when Julie has to add his two cents. “Plus I would look so sexy in a vamp costume! All the ladies would be all over me. And if you let your ears out all the boys would be all over your sexy werewolf Aldeheid!”
END HIM!
“If you think that I would let my ears out for validation from drunk college kids your dead wrong.” Aldeheid shot back with a touch of venom in her voice.
Thank god there were people here who has sense, Enma thought, for a brief glimmering moment.
“Maybe though, if I choose something other than a werewolf I would be able to let my teeth out? It wouldn’t be related to being a werewolf so they wouldn’t suspect and I could finally bare my teeth at that kid from Econ II who won’t get the hint.” Aldeheid continued, almost muttering that last part to herself, her voice going from put off to menacing.
NOT ALDEHEID TOO.
“Enma does that mean you could show some of your scales and pretend to be like a snake man or something?” Rauji asked, honestly meaning well but not helping Enma’s state of mind at all.
HE’S LOSING THEM!
“NO!” Enma actually yelled. YELLED. He couldn’t even remember that last time he had used his voice so loudly out of the ocean. “No blowing our covers! Any of you! If you want to have a night in our forms we can just go home for the weekend but we are not blowing our species existences to a bunch of drunk kids who have snapchats, twitters and instagrams! We are all going to stay solidly under the damn radar! Do I make myself clear!”
There was silence.
“Calm down man. Shit if it’s got you that riled up we just won’t do it. Fuck.” Koyo said from his place actually on the bed, his eyes a bit wide and his wings stiff and not moving.
“Enma, bro, your eyes are doing like a glow thing. Just take a deep breath okay?” Rauji said in a calming voice. If anyone had to learn to compartmentalize his anger it was Rauji.
“It’s because he’s stressed.” Commented Aldeheid, the only one of them completely versed in all of each other’s powers and quirks. “It’s a defense mechanism mer have in the wild to scare off predators and those encroaching in on their territory.” She pauses before looking Enma right in the eyes. “Do you want to go and calm down in your tub and see us all later?”
Not trusting his own voice Enma just nodded and soon enough his apartment was empty.
Mer, believe it or not, need to have the entirely of their legs submerged in water or completely soaked for them to transform. One drop of water just wasn’t enough to do it. Thus bathing, while calming, was a long process no matter what. It did give the red haired young man enough time to reflect on his actions though and return from his space of fear to the world of reality.
Thus after his long soak one thing was startling clear, he really needed to apologize to his friends.
But how?
Well step one would be a mass “I’m sorry” text. He would call them all but several of them hated actually talking in the phone, so a post to the group chat would have to do.
But what else could he do? Maybe rent the entire campground on their home island for next weekend and plan and throw their own party? He would even bring all the food and drinks they could ever want even in their other forms.
Enma wasn’t sure exactly how to make it up to them but he knew he had to do something because he may have gone a little far this time.
It turns out that he didn’t need to book that campground to get their forgiveness, though he did it anyway. Everyone had already forgiven him by the time he got around to texting them. They had been his friends for years after all, if they didn’t understand why he had been so scared and angry they wouldn’t have been good friends. Not to mention they had come up with a solution to going to the party that legitimately had him doubling up in laughter.
Only them. No one else would have agreed to do this.
“No! The wings have to be slightly less translucent! And don’t you even dare buy that cheap craft store glitter! Buy the good stuff online, or if you can find it, actual gold flakes may help you get the iridescence right.”
“Each scale should be about the size of your thumb nail if you’re this size. The ones close to your eyes should be placed first and then work out from there to see where the others should fit. And the tail should start as the same width as your head and then get smaller from there.”
“The ears shouldn’t look like that. I’m not an animal we do groom ourselves! Trim the hair and place the ears closer together in the head band so they are actually on top of your head. And I promise you if you don’t make fake teeth for ALL FOUR of your incisors I will not apply my fangs right either!”
“This button will allow you to start the fans, which while spinning, will make it look like there is a hologram in front of you. And the lights on the antennae are turned on by the switch on the bottom so turn them on before you apply them to your forehead.”
“The outline of the scales can just be painted onto those gradient leggings. Be sure to add some done in makeup on your shoulders, elbows and temples though. Actually I think Shitt may have an eyeshadow in the right color already. Hold on, I’m going to ask.”
“The feathers on the wings should have burnished gold or silver in the ends, so maybe spray paint them? Or can you buy them that way. Um, just try to buy them first I guess and I’ll let you know if they’re wrong. Oh and make sure when they’re open they’re longer than your arms!”
“Do NOT have blood dripping from your mouth. Yes I get it, we drink blood, but we’re also civilized! And your lipstick should be at least one shade darker, you’re not trying to look like you belong on a street corner but in some rich and indulgent persons bed. And don’t forget the false lashes, you need to extenuate the red eyes! Shit, does anyone here know how to put lashes on?!”
So when all seven of them showed up to the party in costumes completely made from scratch with none of their exotic traits showing, not as their own species but EACH OTHERS, was it any surprise that jaws dropped in a good way?
After all they did have a little bit of insider knowledge from their friends.