This story is meant to be fairly wholesome and for most viewers. However…
*This story includes numerous LGBTQ characters, with transgender main characters.
*Some heavy themes, particularly homelessness and searching for a lost friend, are found.
*There are depictions of assault and abuse some may find troubling.

Roland’s Story (Part 3 - Finale)

=== August 18, 2023 ===

Roland was just finishing up for the day, tossing the trash into the alleyway dumpster. He was grateful to have this job at the homeless shelter. He was able to get an SUV a few months back thanks to this job, a roomier vehicle for his needs than the old, rusty sedan.

But that was far from his mind at this point: he was still processing the information from two weeks ago. He met with Andrea and Kaylee online a week after a massive storm hit the California coast where Andrea lived. And the news that came out that day… Andrea was turning into a mermaid, the proof in her now webbed hands! Kaylee moved out to California months ago because she met a robot girl, Kit. Roland met her a few days ago, and he just couldn’t believe how adorable she was! She was supposed to be an AI superweapon!?

But the biggest drop of all came from a familiar FBI agent helping Andrea along: Ariel was alive! Not only that, but she had become something called an “Angelic Genie,” which when it came to this magic world he was now sucked into, Ariel was at the top, a divine being whose purpose was to help people heal and spread happiness through granting wishes. According to Kaylee, Ariel is even more powerful than a regular genie!

He was finally able to stop searching the city for Ariel. She was coming back one day. Maybe even in a month or less! His mind raced with what she might look like, whether he’d recognize her or not, and what she’d be like. But he had a hunch Ariel would be the same girl she’d always been. She was too kind, too compassionate, too humble to let power like that go to her head. If the stories about such beings are true, that they’re chosen for it, he was pretty sure whoever made that decision made the right call.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sniffle from nearby. He turned around to look at a man, leaning against a wall with one arm against the wall, coming out of a ratty-looking hooded cloak. It kept him covered from head to the bottom of his legs, where his seemingly poor appearance was betrayed by pristine black khakis and polished business shoes.

Roland was on edge. Was this a trap? Another suit, come to hurt someone in an elaborate trap? He hesitantly stepped forward…

“S-sir? Can I help you?” he stammered, trying to hide his fear.

The cloaked figure jumped a little. “Oh! I’m so sorry, I thought there wasn’t anyone here!”

“Well, I just took out the trash, so…”

“I-I’ll leave you to it…” the man muttered as he started to turn. But a stiff breeze from a car passing by on the street blew through the alley, amplified by the space and blowing the man’s hood down, revealing a man with some age, black hair and a black, bushy mustache. Roland recognized him immediately from the local news…

“Duke Arden-Smith!?” he asked, dumbfounded.

Duke raced up and put his hands over Roland’s mouth. “Ssssh! Please, I’m not here, you understand?” he asked in a panicked whisper.

Roland nodded. Duke backed off.

“Can I ask you something? Why are you hiding in an alley, pretending to be poor?” Roland asked, quieter.

Duke looked down. “I have done many terrible things. I keep it all compartmentalized, but sometimes, I just need to let it out, away from the prying eyes of my wife and her organization..."

"It’s that bad?”

“I can’t tell you what she’s done. What I have done. Your life would be in grave danger if I did…”

“Okay, that sounds pretty serious…”

“About the only thing I really can say to someone like you is my biggest regret…”

“Which is?”

“I couldn’t stand up for my daughter when she bravely told us who she was. I-I let Haylie grab her and toss her out onto the sidewalk, then toss and sell many of her belongings before the night was even over…”

“Daughter?” Roland feigned, realizing Duke was talking about Ariel. “I thought you had only one son, and he just vanished almost two years ago.”

“That’s what that witch wants everyone to think… ‘Joel’ really was ‘Ariel’ all along. She was afraid to say something for many years, and rightfully so, given Haylie. I came from a place that accepted all people, a truly vibrant community of kindness and love. But Haylie…” Duke stopped, tears were running down his face.

Roland stepped up and gave him a hug. “Wow. I never knew.”

“N-no one does. Haylie cares about projecting strength and control, and if I don’t play along… I’ve seen the worst she can do.”

“How did you even marry someone like that?”

“She’s manipulative. She’ll show you one face, unbroken, for years before pouncing, striking when you’re most vulnerable. I thought I married a very different person. By the time I found out who she really was, it was too late. I was bound to her, ripped from the arms of my community through betrayal and blackmail…”

“Do you know what happened to Ariel after she was kicked out?”

“Haylie had her people keep an eye on things. She found Ariel had been using homeless help services soon after being tossed out. After a time, Haylie declared her dead, hoping that would finally finish her off…”

Roland was startled. He put his hands to his mouth and gasped. “You mean that was genuinely an attempt to kill her!?”

Duke nodded solemnly.

“Do you know anything else?”

He shook his head. “No. All trails die a month later. The most vile birthday gift of all time. Haylie has a sick sense of humor…”

“Well… You’re in luck, Duke. I knew Ariel.”

“You did!?”

Roland nodded. “She saved me from the people in black suits that always harass people like me, not more than a couple of hours after she was tossed out. We became friends, and I helped her get on her feet.”

“Bless your heart, young lady! And to think, she takes a lot from her great grandpa. Brave and strong…”

“Really? Also, ‘man.’ I’m trans. Roland Mitchell.”

“Sorry, you just looked so…”

“Yeah, it’s a pain, but I’ll get there one day.”

“You’ll make a fine young man. Better than me.” Duke looked away. “My daughter is dead because I didn't stand up for her.”

Roland thought about it for a moment. He could tell Duke was being genuine. The emotions he was holding in were gushing out for Roland to see. This man had a much harder life than anyone knew, married to a monster that must have been forcing him to play along with truly horrible things, including disowning someone he clearly cared for and accepted.

He had every right to know.

“Ariel is alive. I don’t know the full details, but when she went missing a year ago – when she was declared dead – something apparently happened to her. She’s…” Roland paused. “I hear she’s now something called an ‘Angelic Genie,’ some hyper-powerful wish-granter or something. I haven’t seen her, and I only heard the news two weeks ago myself. I’m still processing it…”

Duke fell to the ground. Tears started to form.

“Are you okay?”

The faintest smile formed on Duke’s face. “So magic found its way back to her after all… Haylie couldn’t keep her from the magic community – or her true self… Haylie didn’t win. She can never win this battle anymore. Ariel will persist no matter what Haylie can do…”

“Wait… You’re from the magic community too!?” Roland gasped.

Duke nodded. “My grandfather was Victor Arden, a kitsune from a parallel world of magic. My mother was a half-kitsune, born from a human mother. And I am her son, from her and a human father. The halfling traits weed themselves out after a generation, so Ariel and I are fully human, despite the kitsune ancestry. Or at least she was fully human if your words are true.”

Now it was Roland’s turn to drop to the ground. “So all along, magic had touched her life… From the very beginning…”

Duke nodded. “Young man, I don’t know where you got this information, but if it’s true-“

“I learned it from an FBI agent who claims to have met her.”

“Young, graying hair, looks like he’s miserable all the time?”

Roland nodded.

“I wish that man the best of luck. And also, I know you can take him for his word; you got the truth from him. Seriously, though, if he can nail Haylie and I without me confessing, I might just have a shot at outliving her. He’ll have his work cut out for him, but if the FBI can find the evidence, I might be free from her…”

Roland realized Duke was in a precarious place. “Look, I make no promises here, but I’ll keep my mouth shut. For your sake. Just expect me to answer honestly if someone official ever asks.”

“I’d expect nothing less from an honest young man such as yourself.” Duke put a hand on Roland’s shoulder. “You just made my day. Maybe one day, I’ll see Ariel again… And maybe, I’ll even be able to apologize to her for the bad father I was… But, above all, thank you for giving my daughter a friend in the hardest time of her life…”

“You’re welcome.” Roland replied, smiling.

“And please, continue to be her friend and support her. Do what I couldn’t.”

Roland nodded. “I will.”

Duke got up and put his ratty cloak back on. “Farewell, young man. I pray you’ll live a bountiful, full life…”
Duke turned around and walked back into his life, leaving Roland behind to process meeting the true face of Ariel’s father…

=======

Ariel’s hands were over her mouth. Tears were running down her face. The sparkles of her cape were completely gone. “I-I never knew! Dad was, well, very cowardly. But I thought he might have been just as bad as mom… He… He really accepted me, all along…”

“He really did. And hearing about your ancestry…”

“Suddenly, me liking the idea of being a kitsune makes some sense.” She wiped away the tears. “Thank you, Roland, for telling me. If I can ever figure out how to reach him, maybe I’ll say something…”

“Could you get him out? I mean, if he’s really genuine…”

Ariel paused. “Even for all of my power, I don’t know. Something doesn’t sit right with everything that happens around my mom. All the evidence says she’s clean – save the half-confession from my dad you just recounted to me – but my gut says something else. I’m trying to figure it out. I just… I don’t know. I have all of the most powerful magic at my fingertips, and yet it seems like anything tangible slips even out of my grasp. It’s frustrating. There’s something more going on, and my gut is telling me he might wind up hurt if I try to help him now…”

“Okay. I trust you. After all, I’m here because of your advice.”

“That’s true!”

“And if I may say, I think your chosen last name makes perfect sense now. You give hope to everyone whose lives you touch. Even your dad!”

“Huh…” Sparkles started returning to her cape. “Yeah, you’re right! Okay, maybe I can’t get my dad out of there right now, but I gave him hope! And eventually, I’ll be able to help him! I just need to take my time and really think it through, maybe learn more about the situation.”

“Sounds like an idea!” Roland fell back into the couch. “Phew… How long has it been?”

“Uh, a couple of hours? We haven’t even made it to lunch yet…”

“You know, I haven’t had a good game – or even a controller – in my hands for years. I need to scratch that itch! What have you got, Ariel?”

Ariel perked up and smiled. “Anything and everything! I mean, I only really have what I used to own as a human, buuut…” She held up a hand. Sky blue sparkles and swirls were forming in it. “Have something specific in mind? Even that most obscure game or rare console that fetches a high price? Say the word, and I can make it happen, right here…”

Roland chuckled, but then he had a thought. “You know, the console I used to own was pretty rare. It wasn’t very popular, so not a lot of them were sold, and not many of them are left. I had a few games on it we could have even played together…”

“Ooooh, hang on…” The magic in her hand became much more active, swirling and condensing into a series of items. Before long, a familiar late nineties console, along with several games, controllers, and chunky memory units formed in the air, before she gently guided them to the ground. “There we go!” she finished with a smile.

Roland took a closer look. That’s when he saw a sticker he remembered he put on the console, a little cartoon robot character, with a pink "R" scribbled on its chest.

He gasped. “Wait, is this MY old console!?”

Ariel nodded with a big grin. “I did that myself with my stuff when I became a genie! More or less, it’s a copy of the one you had on the day you sold everything. It comes exactly from that day, so it’s sort of a few years newer than it would have been if you kept it all this time…”

Roland stared blankly at the console and gear, which still had a slight magic glow to them. “Wow…” He turned to Ariel. “Thank you so much! But…”

“Don’t worry, I can hold onto it if you don’t have the space right now.”

Roland smiled and nodded. He thumbed through the stack of games. He plucked one out. “Here’s one we can play together, a sci-fi fantasy game. Co-op, so it’s us against the game. Interested?”

Ariel grinned wide and clenched her hands together, nodding.

Roland smiled. “Well then! Just give me a few minutes to get all this hooked up, and we can dive in!”

It didn’t take Roland long. Ariel gave him some pointers, given she knew her setup inside and out. Before long, they were battling their way through robot goblins and mutant plants, having the time of their lives! They missed lunch, they were so into it.

Roland glanced at Ariel. So much had happened to his friends in such a short period of time. Ariel, Andrea, and even Kaylee were all changed by this world of magic that, just over a year ago, none of them even knew existed. And yet, every time he met Andrea, she was who he remembered meeting online. Kaylee was still very much herself.

And Ariel… Her giddiness over trying a new game, her willingness to help out a friend in need, all of it was her. It didn’t matter that she had pointy ears or purple eyes. It didn’t matter that she was a magic being at all. She was still Ariel, still the vulnerable and sensitive yet brave and compassionate girl that saved him two years ago. What everyone had become didn’t matter at all… Because they were still the same people he remembered.

Ariel didn’t need his protection, maybe even back then. She was stronger than she often looked. She came back, and she still cared. He was still going to look out for her, but he knew she’d be alright now…

And for the first time in a long time, Roland felt the same about his own situation. He didn’t need to hold on so tight anymore. Things would be alright for him too. He chuckled at the reason why…

After all, it was in her name.

THE END FOR TODAY…

By Erica Chrisman (CrystalSeaDragon44)