#an angry summary

[robocatfan]

An angry summary of Speak the Ocean by Rebecca Enzor -Part 2

Part 1 , Part 3, Part 4

Chapter 2- Erie

This chapter introduces us to Erie, our magenta- haired mermaid protagonist and the youngest daughter of the king of the underwater Seadom - yes that’s its name. At least it doesn't go by Atlantis like many other stories do.

As stated before, she’s the youngest of seven siblings (only two of which we see in the story and learn the names of. The other five meanwhile don’t even get a mention) - just like Ariel - and also the one who’s been neglected the most due to resembling their disappeared mother, Queen Manistique. We learn that she was the first mer captured by humans - which the mers and dolphins call “landfolk” - and that her dad’s still wallowing about his dead wife. Just like Ariel’s dad.

Erie’s been trying to find a pattern and reason for the abductions of her people, each one represented by a shell which she’s tasked to stain with squid ink when they get taken, with the most recent victim being one of her older siblings, Clair. However, the events are so irregular that she’s unable to find any answers.

As she ponders her sister’s shell, she’s visited by a blue-haired mer called Huron, who’d just snuck past a surfacing Niku - her dolphin guard - and immediately suggests they go out hunting despite the danger of the landfolk. Also it’s pretty apparent by the way he’s interacting with her that he wants to do way more than just get food.

While Erie is tempted to go out, especially since none of them have been hunting much due to the fear of boats, she has doubts about it… for just a brief moment since of course, it doesn’t take long for her to agree to come with him.

In the next two paragraphs as they sneak away, the text gives us a look (or rather, a sort of broad description- and the only one we ever get at that!) of their home, which is essentially a big underwater city surrounded by a dead sunken forest that is somehow enough to hide them from modern human technology, because none of the human characters have any idea of its existence.

There are also other sea creatures living within it like fish and crabs, but Erie notes that they are illegal to eat… Even though it’s also noted that everyone is starving due to being unable to hunt as frequently as they used to, so why prevent them from consuming these very accessible meals? It’s like placing a bowl of food just out of the reach of a chained dog!

Anyway instead of doing… Whatever they are intending to do, in a hidden corner of their home, these two fools decide to go past the dead forest to do it in what’s essentially a danger zone just so they can have their “fun”. Brilliant!

After getting to the open ocean (aka the danger zone), Erie feels a sense of freedom due to the vastness of her surroundings, something she hasn’t really felt since her sister got snatched.

When she thinks about her fate however, she starts having second thoughts about venturing this far due to the danger… which are immediately dispelled when Huron brushes his tail fin against her stomach and it becomes very apparent that they are both thinking with their second head.

But just as they are making out and in the middle of justifying why this book has an adult age rating (again, while in a danger zone) they are interrupted when they both notice the rumbling of an approaching boat. We don’t get to have a moment where it dawns on them that one of the main tools the landfolk use to capture them is coming in their direction, or even get a glimpse of its shape. Erie just hears it, and bolts.

A literal sentence later, a net is thrown and hits Erie’s tail, bearing her down against the ocean floor. Which makes me wonder just how shallow their part of the ocean is for the net to get there so quickly. Actually, how long are those nets to be able to do that in the first place?

In any case, her trapped state only lasts two sentences before she “easily” (due to the text barely showing her struggle) gets free - ripping her tail fin in the process. Which should be painful af, but the text barely dwells into how it affects her mobility and later presents it more like a minor inconvenience later on.

Huron on the other hand, isn’t so lucky as he ends up getting - surprisingly easily - trapped in the net, and his companion’s attempts to free him last for about five words before it becomes apparent that there’s nothing she can do to free him. Like, girl, you and the rest of your kind are human sized, and while these nets are strong, they are for fish way smaller than you. And since it’s your boyfriend that’s trapped, at least try a little harder!

So Huron tells her to get help, and even though she knows she won't be able to find aid in time, Erie still tries. A sentence later, the narration destroys any tension by telling us that he’s essentially a lost cause now.

(I still can’t believe all of this happened because these two idiots wanted to have mermaid se-)

And it becomes very apparent in moments like these that the writing style is one of the greatest weaknesses of the book - as well as the reason that just reading it feels like an exhausting chore to me. Because what’s supposed to be a tense and terrifying scene for both the readers and the characters….

Ends up falling very flat due to how quickly everything happens (seriously this scene takes just one page to finish) and due to how matter of factly everything is written.

When Erie reaches the dead forest, she has a miniscule flare of hope upon noticing the shadow of a dolphin before she sees its back scars and realizes that said dolphin is a rightfully pissed Niku.

Still, she tells him where Huron got captured and that she has yet to find a pattern for the boat’s appearances - and Niku oh so helpfully tells her that “perhaps staining the next shell may enlighten her”. So much for a scolding or comfort.

Two days later, Erie feels guilt for causing her boyfriend’s abduction, even though he was the one who suggested they go out in the first place. And what does her father do about this recent kidnapping? NOTHING.

We are not told if he punished her for going out, nor if he has increased security because one of his remaining children nearly got taken. He just doesn’t do - and hasn’t done for these past six years - anything to help his subjects even though they and his very own family are being constantly kidnapped. And you would think his inaction as well as their current situation would cause civil unrest or make them more eager to fight back against the landfolk (like that unseen mer who attacked a tourist in the previous chapter), but nope. Everything goes on as usual I guess.

While she stares at her ink stained fingers so she doesn't stare at Huron’s and Clair’s shells, her grandmother Dowager (which is the name used for widows who hold the titles or properties derived from their deceased partners), comes to visit her, and Erie notes that her scale colors have dissipated with age and that she has a few string of sea glass around her neck which her sister declared would never be hers due to being the youngest.

Anyway, the grandma isn’t that important to the story.

And instead of coming to comfort her granddaughter, she warns her that she may have to stain another shell soon since there have been recent sightings of boats.

When Erie asks her why they are still out there - since normally they just take one mer at a time - she responds that according to the king’s landfolk advisor ( who doesn’t seem to do his job well because six years have passed and nothing to help improve their situation has been done. Oh and he’s gonna be important - for one chapter only.), it might be for research, and none of them have any clue as to what it means.

To seemingly provide some sort of levity though, her grandmother tells her that her father has declared a hunt to restock their fish pens in spite of the danger, and that the dolphins and all able bodied merfolk (which doesn’t include her because rip her tail fin - but doesn’t amount to anything as you will see a few chapters later) participate.

Erie then asks her if she knows if there will be any boats nearby since she’s one of the wisest mers she’s known. and she replies that while that is impossible to tell, the area they are planning to hunt in has clear waters as of now.

And as she reassures her that Niku will keep her safe during the trip (pretty much saying that her dad’s restrictions mean shit even though her grandkid is injured), Erie grabs one of the few clear shells and swears that she will do whatever it takes to figure out the schedule of the boats and the reason for the kidnappings.

…. Don’t expect her to take the route most characters go through after making such a bow.

Chapter 3- Finn

We are back to Finn’s perspective as he immediately enters Delmara’s office to proclaim himself the trainer of the new mer - aka Huron - who was caught while he and Serge were disobeying the doctor’s orders in chapter one.

When he enters, Delmara introduces him to a red-haired woman called Jennifer/Jen, who’s been recently hired as a new employee in Oceanica and who greets him warmly but also warily, and is also notable for being the sanest character in the story and the one that, frankly, should have been the human main character instead of Finn.

Speaking of him, while he happily shakes her hand, he’s caught off guard when his boss says that not only will he be her guide for the week, but they will also have to clean the tanks that used to belong to Bismuth and the twins.

When he asks why that’s the case, since she previously promised him that the next mer in line will be his to train, Delmara reminds him that the doctors have forbidden him from interacting with the mer until his next checkup, and that the new arrival will be placed under the care of Mia and Laz, the trainers of their current stars Radon/ Ray and Potassium/ K.

Speaking of her, according to Finn she’s probably going to kill the new mer (the reasons for that? we are never told about it), and it took weeks with the electroshocker™ to get her to behave. And as we later learn, she’s actually Clair, Erie’s sister.

However, and despite the fact that she’s essentially the murderous mermaid this book oh so claims to have, not only is she underutilized, but her tank companion and trainers matter so little to the story that they essentially vanish without reason later on (and you’ll later see that I’m not joking.)

Finn is aghast at her decision. But while he’s worried that the new boy won’t last more than a day thanks to K/Clair, he’s more pissed over the fact that he’s not allowed to interact with the same creatures who nearly sent him to the next life a few days ago for his own safety. As well as the fact that he has yet to train one in spite of his long time helping Delmara.

So he essentially throws a tantrum - in front of a new hire, no less! - and tries to throw Maddy under the bus by blaming her for the fact that he tripped (like a fool) and fell into the tank due to his own clumsiness and stating that due to this, she should be the one on cleaning duty instead of him.

Ultimately his boss makes him stand down and dismisses him and Jen, not before telling them that she will be sending the fishermen out to find another mer soon - which seems to be her only response to the financial loss that the death of their previous stars certainly caused.

Finn is far from happy about this, but knows her enough to know he won’t win this argument. So without having the decency to at least hide some of his current frustration, he goes to give Jen a tour of the place.

What could have been a way to also show the reader how the main setting of the story looks like only consists of a sentence where Finn points to the break and locker rooms before they arrive to the room where they hold the tanks, which the text does bother to describe.

It has four sets of double tanks - each one about thirty meters in diameter and connected by tubes to the point that Finn compares the place to a giant hamster room. All of them connect to the practice tank we saw in the first chapter, as well as the “arena” - an outdoor tank where they hold their shows and that is colored way more aesthetically than the room they are in.

Still bitter about being put in his place, he points to the empty tanks and explains that they’ll scrub them over with diluted bleach, fill them back and then let them cycle over a couple of days before putting a new mer in.

BUT according to a friend (and a quick google search) these sorts of tanks should be cycled for, at the very least , 2 or 8 weeks! Which means that either the author got information wrong, or they are intentionally cutting corners! Either way, Finn hopes that by the time the process ends he will be allowed to train a mer.

Jen is unsettled by the tank sizes, but he tells her that they are actually three times bigger than the previous ones, in which the creatures could barely stretch… It doesn’t help much.

And instead of thinking that maybe the new employee is concerned about the mers’ welfare, this guy assumes that she - like previous new employees- is disappointed by the fact that dealing with these creatures isn’t as glamorous as they first thought. And still, he admits that nothing would make him quit the job.

They walk up to the next set of tanks and Finn introduces her to Ray and K/ Clair, who are floating in the middle of the tank while their trainers check the water parameters with long poles - which is the only time we see those being used to keep the mandated distance from the creatures.

Huron meanwhile is huddled in the second tank, and while Ray is indifferent to everything (which is the only trait we learn about him), K/Clair glares at him - most likely due to recognizing him as her younger sister’s boyfriend, and Finn does admit that his blue accents will go well with the orange and bright red of the pair.

Jen is fascinated at first by K/Clair due to her colors reminding her of Ariel, but Finn stops her by telling her that K/Clair is a lethal predator. And due to feeling that she needs a healthy dose of fear to work with the mers, he tells her that the first thing she did on her first night in the tank was rip the gills out of her current tank companion -something that, as stated before, we never get an explanation for.

And just to hammer it further, he goes on to remind her in the most dramatic way ever that while “one can cage, shock, and teach the mer tricks, they are still clever as shit and will always look for a way out, a weakness they can exploit”, before warning her to not become said weakness.

Which is ominous and all, but-

It presents them as more dangerous than they actually are - regardless of him overdramatizing stuff.

To my utter disappointment, just like with the “perfect predator” statement, we never get any scenes that give credence to his words.

Later Finn, Serge, Maddy and Nat go to a place called The Porch, an establishment they frequent to drink and in this occasion, bet on how long Huron will survive being with K/ Clair. You would think they would take his potential fate more seriously considering they - again - recently lost two of their most important stars.

On their second round, Jen joins them, wearing an Oceanica polo and a dolphin- shaped sea glass necklace that will be important later. After everyone introduces themselves (we actually don’t get to see it), Finn takes her over to order a drink for her, but as they do he notices Maddy scowling at the two of them, which confuses him since the two are only friends with benefits.

Btw this jealousy and attempts to get closer to him are the only personality traits Maddy shows for most of the story, and the fact that she attempts to get closer to Finn - who constantly diminishes her feelings and who paragraphs before blamed her for his own clumsiness almost getting him killed - is presented as her being in the wrong for some reason.

And if his thoughts on her didn’t make him sus enough, when he calls one of the bartenders over to serve Jen and she gets flustered around him, his first thought is that of course she’s acting like this, since he thinks that the other guy looks more attractive than he is, and when Jen tries to tell him that he doesn’t have to pay the tab for her, he compares her to the mer and “gets the sense that she’s a predator hidden in sheep’s clothing, storing everything away to use against them later.”

… Dude. You two have interacted for a day! What on earth made you reach such conclusions?!

And as he’s amused at the fact that she’s also a lightweight, for some reason we get a scene where Maddy takes Jen’s phone (since when did she pull it out?!) and laughs at the fact that Finn looks like… Colin Morgan?

Finn is offended by this comparison and attempts to make a joke about guys with big ears but no one listens (as they should).

That and the fact that he recognizes a Merlin actor due to his sister watching the show ain’t important. What is somewhat important is him complaining to Serge about Aunt D not giving him a mer for the millionth time… before Maddy makes a joke about him using idk what to get a tourist to sleep with him, then Finn makes it clear that tonight he will get in bed with her, and Natalie calls them both “pity fucks” for it.

… deep sigh.

[stop-talking]

GOOD MORNING JHUTCH COMMUNITY

I feel bad for anyone who wasn't online yesterday. You missed the rise of like 7 different Jhutch roleplay accounts

We have Derek, Mike, Clapton, Billy, Futturman, Peeta, another Futturman, and the guy from ape (I forgot his name help)

[dinoserious]

this yrs art summary o7

[lovecommajaime]

she’s so pretty (ignore the faggot)

[glassrunner]

man arcane writes women like no other and it's not even close

jinx, torn apart by her own mind, haunted by her past and her mistakes, unsure even how to move forward but instinctually driven to do so no matter what

vi, the opposite side of the coin, driven to rage by the same kind of trauma but begging the world not to change even as she herself has

mel, a pragmatic and graceful leader, eternally poised in both her strategic judgment and compassion

caitlyn, once merciful even as she outgrew her naivete, now spiraling down into incorrigible hatred as she tries to control an uncontrollable and unknowable future

ambessa, the ultimate wolf mother, cutting deals and resorting to betrayal and manipulation as long as it means she can protect those she cares about

[diospore]

Rant below the break bc I was mad at 3 am last night.

People kinda need to learn how to criticize someone's skill (writing/art) without mocking them for their kinks or identities or other things that don't matter.

(This is about a specific post trend I've been seeing, where I have seen on multiple occasions people's kinks and identities being brought into a conversation unnecessarily where prior to that the discussion was about the quality of their skill. And even then why the fuck do you care. The art isn't FOR you.)

Like you aren't inherently Cool and Epic for making fun of someone who likes feet or omegaverse or pregnant men or something. You're not Awesome and So So Smart for mocking someone for identifying as a catboy or something. Get over yourself. Learn to properly criticize writing/art without mocking someone, because your entire argument becomes worthless with insults like that. You think I'm going to reblog you even if I agree with you once you pull that shit? No, I'm fucking blocking your ass and everyone in the replies who agrees with you.

And god, if you purposely misgender someone over their art, holy shit. Gendering someone properly isn't something that can be Taken Away for Being A Naughty Naughty Horny Person. You see how fucked up that is right? I don't have to explain that, right???? What is this, 2014? Stop mocking people for being bunny boys or puppy girls. The fuck is with you? God forbid people have fun with their genders in 2024. Oh the humanity, bunnyposter likes his large chest and sexualizes himself and reclaims his features. How will the world recover from this tragedy of- gasp! A trans person having a semblance of acceptance around their appearance that they can't fucking AFFORD to do anything about and not wallowing in misery 25/8.

Get a hobby, damn.

[apple-grass-and-smiles]

Official Summary: Lucy has found herself at the LAPD shooting range repeatedly since the break-up. It’s the only place left in this world where she can process what happened, if she can forgive Tim, and if she has any chance of ever surviving this. (The odds don’t seem great.)

Set around 6x08.

Unofficial Summary: Listen, I think Lucy should have been allowed to be really angry about the breakup instead of holding it together because she knows how to manage her emotions. I think she should be allowed to kind of want to steal Tim's truck and burn down his house.

[pollyna]

Between Bradley screaming, "You're not my father." and Mav spitting out a "You aren't a parent. Certainly not Bradley's." Ice can't do much more than finding his way to Slider and then to the other side of the world.

(It takes them, all three of them, almost ten years to be on the same side of the globe. The first dinner isn't pretty.)

[elipheleh]

The truth is every queer person has the right to come out on their own terms, and on their own timeline. They also have the right to choose not to come out at all. The forced conformity of the closet can not be answered with the forced conformity in coming out of it.

-Alex, Red White & Royal Blue (2023)

i want to talk about this quote. full disclosure, it’s because i keep seeing some really frustrating takes (some of which veer into queerphobia) and i am getting a bit annoyed with people and rather than directly addressing it with them & appear to be picking a fight im going to make an analysis post in my space. (tbf. its mostly on twitter and i have a priv account so that limits me)

disclaimer; this is my interpretation, im not saying its the only interpretation just something to consider. i am queer & cognitively disabled - don’t assume malice and dont be cruel. i will ignore and block freely.

tl;dr/very simplified summary: it doesn’t mean “dont ever speculate about other people’s sexuality” but rather that ‘coming out’ in the way society understands it shouldn’t be a necessity for queer people to exist openly as queer. full context under the cut & self-exploration questions at the end.

so lets start with the context. alex is talking at a point in time when the world has read their emails and so knows both are queer (bi & gay, specifically), but neither alex/the white house or henry/the palace have commented. so more simply - alex and henry are known to be queer, but have not come out. alex uses the speech to come out as bi, and as being in love with henry. he also uses it to imply that he & henry should have the right to choose not to do this formal coming out alex is doing.

—

okay. lets get into the quote analysis.

The truth is every queer person has the right to come out on their own terms, and on their own timeline.

reasonably self explanatory. each queer person gets to decide their own timing for coming out, and the way that they want to address their sexuality.

They also have the right to choose not to come out at all.

this is where problems with interpretation have started to appear. fundamentally yes, this means people are allowed to not be openly queer/‘out’ if that is what their decision is. but it also means that they can be visibly queer - for example being in a visibly queer relationship; signalling with their aesthetic (e.g. someone being butch, someone who wears only ‘girl’ clothes despite that being at odds to their assigned gender); casually posting about queer things on social media etc - without addressing their own sexuality to others.

it does not mean that you should assume everyone is straight until they explicitly tell you otherwise. and quite frankly insisting that it does mean that is veering into homo-/bi-/queer-phobia because you are insinuating that being not-straight is a negative thing.

The forced conformity of the closet can not be answered with the forced conformity in coming out of it.

some people seem to be interpreting this as ‘you shouldnt force people out of the closet’ and i don’t think thats quite to the nuance of what it means. yes, i do think that is part of it - in much the same way as the previous sentence - but it is not really the whole of it. in my opinion this is actually addressing - at least to some degree - the concept of ‘we should assume people are straight until they explicitly say otherwise’.

the ‘forced conformity of coming out’ addresses the idea that to be “out” you have to follow these steps; that you have to make a public statement that ‘this is my sexuality and i am [queer/bi/gay/pan/ace/etc]’. you are conforming to this precedent of “how to come out” that countless queer people have followed. there’s nothing inherently wrong with doing so, but actually there are different ways to be queer - and even being “out” as queer - that don’t involve following that playbook.

here’s a hypothetical to demonstrate my point. two men, who have never dated any women, live together & spend basically all their time together over 5-10 years. they holiday with each other’s family, they’re always together at events (e.g. weddings of non-mutual friends), but they’ve never told you/the public that they’re queer and/or dating each other. at what point does one start to assume they’re together? and does the answer change if its a man & a woman rather than two men? if a man & a woman did that, people would assume pretty early on they’re probably dating. but yet when it’s two men suddenly it’s invasive to speculate. this is where this concept of the forced conformity of coming out comes in - along with the veering into homophobia i referenced earlier - why must they say the words “i am gay” for it to then be ‘okay’ to consider that they’re together? (the homophobia comes into play because if you think being gay is morally neutral (which it is) then you shouldn’t have any issue with the speculation about people being together regardless of their genders.) the idea that straight is the default is where this forced conformity starts to really kick in.

—

i guess the main things i want people to ask themselves are these (and i have been asking myself these questions, there is no judgement or censure just self examination):

1. do you think people can be openly queer publicly without explicitly sharing that they are queer? (by this i mean in an announcement or in casual conversation. can you be openly queer without ever addressing it explicitly?)

2. if you do, why do you think that talking about the possibility someone is queer is something that should be hushed up? is it because there is an internalised concept that being queer is something abnormal and/or negative? if it was a straight couple would you feel the same way?

3. what does “coming out” mean to you? why does it mean that, what have you internalised to get to that conclusion & is it something that always works or are there other ways to be openly queer (or ‘out’ if you prefer)?

4. is it possible that there are queer people living openly and happily as themselves without explicitly addressing their sexuality to the wider world, who don’t want to address it publicly? does this make them closeted or ‘less’ queer to you? if so, what makes you think that?

[mgjiyu]

I just read some things on french Twitter I need to rant about it

People are so quick to throw Charles away saying he’s been dominated by Carlos for a few races and Ferrari need to make Carlos their first driver and Charles second, but guys??? How is that domination when their times in quali are so close?? And do you remember the last few laps in Monza?? I’m not seeing one pilot dominating the other, I think their performances have been pretty close on the last two GPs especially in quali.

Honestly I’m not an expert and I’m learning about f1 but the Ferrari strategy in Singapore seems logical for me with the position, and without the first safety car they would probably have been 1-2, but they did sacrifice Leclerc to protect Sainz’s positon, that’s both obvious and logical and I hope it would have been the same if the positions had been different. I personally think pitting under the VSC like the Mercs did would have been a good idea but that’s not even the question here. Leclerc played the team game, he never had any hope of victory because he knew with the quali result that the strategy would be to protect Sainz to have a Ferrari on the first step of the podium.

And Sainz did drive incredibly well with an amazing personal strategy to keep Lando and the Mercs behind, nothing we can say about Leclerc’s case will change or minimise that, it’s not the point. It just makes me crazy to see supposed-tifosi throwing Leclerc away so easily when they chanted his name not so long ago. I saw some comments saying that Charles doesn’t have the mentality of a world champion because he played the team game and protected the position of his teammate (at the beginning at least, he wasn’t in a position to do so after the safety car) but people forget that it’s a team sport and that neither of them are fighting for the title this year.

One thing I don’t understand is that two weeks ago people were quasi insulting Charles for putting a fight against Carlos in the last laps because they said it was dangerous for the team and he shouldn’t have taken this risk, and now that he doesn’t put a fight with his teammate but tries to protect his position and suddenly he’s too weak to have any hopes to be world champion and should have been selfish and chased the victory.

Nothing makes sense. Some things could have been better in Singapore but it was an amazing and well-deserved victory for Carlos, however it shouldn’t minimise the work Charles put into it too.

[robocatfan]

An angry summary of Speak the Ocean by Rebecca Enzor -Part 1

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

(well more of a combination of a summary, a rant, a critique/review and nitpicking, but you get the idea)

Because in my eternal search for more books about dangerous mermaids, I found this little book with such an interesting premise (it’s essentially mermaids in Seaworld) that i just had to read it. And since those sorts of stories don’t tend to be pretty good, I had high hopes for this story.

However, not only did it waste such a cool concept, but it disappointed and pissed me off so much that I decided “you know what? If I had to contend with this thing, I will bring everyone else down with me!”

… and also to spare anyone who doesn’t want to read it, but it’s curious about it , from suffering the same (not good!) brain rot I have thanks to this.

I’ll be doing this two or three chapters at a time because I noticed that my summaries… ended up a bit long.

Anyway. Lets begin.

Preface 1

The book starts by showing us an in-universe training manual for employees about interacting with the mer, as well as what to do if someone falls into the tank with them.

It tells us that unless they are doing a certain task (like using an electroshocker- yes, that’s its name), personnel must remain at least 3 feet from the water - which contradicts what we see a few chapters later, but we’ll get to that eventually - and if they need to work near the water, 4 personnel must be present and the water must be cooled and spiked with sedatives if necessary.

It follows up by saying that if someone falls into the tank with a mer inside, the person closest to the electroshocker ™ should place it in the water, and if the mer doesn’t react to it, they should shock them… while the person is still in the water. Yeah sure, that will help a lot with keeping them alive!

Meanwhile two people should use a net to separate the mer from the person while a third (the one with the shocker or the one in the water? Idk) keeps an eye on them. If they can’t trap the mer however, they are allowed to use the electroshocker ™ liberally- while again, the person they are trying to save is still in the water!

I get it’s a quick life or death situation, but come on! Tranquilizer guns and darts exist for a reason!

Chapter 1- Finn

This chapter introduces us to Finn, our human protagonist and a worker in Oceanica, the only mermaid marine park in the world. Also as you will see from this point forward… I hate his absolute, bigass di-

The story starts with Finn’s narration telling us that contrary to what Corporate - aka Delmara/ Aunt D, the owner of the place - tells the public, the mer they work with are very dangerous. which is proven by the fact that one of them killed Craig, one of the trainers, just the night prior. Which is why they are now preparing to euthanize it.

His friend Serge notices he’s nervous about it and tries to reassure him by telling him that Bismuth the mer (they name them after the elements of the periodic table) and his companions, the twins Fluorine and Chlorine, were already chilled. It doesn’t help much.

In his narration he says that six years have passed since humans have discovered merfolk, and in four of those years he’s been forced to kill six mers after they killed an equal number of his companions. Though in spite of his nervousness and current sadness for Craig, the fact that he can bring up the death of people he knew about so casually means that he’s pretty desensitized to it.

They both go to the room where their practice tank is stored and meet with two of their coworkers Madison and Natalie (Maddy is the only important one here, trust me). And since the mers have already been placed there, they get to work.

Btw all that i have summarized so far takes place within 8 paragraphs (one of which is just for one of the character´s dialogue), none of which give us a clear idea of how the characters or most of their surroundings look like.

And as expected, this chapter also shows us the mer for the first time, with barely, if any build up to their first appearance. And much like the humans, there are no noteworthy descriptions that could help us visualize how they look like save for specific details that apply to just one individual, with those being Bismuth’s dark green scales and the twins’ icy blue eyes and hair.

Speaking of the twins, apparently they are part of Oceanica’s second most famous show, and are only here to watch their companion die so they’ll be discouraged from misbehaving like he did. According to Finn that strategy worked on previous mers… although sometimes it just backfires completely.

As they prepare the net and electroshocker ™ (the process being described in just one paragraph btw), Finn says that euthanizing a mer isn’t easy since they are huge, they are many regulations with dealing with them and, according to him, they are the perfect predator… although there are no scenes in the story to support that idea, nor at the very least shows us why he has come to such conclusion.

Anyway, in the span of just four paragraphs that look more like a draft listing actions rather than a proper final scene, Serge electrocutes the trio, allowing the other three to trap Bismuth in a net and lift him from the water while his tank companions swim around and do nothing to help him.

And after snapping at Maddy for not moving with him by reminding her to pay attention or she’ll end up like her recently deceased companion — Finn injects Bismuth with a liquid that kills him instantly, which also causes him to dissolve into foam.

However, as he’s dissolving faster than my initial hopes for this book, one of the lines holding the nets unravels, and in the chaos Finn slips in a puddle of the mer’s remains , hits his knee, and falls into the tank with the twins. Like he deserves.

He tries to flee, but the mers hold him down with their claws. But instead of immediately going for that soft, vulnerable throat, Chlorine, this supposed “perfect predator”, just pierces his shoulders, giving Finn the opportunity to reach for her gills and fucking rip them off. And before her sister can retaliate, Serge electrocutes them both.

Unsurprisingly, this has consequences.

Finn ends up comatose for two days, and even though his mother is worried sick - since she has lost her husband who disappeared while in a trip to find the merfolk, and is justifyingly worried that her son also works with them - and the doctors told him to not swim while he still had the stitches from his shoulder wound, this guy insists on going out for a swim in a reef in spite of Serge’s protests.

Oh and he also says that “he can’t let his sister make fun of him for getting his ass kicked by girls.”

… oh and those living family members he has have almost no importance in the story. They are just. There.

As they are traveling in the fishing boat that used to belong to his dad, Finn asks Serge what became of the twins. And he casually, very casually, reveals that the stars of their second most popular show are now fucking dead.

There’s no talk about how the public is gonna react to this, nor how this very huge loss will affect their finances, not even if they held a funeral for their recently deceased coworker. Just that they gotta pull more mers out of the ocean to replace the twins and they’ll need a new trainer for them. Which Finn, in spite of his current medical orders, plans to become.

Though he does bristle at the memory of killing Chlorine… And also says that this isn’t the worst way in which he has killed a mer.

…WHAT-

Oh and also it’s revealed to us that Delmara used to be his father’s teaching assistant, and Finn has been working for her since he was fifteen years old after helping her document the existence of the first mer they’d found.

On their way, the pair come across a beach that has been vacated due to a recent mer attack the night prior. The reasons as to why it happened, nor the attack itself are ever explained or brought up again. Not even in the chapters with the mer pov, where we see where their kind - which should include the attacker - lives.

Finally they arrive on the reef, and as he swims through it, Finn muses that if the stories about people becoming mer were true, he’d stay in the water forever. But as it stands, working with them is the closest he’ll ever be to being a part of the ocean … even though he recently killed and constantly tortures the same creatures he says he wants to become.

[annafromuni]

My August Reading Summary

Overall mood: eager. We’re back on the reading train this month! I’ll warn you know, this is a lot summary as I’ve managed to read 18 books (I know!) this month. I am adding a few more books to my regular list of reads each month for the next two months, and if you are familiar with this blog you may be able to guess why. The books I’ve read in August have been eye-opening, incredibly addicting,…

[sweetbrier2908]

so i've been thinking about this for a while

satan is the avatar of wrath because he was born from lucifer's wrath when they fell from heaven, but wasn't lucifer angry because all the things that celestial realm did with his brothers and sister? lilith fell in love with a human and was sentenced to be executed, and lucifer just wanted to save his family. wasn't celestial realm the one start the fight? he wanted to leave, celestial realm didn't let him; his brothers and sisters wanted to follow him, celestial realm also didn't let them.

lucifer loves his brothers and sister so much, that's why he was so angry with the way celestial realm treating them to the point he tore all his wings and gave up being an angel.

after all, wasn't satan actually born from lucifer's love for his family? that's why wrath is not his only identity, that's why he is always so caring and take care for his brothers every little bit, that's why he plays the mom role in their family.

i'd love to believe: considering the origin lucifer doubt for celestial realm, the great celestial realm and all, satan was born from the love that the brothers have for each other, satan is a part of the family because he's the proof that they're family no matter what.

[the-starry-seas]

may have gone overboard with the tusken research. my reading list is now 891 books and scientific papers. i think i'm gonna hold off on adding anything else until. idk. i make some headway on these ones.

[nvzwho]

One person's 'Iconic Ships' will be someone else's eternally blocked tag. I am cursed with doing this in multiple fandoms to have me beloathed ship be the biggest ship in the damn thing. It's not just a Doctor Who thing but they are generally the worst at tagging stuff, so the Curse is Worse there in a way.

[boatem-probler]

this is actually the only explanation of tokyo soul you need