“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.”

1. A girl is thrown overboard from a ship after stowing away, only to be rescued by a strange creature beneath the water.
2. Siren’s are the violent counterpart to mermaids’ gentler nature, Person A thinks they are speaking to a mermaid only to realize too late they’re being enticed by a siren.
3. A shipwrecked sailor makes a deal with a mer creature trapped in a pool of water–only to realize too late not to make bargains with creatures they don’t know.
4. You steal a pearl from the beach, turns out it belongs to a mermaid who will do anything to get it back.
5. A siren’s rite of passage is to kill a human.  Person A is about to complete their own rite only to realize they know the human they’re assigned to kill.
6. A fisherman captures a mermaid in his nets and can either release it, or take it back to land and be crowned a hero.
7. A mermaid is captured by humans, their friend (mer or human) will do anything to get them back where they belong.
8. You grew up on stories of mermaids and sirens and creatures beneath the water–now that you find yourself on the beach you go searching for a little hint of those stories.  Only to get stranded in a cave with the rising tide.  Turns out…you’re not alone.
9. A mermaid finds their true love in the person that can hear their real voice.
10. There are legends about a creature out in the depths of the sea, one that holds power over the weather of an island.  Person A chooses to sacrifice themself for the safety of their home.
11. Person A goes swimming early in the morning and gets stranded on a buoy/floating dock in the middle of the lake.  Their rescuer?  A mermaid.
12.  Turns out you have the ability to shift into a mermaid, the catch? Any bit of water that touches your skin sparks the transformation.
13. Walking along the beach you find a creature washed up on the shore.  Grateful for help, they offer you a favor in return.  
14. For a simple kiss a mermaid will grant you one wish.
15. You thought you were a strong swimmer, but after you get caught in a riptide you find yourself struggling to the surface when you hear something in the waves: come to me.
16. A witch curses you to never stray from the water until you find your true love.
17. The sea is never supposed to be silent.  While sailing one day, everything goes still and then you see the eyes looking up through the water at you.
18. Mermaids are slight kleptomaniacs.  After losing your favorite piece of jewelry/item, you go diving in the ocean to steal it back.
19. You press a conch shell to your ear and hear a voice calling out to you.
20.  You collect trash from the beach hoping to help clean up–a sea creature decides to thank you.  By kidnapping you.
21. You’re the mermaid keeper of an underwater library, when an item goes missing you vow to bring it back safely.
22. Mermaids are known to be good astronomers, a sailor is tasked with steering a ship at night with no idea what he’s doing.  He relies on the help of the mermaid but has to give up his voice for a day for every night he gets help.
23. Death on the ocean is common, as it turns out mermaids are simply the souls of those who have passed.  A sailor, lost at sea, soon becomes haunted by a mermaid looking to say good-bye to a former lover.
24. “Do not go out onto the water at night.” // “Why?” // “That’s when they come to the surface.”
25. “The last time I saw you, you were drowning.”
26. Using a mermaid as an alarm clock is quite useful actually–they’re very in tune with times of day and they are quite skilled at screaming.
27. “I don’t want to be a lady.  I want to lure men and women to their deaths.”
28. After leaving the water to explore the world, a mermaid discovers the miracles of ice cream.
29. There’s a monster in the river that sinks passing ships that sail by unless they offer a sacrifice: a perfect pearl found only in a specific part of the sea.
30. Turns out the princess to the kingdom by the sea isn’t actually human.  The merfolk have chosen to take back what is theirs.
31. “The song doesn’t affect me.”