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Sometimes Ta would just pause. No matter what he was doing- whether it be picking out snails for food or swimming around the reef, he would pause and think,

Out of all the places I thought I'd be, I never thought I'd be here.

It was odd. He could've been a lawyer, a banker, or some crack manga writer, but out of all the things in the world- fate had decided that his place was under the ocean. As a mer=person no less. It wasn't Ta's ideal future, but out of all the things fate could've thrown at him- this wasn't too bad.

He shrugged. Ta had become a lot less high strung since coming on the island. Maybe it was the changes effecting his mind- or maybe he was adapting to the lack of pressure that the enviorment seemed to have. No school, no work, no cram school... He still missed his friends and family and home but not as much.

Maybe I'm going native. He thought to himself as he sucked out another snail from it's shell, Oh well. Humans adapted to their changes while they evolved, maybe I'm just doing the same.

Ta held his glasses down when they tried to float away. Too bad these changes can't do anything about his horrendous eyesight.

Ta turned to the newcomer with one swift tail push. He's gotten pretty good at manuvering around with it. Sure, his stubby leg fins are a tad bit awkward, but it wasn't anything he couldn't get used to.

"Ah, Hi!" Ta said, with a wave of a webbed hand. Something else he's gotten used to was meeting other people. It probably had to do with his improving English, or maybe he was just adapting, the constant meeting of new faces kinda made it a given.

Ta held down his glasses before he took her hand and shook it, "My name is Ta. It's nice to meet you."

"Uhhh...." Ta dropped the empty snail shell in his hands and scratched the back of his head. The mer-person let out a nervous chuckle.

He wasn't used to being bombarded with questions. He may have had a little more confidence, but he didn't stray too far from the shy guy he was before the island. He looked at Kate. There was definately some changes, but she was far from done. The girl was a little bumpy in places- a bit of human skin was along with the inhuman, and she still had two legs. Halfway, if Ta's experience told him anything.

"Erm... Yea- I am Japanese. Oddly ironic..." Ta said, beginning to dig through the pile of questions that Kate buried him in. He looked down on his webbed fingers. Ta tapped them anxiously, "I've been living like this... quite a while now. Underwater, I mean."

When Kate mentioned Kara, Ta looked up from his fingers he hadn't seen Kara in a while.

"So, you heard of me from Kara? How is she?"

Ta frowned a little himself when Kate looked away. He thought he offended her somehow, "S- Sorry, I haven't seen her for weeks."

He breathed a little easier when the subject changed. He took off his glasses for a moment, his eyes were itching.

"The scales are a little itchy..." He said, rubbing his eyes, "But I'm getting used to it." Ta replaced his glasses, the scales around his eyes were orange- a long way from their usual white. "Like the other strange things around here."

There was an odd pause, Ta wasn't the best at keeping a conversation. He looked at Kate again, and noticed her markings. He vaguely remembered Jessie sporting some odd markings, but they weren't as elaborate or as big as Kate's.

"What are those?" He pointed at Kate's shoulder symbols.

"Spirit?" Ta had a puzzled look on his face. Changes, sure. Octopus people trying to eat him, okay. Spirits now? Life couldn't get more surreal. Still, he went along with it. He was adapting to the constant changes of himself and his enviorment. Human behavior in a inhuman body, Ta had called it.

The logic had made him feel better about himself. He wasn't any snail sucking alge scraping bottom feeder, he was a mer-koi-hybrid-person! As long as his mind was still operating at a human pace, he was above all the fish that swam around him. Or at least as far above as the water went anyway.

"I don't really follow." Ta said, a little confused. He knew they were changing, but he figured it was something in the water or some kind of gene mutation or something. He never thought about it from a etheral standpoint.

"Erm, it's okay... Thanks." He was blushing when Kate grabbed his hands, more of his scales around his eyes were turning orange. Ta felt a p***k in his fingers, and withdrew his hands from Kate's. It took a moment to figure out what he had done.

Ta put his hands out in appolgy, "Oh! Sorry, I just felt-" He stopped when he noticed his hands. His fingers were blackening. The scales turning color like a bucket of wet paint spilled on them.

The mer-guy raised an eyebrow. "That's.... Odd."

"No, it's fine, my hands feel odd." Ta said, eying his hands nervously. It's been weeks since his last change, if Koi did change color, he hadn't experienced it until now.

Perhaps he was sick? Ta had seen sick fish at the docks, with their foul-colored spots and wiggling parasites... He shivered at the thought, and looked down. Everything seemed to be okay. Not a spot out of place. Well, there were some spots that he didn't notice until now- or had until now.

No, he couldn't be sick- He abbandoned that reasoning for things like this ever since his latest change. Maybe that was it. Maybe he was changing! Hailey did say there was a fifth step- and Ta only had four. If this was a change, well, it was certainly a lot more comfortable than his previous encounters. For one thing, his prickling scales were changing as he was talking to Kate. Earlier transformations would have had him on the ground by now.

"They don't." Ta said. The mer was a little uneasy, "Let me check my reflection." He pointed to the ocean's surface.

"I lived in Tokyo" Ta said, starting to swim up, "Fell off a boat when a giant wave crashed on it. Then I ended up here."

"California?" Ta tipped his glasses back onto his nose, "That's far."

He was thinking about where the island was, and with Kate coing from California, and him coming from Japan, they were probably somewhere in the Pacific. Not that it mattered now- he accepted what had happened on the island and the realization that even if he were to find a way back home... Well, things would never work out. Acceptance, he thought, the ability to move on- was just another part of adaptation. Another part of being human.

"I don't know..." Ta looked into his reflection, there was a large orange stripe forming around his eye area.

"If I am, this would be my fifth." Ta said, touching the changed scales, "It doesn't feel like the others- more comfortable."

There was a streching noise in his ears, and the familiar feeling of them being pulled by an invisible force. Yes, definately changing. Not as noticable as it's previous incarnations.

"No, it's okay. Really. Just don't try to eat me." Ta said. Then he realized the awkwardness of what he just said.

"Because Jessie tried to eat me. It's a long story." He added on hastily.

Dolphins ate fish, right? Well, Kate seemed like a nice girl so- you know, she was different. Same for the lack of tentacles. Yes, the lack of tail-wrapping body parts was a definate plus.

His face scrunched in discomfort as he felt his tail shift. The crack of new bones and the streching of new muscles were unheard in the water. Ta took a sharp breath through his teeth as they grew. The pain wasn't as bad as he expected. He had expected a lot worse.

Ta gave a reassuring, "I'm fine I'm fine."