“What the fuck are you?” the taxman said as Spiro descended the plank of the Atlantic trade ship.

“You sure it’s what, not who?” he replied, humor coloring his voice.

Spiro had to remember to keep his voice steady. It was too easy to slip into the deep sounds his mouth was better suited to make. And besides English was a weird language compared to his native Greek dialect.

Not that a native of the other four islands that made the Greek Federation would understand him without effort.

“I’m a Lesbian,” he added over the man’s sputtering, causing even more confusion.

“A what? You…”

“That’s what you call a native of the island of Lesbos, don’t you? Even Changed, it’s always been.”

He doubted any of the natives of America would know about Lesbians, though. After the two Changestorms, almost none had traveled abroad. Although the survivors of the Fall were swimmers without pair, swimming across the Atlantic was a bit too much… although crossing the Mediterranean during the yearly contest…

Spiro’s grey leathery skin was starting to attract attention. The combination of his hydrodynamic head without a neck, and his blubber skin was getting the same reaction everywhere. Humans dominated the world, after all, and they still freaked when they saw what looked like one of the masters of the sea.

“Look, the cap’tain said I have to pay my admission fee. So, can I do?”

“I…” the taxman sputtered again. “I need to write ID… I can’t write that…”

“Write Halioi, then, if the proper name bothers you so much. Name’s Spiro Vlachiades. How much?”

It was almost five minutes until Spiro managed to extract the price, which he paid in silver. The captain had changed his drachma at a usurious rate, so he’d done the smallest amount possible. He’d find a proper changer in the port. It would take him a long time to cross the continent, and reach the shores of the Pacific, and there would be plenty of occasions to spend money.

The pier felt a bit too high over the water for his tastes, but that came with living in a land-dweller town.

“What was that,” one of the dockworkers finally said when the enormous shape had reached the end of the dock, away from them.

“A Twice-Changed,” one of the sailors descending from the Green Cape replied.

“Twice-Changed?”

“Their island got stuck not once, but twice by Changestorms. They never speak of their second shape, apparently, but there are… well, there are rumors.”

“Of what?”

“Of being demons. Goat legs, curved horns, claws, fangs, the works. And then, they got changed into orcas.”

“Orcas?”

“Landlubbers,” the seaman sighed.

Halioi STR 16 AGI 18 DEX 14 AUT 13 PER 15 EMP 13

Total: 89 + 2 extra stat

Named after the Theoi Halioi, or "gods of the sea", the Halioi are one of the two quasi-aquatic Changed species known to exist. They keep a generally humanoid shape, but with extremely streamlined features, a bulbous domed head, and rubbery skin. Despite legs and arms, they are extremely good swimmers and easily manage 10 minutes of apnea.

It is rumored that the infants are particularly not suited to swimming until puberty, but given their relative isolation, not much is known about that aspect of their biology. Despite the apparent lack of external primary or secondary sexual characteristics, they are indeed a normal dimorphic mammalian species.