THE MOMENT
Molly yawned as the merman host continued his presentation. It had already gone on longer than she thought and thus far, she hadn't learned a single useful thing. She was in a sunny classroom designed for a merfolk teacher, although she wasn't actually in a class and he wasn't a teacher. The classroom was staggered with stadium seating, and at the bottom in front was a ground-level pool with enough space for an instructor to move in and out of the water freely. Molly was the only one there for the presentation, it was exclusively organized for her.
"...which of course brings us to common mistakes made when identifying mermaids...," the presenter continued. But, Molly's attention was drawn to another student walking in. Her friend and teammate, Emily, had long silver hair and it shined on and off as Emily walked through sunrays to get to where Molly was and sat next to her.
"Hey, almost done?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Molly nodded. "What's up?"
"Ehh...," Emily took a moment to shrug and put on an embarrassed expression. "... Kirk kind of accepted a challenge from Eph... sorry," she apologized to one friend for the actions of another.
"On the other hand, Sirens are completely different...," the presenter was undeterred by the interruption as if he didn't notice the extra visitor or their conversation at all.
"That's fine," Molly giggled with a nod. "We're not in first place right now anyway, we can lose a few points, if he loses." But, Emily shook her head.
"Kirk accepted for the whole team...," she said.
"Oh," Molly nodded again, this time with a sigh instead of a smile. "Okay, that's fine too. It's good practice, either way, I guess. But, I'm definitely going to have to revoke his challenge privileges to avoid this happening again."
"Totally, and I already gave him a lecture about it too," Emily agreed.
"When?" Molly asked.
"That's why I came to talk in person," Emily said. "So, it wouldn't be a surprise. Kirk and Eph agreed on Saturday; but, it'll probably pop up as a notification when you're done with this," she gestured at the speaker still giving his monotone explanation. "Team Captain can still veto it.. but don't, please?" Emily asked. "And, don't tell him I asked you not to cancel it."
"Well, we're not in first place, but if we lose as a team we might get dropped to last... why not?" Molly asked.
"You weren't there..," Emily replied. "Eph was giving him a hard time, and he was really trying not to rise to the bait. Then, he started insulting me, you, and the rest of the team and that's when Kirk got mad. It's still only the Second Six Weeks, we have time to come back from last place. But, he was extra fired up, and he was trying to be better before... I dunno, I kind of wanna give him this, you know? Even if it doesn't work out, I want the team to have his back. I mean, it's not like we don't stand a chance. The AlterNet Crew only has five members, and they're all pretty average. Eph and Pavette are their strongest players and we can handle them pretty easily.
"Okay, I won't cancel it then," Molly nodded. "Oh wait, I'm about to finish," she said. Then, she stood from her seat with her hand in the air.
"Yes, you have a question?" the merman asked.
“So mermaids and sirens are two different species?” Molly asked.
“Just so," he nodded. "My people, what you call mermaids or merfolk, share a common ancestor to you humans, making us distant cousins. What you call sirens, however, are fish that evolved to look and sound like humans to attract their favorite prey.”
"Thank you," Molly nodded at him, then turned back to Emily. "Done," she said. A message popped up in her view. "And... there's the notification. Challenge accepted," she said.
"Was that it? You just had to ask a question?" Emily stood and followed Emily out of the classroom.
"The hard part is sitting through the lecture, it won't let me skip the quest text. Then, I had to ask a question at the end to show some sort of engagement."
"Oh, what was the quest?" Emily asked. "Mermaid only?"
"Yeah," Molly nodded. "I'm happy with my loadout for tanking, but, I'm still missing some basic mermaid racial Abilities that I never bothered to get. Since completing quests on school grounds gets me Spirit Points too, I figured it was a good time to get them."
"Smart," Emily giggled. "Is it true? What he explained about mermaids and sirens?" They were now walking through the mostly empty halls. It was after school and most of the students were out challenging the world and each other.
"Maybe on some Earths, but not really. The parts I heard were actually kind of nonsensical, but, procedurally generated does that text I guess," she giggled. "And, that last part you heard was just useless filler."
"How so? I know mermaids and sirens get conflated with each other on most Earths I've been to, but they are two different species, right?"
"Oh yes, absolutely," Molly nodded. "I'm very much a mermaid and not a siren. That part was true, but the parts about 'what you call mermaids' and 'what you call sirens' was just NPC rambling."
"I don't get it..," Emily shrugged. "I know he was a Quest NPC, but, it sounds reasonable? I'm sure on some Earths sirens evolved the way he said.. it's possible, right?"
"It is..," Molly nodded. "Maybe it's just me, I get a little defensive about fake 'mermaid facts' because of what I am. But, it makes absolutely no sense to me. I asked him flat out if they're two different species," she said.
"And he agreed...?" Emily nodded.
"Yeah, I know. It's just a little annoying that it's obvious I don't know the difference between a mermaid and a siren. And then his answer goes on to explain the differences pretending to use my language. 'What you call mermaids, what you call sirens...," Molly shook her head. "The question automatically implies I don't know there's a difference and used the words interchangeably. Theoretically, I called the same creature both things. And that NPC has the gall to define the words in a way that puts himself in the camp of Mermaids? It really twists my tide pools, my people would NEVER call him a merfolk!"
"Hey...," Emily shook her head. "He's just an NPC...," she reminded her friend.
"Yeah...," Molly nodded with a sigh. "I'm really mad at Kirk by the way."