This story is meant to be fairly wholesome and for most viewers. However…
*This story has numerous LGBTQ characters.
*Some mild profane language is used.
*References to mortality and spirituality can be found.

Dreaming of an Alternate World

Ariel climbed the stairs to her second-floor master bedroom. She was hunched forward, her eyes droopy. On cue, her signature dress, shroud cape, and ballet shoes transformed into a nightgown and slippers, complete with a pointy cap that kept her long hair in check. She yawned as she slipped off her sliver wrist rings, placing them beside her on the end table.

It had been a day of many magical spells, namely to protect Heather and to help her transition in subtle ways. Ariel was feeling drained from it all. Nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix!

She pulled the covers over herself and she dozed off quickly. As she fell into a deep sleep, her powerful magic mind began to wander. A genie’s mind can visit other worlds while they sleep, allowing them to see other versions of events, otherwise unimaginable worlds, or more as they sleep. Sometimes, they can just dream, but it’s said that sometimes it creates new worlds in itself!

But Ariel often found herself revisiting the same world. Exactly a month before she presented herself to Heather, she visited an alternate universe. Here, the version of her did not wish to a higher power to have the ability to help others, at least not out loud. On the day Ariel became an Angelic Genie, this alternate passed away. She visited the grave of her alternate self, drawn to try to help her memory endure…

Which is when she met not only this world’s Roland, but the spirit of her alternate self as well! This Ariel was dedicating herself to helping Roland from the Spirit World, which helped him transition and ultimately get out of homelessness. This spirit Ariel was well on her way to becoming a sort of angel, having grown wings by the time Ariel met them.

Ultimately, Ariel granted the alternate Roland’s wish for the alternate Ariel’s friends to see and hear her, seeing as she didn’t want to come back to life (thanks to the things she could do from the other side to help her friends). In the months since, Roland, with the spirit of Ariel in tow, moved out to California to help Andrea through her mermaid transformation, and he was now a medical practitioner in training at Citadel Harbor University.

Things slowly focused for the tired genie girl. It was about the same time here as it was in her world, the first days of November. Andrea’s transformation was moving along. She wore a water-breathing device any time she was out of the water, like now. Roland was struggling to carry Andrea to a chair, with Ariel – now sporting a light blue halo – looking on. He strained himself to carefully lower the mermaid girl into a wheelchair. It was clear this was giving him a workout – he had much more muscle tone than he did even a month ago!

“Yeesh, I think you gained another fifty pounds or so since last week’s checkup. Pure muscle, as I’d expect…” Roland suggested as he sighed.

“You’re doing great, carrying her around like that!” Ariel replied, clapping and smiling. “You know I’d like to help, but even though I’ve changed, it still seems my ability to touch people comes and goes at random…”

“Nah, I think it’s good just to have you here as emotional support, girl! Don’t sweat it!” Andrea reassured her.

Roland slipped on some gloves. “Ready for the exam?”

Andrea nodded.

Roland got to work, patting Andrea’s forming mermaid tail, squeezing it in places. “Tail formation continues along nicely… No abnormalities to note so far…” he noted clinically. “There’s now considerably more muscle between and around the legs. Although I can still feel the remaining human leg bones, surface appearances due to increased muscle mass hide what remains underneath.” He stood up and took his gloves off. “I think I agree with CHU’s last assessment: mid-November. You’ll be done by then! Your body just needs to convert those stubborn leg bones.”

“Noted. Thanks, Roland!” Andrea replied, smiling.

Roland looked at Ariel, who was looking around. “What is it?”

“Wha?” She looked a little out of it, clearly focused on something else. “Oh, sorry! I feel her again!”

“No way, the ‘genie you?’ She’s here again?” Roland asked.

Ariel nodded. “I can feel that distinctive powerful – yet familiar – spirit again. Definitely her.”

“Well, I’m sure Roland needs to check some more things… Why don’t you try talking to her for a minute?” Andrea suggested.

“We can check on your weight while she’s at it,” Roland suggested.

“I’m not looking forward to that…” Andrea muttered as Roland began to cart her into another room.

“Just remember: you’re mostly gaining muscle in your tail. That’s going to only be around whenever you’re swimming in the future. Nothing to be ashamed of…” Roland tried to reassure her.

“Whatever you say, doc…” Andrea muttered sarcastically.

Ariel turned to the space around her. “So, genie me… Decided to come for another checkup on us, I take it?”

“Hehe… Love you guys…” said the semi-coherent genie from another plane of existence.

“Woah… Last time, we actually had a conversation. You seem… Out of it. Are you okay?”

“I’m fiiiine… Hehe… Lots of magically thingies today… Did… I… Do those things? Of course I did, silly me! Hehe…” genie Ariel replied, as if she was drunk.

“Wow, you are completely out of it.”

“I feel loopy!”

“You ARE loopy, girl. Take a curse to the face or something?”

“I made lots of magicy thingies happen today… Hehe… Heather happy! I pooped. Hehe.”

“Oh, I think I get it. The more magic you perform, the more drained you become. You need rest to recharge. Must have been an intense day for you, I take it?”

“Oh, just… One… Two… Ten… Hundred little things. And a few big things. Wait, did I do them twice? I think about them, and I see my memories in double… Hehe…”

“Okay, genie Ariel, get your rest. Just focus on watching and dreaming of us. I don’t think you’re up to a conversation right now…”

“Thumbs-up emoji, smile face! Hehe…” muttered the delirious voice of genie Ariel as the sound of her voice faded away. But spirit Ariel could still feel her presence.

She followed her friends into the other room, where Roland was helping Andrea down onto a massive scale he set up by the door to Andrea’s pool room.

They both immediately noticed her. “That was short… Not in the mood to talk or something?” Andrea asked.

“More like she’s barely coherent. Sounds like she’s tired after a day of intense magic. She’s practically delirious,” Ariel replied.

“Ouch. I guess being a genie is no walk in the park…” Andrea muttered.

“Totally sounded like me, though. Roland, you remember those times where we stayed up all night because it wasn’t safe?”

“And you sounded like you were drunk after a while? Yeah, I remember. You’re weirdly adorable like that…” Roland admitted.

“That’s exactly what she’s like right now. And now I’ve seen it for myself…” Ariel replied, chuckling. “Anyway, she’s in no state to hold a conversation. Maybe later. Or another time. I know we’ll see her again!”

“No doubt. This is, what, the fourth time she’s popped up like this?” Roland asked. He turned to the task at hand. “Alright, Andrea, it seems I was off on my estimate. You’ve gained more than 50 pounds since last week. Your current weight is 578.4 pounds. That’s a little over 63 pounds more than last week!”

“Holy crap! I didn’t think I weighed that much!” Andrea yelped.

“You’re forming dense muscles. Mostly in your tail, but merfolk also have good physical strength too in their aquatic state. How else can your arms drag all that mass along?”

“Fair point.”

“Roland, just how are YOU carrying her around?” Ariel asked, concerned.

“Barely. And with some pain meds. We should probably keep the wheelchair handy from this point forward…”

“Fine by me. Usually just up here for the tests anyway at this point. Speaking of, got any more?” Andrea asked.

“How about the reflex test?” Ariel suggested.

“After she disintegrated a chair last time!?” Roland asked, stunned. Indeed, the last time he tested Andrea’s knee-jerk reaction, her muscular mermaid tail hit a wooden chair nearby, utterly destroying it. Merfolk tails, with all that muscle, have considerable power behind them (never mind magical forces that are also behind them). In Andrea’s case, the power was being amplified by the rigidity of the bones in the still-forming tail.

“Sure, why not? Maybe instead of testing the reflex, we could find some way to test the strength behind it?” Ariel suggested.

“Hmm… I might have something we could do, in that case. We’ll have to go outside for it, if that’s alright with you, Andrea.”

“Fine by me!” Andrea replied.

“Ariel, if you could, fetch my medical rubber mallet from upstairs?” Roland asked.

She nodded and headed up the stairs. Sure, she had wings (and was a spirit), but she was so used to being bound by gravity that she still obeys it. Besides, not everyone in the home could see her all the time…

This was the home of Andrea’s parents (although right now, this was the only place Andrea could live on land right now, given the specially built underwater floor of the recently renovated place). Although Roland’s wish helped others see her, most everyone else could not, at least not at first. Andrea’s parents normally can’t see her. She had once or twice mindlessly grabbed something for Roland or Andrea, only to scare the daylights out of the Madisons with a floating object. Fortunately, after spending time around them, they could at least hear her voice.

Ariel entered the living room, with Mr. Madison fiddling with his phone and Mrs. Madison looking at a newspaper. The small rubber mallet was on the table between them.

She knocked on the wall rhythmically, a few quick knocks followed by two more, getting both of them to look up towards her (but not at her, given). She needed some way to get their attention without freaking them out, and this was something they came up with together. “Hey, Roland needs his little mallet there. Just wanted you to know before I grabbed it and, you know, the whole ‘floating object’ business…”

“That’s fine, sweetie. Thanks for letting us know!” Mrs. Madison said, smiling. She hoped she was looking in Ariel’s direction.

On cue, from her perspective, she watched the object take flight and head for the stairs. Roland was up front about it, and Andrea confirmed it, but it was hard to believe for them at first that some friendly ghost had followed him across the country to help him and Andrea. A friend they once knew, it sounded like. It wasn’t long before objects started moving and levitating on their own. But more than that, the disembodied voice of the girl (which they could now hear as well as though she were standing next to them) could be heard as eerie (if friendly) whispers.

This time, she could swear she even saw the faintest outline of Ariel. There were a couple of times the pair had actually seen her. Mr. Madison almost tripped, nearly sliding down the stairs on his behind. But he was caught by a mysterious woman he’d never seen before – or since.

Mrs. Madison fell into Andrea’s pool one day, and before Andrea could swim to bring her safely to the surface, a young woman pulled her out and gave her a towel to dry off with. As soon as she was done drying off her face, she looked around to see the woman was gone. But moments later, Andrea started talking to Ariel, thanking her for the save. That’s when she realized the new resident spirit had pulled her out – and for a moment, she had seen her! She figured that, right now, they could only see her if they needed her help.

She even matched Roland’s and Andrea’s descriptions: long black hair, pale blue eyes, and a sky-blue silky dress paired with similarly colored boots, some pink socks and armbands, and a white ribbon tied at the waist in a bow. (They also describe ethereal wings and more recently a halo, making her sound like an angel now – but neither she nor her husband had seen these in their encounters.) It took some time, but they were glad to have Ariel around, as strange as her presence had been. Maybe one day, they’d see her as well as their daughter and her friends…

Ariel looked around, not seeing Roland or Andrea inside. She looked out through the sliding doors in the basement kitchen to see them setting up on the beach. She followed them out.

“I got it!” Ariel declared as she ran up to them.

Roland was putting a kickball on the ground. It seemed modified in some way. “Great! Just getting the rest of this set up.”

“What’s the ball for?” Ariel asked.

“I get to try for a field goal kick today!” Andrea joked, getting them to laugh.

“I was wondering what I’d do with some of those spare sensors CHU sometimes gives out. I programmed a few of them and put them inside. With any luck, we can get the force of Andrea’s tail through some calculations!”

“Neat!” Ariel said, smiling.

“Alright… Ariel, if you could do the honors?” Roland asked.

END OF PART 1

By Erica Chrisman (CrystalSeaDragon44)