Narita was a water mage, because that is what she was expected to be. Unlike others she had not had to attend a formal place of study, because she had been taught by her mother. Her mother was also a water mage, as was her grandmother. Also her grandfather. The neighbours too. To make it simple, Narita had grown up in a village of water mages, it was what they were known for. It was what they were all expected to be. Not just because it was what the elders did, but because it was in their very blood, in their genetics. Narita was expected to be a water mage, because it was what her people were born to be. For she was a lemurian.

The palms of their hands, around the fingers, along the underside of their arms, their feet up the backs of their legs were covered in scales. Developed to stop their skin being damaged by the water. The scales continued on the sides of the face, covering the bottom of the ear. On top of this, it was common to develop stray scales all over, similar to moles or freckles that other races sometimes had. They were born with innate knowledge, many said they felt like the water itself spoke to them. However Narita had never experienced this, the water did not call to her. The spells did not come naturally. She could do them, because it was expected of her so she had practiced and practiced until she could. But it was exhausting.

She looked at herself in the mirror, her hair was extra wild today, her thick blue curls were hard to manage. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, frowning now that the blue scales on the edge of her face were more visible. She knew it was common for her people to get the bulk of the facial scales removed when they moved to Olympus. There was no reason beyond vanity for this. Narita couldn't particularly say whether she liked or disliked her scales. Before coming here she'd never even thought about it. But for a realm of so many different types of people, for some reason she felt like being different was still an issue. The scales marked her as too different to the Olympian gods, but she was still more like them than the mermaids she worked with. Perhaps the issue was simply it had been a mistake moving from Talo to Olympus.

Getting a job hadn't been difficult, water mages were always in high demand. Looking after the seas, cleaning the drinking water, controlling the rain of the mortal planes. There was an endless amount of work to be done. She had arrived here, been directed to the employment office who had sent her straight to work at the reservoirs. She helped maintain the clarity of the drinking water for the capital city. It paid well, she could hardly complain about that. Her co-workers were nice enough. But the work was dull, and the magic did not come naturally to her so she was always exhausted. 

With a good paying job she had managed to get a nice enough flat. It had an open plan kitchen and living room. A decent sized bedroom, her own bathroom, and a great view of Mount Olympus itself. There was nothing in theory to complain about. But there was no sense of community, her neighbours were polite, but just like her they were always busy. Everyone here was always busy. Olympus was an expensive place to be after all. Her experience so far was people worked hard to be here, and then had no energy left to actually enjoy being here. It had seemed like such a great idea when it had been suggested to her. Her parents hadn't approved, not that she wanted to move to Olympus, no they hadn't approved of her reasons.

Now perhaps the biggest issue Narita had was simple, for she had moved here to be with a man. The god Apollo had been visiting Talo a year ago, they had made a fast connection and entered a relationship. When it had been time for him to go home he'd asked her to go with him. She was in love and they'd talked about being sensible, her own place, her own money. She wouldn't be reliant on him. They could keep seeing each other, it would be great. Olympus had so much more to offer after all. Narita had been so excited, her parents were concerned, but she had a reason to shut down all of their complaints. So she had left.

Narita was a stubborn woman, she didn't want to admit that maybe, just maybe her parents had a point. That maybe she had not known Apollo quite as well as she thought. That maybe it hadn't been quite long enough for them to be in love. But she had known better, she still thought she did. She was not ready to give up. So what if maybe he seemed to love himself more than her, so what if he had a weird co dependent relationship with his twin sister. No one was perfect. So maybe she didn't love her job, but she hadn't loved her job in Talo either. Apollo was right, Olympus did have more opportunities, maybe if she stayed she'd find something she did like. She pulled on her knee high boots. She looked down at herself, she was wearing a black wetsuit that stretched to her elbows and knees. Over this she'd put on some jean shorts and a pink shirt.

So maybe it was a bad week, but she had savings, she kept all her belongings in extra dimensional storage, all she had to do was place the crystal that housed the spell against any drawer or door and she could access it anywhere. So basically she could leave whenever she wanted. Some might say that was a sign that maybe it was time she left, but Narita would argue she just liked to be organised. No, maybe it was a bad month, but that didn't mean it wasn't about to get better. If she just tried a little longer. Resolve restored, it was time to get to work.

***

Z'tar loved her job, she loved what she did. Keeping the waters of Olympus clean didn't even feel like work to her. Perhaps because she was a mermaid who had to live in the waters it made her work seem extra important. But she enjoyed the feeling of the spells as the water flowed around her, filtering the dirt out to a microscopic level. Often she felt more like she was just playing around than actually working. This wasn't to say she didn't work hard, Z'tar worked incredibly hard. She just didn't really see it as work. Many viewed her as kind of ditzy, but she wasn't, she was just happy. People thought she didn't pay attention to those around her, however that just wasn't true. She could tell that her co-worker Narita was unhappy. She could tell that Narita was exhausted. She just didn't know quite how to help her. So she worked harder than normal picking up where Narita was failing. Others may have been annoyed, but not Z'tar, because she understood that sometimes people needed extra help. Narita may not even realise that she was helping her, but she didn't mind. She wasn't doing it for praise.

"Another beautiful day, don't you think Narita?" Z'tar smiled gently at her. Maybe Narita could be standoffish, maybe she struggled with the work. But Z'tar liked her for one very simple reason. She tried.

"I don't think I've ever seen a day that wasn't beautiful here. Even the rainy days are beautiful." Narita smiled back, pulling off her boots, and sitting at the edge of the water. Feet submerged.

"That is because you are still new here. One day you'll witness the lightning caused when Zeus gets angry. It can be terrifying, but you just have to remember that you're safe as long as you stay inside and out of his way." Z'tar flicked her tail, water rising into the air and raining back down upon them.

"Ah, don't make me have to fully get down to the wetsuit. I was hoping not to have to get completely changed after work." Narita raised her arms over her head.

"Ooooh, big plans?" The mermaid spun in the water, pushing herself right up to the edge until her head bumped against it. Her long red hair twisting around her tail. Her tail was a bright red that matched her hair. But her skin was pale, almost translucent. Her fingers were webbed, and she had fins along her back and elbows.

"Nothing fancy, but I've finally managed to organise a meal out with a few friends." Narita looked momentarily awkward. Maybe considering how Z'tar might feel about how ill suited most of Olympus was to those who didn't dwell on land.

"Doesn't need to be fancy to be fun! That boyfriend of yours going?" Z'tar flicked water at her.

"Errr, no, just a girls night. I think maybe his sister might join us. But I'm not sure. She's kind of hard to read." Narita kicked water back at the mermaid redundantly.

"Which one? You date a son of Zeus, you're going to need to be much more specific." She raised one round eyebrow at the bipedal woman.

"Ha ha. You know which one I mean. Artemis. His twin." Narita replied sarcastically.

"You might have decided to hang out with Athena. Maybe you decided that Artemis wasn't awkward enough so you wanted to get drunk listening to Athena preach about wisdom. Or maybe you decided you actually wanted to have a good time and invited Harmonia. Although actually, is she one of Zeus'? I might be misremembering that." Z'tar thought for a moment. "So it could be worse, I bet Artemis isn't even all that bad. The gossip about her says she's a bit stiff. But honestly so are you."

"Well then, next time I shall have to make sure we go somewhere you can join us. Then you can be the judge of how awkward it is and whose fault that is." Narita said somewhat awkwardly.

"Definitely! You had better, that I want to see!" Z'tar grinned at her. Delighted to be invited out, it wasn't always easy to socialise outside of work with co-workers when one had legs and the other didn't. She waited for a response, but realised the other woman had zoned out mid conversation.

This was hardly the first time, which with how often it happened could well be a sign of depression. The mermaid knew she wasn't qualified to handle such things; she liked the blue haired goddess, but they weren't close. More than just this, work was not the place to tackle such an issue. So she left her to her thoughts and got on with her own work. The water around her raised into the air in spheres, before gently raining down over a specially designed metal filter. The water dripped through, leaving just the impurities. Z'tar's magic swirled the water again, concentrating all the dirt, rubbish and microplastics she could into one place and then raised them out of the main body of water as a sphere, before releasing it back over the filter. Z'tar was particularly good at this, she could have countless little pools swirling and rising up to a mile away from her. Sometimes she'd raise the water just to rain it on herself for fun. She loved water after all. Whereas Narita could only handle doing one small area at a time, she was very thorough, just inefficient.

They worked silently for a while, occasionally they could hear others working elsewhere down the river that the reservoir pulled its water from. The job was never ending, completely clearing the water was impossible, people polluted it quicker than they purified it. Narita had occasionally joked that Z'tar needed to be so good at cleaning the water to remove the dirt coming off herself. Z'tar was indignant at the suggestion, but let it slide. Everyone knew that mermaids were the cleanest people around. The odd lost scale was nothing in the grand scheme of things though. Of course Z'tar made sure to retrieve any stray scales she may lose at work. She knew people paid generously for mermaid scales in the markets, and she was convinced the markets got their supplies from the people emptying the filters. Z'tar also grabbed any stray scales of Narita's she may see too, she hadn't been asked, but the idea of someone selling her co-workers scales did not sit right with her. Discarding them carefully, along with her own.

"When you were small, what did you want to be? What did you like?" Z'tar asked to break the silence. It had dragged on far too long now, it was awkward. But worse, frankly she was bored.

"What? This I guess? I just assumed I'd do this?" Narita gestured around them.

"But do you like this? Did you like this when you were a child?" Z'tar pushed.

"Why does it matter what I liked when I was a child?" The blue scales moved as Narita frowned.

"Simple, children don't know to lie to themselves. They don't convince themselves that things they hate are good, because they think they should like it. Children sulk when you ask them to tidy because it is boring, and why would they want to do something boring? Adults tidy because they know it has to be done regardless of how boring it is. So what was it that baby Narita found fun?" Z'tar rolled onto her back, closing her eyes as she floated on the water.

"I don't know, normal things I guess? I liked to draw, I liked making things. But that was just playing. I never thought there was anything I desperately wanted to do." Narita murmured, her magic faltering as she spoke, concentration broken.

"Hmm... have you considered picking up some hobbies then, join an art class? Maybe that might inspire you?" The mermaid said thoughtfully. 

"Is this you trying to tell me to quit?" Narita crossed her arms annoyed.

"Not unless it would make you happy." Z'tar opened her eyes and looked at the other. "I guess I'm just trying to figure you out. It's what friends do, they get to know each other."

"Sadly, I'm afraid I'm just not that interesting." She replied.

A wide grin slowly spread across the mermaid's face, her lips parted to reveal sharp spiked teeth. Her eyes narrowed, mermaids had black eyes, with white irises and no pupils. Most of the time, they were a vision of beauty. But sometimes their faces would seem to twist into a terrifying sight. "Now that is not a nice thing to say about my friend." Z'tar laughed softly as she spoke.

Narita looked at her completely unimpressed, and then kicked water towards her. "Whatever, let's just get on with this. You want to ask a million questions, fine. We'll find some time and do it outside of work. Ideally with alcohol. But I can't concentrate on the water whilst you won't shut up.'

"Fine, I'll hold you to that." Z'tar laughed and then drove deep into the water. 

***