Thirdly

And that's not a threat, it's a future goal I am looking forward to. Just wait until I save some money. I want to eat at your restaurant equally as much as I want to hang out with you. 🤣

I'd more likely create a character based off of you and give them their own spin-off tale. 😂

I research so many things when writing my stories, and somehow, I still miss key "basic" things. And yeah, that's why I was surprised my niece got her dad's grey eyes instead of the grandpa's green or the mom's brown ones. My favorite eye color is one I call "lightning blue" because I've only seen one or two people with that exact bright, punchy blue color in my life, and one of them was a celebrity. The other belonged to a boy who worked in student affairs at my high school, which I'd have totally tried to flirt with if I weren't gay for women.

Oh, no no no, my friend! I'm just one of those kids who always had a 64 off-brand crayon box that memorized the exact shade of Goldenrod and Periwinkle Blue whenever I ended up using my flea market pocket money (from old toys I sold off) to buy an actual Crayola set (I blame the early 90s)...so I'm usually over-enthusiastic at any attempt of trying to nail exact shades as descriptors. 🤣 I swear if there weren't enough names for the shades of paint at Home Depot, that would have been my calling. Anyway, what was I going on about? Right! So, I used a niece of mine as a reference for Ash. She's Just a mixed kid with soft brown skin and desaturated blue eyes that are on the lighter side (though I imagine they might look more like grey when she's older). The wild part is her grandpa has green eyes, not blue. But her dad had some strong eye color genetics to jump through all the other combinations!

I'm glad you enjoyed reading this one! I really got a kick out of it, too, which is why I wanted to share it so badly! 😂 It's actually my friend @LunaM. who wrote this story. I merely helped with edits and tried to get her not to kill them all off. My name is listed as an author instead of only hers because she couldn't figure out how to post it, as English is her second language. An entertaining story I actually wrote is Ash's Marriage Trigger, but it's not nearly as funny as this one.

(I'm so invested already and we're only a couple parts in. Jooooin us, everyone~)

Zelt remembered running faster than this in his high school. As the blue line zoomed past his left shoulder, he cursed. "Oh, for fuck's sake!" He had just made it to the street corner at the same time as a stranger reached the corner from the other side. They were both out of breath and holding onto their knees as they saw the train leaving the station without them. (I love endings and beginnings that connect. Lucky me being online in time to be the first post. 😘 Also, I totally didn’t just name a character by staring too long at an Alka Seltzer box. 🤭)

@Myr, I hope whatever noises you must have been suffering while posting this have stopped.

"You mean to tell me that a person holding a torn map was part of your treasure hunt?" Jason questioned as he took the balloon without thinking. "No, just a person holding a map," the penguin guy responded. His free hand gripped a clipboard, which he handed over for Jason to see. Jason immediately looked at the checklist. A child with a painted butterfly on their cheek, a mother with more than one child, a person holding a map... "Oh, I guess I am part of the treasure hunt," he mused aloud. Jason's eyes widened, however, when he saw the next line of the treasure hunt. A person perusing the renovated capybara exhibit. "Wait, if you help me get to the capybara exhibit, I'll help you hunt someone down for the next checkbox!"

Glad you enjoyed it! Sorry for the late response. I was visiting my grandma and then I ended up catching a hefty cold, so my vacation week felt more like sick leave. I'm glad you enjoyed it! We might see them again someday; I do tend to revisit worlds. As of right now though, I'm a bit burned out on sirens and aquatic beings at the moment, so my next story is the creature feature for the anthology (which in my case involves werefoxes...one that bathes under medicinal waterfalls for reasons I can't say yet, so there is still a body of water in the story I'm working on, ironically enough.😂) Yes, the seaweed helps regulate the salinity levels of both freshwater and saltwater mermen. Yes, Aunt Hali deserves a more chill retirement, too! 🤣 Agreed.

Yes, the temple was maintained by Maren devotees in the past and all of her temples have them (though there aren't many temples, maybe 6 altogether that are scattered in their ocean). Some temples aren't so deep into brackish water that it's inaccessible to saltwater or freshwater mermen, but the one nearest to these guys just happened to be precariously placed. Yes, Balar was behaving that way, but the blue color on Peter's person really also triggered the blue-finned betta's fighting instincts. I researched way too much about these fish before I started writing this. Yes, real betta fish lose parts of their scales and fins in the fights. But thus far, Balar's been catching Peter off guard to steal his scales. Peter was the one that incited this fight first, for once.

The solution seemed deceptively simple, but the risk was anything but. All I had to do was swim deep within a brackish water region, retrieve the suspicious seaweed from Maren's temple, and bring it back to conduct experiments. This seaweed, believed to have unique properties, was the key to our plan. I hoped not only to make it to the seaweed in time but also that it'd prove effective. "Be careful not to push yourself too hard," Griffin warned me. We faced a corner of the brackish bar

I trained with Griffin for a few months, using my dancing and grace to my advantage. We utilized the brackish barrier to correct my stances, ensuring my movements were intentional. Whenever I performed well, Griffin rewarded me with a kiss, a sweet incentive that made each session feel special. Despite our efforts, we hadn't uncovered anything more about Maren's songs regarding a specific location that allowed various merfolk to coexist. Many of the songs hinted that more information resided ins

We'll find out soon! Same! 🤣

"You can't use longer slings until you master the smaller ones," Griffin instructed me. We were training near Maren's temple, and even though I wanted to dive straight into hand-to-hand combat, Griffin insisted on teaching me long-range attacks first. The training was intense, and I struggled to master the techniques. As much as I wanted to question his methods, I decided against rebuffing the help he so freely offered. "Remember, at first, you'll only be able to fend off one attacke

Yes. This.

Seeing big hair bands makes me nostalgic for the 1980s too!

I am from paradise barely held together after hurricanes and earthquakes.

And I'm slapping electric tape on those balloons because we have a whole 9 months for the anthology piece and there is no deadline for the other four pieces.

But, Aaron, who said you had to post them all in the anthology? The other four could just be regular posts. *scampers away*

Hang in there!

Right, right. I forgot all about that. My mind split that into Creature and Features seperately. 🤣

Why did everyone immediately think horror? My mind went immediately Creature Feature- Werefox Movie...then Alpha/Omega Dynamics. 🤣

Wait, wouldn't that mean you'd have to write 5???

Of course. I've been plotting since the minute I saw it. It was like 2025's anthology had my name stamped all over it. 😂