My Brain: So let me get this straight... you want to write about a mermaid.
My Brain: A giant mermaid.
My Brain: Who flirts with your self insert character.
Me: It's all a joke! And she's not really a self insert... just a doofy oblivious artsy type with a tacky fashion sense.
My Brain: You're an oblivious artsy type with a tacky fashion sense.
Me: Hey hey... now's not the time for name calling.
My Brain: Listen man, I'm just trying to help out here... You want to shrink the mermaid down mid-story, but not by much... Island sized to Pool sized... either way still way bigger than any traditional mermaid has the right to be.
My Brain: Come on man, I need something to work with... you don't usually call on me for no reason...
Me: Then you should know why I called.
My Brain: Unfortunately yes.
My Brain: Ugh... you're worried about the story coming off as an extremely esoteric collection of obscure fetishes. You think... I might regret asking this... but you think you could list off the red flags in your head.
Me: Okay... well... it's about college girls.
My Brain: That's not a good start.
Me: One's super goofy and artsy and optimistic while the otherone is depressed.
Me: And the depressed one is an undead semi-aquatic squid monster with webbed feet, claws, and tentacles for hair.
My Brain: ... dear lord...
Me: And also the goofy one keeps accidentally flirting with the monster of the week.
My Brain: ...This is bad. This is a teratophilic nightmare! Monster Love madness!
Me: I mean... it's also kinda sorta a thing now? Lord Dominator, Venom, The Shape of Water, at least have of the cast of Star vs the Forces of Evil... it's not that bad is it?
My Brain: A little... but I suppose it's not that insane.
Me: Yeah, and it's not even romantic. The Mermaid is a side character at best and the real focus is on the platonic love between the two main character. Hell, the tentacle monster character is the actual focus of the story and she's as chaste as a nun!
My Brain: Dear lord, we worry too much. `Context is everything and we have plenty of context... like how the story is actually one big genre bait-n-switch... It's a comedy that's actually a mystery that's actually a cosmic horror story that loops in on itself and becomes a comedy again, but this time in a classical sense as it has a happy ending.
Me: Yeah, I guess there's nothing to worry about then.
My Brain: Dude... you're still worried.
Me: Am not... how would you know.
Me: Right, right, right... I know that context is everything, but there's something towards the end that has me worried... don't freak out because it does make sense in story but...
Me: The mermaid has to escape by riding on top of an RV decorated to resemble David Hassellhoff.
Me: Hey, it's better than the original idea... it was supposed to be the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile.