Cold Boot — Part 6: Tide

Anabelle said nothing because no words were needed. She took my hand and, giggling, led me to one of the rooms at the back of the bar.

The floor rippled.

Then it wasn't a floor anymore. It was sand—fine, silver-pink grains under my feet, still warm from a sun I hadn't seen. The air smelled like salt and tangerines, and the crash of waves rolled in gentle intervals, like the world was breathing for me.

I turned. Anabelle stood barefoot at the waterline, her fur catching the moonlight like a brushed velvet coat. She flicked her tail once and grinned.

"Okay," she said, stretching with a little bounce, "this is gonna sound weird, coworker, but…"

She raised her eyebrows.

"Clothes off."

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

She shrugged. "Look, you're transforming. If you stay wrapped in corporate synthetics, the code's gonna twist it. You'll pop scales in weird places. Trust me—Kat still has vestigial elbows."

"…Elbows?"

"Don't ask." She winked. "Just get comfy. It's not about sex, it's about… shedding."

I hesitated.

Then, slowly, I shrugged off the Corpo avatar's blazer overlay. Before I could think better of it, I tossed off everything—button-up, name badge, efficiency-optimized flats—and watched it dissolve into mist. What was left was just… me. In soft, comfortable underclothes, the way I sometimes imagined myself on nights when the world didn't hurt so much.

Anabelle tilted her head.

"There she is."

I didn't know what to say. So I laughed. "This is definitely an HR violation."

She grinned wide and gestured toward the water. "C'mon. It starts when you touch the tide."

I took a step. Then another. And when the surf reached my ankles, the world tilted.

The water slid up my shins like it knew me. The soda still buzzed in my chest, like static trying to crack open something sealed.

My skin itched—but not like pain. Like newness. Like goosebumps blooming into something bolder.

My fingers stretched, webbing threading between them like silk on the wind until I had fins.

My teeth sharpened—not as weapons, but truths.

I gasped. The sound came out different—low and round, like an exhale through coral.

I fell forward, but the surf caught me. My limbs shifted, lengthening, powering. My spine coiled and rebalanced. A tail—my tail—flicked through the shallows like punctuation. A statement, not a question.

I wasn't becoming something else. I was just… making room for what was always there.

The mirror surfaced behind me—silver-backed, half-submerged. I stared.

Shark skin shimmered down my arms in soft gradients of blue and gray. My shoulders held differently. My eyes were too bright. My smile, too wide.

And still—somehow—I looked more like myself than I ever had.

Anabelle slid up behind me and put her paws on my shoulders.

"You can keep her."

I turned. She didn't move. She just watched me, eyes full of something like pride.

"Or let her go," she added. "That's the trick of this place. You choose."

I took one more step into the surf. My reflection rippled.

"I want to see what she can do," I said. But as I went to dive into the deep blue sea, I heard a new voice from behind:

"Wouldn't recommend deep diving just yet—tail like that needs practice. And I need to install the gill mods for you. Haven't used those since Mermaid Week back in the twenties!"

I yelped and spun. Jack stood ankle-deep in the waves, shading his eyes. Next to him, Vivian's low-poly vixen shimmered in the moonlight, white cane tucked at her side.

"You're glowing," she said, warm smile on her face. Her eyes were closed but friendly.

"I thought you were blind."

"Lots of ways to be blind," she said. "I thought you were a human. Glad to know I was wrong!"

I squinted. "Were you two just… watching?"

The jackrabbit gave me a quick salute. "Oh, we give new folks privacy. We just, uh… check the logs."

"And emotional vitals. You spiked for a second. Thought you were drowning."

Anabelle gave my shoulders a squeeze. "She's fine, mom. More than fine."

Vivian paused beside me.

"You look like someone who finally found the right ratio of sharp and soft," she said, voice low.

"I look ridiculous."

She smiled. "Honey. This is a modded server run by furries. No one here feels or acknowledges that kind of shame anymore."

Jack tapped at invisible keys before pointing his finger out, Picard-like, to punctuate the gesture. "And... done! Full shark permissions unlocked."

My tail flicked once—testing its balance, not asking permission. It coiled behind me, settled and sure. A full stop. A statement.

The mirror was gone. But I didn't need it anymore. I could feel myself, coiled and ready. Strange. Beautiful. Free.

"Go on," Vivian said. She smiled a glitchy smile in my direction. "Have a swim. We'll be here when you're done having fun!"

My body slid into the water like a hand into a glove, and I moved through it like a darting clownfish, my gills full of seawater and my heart full of joy.