"How does the heating thing work?"

"It's electric. We... generate a magnetic field in a gas turbine that produces an electric current that gets sent here which heats up the water you're swimming in via resistive heating."

"I don't know what any of that means."

"I felt like you wouldn't! Unfortunately, there are a lot of things to know before you can understand those things, and I wouldn't do a very good job of explaining them. But... none of those things are what we'd call magic. Not everyone has been told what magic is, you know!"

"I still think you'd know if it was magic. If it doesn't seem different from other stuff you do, except for being more… complicated… it's probably not magic. And… even though I didn't understand what you said, I don't think that's how the explanation would sound if it was magic. So, maybe you really don't have it. But I don't really understand how. Nothing about this situation makes sense."

She sighs. (Blegh.)

"So what happens now?"

"Well, I don't know what you'd want to happen. You seem happy enough in the pool, and I guess you could ask for some food to enjoy, but I don't know what else you might want to be doing now."

"…Wait, so I just live in this thing now? Why was it here? Isn't someone going to want to use it?"

"It was used by one of the men I was with, because baths like this can be fantastic, and they will want to use it, yes. Longer-term, you will want a more permanent place to stay, maybe even with me, but I was thinking more about what you would want to happen now."

"Well, I don't know. I don't know what can happen. I don't know anything about this place. And sometimes, to know what to do now, you need to know what you're doing later. So, what kinds of places can I stay permanently? How do I choose?"

"You can stay in quite a few places, as a matter of fact. If you want to see a few places, I can show you some on my phone, and take you a few places if you want to see them in person. Once you've found someplace you like, I'll walk you through the process of joining the basic income system so you'll be able to afford staying there permanently."

"I don't know what a phone is. Or that… thing you said I can join."

She takes the phone out of her pockets, showing Twintails a few images of all sorts of places: beaches, forests, jungles, and cities built out of skyscrapers reaching as far as the eye can see, together with all kinds of pools full of people playing or just like the one that Twintails is enjoying. "The thing I'm holding, where you're seeing these places, is a phone. And it also lets you join the basic income system that supports you to let you live in most of these places."

WHOAAAAAAA

She SNATCHES the phone, and starts trying to do the finger motion the human was just doing to make the picture change.

(If anyone's wondering, yes, her hands are very wet.)

She instinctively recoils from Twintails as she reaches for the phone. "The phone is still mine, you maniac!"

Twintails recoils as if struck, and ducks most of the way back into the water so that only her eyes are visible.

"...should I not have called you a maniac? Anyway, don't surprise me like that! Tell me if you want to get something from me first."

She rises just enough to be able to reply. She's not looking the human in the eye.

"…Okay.

…Didn't mean to surprise you. Never seen a thing like that before. I was excited. I wanted to play with it. I didn't think first."

A modicum of social grace comes out of its long hibernation, just enough for Twintails to add:

"…Sorry."

"That's everything necessary for you to say. Now... I suspect that you very much want to not live in this pool out here in the frozen north? What was the place you lived before you teleported here like? Do you think you want to live somewhere similar?"

"I lived in the ocean. But not a part of the ocean that I like. And…

"Even in the nice part of the ocean, mermaids aren't made to survive on their own."

She wasn't going to say that second part, but then she realized it doesn't actually give anything away.

"What are those places you were showing me? Are they places I can live?"

"Yes, they are places you can live. If you lived in the ocean, you might want to stay in the ocean or a river or something else, right? But you might also want to live where you can do the things you like doing when you're not in the water. And that also has a say in where you will want to live."

Twintails is not sure what part of "Even in the nice part of the ocean, mermaids aren't made to survive on their own" was not understood, but she's just going to chalk it up to human weirdness and move on.

"Can you show me the places again, on the… thing?" She's already forgotten the word. "…I won't grab the thing again."

"Yes, these are just a few of the possibilities; there's really just so, so many more to choose from." She picks a few images of huge cities, warm beaches, beautiful tranquil lakes, stunning fjords, picturesque mountains, and a vast variety of other kinds of places. "Did seeing these give you some ideas for where you'd most want to be?"

"Would I be living outside? Or in a… building?"

"That's fully up to you. It sounds like you'd prefer living in a building; if so, I'd expect it to be one with a big pool where everything you need to have done is around the pool? That's a relatively rare arrangement, but I can find some places like that for you."

…She's not sure what she said that made it sound like she'd prefer a building, but that's fine.

"I don't really know yet what I want. Buildings sound probably safer, but I don't know how living in a building works. I don't know what they have in them, and I don't know how the humans get their food, or… what they do all day. Or… anything. I don't know anything. I think I need to know more things."

A moment's pause, and then:

"Like, what if lots of buildings have things in them that are totally fine for humans but are toxic to mermaids somehow? You… don't know anything about how my body works, compared to yours. Maybe it's better to find that out first, if you have a way of finding out?" Maybe their not-magic can do things like that.

"Or maybe I could just live on a beach. If it's warm and doesn't have land predators hanging around, I'll probably be fine. …Well, except, if the ocean next to the beach is cold or dangerous or doesn't have much food in it, then I don't know how I'll get food."

She sighs. (That reflex still feels weird, but not as weird as the first time.) Her 'hair' strands are twitching and jerking a little; it's reminiscent of the way a cat flicks and swishes its tail when it's annoyed or frustrated.