Thanks to my friend at A Dragon Year for the inadvertent inspiration for this story.
Life in the Sun
It took a while to figure out that the mermaid wasn’t hostile. It took even longer to figure out it wasn’t a maid, it was a mer-dude. Then it took forever to find out what he wanted when he swam up the Thames and stared intently at Parliament. Mer-people could apparently understand English, but were not able to speak.
The press conference was conducted with a type of sign language, made more complicated by the merman’s webbed hands.
“Why are you here?” they asked.
“I am here because I have lived in British waters for my whole life but where has my representation been? You tax us by taking our fish but what do we get out of it? Give representation to the undersea inhabitants of the realm or there will be revolution!”
A year later, the mer-man, Sirenio, was elected the first MP from newly-created constituency of the Solent.
The next day, the Sun’s headline screamed: NEWLY ELECTED MERMAN MP CAUGHT EMBEZZLING SAND DOLLARS!
The Green-Walled Tower 