#maybe i'll expand on the lore a bit more... hmm...

[kirstenonic05]

WAIT YOU HAVE A MER JOSEPH AU LOL

Have you written any of it yet?

Yeah! I have! I'll put what I have so far under the cut, but beware! It's unedited and terribly put together! And I also don't know much about lifeguards and am using google so bear with me! (The ~ means I skipped and haven't finished writing that section, I'll finish writing this someday! Maybe! Hopefully...)

It was a normal day for Caesar. A chill one, at that. Since it was winter, there were not many families out on the beach during Caesar's lifeguard shift. Suzi was next to him, keeping a look out on the waves. Seagulls cawed in the sky, their normal bickering as they swept up seafood with their bills.

In all honesty, Caesar could fall asleep right there. It wasn't like there was anyone at the beach.

The caws of the gulls suddenly turned into violent screeches. It was then followed by the shouts of angry men, approaching from far away. That was enough to get Caesar to jump off of the pole he was leaning on. He turned to Suzi, who turned to him. That wasn't good.

Hastily, the duo dashed down towards the water's edge. There, they saw the shapes of boats on the horizon. Huge, menacing shapes, like sharks across the sea.

And they were chasing something. Something with a tail, a shining, green tail. Possibly of a huge fish, or even dolphin. A rare one, at that. It wasn't everybody you saw a green tail of dolphin size.

"Poachers," Caesar stated coldly. They had to be. This wasn't the first time they chased a whale all the way to shore.

"After them!" Suzi shouted, running on ahead. Caesar nodded, following close behind.

The shouting from the poachers turned to screams of warning. Caesar braced himself. "Go away! My friend's already on the phone with the police, so you better run!"

Caesar would love to engage in combat, an attempt to finally get those poachers in jail once and for all, but they had a sea creature to look after. A beached whale only had minutes to live.

Suzi, having held her paddle board all the way to the beach, raised it above her head, ready to throw it.

Whether the threats of being caught by the police or Suzi's paddleboard scared the poachers off, Caesar didn't know. What he did know was that the poachers, after a minute of stalling, gave up. Hopefully they were unable to catch whatever they were going for.

"Good riddance," Caesar said, before turning to the last place he saw that green tail. "Now we have to see whatever they were hunting."

"I'll get the stretcher!" Suzi saluted. Caesar didn't even get a chance to respond before she ran off towards the land.

Instead, he followed the coast, weaving between the rocks he knew so well. Soon, a type of whining could be heard, along with small squeaks. One that sounded like a dolphin out of water, except... different. Deeper, but only slightly. Too slow to be a dolphins. More like whines than squeaks.

Finally, something came into view. From behind a rock Caesar could see that brilliant, green tail. Well, it was no wonder the poachers were after this creature.

Carefully, Caesar stepped around the rock. His eyes followed the tail upwards. Wait, that was...

The tail continued up before speckling into tan skin. Human skin. With two, muscly arms. And a further look at its head revealed brown, spiky hair. That was no fish.

That was a mermaid.

Caesar took a second to process this information. Mermaids didn't exist, right?! Yet, what was this in front of him?!

Not knowing what to say, Caesar approached carefully. "Are you ok?"

The mermaid turned to him. Its eyes were a mix between green and blue, shimmering like a paua shell.

The mermaid gasped, before its whines shifted into aggressive growls. It scraped at the sand around it with its hands before thrashing its tail wildly. It was distressed, Caesar realised.

Caesar spread his hands out and crouched in an attempt to make himself less threatening. "Calm down! We're here to help you."

Despite the peaceful notions, the mermaid simply stared at him with wide, almost fearful eyes. It looked as if it was trying to swim away, just that it was on land. Its glistening eyes started to grow frustrated.

Carefully, Caesar crept closer to the mythical beast. However, the moment he took a step forward, the mermaid seemed to hiss at him. Maybe that wasn't the best idea.

To his luck, Suzi came running down from the rocks. "I got the stretcher-!"

Her voice cut out. Caesar looked up, only to catch her ocean blue eyes wide as they watched the mermaid.

"Suzi-"

"THE POOR THING!" She exclaimed, hurrying down the rocks.

~

From that day on, Caesar always had the feeling he was being watched. Gazes out to the sea were met with spiky brown hair and seafoam green eyes. In a second they would disappear in a splash of white foam.

Caesar always kept an eye out for these encounters. And it turned out Suzi did, too. Whenever she saw hints of the mermaid, or merman, as Suzi, she would instantly report back to Caesar. He found it odd that it was just the one merman (Wait, what if he was the only one of his kind?), who showed up everyday without fail.

Caesar looked out towards the sea again. His shift was almost over, as the sun started to sink under the horizon. Since Summer was ending in a few days, less and less visitors went to the beach. Caesar felt a cold chill rush past his body. Well, at least it meant less people to watch.

"Hey! Over here!"

An unknown, male voice. Caesar whipped his head towards the sound. That was coming from the water! Without even waiting for Suzi, he bolted towards the seaside. Without pause he hefted up his throw bag and rescue tube from the side of his station. He kicked up sand as he went, and as soon as he reached the water he flung his jandals across the shore.

"Woah, wait, chill!"

Right as he was about to jump into the water, Caesar stilled. The voice didn't sound panicked or anything. Just... calm. Ok, he could hear a brashness, but otherwise, calm.

Upon putting the rescue tube and throwbag down, Caesar took a good look at who was in the water. Aquamarine eyes and brown hair...

"Hey, heeeey, you good?" They, well, he, spoke. A tail of emerald green flicked out from the water.

Caesar's mouth hung agape. "You're... the merman. From the other day."

"The one and only!" A huge smile was on his face, a contrast to the frustrated look Caesar saw on his face the first time they met. He looked... quite human, actually. "The name's Joseph Joestar, by the way! But you can call me JoJo!"

"You can talk?"

"Rude! Of course I can!" Joseph laughed, a colourful laugh, one that was sounded so human that Caesar almost forgot he was talking to a brunette with a fishtail for legs. "And, I, got a mage in my village to place a spell on me, but! I understood you before that too!"

Looking back on their first meeting, there wasn't much indication of the merman understanding. "Did you really?"

"Ok, maybe I didn't understand you then either- hey, you haven't told me your name!"

Oh, right. Caesar had been quite rude. "I apologise. Let me start again. My name is Caesar. It's nice to meet you, JoJo."