chapter 1- part 3

Rory flopped a big shark fin up in the air to motion to his new friend. When Andy saw him, he gave him a disapproving look. Rory subconsciously touched his face and wondered to himself why Andy looked at him like that. Looking around he realized all the cast members in mermen skin were buff and shirtless. All the women were either perfect hourglasses or slender and toned.
“Well it is a simulation, I guess everyone wants to be a sexier version of themselves..” Rory thought to himself. Another pang of jealousy pierced his chest. “I could have been a sexy mermaid but I’m in this blubbery shark mascot suit.” He felt his mind race angrily.
He puffed out a sigh and turned away from Andy’s direction. He had thought Andy was going to be a friend, but he must have misinterpreted his friendly behavior.

There was a separate entry into the mermaid grotto room from the traditional kitchen. Rory peeked his head out of the doorway. For a second he let his eyes wander. Enjoying the bubbling pattern of the magma lighting in the grotto. Several feet above the guests a school of neon yellow fish navigated the room. Rory recognized Charlie in the water nymph skin swimming up to different the tables. She was showing some of the guests underwater gymnastics. He watched her flip and shimmy her tail on the way round. The movement gave the appearance that her tail was doing a little dance. Rory couldn’t help but crack a grin. When she finally righted herself the low gravity caused her long hair to swirl around her face like an ominous mist. Her purple reptile eyes glowed as she stuck a pose symbolizing the end of that move. A woman from corporate got up from her seat and tried to replicate Charlie’s moves. She wasn’t as dexterous and the other members of her table laughed as her hair flopped into her face. Her tail shimmied a little crooked. However, when she was upright she let out a giggle in unison and the entire table laughed and applauded her.

Rory looked around the other tables curiously. Finally he found Evelyn. She was sitting alone at a table bordering the room. Mathew, the tech who Sam has instructed to set up her mermaid skin, had made several changes to Evelyn’s real appearance. The biggest change was to her entire body, he must have made her over a hundred pounds thinner. It was still clear who she was by her cherubic chubby cheeks, although Mathew had severely reduced those in size as well. Her long, medium brown hair was pulled into a high pony tail. It flounced every so often when a big gust of water whirled around from Charlie’s interactive water gymnastic routine.

Evelyn sat alone, her attention engrossed into a tech tablet.

On the other side of the room was the entrance cast members were using for the pirate show. There was a grotto rock next to the door, and Sam was sitting on it.
The first thing Rory noticed about Sam’s mermaid skin was how plump her tail was. It was round and thick tapering a bit at the bottom. As his eyes moved upwards he noticed that the human part of her figure had softer edges too. This look was by no means fat, it was just more softened than all the other girls.
To sit with a tail, she had to bend a little at the middle were knees would be. The bottom of her tail curved ever so slightly around the boulder. Then Rory saw the appetizer in Sam’s hand. She stuffed a bread roll into her mouth, then another followed. After the fourth piece of bread she curved her back causing her stomach to become more prominent and she leaned back deeply. She lowered her glance to look at the fifth bread roll through veiled eyelashes. Then she lifted her lashes and stared directly at Evelyn across the room. Rory felt his head jerk immediately to see what Evelyn was doing. Evelyn was watching Sam eat. Once Sam had confirmed she had the other girl’s attention she popped the bread in into her mouth in a way Rory could only describe as showy. He saw Evelyn grimace and her head dropped down to her tablet and she went back to typing.

Rory stopped for a second because the exchange seemed odd. His train of thought was completely derailed. Charlie had swam up at least ten feet above the seated guests. With her arms extended in a cheer like pose, she sang out “Alright Folks, Dinner is served!” She spun around dramatically. On cue, by each table huge oyster shells appeared and opened. Inside were eating utensils for the guests. Then in a flash Charlie had swam all the way up to the ceiling and disappeared through a ceiling hatch. The crowd applauded.
Rory watched her all the way until she disappeared. An angry fellow waiter bumped Rory’s back aggressively, “That means it’s time to go, idiot!” Rory dashed out of the doorway into room almost immediately. Anxiously he made a bee line straight for Evelyn’s table. He expected other waiters and waitresses to head that way too. To his surprise no one dared venture towards her table. It seemed as if most of the cast members wouldn’t even look in that direction. She didn’t notice him swimming towards her. She didn’t even notice when he got to the table. He started to put down three baskets of bread, triple the amount other tables had. Then she looked up. Her face froze in the expression of a deer caught in the headlights. Rory felt immediate regret for even swimming to the table. Her eyes were peeled to him in a way that was extremely uncomfortable. It wasn’t a sexual look, it was just deep and intense. Her face contorted at first it was unreadable then it broke and her eyes creased sadly and a pudgy lip quivered. He watched as her next move was to shove bread into her mouth.
“Just let me know if I can get you anything extra from the kitchen.” Rory tried to sound cheery and friendly, but he felt uncomfortable. Immediately he moved away from her table. Then he retreated promptly to the kitchen.

When he returned it took seconds for entrees to be pushed into his hands. Then kitchen staff was pushing him back out the door. He swam around trying to find guests that needed food.
One woman stopped him so she could feel his fins. She liked how life like they were and kept squeezing him. Luckily she also wanted and entree. So he gave her his last one. While having his arms squeezed, he looked over at the rock where Sam was perched. Andy was passing by her with a huge platter of coconut drinks with straws poking out. Sam successful snagged two off the platter while he wasn’t looking. Then Rory turned to look at Evelyn. He noted that the virtual reality skins did not change the amount of real food a person could put away. All three bread baskets were empty. Determined to get on her good side Rory kindly told the lady touching his fins that he needed to bring out more food and found himself racing towards the kitchen door. Loaded back up with at least three new entrees he hurried back to Evelyn’s table. Lightening quick, he deposited all three entrees, and scooped up the empty bread baskets.
“Can I get you more bread?” He asked politely.
She stared at him again as if she’d seen a ghost. Then she shook her head no. Taking that as his cue he hurried back to return the empty baskets. To his relief the pirate show was starting and he was encouraged to come back into the kitchen. He stood in the doorway and watched the show. Zach, the King of Atlantis, was fighting the mermaid pirate played by the blue haired Casey. He found himself longing to be the one on stage with Casey. He was enthralled by her look and her voice. Frustratedly changing his glance he looked at Evelyn and discovered she’d polished off all three entrees. He saw some food still sitting out on the kitchen counter, and he grabbed more plates.
The lights were dimmed for the dinner show and in the dark she barely acknowledged him. He whisked away her empty plates and saw her start on the new ones. Pivoting his head as he stepped back into the kitchen, he could see Sam. There were a good deal more emptied drinks by her designated rock. It looked like she was just watching Evelyn eat and not the pirate show.
“That’s so weird” Rory breathed but he just ignored it, and deposited more plates.
On the third trip to bring Evelyn more food he bumped into someone in the dark.
“Watch where you’re going!” Then the person paused letting their eyes adjust, “ What the hell! Why are you in the pink shark costume?” He felt his arm or his fin being grabbed in the dark and he was pulled into the backstage area.
In the light he could tell the person was either a prop technician or a IT specialist. They were not in costume and they had a tech tablet. “Who told you that you could wear the pink shark skin? Who’s under there?” She hissed.

“Sam told me to wear it. I’m Rory, it’s my first day.” He mumbled frustratedly.
The tech girl stopped for a minute to digest what he said. Her expression softened considerably.
“Ohh.. Well I’m sorry Rory but you can’t stay in that. It’s definitely going to upset people, and it doesn’t even match the mermaid grotto theme anymore. It’s a very old skin.” The girl blurted out.
“But Sam said..” Rory tried.
The tech giggled “I’ve been watching her all night. There is no way she’s still sober. She’s not going to know if I give you a quick little costume change.”
Rory suddenly felt excited, “you mean I’ll have hands again!”
The tech’s face fell flat.
“I don’t have time to render you a fully functioning humanoid.” She looked embarrassed. “However, you can be a prop seahorse.”
Rory felt his excitement drain. That did not sound like an upgrade.
“Look, try to make the best of what’s left of your first day. Watch the show, watch the other cast members. Take notes, see if you can can control the shape of the bubbles you blow out of your little seahorse mouth...” she stopped and reached for his hand, guiding his real hand to his forehead.