Avatar

The Earnest System

@the-earnest-system

I am scared of posting things on the internet but I'm working on it.

MerMay Day Sixteen Emergency Meeting

“Are you sure, Marvin?” Jack asked.

Marvin nodded. “The scrying spell doesn’t lie, especially with how much power I put into it. They got to Chase.”

The merms were gathered in the shallow water of the lake. All of them had managed to make it to the meeting—and they weren’t alone. Sitting on the shore was Chase’s family: Stacy and the twins, Sereia and Muirin. They’d panicked when Chase hadn’t shown up for their planned meeting, and Stacy had bundled up the kids and driven to the one place where they knew merms gathered for sure: the lake, of course. Stacy wanted to leave the kids at home, but she couldn’t understand the merm language, and without Chase, none of them could speak human. So the kids were needed as translators.

“I can’t believe they were at the old pier,” Stacy muttered. “That… that place is… well, who would’ve thought?”

“Maybe someone saw mermaids there and started spreading rumors around,” Sereia suggested. “But whatever. What’re we gonna do about Dad?”

“We’re going to go get him, of course!” Jackie shouts. “We got Anti out of that place, we can get Chase!”

“I do not think it’ll be that simple,” Schneep said worriedly.

“I agree,” Stacy said. “After we already broke in once, they’ll probably raise security measures. I doubt I’ll be able to go in. If they didn’t have security cameras, I’ll be surprised. And if those cameras didn’t pick up my face, I’ll be blown away.”

What about that other human? Jameson asked. The one with the boat? Is it the same case?

Stacy nodded. “Oliver. They probably remember him and the boat we took.”

“Well, can we talk to him anyway?” Jackie asked. “Maybe he has some ideas?”

“I do still have his email,” Stacy said slowly.

“I think you should try, Mom!” Sereia said.

Muirin nodded in agreement. “There’s no way we’re gonna leave Dad in there.” He folded his arms.

“What do the rest of us do?” Jack asked quietly. “I… I don’t know… We’re stuck in the water, we can’t… go in and get Chase…”

Jameson looked at Marvin. Aren’t there spells to turn merms into humans?

“Yes.” Schneep looked at Marvin as well. “That is how these kids exist in the first place.” The kids giggled.

Marvin hesitated. “There are, but… I-I think we should look for other options first. Those take a lot of energy, and they’re not guaranteed to work.”

“It’s fine, we can wait,” Jackie said. “Stacy can talk with that Ollie human, and the rest of us can try to find some other answer.”

Though they talked for some while more, no progress was made, and nobody came up with any new ideas. So, slowly, they disbanded. One by one they swam back into the lake. Marvin and Jameson headed for their home while the saltwater merms head back for the river leading to the ocean.

Jack was the last to leave. He swam along the shallow shoreline, trying to come up with some way for them to reach Chase. He was lost in his thoughts… but not lost enough to notice the flicker of movement in the corner of his eye. Immediately stopping, he looked around. The only thing of note was a hole in the ground. Strange… that hole wasn’t too far from where they’d talked with Stacy and the kids. And the entrance was big enough for a merm to squeeze through.

He stared at it for a while. The movement he’d seen had come from its direction. Maybe…

Jack gave a little wave, then continued towards the river.

Once he was out of sight, something moved inside the hole again. Green glowing eyes peered out from the darkness. It was only once night had fallen that Anti crawled out from his hiding spot and quickly headed towards the river. He didn’t want those lake merms knowing he was here.

So… that clownfish had gotten into trouble with those humans. And he was stuck in the same place Anti had been. That… gave Anti a strange feeling. He didn’t want Chase to be in there. He didn’t want any other merms to be in there.

Perhaps he’d found his way to break even with this group.

MerMay Day Fifteen The New Life Form

Dr. Lise Ester hated all the new security checks, but she knew they were necessary. People were uneasy. They had been, ever since some rogue group had broken into the C-SAHL—the Complex for the Study of Aquatic Humanoid Life—and stolen the life form they had there. That was the second time someone had stolen their research subject. And both operations were led by the same woman. The complex was now equipped with facial recognition cameras to identify her from a distance.

The double theft worried Dr. Ester. A lot. Was this some rival organization, planning to do their own research on these aquatic life forms? Was it a group of environmental activists? Or was it someone with money and an interest in the exotic who wanted to own something unusual? Any option was bad. Because of this, the higher-ups were pressuring Ester to get some solid information, or else they’d shut down Project Mermaid. She’d been forced to double their efforts. But it had paid off.

It took about ten minutes to get through all the C-SAHL’s new security, and might have taken longer if she wasn’t so determined to make it go faster. No one wanted to upset the head of the project. So they let her walk straight in. Nobody stopped her as she reached the giant tank in the center of the complex.

The tank was divided into five different sections, each mimicking a different water environment. The last life form they had here, the one similar to an electric eel, was kept in the highest section, the temperate river environment. This new one they brought in was in the lowest section, the oceanic coral reef. She was especially proud of that section. They had real coral in there.

Ester stopped at the railing around the tank, scanning the area. The eel life form had been exceedingly aggressive, repeatedly trying to attack anyone outside the tank. This new one definitely wasn’t like that. She was having trouble spotting it…

There. Lying on the ground beside a large antler coral. That orange-and-white pattern really helped it blend into the environment. Ester circled around the tank until she got a clear view of it. This one was more traditionally fish-like, unlike the eel from before, and the cephalopod they’d had five years ago. So many different forms, and yet all with the same base. Humanoid top, aquatic lower half.

The life form was staring at her now. She raised a hand and gave a little wave, then pulled out her tablet, prepared to write notes. When she looked up again, it had swum up closer to her, hands pressed against the glass. Still staring. “…Hallo,” she said slowly. “Schön dich zu sehen.” She gave a little chuckle. Of course, it couldn’t understand her. But she liked talking sometimes. It made her feel connected. She wondered what it would say if it could understand her…

————————

Okay, so she probably wasn’t speaking English.

Chase stared through the glass, waiting for the woman in the blue coat to say something more. He wanted to read her lips. He wanted to know what they were planning on doing to him. It couldn’t be good. TridentCorp had taken Schneep, and whatever happened there messed him up so much he was still shaken five years later. Maybe they could have asked Anti what happened to him in here, but there hadn’t been much opportunity for that…

The woman looked up again. She seemed surprised that he was still there. She said something else, smiling a little. Chase’s eyes focused on her mouth, trying to read her lips. Either he was just terrible at lip-reading—which he was not—or the woman wasn’t speaking English.

That was a problem. He only knew how to speak English, and if that wasn’t the woman’s language, he couldn’t talk to her.

Would he want to talk to her, anyway? He’d been trying to figure that out. Chase knew he was unique; very few merms could speak human languages, even if they could understand them. It was difficult to wrap their voices around the words. The only reason Chase knew English was because of magic. He could try to convince these TridentCorp people to let him go. But there was no guarantee they would listen. He might just make his situation worse.

Maybe they would want to run tests to figure out how he could speak human languages. Chase shuddered just thinking about what those tests would be.

There had to be a way out of this. Schneep had escaped. And they’d rescued Jack and Anti from these TridentCorp facilities before. Maybe the others would be coming for him. But… could they really break into a complex like this a third time? TridentCorp had surely increased their security.

He would wait. Just for a little bit. In the meantime, he would observe. The glass was thick and soundproof, so if he wanted to talk his way out of here, he would have to find some other opportunity to.

He sank to the bottom of the tank, still staring at the human woman. “At least it’s a bit nice in here,” he muttered to himself. Better a gilded cage than a barren one.

Cognitive Distortions

So, the Switch AU became a thing. And I started wondering how on earth I was gonna approach the villain in this universe. I cobbled together some concepts and started to get a general idea, and then, right out of nowhere in the middle of my lunch break, this idea hit me. So I spent about an hour and forty-five minutes writing this during that four-hour break between classes. I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous about posting it, but I had fun writing it so hopefully people like reading it! Maybe I’ll write a longer thing for the AU this weekend XD Depends on homework.

It’s been a long day. Even though you want nothing more than to go home and relax after work, you know you’re out of food back at your apartment, so you need to run down to the shop real quick. There’s one right near your apartment building that’ll do. It’s not a full-on grocery store, closer to a convenience store, but it has some instant meals you can use, since you don’t really feel like cooking right now.

The worker at the cash register greets you cheerfully. You recognize her. And it seems like she recognizes you. Man, you must really be in here too often. You start perusing the aisles, but…you have the strangest feeling creeping along the back of your neck. Like someone is watching you. You pause, and look around. The store is empty besides you. Maybe there’s someone in the next aisle. You pick up one of the instant boxes and go into the next aisle.

Nobody is there. You think, after you’ve turned around, that you’re being kind of ridiculous. Maybe you’re just starting to get freaked out because the sun is going down. You start to go back over to the other aisle, only to realize you’ve dropped the box. You pick it up and frown at it. You don’t remember dropping it. It must’ve just slipped out of your fingers. But you also notice that your heart is pounding and you’re breathing heavily. There’s a jittery feeling in your stomach, like anxiety. Overall, you feel like you’ve just been scared, but you don’t remember seeing anything worth getting scared over. Are you having an anxiety attack? Is this what it feels like?

You shrug it off and pick up a few more instant meals before checking out at the cash register. The worker asks if you’re alright, because you’re very pale and look like you’d just seen a ghost. You ask her if there was anyone else in the shop. She looks around. At one point here eyes widen and her head whips back toward you like she saw something, but then she shrugs and says there are no other customers. You thank her, and leave with your purchases in a paper bag.

On the way home, you start spacing out. It’s not really your fault it’s just…your thoughts don’t feel quite connected to each other. Like they’re floating away in a fog. Not daydreaming, exactly, more like you’re just…tired. But without the physical symptoms. Your legs are working on autopilot, going at a normal speed with no weakness. But no matter how hard you concentrate, you can’t pull out of the gray fog in your head and into the real world. It’s pretty dreary, but you don’t care to fix it.

Suddenly, you shake your head. No, this was no time for…whatever that was. You aren’t quite sure. You also aren’t quite sure how you got where you are now. Confused, you look around. It’s the train station, one of the three in the city. This one was on the north edge of town, and it was pretty far from both the shop where you just were, and your apartment. The sun has basically set at this point, and the lights of the outdoor station had automatically turned on. The station was completely abandoned. No workers, no passengers in sight. Just benches and the occasional piece of rubbish skittering across the concrete.

A noise comes from the tracks. It sounds a bit like footsteps on gravel, which lines the parallel strips of iron that the trains ride on. Curious, but also cautious, you hold your paper bag tight and walk over to the tracks.

Well. There is a man sitting there. Cross-legged, right in the middle of the train tracks. He’s very gray. His clothes are gray, his skin has a gray tint, his hair is a brown-gray color, even the brim of his cap, which should be a pink-red, is actually a red-gray. You can’t really make out any features beyond those stabilizing points. When you try to focus on his face, you can’t concentrate. It’s like trying to look at someone through foggy glass, or trying to catch a reflection in a rippling pond. You think he’s looking at you, but it’s…hard to tell.

You ask him why he’s sitting on the tracks.

I’m waiting for the train,” he says. His voice is…odd. It almost sounds like there’s an echo behind the words, or like they’re running together, or like you’re listening through a steady layer of background noise. Either way, you can’t really remember what it actually sounds like.

You tell him that he shouldn’t be on the tracks. If a train comes, it could hit him.

He laughs. “You know, that’s kind of the idea, right?

You feel worried. Even if this guy is…weird, that doesn’t mean he deserves to get run over by a train. You ask him to please rethink this, and come back onto the station platform.

That’s nice of you to think about me,” he says with a smile. Actually, you realize he’s been saying everything with a smile. “Not many people do. And I guess that’s my fault, for hiding, but you’d think people would try. Like you just did.” He stands up. Something about the way he does it gives you the creeps. “What’s your name?

You hesitate, then tell him.

That’s a cool name.” He tilts his head to the side. The movement is accompanied by a cracking sound. Heads aren’t supposed to move that far, are they? “You want to know mine? Maybe I’d tell you. I dunno, there are a lot of factors to take into play here.” His head snaps back into place. “You seem cool. Want to hang out sometime?

You take a few steps back. You keep trying to blink through this—this distortion that this guy seems to be giving off. He’s…kind of unnerving. You squeeze your eyes shut and open then again. And now you can see his eyes clearly. They’re—they’re black. All pitch-black, and leaking a steady stream of blood. You gasp.

No, don’t be scared!” he says, taking a step toward you while not getting off the tracks.“I just want to be friends.

You shake your head, backing up steadily now and stammering excuses.

He keeps staring at you, still smiling. “Okay. I get it.” Then his head turns sideways. “Oh, look, the train is coming.

There’s the sound of a whistle in the distance. You turn and see a passenger train barreling towards the station. It’s going fast, clearly not going to make a stop here. You look back towards the guy on the tracks, and blink in surprise. He wasn’t the same…thing as before. Just a normal guy, wearing a gray shirt and cap, watching the train come with resigned blue eyes. You gasp. You’re not sure if you’re hallucinating or what, but the guy seems real. He doesn’t have the same weird distortion effect the thing did. And as your head flips back and forth between him and the approaching train, it hits you with a jolt. He was real. Whatever you were seeing before was all in your head. And now, a guy is about to be hit by a train.

You yell, but he just stares at you sadly. The train is close enough for you to hear the clacking of the wheels. After a moment of grappling with the choice, you throw your bag to the side and leap off the platform and onto the tracks, pushing the guy out of the way at just the moment the train hits.

It’s agony. The impact rips through you, leaving nothing but pain behind. You scream. And then, you realize that you wouldn’t be able to scream if you were dead. And, by opening your eyes, you discover that you still have them. There’s no train anywhere, either coming or going. The moment you realize that, the pain response shuts off entirely. You’re laying on the tracks, and despite being totally uninjured, your body is in too much shock to get up and leave.

You stare up at the evening sky. You stare. You move your head. Moving head is too much effort. Brain is noise. You move. You wonder what was real. You stare. You wonder why you can’t think. Brain is noise. You stare at the tracks. You wonder. Thoughts are clipped. Thoughts aren’t working. You move. You’re really trying but you can’t think. Thinking is too much effort. Thoughts are floating in a fog. You don’t like this fog. You wonder what is real. You stare. Your eyes start leaking tears. You’re really trying but you can’t think. You want to think. You want to concentrate. But you stare. You cry.

You’re okay.

Someone is sitting next to you. You look at him. You can’t remember what he looks like. You’re staring at his profile. There’s a hole in his head. He turns to look at you. He’s still smiling. Black eyes. Blood tears. “You’re okay, don’t worry.

You still worry. You don’t like this. You try to get up and run. You can’t muster the effort. It feels like you’re drowning in gray fog. You keep crying.

Hey, don’t do that.” He grabs your face with one hand and starts brushing your tears away. It doesn’t help. His nails are leaving scratches on your skin. They shouldn’t be that sharp. Hands shouldn’t be black and dead-looking. “There’s not going to be any crying here. Okay? Do you understand?

You don’t. You try to shake your head. You stare. You wonder. You want to be able to think. You’re tired. He’s still smiling.

Well, it’s gonna take time to learn how to not do that,” he says. “So I guess that’s okay. But we need to start somewhere. So I want you to do something for me. Can you smile?

You don’t want to. You’re trembling.

Aw, come on, you didn’t even try.” He holds your head, a hand on each side. You’re staring into his dead, soulless eyes. You’re staring at that stretched, manic grin. “You should smile more. People like it when you do. So smile for me.

It’s easier to listen to someone else. Easier than trying to grab scattered thoughts. Easier than trying to force them together. So you smile.

“There we are!” His grows wider. “That’s good. You’re good. And you’re going to be a good friend. You can go to sleep now. I’ll see you later.

Dizziness overtakes you. Your vision fades to black before your head even hits your chest.

Waiting and Watching

Switch AU

A JSE Fanfic

Funny story about this chapter. As I wrote it, stuff was just… happening. Stuff that I was not expecting XD I swear, it felt like the characters were taking over fshjdaklh In this part, Marvin and JJ regroup after their two separate adventures and try to figure out what to do next. Obviously they have to get Anti back, but how? Then the next morning they get a strange phone call that changes their plans slightly. Enjoy reading :)

Marvin and JJ sat at the table together. It was past midnight, but JJ insisted on making tea for the both of them. He said it would calm their nerves, and Marvin agreed. So they sat in silence with a cup of mint tea each.

Jameson was the first to speak. So… these are the cards you lost?

“Yes.” Marvin’s fingers nervously tapped the deck. “I recognized t’em right away.” He spread them out in a line. The back of each card was unique, a different symbol surrounded by lines that crossed and curved in elaborate patterns.

And Henrik just went in there and got them? JJ asked.

“If we’re believin’ him, which I don’ see why we wouldn’.”

Jameson shook his head. This is incredible. When the rest of us went into that house, we barely made it out. And he just did it.

“In his note he said t’at Distorter had left. T’at probably made it easier.” Marvin began idly rearranging the cards on the table. “T… t’ere’s some way to mess with t’ese, I know it. Some way to use t’em for magick… but I can’ remember…”

These symbols are part of a runic alphabet, Jameson said, indicating the back of the cards. Runes are often used in magick, so you’re right. There’s definitely some way to use these cards for rituals. Perhaps the meanings of the runes could help us out? I know I have a couple references for rune alphabets in my books upstairs.

MerMay 2023 Day Fourteen Fish Aid

Sam was a hardy little fish. That may be because of Jack’s special connection with her. Merms could understand the fish of their kind on a higher level than other fish, and Sam was the only discus in the area. Jack sometimes wondered if there was something magic between them, because he was pretty sure most fish didn’t live this long, or at least didn’t stay in such good shape.

Even so, fish were vulnerable animals. Or maybe it was just Sam. She’d grown up in an aquarium, after all. The open ocean still stressed her out sometimes. So Jack knew how to look after her when she was acting strange.

“Here we are,” Jack said. “Food. Eat up.” Sam usually ate on her own, finding plankton and small insects, but he was worried about her not getting enough lately, since she’d been sticking so close to him. So today, he had to sort that out himself, using the bottle of fish food he’d asked Chase to get from Stacy. The small bits drifted through the water, and he waved his hands to push them closer.

Sam inched out from behind the small rock. There were a lot of small rocks and plants in Jack’s tide pool, just for her. She poked at the fish food, then ate some of the flakes. She spat it back out, but Jack knew that was supposed to happen.

“Good.” Jack nodded, and held out his hand. “Now will you let me see?”

After a second, Sam swam forward, letting him curl his fingers around her and pull her close. He carefully inspected her body and fins for cuts, discoloration, or strange growths. Nothing he could see.

He hummed, confused. “Well, you look alright. But then how come you’ve been acting weird?”

Sam wriggled a bit, and he opened his hands. She bumped into his shoulder a couple times. A sign of affection, one that most fish didn’t do but that she’d done for years now.

“I get worried about you, you know,” Jack muttered, running a finger along her side scales. “You haven’t been eating, you’ve been slow, you hide a lot… is it just stress?”

She bumped him again.

“Okay, okay, I get the picture.” Jack swam backwards a little. Sam swam after him. Until he started to move towards the pool entrance, and then she darted back towards her hiding places. Hmm… maybe… “Are you worried about me?” Jack asked quietly, inching closer again.

Sam poked her head out from behind a plant. It’s hard to read expressions in fish eyes. Even other merms have trouble. But Jack had a lot of practice.

“Aww, Sam.” Jack sank down so he was eye level with her, his tail resting on the bottom of the pool. “That’s so sweet. And I get it. I was gone for so long, you might not have thought I was coming back. But I’m back now. And nothing’s going to happen to me. I promise, if I ever go away again, I’ll always come back to you.” 

Realistically, this was a bad promise to make. Anything could happen out there in the ocean. Predators, TridentCorp… there were all sorts of threats. But he wasn’t about to say that to Sam.

It wasn’t clear if Sam understood his words. He still wondered, sometimes. But she definitely understood the tone of his voice. A moment passed, and she swam back out again. Jack decided to test her. He began swimming over to the pool entrance. She followed this time. Even as he passed through the gap in the rocks that made up said entrance.

“Alright.” Jack held out his hand. “Stay.”

Sam stopped, though she swam back and forth in the entrance. Jack swam backwards, keeping an eye on her. Then he turned and swam faster away. He glanced back over his shoulder to see Sam still waiting in the entrance, a green dot in the rock gap.

He turned and swam back. “Good! Very good,” he said proudly. “I have to go out without you sometimes, you know. Doesn’t mean I won’t come back. And it doesn’t mean anything will happen to you while you’re here. I’ll have to leave for a while soon, you know. Marvin and Jameson are having that thing, remember? And you can’t go where they live because of the salt differences.”

Sam circled around him a couple times. He wondered if that meant she understood.

Before he could do anything else with Sam, he heard a voice call out, “Jack! Are you home?”

Confused, Jack poked his head back out of the pool to see a familiar merm swimming fast towards him. “Jackie? What’s going on? You look worried.”

Jackie stopped in front of him. “Something bad’s happened.”

MerMay 2023 Day Thirteen Tracking Down

“Marvin? Is everything alright?”

Marvin started, then sighed a little. He’d swum out to a remote part of the lake to try and avoid the others. This area was hard to find, a small dip in the ground near the shore that was half-covered with an overhanging rock and blocked off by tall reeds. Nobody else knew about it, not even Jameson. But he forgot that this lake was Aribelle’s home first.

He brushed aside the reeds. Aribelle was waiting outside, silver scales catching the rippling sunlight. “Hi, Ari. Everything’s… fine.”

Aribelle frowned. “Well, clearly it’s not. You only ever came to this spot when you wanted to hide. That might have changed since I last saw you, but I doubt it has. What happened? Are we too overwhelming? Or did you just need some time from the rest of us?”

“No, it’s not you, it’s…” Marvin sighed. “Jackie and Schneep wanted me to check something out.”

“Those two salties who arrived earlier, right?” Aribelle said.

“Yeah.” Marvin nodded. “So I wanted some space to do the spell. Our storage is pretty full, you know, so… anyway, it’s… it’s fine, Ari.”

Aribelle stared at him. She folded her arms. “It’s hard to read your face with that mask on, you know, but your voice tells me it’s not fine.”

“It is,” Marvin insisted. “It probably is. I… do you want to come see what I have set up?” Aribelle nodded, so he turned around and swam back into the little alcove.

It wasn’t nearly as dark here as it should have been. He had dragged a large power stone all the way out here, big enough that he needed two arms to carry it, and the symbols carved along its surface were now glowing pale green. “You’re using the big boy, huh?” Aribelle noted.

“Yeah. I also have this.” Marvin pointed to the small bowl resting on top of the stone. Inside were a smattering of fish scales—no. Merm scales. You could tell because they were bigger. These were orange, black, and white. “We haven’t seen a friend of ours in a while. Chase, I think I’ve told you about him. Schneep and Jackie are worried, so they asked me if I could use a tracking spell to find him. Luckily, I’d asked them all for old scales before. Just in case I needed them for a spell they’d want. So I agreed.” He paused. “It’s probably fine. He’s probably busy with his family.”

Aribelle looked him over. “But you’re still worried, aren’t you?”

Marvin nodded slowly. He gave a little laugh. “We haven’t seen each other in so long, and you can still read me so easily.”

“I raised you, Marvin, you don’t forget that stuff easily.” Aribelle rested a hand on the power stone. “It’s hard to use power stones of this size, but you must want the power. You would only do that if you were really worried.” She closed her eyes. “Yes… the spell is going right now. It’s searching. Do you want me to wait with you until it’s done, or should I go back?”

“…you can stay,” Marvin said quietly. “I mean, unless you want to spend more time with Eva and Yujie.”

“I see them all the time. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.” Aribelle opened her eyes and removed her hand. “I can wait.”

Marvin nodded slowly. He sank down onto the sandy ground. “Thanks. We’ll wait together, then.”

The two of them sat there, silently, waiting for the spell to finish. It only took a minute longer. The green light coming from the stone grew slightly stronger, and the water above it began to shimmer, light catching on particles and forming an image. Marvin straightened, raising himself off the ground, watching intently as the image became clearer. What he saw made him go pale.

Aribelle gasped. “Oh…That’s…”

Marvin swam towards the entrance. “We have to tell the others.”

MerMay 2023 Day Twelve When I See You Again

Humans really weren’t careful with their things. If they were, then there wouldn’t be so much stuff of theirs in the water. Anti had been slinking around the coast almost all day and he’d found enough human stuff to fill a bag—which was also one of the human things he’d found. Who lost an entire bag? That was so useful!

His favorite human object so far was this rectangular slab with a reflective black surface. He’d seen a lot of humans walking around with those, though they were usually smaller. When he pulsed, the black surface flickered, briefly glowing white before turning black again. It freaked him out at first. He’d dropped it and swam back a few feet, keeping an eye on it from a distance until he was sure it wouldn’t do anything. It didn’t. So he picked it up again. The black reflective part would glow white every time he pulsed. That was cool. He wondered why that happened.

Most of what he found wasn’t useful or cool. It was stuff that humans just wanted to get rid of. But he decided to keep most of it anyway. Maybe he could find some way to use it. Who knew?

It was starting to get dark. Anti didn’t mind the dark, since he could find his way around by sending pulses of electricity through the water, but it showed how much time had passed. He might want to start heading back to the shipwreck soon. Before he did that, though, he wanted to try something. There was another one of those black reflective slabs buried in the sand, one that was smaller, about the size he’d usually seen humans carrying. He’d always wondered what they were for. Maybe there was something inside them. There was no obvious way to get in, but he had to find out.

Luckily, there were a lot of small, fist-sized rocks in the area. Anti placed the black slab on a flat one, then grabbed one with a point at the end and—SLAM! The slab flipped into the air, cracks on its reflective surface. He put it back and smashed the rock into it a couple more times. SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! Fragments flew, spinning off into the water. Until finally, the slab flipped over and a rectangle at the back came off. Anti put the rock down and picked up the now-ruined slab. It looked like there was a lot of little metal stuff inside. A big metal rectangle, a lot of blue metal boards with smaller metal bits sticking off them… What the fuck was any of this for?

Movement.

Anti’s head snapped up and darted towards the thing that shifted on the edge of his vision. And he immediately froze. It was one of those merms. Jack’s friends. He didn’t know most of their names, but he definitely recognized this one. The stingray.

The two of them stared at each other for a long time, neither moving. The stingray looked a bit horrified, hovering close to the ocean floor with tail swishing, ready to run or attack at any moment. What was he doing out here? Anti glanced at one of his wings, but he couldn’t see the branching scar pattern from this angle—the scar pattern that Anti himself had caused with a particularly intense shock.

After a moment, Anti realized that he didn’t want to attack the stingray. Strange. He definitely would have a while ago. Move, before the stingray moved first and had an advantage. But now, he would rather wait. And it wasn’t because he was scared—probably. Maybe he was. He wasn’t sure. He was confused.

They still hadn’t moved. The stingray glanced at what Anti was holding: the slab he’d smashed up. Had the sound caused him to come looking? “I… wanted to see what was inside,” Anti explained slowly.

The stingray nodded, equally slowly. He raised his hands and carefully moved them.

Anti shook his head. “I’m… sorry,” he said, surprised to realize that he was sorry, “but I don’t understand.”

Another slow nod. The stingray paused, then lowered one hand to the ocean floor and began tracing patterns in the sand. Anti narrowed his eyes as words began to form… “Fuck,” he whispered to himself. He didn’t know what they were saying. What are you… here? Are you… to… ? “None of your business,” Anti finally said.

The stingray tilted his head. Wait, was that not a good answer? Was it strange? He wrote something more. Are you… for… things?

“Just go away!” Anti snapped, frustrated. “I know you definitely don’t want to see me. So fuck off.”

But the stingray didn’t move. His face scrunched up as he thought. Then he wrote something that Anti knew: Can you read?

“Shut up!” Anti swam backwards. “Just go away before I shock you again. You know I will.”

The stingray flinched. He gave Anti one last curious look, then turned and swam away, glancing back a couple times. Anti didn’t move until he was out of sight. The moment he was gone, he swam forward and brushed away the offending words, glaring at the clouds of sand. So what if he’d forgotten what most of them meant? It wasn’t a necessary skill, not for him. Not when he knew—was maybe the only merm who knew—how harsh this world was. Why waste time reading when you could die at any moment?

And yet, as he swam back to the shipwreck, he wondered. If he wanted to learn again, how would he do that?

It was a foolish idea. But it was a persistent one.

MerMay 2023 Day Eleven Poaching

It was raining. And that was both good and bad. On the one hand, it meant lowered visibility for any onlookers, and Chase could rest half-out of the water for as long as he wanted without drying out. On the other hand, he knew that being wet when you weren’t planning on it was a miserable feeling for humans. He didn’t want Stacy or the kids to feel bad on their first meeting in a while. Though, would the kids feel the same? They were half-merm, maybe they liked being wet. Could they transform into their merm form while it was raining?

Chase sat on the end of the old pier and thought about this. The end of his tail dangled in the water, slowly moving back and forth. Maybe Muirin and Sereia had to be completely immersed in water for the transformation to occur. He’d never seen them change while only half-in. But maybe that was a preference?

…They were late.

That wasn’t a problem, right? The rain was probably causing traffic or something. Or maybe Chase had come at the wrong time. He couldn’t exactly check a clock underwater and usually had to guess when it was “noon” or “four o’clock” or whatever. Though he was usually right.

He turned around and looked back at the beach. Not a soul was in sight. The public part of the beach was closed due to weather, so no one wanted to come down to the coast, much less trespass on the off-limits beach, with its pebbly shore and rickety old pier. So that was a good thing for when Stacy and the kids showed up. Eventually.

How long had he been sitting out here? It had to be half an hour, at least. That was enough time to get worried.

Maybe… maybe they decided it wasn’t worth it?

And then he saw movement. He straightened slightly, peering through the sheets of rain. The motion didn’t come from the fence dividing the closed beach from the public beach, as he expected it to. Instead, it came from the tall boulders at the back of the beach that separated this area from the boardwalk—and made it hard to get to. It was even harder to climb over those boulders than the fence, so Stacy and the kids didn’t usually come that way when they came to visit. But that movement had to be them. Who else would be sneaking onto the old beach in the rain?

Still, Chase felt uneasy. He stared for a moment more, waiting. Maybe he’d just imagined the movement.

No, there it was again. A flicker. His eyes darted towards it. He could definitely make out the shape of a person. It was hard to discern any details with the rain and the distance, but… he didn’t think it was Stacy. It definitely wasn’t the kids.

He shifted a bit, slowly pushing himself off the pier. But he didn’t fully disappear into the ocean. Instead, he braced himself against the old wooden planks, torso fully out of the water. He wanted to be sure. Maybe it was Stacy. Maybe if he just watched for a while more—

The figure moved. Something flashed. Not a light—something moving too fast to detect. Chase didn’t have time to think about it. Something hit his chest just under his collarbone. And it hurt. He yelped and fell back into the water, partly pushed by the force of the thing that hit him. The splash hit his ears before all sound faded.

He sank a few feet before he managed to regain his bearings. That person definitely wasn’t Stacy! And they just—did they shoot him? Chase looked down. He was shot. Not with a bullet, with a long, thin dart that stuck out from his chest.

A sudden wave of cold dread rushed over him. They knew. Whoever had shot him had to be a human, and they must have shot him because they knew what he was. And they wanted to keep him alive. Was it TridentCorp again? What were the odds that they’d find him here?! In this place of all places?!

He grabbed the dart and tried to pull it out, but only managed to pull off the main body. The end of the needle was still in him, a centimeter of thin metal sticking out. It must have been designed that way, because he heard a slight shhick sound once the body came off. “Shit!” he hissed. His only choice now was to try and pull out that last bit of needle, but it was hard to get a grip on it. Or… was it him? His fingers felt strangely… disconnected from his brain. Clumsy.

A sedative. There had to be a sedative in the dart, that’s what they’re for. He had to get out of here before it took effect. Chase rolled over in the water, course-corrected himself a couple times, and swam as fast as he could towards the open ocean.

He wasn’t going to be fast enough. He could tell. He was… drifting. To the side. And downwards… sinking when his tail failed to propel him upwards… It was moving too slow. He couldn’t move it faster… no matter how much he tried. It just wouldn’t listen. Were there more clouds gathering above the surface? Because it was… getting even darker… No, that had to be just him. He had to snap out of it! He had to keep going! He had to keep going. He had to… keep going. He had… to keep…

Chase landed on the ocean floor, sand puffing gently into the air. It was a soft landing. The sand was soft, too. Maybe… he’d swum far enough. Maybe… they wouldn’t find him. It was a big ocean, after all. Maybe… if he just closed his eyes a bit and slept this off…

But as he slowly lost consciousness, he knew that was too much to hope for. The last thing he was aware of before everything went black was a faint current… the sort that would be caused by a boat.

Idk about this one boys, Cookie Monster always refers to Cookie Monster's self as "Cookie Monster".

no he doesn’t. he refers to himself as “me.” elmo’s the one that talks in third person. that’s the joke. elmo doesn’t use pronouns and cookie monster is blue. how dare you assume i made this post and didnt know my fucking sesame street history. christ

Avatar

people on here are always saying “we NEED a story where the art of storytelling is abandoned” like ugh literary devices are soo annoying like that wouldn’t happen in real life that only happened to further the story (why is there story in my story) why would orpheus turn around when he was explicitly told not to why would icarus fly so close to the sun romeo&juliet catcher in the rye why are they so earnest why pour your heart and soul into anything why bother why cant all art be quippy logical monotony like my marvel movies there’s a void in my heart bc i refused to fill it and the curtains were blue

Avatar

“i hate poetry its so pretentious” but then you reblog a quote or a throwaway line and say “why does this go so hard” you are desperate for poetry you are starved for it and u dont even realise you’re hungry

MerMay 2023 Day Ten Stagnant Water

Jackie saw Schneep coming from a long way away. He’d made his home in the open ocean, where there was nothing for miles except sand, and the only identifiable feature was the sloping hole where he usually slept. And that was there because he’d made it himself. So when Jackie recognized him in the distance, he decided to swim out to meet him halfway.

“Hey, Schneep,” he said, flashing a grin. “You don’t usually make the trip out here. What’s up?”

Schneep’s expression was drawn and worried, and Jackie’s grin slowly faded. “Jackie… have you seen Chase lately?”

“Well, I last saw him, uh… it’s been a while,” Jackie admitted.

“I last saw him five days ago,” Schneep said. “Have you seen him since then?”

“Oh, definitely not.” Jackie was actually starting to think about visiting Chase. Or maybe Jack. Or Schneep himself. But he’d been so busy lately with protector duties. “The last time I saw anyone else, it was Jameson and Marvin, about… four days ago? I went up to check on them. I would’ve gone to see the rest of you guys, but I got caught up in stuff.” He was talking a lot, but that was to avoid the next obvious question, which he wasn’t sure he wanted an answer to. “Why are you asking?”

“He isn’t home,” Schneep explained. “I know he does not spend all his time at his anemone, but I waited for a long time, and he did not show up.” Despite the steadiness of his voice, his tentacles were a nervous green.

“Is there anywhere he could be?” Jackie asked.

“Yesterday he was going to meet up with Stacy and their fries,” Schneep recalled. “So I suppose he could be with them. But—but it has been a day, a-and I am sure he would find a way to tell the rest of us—or perhaps he wouldn’t, he is his own self, he has no obligation to—”

“Schneep, calm down.” Jackie swam closer, grabbing Schneep by the shoulders. “You’re starting to panic.”

Schneep breathed in deeply. “I am sorry,” he said quietly. “It is just… I am worried. When I last saw him, he said there was a boat that sailed over his anemone recently. And I-I keep thinking that it was… them.” TridentCorp. “And that they came back for him.”

“That’s… possible,” Jackie grudgingly admitted. But then Schneep immediately tensed, and he regretted saying that. “But it’s not likely! It probably has something to do with Stacy and the pups. Do you think Chase has a communication stone on him? I know Marvin’s been trying to get us to keep those on us.”

“Do you have a stone on you?” Schneep asked.

“…no.”

“Then I doubt Chase would. You, at least, have somewhere to keep it, now that you wear that hood everywhere. I can see the pocket on the side. Chase has no pockets.”

“Okay, that seems bad, but I’m sure there’s some way to reach him,” Jackie said. “We can go talk to Marvin and Jameson. Maybe they have magic that can help.”

That seemed to reassure Schneep. He relaxed slightly, tentacles shifting to a more normal color. A couple curled around Jackie’s tail, but he didn’t mind. He knew contact was reassuring for Schneep. “Right. Yes. We can go talk to them. Do you think we can do that now?”

“We’re a bit far, but if we go now, we should be able to reach them before the waters get dark,” Jackie said. “It’ll be faster if just I go, but do you want to come?”

“Of course.” Schneep nodded.

“Alright.” Jackie let go of Schneep’s shoulders and grabbed his hand instead. “Hold on, then. I don’t want to lose you.” They both knew Jackie could easily outswim Schneep, and he probably would, too spurred on by energy to think about what he was doing.

“Holding on.” Schneep squeezed Jackie’s hand. “Let’s go. Quickly. If something has happened, we must act soon.”

The two of them swam off as fast as they could, crossing the open ocean towards land. Even though Jackie told himself that they were probably getting worried for nothing, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach that things were about to go wrong.

I love something that we literally never address is that Actor Mark is canonically, and has been for several years now, a convicted felon

I think about this all the time, and my personal headcanon is he was convicted because of Dark.

Hear me out!

  • In WKM, Y/N is the district attorney. We see this on their invitation and it is confirmed by Damien.
  • Unless Y/N is a criminal and practicing law without a permit or whatever the word is, we can assume they went to law school.
  • The morning after the party, Damien says something along the lines of “I haven’t seen you go so hard since university”
  • This means that it is possible that Damien attended law school with the DA, or at least got his bachelors with them.
  • Damien’s a mayor, we can assume he knows at least a little bit of law
  • There were flyers in Abe’s study, stating “mayor in legal trouble”. Who would know that legal trouble better than anyone? The man it’s directed at, Damien.

So Actor Mark steals Damien’s body, and Damien ends up in the same body as Celine, the body of the DA. Celine’s controlling the body for quite a while, and then steps back to let Damien have control. Now Damien is in control of Dark. He needs to start getting his revenge on Actor Mark, but needs to make sure he can find Actor Mark, h that he won’t get far. So, Dark, in the body of the DA, prosecutes Mark for whatever legal trouble Damien (actor Mark) was in. Mark is guilty, and Dark’s gotten a small sliver of revenge

Is it canon? No, but I think it’s fucking hilarious to think about that court case