Ms. Oct 2nd 2022: She Came from the Pink Lagoon!

Trigger #96: The P.I.N.K Lagoon

Location Class: A swamp just outside of Sala City limits where MOM Corp illegally dumps their toxic waste. The P.I.N.K serum seems to have latched onto the fish DNA in the water, resulting in drastic mutations resembling marine life. 

Transformation Type: TG, TF, Monsterfication. 

Threat Level: Benevolent.

Subject: Marina, F, 21, formerly Martin Melville, M.

WARNING: The following contains descriptions of dysphoria, transphobia, homophobia, and brief suicidal ideation. Reader discretion advised.

(Written transcription of a video interview with Marina and Mira Alcott outside her temporary holding cell in the Witch's Hut (aka Mira's bathroom shower chained shut)

Mira Alcott, the current acting Transformistress, wraps a bandage around her wounded arm. Inside her "holding cell" Marina is visibly seething.

Mira: "Damn, you've sure got some claws on you, huh?"

Marina: "Why did you stop me?! I HAD them! I was going to make them PAY!"

Mira sighs.

Mira: "Look, even though half my job is transforming people (and Lord knows I've done it for less), there's still a limit. I couldn't just let you throw those fratboys into some unidentified chemical soup without knowing how they'd turn out. Especially not when they were screaming like that. And especially not when you were doing..."

Mira gestures to her now bandaged wound.

Mira: "THIS to them."

Marina: "THEY DESERVED IT! THEY ALL DESERVED IT! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE LIKE!"

Mira sits next to the glass of Marina's "prison"

Mira: "Maybe. You wanna talk about it...? It might help?"

Marina glares at Mira, her eyes and antenna searingly bright with anger. Then, they extinguish, and she collapses into herself, her arms wrapped around her legs, face buried into her knees.

Marina: "Did you ever get the feeling you were just... born wrong? That there was this, cosmic coin toss at the beginning of your life, and you'd lost...?"

Marina looks up at Mira and scoffs.

Marina: "No... of course you wouldn't. Look at you. You're PERFECT."

Mira: "... you'd be surprised... I wasn't always like this... but I understand the feeling."

Marina: "Then you know what it's like to have to live with it. Knowing something is wrong. And that every day, it's just getting... wronger... Feeling your body betray you, turning ugly, course, and rough on the outside, and numb and empty on the inside... Like a clam shell... rotting in the sun..."

Mira: "..."

Marina: "And you'd know what it's like to feel so... desperately alone. The other girls think you're too much of a boy to be around them. The other boys think you're a girl, and they resent you for it. They... punish you, for it. Make you hate everything about yourself even more than you already do. Remind you every day of what you are... and what you aren't..."

Mira places a hand on the glass. Tears begin to glisten from Marina's eyes.

Marina: "And you think to yourself, 'Hey, that's just highschool, right? It'll be different in college! People will have grown up by then!' Except you GET to college and it's still EXACTLY the same. And then you realize, that, it's going to be the same EVERYWHERE. It'll NEVER change, and it'll NEVER be any different."

Marina sniffs, and wipes away her tears.

Marina: "So you try to change yourself. To survive. You try to become what they expect you to be, what they DEMAND you to be. They tell you to 'man up', so you do. Or at least, you TRY to. But they don't tell you you'll NEVER be 'man enough' for them. You'll always be too much of a-a pansy... a pussy... a faggot..."

Marina studies her webbed fingers and toes, her tail curling around herself.

Marina: "...a freak..."

Mira: "You're not a freak, Marina. That feeling... it isn't as uncommon as you'd think. It's-"

Marina slams a palm against the glass. A spiderweb of cracks spreads out from her hand.

Marina: "JUST LOOK AT ME! WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU KNOW! YOU'RE A GIRL! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!"

Mira: "I do. I used to be- no... used to LOOK like a guy. Just like you."

Marina pauses, taken aback.

Marina: "What... you... how?"

Mira: "It's... a long story. But minus a few fish scales, I have been EXACTLY where you are. Feeling like my body was this... obstacle I needed to overcome. A walking, waking prison I could never escape. And yes, I got lucky, and I stumbled into the body of my dreams. But I was even luckier to have people in my life... GOOD people... to help me through that time when I was... 'him'..."

Mira puts her hand up to the cracks.

Mira: "... I'd like to be one of those people for YOU now... if you'll let me?"

Marina pauses, shakily.

Then, slowly, she puts a hand onto the glass.

Mira: "Good... now, if you're ready... we can talk about what happened to you, and maybe I can help..."

Another pause. Marina takes a deep, steadying breath and exhales.

Marina: "... It was a dare. My friends... no... the other Frat Boys at Alpha Psi, they... dared me to take a dip in the old Sala City Lagoon. Said they'd kick me out of the frat if I didn't do it..."

Marina wraps her tail around her legs and strokes it contemplatively.

Marina: "... They were awful to me, of course. I was their errand... person... They made me do all their chores, their homework... all in exchange for their 'friendship.' For their... 'protection...'"

Marina scoffs

Marina: "... all bullshit, of course. I'd probably have been better off alone. But still, I was... desperate. I wanted to... I NEEDED to belong somewhere... anywhere... even if I was just the punching bag..."

Marina leans her head back on the tiled bathroom wall.

Marina: "So we drove out. Having actually DONE their chemistry homework, unlike them, I knew what that lake could do to me. At best, I'd hoped I'd just get sick and need to go to the hospital. At worst..."

Marina trails off, and chuckles again...

Marina: "Well, at worst, it wouldn't be my problem anymore, would it...?"

Marina: "So, I took a deep breath, pinched my nose, and jumped in."

Marina tilts her head thoughtfully.

Marina: "It didn't feel how I thought it would. I could feel bubbles on my skin. Then, I realized the bubbles WERE my skin. At first, I thought I was dying. Tried to claw for the surface. But then my ribs cracked and my waist caved in. All the air was sucked out of my lungs, and then the water came crashing in. And then it was all over..."

Marina shifts again, leaning an arm on the corner of the tub.

Marina: "I just... thought to myself, 'This is it, I guess. I wish I could have been happy, but... at least it'll be over soon. At least it won't hurt anymore. And maybe next time... maybe next time God or whatever will actually get it right...'"

Marina: "But that's not what happened. Just as my vision was going black, I felt these... slits cut through the sides of my neck and ribs, like a cat had clawed through them. And then I was breathing again. But it didn't stop there. My skin... I thought it was just the swamp slime, but my skin turned green. But it was soft... hairless. My face hurt like hell, but when my webbed hands touched it, it was all wrong, but somehow, just... so perfectly right. I almost cut my tongue on my teeth smiling, and there was this annoying light over my head I tried to bat away before I realized it was attached to me. When I finally started to make my way back to the surface I realized the heavy lump on my ass wasn't just my ass getting bigger, it was a whole ass fish tail." 

Marina laughs, more genuinely this time.

Marina: "You know, I should have been terrified, right? You'd think so. Turning into a swamp monster and all. But as soon as my chest started filling up, and my hips flared out, and my "outie" became an "innie", I was just... relieved. Because, at least I was turning into a GIRL swamp monster.

Marina smiles, reminiscing.

Marina: "Swimming was... incredible. I was cutting through the water like a hot knife through butter. The sheer speed of it was... exhilarating. But more importantly, the water rushing past me outlined every new curve. It cupped around my breasts, highlighted my swaying hips, caressed my new sex, and it was... it was magical. There's no other word for it. And when I finally stopped, just below the surface, I finally felt... Free."

Marina: "I was safe there. Under the water. There was no one who could hurt me. No one who could tell me I was... wrong for being who I was..."

Marina closes her eyes and grins.

Marina: "And when I broke the surface, I could finally see my reflection in the shallows, and I was... RESPLENDENT. Despite being green at the gills, I looked and felt AMAZING."

Marina opens her eyes, scowls and looks downcast.

Marina: "But then I finally saw THEM. I'd been under too long, and they hadn't seen me come up, so they were panicking. To their credit, they were still looking for me. But none of them were brave enough to try and dive in after me. No, they were trying to call my phone, even though they'd stolen it a WEEK ago. Idiots..."

Marina sniffs again.

Marina: "The worst part was, I still thought these guys were my FRIENDS, right? So I come out of the water, still dripping in... pink... and I feel AMAZING, so I... I told them that they should jump in too, right? I thought maybe everyone else was like me! Maybe every boy secretly wants to be a girl, right?"

Marina cringes.

Marina: "And then... I saw their faces... and they were... horrified of me... disgusted by me... repulsed..."

Marina grits her sharp, sharklike teeth.

Marina: "And that... that made angrier than anything they'd ever done to me. All the punches and kicks, and every cruel prank was NOTHING compared to THIS. I was finally... ME. I was finally perfect! And they had the... audacity to HATE me for it. STILL. I was finally comfortable in my own skin, and they couldn't even LOOK at me..."

A look of deep regret passes her face.

Marina: "So... I lost it... I saw red, and... and that's when you came in and did your whole..."

Marina makes a drawing gesture with her left hand and points at the locked shower around her.

Marina: "This..." 

They are both quiet for a moment.

Marina: "So... you're probably going to turn me into the police now, huh? Maybe some government lab, or whatever...?"

Mira: "No..."

Mira unlocks and opens the shower door, much to Marina's surprise.

Mira: "I'm letting you go..."

Marina: "What? Just like that?! But... but what if I hurt someone again? And, where will I go, looking like... this?"

Mira: "Well, the Veil usually has ways of hiding that kind of stuff from normies, but I still have a few glamour spells I can try. And besides, I know a certain sorority and a swim team that would LOVE to have you..."

Mira winks at Marina. There's a beat, and then the fish woman hugs her tight.

Marina: "...thank you..."

Mira: "Don't mention it. Just doing my job..."

Mira moves to turn off the mounted camera as Marina fidgets questioningly.

Marina: "Hey, by the way... if you're a witch or whatever, why'd you still have to bandage yourself? Don't you have, like, healing magic or whatever?"

Mira grins as she raises the bandaged arm.

Mira: "Oh, this? Yeah, I ran out of mana right after our fight. Still need to visit a certain special Mister I know to... ahem, 'RECHARGE'..."

Marina: "Wait... so you let me out of there... knowing you had nothing to defend yourself? How'd you know I wasn't lying? How'd you know I wasn't gonna attack you...?"

Mira: "I didn't..."

Mira stares into the camera lens, and winks.

Mira: "I just had faith..."

*CLICK!*

-END OF RECORDING-

From the desk of

Mira Alcott

Head-Mistress of Transformations

(Special thanks to Wyvernstrafe, wireless345, and Smoke Midlands for the suggestion, to my Test Readers, and to all of you for your support!)